“Words taught by the Spirit” (1Cor.2:13)
An Email Ministry for the Glory of God
The attached article about the abomination of homosexuality was drafted and sent, in 2001, to a daily Brussels Newspaper. It was not accepted to be published! Then, I decided to send it to a high ranking religious leader of the Catholic Church. The excuses offered were contrary not only to the Bible principles, but could also be refuted by common sense! So I decided, after mature thought, to publish it now – with certain modifications – through the Internet, reminding the Biblical truths about the abomination of homosexuality. I do believe that this question has always been with us and consequently also my article remains valid!
Best regards,
John BALTATZIS
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“Words taught by the Spirit” (1Cor.2:13)
An Email Ministry for the Glory of God
The abomination of homosexuality
August first, 2001, the channel “EURONEWS” presented a certain number of homosexual couples living in Germany. They had just gotten officially, after legal fights, the right “to get married” (contract of common life). This legal liberty conferred on them the privilege of marital and social rights that ensues (marital right, right of inheritance, etc.)! What a success! What a joy for them as well as for a lot of others that organized a feast to celebrate this glorious event! The broadcast was re-broadcast four days later by the same channel, on the 5th of August, in the setting of a “flashback.” Then, other TV stations in Europe and, perhaps, a lot of others through the whole world re-broadcast the information!
The fact that homosexuality is examined from the point of view of «human rights» means that they have lost the sense of moral orientation. They believe that they respect the human rights, but they do not respect the rights of the human dignity or God’s rights to Whom we belong. God the Father has, indeed, sacrificed His only Son, Christ, for our redemption and for our salvation. This biblical verse is, on this point, very significant: “for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body” (1Cor.6:19-20).
One of my friends, back from his vacation in the South of France, and in particular in the camps of the region of St. Raphael, told us that he had seen in a certain part of the Hexagone, tents where young people, boys and girls were living. They came by groups to spend some days of vacation there. They responded thus to an announcement of a newspaper inviting young boys and girls, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years, to come to start learning the homosexual life, to “educate” themselves to this kind of life… My friend also learned that this “initiation” included three categories of ‘customers’ or rather of pupils: homosexuals (men), lesbians (women) and bisexuals symbolized the logo or the abbreviation “Ho-Le-Bi”!
Then, I put some questions to myself:
- What can we expect from this generation “educated” in perversity, in a life against nature? What will the fruits of such a generation be? Where does this situation lead us to?
- What can we expect from a society that tolerates everything? From a society that establishes such “rights”? From a society that fights “terrorism” but does not worry about the infiltration of all perversity, wickedness, black magic and sexual perversity?
- How does the established church react against all this wickedness? Does she protest as she must and as much as she must or does she remain mute? Which are her role and her mission in society? Has the civic rights instituted by the State removed from her the right to speak and to protest? Has the so-called protection of the human rights abolished God’s rights on man? The other religions – Islamism, Hinduism, etc. – do they tolerate this kind of drifts and encourage such evolutions and abominations? Those that tolerate that sin, do they not share in this heavy responsibility with those that commit it?
I do not have the intention to deal in detail with the laxity of the society facing the main challenges of our humanity. What preoccupies me is the problem created by the indifference of the Church that – I strongly fear – has lost, for a long time, the sense of her orientation and her mission! This situation poses two serious problems:
- The church, in spite of her functions and her mission, does not dare to speak sufficiently strongly, in all honesty and according to the divine legislation. On the other hand, she sacrifices the Biblical truth on the altar of her desire to conform herself to the human laws and/or her own canons! We should ask ourselves, do the persons who are responsible for the church act according to God’s will or as civil servants submitted to the administration of the State whose laws reject or even “supplant” the divine legislation? The silence of the church facing the problem of homosexuality creates a scandal and defames the Body of Christ. It is, if one takes everything into account, a very bad example, both for Christians as well as for non-Christians.
In order to respect the supposedly “human rights”, the Church people who are responsible for the church, in spite of the fact that they have expressed their disagreement with the sin of homosexuality, despise, in reality, by their tolerance, God’s Word, transgress, in full knowledge of the reason, the divine law and tread under foot God’s rights, Who has created man in His own image and likeness. Yes, to respect the rights of sodomites!!! (1Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2Kings 23:7; Jude 1:7-8). God’s Word is, however, quite clear on that point:
- “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Lev.18:22 and 20:13)
- “For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting…;” (Rom.1:26-29)
- “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless……… for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men………” (1Tim.1:8-10)
- “For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (1Th.4:7-8)
Conclusion: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators… nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites… will inherit the kingdom of God” (1Cor.6:9-10), except, of course, if he who commits such abominations repents and turns towards Jesus, the Saviour, whose precious blood forgives sin. Unfortunately, homosexuality spreads out more and more now in the Netherlands, in France, in Germany, in Spain and all over the world. There are even priests and pastors who celebrate marriages between people of the same sex! They have rejected the divine legislation and imposed their own will merely because they are covered by the human laws that want to protect the “free choice of the life style of each.” But, I am also wondering what will be the fate of the people who are responsible for the church, if they do not repent about these deviations in relation to the divine law and to the divine rights.
- The fact that CERTAIN official people of the Church consider the problem either from the point of view of a “sickness”… (Greek Orthodox Church) or from the point of view of breaking of the celibacy law (Roman Catholic Church) and not as homosexuality, confirms that their “position” is also in defect in another domain, that is to say, the one of celibacy! The problem does not lie only in the fact that the sinner commits an abominable sin, which leads to death, but it also lies in the responsibility of CERTAIN leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, which emanates from the way they treat this issue in public, that is: The problem is not that of homosexuality… it is that of the obstinate refusal to accept the law of ecclesiastical celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church. In other words, they do not blame the guilty man of his homosexuality, but more generally, the disrespect or the rupture of his celibacy law!!! That means that in their eyes the Church law is of more value that the divine law! They sacrifice the Bible law in order to conform to the human laws or the cannons of the Church! By the way, in Encyclopaedia Britannica is written: “The regional Council of Elvira in Spain (c. AD 306) decreed that all priests and bishops, married or not, should abstain from sexual relations. On the other hand, the ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325) declined to make such a prohibition. The position of the Eastern churches was made clear by the decrees of the Quinisext Council in 692: bishops must be celibate, but ordained priests, deacons, and subdeacons could continue already-established marriages.” God’s Holy Word commands quite the opposite with regard to the bishops, in particular, and, in general, all those that take care of the ministry of the diffusion of the Word of God and His teaching:
- “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife,……… one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)” (1Ti.3:2-5)
- “Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well” (1Tim.3:12 and Tit.5-6)
When Jesus declares in Mat.19: 12b: “… there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it” (Mt.19:12), it is well obvious that he does not impose the celibacy to His servants but that this decision is left to their complete liberty. This is what Paul the apostle underlines in 1Cor.9:5: “Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter)?” Paul’s personal choice was probably dictated by the enormous difficulties and dangers that he had to face because of his call as «the apostle of the Gentiles» and that he evokes it in a moving way in 2Cor.11:23-33. And the Word of God continues: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry…” (1Tim.4:1-3).
I am conscious that my position challenges a basic regulation of ecclesiastical traditions, but there is no mention of obligatory celibacy in the Word of God for all those that want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ! No mention about obligatory celibacy. Therefore, the obligatory celibacy constitutes a position quite contrary to the teaching of the Bible! The rule for a Christian truth must not be founded on decisions or human traditions but on the Bible. With regard to the traditions, they should not be accepted if they do not agree with God’s Word. Our Lord Jesus Christ never wanted to impose celibacy. In the same way, Paul’s advice on this point is more that clear: “but if they cannot exercise self–control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (1Cor.7:9). Yes, that they get married with women and not with men thus committing a flagrant transgression of the divine legislation, an abomination in God’s eyes. In the same way, the Word says: “Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband” (1Cor.7:2). Having said that, we arrive at the conclusion that the reason we have so many transgressions and sexual perversions is due to the human traditions, which are contrary to the instructions of the Bible. Many religious (clerical) people, in spite of their good intentions, cannot support the yoke imposed by this human tradition, and a number of them are turning to pedophilia!!! Who are the real culprits? They that have imposed them the yoke of celibacy as well as those who commit pedophilia!
In accordance with the Bible provisions contained in Matthew 19:12, 1Corinthians 7:32 and 9:5, bishops, deacons or the elders must be married, they must be husbands of only one wife, and they must prove that they govern well their own families: “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you–– if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination” (Tit 1:5-6). In spite of the good will and the good intention to help the religious (clergy) to live and work in their ministry without care (1Cor.7:32), the obligatory celibacy does not pull its origin from God’s will, but in giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons (1Tim.4:1-3).
It is well known that homosexuality constitutes an act against nature. Those that give themselves to it transgress moreover the divine law. Yet, the church does not worry, as SHE SHOULD, about the infringement against the divine law, but the fact that preoccupies the church, mainly the Roman Catholic Church, especially as regards religious transgressors but an infringement in relation to the cannons instituted by the religious authorities! In other words, the church gives the pre-eminence to the ecclesiastical law at the expense of the divine law! She sacrifices – it is important to remember it – the Biblical truth to conform to the human laws or to her own canons! The transgression and the annulment of God’s command in such abominable activities, in this perversion, are not as important as the LAW of the tradition of the church!!! The obligatory celibacy of bishops proves it. Indeed, this obligation does not match God’s Word that does not mention any obligatory celibacy for all those that want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ! No mention of obligatory celibacy. “For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men……… He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition……… making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do” (Mrk.7:8-13 and Mat.15:3-6).
Conclusion: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isa.8:20).
God requires, it is true, that we have respect for others and understanding (indulgence). However… such an «understanding» would be equivalent to an “indulgence” (tolerance) of very bad quality. By her laxity, the church gives a signal that goes much more in the bad sense, especially when he who offends God is not a man of the street, but someone that serves the Lord in an official and public manner: “… Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD.” (Isa.52:11). Besides, why such a respect and such an understanding for the “guilty” sinner of homosexuality and not for the one that cannot bear the law of the ecclesiastical celibacy? “Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike, an abomination to the LORD” (Prov.20:10 and Prov.20:23).
I am also conscious that even if they wanted to solve the problem of the celibacy of the clergy, they could not make it easily because it has to do, unfortunately, with a tradition deeply rooted in the tradition of the church. BUT, is it impossible for us, at least, to take a Biblical position about the problem of homosexuality and begin a protesting campaign to sensibilize the public opinion? The fact that the Church condemns homosexuality is comforting, but it is not enough. She must take also the appropriate severe measures against those of the clergy “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (Ro.1:32).
One of my daily prayer requests is that God may help Christ’s Church – irrespective of its denomination – to get rid of those traditions which are not in accord with the Word of God, which is faithful and worthy of all acceptance and to return to the purity and simplicity of the truths of the Gospel of Christ. May each and every Christian as well as the whole Church turn back in repentance and humility to the pure truth that springs up from the Word of God (Jer.18:14).
John Baltatzis
http://wordstaughtbythespirit.com
