Linsey or whoever you really are,
The law of God is blind justice and has absolutely nothing to do with compassion. While it is true that God is a God of love (1 John 4:7-8), the flip side is that God is also a judge and a lawgiver. The law of God is meant to show us that we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. (See John 3:36, 1Thess1:10; 2:16; Romans 1:18; Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:17-18). God can justly send every single human being who has lived since Adam's fall straight to hell. If you really were a Calvinist as you claim below, you would know that Jesus died only for those chosen from the mass of sinful humans to be saved (See John 10:15; John 10:25-29). The rest God passes over and leaves to their own wicked and depraved nature. God is just and holy in condemning those who deserve no mercy and not one of us deserves any mercy at all. Mercy is God's choice but not His obligation.
The minute you sell out the truth for the love of individual human beings you have committed the idolatry of loving the creature more than the Creator. The ten commandments summarize the command to love God first in the first four commandments and to love our neighbor in the next six commandments. (See Exodus 20:1-20). Perhaps if you understood the doctrine of God better you would know that it is love to tell someone the truth about their spiritual condition before an absolutely holy God rather than allowing them to continue in rebellion against God with no warning of the coming judgment.
I might add that God has mercy on whom He wills to have mercy apart from anything good in the sinful creature. (See Romans 9:8-18). And in the final judgment the Scriptures teach that Jesus will return to "judge" the world. (See 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). If transgendered people are born with self-deception into their particular sin, it is because God has turned them over to do what is abominable and sinful of their own willful choice. God can and does give even homosexuals, lesbians and transgendered sinners the grace to change. But He does not always do so and when He does not He is just in turning them over to their own wickedness. (See Romans 1:18-25; Romans 5:12-14, 18).
I do pray that the lost will be saved but I certainly do not lie awake at night crying for them. I do pray that God's will be done for them. There is much suffering in the world. God decreed that it should be this way for His own purposes. (See Isaiah 45:7). However, I believe that God has a greater good in mind in doing so. God is completely just in sending the curse of evil into the world as a punishment upon Adam and Eve and all of the human race. The bottom-line, however, is that you have a choice to either accept Jesus Christ or reject Him. If you reject Him, it is because you are wicked and a slave to sin and everything evil. The fault lies with you rather than with God because He never forces anyone to do evil.
The bottom-line for me is that I fear God more than I fear the United States government, atheists, socialists, or any other politically correct movement meant to destroy religious freedom in this country. I fear the one who can destroy the body and the soul in hell more than I fear the one who can destroy only my freedom, liberty or my life here on earth. (See Matthew 10:27-29). I do not spend a great amount of time debating homosexuals, lesbians, transgendered people or pansexuals because those are only symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself. If you will search my blog you will notice I have posted only two or three entries on that topic. However, for some reason it seems to have generated much heat. Perhaps the anger it has caused is another evidence of rebellion against a just and Holy creator who made you what you are? Even Michael Jackson could not change his race from negroid to caucasian through surgery. It is rather silly that you could attempt to push your own self-deception on society by simply having plastic surgery. What is even more ridiculous is the silly idea that you can fool God who assigned you your gender at birth! God planned you to be the gender and race you are before you were ever formed in your mother's womb. What is more, the wicked go astray from the womb. (See Psalm 58:2-4).
As a Christian I am obligated to believe the entire Bible, not just the parts which speak about love. Too often Arminians, semi-pelagians, and a host of others attempt to get around the fact that Scripture teaches both God's absolute sovereignty and the accountability of sinful human beings before God. Scripture teaches both God's mercy and lovingkindness and God's wrath, justice, and hatred for the unrepentant and unconverted sinner. We ought to embrace all Scripture for all Scripture is inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
Do not think that I will compromise Holy Scripture for the sake of alleviating your anger against me for speaking what Scripture says. I fear God more than you or any other human being on this earth. Perhaps you should consider making reconciliation with your Creator? A good place to begin is to read the Holy Bible from cover to cover taking it as it stands. Perhaps God will grant you the light to see the complete view of God as sovereign, just, and loving. He is Judge and He is also love.
May God grant you the grace to believe the law and the Gospel,
Charlie
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 4:45 AM
Subject: transgenderism
>
> I am a Christian who subscribes to Reformed theology very strongly.
> Technically, we probably agree on most things. However your writing
> on transgenderism disturbed me a great deal. I guarantee you that
> you are incorrect in some of your assumptions, and that you could
> stand to learn a lot more about the subject. But what bothered me
> the most, is that I couldn't detect any measurable amount of love,
> compassion, empathy, or grace in anything I read that you wrote on the
> subject. I can also guarantee you that these people suffer
> tremendously, and not because they choose to, or are in some kind of
> sinful rebellion. The issue itself may be a sin or not, but I don't
> care about debating that. You know what Jesus answered when He was
> asked what the greatest commandment was. The Pharasies were
> technically correct in many areas of following the law, but they
> missed the heart of it entirely, so much so that Jesus called them a
> "brood of vipers". I'd rather be transgendered and overflowing
> with love for God and my fellow sinful human brother and sister, than
> to be technically correct about following the law, but devoid of love
> and compassion. I hope you'd make the same choice. If you would, I
> hope you can write with a little more compassion and grace in the
> future.
>
> - LL
>
> P.S. Your vote/poll tonight is another example.... pointing out that
> God hates the people and not just the sin? (Psalm 5: 5-6). Even if
> true, do you rejoice in this? Or do you lay awake nights crying with
> compassion and love for these lost people? Say what you want about
> reformed theology and "limited atonement", ect.... but I believe
> that's exactly what Jesus did.... cried with compassion and love for
> them, and gave His own life for them. Would you do that?
>
>
>
>
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Posts
3 comments:
So God created humanity in God's own image, in the image of God, God created humanity; male and female God created them. -- Genesis 1:27
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. -- Galatians 3:28
He whose testicles are crushed or whose male members is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the LORD. -- Deuteronomy 23:1
Let not the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' For thus says YAHWEH: 'To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off.' -- Isaiah 56:3-5
For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it. -- Matthew 19:21
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?' And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. -- Acts 8:35-38
I hate to burst your bubble but a "eunuch" is not transgendered but "neutered." Castration of males in the royal courts of the Ancient near eastern cultures was done to prevent the possibility of them having intercourse with the king's wives or concubines.
This distinction is so obvious that I'm embarrassed for you that you did not know this. But thanks for quoting the Scriptures referring to eunuchs.
The abridged Theological Dictionary of the New Testament has a concise but accurate article on the New Testament use of the term "eunuch." >>>
1. Outside the NT eunoúchos is used not only for men but also for castrated animals and for fruits or plants with no seed or kernel.
2. Castration is alien to the Greeks but is found in the Near East. Eunuchs here are overseers of women and confidants of rulers, often in places of power. Eunuch priests play a role in many cults; perhaps the idea is that of assimilation and dedication to the deity.
3. The OT forbids the castration of men or animals as contrary to the Creator’s will (cf. Dt. 17:16ff.; 23:2ff.). The desire for a healthy cultic order may play some part in the prohibition. Yet the prophets insist that God’s boundless love covers eunuchs too (Is. 56:3ff.). The OT term sārîs denotes a military or political official as well as a eunuch (cf. 2 Kgs. 25:19). The LXX rendering eunoúchos may imply emasculation but does not have to do so. By the time of Jesus Hellenistic influences strengthen a more lenient attitude toward eunuchs in some circles, e.g., in Herod’s court, where Josephus tells us the three chamberlains were eunuchs.
4. Rabbinic Judaism, however, insists on the duty of marrying and having children. In view of this Jeremias believes that Paul must have been a widower (though cf. 1 Cor. 7:7).
5. Jesus transcends the rabbinic view by differentiating three groups of eunuchs (Mt. 19:12): those who are so from birth, those who are castrated, and those who emasculate themselves for the kingdom’s sake. In the latter case the sense is obviously figurative; the reference is to those who renounce sex in order to focus on the higher goal of the kingdom, as Jesus himself does. The gospel affirms the natural order but may require its denial for the sake of the new and higher order.
6. In Acts 8:27ff. Is. 56:3-4 comes to fulfilment as the eunuch of Queen Candace comes to faith and is baptized.
7. The early church mostly takes Mt. 19:12 figuratively (though cf. the young Origen) and excludes from the ministry any who are castrated except through no fault of their own (cf. canons 21ff. of the Apostolic Constitutions). [J. Schneider, II, 765-68]
Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996). Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed.) (277). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans.
Deuteronomy 23:1 (ESV)
1 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
[1]
[1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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