A billboard in Portland, TN is stirring up controversy. This sign is located at Highway 52 & Jackson Road. This sign looks like a Bible. One side it has the Bible verse from Leviticus 18:22 that reads “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. It is an abomination. – God”
The other side it reads: “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin” and then says paid for by concerned Christians. See the sign below.
This sign makes two good points. One it points a law from God, that man and man or woman and woman shouldn’t be together. The other point it shows that we are to love the person who sins, but hate the sin they are committing. Today too many people confuse that and hate both the sinner and the sin. But we all sin as Romans 3:23 tells us, “For All Have Sinned and Fallen Short of the Glory Of God.”
Vietnam veteran and Portland resident Ronnie Monday, who initiated placing the billboard, said he feels the statement is necessary. “People have sat down long enough, and this country is going in the wrong direction,” Monday said. “Celebrities and the president have had their say that gay marriage and homosexuality is OK, and I think it went against what God said. I needed to do something.” “I know the billboard says what God says because it’s in the Bible,” Monday said.2
According to Shannon Lynch, who has taught ethics and religion, believes this is wrong, stating that it is in the Old Testament, and no longer applies and that people need to check their faith and that only the New Testament applies with Christ. I say Shannon is very wrong here, both the Old and New still applies. The Old points to the New while the New fulfills the Old. Yes, we are saved by the Grace of God through Jesus, but that doesn’t give us a license to sin. We as Christians should strive to live Christ-like, that means not breaking God’s Law. Check out 1 Thessalonians 4:7 that reads, “For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.”
Reports show this sign cost $550 per month, with the sign already being up for four months. This sign also receives donations to keep it up. This sign is being called the Anti-Gay billboard by many news sources.
I think this World needs a wake up call. We are all going in the wrong direction. Jesus can come back any moment. Think of it this way, would you want Jesus catching you living in open sin as he returns? He already sees us open sinning. I believe that the World the way it is living and thinking will soon be in for a bad awakening from God. God’s Wrath. God already destroyed the Earth by Flood, with a promise to never flood the Earth again. His next wrath it said will be by Fire.
Check out my blog post Marriage: One Man, One Woman Period! & License to Sin.
1. Gallatin News Examiner
2. WBIR
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This isn’t “loving the sinner.”
Maybe not right tact to use, but it is pointing the law.
if trying to keep someone out of hell isn’t loving them, what is?
I agree that it seems most Christians have become the silent majority and are willing to bow down to the loud minority on a myriad of social issues and do need to begin raising their voice. Yet, I have to say I’m not in agreement with “slap you in the face” evangelism, preferring instead to get the message of the gospel out. If the sinner will come to Jesus, Jesus will speak to their heart, and change will occur … what ever that change looks like.
I agree with that, 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”
I do agree another tact possibly could be used then a billboard. But someone is speaking up with others are not. But, did Christ say how we are to get the gospel out? He just said Go!
What I’ve found interesting lately is the number of Christians who will make a statement on FB (like this although not always about this issue) and limit their comments to their friend’s eyes. I say if you can’t stand the heat of sharing The Word publicly, don’t share at all. It’s like giving water to those who are already sated and withholding it from the thirsty.
God changed his mind dozens of times throughout the bible. Why isn’t it possible for God to change his mind about this? Especially when gay Christians, or Christians as i like to call them are following the lord, living spiritual lives and loving their partners? The God I talk to seems like he would support love and those who love Him.
If the billboard targeted obesity, a different, much more sensitive, approach most likely would have been taken…because we love them.
I doubt they would have posted this on a billboard:
Deuteronomy 21:20-21 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Amen!
I am sure if they used one on gluttany, then they would have used that, there are many, many sins and many, many billboards that can be used.
For I am the LORD, I change not – Malachi 3:6
Human contact seems to be more of a loving approach rather than plastering this up in the sky. Using billboards seems cowardly and cold
Haley, God loves everyone, regardless of whether they love Him or not. But God never changed His mind about this or anything else in the Bible. God is not a wishy-washy namby-pamby unable to make up His mind or take a stand. God gave us His Word to guide us and says – if you follow this, you will live a blessed life. Then He gave us His Son and said, – if you follow Him you will have eternal life. The operative word is IF.
God did change his mind. He did with Abraham sacrificing his son, with destroying many cities like Nineveh, with laws about sacrificing, and divorce.
God never changed his mind with Abraham, he tested Abraham, he tested his faith and dedication.
Had they targeted any other sin, I’d still say that it isn’t loving the sinner.
My understanding of biblical scripture for salvation is that it’s two fold. GOD loves his creation but not the sin of our carnal nature. To be fully saved we can’t just accept his gift of Grace/mercy; we also have to repent. It’s the repent part the majority miss. I know I did until just recently.
And if this is such a huge issue why did jesus never speak of it? Homosexuality was not a concept in bible times. A man laying with another man was mostly out of lust. Men would take on younger male partners in addition to wives for use of sex only. Falling in love with someone of the same sex and treating them with total respect as well as keeping God at the center of the relationship is completely different than what is mentioned in the bible.
What you see as God changing His mind, I see as God testing faith (with Abraham and Jonah in Ninevah) and God still doesn’t like divorce (be careful – it’s easy to confuse what a denomination has said about divorce and what God says) giving clear direction in the Bible on when it’s allowable to divorce and God gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins once and for all. voiding the law to sacrifice in the temple.
God doesn’t like divorce, but does permit it. Nineveh is not just about jonah but then entire city population. He tested jonah but decided not to destroy it because of the people. Voiding the law is still a change. Why don’t we follow all of the old testament laws then? You can’t just pick and choose.
God doesn’t change. He never has. He’s the same yesterday and today and tomorrow as he was at the beginning of Genesis. I read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation (for the first time) a year ago. And it BLEW my mind. What makes The Bible different is Jesus. His birth and sacrifice have allowed us to not have to live by the laws established in the Old Testament. Without Christ none of us would have had a chance at eternity. But check out Leviticus 18:22
Kathy i have read the entire bible multiple times. If we don’t have to follow old testament laws then Homosexuality is not a sin. If God is not different then why is he an angry wrathful God in the old testament but a loving God in the new one?
Exactly Haley . You can’t just pick and choose. Like just because Jesus doesn’t specifically mention homosexuality doesn’t mean it’s not still against God’s law. PS: agree with Kathy – reading the Bible through from start to finish is an amazing revelation into just who our God is. Also pick up a good bible study class in church. Peace and love to all. I’m out.
God is presented as gracious and loving in the OT (Psalm145 for example). there are more stories of God’s judgment against sinners in the OT but understand it covers 4000 years while the NT covers less than 100. In the NT God is a serious about sin as ever. God’s judgment will come in the last days (Matt 24:21; 2 Peter 3:7; Rev 6-18)
Right Dennis but God will not wipe out a population because of their sin before judgment day like he did in the old testament.
I just wonder why they are quoting Gandhi with the whole love the sinner quote?
I can’t stay here long cause I have a laundry list of tasks to do. I’m glad to hear you’ve read it through, Haley. As much as God loves us, He is also our creator and the Alpha and Omega. He has the right to judge His creation. Incidentally, if you haven’t read The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn…I highly recommend it. I am now reading the follow up “The Mystery of the Shemitah”
as He promised Noah, Haley. yes
http://brentwhetstone.com/2014/09/are-there-gay-christians/
Hey made a covenant with Noah that was for all people, Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Genesis 9:11
Notice never to destroy the earth with flood, his finial judgement will be by fire.
Read Genesis 9:12-17 also
It says that all people can be saved, we must repent and turn away from sin, be Christ-like. Live like Christ, a holy life.
Where God had Noah build the Arc to save the few who believed, He did the same thing with Jesus. Jesus IS our ARC for the coming End of Days. We can wrestle with God all we want about what we think is right and wrong morally…but our time to debate with HIM will be over when He returns and the Holy Spirit is removed. Have a blessed day all, I’m out.
I was referring to when God destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela not the flood for clarification
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of mental gymnastics people will go through to make sure that they are certain of something. Here’s a thought for the billboard guy – focus on your own soul, and make sure your neighbor isn’t starving. Because if the Scriptures have taught us anything, it should be that God knows all, and the rest of us are just guessing.
Amen I like this
Billboard evangelism has always been cowardly, in my opinion. Just like “checkbook compassion” and numerous other ways we have come up with to make us feel like we’re “doing something” without actually getting our hands dirty.
If you really think gays and lesbians are a problem, then what are you personally doing to make a difference in their lives? How are you living your life, so that they see “thy Kingdom come” when you spend time with them? How are you imparting God’s grace to them? Friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers — every week you will interact with people in same sex relationships. If you don’t think that you do, then you are either in denial, or living a very insulated life.
Jesus did not live an insulated life. He spent three years getting His hands dirty, living among the people we would call “sinners.” If we can’t do the same, then we are really not His disciples.