Writings > Popular Writings > Practical Issues. A Christian Perspective on Homosexuality William Lane Craig. Download PDF. and patient friendship to everyone. Vulgar words or jokes about homosexuals should never pass the lips of a Christian. If you find yourself feeling glad when some affliction befalls a homosexual person or you find Writings of the early Church fathers from the beginning of Christianity to the time of the creation of the Nicene Creed. Includes Polycarp, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Ignatius, Origen, Clement and more The writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero constitute one of the most renowned collections of historical and philosophical work in all of classical antiquity. Cicero was a Roman politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, philosopher, and constitutionalist who lived during the years of –43 BC. He held the positions of Roman senator and Roman consul (chief-magistrate) and played a critical
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A frank attempt to deal with writings on friendship question of whether a homosexual lifestyle is immoral. First published in Hard Questions, Real Answers Wheaton, Ill. Medical data updated by Dr. Peter May MRCGP, One of the most volatile and important issues facing the Church today is the question of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle.
The Church cannot duck this question. The collision between LGBT concerns writings on friendship concerns of religious freedom, exemplified in the case of the Colorado baker who refused on grounds of conscience to supply a wedding cake carrying a message endorsing same sex marriage, along with the U, writings on friendship.
Christians who deny the legitimacy of a homosexual lifestyle are routinely denounced as homophobic, intolerant, even hateful. There is thus tremendous intimidation concerning this issue. Some churches have moved away from the historic Christian position and endorsed the homosexual lifestyle and even ordain those who practice it to serve as their ministers.
This shift is occurring not only in liberal churches. Evangelicals Concerned is a group of people who writings on friendship to all appearances born-again, Bible-believing Christians, but also practicing homosexuals. I recall hearing one New Testament scholar at a professional conference relate the following story of his speaking at one of their meetings:. Who are we to say that they are wrong? Before you can determine what is right and wrong, you have to know that there really is right and wrong.
Well, what is the basis for saying that right and wrong exist, that there really writings on friendship a difference between these two? Traditionally, the answer has been that moral values are based in God. God is by His very nature perfectly holy and good. He is just, loving, patient, merciful, generous—all that is good comes from Him and is a reflection of His character. This is the Christian understanding of right and wrong.
There really is such a being as God, writings on friendship, who created the world and made us to know Him. He really has commanded certain things. We really are morally obligated to do certain things and not to do others.
So, for example, if the Nazis had won World War II and succeeded in brainwashing or exterminating everyone who disagreed with them, so that everybody would think the Holocaust had been good, it would still have been wrong, writings on friendship God says it is wrong, regardless of human opinion.
Morality is based writings on friendship God, and so real right and wrong exist and are unaffected by human opinions. So many people think of right and wrong, not as matters of factbut as matters of taste. It tastes good to some people, but tastes bad to others. It may taste bad to you, but it tastes good to me! Something may seem wrong to you, but right to me.
Now if there is no God, then I think these people are absolutely correct. In the absence of God everything becomes relative. Right and wrong become relative to different cultures and societies, writings on friendship. Where do right and wrong come from? Richard Taylor, a prominent American philosopher—and not a Christian by the way—, makes this point very forcefully.
Look carefully at what he says:. The idea of, writings on friendship. moral obligation is clear enough, provided that reference to some lawmaker higher. than those of the state is understood. In other words, our moral obligations can. be understood as those that are imposed by God.
But what if this higher-than-human lawgiver is no longer taken into account? Does the concept of a moral obligation. still make sense? The words remain, but their meaning is gone. The modern age, more or less repudiating the idea of a divine lawgiver, has nevertheless tried to retain the ideas of moral right and wrong, without noticing that in casting God aside they have also abolished the meaningfulness of right and wrong as well.
Thus, even educated persons sometimes declare that such things as war, or abortion, writings on friendship the violation of certain human rights are morally wrong, and they imagine that they have said something true and meaningful. Educated people do not need to be told, however, writings on friendship, that questions such as these have never been answered outside of religion.
Do you catch what even this non-Christian philosopher is saying? If there is no God, no divine lawgiver, then there is no moral law. If there is no moral law, then there is no writings on friendship right and wrong.
Right and wrong are just human customs and conventions that vary from society to society. There is no transcendent vantage point from which they are to be judged. Even if everyone agreed on such customs and writings on friendship, they would still be no more than human inventions, arising perhaps from biological evolution and societal conditioning.
So if God does not exist, objective right and wrong do not exist either, writings on friendship. Anything goes, including homosexual behavior. So one of the best ways to defend the legitimacy of the homosexual lifestyle is to become an atheist.
In particular, they do want to affirm that right and wrong exist. They would condemn a society like Nazi Germany which imprisoned homosexuals in concentration camps, along with Jews and other alleged undesirables. If God does not exist, anything goes, including discrimination and persecution of homosexuals. Everything is permitted. The question of the legitimacy of the homosexual lifestyle is a question of what God has to say about it.
Everything is relative and subjective. But if God does exist, we can no longer proceed just on the basis of our own opinions. We have to find out what God thinks on the issue. So how do you find out what God thinks? The Writings on friendship says, writings on friendship, you look in the Bible. And the Bible tells us that God forbids homosexual acts. Therefore, they are wrong. I did not ask, does the Bible forbid homosexuality, but rather, does the Bible forbid homosexual behavior?
This writings on friendship an important distinction. Being homosexual is a state or an orientation; a person who has a homosexual orientation might not ever express that orientation in actions. By contrast, a person may engage in homosexual acts even if he has a heterosexual orientation. Now what the Bible condemns is homosexual actions or behavior, writings on friendship, not having a homosexual orientation.
What they were familiar with was homosexual acts, and that is what the Bible forbids. Now this has enormous implications. The important thing is not how you got your orientation, but what you do with it. To give an example, some researchers suspect there may be a gene which predisposes some people to alcoholism. Obviously not! If anything, it ought to alert him to abstain from alcohol so as to prevent this from happening.
What it condemns is homosexual acts. So it is perfectly possible to be a homosexual and be a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian. So, once more, the question is: Does the Bible forbid homosexual behavior? The Bible is so realistic!
You might not expect it to mention a topic like homosexual behavior, but in fact there are six places in the Bible—three in the Old Testament and three in the New Testament—where this issue is directly addressed—not to mention all the passages dealing with marriage and sexuality which have implications for this issue. In all six of these passages homosexual acts are unequivocally condemned.
In Leviticus In Lev. Writings on friendship sometimes homosexual advocates make light of these prohibitions by comparing them to prohibitions in the Old Testament against having contact with unclean animals like pigs. God destroyed the city of Sodom because of their wickedness. In I Cor. Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, writings on friendship, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, writings on friendship, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.
As I said, the Bible is very realistic! The second of these two words is also listed in I Writings on friendship. Here Paul talks about how writings on friendship have turned away from the Creator God and begun to worship instead false gods of their own making.
He says. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, writings on friendship, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Liberal scholars have done acrobatics to try to explain away the clear sense of these verses.
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, time: 7:17:59Writings of Cicero - Wikipedia
amity friendship, good will amnesty pardon amoral without morals amorous loving, sexual amorphous shapeless amortize pay by installments amphibious able to operate in water and land amphitheater oval-shaped theater amuck murderous frenzy amulet charm, talisman amuse entertain anachronistic out of historical order anaerobic without oxygen Writings of the early Church fathers from the beginning of Christianity to the time of the creation of the Nicene Creed. Includes Polycarp, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Ignatius, Origen, Clement and more The writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero constitute one of the most renowned collections of historical and philosophical work in all of classical antiquity. Cicero was a Roman politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, philosopher, and constitutionalist who lived during the years of –43 BC. He held the positions of Roman senator and Roman consul (chief-magistrate) and played a critical
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