John R. Houk
© June 2, 2010
These thoughts were inspired by a theo-philosophical disagreement between me and my son Steven over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). This kind of discussion is very polarizing. Secular Humanists (of which homosexual activism is a subset) and Biblical Christians are very intransient of what is good and bad. It is the modern battle of Moral Relativity versus Biblical Morality. In the political spectrum the former tends to be termed “Progressive” (a sanitized way to say Liberal and Leftist). The latter tends to be termed Conservative (in this case the Conservatives of the Christian Right). Progressives typically demonstrate the Christian Right with disdain. The same is true of the Christian Right toward Progressives. To each side of the spectrum the termed concepts are fight’in words. Fight’in words oft times leads to ad hominem insults from both sides of the political spectrum. I am not going to presume to speak for my son on the use of ad hominem attacks however I have to admit I have as guilty as anyone in the ad hominem attack format.
I am praying our disagreement remains cordial even if it is an emotional matter.
Below is my son’s response to my stand on NOT repealing DADT which is an emotional matter.
Below is my son’s response to my stand on NOT repealing DADT which is followed by my thoughts.
“Sundays, wearing mixed fibered clothing, women speaking or teaching, sex during menstruation and eating pork or shellfish, among many other things. The bible is full of many ridiculous things.”
Come on Steven, we are both Americans. I stand with Biblical Morality and the Word of God. It is the agenda of Secular Humanism and homosexual activism to paint Biblical Morality as bigoted. It is the Biblical Christian agenda to paint homosexuality as deviant according to the Word of God not the judgment of men (quite the misogynist huh).
You were in the “Extra Mile” long enough to know that the Old Testament examples you used are of the Law of Moses. Jesus did not come to end the Law and Prophets but to fulfill them. The meaning is Grace eliminates ritual laws. The Law exposes sin. Sin leads to death (i.e. separation from God). Grace defeats sin. Ergo the curse of the Law is of no affect by the Blood of Christ.
The sex act of homosexuals is as bad as the sex act of heterosexuals outside of wedlock. The point is it leads to sin and sin activates the curse of the Law which again leads to separation from God (i.e. death). The Word of God is not ridiculous; it is of the Divine Creator.
And so as an American I have just as much right to be an activist for Biblical Morality as you do for homosexual activism, right? Don’t get mad, be glad in your beliefs and eternity will decide. I think God is right, you think the words of humanity are right mostly likely because of Objectivity. Welcome to America.
“Can you show me one quote from the Bible where Jesus condemned homosexuality? One mention of it? Nothing at all? hmmmmmmm...
Matthew 7: 1-5 clearly demonstrates in the words of Jesus how you should deal with homosexuality.”
Show you one quote from the Bible in which Jesus condemns homosexuality, eh? Of course you and I know the conceptual word of “homosexual” as we know today was neither in the ancient Hebrew of the Old Testament or in the Aramaic and Koiné Greek of the New Testament. In the Old and the New the act we call homosexuality today was described. The description was always in the sense of not the natural order of the Creator’s design.
Now you want a specific quote where Jesus condemns homosexuality. Let’s see. Since the act was described and not in a specific word form (as translated into English anyway), using objective logic it would follow that Jesus’ reaffirming of the Law as an exposition of sin that one is delivered from as the of the Good News of the Kingdom of God that is available to all who choose to believe (subjectively) Jesus is the Son of God and Risen Savior.
Let’s look at a few objective verses in the Gospels that the conclusion is not a plus for homosexuality as a God-Kind of Life affirmation.
Since you brought it up we should look at all the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 rather than just verse 7. Or at least the Beatitudes that begin with “Blessed are”.
1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Now I am certain you ended with verse 7 because it says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”. The topic is homosexuality. The implication is someone who is merciful will obtain mercy. The question becomes, Mercy from what?
Let’s back track to verse 6 which says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” Righteousness is described as right standing with God. Righteousness implies that having right standing is in a position of union with God. Those who hunger and thirst for right standing with God will be filled with that right standing. Since the Law exposes same sex acts as something that is sin (i.e. separating from God), one who purposely and knowingly break the Law is no longer under Grace but has chosen the penalty of the Law and separation from God. Righteousness joins with God, sin separates from God. If one hungers and thirst for Righteousness a choice to be joined with God is the lifestyle to be filled with.
Now the person who is a homosexual activist or a secular humanist will counter with something like, “Who are you to judge right and wrong or Righteousness and sinfulness?” In that sense I am nobody. There is only one Judge and that is God Almighty. However Jesus warns us to judge a person’s lifestyle not to condemn it, but rather to either present the Good News of Christ’s Deliverance or to avoid a reprobate that is determined you cannot be an influence in life.
Check out John 15: 1-17 (Yeah I know it’s lengthy so bear with me.)
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another. (Emphasis mine)
The demanding question becomes, “What is fruit?” The Greek word for “fruit” in John 15 is karpos. The context is that which grows from a vine. Grape vines that produce the best fruit are well tended and their flavor improves as the years go by. I doubt Jesus was giving a lesson in agriculture so we must assume it is a metaphor of a spiritual message.
Jesus calls himself the vine. Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man. As the Son of God it is an indication Jesus is the co-equal person of One Godhead. Hence Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus is eternal and the creation of all that exists is by His Words (John 1: 1-5, 10-14, 16-18). In essence Jesus is the life-giver. If you are a fruit growing on the Vine that is Jesus Christ, then you are in right standing with God.
Jesus is the Word and the Spirit of Jesus (AKA Holy Spirit) spoke through certain men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; ergo it follows that Galatians 5: 22-26 are the Jesus infused Word of God. The “fruit” (karpos) is the exact same word Jesus spoke as the Son of Man (roughly 33 years in the flesh) in John 15. (If you have a red letter Bible, I am saying it is in red – the redeeming and cleansing Blood of Jesus.)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
The God-Kind of fruit then is the person that works in love (agape: God-kind and not eros: sensuous sex), joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Word of God voiced through the Apostle goes on to say against such fruit of the spirit (or Spirit, depending on the expositor) with Jesus as the Vine there is no LAW. Jesus fulfills the Law.
Interestingly the fruit that rots and is worthy of disposal is of the flesh (sarx) or corporeal existence. That which will not grow on the Vine-Jesus:
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,[a] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[b] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5: 19-21)
Clearly the Word of God in the New Testament which is the fulfillment of the Law in Christ whose Grace through faith in the Son of God and His Resurrection states actions of the flesh (sarx – bodily desires) which pertain to willful disdain of the God-Kind of Life lead to unrighteousness (wrong standing with God) rather than Righteousness (right standing with God)
This brings us to the clincher of the Word of God on works of unrighteousness of which one is homosexuality described as:
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. (Romans 1: 26-27)
No matter one uses fallacious arguments of biology to dip into the realm of moral relativity, Biblical Morality is clear that a homosexual lifestyle leads to unrighteousness which separates from God rather than Righteousness which is the right standing increasing union with God.
Now I realize there is a fine line of standing for what is right and heaping condemnation when the freeing Grace of Christ should be emphasized. Saying that I am going to presume that a majority of homosexuals execute acts of unrighteousness in the privacy of their home and are otherwise upstanding taxpaying citizens. There are a significant number of homosexuals who flaunt debauchery in public in such places as San Francisco and New York City.
Also the topic discussed is homosexuality. That does not let other people off the hook who are heterosexuals while leading a profligate life. Sin separates from God – period. Not one person is righteous in their own self. It is the journey that is striven to complete with the ups and downs, going off the ditch to the left or the right and then getting back on that straight road that leads to God in Christ. Thank God for Christ Jesus who has given humanity a choice to be free from the penalty and condemnation of the Law in His Redemptive act of death, burial and Resurrection as man and God simultaneously being our intercessor to the Father.
Allow me to end with verse 8 of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
JRH 6/2/10
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