ãFUNDAMENTALISTä BIBLE SCHOOL FOR HOMOSEXUALS

"FUNDAMENTALIST" BIBLE COLLEGE FOR HOMOSEXUALS

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July 5, 1999 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The Grace Institute Bible College & Seminary of Cedar Grove, Florida, (near Panama City) claims to be "conservative, fundamental, and evangelical." It has a key distinctive, though, in that most of the students and faculty are homosexuals. The founder, Jerry Stephenson, says being "gay" or "lesbian" and being fundamentalist is not a contradiction in terms (AP, Salt Lake Tribune, June 26, 1999). Stephenson claims he believes in a literal heaven and hell and in being born again. There are only a handful of students who attend Grace Institute’s night classes, though they claim to have about 25 other students who take courses by correspondence or at satellite locations.

Stephenson claims that the biblical passages condemning homosexuality have been misunderstood. He says, "You cannot build the Bible and totally understand the Bible just from the pages of the Bible." That, of course, is nonsense. The Bible is very capable of interpreting itself when approached in a literal manner by a born again person who has the Holy Spirit’s illumination and guidance. God commands that the Christian study to show himself approved unto God, rightly dividing the Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). God would not require this if the Bible were not capable of being understood by the ordinary Christian who sets out rightly interpret it. The Lord Jesus promised that those who continue in God’s Word will know the truth (John 8:31-32). The Apostle John told the first century Christians, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (1 John 2:27). The Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher who illumines the Bible to the child of God. The people at Berea were commended because they searched the Scriptures and compared everything, even Paul’s teaching, to the Scriptures (Acts 17:11).

Stephenson is wrong. The Bible is capable of being understood all by itself, and it plainly condemns homosexuality as an abomination before Almighty God.

Stephenson is not alone in his confusion. As apostasy spreads its evil poison through "evangelical" and "fundamentalist" churches, spiritual blindness increases. The pro-homosexual EVANGELICALS CONCERNED claims there are hundreds of congregations in North America that publicly support homosexual rights. Ralph Blair, founder of Evangelicals Concerned, does not believe that homosexuals can really change.

On the Larry King Live show in December 1994, BILLY GRAHAM said homosexuals are born that way and that "it’s in their genes."

Homosexual THOMAS HANKS, who is a missionary in Latin America, spoke at the EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY in November 1997 and at Fuller Theological Seminary shortly thereafter. (The Evangelical Theological Society claims to be an "association of Bible-believing scholars.")

Well-known "Evangelical" leader TONY CAMPOLO believes homosexuality is unnatural but he also believes that homosexuals are usually born that way, that it is not a "volitional" problem, and they should be allowed to join churches and be ordained. Campolo’s wife supports homosexual weddings, and his pastor performs them. At Campolo’s school, EASTERN COLLEGE in Philadelphia, four students attended the Gay Pride March on Washington in 1993 with a banner proclaiming: "Christian, Gay, and Proud--Eastern College Gay and Lesbian Community" (Christianity Today, Nov. 22, 1993).

Stephen Hayner, president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, takes what he calls a "mediating" view on homosexuality. He does not believe homosexuals choose their sexual orientation and he thinks God allows homosexuality in some circumstances (World, Dec. 9, 1989). The second edition of InterVarsity’s New Bible Dictionary makes the following amazing statement:

"The Bible says nothing specifically about the homosexual condition ... [and] its condemnations of homosexual conduct ... too often ... have been used as tools of a homophobic polemic which has claimed too much. ... [N]either account [Sodom and Gibeah stories (Gn. 19:1-25; Jgs. 19:13--20:48)] amounts to a wholesale condemnation of all [homo]sexual acts. On both occasions the sin condemned was an attempt at homosexual rape, not a caring homosexual relationship between consenting partners" ("Homosexuality," New Bible Dictionary, 2nd edition, p. 488).

For many years, the influential FULLER SEMINARY has allowed its students and teachers to hold unscriptural views pertaining to homosexuality. Retired Fuller professor LEWIS SMEDES says the homosexual "should simply refuse to accept a burden of guilt for his condition" because "he is a victim either of biological accident or someone else’s folly" (Smedes, Sex for Christians, 1984 edition, pp. 65-71). Calvary Contender editor Jerry Huffman notes: "It is blasphemous and absurd to suggest the homosexual is not responsible for his perverted lifestyle, or that an adulterer is not to blame for his sin. To do so implies that God is to blame. If a person were born without a choice in the matter, God would never have (under Law) required the death penalty for homosexuality. Capital punishment (see Lev. 20) was always for crimes a person committed voluntarily" (Calvary Contender, May 15, 1999). By the way, Smedes also says that pre-marital nude petting might be a "delicately tuned means of mutual discovery."

Jerry Stephenson says it bothers him when fundamentalists tell him he is going to hell for being gay. He says, "That’s not what the Bible says. When we accept Jesus Christ, he is ours." Stephenson is wrong. Jesus Christ said that unless a man repents of his sin he cannot be saved (Luke 13:3-5). Stephenson or any other homosexual can be saved, but to do so means he must turn from his homosexuality and confess it as the sin God says it is. The Christians at Corinth had been involved in all sorts of sin, including homosexuality, before their conversion, but Paul said that was no longer the case with them. If salvation does not change a man, he does not have biblical salvation.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor EFFEMINATE, nor ABUSERS OF THEMSELVES WITH MANKIND, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

The Bible says homosexuality is a very grave sin. While it is true that there are many sins other than homosexuality and all sin is wicked before God, and while it is true that any sin can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ, the Bible does not say that all sin is the same in its effect in this world. God did not pour out fire and brimstone upon Sodom because of its jealousy or covetousness or lack of hospitality. He did not pour out fire and brimstone upon Sodom even because of its adultery. It was specifically because of its homosexuality (Genesis 19; Jude 7). Though all moral sins are evil in God’s eye, homosexuality is especially corrupt because it is a sin against nature itself. It destroys the very fabric of society, which is the family as defined biblically--a man and a woman united in holy matrimony rearing children to fear God and to be productive citizens. Homosexuality is to "change the natural use into that which is against nature" (Romans 1:26). In Romans chapter one, homosexuality is called "vile affections" (v. 26), "against nature" (v. 26), "unseemly" (v. 27), "a reprobate mind" (v. 28), "not convenient" (v. 28).

Homosexuals and fornicators and drunkards and all other sinners are invited to come to Jesus Christ and be saved from their sin, but the grace of God does not lead people to continue in their sin.

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US FROM ALL INIQUITY, AND PURIFY UNTO HIMSELF A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee" (Titus 2:11-15).