Know Your Bible


VOL. 12                                                                                                                          March 31, 2013                                                                                                                            NO. 9

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THE INTOLERANCE AND LIES OF "OPEN-MINDEDNESS"


 We’ve all heard it: we don’t accept a particular viewpoint so, therefore, we are closed-minded bigots trapped inside some blind faith and hope fostered by an ancient, cultish superstition. Those who make such charges are, of course, the open-minded, loving, tolerant, compassionate people who are willing to accept others for who they are and what they believe - except those who disagree with them.


Surely one who thinks things through can see the irony in this. The viewpoint isn’t even subtle: open-mindedness is to be equated with the progressive, morally-liberated mindset. If you don’t accept their way of thinking, you are closed-minded. It’s okay for the open-minded, liberated, progressive thinkers to insult, call names, use vulgarities, and show obvious contempt and hatred for those who are more conservative than they are. Those stupid conservatives are the closed-minded ones, remember.


If open-mindedness is such a virtue, as is claimed by these self-proclaimed free-thinkers, then why are they so intolerant toward those who disagree with them? This just highlights the fact that the version of open-mindedness and tolerance they advocate is a lie. It’s a sham, and it’s geared more toward trying to shut up the opposition rather than actually demonstrate true open-mindedness and tolerance. No truly open-minded person would condemn others for believing in God and holding to a strong code of morality fostered by standards higher than themselves. Even if these liberated ones don’t agree, they should still defend, with the same passion as they defend others, the more conservative person’s right to believe, practice, and teach their views without demonstrating such malicious hatred. Their vehement opposition to those more conservative betrays their claim to open-minded tolerance.


Why is it more virtuous to show open-mindedness and tolerance toward one group of people (say, homosexuals) than it is another (say, Christians)?  Why is it more appropriate to condemn Christians than it is to condemn those of another lifestyle? If we choose the morally-liberated, free-thinking path, and in the process turn around and condemn, judge, and vilify those more conservative, then we have bought into a lie and are no better than what we think we are opposing. Why is it better to be compassionate toward one group but not the other? Why is it morally acceptable to bash Christians while claiming the high ground of open-mindedness? The answers to these questions will likely not be forthcoming, especially from those who have essentially trashed any universal standards. They are open-minded only because they say they are. In reality? Not so much.


The fact is that everyone has drawn a line in the sand. I respect that. What I don’t respect is the denial of a line, then the insulting intolerance of those who claim to be so compassionate. It doesn’t work. And the sad part is, they just don’t see it.


To those who disagree with me, I would say this: Be honest. If you hate Christians, then you are free to say so. I respect your free will and free speech. As a Christian, I’m even wiling to take abuse for the cause of Christ. But don’t turn around with some nonsense of being tolerant and bigot-free. That game is tiresome and demonstrates a lack of reason. The true motive, therefore, cannot be open-mindedness and tolerance, the very things you refuse to demonstrate toward those who disagree with you.

---Doy Moyer


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THE GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE


The headlines announce the coming debate in our government to what constitutes a marriage. The homosexual agenda has now been placed before the governing bodies of law to determine what defines marriage. To debate an issue is to contend in words or arguments about truth between persons of different opinions, each endeavoring to prove his own opinion right. To debate the truth of marriage is to debate the truth whether the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Marriage has always been and will always be a union of a man and a woman.


Marriage is not defined by the lustful desires of a perverted community who want to find a place of acceptance in the world. The homosexual agenda has taken a minority of acceptance and forced their tainted lifestyle upon the majority. Homosexuality is a perverted form of what God has created in nature. "Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4). The honor of marriage is one man and one woman.


What is there to debate about the union of a man and a woman? The joining of a man and a woman serves to fulfill the natural design of humankind. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 7:1-5: "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote. It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does. Do not refuse one another except perhaps by agreement for a season, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, lest Satan tempt you through lack of self-control" (1 Corinthians 7:1-5). 


Marriage is defined as a man and a woman. The design of the body serves the purpose of fulfilling the role of benevolence and the conjugal rights prescribed by Jehovah. This cannot be done in the perversion of homosexuality. "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet" (Romans 1:26-27).


Marriage is a natural union of a man and a woman. Homosexuality is an unnatural union of the male and female to one another, which is against nature. Who established the natural world but Jehovah God? Children are born from the union of a man and a woman and man can never change that. Homosexuals deny the manner they were created - the union of a man and woman. Homosexuality serves only a purpose of perverted sexual desires resulting in the penalty for their perversion.


The law of marriage was ordained by God in Genesis 2:18: "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him.'” That helpmeet was a woman, formed from the rib of man: "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man" (Genesis 2:22). What is there to debate?


Truth is God's design! Marriage is God's design!


---Kent Heaton


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