“There is a darkness upon us that is flooded with light.”

That is a line from a song by the Avett Brothers, one of my favorite bands at the current time. For them it has meaning for their careers, but for me it captures a contemporary reality about the raging storm across the earth in regards to the advancement of the homosexual movement. As the Avett brothers used it, it had to do with the loss of their control of their music, with others telling them “in the fine print” what is right and what is wrong. They see it as obvious [“flooded with light”], but that it was “darkness” that had the dangerous potential for having a negative effect on their career as a band.

The metaphor of darkness flooded with light is particularly apt to describe the mind-boggling blindness of society today regarding homosexual behavior. From the beginning of mankind, homosexual behavior has been universally condemned as immoral, vile, and unnatural behavior to be proscribed, if not punished – though in most cultures it was indeed punishable by criminal law. Indeed, in the United States, nearly every state had criminal statutes prohibiting homosexual behaviors, and even the uber-liberal APA had categorized the behavior as abnormal and as a form of personality disorder, changing it only as late as 1973. Given this nigh unto universal condemnation, how is it that in a few short years homosexuality has become not only not criminal and perverse, but wholly acceptable by what the polls call a majority of American people?

The newness of this development is breathtaking, really. From the hinterlands of perversion to social approval and acceptability, homosexuality is now chic not only among the ultra liberals but also among even formerly conservative people, under the guise that in a “free” society, no one should be hindered from “loving” whomever they wish. I have put quotation marks around these two words, for those two words are at the very heart of the argument for the promotion and encouragement of homosexual behaviors of all sorts, including the allowance of homosexual marriage! And this is where the quote with which I opened this essay comes in.

“A darkness is on us...”

Homosexuality has not changed. It has remained constant as a minority perversion throughout human history. That history comes into stark light in the ancient Jewish scriptures of the Old Testament, particularly the account of the judgment of God on the plain cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, names which have for hundreds of generations been synonymous with homosexual perversion, particularly sodomy. God claims to have judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual perversion and homosexuality, and the New Testament references that judgment at least twice, with one such citation from the lips of Jesus Christ himself. Not only does the New Testament continue to use Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of God’s judgment for their vile sinfulness, but the New Testament gives yet more particularity to the perversions of those cities, and explains why such a judgment was wrought. There is no scriptural text more explicit than Romans chapter one and First Corinthians chapter six in describing particularly polluting sins of sexual perversions, including explicitly homosexual behaviors by both male and females.

Homosexuality particularly a “spiritual darkness” of the corrupt mind

There is nothing “normal” about homosexual behavior. The normally functioning mind of sane persons is immediately repulsed by the notion of such behaviors. Even those who practice such things hide it with extraordinary efforts to conceal their behaviors, for I am fully persuaded that they themselves recognize – though they suppress such recognition – that their own behavior is perverse and abnormal. Only recently have homosexuals dared to boast and flaunt their sexual perversion in plain sight. In other words, the perversion of homosexual behavior is self-evident, obvious, needing no explanation. It is an unnatural perversion and any sane and thinking person knows that full well. It is, in a word, darkness. Here the Bible captures it exactly:

“For since the creation of the world His [God’s, that is] invisible attributes are CLEARLY SEEN, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead [divine nature, deity], so that they are without excuse, because, although THEY KNEW GOD, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but BECAME FUTILE IN THEIR THOUGHTS, AND THEIR FOOLISH HEARTS WERE DARKENED. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

“THEREFORE, God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…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 [lit., males] LEAVING THE NATURAL USE OF THE WOMAN, burned in their lust for one another, males with males 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,”

Futile in their thoughts. Their foolish hearts were darkened. Debased mind. All these phrases indicate what I mean by “darkness” that has come upon society in our day. And this darkness is “flooded with light,” in that it is clear and obvious that such behaviors are vile and immoral perversions of nature. No one has to teach anyone that homosexual behaviors are abnormal; we all know it full well, even the homosexuals who practice such perversions. So to what do we owe this madness that has broken out across the earth in such a short period of time? What has caused this darkness across the earth?

Back in a while with some of my own reflections on this phenomenon.

 

An Update 

I am currently retired from active ministry, as of a couple months ago. Actually, I announced my intent to retire from active ministry in January of 2012, but I have remained in place as pastor until we could search and locate a suitable replacement as pastor. The Lord has given us at least two men who are suitable for the task, and therefore I am taking my leave, following the dictates of my poor old body and mind.

Our church sold our church house, as the membership could no longer support a pastor and the church house together. The church now meets in a public library in Zeeland, MI, and continues steadfast in the faith. We hope by late 2013 to have a pastor in place full time so that the church can begin a program of growth and development.

I and my wife have sold our home in Holland, MI, and intend to relocate to Central Illinois, where most of our family resides. We have missed them in the 13 years we have ministered in Holland, and now that we have retired we hope to once again enjoy the company of our relations more closely. We especially want to be a part of the growing lives of our three grandsons, all who reside in Central Illinois. We love them a bunch and hope that in these our last days we get to be involved with them as much as they will allow. 

As it is sometimes said, ministers never really retire, actually. And I am sure that I will have some involvement with ministry wherever and as long as my Lord gives me breath. But I fully intend to make it less intense than in the past, with a bit more rest for my weary body and mind. I admittedly have lost some of my abilities, but with whatever I have remaining, I dedicate it to the Lord Jesus Christ for the remainder of my days here. Perhaps I can now spend more time devoted to a written work that I have envisioned which I have tentatively entitled "Peripatetic Questioning Evangelism," an attempt to explore and advise those who hold to Calvinistic doctrine as to how to approach personal evangelism in our modern day, fulfilling the admonitions of the Apostle Paul to Timothy to "not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." 

I and my wife are eternally grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy towards us. We look forward to His grace and mercy yet in the future.

Back once again

I de-activated my Facebook account and intend rather to post my thoughts and essays here on my blog, though I have been inactive for a number of years. Facebook is a social media kind of thingy, which I find less than useful, really.

First, let me remind any reader than might happen along that when I use the word Christian, I am using it in a narrow sense, and NOT in the colloquial sense that it is used in popular culture today. For me a biblical Christian is one who has been re-born spiritually and is living a transformed life. A biblical Christian is a regenerate person, one born from above by the Spirit of God, and not one who merely attends Christian services or claims the name Christian based on any association with a church or sect or religion that calls itself Christian but does not reflect the changed life of the regenerate person. This is such a vital distinction, for it is chic today to identify as Christian but no so chic as to live a changed life in accordance with the Scriptures. For me the two go hand in hand: the regenerate person is changed dramatically from a life of sin and degradation to a life of obedience to Christ and righteousness [as defined by Holy Scripture].

For instance, the Catholic Church self identifies as Christian, but is Christian in the most superficial way, that of adopting a convenient name and admitting somewhere in their doctrine that they believe something about a man named Jesus Christ. But for me to be a Catholic is NOT Christian at all, as they do no believe in the doctrine of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit unto salvation by faith alone.

Nor is the average mega-church member a Christian in my view, as they have reduced the term Christian to its lowest denomination. Most, if not all of them, are what orthodox theologians call "decisionists." In their way of thinking, to be "born again" is a mere act of the will to "receive Christ in my heart," a formula that is absent in Scripture but widespread in modern culture and modern church society. I am not talking about these at all, for the mere decisionist is headed to eternal damnation as sure as Satan. Let them all take warning: "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," and "who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God."

So, then, in summary, so that all will know when I use the term "Christian," I am meaning something far greater than what is called "Christian" in modern times. I am talking about a person who has been regenerated, born from above, born of the Spirit of God, one who has passed from death unto life, one who has gone from darkness to light, from death to life -- all by the monergistic work of the Spirit of Jehovah God, father of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who sends the Spirit into the world to draw His own unto Jesus Christ, for "no one can come to me [Jesus speaking] unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."