Recently, The Hashtag LGBTQts was trending on Twitter. As of writing this there were 19,700 tweets. Most of the tweets appeared to be from young adults and some teenagers all celebrating their LGBTQ+ orientations. There was one picture posted by the Twitter Account @hezipotter that caught my attention above the rest.
Why be racist, sexist, homophobic or Transphobic when you could just be quiet?
After seeing so many young people proclaim their narrative. I feel compelled that I must respond. Why can’t I just be quiet? According to the shirt I must be afraid of homosexuals and transgenders. (I will not for the sake of brevity talk about how the LGBTQ+ movement has piggy backed on civil rights when they are unrelated) I am not phobic of Homosexuality or Transgenderism. But I am afraid. I am afraid of the consequences. I am afraid of the consequences of this strange new morality. I am afraid of what challenges my daughters generation will face as they attempt to maintain Western Civilization. But even more than the consequences of this new morality on Western Civilization that I love and cherish is that I am fearful of the eternal consequences of this new morality.
The nineteenth century English preacher Charles H. Spurgeon who is often coined as the Prince of Preachers. Once boldly proclaimed,
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
Spurgeon’s opening statement. If sinners be damned…The Damnation of Sinners… It is the first reason why I cannot be quiet.
SINNERS WILL BE DAMNED
Has this particular piece of Christian doctrine been abandoned in post-modern America? Hell, as a place of torment and everlasting destruction, the antithesis of paradise, has disappeared from our conversations all together. The consequence of sin has simply shifted to the temporal, it’s societal and personal consequences, not its everlasting consequences.
In 2015 National Geographic published an article called The Campaign to Eliminate Hell https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/05/160513-theology-hell-history-christianity/ written by Mark Strauss (National Geographic’s senior science correspondent, strangely enough.) Strauss highlights a trend amongst many evangelicals to do away with the doctrine of hell all together.
This trend comes with little surprise. If you were a part of an evangelical youth group in the mid 2000’s you were probably acquainted with the hip mega-church pastor Rob Bell and his very popular laid back teaching style. Bell fell from evangelical graces when he published the book Love Wins. Bell unashamedly disavowed the doctrine of hell. I find Kevin Deyoung’s criticism of the book to apply not just to the book but to the Churches current stance on hell, “…there are dozens of problems with Love Wins. The theology is heterodox. The history is inaccurate. The impact on souls is devastating…”
Perhaps, the reason hell has been erased from the conversation is our concept of sin has been changed.
The Enemy is always cleverer than us. One of the greatest blunders of our generation may well be that we let the enemy use love as a weapon. The LGBTQ+ movement charades itself as a movement of love. “Just let people love whoever they want to! LOVE WINS!” That is the LGBTQ+’s battle cry.
A good God could not send someone to hell for love, right?
But it is not true love. It’s love violated and twisted. Ironically, it’s not love at all, its pride and pride is the mother of sins. It’s the sin that puts humanity in the place of God. To choose what is good and what is right by our own standards.
The Apostle John affirms that Love finds its place in God and in God there is no darkness at all. And God has made it clear, again and again throughout Scripture we find that Homosexuality is sinful and condemned.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
1 Corinthians 6:9
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Romans 1:26-27
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
Leviticus 18:22
So why can’t I just be quiet? For loves sake I cannot be quiet! It is for loves sake that Spurgeon proclaims,
“over our dead bodies”!
There is no greater love than to sacrifice our lives for others.
Today’s trending Twitter hashtag is a celebration of the separation of God and man. It is a celebration of sin. If I am quite then I am surrendering souls to hell. But with Spurgeon I say, If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.
THE MIND AND HEART 