Twisted Symbols…

What I’m about to say is not very popular… but I find it in many ways terribly repugnant to see the way Satan twists the things that God has made for good and uses them as symbols for evil…

One such example…

Back in the Old Testament, there lived a man named Noah. He was pretty much the only righteous person left on earth. The whole world had become corrupt (Genesis 6:11-12), and yet Scripture tells us that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (vs. 8) and that he “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (vs. 9).

Because of the wickedness, violence, and corruption of the world at the time (which is itself quite a topic, which I’ll save for another day), God decides to flood the whole world and “start over” (Genesis 6:7). But because Noah was righteous, God told him to build an ark (a sea-worthy vessel to house him and his family, along with the animals God had created) (vss. 14,17-19) so that he can be saved from the flood and life can be preserved.

When all was said and done, and the ark was made, and 120 years had passed by in which Noah and his son Methuselah had been preaching to the inhabitants of the earth to repent (or, so the story goes in the book of Jasher – Jasher 5:7-10 – and as is hinted at in Genesis 6:3)–

–When all that time had passed, and the people of the earth were unwilling to turn from their wickedness, God opened the windows of heaven and the springs of the earth, and a mighty flood came and destroyed all the people and animals that were not inside Noah’s ark (Genesis 7:11,21-23).

After all this (and this is really the point of my retelling this account from the Scriptures), when the waters receded and the ark settled on the ground and Noah and his family were finally able to get out on dry land, God made a promise:

“I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:11).

This is a great promise! And do you know what God chooses to be the sign of this covenant – the continual reminder that God will not go back on His word?

You ready?

…The rainbow. (Genesis 9:12-16)

Yes, friends, the modern-day symbol for “gay pride” was originally the sign of God’s covenant with Noah (and, in turn, the rest of the world) never to flood the whole earth again in order to destroy all mankind.

Phew… I told you this wasn’t a popular message.

See, Satan likes to twist everything God made for good and turn it around to use it for his own purposes.

Now, I know this LGBT+ issue is really big right now, but let me say, very simply,

In the beginning, “God created them male and female” (Genesis 5:2; also 1:27; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6).

That’s it.

There is a whole “movement” sweeping our culture right now that’s basically getting rid of gender and letting people determine for themselves what they are. People in our modern-day society are allowed to be one gender one day and identify as a different gender the next.

And the choices are a lot more than just “male” and “female.” Children are being taught that there are many gender options. You can be any gender you want; almost like you can pick your career. In fact, “gender-fluidity” is a thing now, too. It’s pretty crazy to watch.

And now we see the rainbow plastered everywhere to “celebrate” this “pride”… I’ve seen the rainbow next to YouTube’s logo the past couple days; I’ve seen the rainbow mingled with PayPal’s logo after a recent transaction (instead of the normal, basic, blue color), and now Spotify even has a whole rainbow genre/mood called “Pride,” next to all the more typical genres like pop, rock, and country. I’m not quite sure what kind of music it is… and frankly, I didn’t want to listen to find out.

Yet, whatever your stance is on these issues (and I understand these are some hot-button issues for a number of people), hopefully, if you are a Christian, you can at least recognize with me that when God made people, he did not make them as anything other than male and female. And hopefully you’re also willing to recognize that, on top of this, He made them heterosexual – to enjoy the love of one another and populate the earth (Genesis 1:28).

To be anything else is to live in contradiction to the created order, the natural way God intended things to work (Romans 1:26-27).

I mean, can I be plain with you? There is no natural way to procreate and “fill the earth” as God commanded (Genesis 1:28, 9:7) in anything other than a male + female relationship.

Why do we try to add to and change what God made perfectly from the start?

Now, LGBT+ friend, whoever you may be, I’m not at all trying to be mean or dismiss you as a person. Certainly, I don’t at all say that the feelings you have aren’t real, legitimate feelings. I don’t say that it’s impossible to really love someone of the same sex or some other non-heterosexual combination (certainly, even David had a great love for Jonathan in the Bible… it didn’t lead to intercourse, of course, but it was still a genuine love for another person; 2 Samuel 1:26, 1 Samuel 18:1,3).

In fact, I myself wished, growing up, that I could become a girl from time to time and live that life and see things from the other side. And there have been times where I have been of such a mind that I related, in some ways, more to the female population than to the male population. And I was a fan of many ideas within the “metrosexual” community (it’s an older term by now, but it basically means combining aspects of one gender into the other). It all seemed very appealing to me for a number of reasons.

Yet, I came to realize that all these things were merely perversions in my mind. I had become prey to a particular way of thinking, a particular way of feeling, a particular way of believing that was contrary to all that God had intended from the beginning. I was into these ideas because they appealed to my flesh; they made me /feel/ good.

But I am thankful to say that God had the power to bring me back under the created order, to redeem and renew my life. And, even though you may not want it, He can truly do the same for you. That is not to say that you are “defective” in any sense of the word, but only to say that living in such a manner is a broken way of life.

Does God love the LGBT+ community? On the one hand, yes, He certainly does, for He demonstrated His love for everyone (including those who are LGBT+) by dying on our behalf (Romans 5:8). Yet, on the other hand, He did not intend for anyone to continue to live in such a manner, but instead He intends for those of us who claim His name to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

So, if you consider yourself a Christian, and if at the same time you consider yourself LGBT+, consider the words of Peter:

“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’

“Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

(1 Peter 1:14-19)

We are called to be holy, to live “set apart” (for that is what the word means) from what the world is doing all around us. The world is engaging in all the various expressions of sexuality that it can think of (an “empty way of life”) but we are called to find love in the way that God has established, between a man and a woman — and, even above that, to find love in our blessed Creator. If we struggle in this way (as all people struggle from time to time in various sins), desiring a love from a same-sex partner or other deviation from God’s created order, may we seek deliverance from these passions by calling on our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, seeking Him with our whole heart.

So, friends, when you see a rainbow… Let’s remember that at the beginning this was not a symbol for the acceptance of and “pride” in our modern-day society’s corruption of sexual preferences and ideas; instead, it was and still is a sign of God’s covenantal faithfulness to the inhabitants of the earth that although He destroyed the world with a flood, He will do so no longer. And let us look with careful (indeed, sometimes even fearful) expectation to the future and soon-coming day when He will yet again destroy the world, not with water but with fire, to once again remove the godless and the wicked from the earth (2 Peter 3:5-7, esp. vs. 7; then also vss. 10-12).

As Peter writes:

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” (2 Peter 3:11)

And…

“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

“So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” (2 Peter 3:13-14)

May we be found blameless and know His peace. Amen.