A friend wrote to me about an article she read online:

I don't know if you saw this or not. It's very interesting. I always thought that being gay was against Bible law. Now I'm not so sure.     The article is:
Has “Homosexual” always been in the Bible?
I would love your thoughts on this.

Ann

Here's my answer, and I apologize for my lack of Bible references.  I'm quite sure those familiar with the new Testament scriptures will know where I'm coming from with this!

Thanks for an interesting article!   If I were to write an article, this is what it would say:

What Does the Bible Say about Homosexuality?  And Should We Care?

The thing about the Bible is that most people don't understand that it needs to be rightly divided between God's dealings with Israel, his chosen race, and his dealings with people living today in the time after he cast Israel aside (for a time or forever, I'm not certain really!).


The thing about Israel was that they spurned God's gracious offer to do everything for them if they would only simply love and trust him. That stiff-necked pride made God pile on laws and rituals upon them in an effort to bring them to their knees and cry out, "Please stop with all these harsh rules and simply deal with us like you promised long ago when you first led us out of Egypt!" But, alas, they never did as a people ask for God's mercy but prided themselves on their
ability to keep every law he came up with for them. Aaargh!


So God became so disheartened by this that he "divorced" his bride, Israel, which even men at the time could do before they married her (like his friends told Joseph to do to Mary) and withdrew into a deep silence for 400 years (the years between the last book
In the Old Testament and the first Gospel account in the New Testament).


Then God did something amazing and sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to woo back his Bride, Israel, so he could actually marry her this time. Part of this plan was that Jesus would
show he was their Messiah/Groom by healing people and doing miracles, but along with that, he kept making their laws harder and harder for them to obey (like when he told them that if they even looked at a woman with lust, they were committing adultery. Or like when he said, after
teaching them the "Lord's Prayer" (which isn't for us, by the way), that if they did not forgive their brother, their Father in Heaven would not forgive them. Pastors today have no clue that Jesus was again trying to cause Israel to cry out for God's grace and mercy, but the stiff-necked Pharisees and most of the people just doubled down trying to show their own ability to obey all these even stricter laws. In their frustration, they killed their "Groom" because he told them he and the Father are one. Then after Jesus rose from the dead, he taught those that did love him what to do and went back to heaven to wait for his Bride to call him back to her. God converted Paul and sent him to them and also to go to the dirty dog Gentiles and invite them to be part of this in order to make Israel jealous enough to call Jesus back to them, but it didn't happen, did it?


So, finally, the Jews (Israel) were dismissed in Acts 28:28 and Paul began to preach a mystery that had never been revealed before, that God would now accept anyone, Jew or Gentile, individually - not as a nation - if they would only just trust his Son for everything and believe that he paid the price for their sins on the cross. All their sins. If we do, then someday we will "appear with him (Jesus) in glory."

So, today there are no "laws", rules, or rituals that God commands us to do. He just asks that we believe his Son did it all for us by his perfect life and his sacrificial death. Our message from the Father is in Paul's later epistles - Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, and it's all wonderful news for us. Once we believe, there is nothing we can do to anger God and make him take everything he has promised us back.


So, for pastors, priests, and teachers to go back to the time when God was trying to break Israel's pride and win them back to a mindset where they cried out for his forgiveness in order to marry them, is just plain ignorance on the part of those the people in the pews look to for the truth.


We all sin every day, big and little transgressions, and unkindnesses to others, but God has already given us the remedy for that, and it's that his Son paid for every bad thing we have done or will do. So if someone wants to be with someone of the same sex, I don't get all upset by it, and neither does God. The only thing he asks of us today is just to trust his Son for paying the penalty for all sin for all time. Believers have the Holy Spirit and he will help us be kind to other people and to tell them the good news that all sin has been forgiven. As a pastor I like says, "Today, it's not the Sin Question - it's the SON question!" If we trust Christ, we will spend a glorious eternity with him; if we refuse to trust Christ, we forfeit that opportunity, and I believe those unbelievers will simply cease to exist when eternity begins. There is nothing believers can do to make God change his mind about their acceptance into his Kingdom. We call that Eternal Security of the believer. So, gays, transgenders, adulterers, bank robbers, even murderers, who have trusted Jesus Christ will be in Heaven with him when he calls us all there.


Churches that don't understand that the Bible needs to be divided rightly like to use Israel's laws and disappointing dealings with God as a way to control people and keep them in line. That's why I don't go to any church, but just rejoice every day in the knowledge that my Saviour has done everything necessary for me to spend eternity with him, and those of us that know this glorious truth need to tell others so they can also appear in glory with him.


Does that make sense? Any questions? And, really, why people that write articles think they need to split hairs over things God was using to bring Israel back to him is beyond me! It has absolutely NOTHING to do with us, except that it helps us understand our Father a little better,