In 2003 the Episcopal church (which is the American arm of the Church of England) ordained their first openly gay bishop. It caused quite the uproar. At that time I wrote this:
So what we have here is a clash between what man thinks is right and what the Bible says is right. Everyone who is a Bible believing Christian has faced this crisis. When we find our personal beliefs or feelings in conflict with Biblical truth, we have a choice: reject what the Bible says, or reject what we feel is right and align with the Bible. The choice that the Bishop and his supporters have taken is clear.
Is it right to leave your wife for another person? The Bible says no.
RRRRIIIPP – just tear that page out.
Is it right to allow such an adulterer into Church leadership? No again.
RRRRIIIPP – there goes another page.
Is it o.k. to ordain those who practice homosexuality? No! No! No!
RRRRIIIPP – it’s getting easier now, isn’t it?
Is there any way to heaven without Jesus? The Bible says absolutely not.
RRR?can your hear it?
Many people at that time thought I was foolish for suggesting that this decision to allow a gay man to become a bishop would lead to the denial that Jesus is the only path to salvation. I was told I was going overboard. But that is exactly where we find ourselves today. From Monday’s Union Tribune:
Jefferts Schori is not a biblical literalist. Take the six-day story of Creation in Genesis, for example. “It’s too good a story to believe it literally,” she said. “It’s got too much meaning to be boxed up in that small of an understanding.”
Seeing Jesus as the only way to redemption also “puts God in a very small box,” she said.
Did you catch that? Jefferts Schori, in case you were wondering, is the “presiding bishop” of all the Episcopalian churches. That pretty much makes her the “pope” of the United States for Episcopalian Christians–and she says that the very idea that Jesus is the only way to redemption “puts God in a very small box.”
It only took four years for the Episcopalians to move from ordaining a gay, adulter as a bishop to denying the central tenent of the Christian faith: that Jesus is the only path to salvation.
That’s what happens when we stop calling sin what it really is: sin. We want to call sin something different. We want to call it a “lifestyle.” We want to call sin a “mistake.” We want to call it “biology.” The bottom line is if sin isn’t sin we don’t need a savior. And if we don’t need a savior then we don’t need Jesus.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t about gay bishops or homosexuality in the church. We do the same thing everyday when we try to rationalize or justify our own sin. We deny we’ve done it or we deny that it was wrong. When we do it makes us as rebellious and as guilty as the Bishop Robinson.
That’s why we need Jesus who said, “I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the way, but He is the truth as well. You can never get free of your sin until you deal with that. But when you do, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
There is only one way to be free of sin–through Jesus Christ. But it only happens when we ADMIT and SUBMIT. We have to admit our sin and give it to Jesus. Then we have to submit to His word and change what we do. Admit and submit. Do that and be free.
