Board index ‹ LGBT: Gays, Lesbians, Bisexual, Transgender, and Homosexuality

[Ethylene]

I have friends who are homosexual. Some have expressed to me that they were born this and that is how God made them.

Some of these men told me that if they had any control over their lives, they would not be a homosexual. They want to know how can it be so wrong if they were born that way. Just this past week, this came to my mind: Even if they were born this way, Jesus can change anyone. Jesus change sinners into saints, so He can change homosexual to being straight. Could I get someone opinions on this, because I believe this revelation came through the Holy Spirit.

A person has to want to change, and not lean on a crutch to continue to do what they know to be wrong. My friends say they know it is wrong, but they block that out of their mind because in a way they to continue to do what they are doing. Just like an alcoholic, drug addict, smoker or whatever the case might be—until they make up their mind that they want to change, they ties Jesus hand of deliverance.

[jimwalton]

There has been no proof by the way of scientific studies that people are born homosexual. Some studies claim it, and others refute it. Our upbringings are so complex, I'm not sure such things can ever be sorted out, unless they find a gene for it, which is unlikely. So while people may feel that they were born this way, it's impossible to know if certain life experiences contributed their sexual formation, and what impact those life experiences had.

Perhaps more importantly, "I was born this way" doesn't carry any weight in Scripture as far as continuing behavior. We were all born some way—proud, greedy, liars, thieves, lustful, self-centered. The Scripture never justifies any behavior on the basis of "Well, it's OK; you were born that way." The point is more in what Jesus wants to make us into rather than the way we were born.

There are plenty of other sexual situations in our culture. For one, many men are adulterers, and social scientists claim that men are that way by nature, to perpetuate the human race. Bruce Jenner claims he was a woman in a man's body. Others claim they were born without genitalia, and so God made them bisexual, or gave them the right to choose. We all know what's going on out there: we are surrounded by people who claim their sexual identity and behavior are inborn, and so it's only "natural" and "right" that they pursue it. To me, it's not a convincing argument. Because you claim you were born that way doesn't make it morally right.

I know that in the past there was a great effort (Exodus) to change homosexuals to heterosexuals, and it failed. I'm not claiming that homosexuals should work to change their sexual orientation. All I'm saying is that "I was born this way" doesn't carry weight with God, and that every life needs to be put under the Lordship of Jesus.

[Derrick]

God would be cruel if he made someone a homosexual and then held them accountable for it. How do you punish someone for something they couldn't help doing or had no ability to change? We are born with a sinful nature and some may have the propensity to be drawn toward certain temptations but that doesn't mean we are "hard-wired that way". I may be tempted to gamble, you're not. I'm tempted to use drugs but that doesn't affect you in the least.

Satan, the father of lies, wants people to think they are without recourse. Once an addict-always an addict; once a homo always a homo. Or, as in many cases with homosexuals today, they are deceived into thinking there's nothing wrong with it-in fact, God is okay with it! God loves us all, right? He made me this way so how can it be wrong? Are you saying God makes mistakes? These are some of the arguments that could typically be used.

Satan is tricky. Our job is to try to get them to see not only what the word of God really says about it, but also we need to try to get them to understand why God is not okay with it. It's one thing to state a command or spiritual truth but it's better when we can state why the command is there. Why is this behavior wrong? What damage is it causing?

[Steve]

I would suggest two books by Dr. Michael Brown for expanding your current understanding. He has written extensively on this subject, starting with "A Queer Thing Happened To America—What A Long Strange Trip Its Been," and was followed by the book "Can You Be Gay and Be Christian".

Personally, I would suggest doing your homework first and then respond with an informed position.

[jimwalton]

I offer this from Russel D. Moore: "Man, Woman, and the Mystery of Christ: An Evangelical Protestant Perspective", JETS 58/1 (March 2015), pp. 89-93

Civilization must decide whether it sees persons as machines or as persons. If we are creatures, then we have meaning and purpose and dignity, but with all of that we have limits. If we see ourselves as machines, then we will believe the Faustian myth of our own limitless power and our ability to reshape even what it means to be human. I believe this frames the entire discussion of what it means to affirm the complementarity of man and woman in marriage.

This is the question at the heart of the controversies about the meaning of marriage and of sexuality. Are we created male and female from the beginning, or are these categories arbitrary and self-willed? Do our bodies, and our sexes, and our generational connectedness represent something of who we are designed to be, and thus place both limits on our ability to recreate ourselves and responsibility for those who will come after us?

Despite our differences, all of us share at least one thing in common: We did not spring into existence out of nothing, but each one of us can trace his or her origins back to a man and a woman, a mother and a father. We recognize that marriage and family is a matter of public important, not just or our various theologically and ecclesially distinctive communities, since the joining of man and woman is embedded in the creation order and is a means of human flourishing, not just the arena of individual human desires and appetites. We recognize that sexual differences is grounded in the natural order, bearing rights and responsibilities that was not crafted by any human state, and cannot be redefined by any human state.

The family structure is not an arbitrary expression of nature or of the will of God. Marriage and family are instead archetypes, icons of God’s purposes for the universe (Gn. 2.24). What is critical for the survival of the species is not just “spouse,” but male and female. Masculinity and femininity are not aspects of the fall to be overcome, but part of what God has declared from the beginning. All sexual expression needs to be bound by the covenantal reality of the male-female one-flesh union.

Every culture has recognized that there is something about sexuality that is more than merely the firing of nerve endings, but there is something mysterious here—the joining of selves. Paul says that joining of two bodies is a spiritual act (1 Cor. 6). The sexual act, mysteriously, forms a real and personal union. Immorality is not just naughtiness, but a sermon preaching a different gospel. To jettison or to minimize a Christian sexual ethic is to abandon the message Jesus handed to us, and we have no authority to do this. A gospel apart from the law and righteousness of God is not a gospel at all.

We live in a culture obsessed with sex, abstracted from covenant, fidelity, and transcendent moral norms. They are searching not just for mere sexual experience, but for meaningful relationships. They cannot articulate it, and perhaps would be horrified to know it, but they are looking for God. To dispense with marriage is to dispense with a mystery that points to the gospel itself.