In reply to Elizabeth.

Dear Elizabeth,

You are a child of God and I love you as a sister. Because I love you, I must be honest with you, even when it is hard. I hear your struggle. I read your anguish. I see your anger. People are uncomfortable with the idea of sin (as they should be). No one enjoys having their sins lit up like the neon lights of Times Square. That being said, it does not eliminate the fact that sin exists and we are all sinful in our own ways. There is sin and there is grace. There is law and there is gospel.

We must focus on the law, how we violate the law through sin and how we are doomed to Hell while we are comfortable with our own sins. When we realize how we are turning our face away from God and His commandments and we are desperately uncomfortable in that state, then we can focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ and that every sinner has forgiveness through belief in Him. In this we can rejoice. And then we are charged to go forth and sin no more (which we shall certainly fail in this regard and be forced to repeat our repentance).

Homosexuality is a sin. Adultery is a sin. Divorce can be a sin. Pride is a sin. And the list goes on. We all fail in some way. I, like you, am the product of a marriage that ended in divorce. I do not know the underlying reasons why they divorced, and frankly, I do not want to. I know that God saw fit to have each of my parents re-marry and I was blessed with two families and multiple brothers and sisters that I would never have known had they remained together. This does not eliminate the likely sin in my parents’ divorce. I love them nonetheless. It is not my place to judge my parents’ immortal souls. That is for one triune God. It is sufficient that I love them despite their imperfections, just as I hope they love me despite my imperfections.

You mention “archaic beliefs” and how the world is “changing.” There are two problems I have with this: (1) The “archaic beliefs” you say are being expressed are based on the Word of God contained within the Holy Bible; and (2) The world is “changing” in the sense that there are ebbs and flows in righteousness and shifting political winds, but human nature has never changed from the time that Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge.

To the first point, the Word of God is eternal. The scriptures cannot be molded to fit our human ideas of what should or should not be. This is a mistake of substituting our own will for God’s will. It is the sin of pride and arrogance. As humans we may not like what God tells us from time to time, but we should not openly disobey his commandments on penalty of relinquishment of our souls to the enemy. The Bible is littered with stories of people disobeying God. It never ends well.

To the second point, human nature has never changed. Cain killed Abel. The world was destroyed by a great flood because of the rampant nature of sin. Sexual immorality was flourishing in Sodom and Gomorrah requiring the destruction of those cities. From a historical perspective it is believed that Jesus walked the earth from approximately 4 BC to approximately AD 30. During this time, the Roman Empire reigned supreme and modern day Israel was essentially a Roman province. Prostitution, homosexuality, pedophilia, adultery and other sexual sins were, in large part, accepted practices in society. It was Jews and the followers of Christ who stood out as condemning these practices.

So you see, human nature was the same then, as now. Christians condemned the practices then, as now, because that is what God commanded by his Word and His Word is eternal and unchanging. While I understand the mindset from which you are speaking, your comments lack a contextual understanding of the scripture and of history.

It is not our job to be “inclusive” by making people comfortable in their sin. It is our job as Christians to be “inclusive” by explaining that God loves all his children, but hates our sin. The good news is that there is love and forgiveness for all those that repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God. I love you and I pray for you. I pray you stay with our church. More importantly, I pray you follow God’s will wherever He takes you.