This article is based on two assumptions:
First, God sent his Son into the world for all of us. According to John 3:16, 17 there are no conditions on God’s love. The only condition set on obtaining everlasting life, or salvation, is to believe in Jesus.
John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (KJV)Second, what we are to believe about Jesus is that he died and was raised from the dead on the third day. If we believe this with our hearts and confess with our mouth that "Jesus is Lord" then we will be saved according to the Bible:
Romans 10:9-10
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (KJV)TRADITIONAL TEACHING: Gays are an abomination...
According to the general Church community gays are an abomination. Gays are told that they have a no hope in God; they will end up like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah; and they are treated as though they embody all evil. A Christian co-worker once told me that the antichrist is going to be a homosexual man. She believed that he was going to be in the closet at first to make everybody like him. She said that when the time comes for him to show his evil he will come out of the closet. I want to proclaim to you that the concept that gays have no hope in God, as gay people, is not a Biblical teaching but a traditional teaching.
Colossians 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (KJV)There are many examples of traditional teachings that served no other purpose but to separate people from God.
- Galileo discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. The Church considered this heresy according to their misinterpretation of Genesis 1. They sentenced him to life imprisonment under house arrest.
- The Church used Genesis 9:21-27 to "prove" that Blacks were cursed by God into a life of slavery in order to justify what was done to them during the plantation days and to justify racism. The fact is that the curse fell upon Canaan, one of Noah’s grandson’s. Canaan was one of four brothers. His three brothers settled in Africa but Canaan settled in the Middle East.
- Another example of a traditional teaching with no basis in Scripture is the hatred of Jews. Some think that God condemned the Jews because they killed Jesus. If it were not for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ there would be no salvation. Jesus himself was a Jew!
The God of the Bible is full of justice, mercy and love. Yes, He has gotten and will get angry with people, but this anger is always precipitated by three things: abandoning Him in exchange for another god, abusing others morally, financially, sexually or otherwise, and abusing ourselves in the same manner. You will see this consistent theme from Genesis to Revelation.
SOURCE: Inspiritus
God loves me, everyone else thinks I'm a twat.
ReplyDelete'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.'
ReplyDeleteOf course the homophobic cite that same verse as an injunction to beware of such liberals as your good self, Joe, preaching the 'vain deceit' that God is OK with gays really.
PS I've had it quoted at me for that purpose by the correspondent I wrote about here
ReplyDeleteIt's not all bad, from what I've read God hates wankers as well so that means 95% of the male population (and 25% of females) of this planet are hellbound.
ReplyDeleteIf God is so anti gays / wankers why did he make them in the first place is my question.
JP, God may think you are a twat too, but he loves you anyway, LOL. Just joking with you, thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteVS, I happen to get a lot of pleasure out of using the rhetoric of homophobes against them. Too many times, they twist the words of the Bible to their own propaganda. The basis, however, is that God loves us. I have a belief that God frowns at the use of his words for hate, because it is the opposite of what he advocates in the Bible.
PhilHayshowe, I don't think God hates at all, so wank away.
I've always found it curious that if homosexuality is such an abomination, why wasn't it included in the Ten Commandments?
ReplyDeleteHeterosexuals certainly don't pay any attention to the commandment against adultery which IS included. In fact, the only sexual issue they quote the Bible on is homosexuality. Everything else seems to be a non issue anymore.
Jaxon, here's one of my favorite quotes:
ReplyDelete“The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision.”
Lynn Lavner
GOD, I mean the REAL ONE (if he exists.. I'd rather believe in a «super natural force in the matter»..) doesn't give a damn about SEX or other HUMAN behaviors..
ReplyDeleteGod in the Bible said:" LOVE is the ONLY LAW to follow."...
Love even your enemies, he said.....
SO, YOU silly heteroes..JUST LOVE US gays.. IF we are such enemies..
Bible, Coran, Tora or any other suppositivly GODS writngs are just MAN MADE litterature to rule the other men (and more, slave women..)
LOVE is the ONLY ANWER to ME....
JiEL, Montréal,Canada
A TEXT out of CONTEXT is a PRETEXT!
ReplyDeleteYou have taken a TEXT (John 3:16-17) out of CONTEXT:
John 3
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
This is the CONTEXT!
To BELIEVE in Jesus is CONDITIONAL!
Now STUDY the rest of John's Gospel & remember God HATES DIVORCE, something so-called Christians LOVE doing!
When one studies all the crime & hate among homosexuals, it proves that they are every bit as evil as heterosexuals. Stop pretending homosexuality is all about love for each other - its not! Its about LUST & GREED most of the times & EXPLOITATION!
Larry, God's love is unconditional, but our love for Him is conditional. You must remember what is written in the Gospel of Matthew, 22:35-40:
ReplyDelete35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
God is only conditional when he speaks of salvation. Mark 16:16 states, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
Larry, the only other comment that I would like to make to you is that I will pray that one day, and I hope that day comes soon, you will realize the unconditional love that God has for all of his creation. For whatever has caused your anger, know that God is there for you, as he is with me. Through prayer, meditation and FAITH, we can conquer all through God and his love for us.