Most people in the world are not aware that Jesus told His disciples that He would one day return to the earth to rule and reign over the whole world. As a matter of fact, the whole world, including the bulk of professing Christianity, operates as though Jesus Christ is a fictional character. So as the world gets worse and worse and as we get closer and closer to impending doom, the world continues to operate as though it will continue forever.
In the 17th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke the Lord describes conditions that will exist just before His return. He directs His listeners to two great events in history and warns that just before His return the world will have the same characteristics that the world had at those times. The first historic event was the great flood that destroyed the whole world except for Noah and his family. In referring to that time Jesus points out that everybody was busily occupied with the ordinary cares of this life. Although the world was fast approaching utter destruction, only a group of eight people were actually believing and preparing for the coming of God's judgments. The great bulk of mankind continued in its daily routine of life oblivious to all of the warning signs and the preaching of Noah.
This is precisely the case today. Our world today is on the verge of utter destruction and nobody wants to see it. All of the signs of impending doom are apparent to anyone that is willing to see them. Nuclear proliferation among many of the third world countries, and especially the Muslim countries, the creation of horrible chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction by mad egomaniacs, the impending meltdown of the global financial system, the political turmoil in Russia which possesses more than 20,000 nuclear warheads.
Unbelief and a desire to be our own god makes it impossible for man to be forewarned. The warnings are all about us and require only that we believe what is obvious. If we were dealing with a problem that did not involve our moral accountability, we could easily accept the warnings and take steps to prepare for that which is coming. But, in this case, we are dealing with precisely those kinds of things. God has demanded a certain kind of behavior from us and we are not willing to give God what He wants. So we attempt to wish Him away by a kind of irrational denial. This means that we will create in our minds excuses and explanations that are inherently ridiculous but which we can easily utilize to place ourselves outside of the Laws of God.
One of the most obvious examples of such behavior is found in the question of the origin of the universe and of man in particular. To avoid the awful necessity of facing a holy and righteous God and of giving an account to Him for our choices in life, the very bright men and women in the world have invented a theory called "The Theory of Evolution." Many scientist no longer call it a theory but have elevated it to a law or a principle as though it has been thoroughly tested and proved in the laboratory. Now this boggles the mind because there is not and never has been the slightest bit of evidence that evolution occurs in life or ever has occurred. But, because man is by nature a rebellious and recalcitrant creature, he, as a scientist, will cling to this unscientific bit of balderdash, knowing that it is utter foolishness.
This behavior reminds me somewhat of the story of the Emperor's new clothes. All of the wise men and women of the kingdom convinced themselves that the Emperor was wearing beautiful clothing because everyone else seemed to believe it. They could see that he was naked but in order to avoid looking foolish they went along with the crowd. Only the simple child was willing to say aloud what was really obvious to everybody. The Emperor was naked and pretending that he wore clothes didn't make it so.
Pretending that the world is doing just fine does not make it so. All of the words of the wise and knowing men and women in the world do not make it so. Following in the footsteps of the people in Noah's day does not alter the facts any more than it did in the days of Noah. But the world is exactly as Jesus prophesied nearly 2000 years ago. As I said above, Jesus warns that the world will be in a state of unbelief and apathy as it spins out of control in preparation for His return.
The second historical event that Jesus referred to that describes the conditions that will exist just before His return was the destruction of Sodom. This particular event tells us something about the moral state of the world as we approach the end. He says that the world will be like it was in the days of Lot when he lived in Sodom. So if we turn back to the Book of Genesis, we can find out what Sodom was like at that time. And what we find is very interesting and very enlightening.
Sodom was a very prosperous city. In the 16th chapter of Ezekiel we are told that the iniquity of Sodom was pride, the fulness of bread, and an abundance of idleness. Ezekiel tells us that the Sodomites were haughty and committed abominations before God and that God destroyed them. Their moral depravity was so complete that the very name of Sodom is used to indicate the grossest forms of sexual perversion. The stink of the pride and immorality of Sodom sickened God so much that He rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and totally destroyed it.
So keeping in mind that He tells us that in the days just before Jesus Christ returns to the earth to rule and to bring judgment upon the wicked that the world will be like Sodom, let us look at the developed countries of the world, those countries that are at the forefront of our civilization. Consider the moral state of the United States and Europe. What is the world like at this time? Is there a similarity between these nations and the ancient nation of Sodom? And if there is, has this similarity come about only recently?
I was born in 1931 just after the Great Depression began. I grew up during those terrible times. I entered my teens during the greatest war that the world had ever known. I can remember when the flight of an airplane over my home town brought housewives and children out of their houses to see it. I can remember when my brother and I got an ice cream cone once a week and felt lucky because the children next door never had ice cream. I can remember when my uncle died of appendicitis because there was no such thing as penicillin. In other words, I am old enough to be able to know if the world has changed and in which direction it has changed.
I was a professor of physics at Indiana State when I became a Christian in 1961. I had lived a rather dissolute and debauched life for that first 30 years of my life. I had a drink problem and was addicted to all manner of vices. Yet, in spite of that, I did not know one man living with a woman out of wedlock. I did not know, or even know of, one homosexual of either gender. There was not one case of divorce on either side of my family. Our schools did not hire any teachers that did not conduct themselves with the utmost purity and decorum. Something like eighty five percent of all girls were virginal when they got married or had sexual relations only with the boy that they did marry. In other words, society did not countenance immorality.
Now let us look at our society today. A large part of all adults under the age of 50 that one meets is in his second or third marriage. Almost every young person out of high school has lost his or her virginity and many are living in fornication with a lover. Homosexuality is rampant, accepted, and growing every day. Public schools are cesspools of vice and addiction. And, generally speaking, the teachers are not fit to be the role models of our children. On the whole our society thinks that scientists will resolve all of our problems. And there has never been a time in the history of mankind that so many people have had so much and have spent so much time in the pursuit of and the enjoyment of pleasure. In short, our society is filled with pride, wallows in affluence, and has too much time to follow after evil. Clearly, our world is very like that of Sodom and has become that way only in recent years.
Of all of the sins that afflicted Sodom homosexuality was the one that the Bible most clearly describes. As a matter of fact, it is the only sin that is described to us in that historical account. Thus, we can safely say that God utterly destroyed Sodom and all of its inhabitants, except righteous Lot and his family, because of that one sin, the great sin of homosexuality. And I would like to remind the reader that this terrible judgment came on a Gentile people before the Law was given on Mt. Sinai.
When I was a sinner, I thought like a sinner, I spoke like a sinner, and I acted like a sinner. I knew that I was, by Biblical definition, a sinner. It never even entered my mind to try to change and pervert the Scriptures so that my sins would go away. I was not a hypocrite about it. I just didn't really care. I didn't believe in a personal God and I didn't believe in a judgment or a hell. But I knew that if the Bible was right I was most certainly a sinner worthy of hell fire.
In the many years that I have been serving the Lord I have talked with many fornicators about their sin and have labored to bring them into union with Christ. I cannot recall one time that after showing them the scriptures that condemn fornication as a sin and clearly state that fornicators will not go to heaven they have tried to twist those clear scriptures to justify their sin. Many times they will say that they don't believe it or they may say that they don't care. But none try to make the Bible say what it does not say, as though they can change God by their rebellious attitude.
But one of the characteristics of Sodom evident in the historical account and as related by Ezekiel was its arrogant pride. There is an arrogance in homosexuality that one does not find in fornicators and adulterers. The common attitude among homosexuals is an arrogant attempt to make God accept their sin by twisting the Holy Scriptures into an unholy perversion of them. When one preaches the truth right out of the Bible that plainly condemns homosexuality and clearly states that no homosexual will enter the kingdom of heaven, the homosexual will vehemently attack the preacher and try to force him to accept as truth that which the Bible does not say.
This is one of the things that upsets most heterosexuals. It is the perverse hypocrisy that the homosexual exhibits. And what is the point? Why be a hypocrite about it? Do the homosexuals think that by perverting the scriptures that condemn homosexuality they will change the Almighty God? Do they really believe that they can force God to let them into heaven? Do they believe that they can change the truth by somehow refusing to accept it, as though God will change His mind if they will just steadfastly deny what He has said? This is the arrogance of Sodom and it will bring upon itself the same end that came upon Sodom. I can have no respect for a homosexual that tries to pretend to some sort of sanctity any more than I could have respect for a drunkard or an adulterer who tries to claim to be a Christian.
In the beginning God intended that the sex act be the sole property of a married couple. After all, the sex act is the means by which the race is propagated and that is its most basic purpose. In addition to that it is also meant to be the most intimate form of physical union possible between a man and a woman and that by which our marital love for each other and commitment to each other is expressed and experienced. There is no marriage, even in law, without the performance of this act. Since homosexuals cannot perform the sex act with each other, it is a physical impossibility for them to actually be married to each other. They may be able to have sexual relations with each other, but it is absolutely impossible for them to perform the sex act that constitutes Biblical marriage.
Since the fall of man into a corrupt and depraved state it is his usual manner to corrupt every good thing that God has given him, even though this brings nothing but pain and sorrow into his life. Whenever he unlawfully uses a lawful gift from God this constitutes what one may call normal sin. So when an unmarried man and woman commit the sex act, we have the normal sin of fornication. When a married person commits the sex act with somebody other than his or her spouse, this constitutes the normal sin of adultery. These are terrible sins in the eyes of God and will bring condemnation and damnation to the sinner. But because these sins are normal sins, they seldom bring the judgments of God upon nations.
Because fornication and adultery are normal sins, they have always been with us. Every nation from the beginning has abounded in these sins because they are the unlawful use of a normal function. There exists a normal attraction between the sexes that works at all times by the laws of nature that are meant to insure that the species continues. As rational human beings God expects us to control this urge and to use it only within the bounds of marriage and family. But because man is a fallen creature, he is always prone to tread into forbidden areas, even when it leads to destruction. Thus, sinful man will often commit these particular sins.
But, although one may account for these normal sins, sins which are merely an unlawful use of a natural function, there is no accounting for sins of perversion. It takes a different mind set to engage in these sins. There does not exist a natural law of attraction between members of the same sex. There is no natural product or progeny from homosexual activity. It can have no natural purpose, such as the continuation of the species, because homosexuality can never produce offspring. To the contrary, homosexuality inhibits the continuation of the species and if all were to become homosexual, the species would become extinct. Thus, this is an irrefutable proof that homosexuality is an unnatural perversion.
There is no way that homosexuality can be an expression of true love because God did not invent it. Homosexuality is the Satanic product of the fallen and corrupt mind of man. In the beginning God created man and woman and they could become one flesh. But God never invented any means for man and man or woman and woman to become one flesh. The joining together of these two can only produce a monstrosity which is a stench in the nostrils of God. And according to the apostle Paul in the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans the only reason why homosexuality exists is because a person rejects God. Thus, it is absolutely impossible to be a Christian and a homosexual at the same time.
The sexual perversion of homosexuality can only produce further perversion. Once homosexuality is accepted by society or is adopted by an individual there is an automatic degradation that ensues. It is not possible to remain unchanged by the acceptance of any perversion. Next comes pedophilia and then sadism and masochism. This is accompanied by such gross sexual perversions as fisting. And there is no end to the horrible lusting that begins to control the mind of the perverted person. Individuals become bestial and nations become depraved. When men or women give themselves to homosexuality, they fall into a bottomless pit of unfulfilled lust.
It is a very sad fact that the homosexual is doomed to a life of unfulfilled dreams. He seeks love and only finds lust. He seeks companionship and only finds lust. And when he is old, he is left with nothing because there is no progeny from a homosexual relationship. So in old age he is without love or companionship or lust. He is left with nobody to care because he has produced no children. No good can or ever has come from any kind of perverted relationship and this is equally true of homosexuality.
Because the natural man is unsaved and unredeemed, all of the perversions possible exist in the heart of every person from his birth. This is the result of Adam's sin. In the bosom of every person is the homosexual, the pedophile, the murderer, the sadist, and any and all other forms of sin. There is no person born into this world that is not susceptible to any and all sins because they are in his heart. The result is always dependent on the choices that the person makes. A person does not become a homosexual because he happens to have a predisposition to it while others do not. The seeds of homosexuality are in every person. It is for this reason that the homosexual is accountable to God for that sin. Homosexuals do not have to be a homosexual. They are homosexuals by choice.
I know this from experience because I can remember times in my youth when I was tempted to practice it. Although I knew in my heart that it was wrong, I do not know that if I were young today I would avoid it since it is now accepted. But because in my young years homosexuality was not accepted by society, I never gave in to it and followed the course of nature to become a normal heterosexual. But it was a choice that I made. And because it is a choice, God holds each of us accountable. If you are a homosexual, you know in your heart that it is wrong and no matter how hardened you have become, you will be held accountable because at one time you had to walk over the Spirit of God to become engaged in such a terrible sin. But there is deliverance for you if you want it. Jesus died to save you from your sins.
Make no mistake about it and be not deceived, for God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, so shall he also reap. If you sow to the awful sin of homosexuality, that is what you will reap. It matters not what society thinks about it since society will not be your judge. Your judge will be a holy God whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity. Your judge will be the One who gave His only begotten Son to die for you so that you could be delivered from all of your sins and live righteously in this present world. Jesus shed His precious Blood on the cross so that you can be delivered from that great sin of homosexuality. If you cling to your lusts, you trample on His blood as an unclean thing. Then how can you possibly expect to be saved from the burning wrath of an offended God?
Let us consider the words of the apostle Paul in his first epistle to the church at Corinth in chapter 6 and verses 9 through 11,
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators , nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (NIV)
Clearly, some of the saints at Corinth had been homosexuals, but Paul says that they were cured of that awful sin by the power of the Spirit of God. My dear friend, please believe that this is written in love by one that could have been what you are. There is deliverance from homosexuality through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He died to save you from your sins. But if you turn your back on Him and reject the deliverance that He offers and even refuse to acknowledge that it is a sin, then you will be without excuse and can only look forward to the wrath of God as your just and deserved end. In love I plead with you that you repent while there is yet time.
Let me close this tract with a final word to a class of individuals that exceeds the homosexuals in perversity. I am speaking of the heterosexual that defends homosexuality with a fervor. The poor homosexual wrestles with a carnal perversion and suffers strong temptations. I can sympathize with him in his struggles and in his failures. But the heterosexual that defends homosexuality suffers no such temptations. He does not wrestle against those powerful inward temptations of the flesh and the subsequent and consequent throes of conscience. His sin is spiritual. His sin is open and flagrant rebellion against his Creator. Knowing what the holy scriptures say about this issue this person flagrantly shakes his fist in the face of God out of pure rebellion and perversity of spirit. He is utterly without excuse and he will die in his sin and burn in hell forever unless he speedily repents.
Let us end this with the words of warning of that great apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans in chapter 1 and verse 32,
Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (NIV)
It is my fervent prayer and hope that this work will lead many to repentance and into the love of God in Christ Jesus. Written by a Friend of Jesus Christ and a friend and lover of the souls of all men everywhere.