The Wrong Direction

I've noticed something. In conversations regarding controversial things like "Can a person living in a homosexual relationship go to heaven?" (and so very much more), it seems as if we're asking these questions from the wrong direction. I'm convinced that the common error is that we ask them from our experience and the emotional ties we carry rather than from the known. That is, we assume that our experience (and, apparently, our emotional reactions to our experience) are truths from which we can evaluate other truth claims ... including Scripture. But both reason and Scripture tell us that's not true. From reason, just ask any police officer or lawyer about the reliability of eye witnesses. They will tell you that eye witnesses are notoriously wrong. From Scripture, we read, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9). That text claims that the human heart is deceitful and sick and that we aren't even aware of it. So if we are to answer these questions with any truth, what should be our approach? We need to ask from the known -- from the truth.

Look at the example above. Experience would tell us that "We know lots of good folks who are in homosexual relationships." We likely all know someone; we likely all care about that someone. Even more than one. But the question is not who you know or how you perceive them. The question is truth. God's Word says that those who indulge in sinful lifestyles (including homosexual behavior) (1 Cor 6:9-10) "will not inherit the kingdom." That's not my words; that's God's Word. I'm not basing that on my experience or my feelings; I'm basing it on what Jesus called "truth" (John 17:17). "Well," I've heard countered, "what if that person accepted Christ when he was 7? Does that mean he lost his salvation?" Again, you hear the experiential, emotional source, don't you? What does God's Word say? "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). We all sin (1 John 1:8, 10), but according to Scripture the one born of God cannot make a practice of it. It cannot be an ongoing, unrepented, let alone defended condition. If it is, that person is not "born of God." And we know that "many" will be self-deceived about their spiritual condition (Matt 7:21-23). Beyond that, Scripture tells us, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19). So people who, in our vernacular, "leave the faith" don't leave the faith; they were never in the faith.

We are humans, born in sin. We have a sin nature. We were "dead in sin" and, "by nature, children of wrath" (Eph 2:1-3). By nature we are inclined only to evil (Gen 8:21). It stands to reason we will get some of this wrong. It makes sense that we might tend to prioritize our personal feelings and perceptions over God and His Word. When we do, we substitute ourselves for God. Believers have a new nature (2 Cor 5:17) -- as in "born again." Believers have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If it is true that God's seed abides in us, we are changed beings. We have new inclinations. Our "want to" changes. We seek to please God rather than ourselves ... in an ever expanding way. We must not allow ourselves to place our experiential and emotional perceptions over God's Word. That's clearly the product of the father of lies, and we know that's not in our best interest. We need to pursue answers from the known -- from the truth of God's Word -- rather than our feelings and perceptions. Anything else is misleading at best.