“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.” 1 Corinthians 1:20, 23
PART 2 of Series
There’s an issue about gay pride that’s quite overlooked and that’s the messianic/evangelical nature of the movement. Let’s address this so that Christians are well informed as to how this is a theological issue, not merely a political/social one. In fact, Christians should understand that literally everything is a theological issue since there are no “brute” facts in reality. All is from the Lord so, therefore, all things are either revelatory of God or acts of rebellion (suppression) by sinners.
The thing to always remember is that there are only two ways of understanding life: predestination or chance. Either the events of life are ordered and, therefore, meaningful, or they’re completely random. Scripture at every point simply assumes God’s radical sovereignty over all things. Granted, the dominant Christian position these days is Arminianism (radical free will) and not Reformed but this is, for the most part, a historical anomaly of Christian philosophy and isn’t in any way consistent with the Bible. To wit, if Genesis 1:1 is true then man being a radical free agent must be false. The implications of God as creator are enormous and we should ponder them more often. In point of fact, because the modern American church has accepted the heresy that God isn’t truly sovereign they’ve become blind to the theological implications of the gay pride movement. Thus they end up arguing in circles of politics and social norms rather than theologically.
You see, atheism starts from the premise that there’s no God. But without God there’s no order to the universe or meaning to life. But since this is, in fact, God’s world, and His law is written on everyone’s heart (Romans 1:32 and 2:14-15) there’s no escaping both the need for predestination and atonement. We must remind ourselves when dealing with every issue that no one is or can ever be neutral. We’re all religious in that we have to answer questions of meaning, truth and origins. The gay pride movement has attempted to do this, illogically, by accepting the “predestination” of their sexual orientation. For the Christian the single unifying aspect of life is the will of God. For the LGBTQ movement it’s sex.
This is why a self-defined homosexual or transgender person will reject out of hand, even find offensive, the suggestion that they’re to be any other way than they are. The Christian call to repentance for sexual sin is, to them, a call to reject their fundamental position on life. This is the way they are. To preach repentance is, therefore, seen as a “religious” attack in that it amounts to a crisis of fundamentals. Nothing is more real to them than their personal sexual identity, which, they believe, happened to them. They were predestined in this way and its literally unthinkable for them to be other than that.
The Christian position on predestination is transcendent, glorious and mysterious but not contradictory. God is radically sovereign and yet man is still responsible to Him. Man has sinned and is a sinner. In this way, God is fully in charge of life and history and man is, indeed, making decisions. But man’s decisions are according to his nature. In the same way a bird can’t decide to be a lion, a man can’t decide to be righteous unless God supernaturally chooses him. This truth is stated specifically throughout Scripture. If it wasn’t, why would Paul bother to ask in Romans, “so why does He still find fault, for who can resist His will? (Romans 9:19). That question only makes sense in the context of predestination. The truth of reality is paradoxical. The truth of the matter is Romans 11:33-36. Man is responsible to God and God is sovereign.
One example will suffice although, as we’ve said, the Bible is replete with them.
The life of Jesus, His miraculous birth, life, arrest, death and resurrection were all foretold in the Old Testament and by Jesus Himself. In other words, these events were foreordained. And, thank God, they all happened exactly as they were prophesied. Yet, and here’s the marvelous thing, no one acted against their “free will” in all these events. Judas betrayed Jesus freely. Pilate condemned Jesus freely. And, yet, behind it all was God’s sovereign decrees. These are the things that are so amazing to ponder! They cause us to burst out into praise and say, “for who has known the mind of the Lord?” Man is making choices but these choices are not God-like; they’re derivative and dependent upon a host of things. Furthermore, no sinner can “make a decision for Christ” lest he/she is drawn first. To believe otherwise is to insist that God isn’t so righteous and man not so fallen as He says. Yes, indeed, the subject is exceedingly deep and we should be careful with it but it’s precisely because we’ve been so negligent with it that we fail to see the ramifications of false gods among us.
The modern church, suffused with humanism while playing at Christianity, is actually less faithful to their core premises than the LGBTQ is to theirs. They at least take seriously the reality of predestination and its concomitant necessity of atonement. The modern Christian mind is guilty of gross polygamy on the issue – being wedded to two different beliefs, hoping the two will never meet by accident. After all, if God’s Word is dependent upon my choice, then so is His plan of atonement, which means He might not really and truly, in the end, be able to pull the whole thing off. Oh, well! Let’s just not talk about that.
With this said, you’ll see how the issue of atonement comes into play as well.
Sinners must account for why things are happening in life. There must be meaning. The thought of blind chance ruling the world is tremendously terrifying so even the most ardent unbeliever embraces some form of predestination in their thoughts. Even among virulent anti-Reformed thinkers you’ll hear of “fate” and things like that. They say, “God’s will is mysterious” despite their stated opposition to His sovereignty over man’s affairs. Oh, how shot through with contradictions we are when we refuse to believe what God tells us in His holy Word! And how much pain we cause by our foolish insistence that we’re in charge, not God.
Watch how atheists speak of evolution. It’s a grand and cosmic father figure to a mind grasping in a dark world for meaning and purpose. They literally personify a supposed mechanical process. Watch how the yoga mom speaks of karma (righteousness on earth by blind chance) and fate (cold and impersonal predestination). So, yes, all people believe in predestination of some sort. They must or they’ll go insane because life and all its particulars must be ordered.
And this is why man’s guilt is always before him. The gay pride movement isn’t about getting equal rights. It’s about making sure others morally celebrate their alleged predestination. And this is precisely why, when you follow the logic, that they demand agreement. Your moral approval is their atonement, the assuagement of their moral guilt for breaking God’s law. Apart from the cross, man is dead in moral trespasses and sin. He’s guilt-ridden. He’s morally and existentially terrified, which is why he’s so argumentative over the rightness of his moral status. This alone speaks volumes because in a godless universe who cares about morality? In fact, no one should care! But we do care because God is God and this is His universe. To escape our guilt we will either go to the cross or become masochistic (trying to gain atonement through self-punishment) or sadistic (trying to gain atonement through the punishing of others).
Gay pride is about celebrating their flawed and illogical scheme of predestination. Their false evangelism is a demand that others agree, and this concurrence, this required moral approval, is the false propitiation they seek without Christ. The pattern is clear. Gay pride is a false gospel.
The pattern of masochism for atonement is seen throughout our culture. The impulse is religious. Some people work out so hard as to literally injure themselves. The goal isn’t health, but something else…it’s self-atonement. This is why some workout fads, sports, martial arts and various endeavors are actually cult-like, requiring extreme sacrifices. A workaholic does this too. The impulse is religious. It says, “punish yourself to be purified.” The true gospel says, “Christ is our atonement, now live for Him in joy, love and the pursuit of righteousness and excellence in all you do.” Only Christ brings balance.
Which leads us to why leftist political movements are always sadistic. They must be since they reject the atonement through Christ alone. This leads to the moral position that they must not have any guilt and if you dare suggest it to them, then you must be punished.
Indeed, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
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