Ellen Gonzalez (26 Jan 2008)
"To Eddie Sohn about gay Christians"


Eddie, you brought up some very good questions in your post:
 
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/jan2008/eddies125.htm
 
I have asked the same questions before. I have not gotten satisfactory answers from most preachers or Bible teachers. 
Because I have some gay friends, I have found that I can talk to them and they will listen to me since I do not judge them. I simply try to show them the love of Jesus just as I would to anyone else. The Holy Spirit does not need me to try and convince them they are sinners. He is perfectly capable of doing that Himself. In fact, does He really need us to go around telling anyone they are sinners?
 
I have heard countless Christians say that a gay person cannot possibly be saved. Who decided to start determining which sins a saved person is allowed and which they are not allowed? My past is so full of all kinds of sin that I would be judged guilty of not having been saved while I committed those sins, though I KNOW in my heart I was saved at the age of eight and that has been confirmed to me many times.
 
King David was guilty of many sins yet he was called a man after God's own heart. ALL the heroes of the Bible were sinners, and we are given their stories as examples to us. I do not recall any Bible character being guilty of homosexuality, but there are numerous verses that say it is an abomination unto God. Other sins are also abominations unto God. Strong's word 8441 defines abomination as something disgusting, an abhorrence, especially idolatry. If God equates homosexuality with idolatry then many who call themselves Christians are an abomination unto the Lord because of the idols they cherish in their hearts.
 
People say that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, but the Bible says many will not, and many Christians are guilty of those other sins. Some who are pastors and leaders in the churches have over the past few years been found guilty of this whole list. Read 1 Corinthians 6. Verses 9-11 say this:
 
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
 
Not one of us is without sin, and Paul, who called himself the chief among sinners, wrote the above verses knowing that. He said some of you WERE such, but are now washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus. There is NO sin that the blood of Jesus is not capable of covering and washing, so that would include homosexuality. I know Eddie's question pertains to a believer who continues in the sin of homosexuality. I would say the person is in bondage to his carnal lusts and desires --- just like so many heterosexuals are in other respects.
 
I know that God is just and also merciful. I am not going to try and judge a person's salvation because that is not for me to judge, but for God to. In taking that position I will not come under judgment because "by the same measure ye mete, it will be measured unto you."  Also by taking that position, if he happens NOT to be saved, then I have extended GRACE to him in that respect, "calling what is not, as though it were."  I have chosen to "discern the Lord's body" in him, knowing that in the fullness of time he WILL be saved.
 
Eddie's question was this: do you think gay Christians will go to heaven? "Going to heaven" may not be exactly the same as inheriting the kingdom of God. We are told the kingdom of God is within us, Luke 17:21. That is a topic for another discussion.