Category Archives: Sodomy

Should We Obey God Or Woman?

In a recent speech given at the Women of the World summit, Hillary Clinton, Democrat candidate for President, stated that “Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth…And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” While you might think that she was referring to some far away, oppressed, backward country, she wasn’t. She went on to clarify that what she referred to was “not just in far away countries but right here in the United States.”

In many ways this is simply a strange statement. The expression “reproductive health care” is just a nuanced way of saying “abortion.” The Planned Parenthood website, for instance, while they offer other token services (very few of which seem to be related to parenting) clearly seeks to promote and advance abortion. It is nearly all they talk about. And yet, apparently, Hillary Clinton thinks there are not enough abortions even in the United States where there have been 57,852,000 since 1973. Already, this year alone, there were 360,187 abortions. Think of this! These are innocent lives being snuffed out just because they were inconvenient to someone else. And Hillary Clinton thinks women are denied this “right”?

Furthermore, she blames religious beliefs for stifling abortion. Whatever else she may be referring to when she says this, she has in mind the Biblical teaching that abortion is murder. She would have Christians to change their “deep-seated religious beliefs” in order to bring about her goal of increased access to abortion. This clearly demonstrates not only a lack of humanity but also a lack of understanding on her part of the nature of truth, the origin of the Bible and the basis of Christianity.

Christians do not arbitrarily decide what they believe. We believe the things we believe because they come from God, not from any man (or any woman). All scripture is given by inspiration of God (II Tim. 3:16,17). Faithful Christians would never, could never, change their view about the sanctity of life. Those who would presume to alter the teaching of God’s word are warned:

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book (Rev. 22:18-19).

Christians, those who follow and adhere to the teaching of Jesus Christ, know that to add to or to take from the word of God is sinful. Christians would never seek to alter or have others alter their deep-seated views that come from God. Indeed, we ought to obey God rather than men or woman (Acts 5:29). While many will form their worldview based on something other than the Bible, faithful Christians, will have a “Thus saith the Lord” for their deep-seated beliefs.

This country does not now need, nor does it ever need, leaders who tempt its citizens to dismiss the will of God or have disdain for the sanctity of human life, which is made in the image of God. It needs leaders who will lead based upon the word of God. At the very lest, we need moral leaders who uphold the traditional Judea-Christian values that formed the basis of the founding of this country.

May God help us in the upcoming elections to choose men and women who uphold the traditional values upon which this country was founded, who will uphold the sanctity of life, and who will listen to God’s word as they govern.

Eric L. Padgett

Christ is God’s Spokesman

(This is a letter to the editor of the Evansville Courier I sent in this week. It is in response to a letter, published February 15, by a Presbyterian preacher who defended sodomy. I do not know if it will be published, so I publish it here myself.)

In the Evansville Courier and Press last Sunday, Kevin Fleming, a preacher for a liberal Presbyterian church in Evansville, argued in a letter to the editor that “there is no such thing as a single spokesperson for Christianity.”

However, contrary to Fleming’s assertions, the Bible teaches that God has indeed “spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1). The Lord is The Spokesman!  Jesus said, “He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the words that I have spoken, the same judge him in the last day” (John 12:47).

What prompted Mr. Fleming to write was his irritation at another letter to the editor which condemned the kind of people that, at least partly, comprise the group which he leads, people who have “different faith traditions,” those that avoid a “literal interpretation of scripture,” and especially those who change the natural use of the body to that which is against nature.

Mr. Fleming ignores, and wants others to ignore, what Jesus said about marriage.  While Fleming “utterly rejects” the view that “singles out LGBTQ people as particularly deserving of condemnation and shame,” Jesus said “Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife…what God hath joined together let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:4-6).

The Lord’s Word clearly teaches that all perversions of that divine order are sinful.  When women lust after women and men after men that is “vile,” “against nature,” “unseemly,” and is an “error” deserving of “recompence” (Rom. 1:26-32).

“Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind…shall inherit the kingdom of God” (I Cor. 6:9,10).

“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).

Fleming says that those who do such things as the Son of God and His word clearly condemns are “exemplary” and “light in darkness.”  That is what Fleming says.  That is his “opinion.”  Mr. Fleming is free to hold whatever opinions he chooses to hold, of course, but they certainly aren’t those of the Lord as found in His word, the word that shall judge us at the last day!

Eric L. Padgett

Remember Lot’s Wife

Jesus spoke these words in the context of foretelling the impending doom of that once faithful city of Jerusalem (Luke 17:28-32). Because of that generation’s rejection of Messiah (Luke 17:25), He would reject them and would have them in derision (Ps. 2:1-4). No city that the Lord does not guard, can be defended if the Lord is against it (Ps. 127:1). Just as the walls of Jericho fell flat, every city or nation or individual that exalts itself against God will face the judgement of God. Those who hesitate to leave such ungodliness or willfully return back to it will be destroyed. That is the significance of remembering Lot’s wife.

Even though she was with Lot when the family left the city, Lot’s wife’s heart remained in Sodom. She apparently returned to the city for some reason, possibly to retrieve some possession, if we are to judge by the Lord’s use of the account (Luke 17:31,32), but tarried too long and was consumed by the fire and the brimstone and was eventually encrusted in salt. The Lord did everything He could do to save them, even taking them by the hand to lead them out when they lingered (Gen. 19:16). But when a heart is wedded to some sin, even the Lord cannot save! Remember Lot’s wife.

Sometimes, as Christians, we still retain a desire for some old sin. Just as the kings of ancient Judah failed to remove the high places, so too do we retain altars to some past sin (I Kings 22:43; II Kings 12:3). We refuse to tear them down, to remove them from our life. Jesus warned against trying to serve two masters, saying that it cannot be done (Matt. 6:24). Rather we must flee! Flee fornication (I Cor. 6:18)! Flee idolatry (I Cor. 10:14)! Flee the love of money (I Tim. 6:11)! Flee youthful lusts (II Tim. 2:22)! Flee and don’t turn back! Remember Lot’s wife!

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain were wicked. Their sin was very grievous (Gen. 18:20). Amongst their trespasses was the grievous sin which would bear their name: sodomy. God rained down fire and brimstone on those cities because of their unchecked and unrepented transgressions (Gen. 19:29). How could we expect any nation today that fully embraces such sins as caused the utter destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to escape the judgement of God? Add to this the murder of 1.21 million innocent children every year and America’s sins are compounded. America must wake up and repent or else God will most certainly judge her for her transgressions. Remember Lot’s wife!

Eric L. Padgett

On Being Judgmental

The waters of worldliness are lapping over into the ark of safety and threaten to overthrow the faith of many. Christians are forgetting their Christ-given mission as Christians and are acting as if the Lord never spoke about certain moral, doctrinal, philosophical and theological issues. Many Christians are adopting the approaches and attitudes of the secular and sectarian worlds and, all the while, political correctness is destroying our society and is contaminating the Lord’s church.

I offer the following as an example of this sad trend. It was stated in a recent article in a well known brotherhood publication (“Homosexuality and the Church“) that “Teenage members of Churches of Christ perceive judgmental attitudes as hampering the fellowship’s spread of the Gospel.” The topic of the article was homosexuality. The judgmental attitude spoken of was calling homosexuality a sin. This was further described as a one dimensional approach to the problem of homosexuality.

The answer to the problem of homosexuality, according to the writer of the article, is not to try to change anyone’s sexual orientation but to “discuss struggles.” They spend a lot of time in prayer, but it is not to “pray the gay away.” Rather, the group “feels like” they can get into the work of the Holy Spirit in these individuals’ lives.”

Not having the space to address the gross misunderstanding concerning the Holy Spirit manifested in such a statement (see here), it should be clear to all Christians familiar with God’s word that New Testament and Old Testament writers–actually inspired by the Holy Spirit–spoke plainly about “homosexuality.” “Homosexuality,” or, as the Bible calls it, sodomy, is an “abomination,” something that is morally disgusting or abhorrent (Lev. 18:22). It is a sin that is worthy of death (Lev. 20:13). It is “unclean,” “dishonorable,” “vile,” “against nature,” “unseemly,” and the product of a “reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:18-32). Those who engage in this activity cannot inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9,10). This is the way New Testament writers spoke on the subject. But according to our “enlightened” society today, especially our teenagers, if this article is to be believed, this approach was dead wrong and we should “reframe the discussion” and start talking “about love, compassion, support and grace.”

Many have allowed liberal social theories to color their view of the gospel and of the church. But the Lord’s church is not a social experiment, it is the eternal Kingdom of God (II Pet. 1:11; Dan. 2:44; Matt. 16:18,19). It is not open for restructuring. The gospel is not social theory, it is the inerrant Word of God and it is not subject to alteration (Gal. 1:6-9). If it is indeed true that the majority of teenagers in the Lord’s church in our generation look upon the preaching of the Old Jerusalem Gospel as being judgmental, then sadly many in the Lord’s church have failed in their responsibility in bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:1-4); a generation has arisen which knows not Jehovah nor the works He has done for spiritual Israel (Jud. 2:10).

Sodomy is but one example where the world has influenced the thinking of many in the Lord’s church. The increasing focus on entertainment in the church is another. Reliance upon feelings instead of a “thus saith the Lord” is yet another example. The list could be extended but the point is instead of making excuses for sin, we ought to be condemning it. This is not being judgmental, this is being like Christ and His apostles. Should the Son of God have had a “peacemakers conference” with the scribes and pharisees or was He right when he called them “hypocrites” (Matt. 23)? Should the apostles have spent “a great deal of time “listening and asking questions” rather than attacking and condemning people” or were they right when they told the crowd assembled on Pentecost that they had with “wicked hands” crucified the Son of God (Acts 2:22-36)? Should Paul have viewed the Athenians as “much more than their sinful identity” when he told them that they ignorantly worshiped an unknown God (Acts 17:23,31)?

The Lord’s prohibition against judging others (Matt. 7:1-5) was against superficial, hypocritical judgment. Jesus further said, get the beam out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to judge others correctly (Matt. 7:5). We cannot help but judge. It is a part of life. The judgment must be scriptural for Jesus said, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24; cf. II Chron. 19:6), but we cannot refrain from judging. Indeed, “to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (Proverbs 21:3).

The bottom line is this: It is not judgmental to call sin sin. Instead of making sinners feel good about themselves in their sin, we ought to be making them–and ourselves–uncomfortable in sin (Acts 2:37). This is not wrong, it is the work of God. All attempts to soften the impact of God’s word are misguided.

I end with the words of Peter: “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (Acts 4:19).

Eric L. Padgett