Can homosexuals be saved?

BibleAsk Team

Automatic Transcript Generated:

Speaker 1

It says pamela asks, can homosexuals be saved?

Speaker 2

Now, I am not afraid to answer this question, and I think it’s going to shock maybe some people, maybe not the people who are expecting to be shocked. Product and I want to start off with the underlying premise of this question is an assumption that makes me really sad. And I know that there are so many people in the LGBTQ community who have gone through horrific things. We know that there’s high rates of depression. They deal with a lot. And it’s a sad, sad thing that Christians tend to add to the hurt and pain to go through. And I’m really glad that Pamela asked this question so that I have a chance here to set the record straight and correct a huge misconception. And what makes me sad is that Christians think, preach and act on the false belief that homosexuality is somehow a worse sin than any sin a heterosexual can commit. And on top of that, it supposedly is harder for God to forgive that greater sin than a lesser sin. None of this is biblical. It is important that we keep in mind and keep proper perspective of these things and that the truth is the truth is I’d rather be LGTBQ on the Day of Judgment than be one of these false Christians who really makes life miserable for that community and do so in the name of Christ, showing nothing but malice and hate towards them.

Speaker 2

Satan has said a lie to many Christians that somehow being gay is one of the worst sins. And these so called Christians, meanwhile, will go and binge watch pornography, lie left and right, desecrate the Sabbath, verbally attack and criticize others, turn people away from Christ, and perhaps sleep well at night thinking, well, at least I’m not gay. And these Christians are like the Pharisees that was sort of just talking about and the false Christians the Bible warns about. And to me there is this parable by Jesus that’s spot on in Luke 1810. And then that parable. Jesus says, there are two men who went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself, god, I thank you that I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers or even this tax collector. Or he could add in there, God, thank you, I’m not homosexual. And then the Pharisee goes on. I fast twice a week. I give ties of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off. So we’re now shifting to the tax collector. He’s far off and he does not even raise his eyes to heaven, but he beats his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Speaker 2

And Jesus says, I tell you, this man referred to the tax collector, went home, went down to his house, justified rather than the other. I e the Pharisee for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And I remember this, remember this pride is going to be that sin that’s very hard to forgive. So these Christians, these believers who attack the sinners, they believe that the most wicked people on the Bible at times, or we gave that impression, are those in Sauna Mcgamora. And these people then also tried to say that Song Gamora was so evil because they practice homosexuality. But let’s actually test that. Let’s see what the Bible actually says and check out what Jesus says about his own people, the Jewish people who rejected him, rejected him, he says jesus says Matthew 1124 but I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in a day of judgment than for you. He’s referring to certain Jewish cities. And then Jesus also had our words for the church leaders of his day, because they turn off people from finding salvation in God.

Speaker 2

13 jesus says, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. I mean, this is what gets got so upset, right? People who in the name of God actually do evil and turn away others from finding God, that is a sin I pray I do not commit. The issue isn’t so much about one thing being worse than another. Rather, God judges according to what we know and he entrusted us with, he had talked about this, right? So then, whereas one person may have less guilt if they are ignorant of God’s ways, if someone who possesses much more knowledge about God does the same wrong, he may have greater guilt. So we see this like in Luke 1247 to 48 and that servant, he knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with you. For everyone to whom much is given, for him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Speaker 2

And think about this. If you’re someone who claims to know Christ, who claims to know the love of Christ and claims to know that God is love, you are going to be expecting them much more to love others and actually show that love and to be loved like God is love. And this is where the Bible is getting out. We have all sin and fall short of the glory of God. We are all terrible at loving as God is loving. But the more we know how God loves, the more we really should be loving. Check out act 1730. This 1 may have been mentioned earlier and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. We can all sin, but at the same time God just calls us to repentance. We can always turn around and go from our ways, but the problem is sometimes we don’t want to turn around. We’re too fixed on our ways. And that’s where pride comes in and really suffers one salvation. And an interesting fact here the priest. When he sins, he would have to offer a whole cow as his sacrifice back in the ancient days, whereas a normal person might only have to sacrifice a little lamb or a sheep.

Speaker 2

So there was symbolizing like a priest or a leader. More is expected of them. They have greater guilt when they sin. So the reason why homosexuality is supposedly so bad is that it was supposedly why God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. I mentioned that. But that’s not so true. All right, so let’s look at this. According to God himself, Ezekiel 1649 to 50 says, look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. Well, so they’re just selfish. They are idle. They’re not taking care of the poor and the needy. And they were haughty. They were proud and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away. As I SoftEd it, got in and say, oh, they’re homosexuals, that’s why I destroyed them. And they were doing abominations, but just left and right. They were selfish and proud. Jeremiah 20 314 similarly, God says also, I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They also strengthen the hands of evildoers so that no one turns back from his wickedness.

Speaker 2

All of them are like Sodom to me and her inhabitants, like Gamora. Again, God saying, you guys are so proud about your evil doing, you’re not repenting, you’re just like Sodom. Not because they were homosexuals, because they’re proud and not repentant of their ways. So we see that at the core, the problem with Sodom was their pride and the refusal to turn around and repent from all their sinful ways, which went beyond their sexuality. The only sin God cannot forgive is a sin we do not repent of. One John one nine, if we confess our sins, is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now indeed, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah we see in Genesis did not come about because they were gay. Let’s look at that story. Rather, we’ll see the entire town showed up to gang rape, the visiting angels. That goes way beyond being the homosexual. Genesis 19 four to five, it says now before they lay down on his family, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, everybody, the whole town shows up. All the people from every quarter surrounded the house.

Speaker 2

Why are they surrounding the house? That doesn’t sound like good intent, not a welcome party. And they called to Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them. Connolly yeah. Men wanting to speak with men, but they’re wanting to force it, to do it against these people’s will. Sodom isn’t just gay. These are others and sons. They’re the husbands having kids with women. But they will sleep with anyone and anything they wish, even if doing so would be against the will of the other person. That’s horrible. And in fact, Lott even offers his virgin daughters to this crowd. Okay. He offers the virgin daughters to the crowd. We see this. Genesis 19 eight. So now I have two daughters who have not known a man. Please let me bring them out to you. And you may do with them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men because this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof. So let’s ask, would Lot offer his daughters if he who lived in Sodom for many years believed that the people of Sodom were just gay?

Speaker 2

No. For daughters, they would sleep with anything. But they were so wicked. They wanted these strangers and wanted to have a way with them. Platinum was totally wicked, but they were destroyed. Not because were they destructed because they were gay? No. Because they engaged in or wanted to indulge in horrible things. Horrible, horrible things. And they were so blind that they were craving to violate innocent heavenly beings. And this, ultimately, is where lust ends up. This is why they were destroyed. Not because they were gay, but because they refused to repent, to stop what they were doing. And they were just feeding every craving, every desire they had. That’s the point of wickedness they got to. And the truth is, though, the prideful Christians who are highly judging the homosexuals will probably be the ones who have a harder time entering the kingdom of God because they’re probably more proud of their ways. And we talked about gay pride, but I think deep down, the Christians who are slamming those who might be in LBTQ community might have a lot more pride and are casting a totally false sense of God, turning them away and not giving them hope.

Speaker 2

There’s always a God. There extending a hand to anybody who’s a sinner, asking them to repent and come unto Christ. So I know that was a mouthful, but Tina, any thoughts before maybe we go to the next related question?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I mean at the question that’s being asked. The question is, can homosexuals be saved? And I think that you definitely did a really good job of depicting a much better picture of who God is. God is love. God is not out to get somebody just because of one thing that they struggle with or one aspect of their life that maybe is not in harmony with God’s word. But God loves everybody, god forgives everybody. He wants us all to be saved. He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And I think you’re absolutely on point that there are so many people in Christian churches and all over the world that are looking down on people who come from the LGBTQ community and they really have no right to. So I think that’s really true. But when I go back to the question of can they be saved? Yes, of course they can be saved. Somebody who is gay absolutely can be saved. Now, biblically speaking, does that mean you can continue in that lifestyle? I’m just going to show you a verse, but I want you to look at the whole passage because I don’t want it to just I want you to see the context of the whole thing, to see God’s love in this context.

Speaker 1

In One Corinthians, chapter six, verses nine through eleven, through the whole thing. Not just pinpointing one thing, but reading the whole passage, one Corinthians 6911, it says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Here Paul is actually first saying to Christians, don’t think that just because you’re a Christian you can be saved if you continue in sin. He says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? He’s speaking to Christians here and he’s saying, don’t be deceived because neither fornicators nor adulterers, no idolaters, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor cottages, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Now let’s go to verse eleven. It says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And so first we see here all things that are not in harmony with God. They’re all the same. All have sin come short of the glory of God? Just because somebody’s homosexual that’s so worse than somebody here that’s a drunkard, it’s all the same thing and it’s all being listed on the same thing.

Speaker 1

We all need the blood of Jesus. But Jesus is saying, but as long as you come to God, he’s going to wash you, he’s going to justify you. And I know that so many have friends who are homosexual and I know that many are like, well, I was just born this way, I can’t help the way I feel. And I completely understand that. And I have all the love for you.

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