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Sunday in Amsterdam. The sun is like a ball of fire, resplendent in the infinite blue of the sky. Bright tulips nod in the garden and adorn the party. Throngs of people converse and celebrate. In the center of all excitement, holding hands and exchanging caresses, the happy couple tells journalist details of their recent wedding. The newlyweds say they plan to adopt a child. from time to time they give each other passionate glances and smiles. The cameras of the international press record it all and send the news around the world by satellite.
Such an event would attract little journalistic interest if the focus of such attention had been an ordinary couple. But they were two men who had just come out of the church after receiving a "nuptial blessing".
The event happened in Holland in 2001. Similar incidents would later occur in Belgium, Canada, and the United States. At first, people in many countries protested them in defense of the family values and morality. To many people in it seemed like the end of the world. Today, a few years later, "gay" marriages and legally recognized civil unions of homosexual couples are common in Argentina, Denmark, Germany, France and Portugal. And, as often happens, the newest fad soon become the custom and the custom becomes part of the culture.
A recent parade of homosexuals and lesbians in Brazil brought two and a half million individuals into the streets. The city of Sao Paulo had never seen such a large mobilization of people. It seemed like a carnival, happy and colorful with floats, and banners displaying slogans. The same thing is happening every year in other great capitals of the world. Homosexuals who formerly hid their lifestyle today don't hesitate to take to the streets to advocate their position. They have rights, they say, just like everyone else. What is interesting and significant about this is dramatic way in which it fulfills Bible prophecy. The Lord Jesus had said that in the last days such behavior would be part of the popular culture.
If the matter just involved people who have nothing to do with Christianity, it would be easier to understand. After all, someone who doesn't believe in the Judeo-Christian God has no biblical conduct to adhere to.
But even in Christian circles voices such as that of Mario Ribas defend the idea that "a sensible analysis of the Bible shows that all people, regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation were received by Jesus, and therefore, I don't see why homosexuals and lesbians are wrong in their way of being". Ribas, a theologian, graduated from Princeton University in New England and is pastor of a large evangelical church.
What is happening in the christian world? Why has something that the Bible classifies as "sin" suddenly become normal? Why have some started referring to the acceptance of homosexuality as "an expression of the grace of Christ"? The words of Jesus recorded in the Bible announce that in the last days it would be like this: "It was the same as happened in the last days of Lot. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed".
How were the "days of Lot"? We find the record in the book of Genesis. The inhabitants of Sodom tried to break down Lot's door to seize two men who were his guest in his home to have sex with them. That is why the word "sodomy" is sometimes used as a synonym for homosexuality was acceptable. In the days of Lot homosexuality is acceptable, and God showed His disagreement with that kind of human behavior.
Jesus foretold that the last days would be like the days of Lot.
The Bible teaches that God loves everyone. Homosexuals like every other human being are objects of His love and mercy. But Jesus came to our world not only to forgive sinners but also to transform them and make them new creatures. The apostle Paul explains it simply that God gave life to you "when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,... indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were "darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn in Christ in the way,... In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,... and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Here the apostle speaks of transformation. Every human being, no matter what their sin is, needs to undergo the miracle of conversion. Conversion involves repentance, forgiveness, and putting off the old way living. In the light of what the apostle Paul says, it is impossible to accept the politically correct idea that because of God is love He will accept any and all deviations of human conduct.
God described His character to Moses: "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished".
The word guilty in the original language does not refer to people who sometimes do what is evil, but those who insist on living that way.
Evidently, social pressure to accept something that the Bible condemns is another fulfillment of the signs of the end. The open proliferation of homosexuality and the argument that it is just "a different type of sexual orientation" is an evidence that we live in the last days.
Some years ago the Natural Museum of Oslo presented an exhibit on homosexuality in the animal world. It argued that if homosexuality exist among the animals, and seems perfectly natural among them, then sexual deviation is also natural among human beings and if it's natural, then it can't be sin.
The dictionary defines the word "natural" as something done according to the property of things. The key word here is "property". What are the natural properties of things? It is natural to eat through my ears I am perfectly free to do so, but I cannot expect people to accept my idea, as something natural, normal and proper.
Our generation has lost touch with it's own nature. It lives almost entirely for physical pleasure. In the United States alone it spends every year the fabulous sum of $13 billion on pornography. You can hardly turn on your computer anymore without receiving an invitation to look at pornography. Most of the music and movies written, composed and produced now have sex as the central theme. You seldom find an advertisement that does not use sex appeal to sell the product.
What is the problem with this? Humans are physical, mental and spiritual beings. They cannot be split into separate segments. In order for what people do in life to make sense they need to do it with a complete unity of their being. To divide or fragment is fatal. If they try it they will open deep wounds in their unconscious world. Wounds that their rationalism cannot cure. No matter how often we tell ourselves that it's OK, that it's good as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, and that your private life is a matter of personal choice or preference, the reality is different. Your nature as a human being, with physical, mental and spiritual faculties, cannot cope with this. It maybe that, swept along by uncontrolled instinct, it can tolerate a distortion and perversion of its physical dimension; and perhaps our mental aspect can be convince by its own arguments that this is acceptable, but the spiritual nature rejects it.
"I am not spiritual", a man said to me one day when I visited him in prison.
he was there because he had tried to live a life without restrictions. Although unwilling to recognize it, he was still a spiritual being. If not, he would not have insisted so much on having me visit him.
Humanity's problem in our time is that we do not recognize our spiritual nature. Nevertheless, the fact that we attempt to ignore it does not change reality, Spirituality is not something we choose to be or not to be. It is beyond our control, because it came from the hands of the Creator. Our life will only be complete as we live in harmony with Him and respect the integrity and unity of how He made us.
Here is an illustration: Take a bird and put in a golden cage covered with diamonds. Put plenty of food and water in the cage, and if you like, give it air conditioning adapted to its needs. Do you think it will someday be happy? Never! it has a bird's nature and was born to be free---to fly. it is true that it needs water and food, but what makes it happy is freedom.
People think that they are free because they can do whatever they want, but they are prisoners of pleasure. Mario Veloso, poet, author, and personal friend states that formal freedom is not enough to be truly happy. A country or government can guarantee the freedom of the body, but not of the soul.
Those who live under totalitarian regimes suffer no more than those who live in societies with full freedom. Why? Because human being are prisoners of their complexes, tendencies, selfishness, ambitions, envies, and everything that constitutes the dark side of human psychology.
Such captives can never be truly happy. In their frustration many of them turn a life of pleasures and give free rein to immorality. Those who attempt to leave out the spiritual dimension of live are welding the bars of their own prison. As incredible as it may seem, the factors the imprison modern people are, according to Veloso, obscenity, pornography, violence, and homosexuality.
David Levy published a book titled Love and Sex wit Robots. After investigating the possibility of relationships between humans and robots, the author concluded that people unable to establish satisfactory relationships with other humans should substitute relationships with machines. He was not joking.
Levy's intention may be all right: but for sex to be fully satisfying and make a person happy, it has to be physical, mental, and spiritual act. I sex is only physical, it is frustrating and leads to emptiness and dissatisfaction.
So what do people do to respond to the cry of the needy heart? They plunge into all kinds of perversions and depravity. As the Bible says: "God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman 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".
What is the "penalty of their error" That the apostle here speaks about? he refers to all the plagues and illnesses that strike the modern world. A study carried out by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows the 19 million people in the United States become infected every year with Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and 65 million live permanently with such diseases in their bodies. AIDS is decimating humanity. At present, 43 million people live with AIDS. Last year alone it infected and additional 4.8 million. Worse yet, 2,000 babies acquire the disease in their mothers wombs.
The Bible foretold that all of this would be an indication that we are living at the end of time. Jesus declared: "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts its forth its leaves, you know the summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door".
It was late afternoon of a sad day as her life seemed to have come to it's end. Her dreams had killed her, Men had condemned her as flagrant sinner. Mistakes had filled her life, and she had loved in the wrong way. Although she had longed to be loved in return, she had only been used, leaving her with open wounds that no one could heal.
What can a person do or say when she knows that she has made mistakes and deserved to be punished for it? She can repeat what she was already doing, so that the pain she believes she deserves will be even worse. The woman had chosen this way---one that plunged her to the bottom of the pit and made her feel like trash. Although she knew that she ought to change her way of life, she didn't have the strength.
It was then that the men had caught her in the very act of sin and dragged her to the presence of Jesus. She knew she deserved to be stoned. The implacable law offered neither mercy or forgiveness. There she was. Her past was ugly. Her present, horrible. And her future non existent. Then there appeared the wonderful person of Jesus. thank God He always shows up just when we need Him most. That's how God is: he always looks for you, calls, and waits for your response.
The teacher from Galilee silently began t write in the sand, and the accusers of the poor woman disappeared one by one. Then the voice of Jesus broke the sudden silence. "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her".
No one dared, and soon the street was deserted.
"Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you"? Jesus asked.
"They're all gone", she replied, not daring even to look up.
"Neither do I condemn you" the Lord told her. "Go your way. From now on sin no more".
Twenty centuries have come and gone since the day. the voice of the Master is still heard coming down to us. His promise is "Give me your heart, and I will make it new".
What a wonderful invitation! Do you believe it? What will you do about it?
The answer is your alone.
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