Is there any truth to the 'God hates fags' slogan?
Please note - we are reluctant to even use the term "fags." We intend no offense or insult. We only use the word in response to the group which promotes the "God hates fags" conceptThe phrase "God hates fags" was coined by Westboro Baptist Church, a group which associates itself with Christianity but actually comes nowhere near to expressing either the truth, or the heart of God. Some of the actions of this "church" include protests at gay events and military funerals, where picketers shout condemnation at their fellow men and women. Any group who engages in this kind of behavior and then turns around and calls itself Christian is sadly mistaken. Homosexuality is not included in the Ten Commandments, but taking the Lord's name in vain (taking ungodly action in the name of Christ) certainly is (Exodus 20:7). Furthermore, the Bible tells us that those who pervert the Gospel and teach it falsely are "anathema" which means "eternally condemned" (Galatians 1:8-9). Jesus was called a "friend of sinners" but He saved His words of condemnation for the religious leaders of Israel whose teaching was making it impossible for people to know, trust, and follow God (Matthew 23:1-36). If there's anybody that God hates, it's false teachers.
From a biblical perspective, one might as well say "God hates thieves" or "God hates gossips." One might as well picket outside of the Hollywood studio that produces Desperate Housewives because "God hates adulteresses." The Bible does indeed call all of these things sin, including the practice of homosexuality (1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10). There is nothing at all in the Bible that says a person who is attracted to the same sex can't be saved, or is the subject of God's particular hatred.
God offers everyone the same deal. Whatever sin we are prone to, we are all offered the same deal: justification through faith in Christ. Not "a chance to clean yourself up" or "the ability to become straight" or "a lifetime of denial that earns you heaven" but Christ's righteousness applied to you, as you are, today. Sanctification, or being clean and holy and acceptable to God, actually happens (for all of us) on the cross (Hebrews 10:10). The seed was planted by Christ's sacrifice, and the plant develops over a believer's life (v. 14), but the fact is, any holiness we have is a result of Jesus Christ. Consider the following passage:
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
Unrighteousness is a result of unbelief, not sin. Sin is simply the result of being human. Deliberately choosing to remain in and embrace our sin is the result of a clever deception from Satan, who wants us to be enslaved. There was an experiment where children were given a marshmallow and then told they could eat the marshmallow now or wait one hour and get ten marshmallows. The researchers were trying to discover something about delayed gratification. Not surprisingly, many of the children chose to eat the one present marshmallow rather than have the future ten. This doesn't surprise us because we know what it's like to be human. It is odd, however, that human beings will choose something so illogical. Satan knows that we are like this, and takes advantage of it. He distracts us from the truth, making us focus on the here and now rather than the future. In this way, he tempts us to completely disregard the validity and the mercy of God's offer and instead see Him as unreasonable because He wants us to stay away from sin for seventy-odd years and then give us an eternity of bliss.
God does not "hate fags." The whole idea is offensive and ridiculous, and wickedly assumes that God is hateful and prejudiced, as bigoted and small-minded as the people carrying the picket signs. He is not like that— "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). But homosexuals should not allow themselves to be deceived: those who cling to the joys of temporal sin instead of taking His offer of salvation and eternal happiness, are left with no option but judgment. As Jesus said, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:16-18).
Is homosexuality a sin?
Does the Bible say anything about bisexuality? Is being bisexual a sin?
Does God hate? How is it possible for God to hate if He is love?
Does the tongue really have the power of life and death?
What are some things people commonly think are in the Bible that really aren't?
Truth about Everything Else
