Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Homosexual Marriage Part 1 (Radio Show Transcript)

Made it back safe and sound, and the Knoxville conference was very substantive. For those of you who were there and came up to say you listened to the radio program, or read the blog, thank you, and I pray you made it home safe and sound. The following is part one of a radio program transcript regarding the topic of homosexual marriage. Since some of you said you would like to read the transcripts, I will be posting them once in a while. Having read through them I realize there is a lot of meat there, well worth a read. I do not remember the date this particular program aired, but since it mentions the Dallas conference it was well before March of this present year.

And now, on to the topic of the week which is, and whoever came up with this, thanks, homosexual marriage.

No, I will not call it gay marriage, because I will not play into the hijacking of a perfectly nice word for nefarious means.

So it’s homosexual marriage. If I were to sit here and discuss homosexual marriage with you, I would fall into the same snare as so many preachers today have already fallen into.

The issue is not homosexual marriage. The issue, as far as eternity is concerned is whether the practice of homosexuality is still a sin in the eyes of God.

We cannot leapfrog over this most important of questions, and go right to homosexual marriage, because if engaging in homosexual acts is still an abomination in the sight of God, then no paper in the world will legitimize it or make it less than what it is.

So the question we ought to be asking first and foremost is whether the practice of homosexuality is still a sin in the sight of God.

The answer to this all important question is an unequivocal yes, just as adultery, fornication, murder, theft, lying, and a plethora of other practices are still sin in the sight of God.

We cannot take one thing among the many that God has deemed sinful, and decide that the practice thereof is no longer a sin. That is lunacy on its face, yet there are still supposed preachers trying to excuse the practice of this perversion, and call it normal.

There was even a case wherein a very well-known preacher tried to insinuate that Jonathan and David had a homosexual relationship because their bond of friendship was so strong. All I can say to that is blood of Jesus.

If God abhors the sin of Sodomy, how could David be a man after God’s own heart if he practiced the selfsame sin God abhors?

Come on now, let’s be honest here. Someone did the math, they realized that homosexual men have disposable income, and they concluded that if one spiritual leader threw them a bone, that individual would be someone they could get behind, no pun intended.

And so, for the sake of the bottom line, a supposed man of God compromised himself, twisted the Word of God, and now you have those who are unwilling to part with their sin pointing to this selfsame man as the deciding arbiter in this contentious back and forth.

“Who are you to say it’s a sin when brother Jakes says it’s not, and that David was likely gay? Huh? Do you have his following? Do you have His influence? Were you on Oprah?”

Nope, can’t say that I have his following, can’t say I have his influence, nor can I say I was on Oprah, but I have the Word of God, and the Word of God must remain the final authority.

No, I am not being cynical about this. I am being a realist about it. Look, full disclosure: I have been in ministry since the age of twelve. I know how ministry works, and to be as blunt and forcefully honest with you as I can, you have to fight tooth and nail not to follow in the footsteps of those whose singular goal is growth even at the expense of truth.

The grooves are set so deep, the expectation is so pervasive, that if you don’t double your audience, or double your support, or double your income every other year, you are a failure.

This is why remaining true to God’s Word and being faithful to the end is a battle to the end. I’ve lost long time, faithful, and financially substantial supporters to this ministry because I would not compromise the truth.

I know it’s easy on paper, but when someone who makes up 20-30% of your ministry’s finances throws down the gauntlet and says “unless you rescind, apologize for, or otherwise explain away this particular text in the Bible I can no longer support your ministry,” if you are not wholly committed to and trusting in Jesus, you will try to find a way to please man.

This is what I find so insidious in some churches sometimes. The people who are financially well off are appointed to the elder board to stroke their ego, and they use the threat of withholding finances to get the pastor to tailor his message, and basically preach what he is told to preach.

This is why the disciples had something on the side, something they could earn their daily bread doing, so they wouldn’t be beholden to any man, so they wouldn’t have to kowtow, and pander, and genuflect, and prostrate themselves at the drop of a hat, or the jangling of some change.

Before you ask, yes, I have something on the side by which I earn my daily bread. I’m good at it, I can make a comfortable living doing it, so I don’t need to grovel, and boot lick, and tailor the Word of God to suit someone who promises to send the ministry a big check if I just stop talking about this one little thing.

Far too many preachers and pastors today are prisoners of their own greed and success. They live in the opulent gilded cages they’ve built for themselves on the back of the sheep, and now they have to sing for their supper just to maintain the cartoonish lavishness to which they have become accustomed.
How many pools do you really need before it’s one too many? Just asking!

Would you be any less dead if the car you were in when the semi collided with you was worth fifty thousand rather than three hundred thousand?

All good questions, food for thought…Why don’t we just call it what it is? It’s pride!

Now if you had invented a new kind of porta-potty, or mustache wax, or whatever else, then by all means go buy yourself the fanciest things your porta-potty money can get you. But if you are peddling the Word of God and preying on retirees and pensioners trying to wring the last dime out of their wrinkled, arthritic fingers, then at the very least do something good with the money like, I don’t know, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, things Jesus hinted at and such. Don’t go around buying palaces you could house half a neighborhood in, and cars that are worth more than the homes your parishioners live in.

It’s unseemly. It’s vile. Or, if you want to use the newest catch phrase, it’s bad optics.

Alright, enough of that, veering back to the topic at hand. Not trying to avoid it, but it’s what happens when you off the cuff an hour’s worth of talking. Sometimes you get sidetracked.

The whole of the notes I have for today’s program is a handful of scripture references, and a reminder to tell you about the Dallas conference I will be speaking at in March. 

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr. 

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