Originally Posted by Brother Strange (Post 86380)

Chan...

I understand your sympathies. Whether I agree with them or not in not material to my sickening aversion to sodomy. However, to place lying on the same par with the disgusting things that the sodomites do to each other in their same-sex bedroom is indefensible.

The passion of your defense is noted.

I am left to wonder.

Originally Posted by Chan (Post 87154)

You understand NOTHING! I'm just sick and tired of people who call themselves Christians going around acting like some sins are okay while other sins are just so utterly vile that we don't even want such people anywhere near our churches. Preachers are so quick to spew venom from the pulpit with regard to homosexuality but will barely say so much as a word about liars, adulterers (including people who look lustfully at others and people who got divorced for reasons other than fornication and married someone else), swindlers, extortioners, gossips, and whatever other pet sins you want to name. All sins are equally sinful and all of them bring the same eternity in the lake of fire. All sins, except for blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, bring the same forgiveness to those who repent.

Originally Posted by Brother Strange (Post 86399)

Newman, Ferd, MOW, S I-90.

While you all have rushed to congratulate Chan on his excellent words as though they were words sent down from heaven by an ark-angel, do you all also agree that what homosexuals do to each other in their same sex bedrooms on the same par with lying, as Chan has stated?

The wife and I were talking a few days ago about the extreme change in the thinking in todays world from the days when we were very young. It is as though it is a weird world that we are unaquainted with.

Example: Today I heard of a school kid placing his ham sandwich on the lunch room. The school went into a panic. It is unknown what will happen to the poor confused kid. It seems that the Muslim kids were greatly offended. The kid is in big trouble and will undergo sensitivity training and possibly disciplined and sent to another school.

The warped mentality of this today's world is leaving me as a total stranger here.

Newman, Rhoni, MOW and all. I love you all very much. But, I am totally shocked at this new attitude toward homosexuality. I've said it before. Seeing the rapid change of public mentality that has crept into the church, I fully expect that the UPC will debate ordaining homosexual preachers, if the Lord tarries long enough.

Lying is NOT on the same par with what homos do to each other. God never destroyed two cities because the people told lies. NEVER. There are degrees of abomonations. When someone lies, he can be redeemed. When someone falls into the homosexual lifestyle, the spirit of it is so powerful that the mind becomes totally reprobated. Few, precious few are ever redeemed from it.

Anyway, I am surprised. But, I am told that I should not be.

Originally Posted by Carpenter (Post 87161)

Except for your first three words, I agree with you.

I remember this couple came into the church for a special program and I instantly was overcome with this indignant attitude saying how dare these people desecrate the house of God!!!!

Thank God I was instantly convicted and the thought came to me, if not here, then where can they go and feel the Love of Jesus?

We have to be careful, we have been so conditioned by our religious culture and end up acting the opposite of the way Jesus would have responded to some situations and circumstances.

Originally Posted by Brother Strange (Post 86489)

Indeed sin is sin. No argument there. All will be excluded from heaven.

One man prayed, "Give me neither poverty or riches." His prayer expressed his wishes that in poverty he would not steal, nor riches that he would forget God.

In the old days, which it seems that I know more of, I remember a poor man that went hunting and shot squirrels out of season. He was hauled before the judge that had compassion on the man in his transgression when he leared that the poor man had many children who were hungry. The judge gave the man a little probation only and then sought to find the man some help that his children could eat.

Homosexual sins are not on this level. There are degrees of sin.

Originally Posted by Chan (Post 87167)

For you to say that lying is not on the same level as homosexuality is to disagree with the word of God and, thus, to make yourself an enemy of God. GOD'S WORD views both homosexuality and lying as abominations. There is not even one passage of scripture that says some abominations (referring to things that are morally detestable, not to things that are ceremonially unclean) are more or less abominable than others.

Originally Posted by Newman (Post 86427)

Brother Strange- From an eternal point of view; both lying and homosexuality will get you to hell.

Originally Posted by Newman (Post 87176)

Actually Chan I beg to differ with you in this regard. Not all abominations were treated as equally offensive. There was no command in the OT to stone someone for lying. Marriages could not be broken for lying either. :coffee2

Originally Posted by Chan (Post 87182)

The eternal point of view is the only correct point of view!

Irrelevant. The only consequences that matter are the eternal consequences!

Yes, I see truth and error and I absolutely reject this moral relativity garbage you and Brother Strange are promoting. There is only truth and not truth.

Originally Posted by ManOfWord (Post 86569)

Well, so far, I appreciate a decent, civil discussion of yet another very difficult topic.

I must clarify the whole "grading" of sin deal. I do believe that in God's eyes, there is a gradation of sin. However, it just may not be exactly the gradation that we, as humans, think it is. I am NOT soft on homosexuality. I am, however, compassionate toward homosexuals.

As far as my personal thinking is concerned, I agree with Rhoni & Newman that the worst sins are sexual sins committed against an innocent child. The damage from an unscrupulous pervert indelibly "branded" on the spirit of a child is "almost" unforgiveable, IMO.

All sins have the ability to condemn to hell....sin is sin. "For him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin."

I do not believe that homosexuality is acceptable in any way and that it is, indeed, perversion. That being said, why does homosexuality receive a larger "red letter" than the other perversions?