NEIL B. HAGAN Same-sex marriage: We can't compromise

A great apostasy is spreading as church members have become tolerant and even wink at the sin of homosexuality in the ordaining of church leaders and the solemnizing of same-sex marriage.
An apostate is defined as a professing Christian who deliberately rejects and rebels against the revealed truth of God's word.
Apostasy is perfectly described by the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:3-4: "The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
Falling away
The words of Paul to his beloved Timothy could very easily address the crisis which much of today's church is facing in its falling away from spiritual truth. It appears that in order to proselytize to new members, many of our Christian churches have conformed to the world of moral relativism, doing what seems right in our own eyes, making God into our own image. It appears that many churches are becoming like the lukewarm church of Laodicea, a church that is neither hot nor cold, which is the church God said he would spit out of his mouth as a consequence of its complacency.
We have allowed the yeast of homosexual sin to spread in the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul implicitly warned us about sin in 1 Corinthians 6.
Paul is not addressing the sinner, since the church remains a spiritual hospital for the sinner. The apostle is referring to those members of the church body who count themselves with the professing believer but continue in an openly sinful lifestyle. Those members in the perversion of their sin have defiled their temple and cannot join with the body of Christ in sincerity and truth.
Those wayward believers must be cut off from fellowship in loving chastisement with the intent of producing the fruit of sincere repentance that will lead to reconciliation and restoration. There will also be rejoicing for those who lay their sin at the foot of the cross and surrender to the Lord.
Protecting family
The United States wrestles with the prospect of a federal amendment to protect the family. Not even in Sodom and Gomorrah existed the scourge of same-sex marriage. We can see the manifestation of the downward spiral spoken of by Paul in Romans 1. It appears that the world is on the brink of the last stage of the spiral, which is complete depravity and a debased mind that believes good is bad and bad is good.
In this time, the church is called to be the moral standard bearer, a reflection of the living Jesus in a dying world. There is no compromise on the issue of homosexuality as we serve a holy and just God who does not compromise on sin that is always consequential, and a sovereign Lord who does not lower his righteous standards to appease the will of the people.
Hate the sin
Some of the writers to the opinion page ask the question, "What would Jesus do?" The unchanging Lord, who stated that he did not come to abolish one letter from God's law, would have told us to love the sinner and not to judge him, while commanding us to hate the sin, which his immutable word calls detestable unto God.
Jesus, while teaching the multitude about marriage, quoted from Genesis, saying: "In the beginning He made them male and female, and said 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one. Therefore what God has joined together let no man separate." (Matthew 19:4-7)
XHagan is the associate minister at the House of Prayer, United Holy Church of America, in Warren.