John R. Houk
© June 26, 2013
Thanks to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) America slides deeper and further away from God’s Word on homosexuality. That essentially is a part of the “Change” promised by the Deceiver-in-Chief Obama to extricate the influence of Christian Morality from influencing American culture.
I haven’t read the majority and the dissent in which SCOTUS struck down the portions of Defense of Marriage ACT (DOMA) pertaining to States that have legalized same-sex marriage. THEN SCOTUS ruled that the private organization (ProtectMarriage.com) defending California’s Proposition 8 which made same-sex marriage illegal in California DID NOT HAVE STANDING to defend State legislation.
In the case of California in which the Leftist Democrats love the abomination of homosexuality against the will of California voters and the State government refused to protect the will of California voters it means the 9th Appellate Court decision vacating Prop. 8 is vacated but that the original Court in California that vacated Prop. 8 is upheld. The experts I heard on Fox News seemed to think that ends litigation pertaining to Prop. 8 since ONLY the California State government has standing to defend the Proposition 8’s legality in the Appellate and SCOTUS level of the Federal Courts.
No matter how you look at it, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Word of God pertaining to homosexuality is UNCONSTITUTIONAL! God have mercy on the Americans that stand on the Word of God but are now coerced by the American rule of law to accept homosexuality as normal and legal. Biblical believing Christians are now in the potential situation of criminal and civil actions being enforced against them if they refuse to service anything to do with same-sex marriage.
The five Justices that struck down portions of DOMA extricated their opinion from the Fifth Amendment that came into existence as part of the Bill of Rights (first ten Amendments) to give specificity to the Rights of American citizens. What do you think that the Founding Fathers would have thought of using the Fifth Amendment to validate homosexual rights despite God’s Word declaring same-acts as IMMORAL?
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
I am not seeing the dispensation of civil rights to immoral homosexuals.
God’s Word on Homosexuality
1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.
4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8 See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
9 And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. 10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. (Bold Emphasis Mine - Gen. 19: 1, 4-11, 13, 24-25 NKJV)
22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. 23 Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion.
24 ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. 25 For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. (Bold Emphasis Mine – I added verse 23 so there is an understanding of the level of “perversion” God views homosexuality – Lev. 18: 22-25 NKJV)
13 If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Lev. 20: 13 NKJV)
Homosexual Activists and Apologists are big to point out that Lev. 20:13 calls the penalty of Law for homosexuality is death. How wrong is this in modern society, right? I don’t know how Jews have updated this Scripture from the Torah - which is the Pentateuch of the Old Testament to us Christians – But the update in Christianity is the Blood of Christ from His death, burial and Resurrection delivers any Believer in Christ’s Redemptive ACT from the penalty of the Law in this life. In the resurrection of all the dead there will be a time that dead people face the Last Judgment. It is in the Last Judgment where the hearts of men (all people for you politically correct dudes) are expressly known in which people choose unrepentant sin of faith in Christ. The unrepentant will judged with a penalty according to their sin and sent to the appropriate chamber of Hell which I believe is ultimately the Lake of Fire – always burning in pain but never ceasing from an existence of eternal punishment. The unrepentant homosexual still faces the penalty of death in the Law; however not in this life but in the next life.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have[a] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded too many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Romans 5: 1-2, 6, 8-17, 20-21 NKJV)
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Romans 6: 1-4, 12-23 NKJV)
The Gift of Grace through the Blood of Jesus Christ wipes away the past slate of sin. At Salvation a person’s inner spirit is renewed and transformed into a new spirit man in the image of Christ rather than in the image of Fallen Adam. What about those who have tasted the Grace of God yet in time rejected Salvation by relying on the unredeemed carnal nature? It happens to the best of us and to those full of themselves, you KNOW the carnal nature if allowed to will dominate a Christian leading to the possibility of having their name whited out of the Book of Life in the Last Judgment. And yet what if you come to your senses and realize your choices have separated you from God that could lead to the Second Death which is eternal separation from the Presence of God occurring after the Last Judgment. All sinners – non-Christians and Carnal Christians – have a moment in their life to change their heart as God knows all. There is no lie that hides the truth from God.
This parable is for those who have renounced Christ for what was deceptively thought a better life in sin:
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring[a] out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Luke 15: 11-31 NKJV)
This parable can applied to all sinning Christians. Nonetheless the topic is homosexuality is an abomination before God. A homosexual that has left Christianity or deceptively still views them self as a Christian you need to be aware that repentance will lead you into the arms of our Loving Father God through the Grace provided by the Blood of Jesus. HOWEVER, any Christian that unrepentantly rejects Salvation in Christ and dies in their sin – such as homosexuality – probably will have their name stricken from the Book of Life in the Last Judgment. Now I say “probably” because I am not God and I have no right to act as an eternal Judge. That responsibility was delivered to the Jesus Christ the Son of God and coequal in Oneness as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away,[b] to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Hebrews 6: 4-8 NKJV)
Okay, this is not Islam in which two contradictory verses are both true. I should point out that I am not a theologian even though I have graduated from a two year Bible School program. So what I am about to write be sure to check it out with your Pastor.
The Prodigal Son indicates there is repentance to one who has abandoned his faith. Hebrews 6: 4-8 seems to indicate the opposite in that once you have tasted the privileges of Salvation and go on to live a sinners life rejecting Christ’s Salvation, then there is no repentance that can return one back to the family of God.
As a Christian I believe the Word of God is the inerrant Truth. Rather than pull an “aha!” and proclaim the Bible is fake because it is a book of contradicting theology, I choose to reason a compatibility in which Scriptures are the Truth if there is a seeming contradiction.
I believe that scarlet thread that connects the Prodigal Son and the Hebrews verses concerning there is only one repentance is this: The Prodigal Son never disdained his father but came to his senses that a sinful lifestyle will lead to death. The Hebrews repentance once only Scriptures is applicable to those that have chosen the rabbit hole of no return. Thus any repentance – or life turning change – is a lie and is impossible. To such a person the act of repentance is not a heart change but rather a deceptive live to benefit some agenda and thus is a person throwing the Redemptive Blood of Christ in the old sticking pigsty. And that is my unauthoritative reconciliation enabling one Truth.
Allow me to reiterate that SCOTUS’s decision to force the Federal government to recognize States that have made same-sex marriage recognized by a minority of States is an abomination before God. In many cases those States that have legalized same-sex marriage has done with State Courts and NOT by legislation or a People’s Initiative that many States give to their voters. Indeed that brings me to SCOTUS and Proposition 8. Proposition 8 defined marriage as between one male and one female nullifying same-sex marriage. SCOTUS decided that the private individuals that have appealed a District Court decisions that made Prop. 8 unconstitutional within the California State Constitution did not have standing. The Dem Leftists of California’s State Congress and their Dem Leftist Governor refused to defend the will of the California voters in any courtroom.
So here is SCOTUS making same-sex marriage rights a State decision that the Federal government must honor and then slapping Christian Morality private citizens in the face for defending the California voters because the State government refused to back the voters.
SCOTUS defends States’ Rights and then rejects States’ Rights simultaneously. This is all a bunch of malarkey to force Americans to further accept that which God calls an abomination; viz. same-sex relationships!
God’s Word including Homosexuality
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
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.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality,[c] wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,[d] unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Bold Emphasis Mine – Romans 1: 18-32 NKJV)
JRH 6/26/13
