Here, go poke yourself in the eye…

A gulf exists between those who have been granted entrance into God’s kingdom and graciously given a new birth, and those who remain on the outside. Someday, this gulf will become absolute, but not yet.

While the gospel is proclaimed to those still living on the outside, there are a couple evident responses. Either there is a denial of sin, or a deep conviction of its burden and destiny.

We now encounter another response, seemingly new, but actually quite ancient. Some have chosen to embrace the gospel and to try to drag along with them a “sanctified sin.” Using an eisegetical interpretive method* and blatantly deconstructing and reconstructing biblical history, certain sins have been reclassified or redefined.

I am incapable of performing the mental gymnastics necessary to comprehend this whole process. I would have to abandon belief in the perspicuity and authority of the Bible to get to where these performers want me to go. Isaiah 5 springs to mind:

            Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!             Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! (verses 20-21, ESV)

An incomplete truth often ends up a falsehood. To take a theological example, if I affirm that Jesus is God, I have told the truth as orthodox Christians understand it; if I affirm that Jesus is human, I have told the truth as orthodox Christians understand it. But if I affirm only one of these statements, I no longer tell the truth. Unless I include both, the partial truth has become false.

It is certainly true that LGBT persons ought to be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity, just as LGBT persons ought to treat others similarly, but leaving it at that is such a partial truth as to turn out false, and many on either side of the discussion leave it at that, utterly bypassing the central claims at stake, namely, whether homosexual acts are morally permissible or not.

I refuse to poke myself in the eye with their stick so I can be as blind as they are.

*Eisegesis is the interpretation of a passage in the Bible based on a subjective, non-analytical reading. The word eisegesis literally means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants. (https://www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html)