Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:3-6 (NIV).
I've been writing blog posts lately mainly explaining why I've come to think the things I do.
My most viewed post is the first one I ever wrote, explaining that while I continue to believe the gospel, I do not stand on the church's traditional teaching regarding the LGBT+ community.
I purposefully did not write a defense of my stance in that post. It wasn't about that. I reserved an exploration for some of the reasons for my stance in later posts which can all be found here on my blog.
These posts, I should note, are not all of my thoughts on the matter either. It took time and effort to try and condense what I thought into something understandable, and I don't pretend to think I did a good job.
I figured in my first post that if I made it a theological defense of my position, all who read it would likely end up leaving carrying the same position they had in the first place.
I knew I wasn't going to persuade anybody. I wanted to focus on something near and dear to my heart: the gospel and the unity of the church in Christ.
Yet as soon as I posted it, some people were ready to read into my motives.
I got a very kind and gracious comment that did so, and part of it read:
".... I hope you catch yourself on this. Based on what you wrote Scripture was not your epistemological way to verify what was right, but your own experience with other people who did not fit the mold of what you thought of them before.
You mentioned that you are familiar with every scriptural argument but I think it is here where you show the starting point of your change of mind. It did not start from hermeneutics. It started from human relationships. Please consider if this is true and reflect whether or not it is this driving force that guides your approach to the scriptures into answering passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ; Romans 1:21-27, etc instead of proper hermeneutics limited by the text, context (textual and historical)."
I'm grateful this comment was kind, unlike the other one. It's too bad, though.
I tried to be as open about my motives as possible because I knew people would question them.
To say this was something I did not come to believe based on Scripture is wrong. This completely disregards the time I have spent thinking, learning, and reading what's out there on this matter. Yet it also would have been a complete and utter lie for me to have said that meeting those in the LGBT+ community had no impact.
Sometimes our experiences do rightly make us question the long-held traditional beliefs that get handed down to us and adopted without question.
Why is it that when people go against traditional beliefs like this, the assumption is that they are allowing themselves to be deceived, that they're just being carried away by emotion and going along with the world?
It's as I said in my first post: I am the worst fear of the conservative evangelical church culminating in one person.
My motives are suspect. I cannot be genuinely and truly in all good faith convinced on this matter.
I had other people doubt my salvation and say I was on the road to hell.
I know this is something that people say to our LGBT+ brothers and sisters as well. They have it worse than me. Those of them who are affirming as I am are rebellious, sinning against God willfully, and they will be judged.
Have we forgotten the gospel? Have we forgotten Christ? Is it our works that justify us before God? Is my salvation contingent on me getting every single point of doctrine right?
If that is so, we are all doomed, every single one of us.
The Gospel and God's Grace
Something that has always comforted me and struck me about the gospel is how we can be assured of our salvation and God's love for us. That when we are in Christ, this is something that cannot be taken away from us. That God's grace is something we do not earn based on our merit but is given to us as a gift.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV).
Moreover, our salvation is not contingent on our ability to show visible signs of improvement to onlookers.
There is no "or else". It's not "prove you are being sanctified or else you're not saved". No. Scripture tells us that God will be faithful and sanctify those in Christ.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." - 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NIV).
I see the conservative evangelical church in America, and I see so much fear stemming from the fact that we've lost the gospel. Instead, we throw ourselves into our crusades and cultural wars.
Be careful not to be in sin or God's judgment is for you. The stakes are incredibly high when one wrong step and - oops, now you won't inherit the kingdom of God.
Get every single inch of doctrine right. Secondary and tertiary matters are primary. Every belief, everything, it must be perfect. We build fences around fences.
How utterly exhausting, and how utterly impossible. We cannot even meet the standards that we've crafted for ourselves.
I have confidence. Even if I'm wrong on this one matter (not that I think I am), I know God's grace is for me. I know his love for me is not contingent on me getting it all right. And I know it's true for you also, dear reader, if you are in Christ.
This isn't being antinomian. This isn't denying moral law.
This is nothing more or less than the sufficiency of God's grace for those who are in Christ. It is scandalous, abundant, amazing grace.
This is why Paul can so confidently:
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:33-39 (NIV).
Christ the Chief Cornerstone
As people who profess Christ, we share an amazing inheritance. We are no longer "drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers". We have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit.
It's so crazy. It is such a mystery. A bunch of people who would otherwise share nothing suddenly share so much. Through the gospel, we are members together of one body and sharers together in the promises of God in Jesus.
And Christ himself is our peace.
Without Christ, it would be like building a house with no foundation. It would crumble.
We see this happen all the time today.
I'm not merely speaking of denominational differences. Different denominations aren't necessarily bad. It's when you cannot even worship with your fellow brother and sister in Christ who believes in the gospel as you do, who shares in the same promise as you do because you think they are wrong about something.
We're going to disagree on things. Sometimes very important things.
I have dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are Catholic, and some of them feel convicted not to use birth control and that to use birth control is a sin. But when it comes down to it, we are members of the body of Christ, and I am grateful they put up with me, who thinks differently. Nor do I try and pressure them in doing something they think is wrong.
It is Jesus Christ and the gospel that binds us all together. In Christ, we are united. Without him, though, we're just going to be tossed about as Paul says "...tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming."
And we are. We idolize teachers that crop up and pick sides. Choose carefully. Get it right. Remember, the stakes are high.
I think of the Nashville Statement when it said:
"WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.
WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which other faithful Christians should agree to disagree." - statement X.
How sad.
To say that the many faithful LGBT+ brothers and sisters in Christ who are affirming like me are "departing from Christian faithfulness".
Are we really departing from Christian faithfulness? Or do you just think we're wrong? I think this is something stated more out of fear.
It's fear that if we allow people to say this is permissible, then someone's going to say everything is permissible.
It goes something like this: "If we are tolerant of those who are LGBT+ affirming, then everyone will start thinking it's okay to marry their pet, their sibling, and everyone else they know, and it will be very clear at this point that no one cares about the bible anymore and we can't let that happen."
It's a typical slippery slope argument. It's fallacious and wrong to assume. It goes something like this:
1) We start with an initial, seemingly acceptable argument and decision made. (In this case, LGBT+ affirmation.)
2) The WORST CASE SCENARIO is laid out. A later argument and decision are made that are obviously unacceptable. (Bestiality, pedophilia, incest, rape, murder...)
3) There's some mechanism (perhaps by any number of psychological processes) by which accepting the initial acceptable argument leads to accepting the later argument and decision.
Suffice it to say that being LGBT+ affirming does not mean affirming the next Ted Bundy, and quite honestly I shouldn't even have to say that.
There are so many LGBT+ Christians who are affirming who believe the gospel. They profess Christ. You can see it in their lives. But because you think they are wrong, they are not to be considered as part of the Church.
But they are. They are heirs to the same promise. They too have a beautiful inheritance that will not be taken away from them.
The Coming Schism
I represent something true of the conservative evangelical church. I'm not alone. There are more people out there who think like me. There are people who think like me in the PCA. Statistically, this is likely.
In the coming years, there will be a split in the conservative church, much like there was in the 1970s. I don't know how long it will take for it to happen, but I know it will.
Only this time, it won't be about biblical authority. It won't be about Scripture getting "loosened".
It will be characterized by a bunch of people exhausted by the culture wars just looking for a place where they can join hands with their brothers and sisters in Christ and worship God.
There will likely be a denominational split that happens within the PCA over these matters at some point. It'll get to the point where people start debating over whether we can ordain women and/or LGBT+ ministers, and unlike the 1970s when this was tied with the question of biblical authority, it will be about a differing opinion on what is or is not permissible.
Regardless of what happens, though, I hope we can remain united in Christ. I hope we can still keep Christ at center. Needless division and strife among the body of Christ is such a terrible thing. Paul is always warning against it in the epistles. The world will know us for the love we have of Christ and the love we have towards one another. If that is not there, we're like salt that has lost its saltiness.
This is what is ever on my mind as I ponder over these political and social issues which divide the Church. We differ on these things. The Church has always differed on things, ever since its very start.
How can we be as one united body in Christ despite these things?
If your brother or sister identifies as part of the LGBT+ community and is affirming, can you find it in yourself to worship with them? To take communion with them? Can you find it in yourself to consider them members of the body of Christ?
Or do you tell them God's promises aren't for them? The gospel isn't for them?
If so, that's not the gospel I know. I rather think it went something like this: