Today I would like to put up a quote that I find very dangerous, from a pastor who has an ever increasing influence in American churches, especially among the younger generation, that being Dan Kimball. Dan Kimball is a leader among the Emerging church movement and has writing numerous books pushing this trend. The following excerpt is from his book “They Like Jesus, But Not the Church”:
“Quite honestly, and some people might get mad at me for saying this, I sometimes wish this weren’t a sin issue [homosexuality], because I have met gay people who are the most kind, loving, solid, and supportive people I have ever met. As I talk to them and hear their stories and get to know them, I come to understand that their sexual orientation isn’t something they can just turn off. Homosexual attraction is not something people simply choose to have, as is quite often erroneously taught from many pulpits.” (p. 138)
In this short little statement I believe that Kimball makes three dangerous mistakes that a lot of modern day “Christians” are falling victim to as well. These, in no particular order, are discontent with God’s will, the fallacy of believing the origin of a person’s sin matters, and confusing human goodness with Godly righteousness.
The first issue, discontent with God’s will, is noted when he states that he wishes that homosexuality were not a sin issue. This is a ludacris statement. This is like saying, “I wish rape wasn’t a sin” or “I wish that pedophilia wasn’t a sin.” This is why God didn’t leave the choice up to mankind as to what is righteous and what in not. True, Christ did pray that he may not be brutalized, but accordingly he prayed that the will of the Father be done (Matthew 26:39). Jesus also taught us to pray to the Father that “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10), so as we should be constantly longing for the will of God. As such, it is clear from scripture that the will of God is for man to not be engaged in homosexuality (Romans 1:24-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:8-11), and for a Christian writer to openly exclaim that he wishes homosexuality weren’t a sin is to put himself in direct opposition to the will of God. Beyond this, it just adds to the fire that the Bible is outdated and culturally irrelevant (which, as an aside, I believe Kimball argues for throughout his book). This is not a good thing.
Second, Kimball accentuates the point that homosexuality isn’t necessarily a choice. This is a common argument used by many people to equivocate that homosexuality can’t be sinful. But this is utterly incorrect. Because of the presence of original sin, a person is already born into an utterly depraved body, and this includes the possibility and almost inevitable predisposition to some sort of sin. We have a sin nature, we are pre-set to sin in all capacities, and as such it is not contradictory to God’s righteousness or judgement that there be sins of which our own DNA leads us towards. This is not a cause for saying “See, homosexuality is natural” as some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card, for we know that all humans are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-3) and thus are worthy of death and Hell (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23).
Now, to clarify, this does not mean that we should outcast homosexuals. Instead, the church needs to be convicted to treat homosexuality as all other sin and not apart from it. If a homosexual is in a congregation, that person is no different in their sin and no more deserving of condemnation than the porn addict or the adulterer or the alcoholic. However, let’s not forgot or equivocate, they are worthy of condemnation, as are all of us without the gift of God’s wonderful grace.
Back to Kimball’s quote. The last statement I want to make is probably the most severe, that being the fact that Kimball confuses his gay acquintances who are “good” people with the righteous people of God. Apparently Kimball has forgotten that, without a regenerate spirit, “all of our righteous deeds are like filthy garments” (Isaiah 64:5-6). The modern equivalent of what a “filthy rag” is is a used tampon. So, even though we may see people living in sin as “good” people, their actions have only amounted to a stack of used tampons to God, certainly not a sacrifice which would be holy and acceptable. This problem is so common though. Across college campuses and wherever two or more politically correct “Christians” gather, the stench of “good” people being something to admire is rotting in the air. We can’t allow this.
As true Christians we must proclaim what I stated earlier, Ephesians 2:1-3. For before regeneration we are all dead, following Satan, children of wrath. But God and God alone, as stated in Ephesians 2:4-10, has the power to make us alive, to seat us with Him in the heavens, and to pour out the immeasurable riches of His grace; that grace which is the only way you are saved. Thus, we must not equivocate sin or interject our will on God’s or be unclear about our nature without regeneration.
If we truly wish to seek and save the lost it is imperative that the only place we turn to determine our course is upon the infalliable instruction manual, and not upon the opinions of a fallen world to which we no longer belong.
