The Politics and Inequality of Homosexuality

“1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4  Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3: 1-5

In our current American culture the subject of human sexuality has become a lightning rod for politicians of every stripe.  In every stratum of society, from church governments to civil governments gender and alternative sexuality are among the leading topics being discussed at the highest levels.  And unfortunately for Bible-believing and Bible-practicing individuals, we fall in the crosshairs of political correctness at the expense of conscientious objection.  Ours is an age where disagreement with the homosexual agenda is interpreted as hostility to their existence, and in the backlash they exercise a repressive form of expression falsely called “tolerance.”  By their interpretation, “tolerance” means to agree with everyone and everything notwithstanding your personal convictions to the contrary, and on the other end of the spectrum, they who claim to be “tolerant,” turn to acts of repression of free speech, hate and abuse, all in the name of conforming to 21st century social norms.

From the white house to the common house to the church houses of worship, we find a wanton permissiveness to lawlessness of our age, and this is especially driven by big politics and big money.  In our churches there appears an eerie silence to the radical changes that are happening all around us, and at such a time as this when Commandment-keepers should be pointing the attention of the world to God’s “Statutes, judgments, and commandments,” our people are generally muted, and the pulpits are hushed into silence.  One reason for this silence if the very sure backlash from the government to penalize those who currently enjoy the benefits of “tax protection” under the Internal Revenue code of 501c(3).  To lose this status would be a major financial setback for most churches and charitable institutions, as it could amount to the loss of properties such institutions have held for decades.  If you think this is fear tactic, we simply need to look at the financial and legal battle the State of North Carolina is currently facing for simply saying that in public restrooms and other such facilities, they should be used consistent with the gender of the individuals, as marked on their birth certificates.

The backlash from the Federal Government has been swift and decisive.  They are now threatening the State with financial sanctions: from defunding of law-enforcement to defunding education institutions!  This they are doing in the name of “educating” the State into 21^st Century social norms.  I am personally proud of Governor Pat McCrory, for the stand he has taken, and encourage us to all be in prayer for him and his staff to stand for the right, not because it is popular, but because it the right thing to do!

Now, if the government is using the financial stranglehold to bully a State into compliance with their perverted open-access bathroom laws, what will they do to churches and other charitable institutions who also seek to uphold biblical values, in defiance to such absurd laws?  Will they seek to revoke our 501C(3) privileges in the name of “discrimination,” “violation of freedom of expression,” “homophobia”, or the like?  Mark my words: they will!  It is high time for us Christians to disentangle ourselves from the financial umbilical cord from the Government, because when they are finished with the “public” institutions they will focus the full force of the law against us, and if we are still getting benefits from them and yet opposing their edicts, they will pull the carpet from under us at a time when we can ill-afford for them to doing so without their shuttering many of our institutions, if not all! I say, if they can do this to a proverbial “green tree,” namely a State of the Union, what will they do against a Church who is only beneficiary of their laws?

The worst thing to have happened to the early Christian church was to have gained the recognition of the Roman Government and the cessation of persecution against her!  Now that it does not require much of a sacrifice, especially in the Western World, to bear the name of the Crucified One, Jesus Christ (Y’shuah), the values of Christianity are measured against the social, political, cultural and economic engines of our times.  With churches bankrolling billions of dollars, they have really enjoyed a special privileged status for these many years, and the role of the Government has thus far been tolerant.  But this “tolerance” has engendered a false sense of security for many of us Christians, which makes us rather vulnerable to their every whim and threat.  Prophecy does teach that the beast with lamblike (gentle, Christian and peaceful) horns, will one day speak like a dragon.  And my friends, we are now living on the cusp of those evil days.

Most people are not aware, it seems, and if they are, they seem to be indifferent to the fact that in the United States, laws are made only by Congress, and not by the Courts.  Yet last June the US Supreme Court passed an edict which opened the doors to same-gender marriages throughout the United States, and no one raised an eyebrow that this was an act of tyranny and usurpation of authority.  Etched in the first amendment to the US constitution is the legislative authority for making laws in this country: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”[1]

The expression “Congress shall make no law,” guarantees that all laws are made by the US Congress, yet in their Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the Supreme Court “legislated” that same-gender marriage should now be the law of the land, and no one dare call it tyranny!  Writing the majority’s opinion in that historic ruling Justice Kennedy noted “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right…The Court, in this decision, holds same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry in all States. It follows that the Court also must hold—and it now does hold—that there is no lawful basis for a State to refuse to recognize a lawful same-sex marriage performed in another State on the ground of its same-sex character.”[2]

We can rest assured though, that the workers of iniquity are not finished with us yet.  They are not yet satisfied to have their “gay marriage” rights, but are now making the final assault against every prohibition enunciated in God’s holy Word—the Bible, and there is a growing contempt for its sacred precepts among Christians in general, and Seventh-day Adventists, in particular.

If this startles you, let me now share with you an official SDA position on this matter:

In January 2016 issue of Southern Tidings—The Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Official communication publication—I read with interest current Adventist thought on the gay-marriage debacle which is currently reshaping family values in the United States and around the world.  I was more than disappointed to see how our church leaders have approached this delicate subject, and remain convinced that this institution will not be a safe harbor for us and our children in coming days! Feature Article: When Civil Rights Fight: The Delicate Balance Between Church and State, Volume 110, No. 1 (January 2016), pp. 6, 7).

“Evangelicals are increasingly complaining and unhappy with the separation of church and state. When you complain about the separation of the two, what you really are complaining about is the inability of the church to press its beliefs upon the government (or the people). Every argument that the Adventist Church makes in opposition of same-sex marriage is directly tied to the Bible and God’s directives through that document — not to government. To legally impose those biblical beliefs upon a segment of society that has rejected them would be the equivalent of not only forcing an Adventist to worship on Sunday, but also prohibiting him/her from worshipping on the Sabbath.

“As much as the decision by the Supreme Court goes against what we understand, believe, and teach about marriage in the church, taken in context of the U.S. Constitution and the guarantees of that document, no other decision could have been made. While the decision to allow same-sex marriage was right under secular law, the reaction by many Christians was even more worrisome than the court’s decision, especially after some suggested the 14th Amendment should be revoked. Adventists worry about changes in the Constitution specifically because our religious freedom lies in that document.

“Only in flagrant violation to these safeguards to the nation’s liberty can any religious observance be enforced by civil authority. But the inconsistency of such action is no greater than is presented in the symbol. It is the beast, with lamblike horns — in profession pure, gentle and harmless that speaks like a dragon,” The Great Controversy, page 442, ¶2.

“The safeguards that Ellen White speaks of in this passage refers to the U.S. Constitution.

“Even though the same-sex marriage decision was proper in a secular society, it ended up affecting individual religious rights. Take the case of the now infamous Kentucky County Clerk, Kim Davis. Kim Davis, as the Rowan County Clerk, clearly felt compelled by her religious convictions that issuing the same-sex marriage license in her county violated her religious beliefs, thus claiming the religious rights she has under the first amendment. Did Kim Davis deserve an accommodation for her religious beliefs? Yes, she certainly did. But, the actions Davis took to get that accommodation went beyond what was necessary. Her action, while religiously motivated, was just as extreme as the homosexual reaction. Neither side wanted to see how conflicting civil rights could coexist.

“We agree with Kim Davis’ position on marriage. We agree that she needed to be accommodated for her religious beliefs. But, in the end she may have carried her religion too far by refusing to allow even her office staff to certify the marriages of same-sex couples. Our concern is that she ended up trying to enforce her religious beliefs upon her staff. Would we as Adventists stand for the government imposing its religion upon the people or the Church? Davis treated her position in public office as her house, and not as the house of the people whom she served. As much as we would like to believe that Davis was engaged in a religious act by certifying the marriage certificates, she was not. There is nothing religious about what a county clerk does or certifies. The office she claims is “hers” cannot deny secular rights to citizens based on the religious beliefs of the county clerk. Herein lies the problem. Both sides had valid issues in regard to the issue of separation of church and state. Davis had a valid issue with her religious accommodation claim. But, both sides were wrong because they decided to fight, rather than discuss reasonable ways for the two issues to coexist and both be accommodated.” [3]

Did you ever think you would have seen the day when Commandment-keepers denounce others for carrying their religion “too far”?  Where does “dare to be a Daniel” stand in our profession of faith anymore?

But to silence the evil suggestions of our Adventist thought leaders, Kim Davis’s actions vindicated an entire state and thus all other Clerks of Courts in her position. Her stance was right and it moved the heart of the State’s governor, much to the Chagrin of our Adventist theologians!

“NBC News: Kentucky Marriage Licenses No Longer Need County Clerks’ Names: Governor, DEC 22, 2015

“Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin issued an executive order Tuesday that will no longer require a county clerk’s name to appear on marriage license forms.

“The change comes after the national firestorm ignited earlier this year when Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis defied a judge’s order to issue such licenses to same-sex couples — claiming doing so would violate her religious beliefs as an Apostolic Christian.

“Davis, who said she was being forced to choose between “my conscience or my freedom,” spent five days in jail in September after failing to perform her official duties. Her deputy clerks were tasked with issuing the licenses.

“In a news release, Bevin said he has ordered new marriage license forms to be created to ensure that “sincerely held religious beliefs of all Kentuckians are honored.”[4]

The Adventists had already gone to press, and their magazines were already printed  in preparation for the Christmas holidays, and they could not go back and sanitize their war against those who stand up for Biblical values, and it is left on record for us to see that the global defender of “religious liberty,” is not a true friend of liberty at all, but is as pliable as spaghetti noodles, and will soon become and enemy at the gate!

Had it not been for Kim Davis’ protest, the entire State of KY would not be awakened to protecting the religious liberties of County workers who hold religious convictions that are crossed by the Supreme Court’s edict.  But left to the Adventist thought leaders, that day would NEVER have come!  For to suggest that, “the actions Davis took to get that accommodation went beyond what was necessary. Her action, while religiously motivated, was just as extreme as the homosexual reaction,” clearly demonstrates the Church’s thinking on protecting or defending her children who come in the crosshairs of civil magistrates, when their religious convictions run counter to civil pronouncements.

I praise God for Kim Davis, and pray that we will all muster her courage when tested, to stand alone, when necessary, and leave the consequences with our God–YHWH!

I have long wondered at the word  “democracy” and felt that the true meaning of the world has been veiled from our understandings for a long while now, but one which I will help the reader to grasp.  So, what is democracy?  Well, words have roots, and those roots generally give the origins of the word, and promote a deeper understanding of their current and historic meanings.  The word “demo-cracy” for example, has for its prefix “demo.”  It is from this prefix we derive words such as:

•          Demo-lish
•          Demo-lition
•          Demo-nstrate
•          Demo-nic

Search as you might, the Standard English dictionaries do not give, and maybe are unwilling to publish the etymology of the word “Demo,” but prefer instead to publish its more popularized meaning, such as “demo”—to make a first showing of a product, as in a DVD, but not at all the origins or etymology of the word.  For Democracy, they turn to the French language to show that this word Démocratie came from the “late 16th century: from French démocratie, via late Latin from Greek dēmokratia, fromdēmos ‘the people’ + -kratia ‘power, rule.’”

From the etymology dictionary we get: “Democracy (n.): 1570s, from Middle French démocratie (14c.), from Medieval Latin democratia (13c.), from Greek demokratia “popular government,” from demos “common people,” originally “district” (see demotic), + kratos “rule, strength” (see -cracy).”[5]

So in reality, even in its veiled form, the word “democracy” means people rule by “strength” or by “power” by “control” by “oppression,” or by “force.”  So this people-power movement is not something that will work for our best good in the end, for it is a system in which the majority rules.  When the majority are Bible-believers, then it works for us, but as today, when the majority are antagonistic to the Bible, then believers will fall in the crosshairs of their unrighteous laws, as is now the case with the Federal Government and the State of North Carolina!

“The Greek word kratos, after all, actually appears to be more closely associated with acts of strength, courage and/or violence than with governance. So the word kratos appears to potentially carry the rather negative connotation of “governance by force“… It should be noted that the Sanskrit word kratu, which the Greek word kratos is said to derive from, is sometimes translated as “strength”, “power” and, perhaps mistakenly, “sacrifice”.¹

Unfortunately, as far as I am aware, no proof can be offered as to what the true origin of the word democracy is. Thus, ironically, it actually comes down to whether you and others like you agree with the traditional view or whether you and they agree with what is presented herein. In the end, I hope that critical thinking and good judgment will win the day, and that a more honest answer to the question will eventually be agreed upon.”[6]

 So, yes, democracy means a government “by the people and for the people,” but not a government under God (YHWH) for the upholding of His righteous laws to the people!  Fortunately, the children of the Reformation, up till now were more respectful of divine laws, and so their policies reflected that respect.  But today, as in ancient Israel, there is a generation which knows not the Lord our God—YHWH– and are hell-bent on repudiating all the principles of His Holy word, and the principles of their founding fathers and mothers, and before long the floodgates of wickedness will be opened against Christians even in free America, as the US supreme Court gives more decisions in favor of the haters of holiness.  Isn’t it strange that the nations whose descendants gave us the Bible, and started the Protestant Reformation, are today at front and center in the push of promoting homosexual values around the world, while deriding as fanatical, those who protest against their marriage of secularism with Christianity, and democracy with Judaism!

With all that we have looked on thus far, here is one more assault that the Government is foisting on the nation.  It comes in the form of a genderless public restroom decree.

 Lynch: States Can’t ‘Insist’ a Man is a Man and a Woman is a Woman, If Person Feels Otherwise

(CNSNews.com; May 10, 2016) “And what we must not do, what we must never do is turn on our neighbors, our family members, our fellow Americans for something that they cannot control and deny what makes them human.

“And this is why none of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone that they are not or invents a problem that does not exist as a pretext for discrimination and harassment.”[7]

How startling that men who pretend to be women and girls, and women who pretend to be men and boys, are not considered to be “pretenders,” but the nation’s top prosecutor was able to conjure up the thought that, “a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone that they are not or invents a problem that does not exist.”  Who really is doing the “pretending” and the “inventing”?  From my untrained eyes it would seem that those whose birth certificate state one gender and they later in life “identify” as another gender, either surgically, hormonally or ideologically, that they are the world’s biggest “pretenders.”  But this view is not shared by our Government or the media-houses of our land.  Truly our world is “upside down,” and our law-makers are acting like men and women who have lost all rational judgment.  Slowly at first, and now rapidly in the end, they are seeking to reduce our world to one of uni-gender in which the line between male and female is not only blurred, but erased.  Yet this we have from the Bible, “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen. 1: 27.

In their drive to demasculate the world, the government is now pushing with financial threats, all public schools to provide access to people who feel they are of one gender or another, based purely on their feelings. Here is the guideline they have passed on to the schools. Today it is the public schools, but tomorrow it will expand to private schools, so take no comfort that we have our church schools!  Beware it is coming, even at the doors.

ABC News, May 13, 2016: “The Obama administration today will call on public school districts nationwide to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, sources told ABC News.

As a condition of receiving federal funds, “a school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” reads a letter outlining guidance for schools, obtained by ABC.[8]

In this wake of this bullying by the government ( White House and the Justice Department”, here is current news:

(The Chicago Sun Times, May 13, 2016): “A man choked an 8-year-old girl until she passed out inside the bathroom of a South Loop store last weekend, according to Chicago Police.

“She was with her mother at the business in the 1200 block of South Canal when the girl went to the bathroom alone about 1:15 p.m. on May 7, according to Chicago Police.

“Hartstirn, of the 500 block of North Racine, was charged with felony counts of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery of a child.”[9]

In this entire report, generated by many media outlets, none has made the connection with the unisex bathroom laws being forced upon Americans, and the rise of crimes against women and girls in restrooms. Were it another less politicized case to the advantage of the government’s and the media’s agenda, it would not be overlooked to underscore that “this event occurred in the wake of North Carolina’s stance that people ought to use the restrooms based on the gender marked on their birth certificates.”  But to do so would spoil the narrative that both the government and the media want us to accept, and so these types of events are under reported, or simply stripped of their contexts and relevance to the laws that are being made to enhance access of people of the opposite genders in the same rest areas.  This is no different from the bath houses of Rome, but we must today say so below a whisper, for fear of repression.

I bring all these items in focus not to simply berate the government for what they are doing, for sinners will do best what sinners do—sin!  I bring this to show you how far we as a people, as a church, has wandered from the landmarks of God’s holy Word.  The only thing that can reverse this trend is a Revival and Reformation of primitive godliness.  This reformatory message came to our church in 1930 under the title of The Shepherd’s Rod, and has been maligned and abused over these 86 years, but the choice now confronts every church member to learn of this reformatory message for all its pronouncements have been fulfilled to-date, and the current apostasy in our midst was also prophesied under the symbolism of Zechariah 6: 1-8.  I urge you to make this a subject of deep study, as you can no longer be indifferent to the issues confronting us.  I have provided my Bible Study conference line as a first point of engagement with this message of Present Truth, in an environment where all your questions can be answered in a calm and non-threatening way.  The call is easy:  (641) 715-3580, Access Code: 944823.  Here’s the link to my webpage: https://sdaprophecies.wordpress.com/

To listen to my presentation on Zechariah 6, here the links to the three-part study:

•          Part-1: https://fccdl.in/tM2oV1wRW
•          Part-2: https://fccdl.in/MuDJrC8lP
•          Part-3: https://fccdl.in/pnGkOHzRQ

What is next in the homosexual quest for normalized life in our world?  Complete acceptance of their abominable lifestyle, and they will not stop until your children are indoctrinated from cradle-roll and adulthood.  Soon, we will have to pass a homosexual conditioning questionnaire in order to retain our jobs, for our employers will be forced to make these requests of us, especially for those who work in the public sector.  Soon plural marriages (polygamy) will be pushed, along with bestiality and every other lawless proclivity, and we will be called upon to accepting these new cultural shifts as normal, or face economic sanctions.  But there is a people who know their God.  They know how to say “My father, and my mother,” (Isa. 8: 4), for they are the mature name Mahershalalhashbaz [Maher-shalal-hash-baz]—true immanuelites indeed of our day.

In our day, this prophecy becomes applicable, “Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly…7 therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:” (Isa. 8: 6, 7).  The “waters of Shiloah” are his Holy Word, his message of Present Truth for our times, and we need to be “wise” and heed that truth, for thus saith the King of Israel: “9  The LORD’S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.” Micah 6:9.

Looking to the General Conference for help will work to our disappointment, if we are historic Bible-practicing believers, for even our church has moved the sacred hedge which guards the sanctity of marriage, and has placed it squarely in the field of the homosexuals.  To see this in focus, please read my ground-breaking article The Seventh-day Adventist Church Is Now The New Welcome Center For Gay Leadership,  Published in the King’s Journal, October 25, 2015.  You may read it by clicking on this link: https://sdaprophecies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/hkm-nl-2015-3-1-1.pdf

For years we have been told to stay on the ship, and that is true, we must stay on the ship of Zion, for that ship will go through, even while the worthless material will be surgically removed by our God and Saviour through the work of his angels as pointed out in Ezekiel 9.  Please read this chapter and heed the warning, so you may learn how and what to “sigh and cry” about in Zion’s holy places.

Written by Garrick Augustus, May 13, 2016 [To be continued].

 

List of References

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment

[2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/14-556

[3] http://www.southernunion.com/site/1/docs/Tidings/2016/Jan16.pdf#page=4

[4] http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kentucky-marriage-licenses-no-longer-need-county-clerks-names-governor-n484671

[5] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=democracy

[6] http://www.olinrevelation.org/NewWebsite/DemocracyEtymology.htm; Reconsidering the Etymology of Democracy

[7] http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/ag-lynch-states-cannot-insist-man-man-and-woman-woman-if-they-feel

[8] http://abcnews.go.com/US/obama-administration-public-schools-transgender-students-access-bathrooms/story?id=39081956

[9] http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/police-man-choked-8-year-old-girl-in-south-loop-store-bathroom/