About the LGBTQ+ Worldview...

Originally written: 8/5/2019

Homosexual relationships are growing more and more common in today’s world. It seems that every new movie or TV show made these days involves one or more main characters who are gay. In addition to this, I have personally witnessed several people in my life come out identifying themselves as LGBT. I can think of at least four people who have been raised in God-loving and God-fearing homes who then came out to embrace this lifestyle. According to Pew Research, 31% of Americans supported same-sex marriage in 2004 and in 2019 that number has grown to 61 percent. The majority of Americans now believe that to be gay is okay.

According to Gallup, 4.5% of Americans identified as LGBT in 2017 and 3.5% in 2012. In only five years, the LGBT community has grown one percent. That may not sound like much, but this is actually a huge change, comprising over 3.25 million more people within this short time frame.

So what is my opinion of people who are LGBT? I want to talk to them. I want to tell them what God says about identity, sexuality, and community. I want to be friends with them and show them the love of Jesus. I don’t hate them, and I think that can often be what they fear from others. However, I do not agree with their lifestyle because the Bible doesn’t agree with their lifestyle. I know that what many of them want most is to just be loved and accepted for who they are. And I would like to tell them about the love, acceptance, and identity that is available to them in Jesus. However, a lifestyle of embracing sin, whether it be homosexuality, pride, greed, bitterness, selfishness, or heterosexual immorality, it cannot co-exist with having a relationship with Jesus. A relationship with Jesus is truly fulfilling and satisfying but anything contrary to that is spiritual adultery against Him and only leaves us empty and broken.

My heart is saddened by the people who reject God’s way, especially those whom I have known who have grown up in Christian homes and then reject God and turn to other lifestyles. Some of them were probably never saved, and others might just be deceived. I’m writing this article because I deeply care and want to prevent people from going down that road. And for Christians who struggle with same-sex-attraction, I want to give them hope. I also wish to prevent people from “giving hearty approval” (Ro. 1:32) to the LGBT lifestyle by saying things like, “I’m so happy for you!” If we really cared about them, we would tell them the truth, not affirm their sin or stay silent. Those who are living in sin cannot be truly happy and fulfilled. Sin also leads to the destruction of the soul in Hell for eternity. Because of these things, how can we honestly be happy for them? It is sinful for us to give them “hearty approval.”

First of all, I would like to say, I am not better than anyone, and I certainly don’t want to come across that way. The Bible tells us that we’re all sinners and we all need Jesus. We all need His grace and forgiveness and strength to overcome our sin, and because of this, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Whether you struggle with same sex attraction, pride, selfishness, covetousness, or something else, it is all labeled “sin,” and it is something that we all have in common. There is a community in Christianity that the LGBT community simply cannot beat (or at least, there should be). What I mean is that our identity is in Jesus and what He has done for us, and our identity is as solid as the One who never changes and never lies, our steady anchor and solid rock. Ours sins don’t define us. Our performance doesn’t define us. Our sexuality does not define us. Jesus does. We are accepted and loved by Him no matter what. And because He loves and forgives us, we love and forgive each other, and are empowered by God’s Spirit who lives within us to do just that. All sinners, no matter what you have done or what you are currently struggling with, are loved and accepted within this community. But this community with God and believers does not exist with people who choose to live a life of giving in and fulfilling their LGBT desires.

We must guard our hearts and minds

As Christians, what should our response be to LGBT? We must know our Bibles. We must know what God says about these issues. This is of upmost importance, else we vulnerably expose our minds to the world’s way of thinking. Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” How do we come to know what is right and true? How do we come to know what God wants and expects from us? We read the Word. We let our minds be transformed by it.

We have two options here: we either spend our time studying the Word and let that shape our worldview, or, we neglect this duty and spend all our time listening to people’s opinions and watching TV shows. If we choose the latter, our worldview will be shaped by it. We will be conformed to the world’s way of thinking and feeling about things. Homosexuality will become normal and acceptable to us; and if we continue down that path, it may become us, as our thoughts also become us. We must not think that we are strong enough and this would never happen to us. Even if you currently have the strongest arguments against LGBT under the sun, well… the mind has a tendency to forget things, especially when it is constantly bombarded with a secular worldview. If we don’t constantly renew our minds in the Word of God, then we allow the world to shape our minds, which then opens our hearts to be shaped by the world as well. But it could also happen the other way around. Our hearts can also shape our minds. That’s why we should never stop being offended by sin. Homosexuality, sexual immorality, and profanity, etc. It should always bother us. Repeated exposure of these things with an unguarded heart and mind, does have the tendency to dull our consciences. We then begin to tolerate it more and more until those arguments against sin are but a whisper. It is after the conscience is silenced and the worldview accepted that people begin to be curious about it, tinker around with it, and entertain thoughts of it. Then they start to like it, enjoy it, and then become it.

Romans 1:18 talks about “men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Now, in the context, the Word is explaining why people reject the gospel and the reality of God. It’s not an intellectual issue—it’s a heart issue. They don’t want God because that means they would have to be accountable to Him—they would have to do what He says. Now although this passage is speaking about unbelievers, this principle is also true for Christians. When we want more of sin and of the world’s way, we suppress God’s truth in our unrighteousness. We come up with certain arguments to defend ourselves in our sin. These arguments are neither right nor sound, and also tend to be very far-reaching. Sometimes, the heart may be so hardened in sin that no logical, Biblical, or scientific argument will be convincing. The heart will not listen to reason because it wants what it wants, and there might be no stopping it. Now, I do not wish to dishearten anyone by saying this, for there is power in the name of Jesus, there is power in fasting and prayer, and there is power in faith in the Word of God.

However, if you ever come to this point of unrepentant sin and an embracing of sin, either (1) God will discipline you and you will come back to Him or He will take your life, (2) you are deceived, or (3) you are lost, always have been, and God will deal with you as His enemy since you reject the Word of God, the will of God, the love of God, and the grace of God.

From here, I will begin exposing popular worldviews and arguments regarding homosexuality. The aim here is to show people who are gay how absurd their arguments are, that they are more excuses than legitimate arguments because they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The second aim is to help Christians maintain a strong heart and mind in the Word of God so that they will not fall into sin or approve the sin of others. And the third aim is to help Christians who are struggling with same-sex attraction.

“Christians are homophobes”

Are Christians homophobes? Some of us—maybe. Most of us—I would say not. We are, however, Godophobes and sinophobes. That is, we fear the consequences of sin and we fear sinning against God. After all that He has done for us, we don’t want to displease Him, and we don’t want to tolerate that which His worldview does not tolerate. We care more about what God thinks and what God wants than what people think, or at least, we should. If we don’t, then that is idolatry.

The Bible clearly says that homosexuality is sin:

1 Timothy 1:8-11
But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Or 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 effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

Romans 1:18 starts out with, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” …

It continues in verse 24, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

This passage here talks about God’s wrath of abandonment. It is not saying that God is condoning their behavior. Rather, God is allowing them to do what their hearts wish to do. God is no longer restraining their sin. This passage uses the terms “natural” and “unnatural.” That is to say, homosexuality is unnatural. Regardless of our changing culture, homosexuality is and always has been, unnatural. And this is rooted in creation. When the book of Romans was written, homosexuality was culturally common and so the “changing times” argument is an invalid one. Even since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, homosexuality has been around (Jude 1:7; Gen. 19). It was also likely around in the days of Noah, since, “every intent of the thoughts of his [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). It was prohibited in the days of Abraham, in the days of Moses, and in the days of the apostle Paul, a history of over 2,000 years and God is still clearly against it. This has not changed.

It is the ad populum logical fallacy to say that homosexuality is now a good thing because so many people are doing it and agree that it’s okay. True and godly morals are not based upon what happens to be agreeably popular at the time—they are based upon the unchangeable Word of God.

Homosexuality is a moral issue, not a neutral one, or simply a political one. If God wanted it to be a neutral issue, He could have had it that way like the subject of slavery in the Bible. The Bible neither condoned nor condemned it but acknowledged that it was there and how people need to live in view of that fact (cf. Eph. 6:5-9). Just to be clear though, slavery in the Bible was nothing like slavery in American history or current day human trafficking. These two things, God would have condemned. It is exactly because homosexuality is neither inherently good or nonmoral that the Bible condemns it. It is inherently immoral.

Homosexuality at its core is idolatry—it is serving and worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. It is lust. It is a rejection of the Creator’s original design of making male and female in the beginning to be physical and spiritual partners. And it is not only homosexuality that isn’t God’s design, but prostitution, adultery, divorce, incest, rape, and polygamy etc. are also all not God’s design (1 Cor. 5:1; 6:16-18; 7:2-5; Eph. 5:3; Heb. 13:4; Mt. 5:32). Sexual immorality is basically anything outside God’s design for sexual intimacy and the biblical definition of marriage (Mt. 19:4-6; Mk. 10:6-9). God joins together one male and one female in marriage. The idea of marriage came from God. If a male is joined to male or a female to a female, it for sure was not God who did the joining. God does not bless that which He commands against and which is opposed to His created order. Call it what you want, but it’s not marriage.

“Christians don’t love the LGBT community”

That depends on your definition of “love.” If by love you mean, accept everything they do and say, then no, we do not love them that way. I would not even call that kind of behavior love. Your good friends are the ones who are honest with you, not the ones who tell you everything you want to hear. Good doctors as well will tell you what’s wrong with you and what you need to change about your lifestyle to be healthy and to get better. If your doctor lies about you having cancer or about you being overweight, does that doctor truly care for your well-being? The point I am getting at here is that tolerance is not the same thing as love. We do not need to tolerate homosexual behavior or embrace their worldview to show that we love and care about them. However, we are to still love them as Jesus commanded us, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39). That is, we are to show kindness towards them and be good to them. Now, this does not mean that we can’t mention that they’re going to Hell as all sinners are. Hell is real. Life is short. Eternity is long. And all sin, no matter what its label, will send you there. Now it would be unloving if I didn’t tell you that. There are, I will admit, people who go about it in the wrong way and don’t speak the gospel in “gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet. 3:15) as the Word of the Lord instructs us. And there may be others whose fervent zeal for the truth is misperceived as hate or whose fervent zeal overshadows their love.

“#love is love” “It’s right because it feels so good and right”

This is probably more of an excuse than it is an argument. To say, “love is love” is like saying “it’s true because it’s true.” That’s the logical fallacy of circular reasoning. Let’s think about this. If love is love no matter what, as long as it makes you happy, then I suppose there would be nothing wrong with having sex with a pig or cow. After all, #love is love, right? Yet, I think it to be unlikely that the 60% of Americans who are okay with homosexuality would also be okay with the idea of being married to pets and farm animals, having sex with family members, or pedophiles who in the name of love have sex with kids. If humans define love or if love simply defines itself, then any action can become permissible. Who exactly defines what is moral and unmoral? If anything is right because it just feels right, then murder would be okay for the jealous boyfriend or the revengeful widow. It is the remnants of the law of God written on people’s hearts that tell us that these things are wrong (Ro. 2:15). Because of these things, to say that “love is love” really isn’t a sound or valid argument. When love is the basis of itself, everything falls apart. When people become the source for all morality, everyone just ends up doing “whatever is right in his own eyes” (Deut. 12:8; Jdg. 17:6). Chaos and total depravity are sure to ensue.

What we do know about “love” is that “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). We were all created in the image of God and given the capacity to love. Our love for people originates from God. And since it is from God, whatever we call “love” must be in accordance with how God’s Word defines it. Otherwise, if we are to “love” others outside of what is accurately described as love in the Bible, then we are no longer thinking about love but rather, lust, idolatry, or a misuse and perversion of love. This is the case we see in Romans chapter one. These same sex attractions are described as “lusts of the heart” (v. 24), “degrading passions” (v. 26), “worshipping and serving the creature rather than the creator” (v. 25), that is, idolatry. If you do what God commands against, you are making yourself and that other person an idol when you pursue that relationship. You also end up “exchanging the truth of God for a lie” (v. 25). You reject God’s definition and design for marriage and intimacy and create your own definition as if love was your idea—as if love ultimately originated from you or from within itself. Instead of believing “God is love,” you believe “love is love,” as if love could simply define itself. You choose to set yourself up as your own god as both the author and the designer of love.

“It was the greatest honour God did to man that he made man in the image of God; but it is the greatest dishonour man has done to God that he has made God in the image of man” (Constable).

“As long as it makes you happy, then I’m happy for you. You deserve to be happy”

This is essentially the previous argument stated a different way. It is more the reason behind it. There are two assumptions here. The first is that your happiness is the most important thing. The second assumption is that you deserve to be happy. Let’s start with the first. Is your own happiness the most important thing? This life is but a drop of water in the sea of eternity. What will your happiness be worth if that happiness sends you straight to Hell where you will never be happy again for eternity? “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mt. 16:26). This is a sobering question to ask yourself. Is sin worth it?

If your spouse deals and uses drugs, would you be happy for them simply because it makes them happy? Probably not, because there are legal, biological, work-related, and potentially lethal consequences. What if you give your child everything he ever wants? All the ice-cream, soda, toys, and junk food his heart desires without ever disciplining him for being bad. Is that love? Or perhaps the fear of rejection (people-pleasing) and the idolatry of self and of other people?

For the person who is non-practicing but accepting of the secular worldview, I will ask this: Is this person’s happiness more important than God’s happiness? The moment you say yes is the moment that you declare that people are more important than God. This is idolatry and it breaks God’s greatest commandment which says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37).

Romans 1:32 tells us that Homosexuals and other sinners know what the Bible says about their sin being worthy of death, but they do it anyway. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they also “give hearty approval to those who practice them.” In the name of love and acceptance, some people will approve homosexual relationships. They may even do it in the name of “Christian” love. But this is revealed in the Bible as clearly wrong.

The second assumption mentioned is that people deserve to be happy. But do they really? To deserve something, you must earn it, work for it, or be worthy of it in some way. It is a humanistic worldview that says, “everyone deserves happiness,” yet it is a Biblical worldview based upon the justice of God that says, “everyone deserves justice.” That is, everyone deserves Hell because everyone is a sinner and has violated God’s law. It is common knowledge in our country that once you become a criminal, you lose your constitutional rights, like your freedom, the right to vote, and the right to bear arms. In a similar way with the world that God owns, you break God’s law, and you lose any rights you would have had. Happiness is not a right but rather, a privilege. It is God who created this world and every person on it. Therefore, whatever He decides to do or command, it is His right. God sent Jesus into this world to live a perfectly righteous life and then die to pay the penalty for the sins of the world. God has done everything, and He owns everything. What do you honestly have to bring to the table to offer God to deserve anything?

“I was born this way”

I would recommend reading the article: LGBT Pride? 6 Questions Every Gay Person Should Ask by Michael Tays Carter. At the end of the article, Dr. Neil E. Whitehead answers the question, “Is there a gay gene?” He explains it much better than I could. Here are a few paragraphs:

Geneticists, anthropologists, developmental psychologists, sociologists, endocrinologists, neuroscientists, medical researchers into gender, and twin study researchers are in broad agreement about the role of genetics in homosexuality. Genes don’t make you do it. There is no genetic determinism, and genetic influence at most is minor.

Neuroscientists are finding that the brain is extraordinarily plastic. The scientific consensus now is that even as an adult, we are what we are making our brains even though we may not be aware of the constant ongoing process. These changes in microstructure are visible in brain scans within months.

If differences are found between homosexual and heterosexual brains, they are probably the result of years of conditioning (repeated thinking patterns and behavior).

For the sake of argument, let’s just say for a second that you were born gay. What would be the purpose in telling people that? It may be to excuse your behavior in saying, “I can’t help myself. I can’t change. This is who I am because that’s how I was born.” Or, another purpose of using the argument might be to say, “I tried really hard to be normal. I prayed for God to take these feelings away, and He didn’t. So I guess I wasn’t meant to change. This is just who I am now.” However, just because you were born a certain way, that doesn’t mean that your actions associated with that birth are now justified. The Bible says something interesting about our birth, it says that all of us are born with sin.

Psalm 51:5
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned

Instinctively, children are rebellious. It is not something that they need to be taught. They are born with it. Yet, that by no means excuses their behavior or makes it acceptable in any way. The Bible doesn’t excuse it either but rather says, turn away from your sins and believe the gospel (Mk. 1:15). Whether we are born with particular sinful tendencies, or hormonal or chemical tendencies/vulnerabilities toward sin, we are all responsible for our actions before God. We will all one day stand before God and give an account of the deeds that we have done (Ro. 14:10-12; Mt. 16:27). And this isn’t just about whether or not you are gay or straight. This includes every sin you have ever committed against God. It won’t do you any good if your only desire is to be rid of this “one sin.” All sin is an abomination to God and must be turned from both for the purpose of salvation and for spiritual power in overcoming it.

Something must also be said about prayer—there is power in it. However, if we only pray but do not from the depths of our heart want to change, then should we honestly expect God to answer? Half-heartedness simply will not do, we must really want this—to please and obey God. And we can start by reading the Bible and holding fast to faith, believing that whatever the Bible says is true. God is true. His character is true. His promises are true. He is the Living Water and Bread of Life. Sin is death, destruction, and emptiness. Jesus is better. Life and death are incompatible with each other. If we want to have fellowship with God, to drink from His table, then we cannot be drinking from the table of demons, idols, and sin (1 Cor. 10:21).

There is much power in faith—it can change our hearts and our lives. Prayer alone isn’t enough.

“I’m a sexual being and I can’t help myself”

This excuse is given for various sexual pursuits like pornography, adultery, and homosexuality. We are sexual beings, yes. However, our sexuality neither defines nor controls us. We were made in the image of God and we were made for the purpose of having a relationship with God.

It is a common belief in our culture that love and sex are “needs.” One might even say that “the body is for sex and sex is for the body,” indicating that this is the purpose of our bodies, as in like manner “food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food.” 1 Corinthians 6:13 says, “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.” It is likely that the Corinthians were using the truth about the stomach being for food as an excuse to say that the body is for sexual expression. Yet Paul tells the Corinthians that the body’s purpose is for the Lord. To the Christian, this can be a liberating truth. God made you to honor and glorify Him by having an intimately satisfying relationship with Him. You are not at the mercy of your body to fulfill or seek out every sexual and emotional desire if you dedicate your body in obedience to the Lord to be spiritually fulfilled in Him.

Love and sex are not needs, but desires. Right before God created Eve, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18). God did not say that Adam “needed” her, but rather, that it would be a good thing if Adam had someone else to come alongside him. Human relationships were never meant to make us whole and fulfilled. That’s Jesus’ job. Without Him, relationships will only leave us empty, broken, and disappointed. Jesus speaks to the woman at the well in John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’”

“I have same sex attraction.
Homosexuals have same sex attraction.
Therefore, I am homosexual.
Homosexuals go to Hell.
Therefore, I’m going to Hell”

Just because you have same sex attraction, that doesn’t mean that you’re just doomed to Hell and there’s no hope. First Corinthians 6 mentions that the effeminate and homosexuals will not enter the kingdom of God but then verse 11 gives hope, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Now, this doesn’t mean that same sex attraction will necessarily just go away. However, there is power in Jesus to take control of these desires and not act upon them or encourage them. Even as there is power to sin less and less in idolatry, covetousness, drunkenness, and reviling. It is not a condition for salvation that you be perfect—but it is a condition that you repent. If you don’t, then that is evidence that God never started a work of grace and of the power of the Spirit within your heart. The mistake that some people with same-sex-attraction make is thinking that because they have that attraction, their label is “homosexual.” But if you’re a Christian, that is not the case. Your label is “holy, beloved of God, chosen, child of God” (1 Pet. 2:9-10; Ro. 1:7; Col. 3:12; 1 Jn. 3:1). As long as we don’t embrace a sinful lifestyle, that particular label doesn’t define us. To have same-sex-attractions and to be homosexual are actually two different things. Therefore, one can be a Christian and also have same-sex-attraction. However, it is something that needs to be fought against, not given into.

I have listed many counter-arguments against the LGBT worldview throughout this paper, “but why?” someone might ask. “If according to Romans 1 this is a heart problem and not an intellectual one, then why have arguments?” It is to prove exactly this to people, that the arguments they make are merely facades that they hide behind. They are not arguments—but excuses. Now, I understand why people want to hide from their shame. As sinners, we all do, and Adam and Eve were the first to do it. With sin comes shame and by living perfectly on this earth and dying as a punishment for our sins on that cross, Jesus came to defeat shame, to cover us with His own righteousness. But this is only available to those who repent and trust in Him.

Recently, Taylor Swift came out with, “You Need to Calm Down.” It’s a song clearly aimed at anyone who might be called a homophobe or bigot. In the video, there is a group of people holding up signs saying, “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” and “Get A Brain Morans!” while vehemently yelling and pointing their finger. Now, I would definitely oppose this method and I don’t think it to be at all helpful. I think that if Jesus were here, He would rebuke these people, saying, “you do not know what kind of spirit you are of” (Lk. 9:55).

Yet it is not only these people that I believe Taylor wants to be silent, but all who would oppose the LGBT lifestyle. I think it’s a huge deal for Taylor, the most popular musical artist in the world and highest paid celebrity, to embrace the LGBT worldview. Her words influence the masses. This, combined with the state of our current entertainment and the mass acceptance and promotion of the LGBT lifestyle in our country, is bringing us to a very dark and dangerous place. Now, it’s not just LGBT, but what it represents—idolatry in the form of made-made religion where everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Our society is digressing and becoming more and more like in the days preceding the flood and the days preceding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible says that in the last days, people will be lovers of self, without self-control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Tim. 3:1-4). The end is approaching, and Jesus is coming soon. He’s coming to gather His people up to Himself and then with His wrath, to destroy those who have not repented. Are you ready to face Him? If He were to return today, would you be ready?

For further reading that is both gracious and helpful on these issues, I would recommend Love Into Light by Peter Hubbard.