a fairly solid list of passages showing that homosexuality is not supported in the Bible<\/a>.<\/p>\nAnswer:<\/h2>\n
Let’s take your own standard and apply it to your own letter. Your letter is hateful and judgmental, but you say it is wrong to write such things. You do manage not to quote from the Bible, but that means you have only expressed an opinion without foundation. You have not proved that my writings are hateful or judgmental because an assertion is not evidence. You don’t back up your points with anything more authoritative than your own thoughts. Why would someone accept your opinions as being better than their own? Opinions are merely a person’s thought and usually don’t carry weight.<\/p>\n
I always find it odd that a person who apparently isn’t a Christian takes it upon himself to tell a Christian preacher how to do his job. You want love taught but don’t realize how love is taught. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome<\/em>” (I John 5:1-3).<\/p>\nIn condemning me for quoting the Bible extensively, you end up condemning Jesus who quoted the Old Testament often. For example,<\/p>\n
“Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’<\/em>” (Matthew 15:7-9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nYou also condemn the apostles who quoted both the Old Testament and the Lord in their teachings (cf. Acts 20:35; I Corinthians 9:8-9).<\/p>\n
My suspicion is that you are upset to see that your favored belief is not supported by the Scriptures. Having it well-documented means you can’t continue pretending that you have God on your side. But instead of humbly accepting the fact that you need to change, you attack the messenger of the message. “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?<\/em>” (Galatians 4:16).<\/p>\n“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD<\/em>” (Joshua 24:15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Your web site is filled with messages of hate and judgment. Your ministry should focus on love and spreading the joys of Christian living rather than taking excerpts from the translated Bible as a rule book for life. Spread love, not hate! Note: I find it interesting that I received both a letter in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[127,713,451],"class_list":["post-29042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site","tag-judging-others","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39552,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-aint-doing-nothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":29042,"position":0},"title":"The Church Ain’t Doing Nothing","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Elliott How often have we heard that statement from a brother in Christ? And it is to be admitted that we often fail in fulfilling the many obligations that God has given us. But there are some pertinent observations that need to be made relative to this broad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57918,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-letter-and-the-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":29042,"position":1},"title":"The Letter and the Spirit","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edward O. Bragwell, Sr. via\u00a0Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 3, pp. 67-68, February 2, 1989 Earl Irvin West, in Volume 2 of his\u00a0The Search For The Ancient Order\u00a0(p. 250), introduces a chapter called \"Prophets of Liberalism,\" with an astute observation about what he calls \"seeds of liberalism\": \"Whether in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28432,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-threat-of-militant-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":29042,"position":2},"title":"The Threat of Militant Islam","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andrew Roberts Biblical Insights, July 2007 Islam has been hijacked! We have heard that catchphrase often since 9\/11. From politicians to reporters to daytime talk show hosts, we have heard that a quiet, peace-loving, Middle Eastern religion has been kidnapped and corrupted by radicals who hate freedom. This idea\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59644,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-black-type-in-the-red-letter-edition-of-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":29042,"position":3},"title":"The Black Type in the Red-Letter Edition of the New Testament","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Garry Smalley Of course, it is extremely disturbing to read or hear destructive criticisms toward the Holy Bible as unbelievers state disparaging comments regarding the reliability of the God-breathed writings (II Timothy 3:16; cf. 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See any commonalities?\" I've read my Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, so I have a handle on Stoicism, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Miyamoto-Musashi-225x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27912,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-young-soul-winner\/","url_meta":{"origin":29042,"position":5},"title":"A Young Soul Winner","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant \"Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit\" (Matthew 28:19) Nancy Harber was only 14 (well, almost 15), and at this young age had already experienced one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}