Sex is Sacred: the Soft Path of Tolerance

“Christians are so condemning!  I hate their intolerance towards homosexuals and transgender people.  They are supposed to be a religion of LOVE and yet, they are the most critical people in America.  Why can’t they just live and let live?   It is US, the non-religious and open-minded Christians who welcome these souls into our loving embrace.  We care about them.  We understand them.  We want them to feel loved and accepted and we will stand before them with a shield in the face of such ignorant chastisement.  We care about such injustice as shown by narrow-minded so-called followers of Christ.” ~ Spirit of our Age

Fascinating to note that those who prescribe their branded morality appeal to a sense of justice unquestioned. To “love” undefined.   If justice stands as a pillar to a morally sound civilized culture, does it not beg the question of origin? Atheists and secular humanists loathe to contemplate the trivial matters of definitions and paradigms.  

What does it mean to love our neighbor anyway?  Spirit our our Age riding on his black horse says with a swing of the sword, it means to “harm none” (by his definition of harm), to mind your own business , to refrain from judgement (by his definition of judgement) and believe truth is relative. And the only Absolute Truth is that there are no absolutes.  It embraces sinfulness in the name of Tolerance.  Loving means standing for nothing and accepting everything.

How vastly different to glimpse love as defined by God: selfless, patient, kind, long-suffering...true love would lay down it’s life to protect another.  Love upholds Truth.  Jesus Christ is the supreme example of love, as He illustrates time and again in Holy Scripture, when he heals the lame and restores the broken...and yes, even as he condemns hypocrisy and criticizes the righteous.  He showed love when he turned over the money-changing tables in the temple because the sacredness of God’s house was being defiled.  Christ never rejoiced in sin; on the contrary, He came to free people from sin. Remember His words after he healed, restored, forgave?   “Go and sin no more”.

Fast forward some two-thousand years to see the freedom loving culture of America in struggle over what it means to love, to hate and to judge.  Our government has officially proclaimed its love of sin and destruction by legislating morality in the name of “progressiveness”.  Definitions of life, marriage, tolerance and hate are being morphed into products of the state;  how surprising to see the willingness of proclaimed followers of Christ to embrace the Spirit of our Age. My theory is that too few Christians actually know how to defend their faith... fewer still who care.

To take a page out of Ravi Zacharias’ book, I would ask those supporters of same-sex marriage to tell me why it would be wrong to alter a person’s race.  What has one to do with the other you ask?  One idea is “bad” but the other is “good”... What is so inherently wrong about Hitler’s notion to create a super race?  It has everything to do with a little word embracing a cathedral size meaning:  Sacred.

A person’s race is sacred.  To defile that would be akin to blaspheming God, as a person is created by God with His divine Image upon him.  Likewise, to the orthodox Christian, indeed, to mankind, sex is sacred.  It is a blessed gift of God between a man and women in holy matrimony;  anything that deviates from that is to profane a gift of holiness.  The union between a husband and wife in marriage is a rare gemstone in American society; it resides on the opposite end of the spectrum from the grossly amputated sex culture. In all forms --from using long legs and cleavage to sell a product to the deviant and violent porn industry, each semblance of tickling our collective fancy - in reality- serves to deaden our senses, weaken our spirit and lead us away from the purity and blessedness of heaven.  It is the difference between solid gold and a cracker jack prize. The trinket appearing as gold, the soft path seeming right, madness manifesting sanity, these are the ways of malevolent demons.

I wonder, with America’s embrace of the transgender movement, shall we next see surgeons altering bodies to satisfy the anorexic?  Because a person believes in their mind in one way -- the biology must follow, eh?   This is the fallacious - the dangerous- reasoning of our age.  I wonder how far away the medical community is from aiding bestiality tendencies?  and the government from sanctioning the pedophilia populace.   After all, our natural born inclinations provide the grounds for morality, right?   Only where man is god and the soft path of tolerance is walked by those who should be guardians of Truth.

Does it matter to Christians what Christ actually said and did?  Or are we looking for a christianity that fits our own belief system?  Do the souls of our brothers and sisters on this earth really matter to us?  What if I told you that transgendered people have a suicide rate 20 times higher than non-transgendered people?  We need to decide if we are going to proclaim Christ and Him crucified or be accepted by popular culture.

We can justify to ourselves whatever we want to believe... but the real question is, can you defend it rationally, on the bedrock of God, the Author of this world? 

Are you prepared to give a reason for the hope you have in Christ?  1 Peter 3:15

Suspended in Air

Ever had something like this happen to you?






I have.  On more than one occasion during my student years.

If you're a young Christian  heading soon to college and the realm of "higher learning", be prepared.  There's a very good chance this type of scenario will confront you, too.   Or perhaps you've already encountered it in high school?  Were you prepared to give an answer?

1 Peter 3:15 says:

¹⁵ But sanctify the Lord God^[a] in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

That word "defense" , in the original Greek translated apologia, which means to defend, or a speech in defense.  So, contrary to a prevalent Western understanding, Christian apologia, or apologetics is a formal defense of the faith, not an expression of regret.

St. Peter, the rock upon whom Christ built His church, implores us to stand firm and to be ready when questioned about the faith we hold.  But how many of us can do that?  How many are even interested in doing that?!  Are your beliefs just suspended in air or do they have a firm foundation?  

There are two reasons why this should matter to you as a Christian:  1)  If you have a heart for Christ and desire to fulfill His commandment to spread the Gospel, then you need to know what you're talking about.  And 2)  because without this firm foundation, you are in danger of blindly accepting another worldview because it's the latest trend...it's "common sense" you may say.  Or collective ignorance.   So, at least be honest with yourself and be able to defend whatever view you hold.  Facts are stubborn little things.

Why do I bring all this up?  Well, because I have my finger on the pulse of our young generation.  I pray for them, I speak to them and encourage them whenever I can.  I see a need for critical thinking skills, for our youth to be proud of their Christian beliefs rather than cowering to worldly voices.

I know several teenagers who have abandoned the faith of their upbringing in order to espouse an "enlightened" worldview that sees Christianity as fairy tales and secular humanism as their new salvation.  They would never identify humanism as religion though,  because they think they can escape definitions and paradigms with which to view the world and make their moral choices.  It's a fascinating study, human nature.  

In my case, those years ago in the classroom, I made my case for Christ to my professors because I'm a loud mouth and don't ever mind to share my opinion.  I rather like confrontation when it involves Truth.  But I've learned a lot since that time and am now embarrassed at some of the things I said.  Well, a little bit.

For example, it doesn't do much good to say "Because the Bible says so!"  if the person you're speaking to doesn't believe the Bible to be true.  You must be able to explain the Bible itself ... it's history and why you believe it's accuarate and authentic.  This involves evidence, historical data, corroborating facts.  When someone says, "religion is just a crutch"  it also doesn't help to point a finger at their addictions as their own "crutch" to get through life.  Lord have mercy. Apologetics should never involve barbed wire.

If you're someone interested in Christian apologetics, let me share a few nuggets of wisdom that I learned the hard way:

- Not everyone is a Truth seeker; don't assume they are.  You can waste a lot of time and energy on someone who just wants to debate at best and ridicule you at worst.  

- As follows the above, to give Truth to him who does not love the Truth is only to give more reasons for argument.

-Debate is healthy and follows logic;  it's adherents can agree to disagree peaceably.  Arguing can lead to anger and violent tempers; Truth is tossed to the wind in these cases.

- In the case where debate turns to arguing and anger, shut up and ask God to forgive your unbridled tongue.

- The Christian religion is a historical one.  That means you can do  research on it's claims outside of the Bible.

- The study of Christian apologetics is rewarding -- it will undoubtedly increase your knowledge and quite possibly facilitate a measure of wisdom.  All the while increasing your faith.

- Do not make judgements about those with a different worldview.  There are many good and intelligent atheists out there, for example, and some of them genuinely do want to understand why you believe the way you do.  

 - Always separate the human being from the worldview they hold; criticisms should remain on the theological plane.  


I encourage you, Christian, to be able to give a defense for the faith you hold, remembering the words of Scottish author and minister, George MacDonald: 

"It is often incapacity for defending the faith they love which turns men into persecutors."