Dear Louise,

I wonder whether you actually read the article and thought about the arguments I made? Rather than make a rational argument yourself, you have merely thrown out the emotionally loaded accusation that I ‘don’t love’ but instead ‘judge and condemn’. This rather suggests that, having no good argument yourself, you merely wish to shut down the debate with an ad hominem attack.

1. You assert that ‘GBTL communities around the world should not be marginalised but included in all walks of life’. Should this also apply to other ‘communities’ of people acting in contravention of God’s commands? What about the ‘adulterous community’, or the ‘thieving community’, or the ‘parent-dishonouring community’? Though you assert your opinion, you do not make any argument as to why it should be thought valid. You fail to explain why society should privilege those engaged in certain kinds of sexual sin.

2. As I explained, Jesus spoke very clearly about the creation institution of marriage as being between one man and one woman. The consistent testimony of the Scriptures is to condemn homosexual relations.

3. All the 66 books of the Scriptures are θεόπνευστος – ‘God breathed’, and are thus indicative of what Jesus thinks. You don’t get to set Jesus (the Second Person of the Trinity) against Paul writing as He was moved by the Third Person of the Trinity.

4. I am showing my love for homosexuals (and everyone else) by calling them to repent of their sin and be forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. It would be extremely unloving to take the easy route of avoiding conflict by saying nothing, thereby leaving people in ignorance of their sin to their eternal condemnation.

5. With regard to divorce, I affirm what Jesus says (Matt. 19:6) – ‘Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.’ Our society’s lax divorce and remarriage laws have been a source of great evil. However, this is not the matter at hand and has nothing to do with the validity of homosexual ‘marriage’.

6. I am absolutely against affairs, and also marital abuse in all its forms. Again, though, these have nothing to do with the validity of homosexual ‘marriage’. (With reference to the proper relation of man to wife, I refer you to the words of Paul from Ephesians 5 that I quoted in the article: husbands are to lay down their lives for their wives in a self-sacrificial way. This is as far from an abusive relationship as it is possible to get.)

Finally, you ask me to read my Bible. I ask you to do the same, take seriously the teaching of the entire Scripture, and submit yourself to its authority. At the moment, you are clearly just picking and choosing the parts with which you happen to agree. You have made yourself judge of Scripture, rather than allowing it to judge you. Repent, and believe the Good News that Christ lived, died and rose again even for sinners like you and me.

Of course if you only want a man and woman to have the label of marriage then you can keep divorce and marital abuse, and affairs as well…

read your bible and understand Jesus never said anything against gays or lesbians – it was Paul.