The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #61280   Message #985339
Posted By: Gerard
17-Jul-03 - 01:35 PM
Thread Name: BS: Pat's Supreme Threat to Supremes!!!
Subject: RE: BS: Pat's Supreme Threat to Supremes!!!
There is a distinction which the Bible enjoins us to make when regarding people who do not practice such things as a Christian would practice. Pat Robertson is correct in condemning sodomy, however, St. Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Corinth "For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside (the church)? Do you not judge those who are inside (the church). But those who are outide God judges." 1 Corinthians 5:12-13. Robertson needs to worry about those who are inside the church who practice such things as do not glorify God.
The Christian stance towards homosexuality is that the persons are protected under the Constitution; their rights are protected, and gay-bashing is not an attribute of the life of Jesus Christ "for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." However much this is true, the Bible also says: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be decieved. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
At one time during the era of Calvinism, all of the crimes listed in the above quotation were vigorously condemned. It was felt that if these such things were not condemned, then the person committing such actions would be deprived of a good thing, which is, the correction of their actions which would deny them entrance to the kingdom of God. However, because true Christianity does indeed respect the separation of Church and State, Calvin and Robertson are wrong for wanting to use church discipline in the arena of civil matters.
There are, no doubt, individuals who practice covetousness and idolatry who are protected under the constitution. There is a difference, then, between a person's public life and their private life. The idea that God "invented" Sodomy is ridiculous. Our bodies are to be temples of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may not be slaves to our lower passions, the constant craving for affections and pleasures, but rather, all those cravings are instantly satisfied upon the new birth. If such person argues, then, that they were "born" a certain way, the Lord Jesus Christ says to all men that they must be "born-again"; all men, indeed are sinners, for they proceed from the root of Adam and Eve and as such, look at the things they can see, smell, touch and taste for the satisfaction of their desires. But these visible and tangible things are created things, our souls are never truly satisfied with them.
However, when it comes to sexual sins, be they between an unmarried man and woman or between same-sex partners, the Bible does indeed place these in a more tragic, and serious level: "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought (by the death of Jesus Christ) at a price (Christ's life) therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.