Tag: gay pride

Posted in theology

How to Be Countercultural

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Pride Month” is over now, thank goodness. All during the month of June we were bombarded on social media and elsewhere with perverse and disgusting depictions of the perversity that sinful people love but that God hates. (Romans 1:31-32)

Whenever I was scrolling and came across one of those depictions, I averted my eyes, ground my teeth, asked God “How long O Lord?!” and went on. Seeing those pictures and clips upset me, especially when there were children in them or bystanding as they do when a parade passes. A parade of perversity.

I’m on Twitter a lot. Twitter (now ridiculously named ‘X’) is owned by Elon Musk, the billionaire. He tweeted something the other day that caught my attention.

I realized how much of a relief it was when I did come across a photo that simply was beautiful, or happy, or displaying nature in all God’s glory. Yes, I decided, I will make a practice of posting a few things each day that are simply beautiful. I figured if I was relieved seeing such nice things, other people may be too. I’ve been burdened by the ugliness of the perversity and sin captured in these photos and videos. Let’s push back and show either great art, design beauty, or nature in all its wonder.

THAT now got me thinking about photographs in general. I’m an educator and many of my colleagues are on Facebook. Summer time is fun time. I love seeing their summer vacation photos. I love seeing the anniversary celebration photos. I got to thinking about their pictures. It makes me happy to see my friends happy. It gives me joy to see a marriage thrive long-term.

And that is the crux. It’s the reverse of the Pride pics. If it makes me, a Christian, happy to see God’s working in families and marriages, visual depictions of a couple’s blessing of children or a marriage succeeding under His ordinance and guidance, it must grind the sinner’s gears to see them. As much as I am grieved with glimpsing on social media during Pride Month overweight men strutting around in bondage gear, it must grind satan to see displays of flourishing families frolicking at the beach or couples praising God for a wonderful marriage.

Amazing these days that a mom and her child and her husband as nuclear family, happy in the Lord, is revolutionary in these perverse days.

Normal family life is now counter-cultural. Stop and think about that for a second. It really is. You think that posting happy family photos is a negligible act, or an incidental moment. Frivolous, really. It’s not.

It’s actually an act of war.

The simple act of posting family photos of a nuclear family with a married biological mom and a dad is a poke in the eye to satan.

Whether you knew it or not when you posted that photo or video, the effect is countercultural. It’s a revolutionary push back against ugliness. And sin is ugly. Grace and godliness is needed. THAT is the real beauty.

You do not need to be a skilled rhetorician to show Christ in your life. You don’t need to always take a combative stance. You don’t need to win debates. If that is not your style, that’s fine. Simply posting a photo of your family with a caption of how much you love motherhood, or an anniversary picture with a praise for your husband, will have the same impact, or more, than all the above. Even better, attach a pertinent verse to it as well.

So post your photos that show a moral life under God- the wedding pics, anniversary photos, clips of the kids, being a mom or a dad, choosing motherhood, happy in the Lord. They are not incidental pics nor are they frivolous. They are revolutionary. Sad to say that showing a nuclear family with a dad, mom, and happy children, with the adults thriving in their complementary roles, is now considered extremist.

So, DO IT.

Further Resources

Beauty and the Best, RC Sproul

The Beauty of our God, RC Sproul

Should Christians Be Countercultural?

Posted in gonorrhea, jesus, robert a. j. gagnon, sexual sin

Sexual sins are worse. Here’s why

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Sexually transmitted diseases at their basic root are a judgment from God in the way that all disease is a function of the decay the people who dwell on the earth experience as a general consequence of sin from the Fall.

Disease is a fact of the wrath of God He is providentially using in this age. Judgment aside, sexual diseases ARE a consequence of wanton sexual activity outside the biblical confines of marriage.

There is a reason God set it up so that one man and one woman enjoy conjugal relations for a lifetime. Abandoning that opens a person up to sin, emotional decay, and physical disease. Remaining in a committed marriage with only one partner, or celibate if single, immeasurably decreases your chances of contracting such a disease.

In addition, Romans 1:18-32 describes God’s wrath against sexual sin and worse perversion.

So how does one avoid God’s displeasure in sexual sin, particularly when the culture is so immoral? Even insurance advertisements use adultery and lasciviousness to sell product! Well, the Bible says,

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18).”

Barnes Notes explains,

Flee fornication – A solemn command of God – as explicit as any that thundered from Mount Sinai. None can disregard it with impunity – none can violate it without being exposed to the awful vengeance of the Almighty. There is force and emphasis in the word “flee” φεύγατε pheugate. Man should escape from it; he should not stay to reason about it; to debate the matter; or even to contend with his propensities, and to try the strength of his virtue. There are some sins which a man can resist; some about which he can reason without danger of pollution. But this is a sin where a man is safe only when he flies.

Remember Joseph. He is our example here.

But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. (Genesis 39:11-12)

His faithfulness is such that He takes ALL sinners, no matter who confesses and repents. No matter what the sin. He is loving, just, merciful and kind. However, though He is those things, at the apocalypse He will unleash His wrath and anger, and render unto the unbelieving and sinning world the due consequences of their actions.

In case you missed it above, sexual sin, any sexual sin, (pre-marital sex, AKA fornication, homosexual sex, adultery, pornography, pedophilia, lust, and all other perversions) is worse than other sins because…here it is in 1 Corinthians 6:18 again.

And a word of caution to us all before the Second Coming takes place: FLEE from sexual sin, and that includes thoughts as well as actions. “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4)

Jesus is GREAT and faithful to help us. You do not have to be a slave to any sexual sin.  “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5)

Amen!!

—————————-

Further Reading

Is homosexuality worse than other sins?
For this reason, Christians are right to see homosexuality as an especially debase sin that displeases God. It is contrary to His good plan for marriage, and cannot reflect the purpose for which marriage exists—to represent Christ’s relationship to the church (Eph 5:31)

Is Homosexual Practice really No Worse than Any Other Sin?
“Christ’s universal coverage of sin through his death on the cross does not mean that all sins are equal in all respects but only that all sins are equal in one respect: They are all covered.”

Posted in theology

But…there are gay penguins, right?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

It’s ‘pride in one’s homosexual sin’ month. Mother gets a day but sodomy gets a month. Hm. That’s normal in a world where evil is called good and good is called evil, light is dark and dark is light, bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter, says Isaiah 5:20.

Sometimes when mentioning that homosexuality is a sin that needs repenting for, else the person practicing it will not inherit heaven, (1 Corinthians 6:9), the person defending it as natural appeals to nature. They say, ‘What about the gay penguins? Hmm? Hmmm?’

Source BBC

Tufts University asked that very question, recounting the unusual same-sex activity in a variety of species of penguins. Deutsche Welle (DW) of Germany also has an article stating “10 Animal Species that show How Being Gay is Natural.” There are many articles like this.

There are only two problems with appealing to nature when defending homosexuality: they suppress the truth that God trumps nature, and most importantly, nature (or the natural world) is fallen. It is under the curse of the fallen nature of things, the same as the rest of us. Any aberrant behavior AKA sin, is due to that fall.

In fact, the creation groans for release from its curse:

For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:19-22).

You weren’t born gay. Homosexuality is not a natural state. Jesus can release you from this sin.

Appealing to nature as a defense of unnatural behavior fails, because the natural world is unnatural at this point. To be sure, seasons progress along their given lines, leaves change, tides sweep in and out, people are eating and drinking and marrying and living lives. A vast majority of the world looks normal. And it did before the Flood, too (Matthew 24:38). But we stagger under the fall of Man, knowing the very ground is cursed and everything that springs from it has the potential to be abnormal. Everything and everyone.

Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5).

All creation groans. All is under pain and disorder. All things share that curse in common misery. And what comes from disorder is more disorder, such as homosexuality.

The wages of all sin is death. This includes homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, other sexual immorality like fornication outside of marriage, lust, pornography, and adultery. Homosexuals who practice their sin will not go to heaven when they die, but are headed for hell to endure eternal punishment for their sin. Just like the rest of the unrepentant sinners.

But if you want to escape this reality, this sure ending, then you have the hope of the Gospel. Repent (turn away; repudiate) your sin of homosexuality and appeal to the Lord & Savior who died on the tree for this sin, enduring God’s wrath for it, so you will not endure the wrath for it. You will be washed clean, given pure robes to wear in this earthly life, and you will go to meet your Savior in blissful heaven when you die. But you must repent of it first.

If you do not want to repent of your homosexuality, you have the Law facing you. God will be your Judge. He will open the books, examine your life, bang that gavel, declare you unfit for heaven and sentence you to hell, according to His law. The wages of sin is death, this means death in hell. The punishment is eternal because you will have sinned against an infinite God.

Homosexuality in penguins is aberrant, and it’s definitely aberrant in humans. Repent, a Savior is waiting to take you out of that hellish life of diminishing returns and expand it in joy and freedom from that sin.

Posted in theology

It’s Pride Month: Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Gay Pride Month was first declared in 1999 by President Bill Clinton. Three presidents of the United States have officially declared a pride month. As mentioned, Clinton was first, who declared it June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month” in 1999 and 2000. Then from 2009 to 2016, each year he was in office, Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month. Joe Biden declared June LGBTQ+ Pride Month in 2021.

A lot has happened with the homosexual agenda since 1993. Twenty-eight years ago, (1993) in an episode of the comedy sitcom “Seinfeld” called “The Outing,” Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza, lifelong buddies, are mistaken for a homosexual couple, and “strenuously deny that they are gay, conditioning their denials with ‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that.’ The line would soon afterward become a catchphrase. Jason Alexander maintains that it is the most popular to originate from the series. (source).

But the camel’s nose was under the tent. It was the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” (DADT). In the same year as Seinfeld’s episode of “The Outing”, President Bill Clinton announced new policy regarding homosexuals in the military. Until then, openly homosexual men and women were barred from service in the United States Military. Under Clinton’s policy, DADT meant that homosexual men and women could serve if they weren’t flagrant. No military official could directly ask them about their sexual orientation in recruitment or otherwise, either.

This new policy ushered in a sensitivity about asking or discussing one’s sexual orientation in the general culture, as seen in the hugely impactful Seinfeld episode. I can’t state more strongly what a cultural phenomenon that Seinfeld was. In the episode, each time when homosexuality was mentioned and the catchphrase “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” was uttered, the person would shrug, throw up their hands in a mock submission and shake their head. Here is a 16 second compilation from that episode-

Twenty-eight years later, even mentioning homosexuality in less than glowing terms raises immediate ire. If a person does not give hearty approval to homosexuality, (Romans 1:32), one is immediately scourged. The scourging is fast, immediate, and vicious. I’ve been a recipient of it myself, merely for inquiring of a third party regarding two ladies, “Are they together?”

It is a given that we understand there are many sins. Lists and lists of them are given in the Bible. (Romans 1:29-31, 2 Corinthians 12:20, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Jude 1:16). Committing even one of them disqualifies a person from heaven. Jesus is great enough to forgive them, no matter how many you committed. If a person is talking about the greatness of Jesus in His ability and desire to forgive any and all sins, then by all means, list the bunch of them to illustrate the breadth of His mercy and grace! But homosexuality is one of those sins for which people who practice it will endure hellfire forever.

While the discussion of homosexuality as a sin may legitimately call for an expanded list of sins, it is not necessary to hide homosexuality within a larger list of sins just to make it palatable to the LGBT lobby. If the discussion is about the sin of gossip, then the discussion will be about gossip. No one will suggest including adultery in the talk because it is in some way perversely fair to all the other sins to mention them too.

There is no pride in sin. If so, then an adulterer would proudly march up and down the streets showing off his mistress. Thieves would march in parades holding their ill-gotten goods. There is no pride in any sin. We are called to repentance for gossip, fornication, idolatry, greed…all of it!

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

No one who is unrighteous will inherit heaven. I’m not a better class of sinner than a gay person because I sin differently, no! All unrighteous will be disqualified from heaven. Likewise, the homosexual is not a better class of sinner than me, either. There is no pride in sin. None. All sin is cosmic treason and will evoke anger from a Holy God. He punishes sin in wrath.

The Good News is that repentance from sin will evoke forgiveness and compassion from a loving God. He forgives sin, all sin, as we see in the verse above. “…And such were some of you…” WERE some of you. They WERE greedy, drunkards, swindlers, homosexual. Past. They turned from their sin and appealed in penitence to God for forgiveness.

God forgives because Jesus took God’s punishment for sin on the cross. He became sin, He sacrificed Himself on behalf of us pigs wallowing in our filthy pens. The parable of the Prodigal Son reflects the goodness of the Father and his eagerness to forgive sin and welcome His sons into His house!

I will set out and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired laborers.”’ So he set out and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let’s eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:18-24).

If one wants to feel pride, be proud of a Holy God who forgives. Boast in Him! (2 Corinthians 10:17). We feel pride in Jesus who did such a monumental work, who came to seek and save the lost, of whom homosexuals are grouped. There is no pride in sin, but there is pride in a sinless Savior. I pray that anyone lost in their sin and feeling deep shame, despair, hopelessness, realizes that no one is too far gone to be able to appeal to Jesus in repentance. He forgives all sin, and no sinner coming to Him will be turned away. And there’s nothing wrong with that, and everything RIGHT and GOOD.

Posted in prophecy, Uncategorized

Royal Dutch Airlines Unleashes The Single Stupidest Gay Pride Ad Of All Time

Posted on by elizabethprata

Daily Wire remarked on the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ Gay “Pride” ad campaign with this headline:

Royal Dutch Airlines Unleashes The Single Stupidest Gay Pride Ad Of All Time

In its desire to placate the sexual political correctness running rampant in advertising lately, Royal Dutch Airlines has just condemned all same-sex couples to death, propounding the idea that any kind of seatbelt arrangement suits the airline just fine:

click
The article above continued with Twitter screen shots of hilarity and mockery.

I loved this man’s Facebook comment to the above:

click2

I said the same on Twitter. The boy-boy belt won’t work, and the girl-girl belt won’t work. Only the boy-girl belt will “click.” You can paint the strap rainbow but…

So self-refutation indeed. Anyway, last time I checked, seat belts still needed a male and a female part to “click” , and homosexuality was still a sin.