Even though we in the Living Church of God do not spend most of our time and energy attacking many of the vile practices in our society, I do want all of you brethren and your families to fully realize where we stand. For, in this mixed up world, you dear brethren—and your children and grandchildren—are constantly bombarded with the liberal media propaganda that, for instance, abortion and homosexuality are really “okay.” The liberal media constantly preach that no one should judge otherwise! In fact, the media appear to have most of the judges in this nation in their “hip pockets” on these two issues. This is genuinely tragic. For as God looks down from heaven, and sees these vile practices continuing and even worsening, does He have any reason to decide to spare our nation from the coming Great Tribulation?
Yet I have come to realize that many of our newer brethren—and hundreds of our young people—lack the right understanding on such topics as abortion and homosexuality. For we do not often preach about these topics in church, not wishing to make negative remarks continually and stray from teaching about God’s Kingdom. So our young people—and perhaps hundreds of new members—have grown up hearing, over and over, the humanistic, liberal approach to the above topics and many others. I came to realize this, personally, very vividly when I became Deputy Chancellor of Ambassador College at Big Sandy back in 1986.
I found in personal counselings that even many of our Ambassador students had been greatly influenced by the liberal media. They knew that abortion and homosexuality were “frowned on” by the Church. But the constant presentation of these two issues in a positive light—by the media, by their friends, by schools and by the entire society as they grew up—had a profound effect on them and weakened their understanding. So we do need to talk about it from time to time, to “get our bearings straight.” As God’s people, we must learn to think through and contemplate His will on all of these topics confronting our society, and come to understand what God thinks about these issues.
So please think and pray about it.
Very seldom do I quote from other religious leaders regarding social issues. However, I want now to quote from Dr. James Dobson’s Family News, because his take on this topic certainly agrees with the Bible, and because I feel that Dr. Dobson is a very sincere man who is doing a tremendous job on this and similar issues—with the incomplete understanding that he has at this time.
Here is the introduction from his January 2004 newsletter: “It’s January, and that means it is time to observe Sanctity of Human Life Month. At the outset, however, I would like to hearken back to the April 2000 edition of Family News, in which I shared the remarkable story of Samuel Alexander Armas, a tiny baby boy who, at 21 weeks’ gestation, underwent spinal surgery while he was still in his mother’s womb. A photographer named Michael Clancy was on hand for the procedure and captured a powerful and heartwrenching image of Samuel’s hand extending from the womb and grasping the finger of the surgeon. This dramatic photograph should have been seen by people around the world, because it illustrates the marvelous humanness of a preborn child. Unfortunately, most of the major news outlets refused to share it with the public. Given their pro-abortion bias, it isn’t difficult to figure out why. Seeing this wonderful photo reminds me of the struggle to outlaw partial-birth abortion and the many emotional debates surrounding it in the U.S. Congress. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), the most articulate defender of life in the Senate, pleaded repeatedly with his colleagues to end the grotesque procedure by which the brains of un-anaesthetized babies are suctioned out in the final moments of delivery. For eight years, the battle raged. Coming from the other end of the universe, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), fought year after year to preserve the legality of partial-birth abortion. For her, killing babies was ‘a women’s health issue’ that disregarded entirely the welfare of the child….”
“For 31 years, the abortion industry has treated preborn babies like non-persons whose lives mean nothing in the eyes of the law. Indeed, the late James McMahon, an early practitioner of the hideous partial-birth abortion procedure, suggested that it isn’t a question of if a baby is human, but instead, ‘Who owns the child?’ Well, how about it? Did the perfectly formed little hand in Michael Clancy’s photograph belong to a human being, or was it merely part of something the early abortionists used to refer to as ‘a blob of tissue’ or ‘meaningless protoplasm’? What I am going to share with you now will answer that question for time and eternity. Samuel Alexander Armas, the 21 week-old preborn baby who struggled for life in his mother’s uterus, is now [a] four-year-old, bustling, energetic boy… What a dramatic testimony this is to the humanity of not only this one child, but every baby conceived down through the ages. Each of us can say with King David, ‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be’ (Psalm 139:14–16, NIV).”
Brethren, Dr. Dobson certainly “hit the nail on the head.” I appreciate the fact that he is speaking out so powerfully on this issue. And I feel that all of us should educate our children and loved ones about this horrible crime that is being perpetrated every single day in most of the world! From time to time, we will refer to it on our television program or even have an article about it in the Tomorrow’s World magazine. We cannot directly attack it in the same way on television as in print, or we might be thrown off dozens of our stations. In all of these things, as Jesus said, we are to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
However, this Work can and should teach the full Truth on such matters as this. For we in God’s Church should fully understand the lengths to which many of the leaders of the media, in the judiciary, in politics and even in the pulpit are willing to go to defend these vile practices. Many of you realize that nearly 45 million babies have been sacrificed since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973. Only the coming government of Jesus Christ—and our participation in it, as the coming kings and priests, to help straighten out this entire world—will fully solve this awful situation.
We should contemplate our need to “seek first” the Kingdom of God—and our need to pray and prepare with all our hearts for Christ’s coming government. For, as the Apostle Paul was inspired to write: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2–3). It is inspiring to realize the tremendous good we can do as members of God’s family, working under the living Jesus Christ, in straightening out this wretched world before too many more years!
Coming now to the topic of homosexuality, let us again remind ourselves how important it is that we teach our young people what God says, in order to help them sort out the confused messages coming through our media, our schools and indeed our entire society. For these perverted messages do have a powerful effect on young people—unless they are confronted with facts and biblical scriptures in response.
It is vital that we all remember God’s purpose in making us male and female. Notice how He described this matter: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” (Genesis 2:18). The woman was to be a “help” to her husband to make life more complete for both of them. So mankind, in the beginning, was created as “opposites”—male and female. Down through human history it has been proven over and over how important this balance is, and how important it is that a genuine marriage between a man and a woman be the basis of every decent civilization.
From the first few chapters of Genesis, it is obvious that God made one woman for one man. That was His plan, in order to give balance and fulfillment to the human race. In Malachi’s inspired message, God indicates a second great purpose why He made man and woman: “But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth” (Malachi 2:15). God purposed the marriage of man and woman so that “godly offspring” would be produced—potential sons and daughters of the great God who gives us life and breath in the first place! Men “marrying” men, or women “marrying” women, could never produce children—thus accomplishing Satan’s greatest goal, the utter destruction of the entire human race!
But man has always tended to “reason” around what God says. In His inspired word, God certainly warns us about this many times. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Yes, all kinds of ways “seem” right to our modern ministers, politicians and our modern media. But—as we must teach our young people—the end is death if these ways directly contradict the laws and purposes of God!
Repeatedly, God’s word directly condemns any form of homosexuality. “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:13). This teaching was consistent throughout the Old Testament—the only “word of God” available when Jesus Christ stated: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God’” (Luke 4:4).
In the New Testament, God’s word is equally plain. Describing the perverted thinking of ancient philosophers—the very men who are often used as a standard of wisdom and guidance in much modern thinking—Paul described their perverted reasoning regarding homosexuality. “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:26–28).
Paul describes such individuals as those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (v. 32). Here, God’s inspired word clearly indicates that those who “approve” of these vile practices are also guilty in God’s sight!
For, whether we practice wrong ways or merely approve of them, we are here on this earth to learn the ways and laws of the great God who created us—the God who made us male and female in the first place!
Paul writes: “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 homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10). Some such individuals, Paul indicates, came into God’s Church in his time. A number of these have come or will be coming into God’s Church today. As verse 11 indicates, they will be “washed” through the name and power of Jesus Christ. Through God’s Spirit within them they will be cleaned up—if they have truly repented. But the key in all such matters is that genuine repentance must come before God’s Spirit will be given, and before His great power and help becomes available to any individual!
This world’s media and educational systems bombard our senses with carnality and vain human reasonings, under the influence of Satan the Devil. To counteract this, we must learn to think through, to study and to teach our fellow members and especially our children God’s will and God’s Truth in all these matters. We are now in training to be kings and priests in the soon-coming government of God (Revelation 5:9–10). As the coming teachers and priests of God, serving under Jesus Christ in tomorrow’s world, we must carefully learn God’s will, that we “may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 10:10–11).
At the very end of this age, God’s true people will be protected, delivered and treated as God’s jewels if they truly serve and obey their Creator. For God’s Word tells us: “‘And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (Malachi 3:17–18).
Each of us, dear brethren, must learn to properly discern these things now. And we must be willing to saturate ourselves with the Bible—with the “mind” of God—on all these issues. I exhort all of you to carefully study and prove God’s will in all such issues as abortion, homosexuality, the use of illicit drugs, “marriage” between those of the same gender, indulgence in pornography and all the other vile practices so often promulgated in our confused society. For we as God’s people, especially, must “feed” on Jesus Christ and His Truth in order to be the leaders and judges in tomorrow’s world.
As Paul points out: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14–16).
Let us, dear brethren, fill ourselves with the “mind of Christ” so that we and our children and loved ones are not easily overthrown by the perverted propaganda spewed forth continually in this world’s society! Only then will we be truly “fit” instruments to serve under Christ in His coming Kingdom.