Surge Summary: The Republican acting Director of National Intelligence has announced that his homosexual lifestyle makes him a better Christian – something the entire Bible repudiates. He needs to be denounced for this deception.
Stop the presses! A fresh revelation has broken out from a prominent member of the Trump Administration and it’s so revolutionary we might need to add it to our Bibles: Buckle your seatbelts … here it is:
Stubbornly violating God’s prohibitions actually improves our relationship with Him …
Who knew?
Apparently, Richard Grenell knew. He’s the Trump-appointed U.S. acting Director of National Intelligence, which means he oversees the nation’s entire intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
Grenell’s also the first openly gay person to serve in a cabinet-level position – and he avowed in an interview on “The Rubin Report” that being a practicing homosexual makes him more the person Jesus wants him to be (!).
“You know, I think being gay makes me a better Christian–to be honest,”
Grenell said in the interview. “I was made this way, right, and the Bible says everyone is fearfully and wonderfully made.”
In a feat of dazzlingly imaginative special pleading, this former U.S. Ambassador to Germany pronounced, “I was made this way. I was born gay. So, the fact of the matter is I fully embrace that I was made this way in the image of God and you can be gay and be a Christian. And there’s no problem with it.”
Of course, anyone familiar with the contents of the Old and New Testaments will promptly recognize that ignoring the Scripture’s comprehensive denunciation of homosexual activity and, instead, teasing out a gauzy rationalization based on a broader biblical principle in no way negates the Book’s explicit commandment. Engaging in perversion doesn’t, hesto-presto, become a-okay because the engager is “made in” the Creator’s image. In short, sure enough, every person reflects certain aspects of the “image of God” (Gen 1:26) – but that certainly does not translate into justification for everything people do, every choice they make. Recall: the image of God in individuals has been fractured by sin (something also noted in the opening chapters of Genesis) – which explains why so many of them do things contrary to His will.
Is shoplifting acceptable? Mind you, shoplifters are human beings, “made in God’s image”.
Profane language, even taking the Lord’s name in vain – is that permissible? Remember Genesis 1:26, after all!
What about punching out that guy who cuts you off in traffic? Does reciting the “God’s image” mantra sanitize rage? Lack of self-control? Physical assault?
In a particularly tedious but deathless scrap of misinformation, Grenell breezily claims if you read the New Testament writers in their first-century tongue versus the English translations — poof! — any condemnation of same-sex diddling evaporates.
“You really have to go back to the original language, the original Greek, and really understand what the words were when the translation in the 1950s somehow takes the word homosexuality and puts it into a different context,” he said.
Ah, yes: the dog-eared “context” cop-out …
To be precise, Grenell’s interpretive gymnastics are bogus; always have been. His is a fusty exercise in exegesis, scraped together by people who want to have it both ways: embracing the Bible but disregarding its more uncomfortable, less-21st Century-fashionable elements.
Grenell continued with Dave Rubin: “I am an imperfect follower of Christ. I fail every single day. But for me what’s the beauty of this is that the Bible talks about having new mercies every morning and grace every morning.”
With respect to the 53-year-old Trump appointee, allow me to agree with him on two points, one lyrical, one prickly: Yes, Mr. Grenell, Lamentations 3: 22-23 is a pivotal, biblical truth; your paraphrase of it is a lovely sentiment.
You’re additionally correct about one other observation, Mr. Grenell: You are failing here. God does offer forgiveness, healing and restoration to those who repent of their sin. But His “every morning … mercies … and grace” are never to be construed as license to shunt aside his demands. (See Romans chapter 6).
We’ve already seen a smattering of apostate Christians — including false-shepherd “clergy” — christening abortion some kind of heaven-bestowed procedure, the Heavenly Father’s provision for tricky pregnancies. Mom’s liquidating their offspring? Yeah, definitely a divinely granted development.
What other spine-tinglingly spiritual disclosures await in the pipeline?
Never Praying Will Draw You Closer to God
Commit Adultery — It’s a Secret to Christian Development
Lying and Cheating Will Make You a Better Servant of God.
Absurd? Well, obviously. But no more so than Grenell’s heartbreaking and pathetic claim that same-sex sodomy can be a key to robust Christian maturity. From stem-to-stern, front-to-back, Genesis-to-Revelation, the document followers of Jesus identify as their chief source of truth condemns homosexuality. It can’t fortify your spiritual development. It can undercut and, ultimately, eradicate it.
Although Richard Grenell unabashedly professes faith in Christ, and although he was installed in his influential government post by a president for whom most conservative Christians cast their ballot, he is deceiving people with his anti-Bible hokum — and the rest of us “made in God’s image” need to call him out, resoundingly, over it.
The views here are those of the author and not necessarily Daily Surge.
Originally posted here.
Image: Adapted from: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/; https://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/49279489076
Surge Summary: The Republican acting Director of National Intelligence has announced that his homosexual lifestyle makes him a better Christian – something the entire Bible repudiates. He needs to be denounced for this deception.
Stop the presses! A fresh revelation has broken out from a prominent member of the Trump Administration and it’s so revolutionary we might need to add it to our Bibles: Buckle your seatbelts … here it is:Stubbornly violating God’s prohibitions actually improves our relationship with Him …
Who knew?
Apparently, Richard Grenell knew. He’s the Trump-appointed U.S. acting Director of National Intelligence, which means he oversees the nation’s entire intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
Grenell’s also the first openly gay person to serve in a cabinet-level position – and he avowed in an interview on “The Rubin Report” that being a practicing homosexual makes him more the person Jesus wants him to be (!).
“You know, I think being gay makes me a better Christian–to be honest,” Grenell said in the interview. “I was made this way, right, and the Bible says everyone is fearfully and wonderfully made.”In a feat of dazzlingly imaginative special pleading, this former U.S. Ambassador to Germany pronounced, “I was made this way. I was born gay. So, the fact of the matter is I fully embrace that I was made this way in the image of God and you can be gay and be a Christian. And there’s no problem with it.”
Of course, anyone familiar with the contents of the Old and New Testaments will promptly recognize that ignoring the Scripture’s comprehensive denunciation of homosexual activity and, instead, teasing out a gauzy rationalization based on a broader biblical principle in no way negates the Book’s explicit commandment. Engaging in perversion doesn’t, hesto-presto, become a-okay because the engager is “made in” the Creator’s image. In short, sure enough, every person reflects certain aspects of the “image of God” (Gen 1:26) – but that certainly does not translate into justification for everything people do, every choice they make. Recall: the image of God in individuals has been fractured by sin (something also noted in the opening chapters of Genesis) – which explains why so many of them do things contrary to His will.
Is shoplifting acceptable? Mind you, shoplifters are human beings, “made in God’s image”.
Profane language, even taking the Lord’s name in vain – is that permissible? Remember Genesis 1:26, after all!
What about punching out that guy who cuts you off in traffic? Does reciting the “God’s image” mantra sanitize rage? Lack of self-control? Physical assault?In a particularly tedious but deathless scrap of misinformation, Grenell breezily claims if you read the New Testament writers in their first-century tongue versus the English translations — poof! — any condemnation of same-sex diddling evaporates.
“You really have to go back to the original language, the original Greek, and really understand what the words were when the translation in the 1950s somehow takes the word homosexuality and puts it into a different context,” he said.
Ah, yes: the dog-eared “context” cop-out …
To be precise, Grenell’s interpretive gymnastics are bogus; always have been. His is a fusty exercise in exegesis, scraped together by people who want to have it both ways: embracing the Bible but disregarding its more uncomfortable, less-21st Century-fashionable elements.
Grenell continued with Dave Rubin: “I am an imperfect follower of Christ. I fail every single day. But for me what’s the beauty of this is that the Bible talks about having new mercies every morning and grace every morning.”With respect to the 53-year-old Trump appointee, allow me to agree with him on two points, one lyrical, one prickly: Yes, Mr. Grenell, Lamentations 3: 22-23 is a pivotal, biblical truth; your paraphrase of it is a lovely sentiment.
You’re additionally correct about one other observation, Mr. Grenell: You are failing here. God does offer forgiveness, healing and restoration to those who repent of their sin. But His “every morning … mercies … and grace” are never to be construed as license to shunt aside his demands. (See Romans chapter 6).
We’ve already seen a smattering of apostate Christians — including false-shepherd “clergy” — christening abortion some kind of heaven-bestowed procedure, the Heavenly Father’s provision for tricky pregnancies. Mom’s liquidating their offspring? Yeah, definitely a divinely granted development.
What other spine-tinglingly spiritual disclosures await in the pipeline?
Never Praying Will Draw You Closer to GodCommit Adultery — It’s a Secret to Christian Development
Lying and Cheating Will Make You a Better Servant of God.
Absurd? Well, obviously. But no more so than Grenell’s heartbreaking and pathetic claim that same-sex sodomy can be a key to robust Christian maturity. From stem-to-stern, front-to-back, Genesis-to-Revelation, the document followers of Jesus identify as their chief source of truth condemns homosexuality. It can’t fortify your spiritual development. It can undercut and, ultimately, eradicate it.
Although Richard Grenell unabashedly professes faith in Christ, and although he was installed in his influential government post by a president for whom most conservative Christians cast their ballot, he is deceiving people with his anti-Bible hokum — and the rest of us “made in God’s image” need to call him out, resoundingly, over it.
The views here are those of the author and not necessarily Daily Surge.Originally posted here.
Image: Adapted from: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/; https://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/49279489076
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Steve Pauwels
Steve Pauwels is pastor of Church of the King, Londonderry, NH, Managing Editor over at dailysurge.com and host of Striker Radio with Steve Pauwels on the Red State Talk Radio Network. He's also husband to the lovely Maureen and proud father of three fine sons: Mike, Sam and Jake.