Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 9

Sexuality, Identity, Sin, and Denying Ourselves to Follow Christ

I highly recommend you watch ���You Are Not Your Sexuality,��� a talk by Sam Allberry (a Christian who has same-sex attractions) on sexuality and identity. He has much to say that is relevant to everyone (not just those with same-sex attractions) and relevant to all temptations and sin (not just those related to sexuality). I hope you���ll watch the whole thing (see below), but I want to emphasize three of his key points here.

First, I imagine that many of you were as surprised as I was at how many people were unable to understand how Christians could speak against homosexuality and think the Orlando massacre was an atrocity. Part of the misunderstanding comes from this: Our culture sees sexuality as being fundamental to our identity; Christians do not. Allberry explains:

The first thing we need to know is that our identity is in Christ���. One of the big things our culture around us is saying at the moment is that you are your sexuality. Your sexual feelings define you. They are who you are at the core of your being. They are you at your most you. And because that is the common belief, as you all know, that means everyone���s sexuality has to be affirmed. If you don���t affirm someone���s sexuality, you���re effectively rejecting who they are at their deepest level���. That is the unforgivable sin in our culture, and it is why non-affirming Christians are not just seen as wrong, not just seen as quaint, but increasingly, we���re seen as dangerous���.

If you are your sexuality, then sexual fulfillment is key���. Being sexually fulfilled is intrinsic to being complete as a human being, if you are your sexuality. And so it makes the stakes incredibly high. And actually, the real tragedy of that is that it means the world ends up saying, in effect, that a life without sexual satisfaction is not a life worth living. The church doesn���t say that (I hope), the Scriptures don���t say that, but our culture does���. Jesus teaches us, and in His life He shows us, that sex and romantic fulfillment is not the key to making ourselves complete. Jesus was, after all, the most fully human and complete person who ever lived, and yet was celibate.

Second, when we���re tempted to grab something we haven���t been given by God (particularly in the case of sexual sin), it���s easy to tell ourselves the lie that we need to do so in order to be ���who we really are.��� Allberry points out that when we do this, we���re being the opposite of ���who we really are���:

I am not defined by my sin. I���m not defined by my temptations. I���m defined by who I am before God the Father in Jesus Christ���. As I���m battling against those temptations, there are times I can hear a voice saying, ���Sam, stop trying to be somebody else. This is who you are. Just accept it and run with it. This trying to be celibate and chaste, that���s just not you.��� But actually, as I open the Bible, I realize that, actually, who I most truly, ultimately and fundamentally am is someone who is in Christ. And therefore, when I���m striving to be holy, when I���m striving to be Christlike, I���m not going against the grain of who I really am, I���m going with it. As someone who is in Christ, I am most being me when I am pursuing godliness, not when I'm pursuing sin.

Third, the Bible doesn���t teach that people who have same-sex attractions are in a separate category from everyone else. Jesus��� command, ���If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me,��� applies to everybody.

When Jesus says������Repent��� to everyone, Jesus is saying all of us are lined up the wrong way. All of us are oriented, spiritually, in the wrong direction���. Jesus says all of us need to reorient our lives at the most deepest level, and therefore, for any of us, discipleship is going to be costly���. There are things we���re going to have to turn around on that feel fundamental to who we are���.

Denying yourself...is saying no to who you have thought you were all your life and saying yes to Jesus instead. That identity you have finessed and crafted over years has to be given over to Jesus. And friends, that is the case for all of us���. If you think the gospel is just kind of slotted in neatly to your life, not really required any particular deep changes, I don���t think it���s the gospel of Jesus you���ve been receiving. And so if we���re tempted to think the gospel is unfair to same-sex attracted people, it may well be that we haven���t really counted the cost of discipleship in our own lives.

Watch the rest of the video below.

 

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Links Mentioned on the 6/24/16 Show

The following is a rundown of today's podcast, annotated with links that were either mentioned on the show or inspired by it:

Guest Host: J. Warner Wallace

Guest: Al Serrato ��� A DA Examines the Evidence for Christianity (0:00)

Please Convince Me
Al Serrato: A Prosecutor's Evaluation of the Evidence for Christianity ��� Al Serrato's previous interview on the STR podcast
A Stone in His Shoe by Greg Koukl
The Extraordinary Nature of Murder and the Evidence for God by J. Warner Wallace
What Counts As Evidence? by Amy Hall (Quoting J. Warner Wallace)

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To take part in the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00���6:00 p.m. PT), follow @STRtweets and use the hashtag #STRtalk.

True Compassion Is Determined by the Mind, Not by Feelings

In an article titled ���Regret Isn���t Rare: The Dangerous Lie of Sex Change Surgery���s Success,��� Walt Heyer (who regrets his own sex change surgery) argues that our society needs to stop pushing surgery as the solution for those who are experiencing gender dysphoria.

Shortly after undergoing sex change surgery, most people report feeling better. Over time, however, the initial euphoria wears off. The distress returns, but this time it is exacerbated by having a body that is irrevocably molded to look like the opposite gender. That���s what happened to me, and that���s what the people with regret who write to me say happened to them.

Heyer goes on to tell the story of one man���s regret and to explain why our rush to treat gender dysphoria with sex change surgery is neither wise nor compassionate.

This reminds me of something I wrote several years ago:

Over the past couple of years I���ve had to learn the hard way that my strong feelings of compassion and empathy coupled with my desire to help people and make them happy can sometimes obscure the path of true compassion. I watched with horror as the actions of my emotion-driven ���compassion��� led only to greater harm to the friends I was trying to help. What was wrong? I was giving them what they said they needed. I couldn���t stand to see them suffer! I was confused and conflicted���I loved these people and wanted to help, but my short-term help was causing them long-term harm. When I finally accepted the fact that the truly compassionate thing to do was to withhold what these people were asking for, I had to do the most difficult thing I���ve ever done���I stopped giving it to them. I fought my feelings and forced myself to stand firm. I endured accusations of cruelty and lack of Christian charity. I withstood slander and gossip. I was rejected and berated. Believe me, it would have been much easier to give them what they wanted, and I certainly would have been happier about myself, but I desired to be truly compassionate to these people I loved���and that meant doing what was best for them, regardless of my feelings.

True compassion is not directed by a feeling. In fact, it may entail actions that cause our feelings of compassion to scream with protest. But, as I���ve said before, our emotions must submit to our minds. The impulse to be compassionate is good, but if we let our emotions determine the way we carry out that compassion, we will often be deceived. A careful examination of the long-term results of our actions is necessary to determine whether or not those actions are truly compassionate���.

No doubt we���ll be called selfish and uncaring, and our own feelings may even condemn us. I know how difficult this is. All we can do is continue to remind ourselves that helping people in a real and lasting way is more important than satisfying and protecting our own feelings

I wrote those words in a completely different context, but the principle applies everywhere���personal relationships, public policy, child-rearing, medicine, education, and on, and on. Sometimes the easy response of giving a person what he immediately desires, in the way he immediately wishes to receive it, is not the compassionate response.

Great misunderstandings are caused when people assume their policy preference is identical with compassion itself, and that a rejection of that policy equals a rejection of compassion. This assumption is false, and Heyer���s article is a perfect example of why. Many doctors refuse to do transgender surgeries not because they hate, but because they care about their patients��� long-term well-being and want to practice responsible medicine. They are as compassionate as anyone on the other side, but their minds have led them to express that compassion differently. If people on the other side of this could give everyone the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping to a conclusion of ���hate,��� public discourse would be much better off.

Links Mentioned on the 6/22/16 Show

The following is a rundown of today's podcast, annotated with links that were either mentioned on the show or inspired by it:

Guest Host: J. Warner Wallace: Ancient Myth Claims Aren't Just Like Jesus ��� Four Principles (0:00) / Has the Biblical Account of Jesus Changed over Time? (0:20) / The Best Piece of Christian Evidence (0:40)

J. Warner Wallace's website and podcast
Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace
Why the Pre-Jesus Mythologies Fail to Prove Jesus Is a Myth by J. Warner Wallace
Brett Kunkle's apologetics mission trips
Jesus, the Recycled Redeemer by Greg Koukl
Did Abraham Lincoln Exist? (Satire) by Carson Weitnauer
Did Jesus Exist? by Bart Ehrman
The Early "High Christology" of Jesus by J. Warner Wallace
The Best Piece of Christian Evidence: Unity by J. Warner Wallace

��� Announcements:

#STRask Podcast with Greg Koukl and Melinda Penner (J. Warner Wallace will be guest hosting the next #STRask)

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To take part in the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00���6:00 p.m. PT), follow @STRtweets and use the hashtag #STRtalk.

Read First, Then Comment

Based on some recent experience on Facebook, I feel the need to remind everyone not to be this guy:

In 2014, NPR conducted an April Fools��� Day experiment. They posted an article on Facebook titled, ���Why Doesn���t America Read Anymore?��� The Facebook comments came flooding in.

���I read every day, and all my friends and family members do too. Are we not America? Or are you just weakly grasping for stories?���

���Just because people aren���t opting to read a dusty copy of War and Peace doesn���t mean we���re having a hard time comprehending things.���

���NPR, wipe those nervous beads of sweat from your brow, sit back, or read & conduct research at a library for another NPR story. There are plenty of bookworms, you just have to look for them.���

If you clicked the article to ���hear��� NPR���s argument and the evidence behind their statement, you were instead greeted by, ���Congratulations, genuine readers������ NPR then explained: ���We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven���t actually read.��� Each comment proved their suspicion. Each comment revealed the reality of why James penned his words in James 1:19. As fallen creatures, we are slow to hear and quick to speak.

Read the rest of Nathan Bingham���s post on why we need to ���Be Quick to Read and Slow to Comment.���

How to Respond When Someone Says, "No One Comes to Faith Through Arguments."

Brett shares how the Holy Spirit uses multiple means of bringing people to faith:

When You Denigrate Objective Truth, This Is What You Get

I can���t help but think the insanity we���re seeing in politics right now is what happens when a culture gives up the idea of objective truth. For years, postmodernists have argued against a modernistic view of truth (i.e., that it can be discovered, known, and argued for, even if imperfectly���and that, in this way, consensus can be found across varying communities), saying we should drop it because it leads to dangerous conflicts. But in a postmodern world of relativism, people don���t stop trying to promote their political, theological, and worldview positions; they just use power and propaganda rather than rational argument to do so.

Ten years ago (on a blog that���s now defunct), I wrote about the danger ahead of us:

Those who advocate the postmodern view that we construct our world through our language within our separate communities do so in part because they believe it will be a remedy for violence in the world. If we would only understand that our views are merely the views of our community and not representative of reality itself (i.e., if we didn���t have confidence that we had the ���right��� view), then (they believe) we would be humble about our views and just live and let live, not attempting to force those views on others through violence.

Here���s the irony, however: this view will, in the end, lead to more violence than we currently experience. Imagine a world where all people in all societies view the world in these postmodern terms, believing that all of their values and stories about the world (history, theology, etc.) are subjectively created through the languages of their particular communities. Further, communication of one���s beliefs to another who is part of a different community is not possible in any meaningful way because the separate communities (e.g., Christians and atheists) have different languages and have constructed different worlds for themselves. The only way for someone outside the community to enter in is to slowly learn the language and behavior of that new community.

Why do I say this will lead to violence? Currently, people from different communities (like Christians and atheists) debate and discuss their diverse ideas in an effort to promote what they consider to be the truth. But imagine what would happen if the whole world believed in the postmodern view described above. The problem begins with this: Even if people do not believe their view represents actual reality, being postmodernist does not automatically make people care less about the view they prefer. After all, postmodern philosophers and theologians prefer their views strongly enough to write many books trying to convince others to take on those views as well. The danger then comes because of the isolating effects of the postmodern view. Each community is trapped within the confines of its own language, and the people within are unable (or believe they are unable) to rationally communicate with those outside (who have very different languages) to persuade them that their view is a better one. That is what will lead to violence. In a world where postmodernism dominates and people live out the implications consistently, what is left when separate communities come into conflict and the members believe rational communication and persuasion is impossible? Only the international language of power remains.

I���m not saying everyone has thought through what I said above. Ideas, and the behavior resulting from those ideas, work their way though a society even when most people have never thought through either the reasons behind their worldview or how that worldview connects with their behavior. This happens through institutions like our universities, which, as a result of ideas like those above, have shifted from being places where we search for truth together to places where we learn techniques to promote our particular tribe (including shouting down opponents, protecting ourselves from hearing views from outside our community, and driving out people who disagree with us).

I think this postmodern denigration of our ability to find a shared, objective truth through reasoned argument accounts for at least part of what we���re seeing play out now, from the violent rioting against Trump supporters to the frighteningly demagogic propaganda we���re seeing in the media.

Romans Prescribes the Gospel, Not Execution

The New York Times claims that Romans 1 calls for the execution of gays. A Republican congressman read the passage at a committee hearing. I don���t know the congressman���s purpose, but it couldn���t be to call for the execution of gays because the passage doesn���t say that. And 2,000 years of Christian teaching has never taught that it does.

It tells us we���re all sinners deserving punishment, but the only execution referred to in Romans is that of Jesus, who took the punishment Romans 1 is speaking of on behalf of sinners so that sinners can be reconciled to Him.

The relevant passage, Romans 1:18-32, begins: ���For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.��� All ungodliness. Romans isn���t singling out gays, though homosexuality is mentioned. So are many other sins:

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

No one can read that passage and walk away scot-free because we���ve all committed at least some of those sins, and maybe all. Some of these sins are universally common ��� disobedient to parents ��� because Paul means to count every single one of us as sinners so that we will look to the Savior who won a pardon for us.

Matthew Henry���s commentary, a very mainstream study of Romans, explains that the wrath spoken of here is God���s focused on all sin. Christians identify themselves as the subjects of this passage because we are sinners. Paul���s point in writing this is to point to Jesus. Romans 3:21-25:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it���the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

There is no distinction. All of us have fallen short. And whose actual death has offered redemption to make the spiritual death spoken of in Romans 1 unnecessary? Jesus.

Christians make no claims about sinners that we aren���t making of ourselves ��� and we aren���t calling for our own execution. Rather, we make the same appeal Paul makes here ��� to accept Jesus��� sacrifice and be reconciled with God and receive spiritual life.

Sure, it���s understandable to get angry about an article like this. But that���s not constructive. It���s also grievous that the Gospel can be so misunderstood. A constructive response to this is to recommit ourselves to communicating the Gospel as clearly as we can and living in a way that commends the message and glorifies the Savior.

I was praying about it this morning, asking God that instead of turning ugly, this could actually be a new opening to the Gospel, as it comes under attack, that people will see what Christians have to say and we would be faithful and clear to tell them.

Challenge Response: The Collection of Books in the Bible Changed Until the Printing Press

Here's my response to this week's challenge:

We Should Respond as Jesus Taught Us To

Pat Robertson made remarks that have people up in arms. He said, ���The left is having a dilemma of major proportions [between two favored groups], and I think, for those of us who disagree with some of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and let them kill themselves.��� People are questioning whether the ���them��� is the left or gays and Muslims, and many are taking his words in the worst possible way to confirm the worst they think about Christians��� feelings about LGBT people. Even in the best possible light, his comments are tone deaf in the wake of the Orlando shooting and inappropriate for a Christian in the media to say.

There���s a new story that a pastor in Sacramento said that the people at the Orlando club got what they deserved because they were sodomites. No they didn���t. In the New Testament, homosexuality is listed along with a variety of other sins that pretty much everyone commits. So no single kind of sinner deserves to be murdered. And the Bible certainly doesn���t teach that gays are to be singled out for punishment in this world.

Jesus��� teaching does not leave Christians the option to make flippant or cruel and uncaring remarks about others.

So let���s clarify what Jesus taught about Christians��� feelings and attitude toward others. Jesus said to love and pray for those who differ with us. He made Christians ministers of reconciliation to the world, to lost people, appealing to them as though Jesus were appealing to them.

We cannot dismissively wish others harm.

The Gospel message that Jesus taught is that all of us are sinners, and those who have been reconciled to God already are to love those who are not yet reconciled and to offer them peace with God.

These two men have offered unbiblical responses. Let���s pray the Body of Christ as a larger whole responds as Jesus taught us to.