Celibate “Gay” Christians

Link,

Gay Christians choosing celibacy emerge from the shadows

The LGBT community has arrived at a trick that they’ve used to advance their agenda. It is a old trick by now but still one that is used with great effectiveness. This trick is to create a distinction between sodomite practice and sodomite inclination. The LGBT crowd will argue, for example, that that homosexual activity is sinful but the orientation is not. Typically celibate sodomites will then insist that they remain “gay Christians,” but are celibate gay Christians. For an example of this kind of reasoning, a recent Denominational annual meeting found one such person standing up and speaking to his denominational ruling structure saying, “I stand before you as a 40-year-old, single, celibate and chaste yet openly gay man … no longer willing to be silent.”

Now where the trick comes in is that it will be advanced by someone in a discussion that sodomites should be allowed to be members of the Church. Typically someone will protest the idea pointing out the appropriate scriptures. Much heat will arise and then suddenly the original agitator will trot out that when they said that “gays should be allowed to be members” they really meant that celibate sodomites who still self identify as “gay” should allowed to be members.

My conviction on this is that this taking in of celibate sodomites, as members in a Christian church, who still self identify as being “gay,” is just one more way in which the sodomite agenda is advanced. The fact that people, though celibate, still refer to themselves as “gay” is, in my estimation, an attempt to maintain the myth that people are born gay just like they are born left handed or are born black or white. There is not one whit of empirical evidence of this that is not produced by people with an agenda. If the LGBT crowd can linguistically manipulate Christians into accepting the idea that other Christians should be thought of as “gay but celibate” it will be easier to move to the next stage of having those same Christians accept the idea of “gay and not celibate.”

Secondly, ideally, the Biblical Christian abhors his sins, cares not to identify with his sins, and wants nothing to do with his sins any longer. He would never label himself a pervert (“gay Christian”) unless he was trying to preserve this sin in his heart. Yet, the Christian faith is supposed to be the new birth where old things are passed away, and where all things have become new. When the celibate “gay Christian” self identifies as “gay” they are retaining an identity that is counted dead. Ask yourself how much sense it would make if someone saved out of bestiality still self identified as a “cow loving Christian.” Would it make sense for a someone saved out of Necrophilia to still self identify as a “dead person loving Christian.” Even if someone is saved out of kleptomania you never hear them self identifying as a “Thief Christian.” And yet, the Church is told today, by many, that it is perfectly acceptable for people to continue to identify with either a former sin or a current temptation.

Please don’t misunderstand. I celebrate and applaud the grace of God that has saved His people out of perversion and cheer that they are celibate. I only discountenance the idea that they should keep self identifying with their sin. St. Paul could write with sodomites and other repentant sinners in mind,

11 And such some of you were [once]. But you were washed clean (purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin), and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified [pronounced righteous, by trusting] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God.

I understand that progressive sanctification is incremental and so issues of who we are in Christ Jesus take time to comprehend but at the very least we ought to tell those who have been Redeemed out of sodomy that their identification is no longer in their “gayness.” They are most certainly not “gay Christians.” They are Christians, who, like all Christians, struggle with temptations and even besetting sins. Once this is understood we can pray that from that point their sanctification might well bring them to the point of putting off the old man of perverted desires for the same gender and putting on the new man with its normal desire of heterosexuality.

Ask the Pastor; Is the Kingdom of God Land Based?

Hello Pastor,

I was wondering if you could shed a little light on something for me. In a letter I recently received from someone I am corresponding with my pen-pal said something about the Kingdom of God not being geographic. When I told you that you said that they were “basically saying goodbye to our Postmillennial faith.”

How does a geographic Kingdom of God tie in with our Postmillenialism?

Ned

Dear Ned,

Thank you for writing again.

When people say the Kingdom of God is “not geographic” they are denying that it is land based. The Kingdom of God then is not concrete in time and space. In the postmillenial vision it might be said that the Kingdom is not primarily about geography but as the Kingdom of God advances it does have geographic (land based) implications. We all agree that the Kingdom of God is first and foremost Spiritual and Spirit driven but to suggest that this spiritual Kingdom has no corporeal (land based) implications is not accurate.

One thing that Abraham was promised in the Old Testament was “a Land” (geography). In the NT Postmillennialism believes that the promised land to Abraham in the OT is now the whole earth. Because God’s Kingdom encompasses the whole Earth it shall encompass the whole earth.

17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Once a nation is discipled that geographic nation is part of the Kingdom of God. As postmillennialists we agree with scripture that the whole earth will be discipled before Christ’s return and so the whole planet will be part of God’s very geographic Kingdom.

In Matthew’s Gospel our Lord Christ speaks about his people “inheriting the earth.” They can not inherit a non geographic earth that is not a part of His Kingdom.

So, while it might be said that the Kingdom of God is ultimately spiritual that does not mean that it can not be geographic. Indeed, I would say that a Kingdom of God that is only spiritual is no Kingdom at all.

As God’s people advance the cause of Christ the nations of the world become the Nations of the Lord (again… geography) and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

So … there is a geographic quality to the Kingdom. As the Kingdom advances, earth and place increasingly become what they already are, to wit, the Kingdom of God. (“Now … Not Yet” hermeneutic.)

To deny this makes the Kingdom increasingly abstract and perhaps even gnostic. For gnostic like thinking then God’s Kingdom, in terms of place, is reduced to heaven.

One concrete example before I leave you.

The home you own and the land it sit on is geographic and is part of God’s Kingdom because the land is owned by someone (you) that is redeemed and so owned by God. Because God owns you God owns that land and so that land is part of the Kingdom of God.

Thank you for writing Ned.

Seminary Course — Justification; The Article by which the Church Stands of Falls

Main Texts

1.) The Doctrine of Justification by Faith — John Owen
2.) The Doctrine of Justification — James Buchanan
3.) Justification — Francis Turretin (Author), Jr. James T. Dennison (Editor), George Musgrave Giger (Translator)

Assignment — Read the main texts. Write a 25 page paper explaining and defending the Biblical Doctrine of Justification by faith alone.

Supplemental Texts

1.) Romans: Atonement and Justification: An Exposition of Chapters 3:20 – 4:25 — Martyn Lloyd Jones
2.) Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification — R. C. Sproul
3.) Justification by Faith Alone — Jonathan Edwards
4.) http://www.the-highway.com/antidote_Calvin.html
5.) The Current Justification Controversy — O. Palmer Robertson
6.) By Faith Alone: Answering the Challenges to the Doctrine of Justification — Guy Waters (Editor)
7.) Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking A Pauline Theme — Stephen Westerholm

Assignments

1.) Go online and find a rabid Roman Catholic and get into a debate on Justification
2.) Go online and find a rabid Federal Vision proponent and get into a debate on Justification
3.) Write a 10 page paper on the Controversies surrounding Justification (Books 5-7)

Audio

1.) What Still Divides Us?
A Protestant & Roman Catholic Debate : Are the Scriptures Sufficient? Are We Justified By Faith Alone?

Assignment — Listen to the debate section on Justification

The Opposition

1.) The Federal Vision — Steve Wilkins (Editor) — pages 151-262
2.) Council of Trent — Look up Cannon’s 9, 12, 14, 23, 24, 30, 33

Assignments

1.) 4 page paper on each of the three Chapters in the Wilkins book refuting Federal Vision errant versions of Justification

2.) Refute the Council of Trent Canons

3.) 5 page paper locating the harmonies you see between Trent and Federal Vision

12 Books Recommended for the Newer Reformed Christian or High School Curriculum

Purpose — To root and ground the reader in the fundamentals of Biblical Christianity.  It is hoped that by absorbing the material of this course the result will be a Christian who is set upon Christianity as the life of the mind.

Goal — upon completion of the course the student will begin to understand that Christianity and the Christian faith is one wherein one finds their complete identity.

1.) By What Standard? — R. J. Rushdoony (Epistemology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries.
b.) Upon completion a 4 page page paper on the importance of Epistemology.

2.) Understanding and Applying the Bible — J. Robertson McQuilkin (Hermeneutics)

a.) 1 typed page (200 words) chapter summaries
b.) Upon completion a 4 page page paper explaining basic hermeneutics and the importance of hermeneutics for reading the Scriptures aright.

3.) Knowing God — J. I. Packer (Theology Proper)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper on the Attributes of God

4.) O. Palmer Robertson — The Christ of the Covenants (Covenant Theology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper giving an overview of covenant theology

5.) Putting Amazing back into Grace — Michael Horton (Basic Reformed Theology)

The author of this book ^ is R2K. I most certainly do not recommend anything he writes touching his theological dualism. Still, having said that I still think this book a good primer on Reformed theology.

a.)  1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper on the graciousness of Grace. Make sure to include a section explaining how in Reformed Theology when it comes to salvation “God does all the doing.”

6.) A Summary of Christian Doctrine — Louis Berkhof (Systematic Theology)

a.) 1 typed pages chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper delineating why these doctrines are necessary for the Christian life

7.) When the Time Had Fully Come: Studies in New Testament Theology — Herman Ridderbos (Biblical Theology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper explaining the Reformed “Now, Not yet.”

8.) The Cross of Christ — John Stott (Soteriology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 paged paper setting forth a basic understanding of the centrality of the Cross Work of Jesus Christ

9.) Holy Spirit — John Owen /abridged version (Pneumatology)

a.)1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper on the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer

10.) Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God — J. I. Packer (Evangelism)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper explaining why Reformed folks are evangelistically minded

11.) The Pursuit of Holiness — Jerry Bridges (Sanctification)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 typed page paper explaining the different nuances of Holiness and why it is necessary for the Christian life.

12.) The Basic Ideas of Calvinism — H. Henry Meeter (Holistic Calvinism)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 typed pages that demonstrate that you understand that Christianity is a religion that is totalistic in its claims over every area of life.

— Warning on this book; Ignore Meeter’s “insights” on Economics

This list could be used in a High School curriculum for covenant children in Christian families.

Assignments … Knights of the Rectangular Table

Knights,

Go to this web site.

http://www.wordmp3.com/details.aspx?id=538#.VGvIyXMWL9g.facebook

Click where it says “stream.” Listen to Dr. Grant’s Lecture onAlfred the/the Great

Go here

Start at the 4:45 section mark and listen through the rest of this lecture.

Then go here

and you can stop once you have arrived at the 7:45 mark of this Video.

Pay close attention to what is said about Art, Music and Architecture.