Sodom & the Rape of Christianity
Lately there has been an increase of pro-homosexual activism. Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that a Christian club at the University of California must allow homosexuals to not only join but also become leaders. A court upheld Eastern Michigan University’s decision to expel a counseling student who opposes homosexuality. Another counseling student in Georgia faces the same consequences for standing firm on her belief that homosexuality is an immoral lifestyle choice. And in the news the "Christian" singer Jennifer Knapp came out as a lesbian and yet still says that she is a Christian. It is time for Christians to be reminded what the Bible has to say about the issue of homosexuality.
Jesus foretold the rise of militant homosexuality and said it would be a sign of His coming and the final judgment of God: "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30).
In the days right before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot lived in Sodom with his family. The Bible says that Lot was a righteous man. God validated that Lot was righteous by sending two of His angels (that looked like normal men) to get Lot and his family out of Sodom before He rained down fire and brimstone to destroy it. Therefore, it is not a stretch to say that Lot's home was the last haven of righteousness in Sodom. In other words, Lot's house was the last little "Christian" group in Sodom.
Lot took the angels into his home for the night and what happened next? The militant homosexuals showed up and tried to force their way into Lot's house. They wanted to rape the angels that looked like men. They were not satisfied anymore with just each other, their gay bars or parades. The homosexuals wanted and felt they had the right to push their way into the last haven of righteousness in Sodom and practice their perversion.
Sadly, this is where we are right now in America and throughout the world: many homosexuals want to force their way into churches and Christian groups. They want churches to be forced to hire them. They want to force Christian groups on college campuses to accept them as members and even leaders of the group. They want to force ministers to not preach against homosexuality or call it a sin even though it is clearly stated a sin in the Bible. Basically, the homosexual community and their supporters are raping the church and Christianity.
I say that because the word “rape” can be simply defined as sex or intimate association by FORCE. That is exactly what the homosexual community and its supporters are doing to the church and Christianity. They want to claim to be Christians, sing in churches and work in churches. They even want to be "Christian" ministers. They want to force their perverted views on the institution of marriage which God ordained to be between a man and a woman only. They want to “rape” the angels right in God's house. They simply want to force their way into God's institutions and force Christians to accept and even approve of them.
God's View Has Not Changed
Regardless of what society, psychiatrists, some ministers, or even the law says, the God of Abraham and His Word (the Bible) still calls homosexuality wickedness. The Word of God is painfully blunt: unrepentant, practicing homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God. That means they will not go to heaven, but rather an eternal hell of unquenchable fire. The Apostle Paul made that crystal clear in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. 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.” And of course if there is any doubt, God had Paul spell it out in detail in Romans chapter one when he wrote: "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet" (Romans 1:24-27). Also Jude concurred with Paul when he wrote, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, ARE SET FORTH FOR AN EXAMPLE, suffering the vengeance of ETERNAL FIRE" (Jude 1:7). The Apostle Peter also re-affirmed in the New Testament God's view of homosexuality in the Old Testament by saying, "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, MAKING THEM AN EXAMPLE UNTO THOSE THAT AFTER SHOULD LIVE UNGODLY;" (2 Peter 2:6).
Archealogical Evidence
For those who doubt the Bible’s account of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction around 2350 B.C., archeologists have been studying the alleged sights near the Dead Sea since 1924. They have discovered ample evidence of ancient cities completely destroyed by fire. Archeologist and professor Dr. Randall Price documents the discovery of Sodom and the cities of the plain in his book, The Stones Cry Out. He writes, “In 1965 and 1967, excavations at the site of Bab edh-Dhra (now considered the Biblical city of Sodom) were carried out by Paul Lapp and later by Walter Rast and Thomas Schaub in 1973. Their excavations revealed that the fortification wall surrounding the city was 23 feet thick. The gateway was flanked by twin towers and inside was a city of mud-brick houses, a Canaanite temple with a semicircular altar and numerous cultic objects. Outside the town site, they found an enormous cemetery with thousands of buried people. But something else caught the attention of the excavators: THE EVIDENCE OF EXTENSIVE DESTRUCTION BY FIRE. The town site was covered by a layer of ash many feet in thickness. The cemetery also revealed ash deposits, charred posts and roof beams, and bricks that had turned red from intense heat” (The Stones Cry Out by Randall Price PhD © 1997 Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon pp. 114-124).
If you fast-forward from Sodom and Gomorrah over 2400 years we see the complete destruction of another wicked city that was totally given over to every form of sexual perversion (including homosexuality). In August of 79 A.D., the city of Pompeii Italy was buried by 12 to 18 feet of ash and pumice from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Pompeii was lost for over 1500 years until it’s rediscovery in 1592. Since then, its excavation has provided detailed information of a popular vacation resort and thriving city during the height of the Roman Empire. In her book, Pompeii Awakened: A Story of Rediscovery, Judith Harris writes about the sexual imagery in Pompeii,
“…nothing like this had ever been seen, and surely not in such quantity. From the ruins emerged both mildly erotic and blatantly pornographic scenes, painted on walls and on vases, designed in mosaic tiles on floors, vulgarly scribbled onto street-front walls.
Pompeian erotic art included ‘gigantic free-standing phalluses,’ platters decorated with homosexual group sex scenes, and sculptures of Pan having intercourse with a she-goat. ‘In discoveries that to this day condition the attitudes toward Pompeii worldwide, objects of an obvious sexual content were found, shocking to many, titillating to others...In Pompeii, erotic pictures were not a vulgar exception, they were the rule.’”
The Apostle Peter's Warning
Thus, God has given us examples of His wrath against rampant sexual perversion and homosexuality in these historical events. He has spelled it out in His Word and warns us that there is another day coming that the world will be judged with fire for it's wickedness. The Apostle Peter warned, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to REPENTANCE. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter 3:1-12).
Jesus is the Only Way
Although God’s judgment is coming, He has shown His love and mercy for homosexuals and any other person in sexual sin: God is not willing or desiring that any perish, but that all come to repentance. Repentance means to change your mind about your sin and then to change your actions. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to provide both the way of forgiveness and deliverance. To be free from homosexuality or any sinful practice, you must first agree with God's view of the act, confess it as sin to Him, and humbly ask for His forgiveness and His cleansing blood with a total determination to stop the sin. Then, you must bind the demons of homosexuality, lust, perversion, and whoredoms, and command them to leave you in Jesus’ name! Once you have done this pray and ask God to close the doors you opened through your sins. Though a more detailed deliverance session is most likely needed, these are the first steps to freedom.
Do not be deceived, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not "God accepts you the way you are" but rather "He came to call sinners to repentance!" He will give you power to overcome the sin if you turn to Him totally with faith in His blood and His resurrection. It won't always be easy, but God will help the person that is serious about walking with Him. And if you have tried before and fallen back into homosexuality, then try again and go through a thorough deliverance session. For more information about deliverance please feel free to contact me.
For Christians reading this, I have to be very clear: you do not love a homosexual by not showing him or her way out of the sin. God wants us to preach the truth in love. He didn't say love them without ever telling them the truth. Silence or passivity on this issue is not acceptable. If we don't tell them, then blood will be on our hands at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It is time to stop the rape of Christianity and take a stand against homosexuality by preaching the truth of Jesus Christ and proclaiming the way of deliverance to the captives (Luke 4).