This is a much more plain communication. Thanks for being straight(no pun here)with me.

First of all, just because people call themselves "Christian" does not make them Christian (belonging to Christ). The way to the Kingdom is a very narrow path ... the bible says FEW find it. I doubt you have met many real non-hypocritical Christians in your journeys. The evil that perpetuated the Crusades and inquisitions was not from God but from the evil hearts of men cloaked in false religion. God did not appear in the pillar of fire and tell these men to do these things.

As for God instructing Israel to cast out their enemies - this was all prophetic. It pictures the endtimes how the righteous believers with Christ will dispossess the effeminate, sodomites, idolaters, murderers, unbelievers, etc.

God is God. He is the Creator and yet some of His pottery complains at Him. Does not the potter have the right to destroy His work at will? Does He not have the power to recreate the pottery into a better work? We cannot judge God by our standards. We must judge ourselves by His.

As for love. There are 3 kinds of love: erotic, brotherly, godly. We can all love each other with the two 'higher' of the three. The carnal erotic love is lowest on the scale and is forbidden by same-sex humans, humans and beasts, etc. Sex is reserved only between a married (God-joined)man and woman to create offspring for the purpose of them learning to know and worship God.

Because godly love, especially Love for God and from God, is higher it needs to take priority. God needs to be first in any persons heart. If a gay person love God he/she should cast aside their own desires to manifest their love for God. God is their Creator and he knows us inside and out. He knows for what purpose He created us (believe me it is not gay sex).

Your lack of belief in God does not make Him any less real. The misrepresentation of God by false Christians does not make Him any less holy nor any less God.

You are free to live your life by your opinions - why is that? Because God made you able to do so. But O Man realize that for every work God will bring each person into judgment ... not by their own reasoning but by His holy wisdom.

Email: TruthOnWeb@aol.com

Thanks for your reply. Here are my responses:

1. You do not answer my main point which was that your acceptance of the Bible [as you interpret it]as your sole criteria for what is right and wrong neglects your conscience as another and, you surely think, God Given, source of information about right and wrong. One way to ask what a particular passage means might be to look at what your conscience says about the matter.

2. Small minority to be saved? Yes, every sect and tiny branch of Christianity says or has said this. No doubt it provided great comfort when you find that few agree with you. Trouble is that it takes a lot of 'pride/temerity' to assume that YOU are the minority referred to and all the others are mistaken. Particularly when they say the same thing.

3. Potters and clay. I have never been impressed by this argument. If a powerful being brings me to life that does not mean that whatever that being requires me to do is good. It is possible for God to be omnipotent and bad surely? IF there was a God who had made us and who commanded us to hate each other, would you say that this was therefore right? I know you do not think that God is like this but if he were you would not agree that 'whatever he said was right because he made us' so it cannot be that THAT is the reason we ought to obey him.

3. Erotic love within a relationship between two adults who love each other expresses that love and indeed is a part of it. We are a mind and a body and you cannot slice off the bodily part of love and put into a separate compartment. To deny physical love to committed gay partners is very wicked and a case where your old fashioned view of the bible is silencing the voice of your conscience.

4. Certainly, if God exists, my disbelief will not alter that. However if he makes himself so obscure that honest people cannot see his existence then I am sure he will not complain if some cannot believe. And as I am sorry for wrong things I have done I am sure he would accept my repentance. He would be a monster otherwise.

Best wishes

Laurie

Email: mgt.harris@btinternet.com