hillsong deception: jesus was not in the thick of an era where homosexuality was widely prevalent!!!!!

"Jesus was in the thick of an era where homosexuality, just like it is today, was widely prevalent."  Carl Lentz New York City Hill$ong Pastor. 

THIS IS A GROSSLY DISHONEST STATEMENT

Jesus Christ was definitely NOT in the thick of an era where homosexuality was widely prevalent!!!! Jesus declared explicitly that his mission was focused on Israel (Matthew 15:24). The Jews DID NOT engage in the practices of the surrounding nations where homosexuality and paedophilia were widely practiced.  

HOMOSEXUALITY WAS EMPHATICALLY CONDEMNED BY THE JEWISH TRADITION!

For Jews living in the first century, homosexuality was taboo. The biblical prohibition against a male lying with a male as though with a woman (Leviticus 20:13) was at the very heart of Jewish morality. This explains why Jesus Christ never addressed the sin of homosexuality directly as he did other sins, for instance, adultery; it is reasonable to suppose that he did not come across it!

The author of the Syballine Oracles, thought to be an Egyptian Jew (approx. 163 - 45 B.C.) "The Jews are mindful of holy wedlock, and they do not engage in impious intercourse with male children, as do Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Romans, specious Greece and many nations of others, Persians and Galatians and all Asia."  http://www.conservapedia.com/History_of_homosexuality#Homosexuality_among_the_Jews

Josephus: "But then, what are our laws about marriage? That law owns no other mixture of sexes but that which nature hath appointed, of a man with his wife, and that this be used only for the procreation of children. But it abhors the mixture of male with male; and if anyone do that, death is his punishment." (Against Apion 2.25)

Perhaps Lentz would like to produce evidence to back up his ridiculous statement which infers that homosexuality was widely prevalent within first century Judaism? 

JESUS CHRIST AFFIRMED THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS!

Jesus Christ: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Matthew 5:17)

Jesus Christ: “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.” (Luke 16:17)

Leviticus 18 forbids various types of unlawful sexual relations calling them “unclean” - verse 22 explicitly calls homosexuality an abomination as does Leviticus 20:13).

Jesus Christ's affirmation that marriage is between a man and a woman: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh." (Matthew 19:3-6; Genesis 2:24)

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”  (Acts 17:29-31)

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)

THE BIBLE AND HOMOSEXUALITY

·You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:2)

·If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)

·For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)

·Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites..... (1 Corinthians 6:9)

·This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching. (1 Timothy 1:9-10)

THE DAYS OF LOT

The days of Lot were defined by sexual immorality and rampant homosexuality just prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus Christ warns us that the world will be just the same in the end times prior to his second coming. Now is the time for church leaders to warn about the coming judgement rather than compromising with the world to fit in with societal fluctuations.

Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building..... (Luke 1:28).

They (Sodom and her daughters) were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. (Ezekiel 16:50)

Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust (perversion), serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)

…… they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know (be intimate with) them." Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly." (Genesis 19:5-7)

HILL$ONG MEMBERS BEWARE!  The feel-good factor at HILL$ONG has nothing to do with Biblical Christianity!

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; (Revelation 18:4)

 Further Reading:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/09/gay-orthodox-judaism-rabbis
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67257147/Hillsong_Gay_Couple.pdf
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=34483
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=34541