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The ultimate slaveholder is sin

Dear Editor,

The recent article regarding a local church celebrating and advocating for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions prompts me to submit the following:

First, any church that claims to follow Jesus Christ should believe the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 19:4,5 “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

Second, I agree that all churches should be welcoming to all. However, the church must not forget its great commission recorded in Matthew 28:19,20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Third, the fact that this matter was brought to a vote at their annual meeting and overwhelmingly approved brought to mind the account in 1 Kings 18:18-39 of Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal. Rather than taking a vote, the issue was settled by seeing who would answer by fire. In the New Testament, fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3). Churches should be guided by the Holy Spirit in any decisions they make (Acts 15:28).

Finally, with the celebrations of Juneteenth and the Fourth of July, we must remember that the ultimate slaveholder is sin. We must not seek to be comforted in our sin, but seek to be delivered from it. As Jesus said in John 8:34-36, “…whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Hollister McNeal

Warren

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