My dear readers,

Answering Remaining Questions from Calvary Pandan Church Camp 2023 (14)

Question 1: There is a financial dispute between a tenant (believer) and a landlord (non-believer) over who is responsible for the dirty walls and its repainting. If the tenant is responsible for a few panels of wall, but the landlord demands half of the fee to repaint the whole unit, should we offer the other cheek as in Matthew 5:39 so as to be a good testimony for God? Or should we stand up for what is right according to the regulation?

Answer 1: If the tenant has been sharing the gospel with the landlord, then what’s important is not the money but the landlord’s salvation. Luke 12:16-21: “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” The landlord knows the tenant is a believer who has been sharing the gospel with him for some time. He needs to see Christ in the tenant’s life on this issue.

Question 2: In light of the LGBTQ movement that’s spreading rapidly across the world, should we distinguish the difference between homosexuality as a spiritual decay and LGBTQ as a political and social movement and view them differently? Is it biblical for the church to separate between homosexuals (totally reject the gospel and are unbelievers) and homosexuals who are trying their best to come to accept the gospel (they still have the attraction for the same gender, but they are not acting on the desires and are in the midst of changing). I have come into contact with some churches which have rehabilitation programs for the latter group and the reasoning is to provide these homosexuals a safe and non-judgmental refuge for them to rehabilitate.

Answer 2: There is no difference between the spiritual decay of homosexuality and the LGBTQ as a political and social movement, just like one cannot separate the rise of divorce from society's social ills. People make up the society. All the families on earth combined make up the society. Man's sins are the sins of society, as man is his own society. He rules and follows the rulers. The Lord warns us that the world of the Antichrist prior to Christ’s return will be like Sodom in the days of Lot. Luke 17:28-32: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. 31 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. 32 Remember Lot's wife.”

In the days of Lot, the Sodomites were sleeping and oblivious to the impending fire and brimstone that destroyed everything and killed everyone in Sodom and the surrounding region. The two sins of Sodom were fornication and homosexuality. They would become global. The political and social movement is to make them global, just as Christ prophesied two thousand years ago. This prophesy is fulfilled before our eyes. “Remember Lot’s wife” is the stark warning from Christ. Those in Sodom perished as unbelievers. Lot and his two daughters were believers and were saved by the two angels. But Lot’s wife was in between the two groups and she was warned not to look back at Sodom when the city was destroyed, or she would die too. Genesis 19:15-17, 26: “And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. 16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. 17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. . . 26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” Lot’s wife was also physically taken out of Sodom, but her heart was still in Sodom.

The sin of Lot’s wife warns every professing believer of the sin of carnality. Lot’s wife was physically out of Sodom, but she looked back when specifically commanded not to do so because her heart was still in Sodom! Her lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes condemned her. Many professing believers today who attend church are seemingly seen as physically out of the world. However, if their heart is still in the world, like Lot’s wife, their physical presence in church is meaningless vanity to God!

Trying our best to stop sinning without believing in Christ is futility. No man can stop sinning without believing in Christ. Sinful man is born in depravity, for every man is conceived in sin! Spiritual darkness and blindness reside in every sinner. Romans 6:19-23: “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The word “servants” in Romans 6:19-23 is the word “slaves.” The only way a sinner (all sins included, and not just the sin of homosexuality) can have the power to overcome sin in his life is through Jesus Christ. When the sinner truly accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, the bondage of sin will be broken forever. The Holy Spirit will dwell in him when salvation occurs, and sins will be immediately removed. The believers in the church in Corinth experienced the transforming power of Christ, and the sins of homosexuality and other sins were washed from their lives by the blood of Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

The judgmental attitude is from God as this is the truth. God has taught every believer in Christ to judge based on the Holy Scriptures. Truth has to be shared tactfully and lovingly. But every sinner must know that they are already under condemnation in the eyes of God. If anyone were to die in sin, they will be cast into hell! Like our merciful and loving heavenly Father, all believers should never desire to see anyone die in sin and be cast into hell. The truth from God, though unpleasant, must be shared lovingly. All sinners need to repent of their sins in Christ to be saved and to be delivered from the bondage, penalty, dominion and guilt of sin. The church’s mission from God is not to rehabilitate, but to save sinners from sin in Christ.