Why has God allowed His word to be so misinterpreted regarding homosexuality?

by Dorothy
(Ohio)

Run the race with patience<br>Hebrews 12:1

Run the race with patience
Hebrews 12:1



We are human beings who serve the God of truth. In fact, our God IS the Truth, John 14:6. Yet God's people frequently get things wrong. This troubling fact is as old as humanity. Adam and Eve, the first humans, Genesis 2:16-17, 1 Cor 15:45, had only one rule to follow.

"Don't eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil."

You are free to do anything else you want. I've placed no other restrictions on you. So what did Adam and Eve do with their freedom? They immediately broke the only rule God had given them.

This demonstrates the
human propensity for rebellion.

  • When the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, barely surviving under the hard bondage of cruel taskmasters, God chose Moses to lead them to freedom.

    Yet within weeks of witnessing God's dramatic signs and wonders and marching out of Egyptian slavery into freedom, the people rebelled. They began to gripe and complain, wishing they could return to slavery in Egypt.

    This demonstrates the
    human propensity for self-deception.

    They would rather be slaves in Egypt than accept the responsibility that goes with human freedom.

  • David and Solomon, for all their flaws, led Israel to become the greatest, freest nation on earth. Yet after Solomon's death, successive generations willingly traded individual responsibility for a repressive government, surrendering their freedom in the process.

    God is always faithful in sending prophets to call His people back to the right path and frequently, God's people refuse to listen.

    This demonstrates the human propensity
    to ignore what God says, in context.

  • When God sent Jeremiah to call Jerusalem and Judah back to God, Jeremiah 40:1, most of the people rejected Jeremiah's message.

    A few people, including a gay eunuch named Ebed-Melech, Jeremiah 38-39, did listen to Jeremiah.

    Many rebellious people in Jeremiah's day went into captivity in Babylon because they refused to listen to Jeremiah's message from God.

    This demonstrates the
    human propensity for self-will.

    Self-will is precisely what
    we are dealing with when debating
    anti-gay christians on
    the gay and lesbian issue.


    Christians down the centuries have assumed that their personal and cultural opposition to gays and lesbians is a Biblical mandate when it is not.

    They start from their personal presupposition that homosexuality is wrong and then go to the Bible to find something, anything, that appears to support their presupposition.

    When they find a clobber passage that seems to agree with what they believe, they refuse to study the passage in context (prohibition of idolatry) and insist that the clobber passage MUST mean what they imagine it means, regardless of context.

    This self-willed deception and intentional rebellion against what scripture says, in context, has caused untold damage to millions of God's gay and lesbian children.

    You asked,
    Why would God allow this?


    God created us free moral agents, capable of choosing between right and wrong. If God overruled our free will, we would be automatons, not free.

    God created us free and leaves us free, responsible for exercising our will, our intellect, our experience, our common sense and our ability to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:14, Who dwells in all born again believers in Jesus Christ, Romans 8:9, 1 Cor 12:13.

    This freedom sometimes leads to pain and heartache because even God's children sometimes make wrong decisions. Yet wrong decisions are a consequence of freedom. Personal responsibility implies we will sometimes make mistakes. If we attempt to avoid mistakes by limiting freedom and personal responsibility, we will no longer be free.

    Ancient Israel attempted to avoid responsibility by having Kings rule over them instead of having God rule over them. Their willingness to surrender personal freedom caused them to become slaves of the government.

    This disturbing pattern is being repeated in the United States today as people trade their freedom and personal responsibility for the protections of a nanny state which promises no one will offend you, no one will think racist or sexist thoughts as they murder you (hate crimes legislation), no one will require you to exercise personal responsibility.

    "Don't worry, you're a ward of the state and the government will make all the tough decisions for you.


    Personally, I have no desire to be a ward of the state. Life is about freedom and personal responsibility before God, not as a ward of the state and not as a ward of any ecclesiastical hierarchy.

    God is always just and holy
    in His dealings with people.
    God is never unfair.

    “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:25.

    God is absolutely fair in all His dealings with humanity. We can always trust God to do the right thing.

    God is no respecter of persons.

    “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:35-36

    “For there is no respect of persons with God.” Romans 2:11

    God is good to everyone,
    including the unsaved.

    “The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” Psalm 145:8-9

    “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45

    “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” Deu 32:4

    Sometimes bad things happen as a result of people exercising their God-given free will. Our job is to trust God and walk with Him, come what may.

    We learn more in the valley than on the mountaintop because our God is not just the God of the mountaintop. He is also God of all our valleys.

    Was Adam a real man?

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    • Comments for Why has God allowed His word to be so misinterpreted regarding homosexuality?

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    May 27, 2009
    		 It makes perfect sense...
    by: Dorothy



    If God "allowed" the Jews to get it so wrong regarding the divine Messiahship of His Son 2,000 years ago, then who are we few faithful that we should be accepted any better?

    "He called us 'sons of God'!
    Shall we murmur at His rod?
    Nov 09, 2013
    		 Respecter of Persons?
    by: Sara

    What does that mean, exactly? I'd imagine God would love and respect all of us since we are His children. Isn't respect doing what He does, being kind and just to us? Not hurting or insulting us? Or am I thinking by human definitions of respect?

    Rick's comment: That God is not a respecter of persons refers to the fact that God treats people fairly, honestly, justly. That doesn't mean that God never judges sin. As Creator and Judge of the Universe, it is God's responsibility to judge between right and wrong, to judge sin. Yet as the verses quoted in the article above indicate, God is fair and just in His judgment and dealings with us.
    Nov 10, 2013
    		 Thank you, Rick….
    by: Sparrow

    Your words have a way of cutting through the muck and mire to bring the clarity of a glorious pealing bell, amplifying His perfect truth.
    Nov 10, 2013
    		 Christian Stewardship
    by: Kevin S.

    As children of God we have duties, responsibilities, and stewardship over the properties and assets of our Heavenly Father. He has not only placed physical assets under our authority to manage, but he has placed the responsibility of evangelizing the world in our hands. The message of the Gospel was given to the Church to be proclaimed by the Body of Christ, the Church (believers not organizations). The Church is responsible for the communication of that message of salvation and the truth contained in His Word, The Bible.

    So how is that working out? Not to good! Christianity has lost focus. Instead of messengers of the Gospel, salt and light, we've become; judges, juries and executioners. We have turned our authority over to men and women in the pulpit with feelings and subjective "Leadings of the Holy Spirit" rather than learned leaders well versed in the a Bible. We've given authority of interpretation of the Bible to grand-standers who hawk their books and CD series on TV. Our leadership seems to amount to celebrity pastors and evangelists who are more concerned with self-promotion than the welfare of the Church and the salvation of the lost.

    What about our personal responsibilities to preach the Gospel and live lives in such a way that men would ask us of the Hope that is in us. We have become spoiled, self-centered naughty little sons and daughters.

    Freedom in human government means, ALL take responsibility. Freedom in Society, means ALL share the burden of work and duties. Freedom in our faith means, ALL do the evangelism, ALL do the studying, and all take responsibility, no just the leadership.

    When you relinquish any accountability and authority to leaders, you run the risk of a dictatorship. We need to stop being lazy, ignorant and careless Christians. We need to take back our stewardship and do our jobs. With some reluctance I say, "We need to stop letting the nut cases run the mental hospital."
    Nov 10, 2013
    		 Amen
    by: Lee Carlton

    Amen! We must remember that God is the God of the Living and not of the dead. Jesus brings life abundant and we branches on the tree of life, can best enjoy life and remain fruitful by abiding in Christ the vine. We need to let the 'Word made flesh' become flesh in us as well.

    When I was struggling and questioning God concerning my sexual orientation, I asked, why did you make me like this? God answered me with a question, "Would you have loved me anymore than you do, if I had made you like everyone else?" It was then that I realized I was seeking human approval rather than living in God's acceptance!

    Rick's comment: Rev. Lee Carlton pastored MCC Los Angeles from 1972-1975.
    Feb 28, 2018
    		 Regarding transgender
    by: Blake

    A questions that's been on my mind that I feel like you would have an answer for. Why would God give people their own assigned gender knowing that they would change later on?

    Rick's comment: Hi Blake - Gender dysphoria is a rare condition in which persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one's own assigned sex result in significant distress or impairment.

    In their attempt to find peace and deal with their gender dysphoria, some people decide, after lots of consultation and counseling with medical and psychological professionals, to have gender reassignment surgery.

    There have been about 4100 gender reassignment surgeries in the U.S. since 2002. 4100 surgeries over fifteen years in a population of 300+ million is quite rare.

    The Christian response to gender dysphoria and the distress it causes should be love and kindness, compassion and grace.

    "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Romans 12:15

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