The Christian faith is all about tolerance, isn't it? Well, it isn't about tolerating what God describes as sin and evil, that's for sure. It was because of God's intolerance of sin and evil that Jesus Christ died on the cross, to reconcile sinners to God.
Christian people are told to be witnesses for God and to speak out against evil, as God sees it. So we can't keep quiet in the face of the injustice, the thieving, lying, bloodshed and sexual sin which our society is wallowing in today.
Jesus is tough on sin
You will hear Jesus described as 'friend of sinners' but that's not because he ever condoned sin! It's because He showed sinners the error of their ways and said that through him they could get right with God. Jesus's first words in his public ministry were 'The
kingdom
of
God
is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.'
Jesus is tough on sin and tough on the causes of sin, (remember how he condemned those who lead the young astray - millstones round necks?) but He shows mercy to those who cry out to him for forgiveness.
That is why the idea of Jesus being at all cool with the idea of Gay Pride is so funny. The Bible says 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' and 'Pride goes before destruction'. So pride is sin and sin is nothing to feel proud about.
Messing up the body God gave us
So how do we know Jesus would hate an event celebrating homosexuality? Because in a chapter forbidding sexual sin such as adultery, incest, bestiality and child sacrifice, the Bible also says this: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination.' (Lev 18:22) The homosexual actor Sir Ian McKellen tore that page out of a Bible on stage. He couldn't stand it being there. But you can't tear pages out of the Bible on the Day of Judgment, Sir Ian.
By the way, just because the Bible says that homosexual acts are an abomination, it does not mean that homosexual people are as well. We are all made in the image of God. No one of us is 'an abomination' in the eyes of God. But what we do with the body God gave us can be.
Vile affections
And our mind can become corrupted as well. In the New Testament we read about people who started to worship themselves rather than the God who made them. 'For this cause', it says, 'God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change 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 that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.' (
Rom.
1:25-27 - King James Version) So even homosexual desires are sinful and vile in the eyes of Jesus. There can be no argument.
So why is homosexuality so wrong?
God intended love to be bigger than sex, frankly. A sexual expression of love between brothers or sisters or those of the same sex is totally against His purpose for mankind. Sex in the Bible as God ordained it is always between man and wife in chaste and faithful marriage: 'Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.' (Gen 2:24)
The parts of the body involved are designed to fit perfectly. Men and women are complementary - made for each other and in particular, made to have sexual intercourse with each other. Try as they might, a man can never be 'one flesh' with another man, and a woman can never be 'one flesh' with another woman. It can't be done.
God made them male and female
In His time on earth, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, nothing about incest, nothing about child sacrifice and nothing about bestiality. He didn't need to! As He is 'God-the-Son', he had already written the Old Testament. But when Jesus told the Pharisees about sexual morality, he quoted that very same passage from Genesis about heterosexual 'one flesh' marriage!
'Have you not read', Jesus asked them, 'That he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said: For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh?' (Matt 19)
So Jesus taught heterosexuality. He told people to keep God's commandments. He also claimed to be God and to be able to forgive sin. He said there is no sin so big He cannot forgive it once you confess it, and no life that cannot be redeemed.
No-one has to stay gay
In fact, by faith in Jesus men and women have actually been healed of homosexual desires. No-one has to stay gay. If you are gay or lesbian it may or may not have been a matter of choice - but you do have a choice whether to stay in a lifestyle which ends in hell, or whether to put yourself right with God through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus taught that God is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He is entirely self-existent and the divine intelligence behind all creation, including us. Since God created us, He needed to lay down the laws by which we should live. Jesus upheld those laws, as we should expect. When He said 'Keep the Commandments', He spoke against worshipping anything other than God, against blasphemy, disrespect to parents and those in authority, against murder, stealing, lying, envy, adultery, and all other forms of sexual sin.
So homosexuals are going to hell?
All sinners are going to hell. They just wouldn't fit in heaven because God in all His holiness is there. Hell is the sinner's only possible destination.
But you don't need to go to hell. True, you may feel a long way from God now, but if you repent of all you have done wrong, and call out to Jesus for mercy, He will forgive you. In Jesus, God became one of us, and died on the Cross to make peace with God for all who would believe in Him. When He was crucified, Jesus took our sins upon Him, so those who trust in Him are totally forgiven. You could be one of them, but you have two challenges.
The first is, because you cannot predict the day of your death, you need to turn to Christ now. You can't put off your decision. The second is, to follow Jesus, you have to turn away from all your sin, however nice and comfortable is seems.
'I am the way' says Jesus
However far we go away from God, He will welcome us with open arms if we recognise that we have done wrong and are ready to put things right. Homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin, but surely 'all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.' 'All' means you too, but Jesus has the power to forgive you and give you a new life. Turn from your sins, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You can't cover your own sin, only Jesus Christ is the way to heaven. He said: 'I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' He also said: 'For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
The person who gave you this leaflet cares enough about you to want to meet you again in heaven. But you need to confront your sin and call out to Jesus yourself, today. 'Repent and believe.' Now, that's what Jesus would say.
