Tackling Tradition 63: False Gospels & Itching Ears

2 Timothy 4:3 

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

Alie Beth Stuckey (& many others) seem terribly tone deaf these days.

In the linked YouTube short, Alie targets progressive clergy & prosperity preachers & calls them purveyors of false gospels. 

It’s as if she is completely tone deaf to the fact that she believes that the human image (its anatomy, physiology, &/or psychology) properly warrants human sexual ethics ——> which the polar opposite of what Romans 1:18 - 32 teaches and is at the root of multiple destructive theological errors that lead to societal collapse. 


What does the Bible actually teach about homosexuality?  


According to its own grammar & syntax, this is what it has to say: 


Leviticus 18:


Shema/Prologue (Lev. 18:1 - 5)


General & Specific Prohibitions (Lev.18: 6 -23) 


Document Clause, Witnesses, & Victory (Lev. 18: 24 - 30), which refers to statutes & rules & charges the people as witnesses & proclaims victory over the nations (& Israel should they behave like the nations)


Romans interprets Lev. 18 & vice versa.


Romans 1:18 - 32:


Paul is following the outline of Leviticus 18, following the form of a Hebraic lawsuit.


Shema and Decalogue (1:18 - 21) God’s Image testifies to His attributes & Law.


God created people. His temple bears His Image & runs according to His Law & Gospel.


Historical Prologue (1:22 - 23)


They suppressed God’s image & authority substituting their own, & made idols that looked & behaved like themselves.


Stipulations/Prohibitions (1:24 - 28)  In Canaan & Rome, people did heterosexual & homosexual sex for their gods.  At times they deployed animals too.  (Lev. 18: 6 - 23).  


Document Clause, Covenant Sanctions/Renewal & Witnesses, Victory (1: 29 - 32)


Kitchen sink immorality will lead to Rome’s burning, just as it did to Sodom, Egypt, Israel, Babylon, &tc.


The text is about how we are supposed to think/reason.  God’s created order testifies to His image & authority.   God indicts us for suppressing His image & authority & supplanting it with our own & other created images & reasoning accordingly.  When someone teaches that human anatomy, physiology, &/or psychology is a proper warrant for sexual ethics, they are teaching the opposite of what the Bible teaches.  


This has multiple applications. 


Natural = Male Dominance/Hegemony 

Unnatural = Egalitarianism 

= Misogyny 


Natural = White/Caucasian

Unnatural = Anything else 

= Racism


Natural = Heteronormative

Unnatural = Homosexual 

= Homophobia 


Natural = Conservative 

Unnatural = Liberal 

= Political Idolatry 


Natural = Liberal

Unnatural = Conservative 

= Political Idolatry 


Natural = Non-Jewish

Unnatural = Jewish 

= Anti-Semitism


In other words, ant interpretation of “natural” & “unnatural” Romans 1:18 - 32 

as a functional callback to any image drawn from the created order, the human image, included is forbidden by the text. 


Romans 1:20 is clear that the purpose of the created order is to testify to God’s INVISIBLE attributes not to our VISIBLE attributes.  The surrounding text indicts humanity for looking to the created order’s VISIBLE attributes to do faith & practice, so reading “natural” & “unnatural” as referents to sex/gender, sexual characteristics, race, political affiliation, age, ability &/or disability, ethnicity, &tc are all incorrect, insofar as these are all VISIBLE attributes drawn from the created order —- not INVISIBLE attributes of God, & according to the text, unless God decides to deeply intervene, that sort of thinking has the potential to so invade & permeate just about every area of life & has led to the downfall of multiple civilizations since (almost) to the dawn of time itself. 

She’s essentially accusing them of drawing those with itching ears to themselves & poisoning the world with false & destructive heresies when she is among those who are doing the same thing.   What Romans 1:18 - 32 teaches is of paramount importance in this age of identity politics in particular.  When we use the human image (or any created image) as the basis for Faith, Philosophy, & Ethics, we create &/or otherwise perpetuate the very conditions that have the potential to destroy us all unless the LORD gets more directly involved.   American society is a hot mess right now, & so is the world in general.  This is at the root of why! 

O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)! 

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