Subject: how can we minister to homosexuals |
Bible Note: Doc- sorry for the delay... BBQ night with the family...thanks for the response brother. Thanks for having patients with me also. For easier following I’ll include your quote of me. “"It's not our place to ever tell someone their going to Hell..." (sic)” Now I’ll quote the original question from Tyboswell: “how can we minister to homosexuals rather than tellin them they are going to hell or avoidin the issue i hop im clear” I was responding directly to Tyboswell’s “rather than telling them they are going to hell.” My point (and I’m sorry I’m having such a hard time articulating it) was/is that it is not our place as fallen creatures to judge another person’s eternal state. We couldn’t if we wanted to and we’re never taught in Scripture to do so. With that said, God’s grace to transform the unbeliever is not only in the question, it is the essential point, both in regard to his question and my response to him. We might look at it this way. If we know a person is already going to Hell, why would we witness to him/her in the first place? It’s possibly a reason why God does not give you and me the ability to know if another will be lost to eternal damnation or saved by God’s grace. As long as there is still breath and a conscious thought, there is the possibility of responding to the Savior; even if one’s sin has him nailed to a cross. The thief on the cross next to our Savior certainly fell into 1Corinthians 6:9-11. Of course... so did the Apostle Paul, so did I, so did you and the list goes on. As I have represented in this thread (at least I believed so) my response had nothing to do with not calling sin for what it is. It was specifically to say that we are not in a position to judge the eternal condition of another. I am quite in agreement with you that Scripture clearly teaches how a person’s behavior effects how he/she stands before God; Just as Scripture teaches that none of those behaviors are beyond the redemptive love and grace of our Holy God. As you pointed out from Matthew 7: "...the Scripture is unequivocal that we are to be careful observers, not only of our own lives (2 Corinthians 13:5), but also the lives of others (Hebrews 12:15-16)” Keep in mind that Hebrews 12:15-16 is talking to believers about believers. The context of the passage is that of describing, in part,the process of sanctification to include that part in which believers participate one to another. It has nothing whatever to do with witnessing to the unsaved nor does it speak to judging the final state of another’s sole. Doc, thanks for, as always, working patiently through the topic. Not that I’m calling it done, just don’t know that I can add more than I already have offered. God bless, Jeff |