JOHN PAVLOVITZ, SEX, AND SHAMING
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Sex has shoe-horned its way into the church, and John Pavlovitz is a master of shaming techniques to silence any opposition. Let me give you a sample from his letter entitled “Dear Christians.” It starts this way:
∑ I don’t know how you ended up deciding that anyone else’s body, their gender identity, or their sexual orientation were any of your business. I don’t know who told you that you had any right to tell another human being who they could be attracted to or find contentment with, or what pronouns they should use for themselves or how they should dress, or who they could marry or what restroom they had to use or if they deserved to adopt children or not. It certainly wasn’t Jesus. I know you like to pass the buck to Jesus in your treatment of LGBTQ people, but I also know that he never asked you to do any of it. You weren’t given the authority to judge their moral worth, you weren’t given permission to trespass into their bedrooms, and you weren’t authorized to police their physicality. On matters of sexuality, Jesus was largely silent, and so how you found yourself being so loud about it, is probably something you should pray on. That may be a you problem. What I do know about Jesus, is that he told you to love… https://johnpavlovitz.com/2018/12/01/dear-evangelicals-leave-lgbtq-people-alone/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=fac
Dear John, of first importance, Jesus not only concerned Himself with the bedroom but even our thought life:
∑ “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:28-29 ESV)
Jesus’ understanding of love didn’t include encouraging sinful sexual behavior. If Jesus is our exemplar of what it means to love, then we should also be warning about the consequences of even entertaining adulterous thoughts. Therefore, Jesus even taught against divorce, which often has horrific consequences upon the children:
∑ “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:32)
John, it seems that Jesus was concerned, not only about the bedroom, but also the family, as He should be, setting forth a model for our own concerns. Even when it came to the matter of divorce, Jesus never contradicted the Mosaic Law and its permission to divorce:
∑ He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” (Matthew 19:8)
John, because Jesus never contradicted the Mosaic Laws, we can also assume that Jesus endorsed the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures against the various forms of aberrant sex, like these:
∑ “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.” (Leviticus 20:10-15)
Although Jesus didn’t explicitly mention homosexuality or bestiality, Paul certainly did:
∑ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)
John, did you notice the fact that this behavior will damage those who engage in it, as many Scriptures point out (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Peter 2:9-10). Therefore, how can it be loving to encourage such self-destructive lifestyles? How can it be loving to shame into silence those who would lovingly warn about the consequences? You are already aware of the attenuated lives, suicides, mental health problems, domestic violence, and substance abuse of those who practice such lifestyles. How then can you vilify us for warning against them?
John, you also claim that we do not have the “authority to judge.” Nevertheless, you seem to have no problem in judging us. Instead, we must judge against the destructive behavior of our students, our children, and even against those who victimize others. In fact, when we fail to judge, we are accountable before our Lord:
∑ Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:11-12)
We are also required to judge what is being taught in our churches (Revelation 2:14, 20). John, you accuse us of not welcoming LGBTQs into our churches. However, in my 43 years as an evangelical, I have never seen this happen, even once. Nevertheless, it is true that we cannot allow them to teach or occupy positions of leadership as long as they continue to embrace a sinful lifestyle without incurring the displeasure of our God. It is also true that we must preach against all forms of sin, even if this will make people uncomfortable.
John, I find it odd that you criticize us for failing to show respect to LGBTQ’s, while your entire letter has lacked the slightest degree of respect for us and our commitment to our Lord. You wrongly accuse us of denying LGBTQs’ “worth.” Instead, the Bible teaches us that we must not look down on anyone, remembering the moral filth from which the Lord has rescued us. Therefore, we look for opportunities to share Christ’s love with LGBTQs, as we are required to do.
DOES THE BIBLE PROPHESY ABOUT MUHAMMED?
What reasons do Muslim’s have for believing that the Quran comes down from Allah? For one thing, they claim that no human being could write such a book. They also claim that the Bible prophesied about Muhammed:
∑ (Quran 7:157) “Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet [Muhammed] who can neither read nor write [Isaiah 29:12] whom they find written in the Torah [Deut.18:15] and the Gospel” [John14:16]…
Let’s take a look at the second reference:
∑ “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.” (Deut. 18:15-18)
The Lord had promised that He would raise another prophet “like me” (Moses). Was Muhammed like Moses? Moses was a miracle worker. However, the Quran indirectly admits that Muhammed didn’t perform miracles:
∑ (3:183) (The same are) those [Jews] who say: “Lo! Allah hath charged us that we believe not in any messenger until he bring us an offering which fire (from heaven) shall devour.” Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Messengers came unto you [Jews] before me with miracles, and with that (very miracle) which ye describe. Why then did ye slay them? (Answer that) if ye are truthful! And if they deny thee, even so did they deny messengers who were before thee, who came with miracles and with the Psalms and with the Scripture giving light.
∑ (2:118) And those who have no knowledge say: “Why doth not Allah speak unto us, or some sign come unto us?” Even thus, as they now speak, spake those (who were) before them. Their hearts are all alike. We have made clear the revelations for people who are sure.
∑ (29.50-51) And they say: “Why are not signs sent down upon him from his Lord?” Say: “The signs are only with Allah, and I am only a plain warner. Is it not enough for them that We have revealed to you the Book which is recited to them? Most surely there is mercy in this and a reminder for a people who believe.”
Even if the Quran is correct about Muhammed’s critics who had demanded of him a miracles, the Quran still acknowledges that Muhammed didn’t perform miracles. It is only in the Hadiths (the Sayings of Muhammed) compiled or written 200 years later that there are reports of miracles.
Even a greater problem for the Muslim scholars to explain is the next detail from the Deuteronomy 18 prophecy. The Prophet would arise “from among your own brothers.” The Prophet would have to be an Israelite as also the king had to be:
∑ be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. (Deuteronomy 17:15)
In both cases, Israel was not to have a foreigner as Prophet or king. Muslims retort that the Prophet couldn’t be an Israelite, citing Deuteronomy:
∑ Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face. (Deuteronomy 34:10)
However, as in Deuteronomy 18, this verse does not deny that the Prophet will be an Israelite, only that He hadn’t yet arisen.
Muslim scholars also cite John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor [“Paraclete” or “periclytos” {“the praised one,” one of the names for Muhammed}] to be with you forever.”
These scholars are making an unsubstantiated claim that, instead of “paraclete,” the
Greek word for “counselor,” the original Greek word was “periclytos,” a title ascribed to Muhammed. However, out of the thousands of ancient Greek manuscripts, “periclytos” is not even found once! Besides, this “paraclete” is to be “with you forever.” Not only is Muhammed not with them forever, he is certainly not with the Body of Christ forever, as Jesus had communicated. Jesus also taught that He would send the “paraclete” from the Father and would confirm the message that He had presented:
Greek word for “counselor,” the original Greek word was “periclytos,” a title ascribed to Muhammed. However, out of the thousands of ancient Greek manuscripts, “periclytos” is not even found once! Besides, this “paraclete” is to be “with you forever.” Not only is Muhammed not with them forever, he is certainly not with the Body of Christ forever, as Jesus had communicated. Jesus also taught that He would send the “paraclete” from the Father and would confirm the message that He had presented:
∑ "When the Counselor (“Paraclete”) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me [Jesus].” (John 15:26; 16:12-14)
However, Muhammed testified about a different Jesus, one who isn’t God and who didn’t die on the cross for the sins of the world.
Muslim scholars also cite another verse, which they claim Muhammed had fulfilled:
Muslim scholars also cite another verse, which they claim Muhammed had fulfilled:
∑ Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.” (Isaiah 29:12)
Muslims claim that this prophecy was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel commanded Muhammad to recite the Qur’an, according to a Saying of Muhammed:
∑ (Sahih al-Bukhari 3) The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet [Muhammed] replied, “I do not know how to read.” The Prophet added, “Then the angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘I do not know how to read.’” https://answeringsceptics.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/answering-isaiah-29-12-a-prophecy-of-an-illiterate-prophet-muhammad/
However, this Isaiah passage represents an indictment against the false prophets of Israel, who claim ignorance of God’s charges because they could not read God’s book:
∑ For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries. All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.” And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.” (Isaiah 29:10-14 NLT2)
God calls these false prophets “hypocrites.” By claiming that this passage is fulfilled by Muhammed, the Muslim scholars are inadvertently acknowledging that he too is a false prophet and a hypocrite.
It disturbs me that this essay might undermine the faith of peaceful Muslims. However, those who take the Islamic holy books literally are crying “Allahu Akbar” as they spread terror, murder, and forced conversions upon the innocent. Meanwhile, these Islamists have been deluded into thinking that they are creating a better world in the process. I think it important to show them that they are not.
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