Speaking Out on Living Out
The Apostle Paul warns us:
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
2 Corinthians 11:13-15
No warning has been more marginalized or flat out ignored by the professing, visible church than this one from our Lord’s great servant and apostle. There are many dangerous voices of error invading the church to condemn God’s Word on the clear, biblical truth regarding the sin of homosexuality. This blog post will focus on just one movement afoot that in its cleverness and subtlty has and will continue a full, frontal assault on God’s truth.
Sam Allberry, who identifies as “gay and Christian” and pastors St. Mary’s Church in Maidenhead UK (Pictured above), promotes the idea that one can be homosexual and Christian, and therefore must have inclusion in the Lord’s Church. The Word of the one, true God clearly proclaims otherwise:
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Sam Allberry has established a ministry website that is solely devoted to the false teaching of “gay” Christianity; www.livingout.com. While there are many prominent, professing evangelicals supporting Allberry and his ministry, none are as devoted to Allberry’s philosophy as the ever-popular Dr. Tim Keller, who has been behind the scenes quietly and cleverly pushing the same ideas for years promoting his powerless, non-transforming and false gospel. In June 2018 Allberry hosted a conference through his Living Out ministry with Keller as keynote speaker.
The conference was promoted with an Identity in Christ theme, but it was quite clear from the beginning that they have a far different agenda, as they promote the idea of ignoring the homosexual’s sexual preference (or “identity”) and focus instead on their “identity in Christ”.
The glaring problem is that there is no such thing as a Christian homosexual, therefore they have no identity in Christ.
They are self-deceived, lost souls in dire need of a faithful servant of Christ to come forward and proclaim boldly to them the all-powerful, transforming gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The link below is the promo video for the conference featuring Tim Keller:
http://www.livingout.org/resources/tim-keller-gives-a-taste-of-the-identity-in-christ-conference
This conference team produced a list consisting of 10 points or questions they claim every church must get in line with in order to be “biblically inclusive.” They refer to this as an “audit” for every church: http://www.livingout.org/resources/the-living-out-church-audit
Articles regularly posted by Allberry and others on the LivingOut site demand inclusion by way of deceptive, clever language, as this excerpt from an article recently published on the site demonstrates:
Contributed By Sean Doherty
I became a Christian in my late teens, and not long after that I came to acknowledge that I was gay. I was committed to celibacy. At university I said I was gay, and I never experienced homophobic treatment from other Christians. This has convinced me that love and unconditional acceptance of gay people does not require approval of same-sex activity. Love and acceptance was my consistent experience. I was involved in the Christian Union in my university and I served on its ‘exec’ for a year, working alongside other young evangelicals who all knew I was gay and only ever treated me with great respect and affection. My evangelical college chaplain, also conservative about sexuality, strongly encouraged me to pursue ordination. I found the church to be a deeply supportive and affirming place. I was nurtured, given responsibility in ministry, and encouraged towards ordination. It is undeniable and indefensible that in the church there has been prejudice and even mistreatment of people because of their sexuality. But my experience has convinced me that this prejudice and mistreatment does not come from believing what the Bible says about marriage and sex.
Please note Doherty’s notion of “homophobia” in the church. It is just this type of nonsensical language that is regularly propagated in the articles and videos published by Living Out. Also note that the many “accepting” Christians Doherty claims to have encountered in college who never judged but instead respected and accepted him unconditionally, and with great affection, were not Christian at all, as the true believer walks in truth and will call a man to repentance:
“When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” Ezekiel 33:8-9
This conference illustrates just how cleverly deceptive this movement really is, as they manipulate the audience emotionally with heart-wrenching testimonies between each and every session by “homosexual Christians” who have “decided” to be celibate for Christ, for which they surely deserve all the glory and applause!
To continue reading, head over to the Bible Thumping Wingnut.
[Editor’s Note: This article was written by Toni Brown and first published at the Bible Thumping Wingnut, here]