The Huffington Post reports…
“A California pastor apparently thinks telling parents of gay children to “alienate” them and “turn them overt to Satan” is sound advice.
John MacArthur of the Grace Community Church in the San Fernando Valley responded to a question from a listener on his “Grace to You” show who asked how to react to an adult child coming out.
“If that adult child professes Christ, claims to be a Christian, then that becomes an issue for confrontation of the sternest and strongest kind because that falls under Matthew 18,” which discusses dealing with sin in the church. “If they profess to be a Christian, you have to alienate them, you have to separate them. You can’t condone that; it’s inconsistent with the profession of Christ. So, you isolate them; you don’t have a meal with them; you separate yourself from them. You turn them over to Satan, as it were as scripture says.”
MacArthur does clarify that his advice is for parents of Christians. Parents of non-believers, he says, should bring the Gospel “compassionately, directly, confrontationally” to “expose that sin and all other sins, and call that person to salvation and repentance.”
Anabaptist author Benjamin Corey of the religious blog Patheos challenged MacArthur’s statements as hypocritical, since he targeted sexual “sinners” while disregarding others, like the greedy, idolators and drunks.
Wrote Corey:
I’m just glad that I worship Jesus –- not MacArthur (or even Paul himself!). Jesus is the one who religious conservatives hated because instead of shunning, he had meals with people. The drunks. The hookers. The swindlers. You know, the kind of people we’re supposed to shun. This is precisely why we are to make Jesus — and nothing else — the center of our faith and practice. Because it is through Jesus we find that sharing a meal, not alienation, is what love looks like.
MacArthur’s remarks might not come as a surprise to those familiar with his sermons. Back in 2012, MacArthur condemned the Democratic party for supporting what he refers to as the “homosexual revolution.” This “revolution” came about, he claimed, because God abandoned the nation and “unleashed on the world the horror of AIDS.” At the time, he defended this position as “love speech.”
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/13/pastor-alienate-gay-kids_n_5491931.html
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Coming from a liberal post, your opinion counts for nothing. He is absolutely correct. Jesus ate with, sexually immoral, tax collectors, etc because he was preaching the word of God to non- believers; The healthy or not in need of a physician. If you profess to be saved, and are living a life of sin condemned by God to death, you are doing his name a great injustice. Jesus clearly stated in order to achieve salvation, you must hate your Father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, and love me above all else. He came to divide, not bring peace. So pleased stop using your satanic liberalism to dishonor the name of Christ Jesus and God the Father.
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I don’t trust anyone, anymore.
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Anyone here actually listen to what Macarthur actually said? He was answering a question about an ADULT child who had “come out”, so his words were not directed towards teenagers or children. They referred to an adult professing Christianity.
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So what are we to tell people? The truth, which can save them now but requires a change of direction on the hearer’s part, or leave them as they are to enjoy their current lifestyle and condemn them to an eternity of separation from God and their true destiny? The harsh reality now, or when it is too late to do anything about it?
I’m glad you finally came to your senses Steve. You encouraged the acquisitive western lifestyle, and even gave it God’s blessing by supporting the book “You need more money” – when the Bible clearly states the opposite. There are no grey areas. It is what it is.
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Unfortunately, Greg, the weakness of Corey’s argument is that he once again, as often happens, turns to moral equivalence rather than addressing the actual Biblical principles. It is a fax that sexual sins are highlighted in the New testament as a no-no, which includes adultery, fornication, sodomy and anything outside of marriage between a husband and wife. When two people are joined sexually they become one flesh, and they join Christ to that partner. This is acceptable in marriage but not elsewhere.
I think turning a person over to satan was a step too far, as was the shunning of a child. McArthur is overly harsh, although this depends on the lengths to which the person has gone or is prepared to go if they have also declared themselves to be a Christian.
It is a massive Biblical dilemma, one e have to face, and someone is going to suffer pain.
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John Macarthur is so wrong here – Benjamin Corey’s full article is HERE.
Berean has posted the follow up critique of Ben Corey’s response to Macarthur by Dr James White – who also is dead wrong, so HERE is Ben’s response to that
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The essential fact that the gospel divides is something we need to grasp. There has to be a difference between what the world says and what God says, or there is no reason for the cross, the resurrection, the gospel or the preaching of the gospel. There is, also, no reason, then, for repentance if there is no division, or if there is no difference. There has to be a separation, and there has to be a difference. William Barclay defines holiness at its base root as ‘being different’. We are either different from the world, or we are the world. Holiness is separation. Separation from the world. Separation onto God.
This will always be a difficult truth for those who desire a liberal interpretation of the cross and of scripture, or want to continue in the lifestyle which rejects the gospel, but, again, if we compromise on truth we may as well be the world. But, according to scripture, if we are of the world, then we are of those who Jesus came to save, and this salvation not only implies a need for change, which is repentance, but a need for deliverance from one system, which the Word calls darkness, to another, which the Word calls light.
So, then, believers are in the world, but not of the world, if we are of Christ, which, again, illustrates difference, division (from the world, not within the Church) and separation. The Word of God is strict on this, and very clear, especially when it comes to sexual fidelity. God has designed sexual intercourse, but has set the boundary of marriage as the confining place within which its pleasure and covenant is enjoyed and ratified. Further, marriage is defined, Biblically, as between a man and a woman. This is as clear as day, and would take severe bending of truth to be missed by those who are genuinely changed and charged to follow Christ and take up their cross daily.
And, of course, Jesus told us there would be people who are offended by the gospel. Blessed are those who are not offended. The gospel is where the rubber hits the road. It’s where we know whether we are of Christ or of sin. It’s what defines us as believers. There are no grey areas. It is what it is. When we stop telling people the truth as it is delivered to us by Christ, His Apostles, and His Prophets, then we are serving a deadly poison in the guise of new life, rather than the salve of eternity.
So what are we to tell people? The truth, which can save them now but requires a change of direction on the hearer’s part, or leave them as they are to enjoy their current lifestyle and condemn them to an eternity of separation from God and their true destiny? The harsh reality now, or when it is too late to do anything about it?
We should not be afraid or ashamed of difference, separation or division from the world. We should celebrate and embrace it.
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Follow-up…
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