Scott’s Blog

Well this is certainly a big question and I can imagine about two dozen different motivations for asking it. A short answer would be that abortion and homosexuality are both a result of our mutual sinfulness. But, having said that there is nothing about any person that has had or forced someone to have an abortion that makes them any worse than me. There is nothing about any person that is involved in a homosexual relationship that makes them any worse than me. God is all for sex. He invented it, he wants us to enjoy it (ever read the Song of Solomon?). He did however give us parameters within which sex is most enjoyable. Participating in sex outside of those parameters is sin.

While both abortion and homosexuality are results of the sin in mankind that is very different from being against homosexuals and those that have had an abortion. If we were somehow against those people we’dhave to be against every person because all of us are dipped in sin and sinful from the core out. Our church family is full of people who struggle with all kinds of things. We have alcoholics, and dudes (and some dudettes) addicted to porn. We have folks that over eat all the time. We have some workaholics, and some that are lazy. Most of us tend to struggle with pettiness and anger. Every single one of us is self-centered and proud among other things.

So we’ve worked with a number of homosexuals to deal with sexual temptation in a healthy way, just like we work with singles to stay pure.

We’ve counseled our families to be open to adoption and our ladies dealing with unexpected pregnancies to carry the baby to full term. We also jump in with those who are trying to recover from an abortion along with the men who pushed them to do it.

Our task is to speak the truth in love. Truth is a hard pill to swallow unless it is saturated in grace and given time. God gives us truth, but he also grants grace by the truckload, our job is the same.

When we come to Christ he forgives us, and he makes us new. But that new person emerges slowly and sometimes painfully. The essence of our church family is sharing life together as we encourage that new person to emerge. Sometimes its a journey of two steps forward and one step back, but we are making progress. And, that progress reflects God’s awesome glory.

We’ve dealt with these subjects as a family during our weekend events. You can download our most recent study guide on abortion and listen to or download the talk here:

 http://www.emmanuelbiblechapel.org/ebcsermons/sermons.php?intId=94

It has been awhile since we’ve talked about homosexuality. But you can download a Word file of the text of my remarks here:

what-to-do-with-homosexuality-and-marriage.doc

The study guide from that talk is here:

what-to-do-with-homosexuality-and-marriage-study-guide.doc

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This is an interesting question. Everybody knows that the fish symbol that some folks put on their cars has something to do with Christianity, but they aren’t sure why.

The “fish” symbol was first used by Christ followers toward the end of the first century. In Greek, its an acrostic:

• Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.
• Chi(kh) is the first letter of Khristos (Χριστóς), Greek for “Christ” or “anointed”.
• Theta(th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), that means “God’s”, genitive case of Θεóς, Theos, “God”.
• Upsilon (u) is the first letter of huios (Υἱός), Greek for Son.
• Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for Savior.

Jesus Christ, God’s son, Savior… that’s the gospel. The fish symbol may have been chosen by the early Christians because the fish is symbolic in the New Testament. It was Jesus who commissioned his disciples by telling them he would make them fishers of men.

During the first few centuries of the Church, Christians were harshly persecuted. Because of that persecution they would draw a fish symbol on a rock or in the street to point the way to their gatherings. Another way the symbol was used was to help Christians identify one another. If you were talking to someone who you thought might be a follower of Christ you might use your foot or a stick to draw the top line of the fish. If the other person was also a Christ follower they would draw the lower line. It was a secretive way for Christians to identify one another. If the other person did not respond, it was easy to just scratch out the line you’d drawn and continue the conversation.

Some Christians today use the fish symbol the same way.  They put it on their cars or other places to identify themselves as Christians.

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It’s time to start responding to the questions that were submitted as part of “Ask Any Question.” A few folks wondered why we don’t have “altar calls” (a church culture description of asking people to come forward to a wooden altar, or its equivalent, to “receive Christ”). One other person wondered that since we are supposed to be like Jesus, who among other things was a great evangelist, why am I against this type of witnessing?This could be a very long response or a short one. The short one would probably be offensive, the long one wouldn’t be read, so I’ll shoot for the middle.For most of the 20^th century, the United States was basically a Christian culture. Even though there was freedom to not believe, and not everyone was a believer, the institutions of society and government “Christianized” people. There was a cultural bias to attend church. Offices and most business were closed on Sunday. It was unheard of to have a sports practice on Sunday. The 10 commandments from the Old Testament book of Exodus were prominently displayed in governmental buildings. Creation was taught in schools, and prayer to the God of the Christian Bible was offered at public gatherings.In that culture, churches defined themselves by how they were different from one another. For the most part the question wasn’t really whether or not you were “Christian” the question was how committed you were. Two key strategies emerged in evangelicalism that were effective in that culture. One was to prod people emotionally, intellectually, or otherwise to come to faith, pray the sinner’s prayer, walk an aisle, come forward etc. Since most people basically knew the Bible story, they knew they were getting serious with God. The other strategy was one of “rededicating your life.” Basically this was for people who had already “prayed the prayer” but weren’t really living like a Christian. Rededication was looked upon as a new beginning with God.Some great ministries used these strategies very effectively. But the point is they were strategies that were culturally effective at that time and place. There is nothing biblical about a “prayer of faith” or a “sinner’s prayer.” That just isn’t in the Bible. And while I agree that Jesus was a great evangelist, he never told anyone to pray a prayer to “get saved.” The rich, young ruler, among many others, walked away angry because of the way Jesus presented the gospel.We need to follow the example of Jesus and the great ministries of our past, and find ways that are effective in the culture we’re called to live in.In our post Christian culture people have been saturated with that kind of “evangelism” to the point that they think they know what we’re all about, and we’ve become a punch line in jokes.The gospel must be contextualized to the culture in a way that is biblically faithful. This is nothing new. It’s been happening since God worked through the authors of the New Testament. God gives us four different gospels with the story of Jesus. Each one faithful to the story, but different in both tone and content because the audience of each gospel is a different culture. Matthew is written to Jews, Mark to Romans, Luke to Gentiles in general, and John to Greeks in particular.While there are times that God works through a particular moment to suddenly save someone, normally coming to Jesus is a process. People become curious and apprehensive. Curious about Jesus and his claims, apprehensive about what they think they know about the church and its negative, moralistic, judgmental people. They need a safe place that is relevant to their culture where they can investigate the claims of Jesus and hang out with his followers. Over time, two things happen. They either work through their bias about the church, or they confirm it and leave to carry on their search some other place. If they hang out long enough, they begin to see that this Jesus really is who he said he was, and he really does make people new.  That process can take a few days, weeks, months or years. How long it takes is up to God. The process is described in a story Jesus told in Matthew 13:24-30. Take a look.So, we don’t do “sinner’s prayer” evangelism or altar calls because, while they were at one time effective strategies, they are counter productive to the culture in which we find ourselves. Our job is to be faithful to the Scriptures and effective in the culture. Since “sinner’s prayer” evangelism and altar calls are extra-biblical strategies, we’re free to use them or to find other strategies that we think may be more effective.So for now, we will continue to encourage people to repent and surrender as they respond to God’s revelation of himself to them. We will continue to be gospel centered and gospel driven with the understanding that the gospel is the biblical story of Jesus.

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