Gays & the fear of God |
Recently the Rev Martin Reynolds, a gay adopter of a child and an acquaintance of Archbishop Williams, tried an experiment. He rang a Catholic agency and, posing as an atheist, asked whether he might be considered for fostering. He was told there would be no problem with that. Later he rang back and admitted he was gay and that placed him beyond the pale. Catholic adoption agencies, only accounted for 4 per cent of the 2,900 UK adoptions. Both the Catholic Church and Anglican churches have very little conscience to speak of and absolutely no fear of God. They were prepared to place children with atheist families whilst banning gay couples on grounds of morality. Is it a greater sin to deny Jesus or being a gay? To these “Christian” churches obviously outward morality comes first and Christ comes second. The Church deliberately ignored the truth that there will be a minimal impact with the very small numbers of gay adoptions and that all scientific evidence points to successful Gay parenthood. The Catholic and Anglican Churches are main churches and are supposed to represent Christ yet the fear of God is not utmost in their mind when they oppressed the gay minority, interpret the bible with homophobia and prejudice, condemn gays by very narrow and selectively interpretation of the law but hypocritically not applying the law to themselves. Despite being well educated, they irresponsibly quote biased English translations from the original Greek and Hebrew testaments that actually refer to idol worship and adherence to Judaism by straight men and women rather than condemning gays. Just like the Levites representing God to the Hebrews, a very high standard of responsibility and Holiness is expected and much great judgment and curses in store for idolatrous high priests. In a confirmation of their lack of fear of God, the Orthodox wing of the Church disobeyed the commandment to love God with all their hearts, soul and mind, in denial of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by elevating the Saints and Mary to the status of deities to be worshiped and sought. For many liberals, the path to God is seen as the way of Love rather than the Gospel of Christ being the only way to God. God is taken out of Creation. Intellectual reasoning takes precedence over the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection from death, and the notion of a physical heaven and hell in eternity. The Evangelical Wing of the church is no different worshipping money and strongly oppressive and legalistic and lacking in love, grace and compassion. For example, the Anglican Church in Nigeria willingly supports the severe oppression of the gay community in Nigeria demonstrating their total lack of fear against God. In America, the activism by the Church has meant relationships of loving Gay couples are denied basic benefits, protection, support, and recognition under the law.
The fear of God and the dire consequences of destruction were to compel the Jews to follow the law especially, to put the God of Israel first in their lives, and to love other people as themselves. In Deut 6:24:25, the Jews were told to abide by the Law fearing the consequences that they may live and not die and that God will bless them as a result. In quick time, the Jews failed badly and displayed little fear of God. Soon, the Jews worshiped other religions and gods (Judg 2:17), despite God sending His judges to redeem them and time again and slow to judge against their sins. It was the religious leaders and the kings themselves who led the population astray whilst hey should have been reminding the Jews to get back to God (1 Kings 18:9), (2 Kings 23:4,5). They were worshipping Baal even in the temple of God. Many Jews were wicked and oppressing towards each other (Lev 25:17). They persecuted the poor and the needy (Psalm 10.2), the weak in the society. They did not love others as they loved themselves but were greedy always-seeking plans to deceive and prosper at the expense of others.
The fear of God did not worked under the dispensation of the Law. When we compromise from a Christ centered Gospel to one centered on morality, we take away Christ, we take away God’s mercy and grace and we fall back to the Old Testament law and the commandments and having no fear whatsoever of God. The fear of God in the New Testament dispensation of Grace, resulting in us willingly separating ourselves from the worshiping of gods of other faiths and not to be involved in temple worship and practices, comes about when we know that in Christ we are accepted as the sons and daughters of God with a heavenly destination. Because we have the promises of eternity with God as heirs through Christ, forgiven for all eternity even when we have sinned, we are able to walk a life of holiness. Our fear is now not motivated by fear of the consequences of destruction when we sinned. Our fear of God is now motivated by a deep sense of reverence, the appreciation of how awesome and loving is our God who forgives us even when we do sinned and we hold a promise that God has a place for us in heaven and we will be perfect one day in heaven. Our character and deeds on earth are being perfected when we have in mind the grace, mercy, and the love of God. The fear of God is now no longer based on a fear of judgment, but now a new kind of fear based on a certainty or assurence of eternal acceptance and salvation.
Let us fear God for fearing God makes us be extremely vary of misrepresenting Christ, of diverting from His primary gospel message of the bible, careful not to dishonour Christ by saying that He is not God or not the only way to God, and making sure that we do our utmost diligence to study of the word of God in much prayer, love, and humility. Our fear of God is now no longer motivated by death and the consequences because Jesus has conquered death. If we do fail, God will forgive us in Christ and still loves us very much. By putting God first, it compels us to live a life consistent with Christ's character, and a heart to do the will of God. Father God, forgive the church for behaving like there is no God and no consequences to their oppression against Gays. Bring in again the fear of God to the church so that they will be slow to judge in your name but quick to love lest they mispresent your precious name. Help us Lord to love you with all our hearts, minds, soul, motivated because you first loved us. Bring Lord the Church out of Egypt, out of worshipping other gods and other religions. Forgive us for recklessly digressing from the Gospel to an irrelevant open season to hunt down Gays. Forgive us through the fullness of your Grace and Mercy for truly we derserved only condemnation for our blatant lack of the fear of God. |