The problem today is that sinners, of any stripe, are not uncomfortable with their sins. To a great extent, this is because Christians have mistaken compassion for the sinner with tolerance for the sin, to such an extent that Christians (?) do not even want to FACE or ACKNOWLEDGE or ADDRESS or CONFRONT or CONDEMN sin. This is not a kindness to the sinner. If you don't warn the traveler about the bridge that is out (because you don't want to frighten him), and then he drives headlong into a gaping gorge 100 feet below, you were not being kind, you were being deceived into thinking that silence was golden. THE ALARM MUST BE SOUNDED before sinners plunge headlong into eternal separation from God.
Death does not qualify a person for heaven.
Being killed by a madman does not qualify the victim for heaven.
Only faith in Jesus Christ qualifies a person for heaven.
Sinful society encroaches as far as it can into the moral realm, violating and robbing men of the message of Christ. Sadly, the modern and western Church has gladly surrendered territory that belongs to God, and then sinful society has laid claim to it. Now, Christians who stand firm on the Bible (regardless of how loving they may be) are considered to be narrow, bigoted, hateful, vengeful. No one cried out against sin more than Jesus, and Paul, and Peter, and John, and others of the same Biblical mindset, yet they loved the sinner more than they loved their own lives.
WHY do folks always assume that Biblical standards are not consistent and coexistent with Perfect Love?
I will tell you why.
It is because most people do not know the gospel. They do not know that God hates sin (and so ought Christians to hate sin), but He loves the sinner (as Christians ought to love sinners). Loving the sinner does not mean going light on telling the truth. In fact, watering down the truth or changing the truth to make it more palatable to the sinner and society is UNLOVING beyond words.
Over the past several decades there should have been a consistent and thunderous outcry against sin, as well as an invitation to faith and repentance. Then we would not have people asking Christians such stupid questions as:
"Do you hate homosexuals?" or
"Do you believe that homosexuals are saved?" or
"Do you believe that homosexuality is a sin?"
OF COURSE CHRISTIANS DO NOT HATE HOMOSEXUALS.
OF COURSE CHRISTIANS DO NOT BELIEVE HOMOSEXUALS ARE SAVED.
OF COURSE CHRISTIANS BELIEVE HOMOSEXUALITY IS SIN.
To ask a Christian these questions is as stupid as asking a Christian if he believes in God.
However, the "Christian" community has been so utterly silent concerning the truth of God that the sinful community has no idea about the revelation of God.
1 Corinthians 15:33-34 (ASV)
(33) Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.
(34) Awake to soberness righteously, and sin not; for some have no knowledge of God: I speak this to move you to shame.
It ain't my fault. I (along with other Bible believing, Christ following, Spirit empowered Christians) have been loving and telling the truth to everyone, but I have lost more and more friends through the years, because others who call themselves Christians have chosen to not follow in the steps of Jesus, John, Paul, and Peter.
