Why are you leading people astray from God's truth?
by Rick Brentlinger
(Pace, FL, USA)
Life is stranger than fiction
I received this email in January, 2012. It is typical of many emails I receive from Christian leaders who refuse to study the Bible in context yet who are absolutely certain they are right and gays are wrong.
Email from Rex Faile
Rick, you said (on your
Home Page) I did not find this site by accident, therefore, I take it my responsibility to warn you of the wrath to come. That you share neither the love nor the Truth that is
in Christ.
To affirm that
David was a homosexual and Christ
affirmed homosexuality because your own lusts have charged you to blasphemously twist
the scriptures which I love and have given my life for.
Eunuchs for God are simply those that have no desire for women. Paul does not list these in those which will
NOT inherit the kingdom of God but he most assuredly says the effeminate and homosexual will not.
Sadly you not only lead your own soul astray but those sinful souls who have yet to know the power of Christ which
sets us free in His power, homosexuality included. It seems your conscience has been seared to the
true love of God which saves men FROM their sins and not in them.
I close in that neither God nor I hate you but rest assured we both hate the sin of
homosexuality and every other sin which is against the good of man and the holiness of God. May God give you grace, by faith,
to change. In His love and Truth. Rex
My answer to Rex Faile
Hello Rex- Thanks for writing to me. I get many emails like yours, long on accusation and condemnation, full of personal opinion, short on accurately interpreting scripture in context. You accuse me of not having the love and truth of Christ among other things.
How strange that so many Christian leaders, including you, are teaching man-made fables about the clobber passages like
Genesis 19 or
Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13 or
Romans 1:26-27 or
1 Cor 6:9 & 1 Tim 1:10 or
Jude 6. Why do you insist on taking scripture out of context to make it appear as if your fables are God's truth, instead of obeying 2 Tim 2:15 and expositing scripture in context, Nehemiah 8:8? Don Davis, one of my professors at
Baptist Bible College used to tell us:
A text without a context is a pretext for teaching something that is not true.
When a Christian, any Christian, rips a verse out of context and then insists it means something it did not mean in context, we know several things.
- That Christian is lazy or dishonest or intent on deception or some combination of those.
- That Christian is disobeying 2 Timothy 2:15, which commands him to study, rightly dividing the word of truth. Rightly dividing means interpreting scripture in context.
- That Christian has a personal agenda which is at odds with what the Bible says in context.
None of the clobber verses I listed above is in the context of homosexuals or prohibiting homosexuality. That you are unaware of that fact indicates you have not studied the verses and chapters involved. Instead, you parrot what someone else said instead of studying. By the way, reading the verse a few times in an English translation is not study.
When I get an email like yours, from a guy who hasn't even bothered to study and acquaint himself with the facts so that he can handle the topic competently, yet is bold to condemn me, I am reminded of Nehemiah 4:4 -
"Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own heads..."Concerning your statement about being set free from homosexuality, even the conservative Christian experts who lead Exodus International disagree with you on that. One of the founders of Exodus International,
Michael Bussee disagrees with you.
The current President of
Exodus International, Alan Chambers, disagrees with you.
John Smid, who for 21+ years, led the largest Exodus affiliated residential treatment program for gays and lesbians, disagrees with you.
Smid says in his 21+ years working with gays and lesbians, he has never seen anyone change
their sexual orientation. Alan Chambers stated as recently as January 6, 2012, that 99.9% of the gays and lesbians he knows and/or has worked with, have not changed their orientation. And by the way, his sexual orientation has not changed. He is still attracted to men.
The facts are available if you are interested in learning the truth. People don't change their orientation and God doesn't change their orientation because gays and lesbians are a wonderful part of God's creative plan.
Sometimes you guys who write to criticize me for winning souls and teaching the Bible in the gay community remind me of Sanballat in Nehemiah 4:1 - you're wroth (angry, wrathful - irate - furious - indignant - ireful), full of great indignation and mocking the work of God.
No matter though - I'm going to keep doing what God called me to do and He can deal with your heart and your motives. I hope this is helpful to you Rex, in understanding our ministry.
Your soul-winning brother in Christ, Rick Brentlinger
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