There was a man snowboarding recently who triggered an avalanche that took his own life. We live in a generation in full rebellion against God that has created a moral and spiritual avalanche that is sweeping many to the destruction of themselves, destruction for eternity in the judgment of God, and bringing destruction to our culture.

We have noted in the Democratic Presidential Debates the two issues that have most united and impassioned the candidates. One is the right of a mother to terminate the life of her unborn child. The other is the absolute embrace of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) agenda. The growing acceptance – if not total embrace – of this sexual agenda goes far beyond the stance of political candidates. The cable Hallmark Channel showed an ad that featured two lesbians being married who embraced in a passionate kiss. When objections were raised, the ad was pulled. When even more objections were raised, the ad was reinstated. Chick-fil-A, which describes itself as a company with Christian values, stopped contributing to Christian organizations as these organizations stood for Christian sexual values and marriage reserved for a man and a woman. The actions of Chick-fil-A not only had significant financial impact to the ministries, but it also pushed them under the cultural avalanche that LGBTQ has created. Chick-fil-A like so many others is caught and is being swept along by the avalanche of the LGBTQ movement.

A Mother Goose nursery rhyme describes the challenge of standing up for the teaching of the Bible in our day. It goes like this:

“There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a crooked little house.”

In the nursery rhyme crooked is normal, and of course anything that is straight would seem strange. In the avalanche of the LGBTQ agenda the use of the word queer is used for the direct purpose of making queer seem normal and straight abnormal. Its goal is to create a queer world.

In the Bible’s teaching on sexuality, it is clear what LGBTQ spells; it spells the open defiance of God’s plan and purpose for mankind and our sexuality. The Bible clearly states in Romans 1 that when the LGBTQ agenda is accepted as right the society is absolutely morally upside down and living in open defiance of God and His right to rule (Romans 1:32). What makes the LGBTQ agenda so defiant is that it directly rejects God’s purpose for our sexuality and the SEXUAL use of our bodies. A LGBTQ lifestyle is not normal. This is never the nature of a person. Romans 1:26 states that it is relations that are “contrary to nature.” The Bible calls the sexual acts shameless leading to God’s judgment.

Desires that are contrary to God’s purpose do not surprise us. We know that as mankind we are sinners, dead spiritually and living under the lies and power of sin and Satan. We know that we are all sinners falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We know that our sexuality is a gift of God to the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. Sex is a powerful and important gift to marriage. Its purpose is to procreate us, but beyond that sex is a gift to marriage to both bring pleasure and to express and maintain intimacy. Our sexual desires once aroused are strong, which is why the Bible calls us to flee sexual desires and to put strong hedges of protection around them. It is sin and Satan that pervert those desires natural to a man and woman in marriage and distorts them in ways that makes sex an idol which must be served.

Since sin is rooted in the lies and pursuits of temporary pleasure, we should expect those lies and desires to pervert our sexuality. That the lies come even in our identity as male or female is an expected way that sin works. The Bible says we are tempted by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. All of those lusts and pride are at work in sexual rebellion. As the avalanche of LGBTQ grows it will capture more and more in the deceptions of sexual identity. We know there is not confusion in our DNA, we are either male or female. There is no fluidity or choice in identity. It is who we are. The absurdity of this was shown in an athletic competition in Wyoming this year as a transgender male running as a female was named “Woman Athlete of the Week.” Males and females are genetically different. Our sexual identity is part of our identity from conception. To pretend it is not is to create a crisis that will destroy us. To do this will damage far more than athletic competition.

What makes the sexual agenda of the LGBTQ proponents so serious is that sexual sin is unlike other sins in that sexual sin is against our very soul. When two or more are engaged in a sexual act it is not just physical. There is a spiritual joining together. The Bible’s teaching from 1 Corinthians 6:16-19 states, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” Sexual acts bring a person to a joining of spirits. Sexual immorality is devastating to our souls. Sexual immorality has no life in it, as spiritual life is from God. It is one reason the suicide rate among those in the LBGTQ activity is higher than for others. The suicide rate among transgenders is astronomically high. In the end sex is just sex, it cannot bring life.

One of the Presidential candidates, Pete Buttigieg, is in a same sex marriage with another man, yet he calls himself a practicing Christian. This is just another form of the deception and self lies that are part of the LGBTQ world. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says no one who continues in a homosexually active life, or other forms of sexual immorality, will be part of the kingdom of God. Jesus addressed this issue when He said in Matthew 15:19 that sexual immorality comes from our darkened hearts and that it spiritually defiles a person. All sexual engagements outside marriage, including homosexuality, are included in the meaning of that word. 1 John 1:6 says, “If we say we have fellowship with him (Jesus) while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” I was recently walking in a city that is unfamiliar to me and I sincerely thought I was going in the right direction to the hotel, but in fact I was on the right road going the opposite direction –- every step took me further away. There is a blindness and self deception in the LGBTQ world that is leading many into an empty darkness and certain judgment.

Yet in the midst of all this, the Bible has an amazing promise and invitation. As to all sinners, Jesus stands with loving arms open calling people to repent, be forgiven, and find freedom in a new spiritual life. Of all the lies of the LGBTQ world, none is more powerful than the lie that says if I have sexual desires, that is who I am — that is the real me. Yet the Bible says the desires are contrary to our nature (Romans 1:26). It is not the real you. Sinful desires are lying to you. Our desires promise us pleasure if we satisfy them, yet they lie to us in ways that make us the slaves of the desires and passion of the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. The pleasure of sin is temporary, illusive, and leads to deeper slavery to it. But Jesus stands with open arms and calls us to freedom, true freedom. Jesus offers us a new heart and the invitation to live in the new realm of the resurrection life and power of Jesus.

Jesus says the one who sins becomes a slave to sin. He said in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” Jesus also says those who sin are children of the Devil doing his will. He said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” But Jesus says He is truth, and in pursuing Him as truth He promises true freedom. Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus has come to save sinners and to lead them in a life of true freedom and joy. Jesus has come to break the power of sin over us and lead us to a holy, righteous life.

In this new life that Jesus gives for those who daily walk with Him there are still temptations to sin. As we walk with Jesus, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life still tempt us and demand that their desires be satisfied. As one soft drink advertisement line said, “Obey your thirst.” Our appetites demand obedience. Thus Christians should not be surprised that sexual temptations still seek to mislead us. For some persons who come out of the LGBTQ world, Jesus will forever take away those desires. But for some they will be an everyday temptation. That is the weakness of the so-called conversion therapy. Not all will have their desires change. Each in Christ will have freedom, but for some it will be saying no to sexual desires and choosing to live a celibate life. In my own life there are still daily temptations that I have to turn from as I follow Jesus.

In the battle against temptations and desires the Bible has a great promise. It says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” God through His Son the Lord Jesus and by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit will enable us to overcome the temptation. As Christians we know the temptation to sin is not itself sin. Sin still lives in us and in the world, and it still wants to control and destroy us. But in Jesus I always have enough to say no to sin and walk in Jesus’ paths of righteousness.

The church of Jesus is full of people who used to live in all the ways sin can lead us. Just as it says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that those who live lives of sexual immorality, or who practice homosexuality, will not inherit the kingdom of God, it also says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” As Christians we face this issue with compassion, love, and hope.

As followers of Jesus we don’t condemn those in a LGBTQ lifestyle we love them and pray for the chance to share the Good News of Jesus and salvation. But they are being lied to about sexual issues, and we can’t love them and not expose the lie, share the truth, and call them to Jesus and true freedom. It is like loving someone in a different form of addiction. I can love and accept them as persons, but how can I truly love them and not call them to the freedom from the addiction. I can love someone who is an alcoholic but I would as lovingly as I can call them to Jesus, forgiveness, and power over the choice of alcohol.

We cannot let the cultural avalanche of the LGBTQ rebellion silence us. We are the loving truth tellers because in the truth of Jesus is true life and freedom. We can’t just be silent and watch as the LGBTQ avalanche sweeps others away to judgment. We cannot be silent. We must try.