"Everything is blurred on what's right and what's wrong… Sin becomes fine," he said. Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."He then went on to paraphrase 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11His views on homosexuality offended many in support of and in the gay community and of course they boycotted A&E. Due to this, A&E suspended the Duck Commander, indefinitely, saying Phil's views did not match up with theirs.
But before we get all worked up, lets look at Phil's reference to scripture. As listed above, in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, it points out homosexuality is a sin, plain and simple. Does God love these people? OF COURSE! They're His children and the sin of homosexuality does not separate a person and God. But, what does separate a person from God is a person's failure to accept His son, Jesus Christ, as the lord of their life. The problem is, if homosexuality has been chosen to become a lifestyle and is no longer a mere tempation for a person, odds are, they aren't following Christ. This I also get from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 when it mentions "...the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God," directly after this it mentions that "homosexual offenders," among others, will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Let's be ADD for a second, shall we? Let's say it's 12am one night and you're on this diet that says you can't eat anything after 8pm. You suddenly feel this urge to get up and go get a midnight snack and you remember theres a piece of chocolate cake sitting on the counter. Instead of putting it out of your head and going to sleep like you should have two hours ago, you let yourself think about it. You think how satisfied that piece of chocolate cake would make you and how great it'll taste. You'll start to make excuses like "It's just one slice; I can still lose weight only if I eat one." You walk to the kitchen and you see it. You know its wrong and you've been doing so good on your diet but you deserve a treat right? You get your single slice of chocolate cake and devour it in about 2 seconds. Maybe another. You eat your second slice of cake and then you blink. You look up and the cake is gone! You've eaten the whole cake. Ugh, it just tasted soooo good! A couple days later you step on the scales and you've not gotten anywhere, you haven't gained but you surely haven't lost. All that hard work and a little splurge. This is ridiculous! You decide, if you haven't lost then you'll just give up. You keep eating chocolate cake and other awesome, but really unhealthy foods and then you wake up and your fifty pounds heavier and way less attractive.
Sin is the same way and I believe that is what Phil Robertson meant in his first statement. Sin grows and becomes worse. By thinking about sin and obsessing over it, like you did with the chocolate cake, we, with the deceiver in our ears, decide to just try it once. That one time turns out to be satisfying and theres not too much of a consequence, so why not a second time? That second time turns into multiple times until it gets out of hand. And when it gets out of hand, no matter what, there is always a consequence, no matter what sin you're dabbling in. This can be traced back to the first sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. Though God told them not to eat of the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve let the serpent's words deceive them and did not remember God's command. Their consequence: banishment from the Garden of Eden, and even worse, a life separated from their Father. To atone for this, God gave up His only son, so that we might live.
If we believe that God is a merciful and loving God, enough that he sent his Son to die a horrible death for our sake, how do we not also believe what Phil Robertson referenced in 1 Corinthians? After all, we get both ideas from the same book. That's like saying Harry Potter doesn't have a scar on his forehead. But it was in the book… and the movie. We can no longer pick and choose what we think is right from God's Word. Either we believe it or we don't. Either a person is a Christ follower or they're not. We as christians have to stop walking on eggshells every time we are asked what we believe. I admire Phil Robertson for standing up for what the bible says and stomping on those stupid, politically correct eggshells. And if you don't believe God's word, Phil Robertson's statements, and also this article of writing, should not bother you, because, after all, isn't it just a stupid religion? Everyone is free to practice their own beliefs and their right to free speech, that is merely what Robertson was doing. If we are to call ourselves Christians, we are subject to God's point of view and Phil Robertson stood up for God's point of view. Which, I would be scared to do. Especially if I had millions to risk, like the Robertson clan, yet they preach the gospel anyway.
Since we follow God's point of view, like Phil, we believe the sin of homosexuality is wrong. But, we also believe that we are supposed to love every person no matter what is going on or has gone on in their life.
"The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." - Mark 12:31To add to this, we are certainly not to judge a persons sin because in God's eyes, if we have committed a sin, it is just as bad as homosexuality.
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." - James 2:10My sin was what kept Jesus on that cross. He was tortured because I fall short every day. My short comings are that of bestiality and murder. There is no possible way for me to ever be good enough for God. But thankfully, I have a Savior, and instead of seeing my mistakes, God sees Jesus in me. Thank God for that and thank God for people like Phil Robertson that fire us up and bring us together as a Christ following body.
