"Born This Way?" - July 2012
This past week I received an e-mail asking for me to take action against Office Depot by sending them a message letting them know how displeased that I was that they have partnered with “Born This Way Foundation” and ask them to reconsider their support. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what the Born This Way Foundation is, it is a foundation that was started by Lady Gaga, an American singer and songwriter. Born This Way Foundation is named after one of her songs - “Born This Way”. Its mission (copied from its web site): “Is to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated. The Foundation is dedicated to creating a safe community that helps connect young people with the skills and opportunities they need to build a kinder, braver world. We believe that everyone has the right to feel safe, to be empowered and to make a difference in the world. Together, we will move towards acceptance, bravery and love”. When you read this, it sounds good. Is it possible to provide a safe and productive environment for our young people? If there is hope that this can be accomplished, why would we be asking Office Depot to pull their support and not partner with this Foundation?
I have decided to address this issue this month. The reason is because there is more to it than just a mission statement that sounds like it has young people’s best interest at heart. Just because something sounds good doesn’t mean that it is. Not everything can be taken at “face value”. There is a war that is raging for the hearts and souls of all mankind, and especially for the youth. And like it or not, we are in it. Satan is the enemy who is leading the way. He is seeking whom he may devour and he devours people through lack of knowledge of the truth and through his subtleties. He uses whoever and whatever means he can to do it. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4) “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6a)
Just because it looks good or sounds good doesn’t mean it is good, or that it is from God. “Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:16,17) Something can be “good” but yet be “bad” for you. God gives “good and perfect” gifts, which means that if it is from God it will be good for you.
When the devil, the one who is out to destroy us comes, he does not present himself as some grotesque figure that appears only in your worse nightmares, or dressed in red with a pitchfork and tail. The Bible says that he comes as an angel of light. “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14) He was described in the scriptures as an anointed cherub adorned with beautiful jewels and musical instruments created in him. “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.” (Ezekiel 28:13,14) Even his name, Lucifer, means “light-bearer”. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12)
When he comes, you will rarely see him come as something “evil”. When satan came to Jesus in the wilderness to tempt Him, he didn’t come fighting with fist or drawing knives on Him, he didn’t try to push Jesus off of a cliff. On the contrary, he appeared to “care”. (Please allow me the some license and let me take these next few verses out of the King James Version and but them in plain old everyday speech.) He came sounding “compassionate”. “You are hungry, Jesus. Why don’t you turn these stones into bread so you can eat? After all, you have the power to do it.” He came tempting Jesus in the disguise of a “comforter and encourager”. “If you jump off this cliff, it will be all right. Your Father loves you. He won’t let anything happen to you. He’ll even give His angels charge over you so you won’t die, or even hurt yourself if you jump off.” He tried to appear as though he was a “giver”- offering Jesus the whole world. “I will gladly give you everything you see if you will just do this one little thing for me.” (Please take time to read it. Matthew 4:1-10)
While I do not want to give the devil too much credit, I want to remind you that he has strategies, plans, schemes and devices that he uses to try to bring about your and my destruction. He has them well thought out and planned out- he is the master schemer. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11) “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11)
Having made it clear that satan presents evil in “pretty” packages and makes it look good in order to deceive-- just like he did Eve (Genesis 3:1-6)- let’s address the issue of what is wrong with supporting the Born This Way Foundation and its mission. (Please note that I am not on a mission to shut this foundation down or discredit it, although I will love to see that happen, I am more interested in exposing the lie behind it and bring the truth to the forefront about the message that it is propagating.) The Foundation’s theme song, “Born This Way”, is a promotion for homosexuality. It encourages you not to be ashamed of who you are because you were born that way. It claims that God made you that way and He makes no mistakes, so love who you are and don’t hide in regret, because you were born that way. The song says that you should love your difference and not be ashamed. There is nothing wrong with you so don’t let anyone else make you feel that there is. You are normal. You were made this way. You were born a homosexual and you can’t, and shouldn’t, try to deny it or try to hide it. Embrace it and enjoy your difference and don’t let anyone put you down because of it.
Every time I think about the message that it is promoting, I am so grieved. It is the tactic of the devil to get people to believe this lie. Lady Gaga, and others like her, are using their influence and worldly success as a platform to reach vulnerable people who don’t know the truth for themselves. The believe what someone else (because of their popularity) tells them and are being sucked in by them into their own beliefs. They say that is what Christians do. They say we try to persuade and indoctrinate “weak minded” people into our way of thinking. How ironic-- the pot is calling the kettle black.
What I want us to look at is the issue of whether or not people are actually born homosexual. Are they really born that way? Is a person born homosexual? Is that what they are and they just can’t help it? Would God actually create people to be homosexual? Let’s look at what the Bible says about this. The first step to finding the answer to these questions depends on whether you believe in God or not and that He is the Creator. If you don’t, then you will not accept any other view but the one that says you are born that way.
There are some things that we had no choice in at our birth. We had no choice as to whether we were born male or female; African-American or Caucasian; Oriental or Latino. We had no choice as to what nationality we were born- American, Mexican, Canadian, etc. We had no choice about what color hair or eyes we would have. I was born this way: American, Caucasian, female with brown hair and brown eyes. On the other hand when it comes to sexual orientation I do have a choice, it’s called preference. The definition of homosexual according to the dictionary is: a person who is attracted to members of the same sex. That attraction is not something you were born with. It is something you develop for various reasons. Homosexuality is a sexual preference not something that is automatically chosen for you at birth like the things we have discussed.
If we are born homosexual then that means that God made us that way, as Lady Gaga insist. Well, let’s look at the scriptures and see if He actually did. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26,27; 2:7,18, 21-24; 1:28)
In the Hebrew the words for male and female are not the same. Neither are the words for man and woman the same. God created two opposite beings for a designed purpose-- be fruitful and multiply. That means that they are suppose to produce offspring and fill the earth with people. If the first command God gave the man and woman was procreation- which by the way this command has never been rescinded- then why would He create whole sections of the population that could not do this? It is impossible for homosexual couples to produce a child. Two men will never produce a child, neither will two women produce one together. It takes the man to provide the seed and the woman to provide the womb. God designed woman for man, and man for woman- not man for man and woman for woman.
God addressed the matter of homosexuality in both the Old and New Testaments. Old Testament: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22) The word abomination- translated means: disgusting thing; wickedness New Testament: “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, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) The word effeminate and the phase abusers of themselves with mankind translated means: homosexual. In both the Old and New Testament, God makes it clear that it is an abomination to Him and those who practice such will not enter into His kingdom. Being born a male or female, black or white, American or Asian will not keep a person out of heaven, but being homosexual will. Why? Because it is a sinful practice, not just part of your DNA. If it were part of your DNA like your hair color, then it would not be an abomination to the Lord. Something to think about if you believe God made you that way.
You were not born homosexual any more than you were born a rapist, a murderer, a liar or a cheater. You make a choice to participate in those things. But I will tell you what you and I, and all the rest of mankind, were born as: SINNERS! “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12) “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)
We are all born sinners, but not because God made us that way. God made us in the beginning sinless, holy, clothed in His glory and declared over us that we were “very good”. “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31) We became sinners when Adam chose his own desire over God’s will and ate of the tree that the Lord had told him not to eat of. When he ate, his disobedience caused sin to enter the world and be passed down to every person born from then on. “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners.” (Romans 5:19a)
We had God’s own nature in us until Adam sinned. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a) That nature “died” and another nature began to reign- a sin nature. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16,17) This nature gravitates toward its own desires and sinful practices. A lion has a carnivorous nature (it’s a meat eater) that is why it chases gazelles and kills them instead of dining on herbs and grass. “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Romans 7:14-20) It is this sin nature that causes us to “prefer” to do what is wrong (like stealing), what is unhealthy (like gluttony), what is unnatural (like homosexuality) and so on. We are not born homosexual but we are born with the propensity to become one and indulge in that lifestyle because of sin that reigns in us.
The Bible says that the truth makes us free. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) As long as we don’t know the truth we will stay in bondage to whatever it is that we don’t know the truth about. The Bible says that the devil is a deceiver. He was at the beginning and he will be at the end. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (2 Timothy 2:14) “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9) Part of his deception is to make us believe that we are born a certain way and that we should accept it because God made us like that. He doesn’t want you to know that God didn’t make you like that and He actually sees that lifestyle as sin. He didn’t make you an alcoholic, drug addict, porn addict, lesbian, and so on. He did not make you like that; you weren’t born that way. If he can keep you blinded to the fact that it is sinful behavior, you will not do anything about it. You will remain in it thinking that all is well. All is not well because God will judge sin one day. We will all stand before Him and He will be the Judge. If we have broken His laws we will be judged as guilty. If sin is in our lives, He will pass sentence on us, the death sentence-- “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41) He is a Holy and Just God. He has to judge sin. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” (Revelation 20:11,12)
Christians are accused of being homophobic. We are not. We love the homosexuals but not the sin that he/she is involved in. God doesn’t hate homosexuals, He loves them. He loves all sinners, but He hates all sin-- regardless of what the sin is. The good news is this: Even though we were born sinners and sinful behavior of different sorts shows up in our lifestyle, God still loves us. And He proved His love by sending His only begotten Son Jesus into the world to save us from our sins, give us a new nature (God’s nature) and take the punishment for our sins so that we can be forgiven. God didn’t send Jesus to condemn us but to save us. He does not desire that anyone perish. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16,17)
To answer the question, “Were you born that way? No. You were born a sinner and that is why you exhibit certain lifestyles-- you prefer what your sinful nature prefers. Now that you know you weren’t born that way; now that you know it is not God’s plan or intention for you to be that way; don’t accept it; don’t embrace it; make a change; be who God truly does intend for you to be so that you can really have a unique and fulfilled life. He has a plan for you. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11- NIV) Ask Him to forgive your sins and make you a new person in Him. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Jesus took your sin and your punishment already at the cross. Believe it and receive it and start living a free and abundant life- free from the lie and lifestyle. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36) “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b)
