Posted on 04/17/2018 8:05:31 AM PDT by Ennis85
“Queer rights activist” and “biblical scholar” Matthew Vines “reinterpreted” Scripture verses that typically condemn homosexuality in an LGBT-“affirming” reading of the Bible at Harvard University, the Crimson reported.
Who is Vines?
Vines is a prominent speaker on pro-gay topics in the context of Christianity and authored “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.” The book’s controversial content resulted in WaterBrook Multnomah — which shared staff with the book’s publisher Convergent — resigning its membership with the National Religious Broadcasters in 2014.
What did he say at his Harvard talk?
During his talk Saturday, Vines “discussed six Bible verses that some religious leaders assert condemn homosexuality; he reinterpreted the verses through the lenses of more ‘affirming’ readings that place the lines in cultural and temporal contexts,” the Crimson reported. The paper didn’t say what verses Vines discussed.
In addition, Vines “argued that long-term, monogamous homosexual relationships were not a well-known cultural phenomenon until recently, and that, therefore, no Bible verse responds directly to these relationships,” the Crimson added.
Vines also responded point by point to a talk an “ex-gay” speaker and critic of homosexuality gave at a Harvard College Faith in Action meeting in February, the paper said, which occurred just prior to administrators placing the Christian student group on probation allegedly for pressuring a female leader to resign after she began dating another female.
Vines said Jackie Hill-Perry’s talk in front of Harvard College Faith in Action was one of his motivations for coming to speak, the Crimson said.
“This type of message has done unfathomable harm and destruction to LGBTQ people around the world — broken so many relationships, broken so many lives,” Vines told the crowd, the paper reported.
Vines — a Harvard student himself before leaving as a sophomore in 2010 — also discussed his experiences as a member of conservative Christian student groups at the school, the Crimson said.
“Despite some of the tensions and challenges that I had with those groups, it really was the best community that I found in my first year here,” Vines said, according to the paper. “I actually felt like I was able to get to know people and be seen and not be completely invisible.”
How did one student react?
Student Aidan L. Stoddart helped organize Vines’ talk and said his detailed reading of Scripture “creates a bridge” between Christians of differing stripes, the Crimson noted.
“I think Matthew’s a really important figure because he has a critical and mature and very deeply life-giving relationship with Scripture that is centered on love,” Stoddart added to the paper. “Because it’s based on a love of Scripture that we all share.”
Does this guy also have an “affirmative” acceptance of Lot’s daughters?
If you rewrite the Bible it’s no longer the Bible. If you recreate God into one that approves of sin, you are just switching from God to the devil.
There’s a lot of sodomite Christians. Jesus saves by grace, not works. But to call sodomy normal is like saying “I’m a Christian and have leprosy but leprosy is normal, so I don’t need healing or help.” Keeps a person from finding health and wholeness
If they haven’t repented of gross sexual sin (meaning, acknowledged it as sin, and made a great effort to stop the behavior), then they are not true Christians
Leviticus 20:13-15 “’If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. “’If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you.”’If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you must kill the animal.
And lots of Thieves, Alcoholics, Drug Addicts
Liars, Cheats, Gossips
I, You, All are sinners
The worst thing you can do with our sinful nature
is to be fall into Sin of Pride,
Persistently denying the Holy Spirits Work in our hearts
The Gay Pride Movement is an anathema to a Christian
Far better is to take up our Cross and Walk
Pray for deliverance from the Thorn of the Flesh
Loving those who have fallen, and may fall again and again.
So you say they are saved by works. But that is NOT what the Bible says. The Gospel of the Grace of Christ in Scripture declares that we are saved by grace WITHOUT OUR works, because of the perfect work of Christ upon whom God exhausted ALL his wrath, condemnation, and punishment for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). IT IS FINISHED!!!
There IS an Unforgivable Sin
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
By one interpretation, this is Persistent Denial
of the Holy Spirit's Work in our hearts
http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/why-blasphemy-against-holy-spirit-unpardonable-sin
A Christian that persistently denies the
work of the Holy Spirit is in Mortal Danger
Of whom Jesus is a Friend. Jesus is "a friend of sinners." The only group he rebuked were the self-righteous, condescending, condemning Pharisees.
How does SCRIPTURE say you fall from grace? By sinning? NO!
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace.Galatians 5:4.
We fall from grace when we try do be justified by the works of the law - Christ is no effect to us then.
So say you. What does Scripture say in the New Covenant?
I am merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I remember no more.Hebrew 8:12
And their sins and iniquities I remember no more.Hebrew 10:17
Romans 1:26-27
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
No, I did not say that salvation is by works. You are confusing salvation with evidence of salvation.
Ye shall know them by their fruits (Mt 7:15-22). Homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom, and if you are telling them otherwise, you are helping to condemn them.
Repentance is not a “work”! It means that one “means it” when one commits one’s life to Jesus Christ.
"Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved" Rom 10:3.
No, there *are* not. The tense of the following scripture is critical:
9 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, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: (1 Corinthians 6:9-11a)
"Such *were* some of you." It does not say, such *are* some of you.
Practising sodomites (fornicators, idolators, adulterers...) are prima facie evidence of not being saved. A transformed life must be just that -- transformed.
“The Gospel of the Grace of Christ in Scripture declares that we are saved by grace WITHOUT OUR works”
So you believe that someone who is saved can be unrepentant in their sin??? Is grace and salvation transformative? Or can a person, now saved, continue on with their old sinful life as if nothing has changed, feeling no remorse?
Matthew 7:21-23 New King James Version (NKJV)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
New King James Version (NKJV)
So...you are claiming that those who do not do the will of The Father are saved? The Scripture says otherwise. Or are you claiming that sodomy is the will of the Father?
God saves from the inside out (grace), not from the outside in (law).
they [the Jews] have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.Rom 10:2-4.
He is also technically still in the Old Covenant of the law which ended upon his death on the cross and resurrection which launched the New Covenant of the Gospel of the Grace of Christ which declares,
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom 10:13).
they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.Rom 10:2-4.
or
those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.Rom 5:17.
or
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we have become the righteousness of God in Him.2 Cor 5:19-21.
Practising sodomites (fornicators, idolators, adulterers
Of whom Jesus is a Friend. Jesus is "a friend of sinners." The only group he rebuked were the self-righteous, condescending, condemning Pharisees.
How does SCRIPTURE say you fall from grace? By sinning? NO!
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace.Galatians 5:4.
A person falls from grace when he tries to be justified by the works of the law - Christ is no effect to him then.
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