“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”

Luke 6:37

A little over 3 years ago I wrote a post called Don’t condemn, but DO NOT condone either! My intent was to remind us, that while we are all sinners, we are specifically told to NOT condemn but also to NOT condone!

If you follow Biblical prophecy, you are well aware that in the Last Days we will see many things happen, including “deceptions”, “…wars, rumors of wars”, “… nation shall arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.” (Matthew 24:4-7). These things will happen with increasing frequency and intensity and yes, we are seeing all these things happen today like never before! But, there are many other things also shown to us prophesying what must happen in these Last Days. One of them is the rise of homosexuality. Let me be clear! I am not condemning gay people. I am explaining homosexuality is a sin in God’s eyes. Man was given free choice to sin, and just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden decided to go against the Will of God, ANY sin goes against God’s Will. Can you imagine being sinless in the Garden of Eden when Eve was deceived by Satan? Knowing what you now know, would you have told Eve to not eat the Forbidden Fruit or would you have told her to do whatever Satan told her to do? “The wages of sin are death.” – Romans 6:23. Many billions of people have since died over mankind’s history because of only one sin, going against the Will of God  and eating the fruit God told them NOT to eat!

One of the best articles I have read on this issue was recently posted in the Daily Berean, and the Church of the Great God was kind enough to give me permission to repost it. It was originally written by Earl L. Henn (1934-1997). I do this again not to condemn gay people but to make sure we are all aware homosexuality AND its general acceptance in the Last Days would increase, it is a sin, and it must be repented of to be forgiven:

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. EVEN THUS SHALL IT BE IN THE DAY WHEN THE SON OF MAN IS REVEALED (capitals mine).”

Luke 17:28-30 KJV

Jesus Christ gave many “indicator markings” to help us to determine when His second coming is near. He shows us that an indicator of His imminent return is that the society around us will be similar to that of Sodom when Lot lived there nearly four thousand years ago. People will be going about their everyday lives seemingly unconcerned about the egregious evils in society, unaware that their lifestyles are abominable in the eyes of God. Thinking their ways of life are “normal,” they will not expect the calamitous events that will befall them.

It is axiomatic that a dominant characteristic of Sodom’s culture was rampant homosexuality. English has borrowed the words sodomy and sodomite to describe homosexuality and those who practice it. When angels came to Lot in the form of human men to inform him that God would overthrow the city, the men of Sodom came to Lot’s door, demanding that the visitors come out and have a homosexual relationship with them (Genesis 19:1-5). “But before they (God’s two angels) lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know (have sex with them) them.” The angels struck these Sodomites with blindness to drive them away (verse 11).

Most people would look upon such behavior as unthinkable. However, the men of Sodom apparently regarded it as “normal”; they did not view it as evil at all! Today, a similar attitude is slowly and insidiously beginning to work its way into our society. Increasingly, homosexuality is considered to be an ordinary lifestyle. Instead of being viewed as a horrible perversion, homosexuality is more and more being regarded as an “orientation” just as left-handedness is an orientation, for example. As usual, the Western world, composed primarily of the nations that have descended from Israel, is leading the way in this radical change in attitude.

An article appearing in the January 6-12, 1996, edition of The Economist entitled “It’s Normal to be Queer” describes the radical changes in attitude toward homosexuals that have occurred worldwide over the last thirty years. As often happens, the changes have occurred gradually, one step at a time. First, many societies decriminalized homosexuality, and people slowly stopped considering it an illness or perversion. This led many to abandon the traditional view that homosexuality is shameful, opening the door to the idea that gays and lesbians are simply a cultural minority—like a racial or ethnic minority. Finally, some cultures are beginning to regard homosexuality as a normal but different lifestyle—simply an “orientation.”

In fact, some countries have begun to look upon homosexuality as a harmless, neutral trait that a small percentage of people are born with—like having blue eyes or red hair. As such, it is seen as a characteristic that the individual did not choose and cannot change. These attitudes have led many to accept the homosexual lifestyle as a distinct but, at the same time, normal, ordinary and harmless condition. The article in The Economist describes how people just seem to accept this:

So emerges that rare but proliferating species: the young woman of 20 who realizes she is a lesbian but, after a period of adjustment, shrugs her shoulders, informs her family, and plans to get on with an otherwise mundane life. (p. 69)

There are, of course, exceptions to this attitude. Many countries of the Middle East where Islam is the dominant religion still treat homosexuals very harshly. Throughout most of Africa, homosexuality is rarely discussed. Even in the Western world, many homosexuals still have not “come out of the closet.” Nevertheless, the changing attitude is unmistakable and is growing in most areas of the world.

Last year the first gay page appeared in a mainstream newspaper in Turkey; an openly homosexual Pakistani poet published what may be the first book of gay verse in Urdu; and Latin America’s first gay resort opened in Brazil. In 1995 activists demanded marriage rights in Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic and New Zealand. Estonia’s all-lesbian group started in 1990, Hong Kong’s in 1994 (followed by another last year), and Brazil has at least seven. Mexico’s homosexual groups number more than a dozen; South Africa’s, more than 50. . . . In short, homosexuals are emerging from the closet. And, more interesting still, they are doing it in more or less the whole world at once. (ibid. Emphasis ours.)

Many would undoubtedly applaud this push to bring homosexuals out of the closet and allow them to practice their lifestyle openly with the same rights as “straight” people. Many would argue that this is an “enlightened” and “progressive” movement that all decent human beings should advocate. But what does God say about this? How does He see and regard homosexuality? Does God advocate gay rights?

God sees things quite differently than most people in this world. He clearly states that homosexuality is wrong (“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22); it is an abomination of which people must repent! In no uncertain terms, He decrees that homosexuals will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God (“Know  ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,” I Corinthians 6:9).

Many thousands of years ago, God knew that this type of movement would occur in the end time among His people, the modern-day descendants of Israel. Through the prophet Isaiah, God thunders a warning to His people today, calling them by a name that unmistakably brands them with the sin of homosexuality: “Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:10). God prophesies as to where this open acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle would lead:

“For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.”

Isaiah 3:8-9

God reveals that when His people accept the attitude that homosexuality is “normal,” they have begun to tread the path that will ultimately lead to their destruction.

As we see the same conditions that existed “…in the days of Lot” developing today, we can take comfort that the glorious second coming of Jesus Christ is drawing near. When He comes, He will make the Spirit of God available to all (Joel 2:28-32), and homosexuals will be taught that they can repent and change. Jesus is described “like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver” (Malachi 3:2-3). He will cleanse the earth from all unrighteousness and perversion, and show all people how to live the way that leads to peace, happiness, and joy. Then—and only then—will the homosexual lifestyle be eradicated from the earth forever.

Earl Henn

While we are told to NOT judge, lest we be judged, it is imperative we fully understand God’s Word! The Bible tells us murder is a sin. The Bible tells us theft is a sin. The Bible tells us adultery is a sin. The Bible tells us using the Lord’s name in vain is a sin. And, the Bible tells us homosexuality is an abomination, or sin, to God! Which sin to God is NOT a sin? As I sit at home and watch TV it is amazing how many commercials, how many shows, and how many interviews depict homosexuality as OK, a “normal” way of life in direct fulfillment of Bible prophecy to what we were told the world would become and has now become. This is yet another sign of God’s prophecies coming to fruition in these Last Days. The comforting thing of this is not so much that rampant sin has taken over the world but rather that He knew beforehand it would and He gave us an out! By accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and by asking Him to forgive your sins and then do everything you can to follow His Word, there IS forgiveness of sins available to us. All we must do is ask and believe. If you are as comforted by His Word as I am, please do as He instructed us to do and that is to “…therefore comfort one another with these words.” 

He is Coming SOON and I can hardly wait! May God Bless you!