Tuesday, October 20, 2015

If you study 2nd Peter and Jude, you’ll find both addressing issues we face in our contemporary society. I would like to share an experience I had that illustrates this. I was asked by a church in my area to participate in a dialogue presentation with questions and answers following the presentation. The subject was whether or not this particular church should identify itself as open and affirming of everyone no matter what their sexual orientation or choices are. In particular I was asked to present what the Bible says about homosexual behavior being sinful, and thus the church should not be open and affirming. The other presenter was asked to share why someone who is in a homosexual relationship should be openly accepted and affirmed into the full life of the church. My participation was not merely an intellectual exercise. It was what I believed deeply. The other presenter was openly in a homosexual relationship and felt deeply that the church should accept and affirm him. We gave two presentations, first, on what the Old Testament had to say and then what the New Testament had to say. To prepare I used the “three C” topical study approach: collect information from the Bible about the topic of homosexuality, correlate what I find into an outline and crystallize what I discover into some conclusions or applications to life. In collecting material from the Bible on homosexuality I found it is an aberration of what the Bible presents as the “creation order,” so I included the creation order in my study and presentation. In our next visit I will begin sharing what I found. >