In yesterdy’s edition of Israel Today online a headline read; “Should Israel’s Pro-Gay Agenda Offend Evangelicals?” The article said; “Israel prides itself (pun intended) on its pro-gay attitudes in an attempt to show the world that the Jewish State is an open, democratic and accommodating society. We have regular gay marches, promote Jewish gay celebs and our most populous and productive city, Tel Aviv, has become a Mecca for the LGTB movement. But will this strategy to demonstrate what may seem like “goodwill to mankind” spark a backlash from our most ardent supporters –Evangelical Christians?
In April of this year, just a week before Passover, Israel’s consul general in Miami, Lior Hayat, together with other Israeli diplomats, took an active part in Miami’s Pride Parade. Marching with the LGTB crowds, the Israeli officials proudly held gay rainbow flags emblazoned with the Star of David. The Israeli delegation was so enthusiastic over their support of the gay agenda that on their official Face book page of the Consulate General of Israel in Miami they posted selfies with the gay marchers. The entire event was used as an opportunity for the consulate to attract as many homosexual tourists as possible into Israel’s open arms (no pun intended). Another post to the consulate’s Face book page read: “They say it takes a village… And ours is a colourful diverse welcoming and proud family! Thanks to all our friends for making extra special.
But this time, overt Israeli support for the gay agenda proved too much for local Evangelical Pastor Alberto Delgado, who leads the large Alpha and Omega Church in Miami, Florida. According to the Israeli press, the church postponed participation in a pro-Israel event after the Israeli diplomats attended the gay parade. Israel’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that the pastor had indeed come to such a decision amid his concern that “Israeli participation in the pride parade will hurt the support for Israel within his community.” It seems that Pastor Delgado, who represents one of the largest and growing pro-Israel Hispanic Evangelical communities in the US, has spoken with a prophet’s unction.
How long will Israel be able to insist on promoting a pro-gay agenda before our Evangelical supporters cry foul and jump ship? How many Evangelicals will stay on board supporting Israel as long as the Jewish nation continues to actively promote the homosexual agenda? How many more pastors will follow Pastor Delgado and use their substantial influence to help Israel see that we have been deceived thinking that a pro-gay agenda will help Israel find acceptance among the nations? The truth is that we have let ourselves be tricked and are being lead into a vile trap.”
What does God think about this? Well The LORD declared to the Sothern Kingdom of Judah through the prophet Ezekiel what He thought about this kind of sin…
“Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed.” (Ezekiel 16:46-51)
God was speaking to the Southern Kingdom of Judah after He had judged the Northern Kingdom Samaria for embracing the life style and culture of Sodom. In fact God says that what Judah were doing was much worse than what their sister Sodom (Samaria) was doing. The Hebrew word translated “abomination” or “detestable” refers to something that is morally disgusting and is exactly the same word used in Leviticus 18:22 that refer to homosexuality as an abomination. Similarly, Jude 7 declares, “…Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.” So, again, while homosexuality was not the only sin in which the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah indulged, it does appear to be the primary reason for the destruction of the cities.
Those who attempt to explain away the biblical condemnations of homosexuality claim that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was inhospitality. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were certainly being inhospitable but look at Sodom where we are told that young and old men from every part of the city wanted to have sex with the angels they thought were men. This was militant and violent homosexuality which we see today. Prophetically Sodom typifies the world in the last days. There is probably nothing more inhospitable than homosexual gang rape. But to say God completely destroyed two cities and all their inhabitants for being inhospitable clearly misses the point. While Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of many other horrendous sins, homosexuality was the reason God poured fiery sulphur on the cities, completely destroying them and all of their inhabitants. To this day, the area where Sodom and Gomorrah were located remains a desolate wasteland. Sodom and Gomorrah serve as a powerful example of how God feels about sin in general, and homosexuality specifically. It also foreshadows the judgement on a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world at the end of this present age.
Romans 1:26-27 tells it like it is. “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonoured among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error (perversion).And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” (Romans 1:24-28)
God is going to judge all and every sin. He is no respecter of persons in this matter. Whether they are Jew or Gentile they will all be judged if they do not repent and come by faith to the Messiah for salvation. Paul also writes; “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honour and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” (Romans 2:9-11)
God is going to purge Israel of her sins and the troubles confronting Israel today is the curse of the law (Deuteronomy 28) because they are violating Torah. (Leviticus 20:13) They should know better. While there are religious Jews as well as Messianic believers seeking to cry out against the sodomy in the streets of Tel Aviv it seems the nation and the politicians by and large approve of this practice. While we are to love Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem we cannot overlook this abomination as being an affront to God and the kind of unnatural sin that the angels in Genesis chapter 6 committed with human women and consequently were chained in darkness to await the day of judgement.
These fallen angels went after “strange flesh” not what God had ordained as normal sexual relations between men and women. This sort of thing will happen again in the last days as it did in the days of Noah and Lot. (Matthew 24:37-39) (Luke 17:28-29) Jude writes; “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” (Jude 1:6-7)
God is going to restore Israel spiritually but first He must purge out the leaven of the spirit of Sodomy and iniquity that has gripped the nation all the way up to the political level. This is why they are afflicted by their enemies. Satan is orchestrating it but God is permitting it.
As the prophet Malachi writes…“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.” (Malachi 3:2-4)
As the prophet Zechariah writes; “On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 14:20-21)
