One good way to spot a phony Christian is when some crucial moral or social issue comes up. When they declare their hand, that usually tells us all we need to know about a person’s supposed Christian credentials. For example, if you get some guy claiming to be a Christian yet fully supports something like baby killing, you can call his bluff real quick.
Another clear-cut acid test of Christian commitment has to do with the issue of homosexuality. If you get someone trying to tell you that homosexual marriage is just peachy and Jesus would be fully supportive of it, then you know you’ve got a religious fraud on your hands, and you should give him a very wide berth.
One so-called believer who has worried me greatly for years has in my eyes nailed his coffin completely by his recent support of sodomite marriage. Bono and U2 are going utterly brain-dead in supporting the Irish vote on homosexual marriage.
So if you think Bono is some sort of great Christian, you better think again. This comes from the U2 website:
On Friday Ireland votes in an historic referendum on legalising same-sex marriage. Here’s what the band say: #voteYes.
“Commitment, love and devotion are some of the most impossibly great human traits. Trying to co-opt the word marriage is like trying to make love or devotion gender- or religion-specific. And that has to stop. Marriage is human-specific: a human commitment, one that transcends religion, transcends politics. It should be encouraged wherever, whenever and between whomever that love, that devotion and that commitment exists. #voteYES”
This has got to be one of the most idiotic things I have read in a long time. We expect atheists and militant homosexual activists to come up with sheer baloney like this, but someone who calls himself a Christian? This man is a fool, in the biblical sense of the word.
Marriage transcends gender? Since when? When did God change his mind on this and say anyone of any gender can marry anyone else of any gender? That sure ain’t in my Bible. He might as well go on and say that marriage transcends number. If three or seven want to marry, why not?
Moreover, marriage transcends religion? But, every major religion in the world takes a dim view of homosexuality. And there are plenty of secular reasons to reject homosexual marriage as well. I have written three books on this already.
Even if you do not have a religious bone in your body, there are plenty of arguments to be made from the secular point of view against sodomy and sodomite marriage. But it is the final line that is utterly amazing: “It should be encouraged wherever, whenever and between whomever that love, that devotion and that commitment exists.”
Um, really? So a group of committed bank robbers should be allowed to marry? A group of devoted players on a football team should be allowed to marry? So a group of loving family members should be allowed to marry each other.
I can’t believe what an appallingly idiotic and stupid thing he has actually said here. Have U2 no brains at all? Is their moral status on par with a Frisbee? Is their biblical conviction reduced to whatever the editorial policy of the New York Times states?
This just makes me livid. This is everything the Bible warns about when it discusses false prophets and false teachers. We are to avoid such fakes like the plague, yet tragically millions of mindless and biblically illiterate followers of them will gobble up every stupid thing they say here.
And this is not just a one off. It seems they have penned an entire song on this, and are even dragging Jesus into this depravity. Consider what this article says.
U2 took to Instagram recently to show their support of gay marriage for Ireland’s vote to redefine their constitution. The band, who’s never been labeled as passive on social issues, used their lyrics for “Pride (In The Name of Love),” a song which describes Christ’s love, to encourage people to vote yes on the referendum.
According to CNN, the referendum would redefine marriage as “contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.” Though Bono has been outright about the role Jesus has in his life, he’s also said marriage is not religious. “Marriage is now an idea that transcends religion,” he says. “It is owned by the people. It is not a religious institution.”
Now in my books, this really takes the cake. Dragging in the holy Son of God to support this sham mockery of biblical marriage, and a lifestyle God has called an abomination, is the height of rebellion against God and a clear rejection of biblical truth.
These guys are complete frauds who are leading millions astray, and one day they will stand before their judge to give an account of their deceiving and immoral ways. We can and should pray for them of course that they see the light and repent – big time. But they deserve no support, no encouragement, and no endorsement.
They are false shepherds who are doing the enemy’s work, not God’s.
I liked U2 in the early 1980s and really hoped they were a force for good but they lost me soon after with their questionable lyrics. To endorse gay marriage and attempt to influence others is very unchristian and dangerous.
In some ways, Bill, he’s just falling in line with BHO and other Liberation (Marxist) Theology types who claim Jesus as their mentor. “Jesus supports our position.” What? Aren’t we meant to support, or rather, stand up for and defend His position…not look to Jesus for an endorsement of their own antichrist viewpoints?
Some say homosexuality is just another sin, like any other sin. Apparently, my macular degeneration is winning the vision battle, because I’m just not seeing that recorded anywhere in any version of the Bible. What I have seen is that it’s referred to as “an abomination.”
The really big issue here isn’t so much this abominable sin, as what’s behind it. Homosexuality is a symptom (or confirmation) of the root problem…which is total, all-out, open rebellion against God. Nimrod would not only be proud of these blasphemers, he would be downright jealous that he was unable to have demonstrated his hatred of God in such a profound, arrogant, and disgusting manner.
Thanks Bill.
In my view Bono always was a fraud. Some years ago it came out (but never received the publicity it should have) that only a very small proportion of donations to his charity actually reached the intended recipients. He was all hype, show, and performance – no real Christian substance. And correct me if I’m wrong, he was and is an advocate for the ’emerging church’.
Your report is a relief in one important sense: now we know.
The scary thing in all this is that because of fame people (the young and the foolish) will put more credibility on Bono’s words than on the words of the Irish Catholic Church.
Hopefully there are plenty of cowed no voters who will vote accordingly in the referendum. This is where polls can err greatly.
The spirituality of Bono is not that of Jesus Christ, it is that of easy grace,
where one keeps on sinning because Jesus Christ has given us a free pass into heaven, no matter how we behave.
His spirituality which is panthestic, pagan and polytheistic, was captured when the crowd, marking the massacre of the office staff of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, by Muslims, in January 2015, sang along with the drug fuelled and psychedelic Beatles song, “Imagine” [1].
It could equally have been Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club. Both records describe a world devoid of antithesis, of male and female, of good and evil, of victim and criminal. It is a fantasy world where Hitler and Palestinian terrorists rub shoulders with Jesus Christ and Mother Teresa:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
There is no mention of the fact that Lennon who was violent towards his wife, emotionally abused his child, worshipped Eastern Gods, lived in luxury, helped finance and publicise radical groups and extolled the use of violence, was a total hypocrite.
In spite of Bono’s professing ideals of tolerance, inclusion, non – discrimination and equality, he has a volcanic hatred and militant intolerance of the authority of the Bible, Christian values and morality, the family with a father and mother at its centre, the unborn child that poses a threat to the radical feminist’s demand for her right to self –determination over the rights of everyone else ( including her own family) and a hatred of a sovereign nation under the rule of Jesus Christ.
His religion is destructive and nihilistic and shakes the fist against all authority except that of the narcissist and the absolute human right of the homosexual and Muslim (Gaylam) to redefine reality for the rest of us.
In 2013 a rally, where over million people composed of parents, children and grandparents, including mayors of towns and villages, protested on the Street of Paris, over the fact that gay marriage will deny a child the human right to both a father and mother. The riot police attempted to silence their voice with batons and tear gas [2]. Where was Bono in all of this?
To be protesting for tolerance, inclusion and equality and yet to crush the voices of those protecting the sanctity of life and purity within marriage and family life demonstrate the most egregious hypocrisy, double standards, schizophrenia and cowardice. These allow no opposition; for this is new form of Marxism, the cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School , or as Peter Jones of TruthXchange calls it “Oneism” [3]
May I offer that the other litmus test is Israel and Palestine?
Bono wrote ‘that the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and elsewhere are taking note of the trouble an aroused citizenry can give to tyrants…… people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.”
I’m reminded of those events which must happen before Christ’s return.
1 Peter 4:17
17 For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God?
Judgement will happen with the church before the rest. Those in the church who are true believers in the entirety of God’s word (including His teaching on homosexuality) will be separated from those who syncretise His word with the pagan world.
Could the homosexual marriage issue be the cause where
He will in the church,(as in Matt 25:33)
” cause the sheep to stand at His right hand, but the goats at His left.”?
The Scriptures reserve some very harsh language for people such as these. ‘Abominations, damnation, anathema, brood of vipers, whitewashed tombstones…’ And people think that Jesus was soft, tender, and kind. They are in for a big shock.
2 Peter 2:1-3
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
David Clay, Darwin
It looks like the Yes vote has won the referendum in Ireland.
I feel very sad tonight for the West’s corruption. I understand how those ancient Romans who retired to their country estates to avoid the decadence of Rome must have felt as they witnessed it from a distance.
But Our Lord said the gates of hell will not prevail so we must have hope. Christianity may be dying among whites but it’s booming in Africa. I love reading how Africans are increasingly telling various UN agencies to go jump when they are told to provide abortion services and accept homosexuality.
“No way, José”, is increasingly the tenor of their confident responses.
The Bible speaks against homosexuality. Therefore, that ends the discussion for me. No intellectual gymnastics of men nor law passed by government will ever convince me otherwise.
Ireland just voted in favour of SSM. The country has now sold itself to the devil big-time.
Yes everywhere now we are seeing this new “Jesus” that smiles on everyone and promotes sin.
Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
So it is clear that these people who promote sin, are not the “elect” because they have succumbed to the deception.
Rev_12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
(The woman is Israel and the remnant of her seed are the faithful Christians who obey God. Judaism gave birth to Christianity)
So we are now seeing the commencement of laws which force you to promote sin and immorality based on the wrath and hatred of immoral people. These laws are in fact compelling people to sin.
The Deuteronomy 28 curses are extreme for those who reject God’s law but we are now seeing people who not only reject God’s law but also reject God’s hand of help to avoid suffering the consequences of that original rejection. So they have twice rejected God.
Rev_17:15 And he says to me, The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues,
So there are huge numbers of people who do not make it.
Joe 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
… and so we see clearly now how people have made their decisions. A clear sign of what is near because people’s decisions have to be made clear before things can be finalized. God has always given us the choice of life or death but …
Joh_3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
It always was going to be that people’s decisions would be shown clearly for what they are. There is no room for a grey area when you are talking about eternal damnation so the “shaking” had to occur to make these decisions manifest. Christian civilization delivered some great things and could have delivered much more if we had allowed it but people preferred to tear it all down to promote immorality both sexually and monetarily.
So now we basically need to see the internet failing, a new internet set up and then that’s about it for this stage.
Also:-
Mar_13:14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
.. refers to homosexual “marriage”. Homosexuality is clearly defined as an “abomination”, it obviously makes “desolate” or barren and unproductive and we are starting to see it “standing where it ought not” i.e. occurring in churches and synagogues etc. I am yet to be convinced that anything else even closely approaches the fit of this huge sin as a trigger for the final phase. With the likelihood of more extreme Muslim nations having atomic weapons this could be why the Jews need to “flee to the mountains.” It is also very interesting how Jesus gave this prophecy to Christians to then warn the Jews.
Dan 12:10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
So I suggest now is the time for the wise to purify themselves.
Of course marriage transcends all categories for these people. Its pure out and out nihilism.
And sadly it seems the Irish referendum is going in favour of SSM.
Marriage is now defined however we want. It does not even have to involve sex or romantic love. Peter Tatchell has written an article, The Insignificant Other., in which he seems to suggest that one could have at least three different types of marriages going on at the same time:
One could be married to one or several people who give you children, without sexual pleasure or romantic relationship.
One could also be married to one or several people who just gives you sex without having children or the need to be involved emotionally.
Finally one could have a third marriage to one or several people that was emotionally binding but without having sex or having children.
Peter Tatchell says,
‘One of the key flaws of marriage legislation (is that) they privilege love over often equally enduring close, loyal friendships.
While love relationships are unique, it is also true that some life-long friends share levels of devotion and commitment similar to those of many husbands and wives…
There are powerful arguments in favour of a broader, non-discriminatory, comprehensive, flexible system of partnership recognition and rights, covering gay and straight partners, and applying to all mutually caring relationships….
For these reasons, I have suggested a new legal framework – a Civil Commitment Pact. It would allow people to nominate as their next-of-kin and beneficiary any ‘significant other’ in their life. This could be a partner or lover, but it could also be a sister, carer, house-mate, favourite nephew or life-long best friend.
Many non-sexual friendships are just as sincere, loyal and enriching as relations between people in love. They, too, should have legal recognition.
There is no sound reason to restrict partnership rights to people in sexual relationships. That discriminates against friends who support each other, butwho are not in a traditional love coupling…. http://www.petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/partnerships/insignificantother.htm
In some twisted way, the drive to legitimize homosexual marriage is also an attempt to move the homosexual act out the clear biblical mandate against “fornication” into and under the cover of Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” If they are married, they are not fornicators. If they are faithful to each other, they are not adulterers.
Many commentators are saying the Irish Catholic Church lost much of it authority after the child abuse scandals some years back. Sad all around.
I have been reading reports on the SSM referendum in Ireland. I have not seen one mention or comment with regards to the rights of children- not one!!!. Every comment for the legalising of SSM have all been centred around “self’. Pro voters comments infer “I feel good about myself for standing up for marriage equality” therefore I am a “just” person, and “I now have what I want”. Narcissm at it’s best. Ireland has gone to hell in a handbasket.
The West is on a slow boil collapse under the weight of its increasing corruption. What was great in the West was enabled and institutionalised by Christianity – without it you have a society no better than the pagan civilisations of old. Many of those societies collapsed beneath the violent spirit of Islam – there’s not much reason to expect ours will do any better.
The good news is that the church is being refined. The controversy over issues like homosexuality are drawing the line in the sand and thanks be to God, we are now seeing who is afraid of God and who is afraid of men. The wolves are being rooted out and the leaders and people with influence like Bono, who once may have appeared genuine albeit misguided in their theology, become all the more clearly the ministers of a false gospel designed by satan to appeal to the flesh.
Christians were the first atheists, refusing to bow to the pantheon, and we are once again. So when the contemporary pagans bow down to the altars of homosexuality, abortion, environmentalism, multiculturalism, tolerance, Islam appeasement, and emperor worship, stand tall and don’t bend the knee – we are following in the footsteps of the apostles and the early church on our way towards the resurrection to eternal life. Let God’s light shine so that the desperate souls trapped in our depressing culture might see the way out and take it.
Peter Tatchell says,
‘One of the key flaws of marriage legislation (is that) they privilege love over often equally enduring close, loyal friendships.
Peter Tatchell is talking out of his hat. The definition of marriage – especially in Australia’s Marriage Act, doesn’t refer to emotions like love or friendship at all.
It does seem that that Catholic Church in Ireland has been particularly tainted by historical cases of sexual and physical abuse, but that is no reason to leave the Church and repudiate her doctrines. After all the Church has always been encumbered throughout the ages with some errant priests and bishops, the first of whom was Jesus’ own apostle, Judas. As St John Chrysostom said in the fourth century, “The road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests, with bishops as their signposts”
The world is coming to a state whereby true Christians will simply not want to live here. The pure filth that will be all around us will only get worse and there is so much still waiting in the closet to be exposed but only as the penalty for any kind or further deviation or atrocity disappears in the midst of abomination. God promises those that stand fast against this onslaught a new earth free of pain.sorrow and mourning. I shudder to think of the outpouring of remorse that shall well up out of the evil that these people have brought into this world.They will have no sympathy for they have been warned time and time again and their blood is on their hands. Consider the days before the flood when the evil thoughts of men prevailed. Noah built his vessel and (they have now found an ancient tablet confirming that). all men in their putrid ways scoffed at the prophesy of Gods coming cleansing. Similarly the unbelievers and the promoters of mans evil thoughts as normal in this current time still scoff at his coming cleansing as being a joke or a fairy tale. I believe that it is still to early for Jesus’s coming the harvest is not quite ripe. There are more people who will fail and more people who will be duped by the endless onslaught of the homosexual propaganda which has yet to reach greater heights of open debauchery. When Christianity is at its lowest and we are considered to be the last remaining enemies of the earth his time will come. We must hold fast to the love of our God, his promise and continue to stand for and in his name.
Bill, bloody disappointing, both as a massive U2 fan and as a dreamer that there was finally a rockstar that was a genuine Christian (Bono has made plenty of really good comments about Christ).
U2 are battling to remain relevant in the music industry. Their last two albums have been ordinary and they’ve gone from heroes to villains quickly. They’ve become the band people love to hate. I wonder whether this is a fan grab. I can only hope he doesn’t actually believe what he’s saying, and hoping to keep market share in the music industry. Either way, it’s not good! He either believes it (bad) or uses it for sales (worse).
Evidently, The Edge was shocked enough by Bono’s comments. He walked straight off the stage in Vancouver last week! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BW61GZnXIXU
Yes and none of these things happen overnight. It is often a slow but insidious mudslide that looks innocent at the outset but as it flows it gathers momentum and creates a wake of destruction in it’s path.
I have an invisible checklist in my head entitled, “Countries that have no future”. When certain countries do certain things, then they get a tick. Top of the list are when nations vote for abortion and homosexual marriage. These are also usually the most decadent countries with doomed demographics. Ireland, welcome to that list!
Yes John Angelico. How true.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wedding sermon for his niece puts it clearly :
….”Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more that something personal – it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you first gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
God makes your marriage indissoluble. ‘What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ (Matthew 19:6). God joins you together in marriage; it is His act, not yours. Do not confound your love for one another with God. God makes your marriage indissoluble, and protects it from every danger that may threaten it from within and without; He wills to be the guarantor of its indissolubility. It is a blessed thing to know that no power on earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds together; indeed, anyone who knows that may say confidently: What God has joined together, can no man put asunder. Free from all anxiety that is always a characteristic of love, you can now say to each other with complete and confident assurance: We can never lose each other now; by the will of God we belong to each other till death.”
David Skinner UK
As far as blaming the Catholic church I am surprised how few people have noticed that it was the homosexuals within the Catholic church that lead to it being discredited that has now lead to people ignoring the Catholic orthodoxy and to then promote more homosexuality and hence, the redefinition of marriage. This is very typical of how the Devil (the spirit of deception) works. He causes the problem, redirects the blame to moral people and then uses that failing to do more damage. Just as the naive people within the Catholic church thought they should stand by and support the homosexuals within their church and that then lead to the abuse of children so now the general public is doing exactly the same thing with the redefinition of marriage yet they are too moraly ignorant to see what they are doing. Stand back and see that what they are doing is almost exactly the same thing the Catholic church did in the first place. Expect to see this technique used more to discredit Christians because it is one of the few weapons the Devil has.
1Co_5:6 … Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Australian Peter Tatchell’s whinge about the flaw in marriage legislation privileging love over long standing friendships is nonsense on several levels. 1) As John Angelico said above, the Australian Marriage Act does not mention love or friendship. 2) His thesis “Beyond Equality” states how he wants more than faithful life partnership, advocating instead a superior love that has no boundaries, encouraging straights to become same sex attracted. 3) He seems to have devoted his life to marxist critical thought verging on nihilism – does he have a significant or insignificant other? He never looks happy or fulfilled, just endlessly trying to dumb down everything to equality. He might have a more abundant life if he did have some boundaries. If someone has more love in their life than him, why not be happy for them and hope that one day happiness will come to him. Happiness is a state of mind that can’t be bought.
How come that it is mostly catholic nations that have succumbed to communism and now this? Is the inherent weakness this exposes due to their reliance on the “church” interpreting scripture instead of doing it individually under the guidance of the Holy Spirit? How did the doctrine of celibacy for priests arise when Paul clearly says that forbidding to marry is a “doctrine of demons”. That dearly must come through the authority endorsed ignorance of individual Catholics and it is something that concerns me greatly. My catholic friends would disagree with me, but I would still like an answer to my questions.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
It is bitter sweet to hear the decision in Ireland. Bitter because we are seeing evil being called good and the rise of lawlessness as the Bible predicts.
It is sweet because the more man heaps up sin against God, the closer we are getting to the return of our Lord.
I think I need to go read the Word and pray. My heart is heavy. I need to make sure I am keeping right with God.
The pressure will now ramp up in Australia to accept gay marriage 🙁
@Jo
While at it, here are Tony Abbott’s contact details. Encourage him to hold the line, I read an article where he said he’s the ‘last’ in his household to accept marriage as man and woman (meaning the rest support the other side). https://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm
Good to see our tax dollars hard at work at the ABC keeping ‘the victory in Ireland’ along with other highly relevant topics including ‘transgender’ in the headline practically every day, despite their appeal and relevance to maybe two percent of the population.
You would think the Coalition might do something about the insane bias at the ABC but apparently they like a network dedicated to championing their ideological enemies.
Bill,
The world has tried this before. The Romans tried this and found that the fertility rate drops and when they found out this they reverted to man/woman relationships but it was too late and so the Romans died out. We dont learn from history. Ireland will find this out the hard way so that thier fertiliy rate drops so that Ireland will be no more.
In 1967, Roy Jenkins, the UK Home Secretary, bisexual adulterer and Marxist relaxed the bonds holding marriage together by introducing no fault divorce. He relaxed the laws censoring pornography, legalized abortion, repealed capital punishment and decriminalised homosexuality between consenting partners who were 21 years of age and over.
Guess what? All this was to create a more civilised society. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3586178/Roy-Jenkins-made-Britain-a-far-less-civilised-country.html
Shortly after homosexuality was legalised, in 1971, the Gay Liberation Manifesto was produced which said,
“The oppression of gay people starts in the most basic unit of society, the family…Formal religious education is still part of everyone’s schooling, and our whole legal structure is supposedly based on Christianity, whose archaic and irrational teachings support the family and marriage as the only permitted condition for sex…
Yet although this struggle will be hard, and our victories not easily won, we are not in fact being idealistic to aim at abolishing the family; …. the family unit …will not disappear….without a struggle…The GLF
Manifesto articulates a radical agenda for a… revolution in cultural values and social institutions. It critiques …. marriage, the nuclear family, monogamy… and rigid male and female gender roles… it outlines an alternative vision of how society and personal relationships could be, including living communally, gender subversive radical drag and non-possessive multi-partner open relationships…..
We do not deny that it is as possible for gay couples as for some straight couples to live happily and constructively together. We question however as an ideal, the finding and settling down eternally with one ‘right’ partner. This is the blue-print of the straight world which gay people have taken over. It is inevitably a parody…we believe that the suffocating small family unit is by no means the best atmosphere for bringing up children”. http://www.awakeman.co.uk/Sense/Books/GLF%20Manifesto%201971.pdf
The preface to this was written by the Marxist Elizabeth Wilson, the civil partner of Angela Mason Stonewall ECHR Fawcett people, one of the most powerful lesbians who still spreads her poison, quietly, in the corridors of power. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/nov/14/guardiansocietysupplement.equality
The preface was co -written by our dear old friend, Peter Tatchell, whose own writings, advocate paedophilia, pornography, prostitution, graphic sex education, sado-masochism, fornication and adultery.
Read your Tatchell folks. Read your Tatchell: http://www.petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/equality_not_enough/beyond_equality.htm.
Apparently Tatchell was offered a peerage. Just imagine him and the Muslim sodomite , Lord Waheed Alli, sermonising from the Mount of Parliament.
Blessed are….
the proud for theirs is the United Kingdom
those who celebrate gay pride for they will become even more hardened.
the arrogant: for they will be able be free to sodomise children even more.
those who hunger and thirst for depravity: for they will be engorged.
the merciless: for they will be give even more power to dominate.
the impure in heart: for they will see Satan
the divisive : for they will rule.
those who are persecuted for being gay: for they will be able claim even more rights than anyone else.
Just listen to this Islamic son of perdition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys3k52L9nJw
At the heart of the gay liberation movement there is a death wish and the desire to take as many people to hell. We need a counter resistance movement, now, before the out proud gays, bisexuals, lesbians, transsexual, polysexuals, self – sexuals and all the other 50 shades of sexual perverts destroy our nations and our children.
David Skinner UK
Dear Bill,
Thank you for the article. I am not well informed about Bono or U2 not being a fan of popular music. However, it doesn’t surprise me that Bono poses as a Christian but in actual fact isn’t one. He would have done that in a country like Ireland because he knew he would to gain a following of the young and gullible and have the full support of the Irish media.
What concerns me more is the result of the referendum in Ireland. There is a theory which has some merit that the Irish Church was tainted with the heresy of Jansenism condemned by Pope Innocent X in the 17th century.The Irish Church had to train its priest in France until emancipation in 1829.This heresy of moral rigorism, combined with the austere poverty which existed then, the years of Famine and the turbulent relations it had with its neighbour England and finally the Celtic Tiger which brought unprecedented prosperity to Ireland would all have helped to shape the Irish character and spiritually. In short the pendulum swung from one extreme to the other with the young and impressionable being the main victims. What Ireland needs now is another St John Paul 2 who was extremely gifted in dealing with the youth of his own country who had to live under the influence of godless communism.
some Christians love praising and exalting celebrities these days such as Bono and others but many of these celebrities don’t have strong and real convictions regarding the Scriptures and Christ’s teachings. If Christ is truly Lord of Bono, he would love the things Christ loves and hates the things Christ hates. Bono claimed to be a Christian but denied Christ’s teachings. Christ is just a footnote to Bono. If He is Lord, He must be Lord of all of our lives.
Christ designed and defined marriage for us – his church and He said, “Haven’t you read that in the beginning God created humanity male and female? Don’t you remember what the story of our creation tells us about marriage? “For this reason, a man will leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. What God has brought together, let no man separate” (Matt 19:4-6).
Marriage is the God-ordained, lifelong, covenantal union between man and wife, designed to provide men, women and children optimal stability and overall well-being. Marriage – real marriage is the foundation of any healthy society. To me, gay marriage is contradictory to the will of God for mankind. It is unnatural and demonic. It is an abomination. It is sinful because it is a mockery to Christ and his divine creation. It takes away the beauty and the joy of sexual union between a man and a woman. People who practice homosexuality will face God’s divine judgement like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
God wants people who practice homosexuality to repent and turn away from their sinful behaviours and wicked ways and turn to Christ before it is too late.
Old News. I have exposed Bono selling out working with the gay ceo of Apple Inc who is asking Obama to set up Federal Anti-Free-Speech Law to jail Pastors for being against gay marriage like the lesbian Mayor of Houston is doing over a year ago.
I will help anyone run pure Mac OS (not Hackintosh) without buying computer hardware from a company that is joined to at the hip or another place with the gay lobby too. See how it is really possible on this blog:
One of the earliest recorded set of laws known to humankind are what is termed the Noahide laws of which there are 7. These laws were given to Noah and his family immediately post-flood. According to Talmudic tradition, these laws formed the basis of universal morality. It was given to all humankind as descendants of Noah and his family, who were its ancestors.
“At the heart of this universal moral code is the acknowledgement that morality – indeed, civilization itself – must be predicated on the belief in God. Unless we recognize a Higher Power to whom we are responsible and who observes and knows our actions, we will not transcend the selfishness of our character and the subjectivity of our intellect. If man himself is the final arbiter of right and wrong, then “right”, for him or her, will be what they desire, regardless of its consequences to the other inhabitants of earth.” (Universal Morality- Chabad.org)
Fundamentally,the seven laws are as follows:
1.Do Not Deny God
2.Do Not Blaspheme God
3.Do Not Murder
4.Do Not Engage in Incestuous, Adulterous or Homosexual Relationships.
5.Do Not Steal
6.Do Not Eat of a Live Animal
7.Establish Courts/Legal System to Ensure Law Obedience
Law 4 can also be expanded to mean:-
“Respect the institution of marriage. Marriage is a most Divine act. The marriage of a man and a woman is a reflection of the oneness of God and His creation. Disloyalty in marriage is an assault on that oneness.”
To repeat- Marriage of a MAN and a WOMAN is a reflection of the oneness of God and His creation. This concept is further elucidated by Christ as the oneness of His Church and Himself in the union which is likened to the physical union of a husband and a bride at the consumption of their marriage.(the two becoming one flesh)
To consider the union of two men in the consumption of their “marriage” must be something which God would,no doubt, consider as the utmost blasphemy. Any wonder the act is referred to as an abomination.
But isn’t it interesting that the sign of this covenant between Noah and God was represented by a rainbow. What is the international symbol of the homosexual community? Co-incidence- I think not.
re the comment about the romans dying out due to the infertile practice of homosexuality. While they had options like surrogacy, adoption and plain abduction of children they did not have the ART options our society has today to mask its inherent infertility and attempt to thwart its adversaries arguments on that ground.
At the heart of the homosexual culture is a death wish, because it comes from Satan himself, but we must and are I am sure fervently pray for the release of the souls it tries to take down, even the ones Christ died for too. I listened to an interview with Joan Baez this morning and the true part of my old hippy heart bleeds when I hear her liken Obama to Martin Luther King. I so much pray she is a Romans 2:14 person after all and does this out of ignorance, though what ignorance Christ will allow for in His judgement when it is an American we are talking about, I don’t know, but that is His affair and He is better, kinder and more compassionate than us
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Bill it’s brothers like you who encourage me to do what the late Dr Walter martin said – Don’t worry about rocking the boat – Let’s sink the ship. This Bono ship has been floating about to long that Bono.
The only difference between Bono and is noting. The same rascal that lives in Bono lives in me, so please don’t pull out the Pharisee card all you critics. Be prepared Bill to be called a legalistic pharisee etc and etc from those who have zero discernment and have no idea how to defend the faith, only because they have no idea what the historical orthodox Christian faith is. It would help those who will begin to attack you Bill because of this piece you have written to start with actually reading the new testament with out a Rob Bell lens. In this new testament they will find truths. It sort of helps reading the bible you know ?
Regarding Ursula Bennett’s comments on the Catholic Church, this is not the proper forum for a sectarian debate, but I feel she must be answered at least briefly.
Thanks guys. Yes I do seek to keep out of sectarian debates on this site where possible, so let’s get back on topic thanks.
As a Believer I don’t agree with Bono on this issue but I don’t agree with your attacking and judgment of a person you don’t personally know. The same Bible you are throwing at a man, who for sure isn’t perfect, says get the stick out of your own eye first. Says if you don’t have love you have nothing. To love your neighbor as yourself. And most importantly, that if you have a issue with a brother y go to them personally and in private before you drag them through the mud publicly.
Jesus never said sin was OK but he never, and I mean NEVER public ally called out the specific sin of anyone. He loved them, hung out with them, ate with them and then said “go and sin no more”. I feel like it might be wise for us to remember that God is the judge and the ministry we were given by Jesus was the ministry of reconciliation, not of judgement. Just a thought. Also you can love a and, as I do with U2 and not worship its members. They might be famous but the bottom line is they are just people like us.
Hello Becky, the difference is that Bono has stated his views in public to a wide audience and he wields considerable influence as a celebrity so this is addressed publicly.
Thanks Becky
Sorry, but you happen to be wrong on everything you say here regrettably. The biblical principle is quite clear: public sin deserves public rebuke, while private sin gets private rebuke. I sure ain’t gonna hop on a plane to Ireland to speak biblical truth to Bono when he has very publicly told the whole world his anti-biblical position. His public pronouncements deserve a public response. But I speak more about this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/03/29/on-naming-names/
And of course Jesus publicly rebuked people. He did it all the time, as did the prophets, as did the disciples, and as are all biblical Christian to do. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/16/on-public-rebuke/
And how in the world is it unloving to correct a wayward brother with biblical truth? You have a very confused idea of what biblical love is. What would be totally unloving, and even hateful, would be for Christians to remain silent and allow false prophets like Bono to lead millions to hell with their pro-sodomy baloney. Sorry, I prefer actually loving people, not making excuses for their sin.
It is rather said that your understanding of basic Christianity seems more in line with the tenets of secular humanism than the clear teachings of the word of God.
Bill, how does speaking the truth, presenting the facts, providing well-documented proof of your claim, and finally, presenting the appropriate Scriptures that deal with the person and the topic, constitute an “attack?” That’s just the kind of manipulative hyperbole consistently used by non-Christians and Christianity-lite types to silence real Bible-believing Christians. “Shut up,” is still, “Shut up,” no matter how self-righteous a person may try to make their rhetoric sound. It’s annoying how stupid many people believe Christians to be.
I too consider the notion of “single-sex marriage” to be a joke and a fraud. But the people of Ireland voted “Yes” in a referendum that posed the question as a matter of “equality”. Fine. I respect the results of referendums because they are intrinsically *binding*, anything else being a mere opinion poll. So, if I were Irish I would have voted “No” in that referendum and then accepted the result with good grace but at the same time shrugging my shoulders and saying: “Sorry, you may think you have altered the definition of the word ‘marriage’ but to me you just delude yourself. To put it crudely: a sexual act between two males or between two females does not constitute a valid matrimonial relationship. There is no possibility of procreation, it is therefore sterile. It is *not* a real marriage. It’s just a rather cruel joke that you are playing on yourselves.”
Well said Bill, “let your ‘yes’ be yes & your”no” be no;as far as God,who instigated the marriage covenant “between a man & a woman”& Yahweh (Creator of that covenant),is concerned,it is outside man kinds jurisdiction. He IS the Potter,not the ‘clay’;the ”clay’ does not tell the Potter “how to create”.The “Potter” loves “His creation” enough to ‘nail every negative we could ever have to deal with on a cursed cross @ Calvary. He (Yahweh,Lord Jesus) “was cursed & rejected,so we could be loved (‘agape’= unconditional Love).”But,He was wounded for our transgressions (rebelliousness;sin nature),bruised for our iniquities (acts of sin;& judgement).The chastisement (price for our redemption) was upon Him,and by HIS stripes we are healed (‘shalom’=to be SAVED from EVERYTHING we would need to be redeemed from…)Jesus Christ who had NO sin (or sickness) BECAME “sin”(& sickness) for us,that “we might become the righteousness of God,through Him. He has given us “all He has & all He is” on”earth as it is in heaven” Such is His Love for us (John 3:16; 2 Cor 5:21) Amen ?
Never liked U2, could never warm to this Bono guy, there was always something shallow about him!
Another clear-cut acid test of Christian commitment has to do with the issue of homosexuality. If you get someone trying to tell you that homosexual marriage is just peachy and Jesus would be fully supportive of it, then you know you’ve got a religious fraud on your hands, and you should give him a very wide berth.
I liked U2 in the early 1980s and really hoped they were a force for good but they lost me soon after with their questionable lyrics. To endorse gay marriage and attempt to influence others is very unchristian and dangerous.
“… there is very little, if any, evidence in U2’s lives, music, or performances that they honor the Word of God.” from this article – http://www.wayoflife.org/database/rockgroupu2.html
In some ways, Bill, he’s just falling in line with BHO and other Liberation (Marxist) Theology types who claim Jesus as their mentor. “Jesus supports our position.” What? Aren’t we meant to support, or rather, stand up for and defend His position…not look to Jesus for an endorsement of their own antichrist viewpoints?
Some say homosexuality is just another sin, like any other sin. Apparently, my macular degeneration is winning the vision battle, because I’m just not seeing that recorded anywhere in any version of the Bible. What I have seen is that it’s referred to as “an abomination.”
The really big issue here isn’t so much this abominable sin, as what’s behind it. Homosexuality is a symptom (or confirmation) of the root problem…which is total, all-out, open rebellion against God. Nimrod would not only be proud of these blasphemers, he would be downright jealous that he was unable to have demonstrated his hatred of God in such a profound, arrogant, and disgusting manner.
Thanks Bill.
In my view Bono always was a fraud. Some years ago it came out (but never received the publicity it should have) that only a very small proportion of donations to his charity actually reached the intended recipients. He was all hype, show, and performance – no real Christian substance. And correct me if I’m wrong, he was and is an advocate for the ’emerging church’.
Your report is a relief in one important sense: now we know.
The scary thing in all this is that because of fame people (the young and the foolish) will put more credibility on Bono’s words than on the words of the Irish Catholic Church.
Hopefully there are plenty of cowed no voters who will vote accordingly in the referendum. This is where polls can err greatly.
The spirituality of Bono is not that of Jesus Christ, it is that of easy grace,
where one keeps on sinning because Jesus Christ has given us a free pass into heaven, no matter how we behave.
His spirituality which is panthestic, pagan and polytheistic, was captured when the crowd, marking the massacre of the office staff of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, by Muslims, in January 2015, sang along with the drug fuelled and psychedelic Beatles song, “Imagine” [1].
It could equally have been Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club. Both records describe a world devoid of antithesis, of male and female, of good and evil, of victim and criminal. It is a fantasy world where Hitler and Palestinian terrorists rub shoulders with Jesus Christ and Mother Teresa:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
There is no mention of the fact that Lennon who was violent towards his wife, emotionally abused his child, worshipped Eastern Gods, lived in luxury, helped finance and publicise radical groups and extolled the use of violence, was a total hypocrite.
In spite of Bono’s professing ideals of tolerance, inclusion, non – discrimination and equality, he has a volcanic hatred and militant intolerance of the authority of the Bible, Christian values and morality, the family with a father and mother at its centre, the unborn child that poses a threat to the radical feminist’s demand for her right to self –determination over the rights of everyone else ( including her own family) and a hatred of a sovereign nation under the rule of Jesus Christ.
His religion is destructive and nihilistic and shakes the fist against all authority except that of the narcissist and the absolute human right of the homosexual and Muslim (Gaylam) to redefine reality for the rest of us.
In 2013 a rally, where over million people composed of parents, children and grandparents, including mayors of towns and villages, protested on the Street of Paris, over the fact that gay marriage will deny a child the human right to both a father and mother. The riot police attempted to silence their voice with batons and tear gas [2]. Where was Bono in all of this?
To be protesting for tolerance, inclusion and equality and yet to crush the voices of those protecting the sanctity of life and purity within marriage and family life demonstrate the most egregious hypocrisy, double standards, schizophrenia and cowardice. These allow no opposition; for this is new form of Marxism, the cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School , or as Peter Jones of TruthXchange calls it “Oneism” [3]
[1] Imagine
http://www.bdcwire.com/charlie-hebdo-john-lennon-imagine/
[2] Le Manif Pour Tous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CZmSyOsLwg&feature=youtu.be
[3] TruthXchange and Bono
https://truthxchange.com/articles/2012/01/27/io-86-your-spiritual-but-not-religious-neighbor/
David Skinner UK
The life of the Christian is one of discipleship- of discipline. Whereas Bono’s view of the Christian walk is this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Qhbdijv5Y
David Skinner UK
May I offer that the other litmus test is Israel and Palestine?
Bono wrote ‘that the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and elsewhere are taking note of the trouble an aroused citizenry can give to tyrants…… people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.”
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/bono-slammed-for-u2s-decision-to-play-in-israel-83791292-237683791.html
David Skinner
I’m reminded of those events which must happen before Christ’s return.
1 Peter 4:17
17 For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God?
Judgement will happen with the church before the rest. Those in the church who are true believers in the entirety of God’s word (including His teaching on homosexuality) will be separated from those who syncretise His word with the pagan world.
Could the homosexual marriage issue be the cause where
He will in the church,(as in Matt 25:33)
” cause the sheep to stand at His right hand, but the goats at His left.”?
The Scriptures reserve some very harsh language for people such as these. ‘Abominations, damnation, anathema, brood of vipers, whitewashed tombstones…’ And people think that Jesus was soft, tender, and kind. They are in for a big shock.
2 Peter 2:1-3
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
David Clay, Darwin
It looks like the Yes vote has won the referendum in Ireland.
I feel very sad tonight for the West’s corruption. I understand how those ancient Romans who retired to their country estates to avoid the decadence of Rome must have felt as they witnessed it from a distance.
But Our Lord said the gates of hell will not prevail so we must have hope. Christianity may be dying among whites but it’s booming in Africa. I love reading how Africans are increasingly telling various UN agencies to go jump when they are told to provide abortion services and accept homosexuality.
“No way, José”, is increasingly the tenor of their confident responses.
The Bible speaks against homosexuality. Therefore, that ends the discussion for me. No intellectual gymnastics of men nor law passed by government will ever convince me otherwise.
Ireland just voted in favour of SSM. The country has now sold itself to the devil big-time.
Yes everywhere now we are seeing this new “Jesus” that smiles on everyone and promotes sin.
Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
So it is clear that these people who promote sin, are not the “elect” because they have succumbed to the deception.
Rev_12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
(The woman is Israel and the remnant of her seed are the faithful Christians who obey God. Judaism gave birth to Christianity)
So we are now seeing the commencement of laws which force you to promote sin and immorality based on the wrath and hatred of immoral people. These laws are in fact compelling people to sin.
The Deuteronomy 28 curses are extreme for those who reject God’s law but we are now seeing people who not only reject God’s law but also reject God’s hand of help to avoid suffering the consequences of that original rejection. So they have twice rejected God.
Rev_17:15 And he says to me, The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues,
So there are huge numbers of people who do not make it.
Joe 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
… and so we see clearly now how people have made their decisions. A clear sign of what is near because people’s decisions have to be made clear before things can be finalized. God has always given us the choice of life or death but …
Joh_3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
It always was going to be that people’s decisions would be shown clearly for what they are. There is no room for a grey area when you are talking about eternal damnation so the “shaking” had to occur to make these decisions manifest. Christian civilization delivered some great things and could have delivered much more if we had allowed it but people preferred to tear it all down to promote immorality both sexually and monetarily.
So now we basically need to see the internet failing, a new internet set up and then that’s about it for this stage.
Also:-
Mar_13:14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
.. refers to homosexual “marriage”. Homosexuality is clearly defined as an “abomination”, it obviously makes “desolate” or barren and unproductive and we are starting to see it “standing where it ought not” i.e. occurring in churches and synagogues etc. I am yet to be convinced that anything else even closely approaches the fit of this huge sin as a trigger for the final phase. With the likelihood of more extreme Muslim nations having atomic weapons this could be why the Jews need to “flee to the mountains.” It is also very interesting how Jesus gave this prophecy to Christians to then warn the Jews.
Dan 12:10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
So I suggest now is the time for the wise to purify themselves.
Of course marriage transcends all categories for these people. Its pure out and out nihilism.
And sadly it seems the Irish referendum is going in favour of SSM.
Marriage is now defined however we want. It does not even have to involve sex or romantic love. Peter Tatchell has written an article, The Insignificant Other., in which he seems to suggest that one could have at least three different types of marriages going on at the same time:
One could be married to one or several people who give you children, without sexual pleasure or romantic relationship.
One could also be married to one or several people who just gives you sex without having children or the need to be involved emotionally.
Finally one could have a third marriage to one or several people that was emotionally binding but without having sex or having children.
Peter Tatchell says,
‘One of the key flaws of marriage legislation (is that) they privilege love over often equally enduring close, loyal friendships.
While love relationships are unique, it is also true that some life-long friends share levels of devotion and commitment similar to those of many husbands and wives…
There are powerful arguments in favour of a broader, non-discriminatory, comprehensive, flexible system of partnership recognition and rights, covering gay and straight partners, and applying to all mutually caring relationships….
For these reasons, I have suggested a new legal framework – a Civil Commitment Pact. It would allow people to nominate as their next-of-kin and beneficiary any ‘significant other’ in their life. This could be a partner or lover, but it could also be a sister, carer, house-mate, favourite nephew or life-long best friend.
Many non-sexual friendships are just as sincere, loyal and enriching as relations between people in love. They, too, should have legal recognition.
There is no sound reason to restrict partnership rights to people in sexual relationships. That discriminates against friends who support each other, butwho are not in a traditional love coupling….
http://www.petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/partnerships/insignificantother.htm
In case one wonders what this looks like, allow Catherine Hall to tell us.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/07/family4
David Skinner UK
In some twisted way, the drive to legitimize homosexual marriage is also an attempt to move the homosexual act out the clear biblical mandate against “fornication” into and under the cover of Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” If they are married, they are not fornicators. If they are faithful to each other, they are not adulterers.
Many commentators are saying the Irish Catholic Church lost much of it authority after the child abuse scandals some years back. Sad all around.
I have been reading reports on the SSM referendum in Ireland. I have not seen one mention or comment with regards to the rights of children- not one!!!. Every comment for the legalising of SSM have all been centred around “self’. Pro voters comments infer “I feel good about myself for standing up for marriage equality” therefore I am a “just” person, and “I now have what I want”. Narcissm at it’s best. Ireland has gone to hell in a handbasket.
The West is on a slow boil collapse under the weight of its increasing corruption. What was great in the West was enabled and institutionalised by Christianity – without it you have a society no better than the pagan civilisations of old. Many of those societies collapsed beneath the violent spirit of Islam – there’s not much reason to expect ours will do any better.
The good news is that the church is being refined. The controversy over issues like homosexuality are drawing the line in the sand and thanks be to God, we are now seeing who is afraid of God and who is afraid of men. The wolves are being rooted out and the leaders and people with influence like Bono, who once may have appeared genuine albeit misguided in their theology, become all the more clearly the ministers of a false gospel designed by satan to appeal to the flesh.
Christians were the first atheists, refusing to bow to the pantheon, and we are once again. So when the contemporary pagans bow down to the altars of homosexuality, abortion, environmentalism, multiculturalism, tolerance, Islam appeasement, and emperor worship, stand tall and don’t bend the knee – we are following in the footsteps of the apostles and the early church on our way towards the resurrection to eternal life. Let God’s light shine so that the desperate souls trapped in our depressing culture might see the way out and take it.
Peter Tatchell is talking out of his hat. The definition of marriage – especially in Australia’s Marriage Act, doesn’t refer to emotions like love or friendship at all.
It does seem that that Catholic Church in Ireland has been particularly tainted by historical cases of sexual and physical abuse, but that is no reason to leave the Church and repudiate her doctrines. After all the Church has always been encumbered throughout the ages with some errant priests and bishops, the first of whom was Jesus’ own apostle, Judas. As St John Chrysostom said in the fourth century, “The road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests, with bishops as their signposts”
The world is coming to a state whereby true Christians will simply not want to live here. The pure filth that will be all around us will only get worse and there is so much still waiting in the closet to be exposed but only as the penalty for any kind or further deviation or atrocity disappears in the midst of abomination. God promises those that stand fast against this onslaught a new earth free of pain.sorrow and mourning. I shudder to think of the outpouring of remorse that shall well up out of the evil that these people have brought into this world.They will have no sympathy for they have been warned time and time again and their blood is on their hands. Consider the days before the flood when the evil thoughts of men prevailed. Noah built his vessel and (they have now found an ancient tablet confirming that). all men in their putrid ways scoffed at the prophesy of Gods coming cleansing. Similarly the unbelievers and the promoters of mans evil thoughts as normal in this current time still scoff at his coming cleansing as being a joke or a fairy tale. I believe that it is still to early for Jesus’s coming the harvest is not quite ripe. There are more people who will fail and more people who will be duped by the endless onslaught of the homosexual propaganda which has yet to reach greater heights of open debauchery. When Christianity is at its lowest and we are considered to be the last remaining enemies of the earth his time will come. We must hold fast to the love of our God, his promise and continue to stand for and in his name.
Bill, bloody disappointing, both as a massive U2 fan and as a dreamer that there was finally a rockstar that was a genuine Christian (Bono has made plenty of really good comments about Christ).
U2 are battling to remain relevant in the music industry. Their last two albums have been ordinary and they’ve gone from heroes to villains quickly. They’ve become the band people love to hate. I wonder whether this is a fan grab. I can only hope he doesn’t actually believe what he’s saying, and hoping to keep market share in the music industry. Either way, it’s not good! He either believes it (bad) or uses it for sales (worse).
Evidently, The Edge was shocked enough by Bono’s comments. He walked straight off the stage in Vancouver last week!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BW61GZnXIXU
Yes and none of these things happen overnight. It is often a slow but insidious mudslide that looks innocent at the outset but as it flows it gathers momentum and creates a wake of destruction in it’s path.
I have an invisible checklist in my head entitled, “Countries that have no future”. When certain countries do certain things, then they get a tick. Top of the list are when nations vote for abortion and homosexual marriage. These are also usually the most decadent countries with doomed demographics. Ireland, welcome to that list!
Yes John Angelico. How true.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wedding sermon for his niece puts it clearly :
….”Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more that something personal – it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you first gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
God makes your marriage indissoluble. ‘What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ (Matthew 19:6). God joins you together in marriage; it is His act, not yours. Do not confound your love for one another with God. God makes your marriage indissoluble, and protects it from every danger that may threaten it from within and without; He wills to be the guarantor of its indissolubility. It is a blessed thing to know that no power on earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds together; indeed, anyone who knows that may say confidently: What God has joined together, can no man put asunder. Free from all anxiety that is always a characteristic of love, you can now say to each other with complete and confident assurance: We can never lose each other now; by the will of God we belong to each other till death.”
David Skinner UK
As far as blaming the Catholic church I am surprised how few people have noticed that it was the homosexuals within the Catholic church that lead to it being discredited that has now lead to people ignoring the Catholic orthodoxy and to then promote more homosexuality and hence, the redefinition of marriage. This is very typical of how the Devil (the spirit of deception) works. He causes the problem, redirects the blame to moral people and then uses that failing to do more damage. Just as the naive people within the Catholic church thought they should stand by and support the homosexuals within their church and that then lead to the abuse of children so now the general public is doing exactly the same thing with the redefinition of marriage yet they are too moraly ignorant to see what they are doing. Stand back and see that what they are doing is almost exactly the same thing the Catholic church did in the first place. Expect to see this technique used more to discredit Christians because it is one of the few weapons the Devil has.
1Co_5:6 … Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Australian Peter Tatchell’s whinge about the flaw in marriage legislation privileging love over long standing friendships is nonsense on several levels. 1) As John Angelico said above, the Australian Marriage Act does not mention love or friendship. 2) His thesis “Beyond Equality” states how he wants more than faithful life partnership, advocating instead a superior love that has no boundaries, encouraging straights to become same sex attracted. 3) He seems to have devoted his life to marxist critical thought verging on nihilism – does he have a significant or insignificant other? He never looks happy or fulfilled, just endlessly trying to dumb down everything to equality. He might have a more abundant life if he did have some boundaries. If someone has more love in their life than him, why not be happy for them and hope that one day happiness will come to him. Happiness is a state of mind that can’t be bought.
How come that it is mostly catholic nations that have succumbed to communism and now this? Is the inherent weakness this exposes due to their reliance on the “church” interpreting scripture instead of doing it individually under the guidance of the Holy Spirit? How did the doctrine of celibacy for priests arise when Paul clearly says that forbidding to marry is a “doctrine of demons”. That dearly must come through the authority endorsed ignorance of individual Catholics and it is something that concerns me greatly. My catholic friends would disagree with me, but I would still like an answer to my questions.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
It is bitter sweet to hear the decision in Ireland. Bitter because we are seeing evil being called good and the rise of lawlessness as the Bible predicts.
It is sweet because the more man heaps up sin against God, the closer we are getting to the return of our Lord.
I think I need to go read the Word and pray. My heart is heavy. I need to make sure I am keeping right with God.
The pressure will now ramp up in Australia to accept gay marriage 🙁
Speaking of Australia, here’s something to do:
http://preservingmarriage.acl.org.au/
@Jo
While at it, here are Tony Abbott’s contact details. Encourage him to hold the line, I read an article where he said he’s the ‘last’ in his household to accept marriage as man and woman (meaning the rest support the other side).
https://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm
Good to see our tax dollars hard at work at the ABC keeping ‘the victory in Ireland’ along with other highly relevant topics including ‘transgender’ in the headline practically every day, despite their appeal and relevance to maybe two percent of the population.
You would think the Coalition might do something about the insane bias at the ABC but apparently they like a network dedicated to championing their ideological enemies.
Bill,
The world has tried this before. The Romans tried this and found that the fertility rate drops and when they found out this they reverted to man/woman relationships but it was too late and so the Romans died out. We dont learn from history. Ireland will find this out the hard way so that thier fertiliy rate drops so that Ireland will be no more.
In 1967, Roy Jenkins, the UK Home Secretary, bisexual adulterer and Marxist relaxed the bonds holding marriage together by introducing no fault divorce. He relaxed the laws censoring pornography, legalized abortion, repealed capital punishment and decriminalised homosexuality between consenting partners who were 21 years of age and over.
Guess what? All this was to create a more civilised society. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3586178/Roy-Jenkins-made-Britain-a-far-less-civilised-country.html
Shortly after homosexuality was legalised, in 1971, the Gay Liberation Manifesto was produced which said,
“The oppression of gay people starts in the most basic unit of society, the family…Formal religious education is still part of everyone’s schooling, and our whole legal structure is supposedly based on Christianity, whose archaic and irrational teachings support the family and marriage as the only permitted condition for sex…
Yet although this struggle will be hard, and our victories not easily won, we are not in fact being idealistic to aim at abolishing the family; …. the family unit …will not disappear….without a struggle…The GLF
Manifesto articulates a radical agenda for a… revolution in cultural values and social institutions. It critiques …. marriage, the nuclear family, monogamy… and rigid male and female gender roles… it outlines an alternative vision of how society and personal relationships could be, including living communally, gender subversive radical drag and non-possessive multi-partner open relationships…..
We do not deny that it is as possible for gay couples as for some straight couples to live happily and constructively together. We question however as an ideal, the finding and settling down eternally with one ‘right’ partner. This is the blue-print of the straight world which gay people have taken over. It is inevitably a parody…we believe that the suffocating small family unit is by no means the best atmosphere for bringing up children”.
http://www.awakeman.co.uk/Sense/Books/GLF%20Manifesto%201971.pdf
The preface to this was written by the Marxist Elizabeth Wilson, the civil partner of Angela Mason Stonewall ECHR Fawcett people, one of the most powerful lesbians who still spreads her poison, quietly, in the corridors of power.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/nov/14/guardiansocietysupplement.equality
The preface was co -written by our dear old friend, Peter Tatchell, whose own writings, advocate paedophilia, pornography, prostitution, graphic sex education, sado-masochism, fornication and adultery.
Read your Tatchell folks. Read your Tatchell: http://www.petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/equality_not_enough/beyond_equality.htm.
Apparently Tatchell was offered a peerage. Just imagine him and the Muslim sodomite , Lord Waheed Alli, sermonising from the Mount of Parliament.
Blessed are….
the proud for theirs is the United Kingdom
those who celebrate gay pride for they will become even more hardened.
the arrogant: for they will be able be free to sodomise children even more.
those who hunger and thirst for depravity: for they will be engorged.
the merciless: for they will be give even more power to dominate.
the impure in heart: for they will see Satan
the divisive : for they will rule.
those who are persecuted for being gay: for they will be able claim even more rights than anyone else.
Just listen to this Islamic son of perdition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys3k52L9nJw
At the heart of the gay liberation movement there is a death wish and the desire to take as many people to hell. We need a counter resistance movement, now, before the out proud gays, bisexuals, lesbians, transsexual, polysexuals, self – sexuals and all the other 50 shades of sexual perverts destroy our nations and our children.
David Skinner UK
Dear Bill,
Thank you for the article. I am not well informed about Bono or U2 not being a fan of popular music. However, it doesn’t surprise me that Bono poses as a Christian but in actual fact isn’t one. He would have done that in a country like Ireland because he knew he would to gain a following of the young and gullible and have the full support of the Irish media.
What concerns me more is the result of the referendum in Ireland. There is a theory which has some merit that the Irish Church was tainted with the heresy of Jansenism condemned by Pope Innocent X in the 17th century.The Irish Church had to train its priest in France until emancipation in 1829.This heresy of moral rigorism, combined with the austere poverty which existed then, the years of Famine and the turbulent relations it had with its neighbour England and finally the Celtic Tiger which brought unprecedented prosperity to Ireland would all have helped to shape the Irish character and spiritually. In short the pendulum swung from one extreme to the other with the young and impressionable being the main victims. What Ireland needs now is another St John Paul 2 who was extremely gifted in dealing with the youth of his own country who had to live under the influence of godless communism.
some Christians love praising and exalting celebrities these days such as Bono and others but many of these celebrities don’t have strong and real convictions regarding the Scriptures and Christ’s teachings. If Christ is truly Lord of Bono, he would love the things Christ loves and hates the things Christ hates. Bono claimed to be a Christian but denied Christ’s teachings. Christ is just a footnote to Bono. If He is Lord, He must be Lord of all of our lives.
Christ designed and defined marriage for us – his church and He said, “Haven’t you read that in the beginning God created humanity male and female? Don’t you remember what the story of our creation tells us about marriage? “For this reason, a man will leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. What God has brought together, let no man separate” (Matt 19:4-6).
Marriage is the God-ordained, lifelong, covenantal union between man and wife, designed to provide men, women and children optimal stability and overall well-being. Marriage – real marriage is the foundation of any healthy society. To me, gay marriage is contradictory to the will of God for mankind. It is unnatural and demonic. It is an abomination. It is sinful because it is a mockery to Christ and his divine creation. It takes away the beauty and the joy of sexual union between a man and a woman. People who practice homosexuality will face God’s divine judgement like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
God wants people who practice homosexuality to repent and turn away from their sinful behaviours and wicked ways and turn to Christ before it is too late.
Old News. I have exposed Bono selling out working with the gay ceo of Apple Inc who is asking Obama to set up Federal Anti-Free-Speech Law to jail Pastors for being against gay marriage like the lesbian Mayor of Houston is doing over a year ago.
I will help anyone run pure Mac OS (not Hackintosh) without buying computer hardware from a company that is joined to at the hip or another place with the gay lobby too. See how it is really possible on this blog:
https://victimsofgaybullying.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/apple-inc-unviels-fag-os-x/
One of the earliest recorded set of laws known to humankind are what is termed the Noahide laws of which there are 7. These laws were given to Noah and his family immediately post-flood. According to Talmudic tradition, these laws formed the basis of universal morality. It was given to all humankind as descendants of Noah and his family, who were its ancestors.
“At the heart of this universal moral code is the acknowledgement that morality – indeed, civilization itself – must be predicated on the belief in God. Unless we recognize a Higher Power to whom we are responsible and who observes and knows our actions, we will not transcend the selfishness of our character and the subjectivity of our intellect. If man himself is the final arbiter of right and wrong, then “right”, for him or her, will be what they desire, regardless of its consequences to the other inhabitants of earth.” (Universal Morality- Chabad.org)
Fundamentally,the seven laws are as follows:
1.Do Not Deny God
2.Do Not Blaspheme God
3.Do Not Murder
4.Do Not Engage in Incestuous, Adulterous or Homosexual Relationships.
5.Do Not Steal
6.Do Not Eat of a Live Animal
7.Establish Courts/Legal System to Ensure Law Obedience
Law 4 can also be expanded to mean:-
“Respect the institution of marriage. Marriage is a most Divine act. The marriage of a man and a woman is a reflection of the oneness of God and His creation. Disloyalty in marriage is an assault on that oneness.”
To repeat- Marriage of a MAN and a WOMAN is a reflection of the oneness of God and His creation. This concept is further elucidated by Christ as the oneness of His Church and Himself in the union which is likened to the physical union of a husband and a bride at the consumption of their marriage.(the two becoming one flesh)
To consider the union of two men in the consumption of their “marriage” must be something which God would,no doubt, consider as the utmost blasphemy. Any wonder the act is referred to as an abomination.
But isn’t it interesting that the sign of this covenant between Noah and God was represented by a rainbow. What is the international symbol of the homosexual community? Co-incidence- I think not.
re the comment about the romans dying out due to the infertile practice of homosexuality. While they had options like surrogacy, adoption and plain abduction of children they did not have the ART options our society has today to mask its inherent infertility and attempt to thwart its adversaries arguments on that ground.
At the heart of the homosexual culture is a death wish, because it comes from Satan himself, but we must and are I am sure fervently pray for the release of the souls it tries to take down, even the ones Christ died for too. I listened to an interview with Joan Baez this morning and the true part of my old hippy heart bleeds when I hear her liken Obama to Martin Luther King. I so much pray she is a Romans 2:14 person after all and does this out of ignorance, though what ignorance Christ will allow for in His judgement when it is an American we are talking about, I don’t know, but that is His affair and He is better, kinder and more compassionate than us
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Bill it’s brothers like you who encourage me to do what the late Dr Walter martin said – Don’t worry about rocking the boat – Let’s sink the ship. This Bono ship has been floating about to long that Bono.
The only difference between Bono and is noting. The same rascal that lives in Bono lives in me, so please don’t pull out the Pharisee card all you critics. Be prepared Bill to be called a legalistic pharisee etc and etc from those who have zero discernment and have no idea how to defend the faith, only because they have no idea what the historical orthodox Christian faith is. It would help those who will begin to attack you Bill because of this piece you have written to start with actually reading the new testament with out a Rob Bell lens. In this new testament they will find truths. It sort of helps reading the bible you know ?
Regarding Ursula Bennett’s comments on the Catholic Church, this is not the proper forum for a sectarian debate, but I feel she must be answered at least briefly.
1. Are most Communist nations really Catholic? The Soviet Union was Russian Orthodox, and China was Buddhist/Confucian/Daoist. As for countries like Poland, surely it is because of their geographic location that they became Communist.
2. Regarding self-interpretation of scripture see:
http://www.catholic.com/blog/tim-staples/the-protestant-achilles-heel
3. Regarding the celibate priesthood see:
http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/why-a-celibate-priesthood
Thanks guys. Yes I do seek to keep out of sectarian debates on this site where possible, so let’s get back on topic thanks.
As a Believer I don’t agree with Bono on this issue but I don’t agree with your attacking and judgment of a person you don’t personally know. The same Bible you are throwing at a man, who for sure isn’t perfect, says get the stick out of your own eye first. Says if you don’t have love you have nothing. To love your neighbor as yourself. And most importantly, that if you have a issue with a brother y go to them personally and in private before you drag them through the mud publicly.
Jesus never said sin was OK but he never, and I mean NEVER public ally called out the specific sin of anyone. He loved them, hung out with them, ate with them and then said “go and sin no more”. I feel like it might be wise for us to remember that God is the judge and the ministry we were given by Jesus was the ministry of reconciliation, not of judgement. Just a thought. Also you can love a and, as I do with U2 and not worship its members. They might be famous but the bottom line is they are just people like us.
Hello Becky, the difference is that Bono has stated his views in public to a wide audience and he wields considerable influence as a celebrity so this is addressed publicly.
Thanks Becky
Sorry, but you happen to be wrong on everything you say here regrettably. The biblical principle is quite clear: public sin deserves public rebuke, while private sin gets private rebuke. I sure ain’t gonna hop on a plane to Ireland to speak biblical truth to Bono when he has very publicly told the whole world his anti-biblical position. His public pronouncements deserve a public response. But I speak more about this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/03/29/on-naming-names/
And of course Jesus publicly rebuked people. He did it all the time, as did the prophets, as did the disciples, and as are all biblical Christian to do. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/16/on-public-rebuke/
And how in the world is it unloving to correct a wayward brother with biblical truth? You have a very confused idea of what biblical love is. What would be totally unloving, and even hateful, would be for Christians to remain silent and allow false prophets like Bono to lead millions to hell with their pro-sodomy baloney. Sorry, I prefer actually loving people, not making excuses for their sin.
And you are way off on judgment as well. Of course we are to judge. Jesus commanded us to judge, as did the disciples. See here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2008/10/08/thou-shalt-judge/
It is rather said that your understanding of basic Christianity seems more in line with the tenets of secular humanism than the clear teachings of the word of God.
Bill, how does speaking the truth, presenting the facts, providing well-documented proof of your claim, and finally, presenting the appropriate Scriptures that deal with the person and the topic, constitute an “attack?” That’s just the kind of manipulative hyperbole consistently used by non-Christians and Christianity-lite types to silence real Bible-believing Christians. “Shut up,” is still, “Shut up,” no matter how self-righteous a person may try to make their rhetoric sound. It’s annoying how stupid many people believe Christians to be.
I too consider the notion of “single-sex marriage” to be a joke and a fraud. But the people of Ireland voted “Yes” in a referendum that posed the question as a matter of “equality”. Fine. I respect the results of referendums because they are intrinsically *binding*, anything else being a mere opinion poll. So, if I were Irish I would have voted “No” in that referendum and then accepted the result with good grace but at the same time shrugging my shoulders and saying: “Sorry, you may think you have altered the definition of the word ‘marriage’ but to me you just delude yourself. To put it crudely: a sexual act between two males or between two females does not constitute a valid matrimonial relationship. There is no possibility of procreation, it is therefore sterile. It is *not* a real marriage. It’s just a rather cruel joke that you are playing on yourselves.”
Well said Bill, “let your ‘yes’ be yes & your”no” be no;as far as God,who instigated the marriage covenant “between a man & a woman”& Yahweh (Creator of that covenant),is concerned,it is outside man kinds jurisdiction. He IS the Potter,not the ‘clay’;the ”clay’ does not tell the Potter “how to create”.The “Potter” loves “His creation” enough to ‘nail every negative we could ever have to deal with on a cursed cross @ Calvary. He (Yahweh,Lord Jesus) “was cursed & rejected,so we could be loved (‘agape’= unconditional Love).”But,He was wounded for our transgressions (rebelliousness;sin nature),bruised for our iniquities (acts of sin;& judgement).The chastisement (price for our redemption) was upon Him,and by HIS stripes we are healed (‘shalom’=to be SAVED from EVERYTHING we would need to be redeemed from…)Jesus Christ who had NO sin (or sickness) BECAME “sin”(& sickness) for us,that “we might become the righteousness of God,through Him. He has given us “all He has & all He is” on”earth as it is in heaven” Such is His Love for us (John 3:16; 2 Cor 5:21) Amen ?
Never liked U2, could never warm to this Bono guy, there was always something shallow about him!