Hearing God's word and sticking your fingers in your ears!

Tony Jones a foremost emergent crowd "leader" made the following comment at his B-Net blog:
Tuesday August 4, 2009 Categories:

GLBT, same sex marriage OK, I’m serious about this. I’m not even being snarky. Really.
If you are one who thinks that homosexual sex is sinful, can you please explain to me WHY a gay or lesbian person who is in a long-term, monogamous relationship would not be able to wholeheartedly follow Christ?
My only stipulation is this: You may not quote one of the six verses in scripture that mentions homosexuality. Instead, you must use theological and/or philosophical arguments to attempt to convince me that when you have genital contact with someone of your own gender, it somehow inhibits your relationship with Christ.
Thank you in advance for your civility in answering this question.

Brian McGraw rightly responded -- how do you have a theological argument without the use of scripture?

I would add that such an approach is totally unbiblical as it's a denial of 1 Peter 3:15 that starts with "in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord" meaning in every aspect of life we are to live with Christ as Sovereign Ruler of our lives.

You will find further helpful responses by pastorboy at Wittenburg Church Door
Yet at Wittenburg you will also read a few comments by Chad, in one of which Chad responds as follows:

"Ok, you have shown that you can offer a “why” response to God’s commands. There is reason behind the commands. You have listed:
- It hurts your spouse- offends the person to whom you have lied.- harms the one from whom you’ve stolen- causes harm to a person in God’s image and their family and friends.
All of these reasons are reasons I would agree with as to why God has commanded us not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to steal and not to kill.
So now, why not answer Tony’s question?"

Now I want to draw our attention to the problem with the whole approach of Tony and the emergent sheep and people like Chad, namely they have a problem with Scripture being the Word of God, that God has said something and they need to deal with it.

Now I am not saying that flippant replies to serious enquiry such as "God said so" are satisfactory. Often in Scripture we need to read the context of God's Commands, understand his Nature and consider other relevant Scriptures as well. Indeed sometimnes lengthy argument is given for a particular doctrinal teaching, such as Paul locating the reason for women not to teach [ mixed company ] as being grounded in Creation. So 1 Tim 2:11-15

So given that disclaimer, I now want to point out that Chad and his ilk exemplify that same question of Satan who asked of Eve in the Garden of Eden "Has God Said?" The thrust of this question in it's context is to raise Doubt in Eve's mind about the goodness of God [ "you must not even touch it" ] and His care for Eve. It is to make God out to be some ogre who wishes to stop Eve having fun and is one set on limiting her development. But the central issue here is even more disasterous.
In her refusal to listen to and obey the clear commands of God, she sets herself up as the Authority on what is right and wrong. She abandons God who alone has that Authority and in whom alone is the Standard of right and wrong, good and evil.

In the above statement by Chad we read that all the reasons pastorboy gave "are ones that he Chad would agree to." Perhaps he is just using sloppy language however if he is following the emergent crowds holy grail that things must agree with what they alone determine as compatible to their moral sensibilities then he is treading on dangerous ground. That's why so many are already decrying the notions of Hell and homosexuality and the atonement.

Please hear me when I say that what I have said above is not questioning Chad's salvation. what I am pointing out is that the line Chad is taking and the emergent crowd frequently espouse is a dangerous one that will easily lead to them being outright heretical, and because of that the warning needs to be sounded clearly and forcefully.

It is because of this undercurrent of unbelief that the emergent crowd are doomed to head towards heresy, and it's firsfruits can be seen in what Brian McLaren and others are already saying.

Beware!

Gary