Why Does God allow Same-Sex Attractions if He Hates Homosexuality?

I know many people reading this blog believe in “free will”… and that’s fine. I do believe in the free will or free agency of man, but not to the extent that our choices override God’s sovereignty and His choices. Many people want to blame temptation, such as same sex feelings, on “free will”… but such thinking doesn’t even make sense. It is within the power of our will to decide to act out on a temptation or not, but it’s not within the power of our will to decide to be tempted or not. A person doesn’t decide to be attracted to the same sex anymore than a person decides their skin color or the family their born into.

God is the all powerful One, correct? Yes, indeed He is. So if homosexuality is an abomination before Him, why does God even allow me to have the feelings? If He wanted to it would have taken Him no effort at all to have kept me from ever even beginning to feel attraction toward other men. This is a reality that has bewildered me in the past, and still does to an extent. So in order to grasp some kind of understanding into God’s purpose in all of this, I have to step back from the small bubble of my immediate life and look at history and reality from a larger perspective.

God is the ultimate “decider” of all things, and nothing happens in the whole span of creation without His permission or decree. And it’s only logical to say that if God has allowed something to happen, then it was His choice for it to happen… therefore His decree. If God wanted to, He could have stopped Adam and Eve before they ever ate of the forbidden fruit; but He didn’t. He allowed it. If God wanted to, He could have stopped Satan before he ever rebelled; but He didn’t. He allowed it. God, for reasons beyond our comprehension, has allotted a time for evil to have its place in this world. We can’t fully understand why God has chosen to let sin, evil and temptation manifest in the world He has created, but we can trust that He has done it for a good reason and know that in all of this, He will be glorified. We can trust that He uses the evil things of the world for a broader purpose and He is not surprised nor set back by sin, or anything else for that matter.

God uses sin for His purposes.

All throughout the inspired Scripture we see God still achieving the purposes of His heart amidst our sinfulness.

David

If you are not familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba, here’s a quick run down: David was a man the Bible described as ‘a man after God’s own heart.’ Yet not even He was without sin. One night as David stood on His roof, He observed a woman, Bathsheba, bathing herself. He had the woman brought to him and had sex with her. Bathsheba was married to one of King David’s valued soldiers who was at war (note that the King should have been at war with his men, but rather he stayed behind). Shortly after David’s rendezvous with the married woman, she found out she was pregnant. In a desperate attempt to hide his sin of adultery from the people, he ended up having Bathsheba’s husband put on the front lines in the war and killed. He then took her has his own wife, as was common in the culture of the day, and all the people of Israel would perceive her pregnancy as occurring after she was taken as David’s wife. David’s slick actions did not deceive His God. Through a prophet, God confronted David and informed him that He knew of His deeds and that there would be consequences. The first of which would be the death of he and Bathsheba’s child. But we see yet again God’s purposes fulfilled in spite of the sins of David. Through Bathsheba would come the heir to David’s throne, his son Solomon. Solomon was one of the wisest men to ever walk the earth and his reign over Israel was a glorious one, full of wealth and prosperity and peace. Solomon would in fact be the one to build the Lord’s temple and pen one of the books of the Bible (Ecclesiastes). The Lord accomplished great things through Solomon, yet Solomon came through the woman that David committed adultery with.

The Cross

But the primary example of treachery, darkness and deceit is found in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Before the foundation of the world, an agreement was made between God the Son and God the Father. God the Son would enter into the world at the appointed time, take on human flesh, and suffer upon Himself the wrath that His people deserved for their sins. And 2,000 years ago, we see this eternal mission accomplished. The worst sins ever committed since the creation of the world were committed against Jesus Christ as He was scourged, mocked, blasphemed, and ultimately killed through torturous crucifixion; by the very creatures that He created. Yet, we find in the Cross the most powerful expression of the love of God toward mankind. Jesus suffered all of these things, including the wrath of God, for the very people who rejected Him. The vastness of the Father’s mercy and grace radiate through the Cross of His Son, even in the midst of the heinous deeds of sinful men. He used murderous men to fulfill the purpose by which He would reconcile the world to Himself. A purpose that He pre-ordained He would accomplish, and has.

"for truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.”- Acts 4:27-2

God's Sovereign Work in the Human Heart.

Some would object that in all of these instances of rebellion the person ultimately had a choice to either carry out his sinful desire or to refrain from it, which I completely agree with. But many go on to say that since the person made the choice to sin, it wasn’t God’s will and that God had nothing to do with it. But I propose to you this: is the God of the external not also God of the internal? Does God not have sovereign power over our minds, including thoughts and emotions? If He wanted to, could He not in fact have stopped the sinful desires from ever entering into these men’s hearts? He could have, if He wanted to, but He didn’t.

God is in control over all of His creation, including what goes on inside of us. This is found throughout the entirety of Scripture.

"The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will”- Proverbs 21:1

"The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD….. The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps”- Proverbs 16:1,9

"A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?”- Proverbs 20:24

"I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”- Jeremiah 10:23

Some people are taken aback and offended by this truth, but I find so much hope in it! The fact that God has to permit or allow every thought, every sinful thought, to enter and manifest in my mind shows me that when I am battling with temptation, it is for a purpose. My struggles are not in vain! When I am at my wit’s end with wrestling with desires I know I shouldn’t act out on, I can always remember that God has allowed me to wage this war for a purpose.

Through enduring temptation and abstaining from lustful desires, I have learned to be so much more patient and steadfast with others. Rather than brushing them off and considering myself better than they, as it’s easy to make a practice of, I can deeply empathize with the struggles they have in their hearts, extend love toward them and offer them advice from my own personal experiences. Because of my own battle with sin, which God has allowed (not just for me, but us all), I have been able to exercise and experience compassion and patience with others, which in turn gives me a greater understanding of God’s compassion and patience toward me.

As I look at the reality that we live in and the history of mankind through the lens of the Cross, it is easier for me to understand that God is in control of even the bad things that happen. God is in control of every Earthquake, Hurricane, Tsunami, Terrorist Attack, School Shooting, Rape, Murder… all things. So could He have stopped my homosexual feelings from ever developing? By all means, yes. But obviously He didn’t, which in turn communicates to me that He has a purpose for allowing them to manifest. I do not claim to know the fullness of these purposes He has for me personally, but if I can be completely honest, I would venture to say that if it weren’t for homosexuality and it’s presence inside of me, I do not know that I ever would have considered myself sinful enough to need Jesus Christ. God definitely used my sexual deviance to open my eyes to how depraved and in need of His mercy I am. He continues to use my (although healing) sexually perverted thoughts to remind me of my minute by minute need for His presence and power. In these ways I am able to see how God has used such a detestable thing, like my homosexual feelings, to bring about good in my life.

I am in no way condoning nor encouraging one’s acceptance of homosexuality. A person who sees God’s grace as a license to do whatever sinful activities they want to do all the time by their own admission does not know God. We should turn from sin and temptation daily and pray that God deliver us from it! But my point is this: if the feelings don’t go away immediately, as they often don’t, you can remember and believe that your heavenly Father will use even the negative things in your life to work for your good.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:28-32

Voice of the Gospel Christian Radio - Radio Stimme des Evangeliums

Dienstag, 19. Juni 2012

Why Does God allow Same-Sex Attractions if He Hates Homosexuality?

Why Does God allow Same-Sex Attractions if He Hates Homosexuality?

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