Posted on 04/26/2015 7:30:49 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
“I’m a woman.” So said Bruce Jenner, during his coming out appearance this past Friday on a special two-hour edition of the ABC News program “20/20.”
And that’s not the only shocking revelation Jenner confided to interviewer Diane Sawyer. “She” also claimed to be a Republican, a conservative and a Christian.
Well, it’s conceivable that Jenner is a Republican. After all, there’s a LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) group that calls itself the Log Cabin Republicans.
It’s also possible that Jenner is a “conservative.” Indeed, there have been any number of conservative lawmakers – including former Idaho Senator Larry Craig, a homosexual, and former Florida congressman Mark Foley – who were outed as homosexuals.
But there’s no way that Jenner, who is “transitioning” from male to female, is a true Christ follower.
Indeed, in his letter to the Church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul advised: “Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Does that mean any and every one of us who has committed any of those aforementioned sins is unsaved; that we have condemned ourselves to “the second death,” as John of Patmos put it, when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ?
No.
Because, the Scripture assures us: “If we confess our sins, He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”
Conversely, “If we say that we have no sin,” as Jenner, the transgender in the making maintains, “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
So it matters not if Jenner attends church every Sunday; if he tithes what earns for his upcoming reality show; if he reads his Bible every day; if he prays first thing each morning, and last thing every night.
If he unrepentantly undergoes a sex change, if he refuses to acknowledge that doing so is an abomination in the eyes of God, he will be in open rebellion against his Creator.
That’s why Christ warned us, everyone: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
What that says is that we are not to surrender ourselves to sin; to deceive ourselves that God will forgive us for our unconfessed, unrepented adultery or financial wrongdoing or substance abuse or acts of violence or twisted sexual orientation.
If Jenner truly was a Christian, he would not blithely embrace transgenderism. No, he would fall on his knees and ask the Lord to free him from Satan’s grip. For greater is He who is in Bruce Jenner – who is in all of us struggling with sin – than he who is in the world.
That is not part of the narrative...Has nothing to do with faith without works is dead...
It has to do with our own works (repentance) before salvation or God's works in us after salvation...
So tell me if God “wonderfully knit him together in his mother’s womb” why then why would God be happy or even accepting of Bruce’s choice to become a woman?
So perfect. Thank you giving my thoughts and gut feelings the words I wish I knew how to say.
“So tell me if God “wonderfully knit him together in his mother’s womb” why then why would God be happy or even accepting of Bruce’s choice to become a woman?”
I’m not presuming to know whether or not there would be such an acceptance. I’m only pointing out that there are many people who presume to know something which they either cannot know at all or cannot presently know with the currently available evidence. Take the Batista Family as an example of how presuming to know what another person’s appropriate religious conduct should be can prove to be entirely wrong and sinful prejudice. Put yourself in their place.
A Batista child is born with all of their outwardly normal appearances of a baby girl. She is raised as a girl. She behaves like a girl. Upon reaching the age of puberty, this girl’s genitalia and overall physique takes on a distinctly male appearance and function. This former girl and now a boy at age 13 and older lives as a boy and a man, marries a woman, and fathers children.
Given those events and facts, describe how you would describe this person’s moral behavior as a member of a Christian church and in relation to God’s Commandments. In other words, do you deem this person to have been morally delinquent while dressing and living as a girl before the onset of puberty, during the period of time while in natural transition between being a a girl and then a boy, or after becoming a boy and a man fathering children? How do you deem this person’s moral compliance or delinquency in the event he should decide to revert to living as the female he was before puberty caused his transformation into a male?
Matthew 24:13
But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
Mark 13:13
You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
Acts 14:22
They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
Colossians 1:23-22
[He will] present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before Him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard..."
1 Timothy 2:15
But she [the woman] will be saved through motherhood, provided she perseveres in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
1 Timothy 4:16
Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
2 Timothy 2:12
If we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us.
So the perseverance theme seems rather important. We wouldn't have to be exhorted to persevere, if it were expected that we would do so naturally and inevitably.
“That is not part of the narrative...”
It has everything to do with this narrative. Can someone claim to be a Christian when their life is in total contradiction to God’s Word? Can Jenner claim to be a Christian, accepted by God for eternal life, while living in unrepentant contradiction to His Word?
Does saving faith transform us, or let us wallow in sin? Can he claim to have saving faith if he rejects the Word of God?
I say no. And Jesus and Paul said no, too.
But that is NOT a condition of salvation. We are saved not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace (1 Tim 1:9) and as you have received him, so walk in him (Col 2:6). The perseverance of faith is to continue to believe and rest in Him as our wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30).
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God (Heb 10:12) and God has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6).
The Christian life is not "do" but "DONE". His work on the cross has perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb 10:14. IT IS FINISHED.
“Let me be even clearer: I think anyone who dares pronounce someone damned without first trembling and weeping in prayer over their presumption to judge another soul is a fool and a fraud.”
“And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.” - Acts 13
We are to take the logs out of our eyes and then help others remove the specks in their eyes. That does require becoming like our Teacher, calling sin a sin AND forgiving the sinner. But Jesus didn’t walk away from either condemning sin or telling the sinner to repent. That my friend is Jesus’ standard for judgement, and we are to learn to likewise judge under those standards —’after and assuming we’ve humbled ourselves before God first.
We are all sinners. But we are also expected to judge those who call themselves Christians. It is a requirement for church discipline, which Jesus & Paul both discussed.
Struggling with sin is normal. Rejoicing in it is not, for a Christian. Rejecting the idea of sin is blatantly un-Christian.
I have always found interesting how the many religious groups all interpret the Bible differently. it's almost like going to a Literature class and one teacher tells you one thing and another has a completely polar view.
The Bible is not universally looked at the same. So it is with those who pontificate on who will go where in the afterlife, the bottom line is no one knows.
Many years ago there was a Sci-Fi book series I read that was into this topic called “Heroes In Hell” and is was tongue in cheek satire on who ended up in Hell, the Chaos that was that was there and the continuing war thereof. It was insightful and hilarious.
Galatians gives stern warning and a double curse to anyone including an angel from heaven who preaches "another gospel" than the gospel of grace (Gal 1:6-9). The whole book of Galatians revolves around correction and re-iterating justification by grace through faith, not by our works.
The very heart of the New Covenant and the gospel is the book of Romans which is a detailed explanation of the gospel of grace:
But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Rom 4:5-7).
If you want to add conditions of salvation to yourself, then in the sense of God's FREE GIFT (x3) (Rom 5:15-18) to you, you are denying the eternal efficacy of the blood of perfect sacrifice of his Son for you on the cross. When we insist on our own self efforts for salvation, God can't do much for us, which is as much as anything what 2 Tim 2:2 means. But as the next verse says, if we do not believe, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. His Son's sacrifice still works eternal salvation in our lives.
If you have received Jesus but live in fear because of some obscure demand you've put on yourself, you are still saved. God cannot undo the perfect and eternal sacrifice of his Son that you have received. You're just living short of the freedom and joy of the salvation which is yours.
Everyone in Egypt who put blood on their doorposts and lintels were saved, but not all were without fear and trepidation. Same is true today for Christians. We have the fulness of his promise of salvation by grace, not works, and the angel of (eternal) death will pass over us. But some who do not believe, even though they have the blood of Jesus protecting them, needlessly live in fear through unbelief. They are still saved, but haven't yet learned they are not subject to requirements of the law or their own works.
Hey Whiskey X you need to stay away from the strong stuff.
Salvation refers to two things: justification and sanctification. Those who are justified will be sanctified. Justification is by grace. Sanctification is done by God acting with us.
But those who have truly been justified by the cleansing of Jesus WILL desire sanctification. They will not rejoice in their sin. If sin does not bother you, then the Spirit is not in you.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Grace? Yes. All is grace. Faith, yes: but what kind of faith is a faith that saves? A living faith or a dead faith?
James says, "Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith alone?" (James 2:22) Does Paul give "a stern warning and a double curse" to James? No, he agrees:
"And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
We even love, and do good works, by grace. So there you go.
Jenner says he's not a homo...He's still attracted to women, if ya can figure that one out...He says it's not a sexual thing...
In which case he's making a mess out of his body...How is it that much different than getting your body pierced or living a Christian as one who is obese???
Whiiskey X-ray is stone cold sober as a fundamentalist minister.
See the BBC documentary Fight To Be Male
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b-abEh2k6k
Again you’re confusing what it takes to be saved and what it takes to live a victorious Christina life.
We’re going around in circle and I’m not sure we’re getting anywhere with each other here.
I think I’ve said all I can say to you.
“Jenner says he’s not a homo...He’s still attracted to women, if ya can figure that one out...He says it’s not a sexual thing...”
“In which case he’s making a mess out of his body...How is it that much different than getting your body pierced or living a Christian as one who is obese???”
To perhaps answer your own question, imagine you are one of the children in the Batista Family who inherited the condition where you are born with one sex and naturally transforms into the opposite sex upon reaching the age of puberty. You are born as a girl with what appears to be the genitalia normally associated with being a girl baby. As you grow to become an older child you are treated as a girl, behave like a girl, look like a girl, dress like a girl, and are basically indistinguishable from any other girl in the community. Then as you reach the age of puberty your whole personal world and personal identity is upset as you find yourself being naturally transformed from a girl into a boy with a boy’s gentalia, a boy’s physique, a boy’s emotions, and the responsibilities of a male fathering a family in a marriage to a female. After your children have grown into adults and your body’s production and/or utilization of masculanizing male hormones has more than normally subsided with age, do you choose to continue to live as a male, or do you choose to revert to the female role you had before you reached puberty? As a devout Christian, do you regard yourself as a Lesbian who married the mother of your children, or do you regard yourself as a gay and/or homosexual male who wants to be a woman? How do you justify your decision/s to the other members of your Christian church?
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