Charles Pogue
A few years ago, we were saying that there were few physical families in churches of Christ who had not experienced the sad situation of either the breakup of a marriage, or a family member committing adultery with someone else while still in the marriage to their scripturally lawful spouse. Unscriptural divorce and remarriage has become a plague. I am wondering if today we haven’t already reached the point where we can say there is within many of our families a member who has taken up a homosexual relationship. If that is not the case will it soon be? Personally, I have little doubt that it is coming.
Homosexuality is one of those sins appearing in a relatively short list that the scripture calls an abomination (Lev. 18:22; 20:13). Some deny it, but homosexuality is listed as sin in the New Testament under the law of Christ (Rom. 1:26,27; 1 Cor. 6:9). Perhaps the best word that can be accurately used to define “abomination” in our current usage, is the word disgusting. It is so disgusting that it led to fire directly from God that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plains. That is not only how disgusting it is to God but also how destructive of humanity, both as far as the eternal welfare of the soul, and families are concerned.
Rejection of what the Bible says about that sin is now accepted by many, and to oppose it is bigotry and hate. Recently, former President Jimmy Carter announced he is leaving the Southern Baptists, because too many of them oppose it. If he had waited around a little longer, given the fact that the Southern Baptists are embracing a gender neutral Bible, many more of them might have joined him in embracing that sin!
The implications of evil men calling those of us who oppose the sin of homosexuality, are staggering. The most serious of those implications is that it is calling God a bigot and hater. It is calling the Bible a book of bigotry and hatefulness. No, God loves the person, He hates the sin, and this world must not be in any doubt; homosexuality is a sin that if it goes un-repented of, is by itself, like any other sin, enough to reap the punishment of eternal vengeance in the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8).
Why did unscriptural divorce and remarriage become a huge problem in the Lord’s church? Why is homosexuality in the same category of problems as well? One reason is false teaching. However, another part of the reason is that when any sin becomes acceptable to society at large, Christians often cease to raise their voices against it. Many will say, I cannot do anything about, so they keep their opposition to the evil to themselves. That’s not opposition, it is indifference. Indifference leads to acceptance and acceptance often leads to participation. That is a general truth from which deviation is seldom witnessed.
Will homosexuality become the next huge problem on the heels of unscriptural divorce and remarriage? There is more than a small chance not just that it will, but that it already has. For years there have been those who practice homosexuality who are members of the church of Christ. Like society at large, they lash out any who oppose them, and who will not accept them as they are. We cannot fellowship a person who refuses to repent of any sin and change their lives, and that includes the sin of homosexuality. Yet, these homosexuals seek congregations that will accept them in their sin. Those kind of attempts have been going on for over twenty years. Thus, is it a next big problem? We probably should say, no, it already is!
A person is not born a homosexual. The far left in our world has made that false claim, and it is being accepted by an enormous number of people. in past years, I never knew a person who said he or she was homosexual or transgender. Today I do. Rest assured, God will never accept it, nor will I. Barring repentance and a change of life, homosexuals, just like those in unscriptural marriages, will find themselves in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21:8).
