Day 25
The Cure for 'Gayness'
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous ones will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor coveters, not drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And some of you were such. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). [Emphasis added]
"For with God nothing shall be impossible" Luke 1:37
As we know from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, ex-“Gays” have been a part of the Christian church from its earliest days. That scripture was foundational to the ministry of Exodus International, which served as a hub for many independent groups of ex-“Gays” around the world from 1976 to 2013. Exodus was so named to evoke the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt in the Bible, and to analogize compulsive same-sex attraction and conduct to slavery from which one could be delivered by God.
Though I have never experienced same-sex attraction, I attended several Exodus conferences and other functions and was deeply impressed by the glowing Christian character of many of its members and the overpowering presence of the Holy Spirit, especially during their worship in music. I have always had a special place in my heart for “Gay” strugglers and have ministered to many individuals over the years as an aspect of my Bible-based Christian activism.
As with any compulsive behavioral disorder, homosexuality is tough to overcome. There’s an aspect of physiology involved in all addictions – drugs, alcohol, food, gambling, video games, porn, whatever – that addicts the struggler to his or her own pleasure-related brain chemicals that are released when they act out. Unlike most other addictions, however, sex-based ones are especially hard to escape because sexuality is hard-wired in us and the brain chemistry associated with sexual release is extraordinarily powerful. If you never experienced cocaine, you’d never miss it, but everyone is sexual by nature, and the sexual impulse is continual throughout life, whether you want it or not.
Once your brain associates sexual pleasure with any particular illicit act or fetish – especially during the formative years – the stage is set for possible addiction. You can’t un-ring the bell and you can’t prevent the bell from ringing again in the part of your brain where temptations dwell. The more you indulge the temptation, the louder and more insistent the bell will ring. What is worse, the shame associated with indulgence create an inner turmoil which enhances the effect of the brain chemistry and becomes a part of the addictive cycle.
For example, in 1992 my wife and I cared for an ex-"Gay" man, Sonny, in our home during the last year of his struggle with AIDS. He had been raped by a friend of his father in the men's room of a YMCA at the age of seven, triggering a terribly degrading fetish compelling him to seek out the strong smell of urine during his homosexual dalliances. But at his death, unlike the all-too-common horror stories of unrepentant "Gay" AIDS victims thrashing and screaming in their last moments of life, Sonny was freed from his bondage and passed peacefully into the arms of Christ, as I and a few other of his closest friends (an ex-lesbian and two former Satanists) sang his favorite worship songs in his hospital room -- the presence of the Holy Spirit wafting over the entire ward. It was truly glorious -- one of the sweetest experiences of my Christian life.
For my part, I was miraculously healed of drug and alcohol addiction in 1986 – on my knees alone in prayer at a (secular) treatment center – after sixteen years of bondage that started at the age of 12.
I believe it was because my prayer was one of total surrender to Christ, holding nothing back, that I never had another desire to drink or take drugs ever again to this very day. I've never once had to exercise will power, because the temptation was completely miraculously extinguished.
Nevertheless, I attended Alcoholics Anonymous regularly for over a year and saw that for many addicts temptation fades very slowly but they can stay abstinent through the constant mutual encouragement of fellow-sufferers. A few years later when I became familiar with Exodus International, I noticed that the successful local groups of ex-“Gays” seemed to follow the same general approach.
AA enjoys enormous public support, even among drunks who don’t wish to seek recovery. Nevertheless, the relapse rate for alcoholics is very high.
Exodus International, on the other hand, not only did not have public support from anyone but Christians and Torah-faithful Jews, but suffered the full relentless wrath of the powerful LGBT political movement from Day One! Why? Because every one of its members was living proof that homosexual self-indulgence is a choice (even if the temptation isn't). Every member of Exodus was thus individually a target – with the goal of forcing them to relapse, recant and re-commit to a “gay” self-identification.
And, of course, many did fall back under that assault, including Alan Chambers, who closed Exodus in 2013 with an apology for ever suggesting homosexuals could overcome same-sex temptation. Alan "went back to Egypt," metaphorically speaking, while the surviving chapters simply migrated from Exodus to other more Biblically-oriented networks and added him to their prayer list.
But if vilification and ridicule are the “stick” driving "gay" strugglers to relapse, then so-called “gay theology” is the "carrot" that tries to lure them back into bondage. Gay Theology is the Christian heresy that fraudulently reinterprets the Bible to change its message from condemnation to affirmation of homosexuality.
From apostate Derrick Sherwin Bailey’s Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition in 1955 to a rising flood of more recent publications “Gay Theology” has always been satanic bait to tempt those with same-sex attraction into lives of active homosexual sin. It is also a seductive siren-song for ex-“Gays” in the weak moments of their recovery.
In tandem with “Gay Theology” is the heresy of antinomianism, which holds that salvation by grace frees the Christian believer from accountability to the moral law (which fails the most basic test of logic if theft or murder is substituted for sodomy in the equation: reductio-ad-absurdum).
Antinomianism is the heresy Paul debunked in the book of Romans, which, importantly, begins with a correlation of homosexuality with the “reprobate mind” (Romans 1:18-32), and follows with a detailed treatise on law and grace in chapters 2-8, contrasting “justification” (salvation by faith alone, Romans 5:1), with “sanctification” (becoming Christlike, Romans 6:12-19).
Effective ministry to Christian “ex-“gays” and backsliders requires a basic understanding of Paul’s teaching. While justification is by faith alone, sanctification requires work: specifically, proactively following the spirit of the moral law that underlies the letter of the law. To the argument that “gay sex” (or stealing) will send you to hell, the heretics cite “salvation by faith alone” and they’re right on that narrow technicality when taken out of context.
But their deadly error is missing the truth about sanctification:
1) becoming Christlike is not possible without following the spirit of the moral law and cooperating with Him in the transformation process, and
2) only a false Christ contradicts the spirit of the moral law to rationalize sin, meaning if you’re doing that in His name you’re probably not saved because you can’t be justified by faith in a false Christ. This is why “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) because faith is proved by its fruit (not perfection but changed character and behavior) – as measured by the spirit of the moral law.
“Gay Theology also confuses grace with mercy. Grace is God’s dispensation of an unearned gift, while mercy is His forgiveness for sin-earned punishment. Moral equations involving homosexuality and its consequences are not governed by grace but mercy.
Thus, the darkest spiritual condition for "Gay" strugglers arises from declaring that homosexual temptation and conduct is a “gift” of God (blaspheming Him – and the Holy Spirit – by contradicting His explicit moral law), while simultaneously pushing away His hand of mercy by insisting that homosexual sin doesn’t need forgiveness. Such a person is doubly cursed.
“Gay theology” is thus not just a threat to the integrity of the Church, it is a diabolical trap designed to ensnare same-sex attracted believers in a soul-binding heresy. That fact was my motivation to write The Petros Prophecy -- debunking "Gay Theology" while exposing it as the last days heresy warned about by the Apostle Peter.
Our duty as Christians is to boldly affirm the truth and encourage "Gay" strugglers to do the same – especially if they’re backslidden – because grace can come only from the true Christ, and forgiveness for sins of defiance is only effective for those who admit they need it.
The Apostle John perhaps said it best in 1 John 1:8-10: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
That graceful summary contains both the essence of “gay” recovery and the remedy for relapse.
###
A prior version of this article was published in September of 2017 under the title "Biblical Law, Grace and 'Gay' Recidivism."
Comments