Tony Campolo calls for Revolution in Baptist Churches.

What do you believe about divorce? Is it a lesser, equal, or greater sin than homosexuality. It's also called a sin in the Bible as are many other things. Where in the Bible are sins "ranked?" What if a divorced person attended your church and met and married a Christian woman?

Doesn't all this sound like a discussion the Pharasees would have had in Jesus' time? What was their relationship to Christ? His worst enemies. I'm not condoning sin but I believe we need to focus on evangelism and love for God and our fellow man first.

 

I just want a simple answer. If you allow unrepentent homosexuals to be members of your church why would you not let them be married and attend your church. Would you say well we believe you can be homosexual just not a practicing homosexual. You would have some explaining to do.

I don't think a homosexual "attending" a church is wrong at all. Allowing that person to join while remaining a homosexual would be wrong.

I just think allowing a gay person to join your church without giving up the lifestyle is wrong. The next step that church will take will be to accept married gay couples.

As for a person who commits adultery then marrys their lover that they had an afair with. Well I would want to know as pastor if they had made it right with the spouse they cheated on. There would need to be evidence of reconciliation.

I believe according to Scripture there are lots of folk living in adultery. I think if you marry a person who committed adultery your living in adultery with that person.

 

Do you want people living in adultry por thjose who are divorced or divorced and remarried attending your church? I'm not saying that I support homosexuality. Not at all. It's just that I think many church members speak out against those "other people's" sin (homosexuality)and ignore their own or other church members (adultry, divorce, etc.).

These sins are hard to deal with because they are life style sins. How does a remarried divorced person repent of their sin? By divorcing their second spouse? Is a Christian person to be denied the joy of finally meeting and marrying a good Christian wife because he made a mistake years ago and married a non-Christian?

 

I personally think that a christian who has been divorced because their spouse cheated on them is free to marry.

I agree when you say church members speak out against those other peoples sin an ignore their own members etc...

I agree these sins are hard to deal with.
I dont' think one sin is greater than the other.
Sin is sin. People have wrecked, messed up lives.
We must balance the truth with love.

 

Does it preclude our speaking out against sins just because we are sinners? Not at all! Your position, as stated, could be and is construed in this manner many times. Rather we ought to confess and repent of our sins and preach harder against all sin. If we condemn another’s sin without condemning our own, it is the sin called hypocrisy.

On the contrary, these ought to be the easiest because they are observable. Lust in the heart, for example, is vile sin but it is not observable until it is translated into behavior.

By confessing it as sin and changing his mind about divorce and remarriage. He or she does not leave the present spouse. To divorce the present spouse would be to commit the sin of divorce again.

Absolutely not! This is a silly question.

Well, sometimes there are consequences of sin that cannot be erased. The forgiven murderer cannot bring back the victim and may spend the rest of life in prison.

Let’s suppose a believer is un-Biblically married to an unbeliever. His life is unhappy and miserable. He desires a good Christian wife. Is he justified in divorcing and leaving his unsaved spouse to find a good Christian spouse? No, not according to I Corinthians 7.

The problem with the whole chain of reasoning here is that it focuses on the results from man’s perspective, not God’s. The answers to these questions are not easy answers because sin bends and warps life out of shape. The whole idea of sin is something bent, twisted, or warped. Though God forgives, this does not essentially mean that God removes and fixes the temporal consequences that naturally accompany sin. God forgives and saves the drunkard but He does not automatically fix the liver hardened by cirrhosis from the incessant drinking. God will save the repentant homosexual but he may still die of AIDS. Gods forgives un-Biblical divorce and remarriage but God does not always straighten out the mixed up family situation and shield from the harm done. Remember that God did not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land because of his one-time disobedience. Sin does have consequences and we seem to have forgotten this in our modern, sentimental, humanistic Christianity. Words such as responsibility, accountability and consequences seemed to have fallen out of our vocabulary.

 

Your question is somewhat unfocused and broad. I’m not sure where you are going here. Of course, anyone should be welcome to attend any church as long as they are not heretic (Titus 3:10-11), disruptive, or divisive.

On the other hand, there is a difference when they are members of your church. If they are members and living in sin (i.e. adultery that you mentioned), then church discipline needs to be done Biblically. If with confrontation and counseling they do not repent, they must be put out of the church when they refuse to hear. Paul wrote: “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (I Corinthians 5:11-13)” God tells us what to do. That’s pretty clear isn’t it?

 

</font>[/QUOTE]Yup, ole Ed is spouting the typical sentimental Christian humanism. What they really need is repentance and salvation found in Jesus Christ alone. It’s not about loneliness and a need for relationships. They can find relationship in homosexual relationships. The problem here is sin which ole Ed fails to note, at least in the quotation. The most important need is that we preach against their sin and offer salvation in Christ, not give them strokes for their loneliness. If they are lonely, God may use the loneliness to discomfort them and bring them to Himself. The false presumption is that the only way to win them is to make an attraction offering of acceptance and affection. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Homosexuals need to know their sinfulness and its consequences. Anything less is a sappy, ineffectual masquerade of Christianity. Paul asks: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Well, you’re using overstatement to make your point and it’s all wrong. No one, at least from what I have read, has voiced the opinion that we are not going to take the Gospel to the homosexual. The disagreement is how we do it. You seem to say show them acceptance and woo them to change. Can you back this from a Scriptural perspective or do you just accept the current herd mentality on this? I say preach the Word of God. They will either respond to the Holy Spirit and repent or they’ll rebel and reject. Soft-soaping isn’t needed—it doesn’t cleanse of sin.

You say, “We don't want them in our churches ….” Well, would you allow a practicing homosexual to be member of your church?

You never answered the above questions. You didn’t deal with what was posted in the preceding quote from my post.

Yes, isn’t that what the Bible tells us to do? Paul said, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (I Corinthians 5:9-13)”

Well, I don’t think I can feel empathy with a homosexual. And I don’t know that God expects me to feel his so-called pain. I do know what it is like to be a sinner under condemnation of God. Like the Pharisees, this modern sappy religiosity makes the homosexual seven times more the child of Hell. You haven’t done the poor wretched sinner any favor by making him feel accepted in his sin. Perhaps the Screwtape Letters need a revision with Satan’s strategy to make the sinner feel accepted with so-called concerned Christians providing the acceptance stroking. IMHO, it is the silly Christian who feels better by supposedly accepting and “loving” the homosexual. Makes him feel real pious and good. Oh, the devilish twists of our wicked psyche! [/qb][/quote]
We need more Christians who say, "Here am I Lord. Send me", instead of those who are going to tell Christ Jesus who they will not be witnessing to.