There are two groups trapped in the bondage of homosexuality and same-sex attraction. In the first group are those who are unwilling captives in the grip of a homosexual lifestyle or who valiantly battle against a same-sex attraction. They are drawn to the perversion of homosexuality as a drug-addicted junkie is drawn toward the needle or pill. Year after year their despair and self-hate grows as the strong hold of this perversion kills all hope of escape. The burden of their shame and guilt is immense. Satan continually accuses and demeans them with taunts of their utter worthlessness and hopelessness. This group appears to be the most willing to listen to and accept the gospel message.
In the second group are those who vigorously deny that homosexuality is a perversion and demand that their fellow citizens not only accept and affirm them but requires society to be ordered to promote their agenda through suppression of opposing voices; imposing or overturning certain laws; replacing history with fiction; denying religious freedom; denying freedom of speech; and aggressively indoctrinating children, young people, and society at large to accept their worldview. This group will be the most resistant and even hostile to the gospel message, but Christians should never underestimate the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and the saving power of God’s Word.
The evil and sneering face of the Gay Pride movement
The homosexual lobby’s vehicle for achieving cultural domination is spearheaded by the Gay Pride movement.
Gay pride or LGBT pride is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBT rights movements. Ranging from solemn to carnivalesque, pride events are typically held during LGBT Pride Month…Common symbols of pride are the rainbow or pride flag.[1]
The first four letters of the acronym have been used since the 1990s, but in recent years there has been a push to include other (presumed) sexual identities to offer broader representation. To that end the acronym LGBTQ+ is used to represent a diverse range of sexualities and gender-identities, referring to anyone who is transgender.[2]
The Gay Pride movement as a formal organization was created following a police raid on a gay bar located at 43 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons rioted. This riot was followed by other riots and protests and became the modern LGBT rights movement and impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches. On November 2, 1969, the first pride march was proposed to be held in New York City and was to be known as Christopher Street Liberation Day.[3]
But Isaiah specifically says that God will pour out misery upon those who call evil good and good evil as does the Gay Pride movement.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight! [Isaiah 5:20-21. NKJV]
Five examples among thousands of the great evils found in the Gay Pride movement’s agenda are presented in the Addendum at the end of this article.
God’s Word peels away the false face of the Gay Pride Agenda
Two thousand years ago the apostle Paul recorded God’s pronouncement of the condition and destiny of the unrepentant participants in homosexual activities including the modern LGBT/Gay Pride movement.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 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. 28 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 1:18, 24-28. NKJV] [emphasis added]
Donald Stamps in his commentary on verses 18, 24-28, expands our insight into Paul’s words.
In the present, God’s anger is seen in how he gives wicked and defiant people over to moral filthiness, spiritual corruption, and ungodly passions (v. 18)…A sure sign that God is strongly displeased and has abandoned a society is their increased focus on sexual immorality and perversion (v. 24). The three stages of God’s abandoning people to spiritual and moral impurity are: (a) giving them over to sinful sexual pleasures that are a shameful use of the body (v. 24); (b) giving them over to homosexual or lesbian passions (vv. 26-27); (c) giving them over to a corrupted mind (i.e., a twisted way of thinking by which they justify their ungodly actions and uncontrolled passions of sin, v. 28).[4]
Christians who suppress the truth in unrighteousness with regard to homosexuality
Many in the church in last days during the Great Apostasy are among those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness regarding the sin of homosexuality. Here we speak of Christians and churches who have fallen away from the faith who (1) Champion the false social justice agenda of the homosexual lobby and (2) present a partial gospel of non-judgmental love and tolerance to the homosexual sinner without the necessity of presenting the truth of God’s word as to the sinfulness of homosexuality, the imminent judgment of unrepentant sinners, the unrepentant sinners’ eternal damnation, the requirement for repentance for salvation, and thereafter the avoidance of all sin including participating in homosexual sin.
• Applying the mask of social justice to the cause of Gay Pride
The infiltration of the homosexual agenda is occurring to varying degrees in a great majority of denominations and churches in all parts of the world and corresponds to the present-day Great Apostasy (falling away of large numbers of the faithful) prophesied to occur in the end times leading up to the Rapture of the church. Many denominations and churches to varying degrees are accepting of homosexuality and transgender identity, support civil unions and/or marriage of same-sex couples, grant full acceptance of LGBT individuals and organizations within the church, permit ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, and have ministries that specifically promote and support the LBGT agenda.
Homosexuality has grown to such an extent in the Roman Catholic Church, beginning in the early decades of the 1900s to the present day, it has become rife within the Catholic Church from the local priesthood, seminaries, and hierarchies to the very top of the Vatican. The pervasive occurrence of homosexuality found in the Catholic Church was no accident. Bella Dodd was formally a deep-seated communist who left communism and converted to the Christian faith. She appeared before Congress in 1953 and testified of the communist-homosexual infiltration of the Catholic Church.
We got instruction from Kremlin in 1929 as to what we were to do…we were to take the best and the brightest, the guys who were smart enough to live a double life, good looking guys who were sociable so that they would be noticed by their bishops, and they would be promoted, they would become vocation directors… So what are we dealing with? We are dealing with a group of predatory homosexuals who became priests not to serve the Church but to destroy her from within. In this, they are at every level.[5]
By the middle and late 20th century large numbers of these priests had risen to leadership levels and assumed positions of unrestrained power. The staggering success of the Communist/homosexual infiltration is confirmed by the elevation of the Argentine Jesuit Priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy in 2013. Thereafter, Pope Francis has roiled much of the Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion followers with his stunning departures from the Catholic faith with his proclamation of false doctrines, support for Marxism, promotion of one-world government, defense/cover-up of homosexual activities of predator priests and bishops, and denial that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Liberal Protestant denominations and churches were the earliest to promote the homosexual agenda and grant homosexuals and lesbians full acceptance and status as lay members and clergy within their churches and organizations. This break from biblical truth required little effort for liberal churches that emerged between 1870 and 1930. Early on the liberal churches abandoned belief in the inerrancy of the Bible, the Bible as the Word of God, the virgin birth of Jesus, the deity of Jesus, His miracles, atonement for sin through Jesus’ blood shed at Calvary, His resurrection from the grave, and His ascension to Heaven. Having been given over to a debased mind, these liberal theologians have little difficulty reinterpreting, twisting, and/or dismissing entirely the words of Paul in Romans 1. With the stain of sin removed from homosexuality, it is now sanitized and made acceptable within the liberal church.
The infiltration of the homosexual agenda began in various evangelical denominations and churches as early as the 1960s. Within two decades thereafter, many evangelical churches began allowing homosexuals and lesbians to become members and some were allowed to be ordained as ministers. Even when evangelical churches reject homosexuals and lesbians as members of the church, the strength of homosexual agenda has brought to bear on many evangelical churches a new hesitancy to boldly confront the sin of homosexuality. This hesitancy has arisen because of (1) secular society’s overwhelming promotion of a false narrative of social justice and (2) the mounting pressure for the acceptance and inclusion of homosexuality in society at large including the church. As a result one finds fewer and fewer messages in many evangelical churches which give a forthright presentation of the gospel regarding the sin of homosexuality. Even when those messages are given, they often contain only a partial gospel message of non-judgmental love and acceptance of the homosexual. This brings us to the second point in the suppression of truth in unrighteousness regarding the sin of homosexuality.
• Partial gospel of non-judgmental love and tolerance preached to the homosexual sinner
The truth of God’s Word is suppressed when the message of the church to the homosexual sinner contains only a partial gospel message. First, it invariably exhorts the Christian to exhibit non-judgmental love and tolerance of the homosexual and leaves the conviction of the homosexual to the Holy Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit does bring conviction of sin and prepares the sinner for repentance and salvation, it is the bold proclamation of the gospel that leads to salvation.
In place of a bold proclamation of the gospel, the homosexual sinner is assured that Jesus loves them which is immediately followed by an abundance of apologies from the pulpit for any hurtfulness the homosexual sinner may have felt or experienced from the church. However, the heart of the full gospel message has been left out or so badly mangled that it is unrecognizable and powerless to seize the heart of the homosexual sinner and draw him to salvation. Left out of this partial gospel message to the homosexual is the sinfulness of homosexuality, the imminent judgment of all unrepentant sinners, the unrepentant sinner’s eternal damnation, the requirement for repentance, and the requirement to live a holy life free from all sin including that of homosexuality.
The partial gospel has all the marks of the modern seeker-friendly church which offers a gentle seeker-sensitive message designed to not frighten away the sinner. Rather, the church awards the homosexual sinner the coveted status of “victim” and are thereafter welcomed into the church, made comfortable, and their felt-needs met until sometime in the future when the homosexual may decide to accept Christ. However, such acceptance must not be conditioned upon giving up his or her sins including homosexuality.
However, the Bible is very specific about not welcoming sinners into fellowship with Christians:
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. [2 Corinthians 6:14-16. NKJV]
Homosexuals should be invited to the church, told that God loves them so much that he gave his Son to die on the cross for atonement of the homosexual’s sin, and invite them to repent and make a public confession that they accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This is not what being unequally yoked together with an unbeliever means.
_____
Given the great apostasy in the church in these last days before the Rapture of the Church, it is no surprise to any right-thinking and biblically knowledgeable born-again Christian when they see Gay Pride rainbow banners and flags flying from churches, draped on the arms of the crosses within, worn around the necks or peaking from the collars of priests and clergymen, and adorning the lapels of countless Christians and non-Christians alike. For many in society, homosexuality and its Gay Pride agenda have been embraced as a cause célèbre—a noble campaign for justice, equality, tolerance, and diversity for the homosexual and lesbian.
Preachers, teachers, and the laity within the church must NOT embrace the homosexual agenda or Gay Pride’s campaign to undermine and corrupt the church of Jesus Christ. Drink deeply from the truth of God’s Word and peel away Gay Pride’s happy face. Underneath will be found the reality of the evil and sneering face that affirms and promotes the sin of homosexuality in contradiction to the truth of God’s Holy Word.
Larry G. Johnson
Addendum
The following are just five examples of this depravity among thousands that lie beneath the smiling face of the homosexual lobby. Like a cup of cold water thrown in an unsuspecting face, these examples should be sufficient to jolt or shock many members of the apostate, lukewarm, and spineless church into soul-searching repentance.
1. In honor of Pride Month this past June, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus released a song titled “A Message from the Gay Community” and outlines how they’ll “convert your children.” Portions of the song read as follows:
“You think we’re sinful, you fight against our right, you say we all lead lives you can’t respect. But you’re just frightened, you think that we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked. Funny, just this once, you’re correct.”
“We’ll convert your children, happens bit by bit, quietly and subtlety and you will barely notice it, you can keep them from disco, warn about San Francisco, make ’em wear pleated pants, we don’t care… we’ll convert your children… we’ll make them tolerant and fair.”
[Hannah Nightingale, “‘We’re coming for your children’: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus pushes woke agenda,” American News, July 7, 2021. https://thepostmillennial.com/were-coming-for-your-children-san-francisco-choir (accessed 7-17-2021)]
2. “The World Health Organization (WHO), for which the Trump administration has halted U.S. funding pending a review, advises that in the sex education programs in Europe children age four and under be given information about ‘early childhood masturbation’ and the ‘right to explore gender identities.’”
“In addition, for children ages four to six, the WHO recommends they be given information ‘about friendship and love towards people of the same sex’ and ‘same-sex relationships,’ and be guided to develop ‘an open, non-judgmental attitude.’”
[Michael Chapman, “WHO: Give early info about ‘early childhood masturbation’ to kids ages 4 and under,” CNSnews, May 20, 2020. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3844309/posts (accessed July 7-17, 2021).]
3. “Common sense and the First Amendment won a significant victory in Florida recently. The city of Boca Raton and Palm Beach County had passed ordinances forbidding paid counselors to counsel children and teens who wished to overcome same sex attraction or gender dysphoria. All a counselor could do was affirm the feelings of the child as normal and council to consider transitioning by puberty blockers and mutilating surgery. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals declared that this was a violation of the free speech right. This ruling is important because it sets a precedent for other cases. Twenty other states have caved to the homosexual steamroller and put laws in place tying the hands of counselors who wish to help children overcome this delusion. This opens the door for other cases to succeed in overturning these restrictions.”
[“Homosexual attack on children blunted in Florida,” Battle Cry, March-April 2021, (Chick Publications). https://www.chick.com/battle-cry/article?id=homosexual-attack-on-children-blunted-in-florida (accessed 7-17-2021)]
4. “Maltese Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer, convicted of distributing gay revenge porn in 2014, is leading the European Union’s battle against Hungary’s law banning the teaching of LGBT and gender issues to children.”
“Hungary’s new law is intended to prohibit schools from teaching children about alternative sexualities and transgenderism and restrict similar content aimed at children in the media, with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán insisting that decisions about such education should be up to parents, and that ‘parents also rightly expect that on platforms used by our children, pornography, sexuality for its own sake, homosexuality and gender reassignment programs should not be available.’”
[Chris Tomlinson, “Gay ‘Revenge Porn’ Convict Is Leading EU Charge Against Hungarian LGBT Law,” Brietbart, July 10, 2021. https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/07/10/gay-revenge-porn-convict-leads-eu-charge-against-hungary-lgbt-law/ (accessed 7-17-2021)]
5. The Washington Post featured an article about Ashlawn Elementary School in Arlington County, Virginia, which honored the National Education Association’s “Read Across America Day” by hosting a transgender spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The spokesperson read a story about a transgender child for a room full of kindergarten children. Prominent media outlets reported that parents were notified beforehand and that parents were allowed to not have their children attend the event. However, the letter was written solely in English despite the school’s sizable non-English-fluent population, and the letter in fact did not state that parents had the right to not have their child attend the presentation. Lily Eskelsen García, president of the NEA was an honored guest at Ashlawn’s transgender indoctrination event. Previously, the NEA welcomed LGBT groups to serve as official sponsors of the 2019 national reading event.
[Casey Chalk, “Va. Public School Indoctrinates 5-Year-Olds About Transgenderism Without Telling Parents,” The Federalist, March 18, 2019. https://thefederalist.com/2019/03/18/va-public-school-indoctrinates-5-year-olds-transgenderism-without-telling-parents/ (accessed 7-17-2019).]
Sources:
[1] “Gay Pride,” Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride#:~:text=Gay%20pride%20or%20LGBT%20pride%20is%20the%20pr
omotion,predominant%20outlook%20that%20bolsters%20most%20LGBT%20rights%20movements (accessed July
16, 2021).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Donald Stamps, Commentary on Romans 1:1,24-28, Fire Bible-Global Study Edition, ed. Donald Stamps, (Springfield, Missouri: Life Publishers International, 2009), pp. 2086-2087.
[5] “Communist/Homosexual Infiltration of the U.S. Catholic Church #1 of 2,” Cinops Be Gone, July 19, 2019.
https://wwwcinopsbegone.blogspot.com/2019/01/communisthomosexual-infiltration-of-us.html (accessed July 17,
2021)
