ONA

My family has been involved with the RHCC for generations. My sister and I were "baptized" there. My great-grandparents, grandfather, and other loved ones' funerals have been there. An aunt and uncle as well as my grandmother are current members. So I periodically check the website to see what is going on there. Recently I read on rhccucc.org about their "Open and Affirming Committee." I wrote a letter to the committee and was going to email it to all the committee members (whose email addresses were available on the website) but I didn't want to intrude where I was not welcome. Instead I am posting my reaction here and inviting the committee to check it out.

Today I am writing concerning this ONA business that I read about on your website. Let me call your attention to some of the points made on your FAQ’s page. Question 6 reveals an admirable attitude to welcome and value all people. Your desire to be affirming, however, is misguided. It is similar to the derailment of the virtue of toleration today. People should be tolerant of all other people, Christians even more so. Christians are called even to love their enemies, let alone to tolerate others. Should we, however tolerate all ideas? Lifestyles? Of course not! Some ideas are wrong, some are stupid. Some lifestyles are wrong, some are immoral. A denial of this is a denial of common sense. Is it a good idea to run with scissors? Do we permit our children to do so? No. We enact rules as parents against such behavior for their protection. A Christian community, with the revealed will of God--the Bible, has the duty to warn people of moral pitfalls that will destroy their quality of life and jeopardize their eternal souls. We have the duty to persuade them of the truth and to point them in the direction of a satisfying and God-honoring life. We tolerate all people regardless of their beliefs, but we must do so without tolerating ideas that are harmful to people and society. And so it is with the issue of affirming people. We can affirm their worth and value without affirming their immorality.

Now we must decide whether or not homosexuality is immoral. You say in question 7 that “the Bible has both clear and contradictory teachings on this issue, as it does on many issues of human faithfulness.” While I am committed to tolerating the people, even loving the people who would say such things, I cannot and will not affirm such a preposterous statement which has such profoundly disastrous implications for the eternal destiny of people’s souls. I will plead with you like a doctor trying to persuade a sick patient to take the medication that will save their life. If the Bible is “contradictory” on “many issues” why believe in the Christ it reveals, why use this book alone in our worship, or faith and practice? How do you decide between what the Bible says and what competing authorities say? To come up with such a hermeneutic someone has clearly not appreciated the Bible for what it is, what it claims to be for itself! “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Peter says, “. . . just as also our brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:15-16). Jesus Himself said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18).

So what does the Bible say about homosexuality? “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22). “. . . and in the same way also men abandoned the natural function of the women and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” (Romans 1:27). “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). 1Timothy 1:9-10 says that homosexuality “is contrary to sound teaching.” What is unclear about this?

It is not your ONA policy that motivated this letter as much as what the policy says about the way you handle the Scriptures. The reason how you handle the Scriptures concerns me enough to prompt the letter is that your hermeneutic will determine how you understand the Gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” The message is important because it provides you with the content of your faith, Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of those who would believe in Him. You have to trust that He died for you and that by so doing He paid the penalty that was due to you for all the sin, all the wrong that you have done. Through faith in Him you are declared righteous and God welcomes you into His family and will accept you into heaven when you die. If you don’t believe in Him, then you will go to hell when you die. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18). “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” (John 14:6). There is no other way to heaven than to believe in Jesus Christ, to trust in His death as the payment for your sin. If you believe that Jesus is one way to heaven and not the only way to heaven, then you do not believe in the Jesus of the Bible. When my two year old daughter wants to stick something in a power outlet she might find my reaction harsh, but I scold her for her good, because I love her. Please accept my words with the love intended.