My Defense of the Philly 11 to the ChurchReally quickly I wanted to share a few thoughts with everyone on these forums which I've been thinking about. I was going to post a week ago but I didn't. I'll just share my few thoughts and leave it at that. You guys, feel free to post any comments or rebuttles since it is the truth that we are all after. quote: "Is it wise or unwise to preach the Gospel at an event like this one?" I always believed that the light shines the brightest where it is the darkest. If it is a dark place, then that is exactly where the light belongs. What should we do? Take our lights and put them under our beds? (Matthew 5:15) Lets put the light where it belongs, shining in the darkness. Lets be the city set on the hill which can not and will not be hidden. (Matt 5:14). What Jesus has told us in the dark, lets speak in the light. What He has told us in the ear, lets preach from the housetops. (Matt 10:27) If the battle is not fought on the frontlines, where is it fought? As far as preaching against homosexuality, so long as it is a sin I believe it is ok to preach against it. I believe in preaching against any sin and all sin. Although telling a homosexual in a America that homosexuality is a sin probably won't come as a huge revelation to him, it is still a truth that the bible proclaims (1 Cor 6:9). If the bible proclaims it we should also. Now, you may not have to even bring it up when witnessing to a homosexual. In America, they probably already know and have heard it. You can effectively witness to a homosexual without even bringing it up. However, it won't be long until homosexuals haven't heard that it is a sin. The world won't tell them, and often the church won't either. Therefore, if the bible preaches against it, I wouldn't oppose Christians who do the same. Jer 6:10 - "To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, And they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; They have no delight in it." - As we can see in situations like these.Ezekiel 1:7 "You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious." - It's all about being faithful with the gospel. Our focus must not be to be successful with the gospel. Jesus will not say on that Day "well done, my good and successful servant." If we are faithful in declaring the truth, then we are being sucessful even if nobody gets saved. Remember, the prophet Jeremiahs ministry never saved anybody at all, dispite all the preaching, yet he was still faithful. Jeremiah would be a failure according to the standards of today, but he is highly exalted in Heaven.2 Timothy 4:2 - "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season." So whether we have a harvest or not, we must preach the word.Ezekiel 3:11- "And go, get to the capitves, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God,' whether they hear, or whether they refuse." - I can see how this can apply to this situation.Ezekiel 3:18 "When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand." - Can this be applied to homosexuals as well? I also feel it is important not to believe that because they are homosexuals, they are unqualified from even the possibility of getting saved, and therefore we shouldn't reach out to them. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "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." And so we see that Paul preached to homosexuals the message of repentance and hope and saw obvious results.I've had some rather, I would dare to say, pleasant witnessing encounters with homosexuals. One night I talked to three homosexuals all together. I did not beat around the bush, I went straight for the prevelent and primary sin: homosexuality. I didn't bother trying to cut down the branches, I went for the root of the tree. Very lovingly and very seriously I told them that if they do not repent from homosexuality they will perish and I don't want them to die. I told them they have to turn. We were all very polite and friendly to each other and I feel I really got through to one of them. Very often MANY homosexuals believe that they can live that lifestyle and still be a Christian. So long as they don't lie or steal and are friendly to others they beleive they can be Christians. Therefore, I told them that they need to repent from homosexuality. I wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that they can be both a Christian and a homosexual. I wouldn't want to be responsible for that, as I'm sure no serious Christian would. Col. 1:28 is my life scripture. "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Every man must be warned whether white or black, young or old, big or small, straight or gay, all men everywhere are commanded to repent. (Acts 17:30-31) and not just some men in some places. Therefore Paul warned all men. As far as banners go, I would never oppose something that furthers the truth. If it is declaring the truth, then I am all for it. I know the world has no problem getting massive billboards to promote their adult (short for adultery) stores. We've all seen them displayed unashamedly. I know I am not the only one. They are effective in declaring their message, no matter how offensive it is to me as a Christian. I know the Salvation Army, when William Booth was the General, always used banners in their open-air meetings. They would parade through the streets with HUGE banners and God blessed them because they saw revival. Remarkable revival. I would never speak against something that God has used greatly. What if God wanted to use banners again to help bring about a revival? I think that would be awesome and would love to see a move of God today just as William Booth did in his day.As far as Bullhorns, it simply just isn't good quality. I prefer to use my Fender P-10, however the cops took that away from me recently. Something like a Fender or Anchor Audio is simply better quality then a bull horn. Singing hymns publicly is great. In the days of the Wesley revivals, Charles Wesley (who wrote most of the methodist hymnal) would stand in the open-air and sing a hymn which would get peoples attention. After Charles would get their ears with a hymn, John Wesley would get their hearts with his preaching. But I am sure Charles had a great voice. Nobody has a great voice using a bull horn. I recommend better equipment or no equipment at all. I myself have stood next to my large easle scripture display that reads "God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps7:11)" and have passed out free gospels. Since it is scripture, I'll gladly do it. I have found it to be quite helpful in getting peoples attention, getting the message across to the masses, and in starting powerful conversations. If it is from the bible, I'll display it on my easle and will not apologize to the world on behalf of God for anything He has said. Our society has no problem with signs and banners. We have stop signs and store signs and all sorts of signs. People have a problem with what some of our signs say. The world has no problem with a sign that says "God loves you" or "God is love" but if a Christian holds up the scripture that says "God is angry with the wicked every day" then the world has a problem and often the church sides with them. It's not the method they are opposed to, it is the message. Where does submitting to authority come into play? I am very glad that I do not have to answer this question at all. The early church did it for me. It's found in Acts 4:18-20 "And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."Anyways, those are just the few points I wanted to quickly comment on. I am by no means looking for an arguement or to cause division or contraversy. Take it or leave it. These are just the things that have come to my mind and heart. We all have the same goal, to seek and save the lost. I OPENLY ADMIT I MAY BE WRONG ON ANY ONE OF THOSE POINTS. I am open to reason, scripture, and any feed back and also am committing myself more to prayer and fasting. I simply recommend taking what you find to be true and leave what you find to be false. It is great to see that we all seem to agree on more things then we disagree. And that we all agree on the "majors" although our opinions differ when it comes to the "minors". We all agree that we must evangelize. We all agree that we must use the Law to bring the knowledge of sin before the knowledge of grace makes sense. We all agree that we must preach on sin, hell, judgment, repentance, and the cross. We all agree that we must find the most effective and powerful way to reach our generation. We all believe and love Jesus :) . Etc etc
