Is Homosexual Change Possible?
If homosexuality were a gene it would have disappeared long ago, as the majority of children are born to heterosexual parents.
By Sharon Byrd
“Coming out of the closet” used to describe those who embraced homosexuality.
The phrase conveyed the idea of a secret revealed.
Now this once taboo lifestyle is the biggest and most powerful agenda being forced on today’s society.
Gay rights activism is presented as normality in our media, as tolerance in our schools, as science in pseudo-studies that support its claims while upholding the everyone-is-doing-it mentality.
Homosexuality is presented as a matter of genetics, just like eye color, nose size or body type.
Now, let’s face it, some body types are chosen, but we cannot choose our eye color or nose sizes!
But we can definitely choose who to have sex with. And therein lies the difference.
A person becomes a homosexual by engaging in same-sex activity.
God gave us our sexual identity.
“Male and female He created them,” it says in Genesis 1:27.
In Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6, Jesus answers questions on marriage and sexuality with the foundation He and His Father laid in Genesis 1 and 2: male and female were created to complement each other in marriage.
Even Biology 100 supports heterosexuality!
In Leviticus 8:18 God says clearly: “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Pretty strong and pretty plain.
How do you witness to a homosexual? Having come out of thirteen years in a lesbian lifestyle one answer speaks clearly to my mind – God’s answer: “And such were some of you.”
Paul addresses a church full of misfits in Corinth who indulged in sexual sin, idol worship, adultery, homosexuality, thievery, greed, drunkenness, abuse, and swindling.
In short, they were your average bunch of sinners saved by grace and the blood of Jesus.
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, justified, and sanctified by the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Holy Spirit of God” (II Corinthians 6:9-11).
Paul didn’t focus on any particular sin, or tell them to handle certain people differently.
He lumped ’em all together and said, “You used to be this, but now you’re all brand new creations in Christ.”
The brief and pointed answer? You witness to them like you would to any other sinner: with love, grace, compassion, and a firm refusal to ignore their sin because it separates them from God.
The gay agenda is pushed so strongly that it’s an open discussion in every circle of today’s society except evangelical Christianity.
It’s one of those things we don’t discuss, which is precisely what Satan is loving, because this is a hot-button issue of our generation.
So let’s discuss it for a minute, shall we?
Let’s take some of the layers of mystery and taboo off and expose this sucker for what it really is.
We’ve seen how God feels.
Now let’s look at the issue from the world of science-falsely-so-called (I Timothy 6:20).
The media and the advocates of gay rights say homosexuals were born that way. Does their scientific proof stand up?
I don’t think so. Let’s look at the top three research projects used as ‘facts’ to promote the gay-is-in-the-genes argument. Incidentally, all of the research project leaders are openly gay. Big surprise there.
In 1993, a study by Dean Hamer attempted to link homosexuality in men with a specific region in the X chromosome, otherwise known as the “gay gene.”
“This is … the strongest evidence … that there is an important genetic component to sexual orientation,” Hamer said.
Not one research team has been able to duplicate Hamer’s study in 17 years.
No gay gene; I repeat: no gay gene has been found.
Yet the media continues to push his study as a basis for public awareness and tolerance.
In 1991, the Hypothalamus Study by Simon Levay, stated that the brain structure in homosexual men was different from heterosexual men. According to Levay, a gay man’s hypothalamus was smaller.
This study also has issues. First, it was based on a small group of male cadavers – 22 heterosexual men and 19 homosexual men – all of whom had died of AIDS.
Second, there is no way to determine if the differences were the cause or the result of homosexual behavior or of AIDS. Third, the area of the brain LeVay was measuring was smaller than snowflakes.
“My freshman biology students know enough to sink this study,” remarked a professor at Brown University.
Finally, in 1991 the Twin Study by Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard stated that homosexuality occurred more frequently in identical twins than in fraternal twins.
The biggest flaw in this study was that it excluded twins raised separately, leaving out the environmental factor.
If there was a gay gene, one could expect identical twins to be identical in their same sex attractions even if they grew up apart. And this would have been even stronger evidence for Pillard and Bailey’s study.
Incidentally, my identical twin sister never embraced homosexuality as I did.
Countless studies have been performed, and many scientists have tried to duplicate the studies mentioned. After 20 years, and with the advances being made in the scientific world, these studies have proven only one thing: a person becomes a homosexual ultimately by choosing to be involved in same sex activity.
Homosexuality is a choice.
Now that we’ve demystified the issue, let’s talk about witnessing to gay individuals.
First we must look at our own views of homosexuality. Are we so focused on this sin that we miss the point?
When God lists what He hates in Proverbs 6:16-19, he includes what we may term “little sins” like arrogance, lying, and being a troublemaker. To God sin is sin. We’re the ones categorizing them as big or little.
Do we miss the sinner for their sin?
I found out after I got saved that it was the prayers of the saints that brought me to salvation.
Their witness told me they cared, but their prayers showed me how much. When the heart feels, the body reacts.
The witnesses in my life told me they loved me, just as God did, but hated my sin, just as God did.
They spoke to me about all the sin in my life: drug addiction, alcoholism, homosexuality. These all kept me from knowing God.
The Bible says in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The death of Jesus paid the price for all sinners, homosexuals included.
The simple truth is this: Homosexuality is wrong because God said it is. End of story.
And we must treat sin as God does. We must present God’s feelings toward sin as we would to the adulterer, the alcoholic, the drug user, the gang member, the friend, the cousin, the mom, the brother, the auntie, and the grandkids… and anyone else we are witnessing to.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12).
Who do you think is pushing this homosexual agenda? Who do you think knows that if you “train up a child in the way they should go, they will never depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6)?
Demonic spiritual forces and strategies are targeted at young children so they can be trained up in the way the world thinks they should go. Same-sex parents are training their children in “the way they should go.”
Why? So they will never depart from it.
But there is hope and we have strategies of our own. You have an inside track to witness opportunities with friends and family members and co-workers that no one else has because you know them like no one else does.
God never gave up on you, nor will He give up on them.
Pray for those you are witnessing to, and ask the saints to help you.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (I Corinthians 10 3-5).
Do not be mistaken: the homosexual agenda is one of the biggest trains smoking against the church, but it’s not the only one. And God has given us weapons more than capable.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11).
The Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies are God’s weapons created to win.
TIPS ON WITNESSING TO HOMOSEXUALS:
LISTEN! Silly, insulting remarks cause more harm than good. One former homosexual witnessed Christians shouting insults on the sidelines of a gay pride parade. Who would ever want to be part of their religion? he thought. It was several years later, when a campus minister befriended him and took the time to get beyond his pro-gay façade that he came to Christ.
SEE THEM, NOT THEIR HOMOSEXUALITY! They are people with complex fears, hopes, and needs like everyone else. Look beyond the gay or lesbian label they wear to see the whole person inside. See the soul in need of saving. See the wounds in need of healing. See them as a person God loves, a person who has a homosexual problem.
DON’T WAIT TILL YOU’RE AN EXPERT! You don’t need to know every answer on this subject to be a godly influence. If you don’t know an answer, tell them you will find out and get back to them later… then, do it! Winning an argument won’t change them; God’s love working through you will.
POINT THEM TO JESUS, NOT HETEROSEXUALITY! As with all other sin, God brings the healing work inside us so that we surrender these areas to Him. People caught in homosexuality cannot change on their own. God will open their eyes to His truths and the power of Christ so they can.
GIVE THEM HOPE OF SOMETHING BETTER! Although the Bible is clear that homosexual practice is against God’s pattern for humankind, I Corinthians 6:11 gives clear evidence that gays can change: “And that is what some of you were. 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.” Be sure to bring them the good news of the Gospel, not just condemnation for their sin.
FIND FURTHER INFORMATION AT:
focusonthefamily.com/facing_crisis.aspx
focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/sexual-identity
ExodusInternational.org
TheWayofthe Master.com
christiananswers.net/q-cross/cross-gaychange.html (This link leads to several others).