The Gay Christian Revisionist

bibleWaterBrook Multnormah Publishing Group, a so-called trusted Christian publisher, has announced plans to release through its subsidiary, Convergent Books,  “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.”   WaterBrook formed Convergent to publish books for the “growing audience that don’t see themselves as either liberal or conservative, evangelical or mainline, yet frame their ‘spiritual journey’ in Christian terms.”

The  writer, Matthew Vines, is a homosexual activist and Bible revisionist known mainly for manipulating Christian terminology to advance the homosexual agenda.  Vines, an unabashed denier of Biblical truth on sexual morality,  is also behind  The Reformation Project,  whose mission is  to train leaders  to convert  local personal support of outspoken, influential Christian allies in their communities through which Christian leaders will  “feel the freedom” to take the next step towards affirming and including LGBT people in all aspects of Church life.

Vines has made a name for himself by pushing revisionist, liberal theology on homosexuality.   After taking two years off from college to study ‘the  question’ of homosexuality and the church,  he came out bearing what he likes to call ‘the good news’ that  homosexual activity  is not contrary to the teaching of the church.  What he is actually pushing is a theology that goes against everything  the Bible teaches.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Vines made it clear that he believes that Christians who believe homosexuality is a sin are dead wrong.  His favorite argument is that “loving, same-sex relationships” are not addressed in the Bible, let alone condemned”.   He distinguishes between lustful, casual homosexual behavior and ‘natural’ same-sex relationships, arguing that it is only the former behavior that the Bible speaks against.

“His arguments are not new, and his predecessors failed to win the day within the Christian community,” said Dr. Evan Lenow, assistant professor of Ethics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. ”  The arguments he presents have been rehashed from the work of such scholars as Finnish Old Testament scholar Martti Nissinen, homosexual New Testament scholar Dale Martin (Yale), and homosexual church historian John Boswell, according to Dr. Robert Gagnon, associate professor of New Testament at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, who is considered the foremost expert on the Bible and homosexuality.

Sean McDonough, professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary  says that “Orientation does not take precedence over formal (embodied, structural) prerequisites such as gender, monogamy, and age.  If people are unhappy with God’s conditional provision, they do not get to choose whatever option brings satisfaction to their sexual desires.”

Vines’  argument  that the “only place in Scripture where male same-sex relations are actually prohibited” is in Leviticus, and Old Testament Law doesn’t apply to Christians because Christ fulfilled the law, is flawed.  Christ said he came to fulfill the law, not to change it.   Christ’s  birth and death fulfilled only those ritual blood sacrifice laws.

There are numerous ‘Old Testament’ laws mentioned in the New Testament, which explicitly upholds those laws.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, to include fornicators, idolaters, nor effeminate, or abusers of themselves with mankind.  “Effeminate” in the Greek is “malakos” which literally means “soft”.   In a sexual context, the word was used to describe general licentiousness and debauchery and men who took the passive role in sexual relations.  The word is drawn directly from the vocabulary in Leviticus 18:22, forbidding all homosexual practice in the church.

In Matthew 19:4-6 Christ said that God created  male and female and for that reason a man shall be joined to his wife and they will become one flesh, affirming that God created male and female and that marriage is designed between one man and one woman.

McDonough said that it is worth pointing out Jesus’ severe denunciation of sexual immorality in the Sermon on the Mount.  It is historically unthinkable to imagine a Jesus who, as a Scripture-following Jew, would simultaneously intensify the Law’s teaching on heterosexual immorality, and yet toss aside the Law’s clear teaching on homosexual immorality.”

Vines’ main appeal for homosexual acceptance is emotional with a thin dusting of logic on top. He presents himself as a sensitive, rational soul trying to figure out what the Bible really says yet underneath the veneer  is a rather manipulative premises:  If you disagree with me you are by definition cruel and oppressive.

If Christians fall for Vine’s logic –  that calling homosexuality a sin marginalizes homosexuals –  then the church would have to approve of all things that the Bible calls sin lest we marginalize any segment of society.  This would, in effect, eliminate sin from Scripture and eliminate our need for a Savior. By doing so, we would eliminate the church and Christianity.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *