In a 2014 interview with Christianity Today, Carl Lentz, who was then co-pastor of Hillsong New York City with his wife Laura, said, “I am still waiting for someone to show me the quote where Jesus addressed it [homosexuality] on the record in front of people” (“Hillsong New York Pastor Carl Lentz,” Christian Today, June 6, 2014). Perhaps we can help him out with his query. What Jesus did say in regard to homosexuality was three things.
First, Jesus exalted the law of Moses as God’s holy law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19). The law of Moses that Jesus exalted as God’s holy law says, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
Second, Jesus limited marriage to one man and one woman as in the beginning of creation (Matthew 19:3-9). This completely destroys the biblical legitimacy of “same-sex marriage.”
Third, Jesus said that His Spirit would lead the apostles into all truth (John 16:13). The canon of Spirit-taught truth is the New Testament Scriptures, where we find the strongest statement against homosexuality in the entire Bible (Romans 1:24-28). To separate the authority of the Gospels from the authority of the apostolic Epistles is rank heresy, for we are told that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Obviously, Jesus left no room for homosexual Christianity and “same sex marriage,” and His teaching on this was very public. The Hillsong churches are so “culturally relevant” that they are traitors to the truth of God’s Word, yet their music is influencing large numbers of Baptists and biblical fundamentalists. When asked by a reporter why Hillsong is so successful, Brian Houston of Hillsong Sydney replied, “We are scratching people where they are itching” (“The Lord’s Profits,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 30, 2003). That is right out of 2 Timothy 4:3, which is a warning of apostasy. It describes people who itch for a new kind of Christianity, and heaps of preachers who will scratch this illicit itch. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” That describes Hillsong to a “T.”
(Friday Church News Notes, February 10, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)
