Page 683 … Witnessing with Love
Next, you claim to “[Love] our enemy enough to share the gospel with them” … Maybe so – and yet it is extremely important for you & yours to realize that you happen to be sharing the “gospel” of Paul with them, not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, every time you arrogantly claim to know for a fact that a homosexual is “in sin” (and that you therefore would not go and hear him preach or publicly associate with him in any other way) you are actually refusing to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ – a Gospel of humility & unconditional Love that Jesus clearly mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:40-48 & Matthew 7:1-2 & Luke 6:28-30 & Matthew 25:40 et al), that he indirectly illustrated in all of his parables (most clearly in the Parable of the Sower; Matthew 13:18-23), and that he explicitly relayed two times in the Gospel of Matthew (see Matthew 10:7 & Matthew 22:12-14) … In essence then, for you to champion the condemnatory dogma of Paul at the expense of the enlightened Love of Christ is not very loving of you at all – and this, to say the least!
“And as you go, proclaim this Good News: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:7)
“And because of the increase of lawlessness, the LOVE of many will grow cold. And yet the one who endures [in LOVE] to the end will be saved. And this Good News of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world … and then the end will come.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:12-14)
You then claim to “witness to homosexuals without offending them or seeming intolerant” … And yet you most certainly do not do so, my Friend. Indeed, it is patently impossible to damn another to Hell for being who they are born to be and not simultaneously offend them, just as it is patently impossible to proclaim intolerance for homosexuality while somehow “seeming tolerant” … And frankly, it doesn’t really matter how tolerant you seem to homosexuals or not, for the fact remains that you quite obviously do NOT tolerate either their innate sexual inclinations or their chosen sexual behaviors. Indeed, you & yours find their particular beliefs “sinful”, you & yours are disgusted by them and are made uncomfortable by them (for whatever reasons), and you & yours have therefore chosen to label what is NOT a Biblical sin to be sin, and as such you & yours have chosen to “play God” by condemning the sins that are not yours to condemn … This is the very definition of intolerance, Lucy, and there really is no way around that fact, just as there is no way around the fact that the Jesus we find in the Gospels would have no patience at all for such nonsense.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in Heaven; for He makes the sun rise on both the evil & the good, and sends rain on both the righteous & the unrighteous.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:44-45)
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