The Plausibility Problem

Download or read book Same-Sex Attraction and the Church written by Ed Shaw and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2015-11-09 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Christians have same-sex attraction, how should the church respond? Pastor Ed Shaw experiences same-sex attraction, and yet he is committed to Scripture and the church's traditional position on sexuality. In this honest book, he shares his own experiences and shows us that obedience to Jesus is ultimately the only way to experience life to the full.

Download or read book Purposeful Sexuality written by Ed Shaw and published by Inter-Varsity Press. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If God means for us to save sex for marriage, why doesn't he just zap us with sexuality on our wedding night? Why do most of us experience sexual feelings throughout our adult lives, not just in the safe confines of marriage? Is limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman anything but outdated prejudice? What is our sexuality actually for? Today's culture overwhelmingly tells us that sex is essential for human flourishing. Far too often the church perpetuates the same message - as long as you are married. But far from being liberating, this idolising of sex leaves us even more sexually broken than before. With refreshing honesty and clarity, Ed Shaw calls on the church to rediscover its confidence in the Bible's teaching about our ability to experience or express sexual feelings. He points us to how God's word reveals that sexuality's ultimate purpose is to help us better know God and the full power of his passionate love. He shows us how this is surprisingly good news for all our joys and struggles with sexuality.

Download or read book A Change of Affection written by Becket Cook and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The powerful, dramatic story of how a successful Hollywood set designer whose identity was deeply rooted in his homosexuality came to be suddenly and utterly transformed by the power of the gospel. When Becket Cook moved from Dallas to Los Angeles after college, he discovered a socially progressive, liberal town that embraced not only his creative side but also his homosexuality. He devoted his time to growing his career as a successful set designer and to finding "the one" man who would fill his heart. As a gay man in the entertainment industry, Cook centered his life around celebrity-filled Hollywood parties and traveled to society hot-spots around the world--until a chance encounter with a pastor at an LA coffee shop one morning changed everything. In A Change of Affection, Becket Cook shares his testimony as someone who was transformed by the power of the gospel. Cook's dramatic conversion to Christianity and subsequent seminary training inform his views on homosexuality--personally, biblically, theologically, and culturally--and in his new book he educates Christians on how to better understand this complex and controversial issue while revealing how to lovingly engage with those who disagree. A Change of Affection is a timely and indispensable resource for anyone who desires to understand more fully one of the most common and difficult stumbling blocks to faithfully following Christ today.

Download or read book Permanent, Faithful, Stable written by Jeffrey John and published by Darton Longman and Todd. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I am writing this because I believe we have an absolute duty in the Church to offer homosexual couples not only practical support, but the same theological understanding of their relationship that we offer to heterosexual couples, to help them fulfil the same hope, the same ideal – of permanent, faithful, stable love.’Drawing on many years’ personal and pastoral experience, Jeffrey John explores the meaning and context of the mentions of homosexuality in the Bible and also considers the moral arguments, before offering guidance to same-sex couples on forming a lasting, covenanted, monogamous relationship.Earlier editions of this book have become essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the theology of same-sex relationships in a Christian context. It has been cited by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, as one of the most helpful books on the subject. This new edition has been updated to take account of the latest thinking on the issue.In a brand new Preface and Postscript, Jeffrey John speaks forthrightly about the Church of England’s failure to move positively in support of same-sex marriage.

Download or read book Still Time to Care written by Greg Johnson and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the start of the gay rights movement in 1969, evangelicalism's leading voices cast a vision for gay people who turn to Jesus. It was C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer and John Stott who were among the most respected leaders within theologically orthodox Protestantism. We see with them a positive pastoral approach toward gay people, an approach that viewed homosexuality as a fallen condition experienced by some Christians who needed care more than cure. With the birth and rise of the ex-gay movement, the focus shifted from care to cure. As a result, there are an estimated 700,000 people alive today who underwent conversion therapy in the United States alone. Many of these patients were treated by faith-based, testimony-driven parachurch ministries centered on the ex-gay script. Despite the best of intentions, the movement ended with very troubling results. Yet the ex-gay movement died not because it had the wrong sex ethic. It died because it was founded on a practice that diminished the beauty of the gospel. Yet even after the closure of the ex-gay umbrella organization Exodus International in 2013, the ex-gay script continues to walk about as the undead among us, pressuring people like me to say, "I used to be gay, but I'm not gay anymore. Now I'm just same-sex attracted." For orthodox Christians, the way forward is a path back to where we were forty years ago. It is time again to focus with our Neo-Evangelical fathers on care--not cure--for our non-straight sisters and brothers who are living lives of costly obedience to Jesus. With warmth and humor as well as original research, Still Time to Care will chart the path forward for our churches and ministries in providing care. It will provide guidance for the gay person who hears the gospel and finds themselves smitten by the life-giving call of Jesus. Woven throughout the book will be Richard Lovelace’s 1978 call for a "double repentance" in which gay Christians repent of their homosexual sins and the church repents of its homophobia--putting on display for all the power of the gospel.

Download or read book Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With? written by Sam Allberry and published by Oxford Apologetics. This book was released on 2020-03 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Answers one of the biggest barriers to belief. Christians are increasingly seen as outdated, restrictive and judgmental when it comes to sex before marriage, cohabitation and homosexuality. In fact for many people, this issue is one of the biggest barriers for them considering Christianity. Sam Allberry, author of many books including Is God Anti-gay sets out God's good design for the expression of human sexuality, showing that God himself is love and that only he can satisfy our deepest desires. It is a great reminder of the Bible's positive blueprint for love, sex and marriage and ideal for giving away to people who may see this as a stumbling block for belief.

Download or read book A Better Story written by Glynn Harrison and published by Inter-Varsity Press. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The architects of the sexual revolution won over the popular imagination because they knew the power of story. They drew together radical new ideologies, often complex and hard to grasp, and melded them into the simpler structure of narrative. Crucially, they cast narratives that appealed to the moral instincts of ordinary, decent people. This moral vision overwhelmed the church and silenced its faltering apologists. The author argues that if Christians still believe they have have good news in the sphere of sexual ethics, then two big tasks lie ahead. Our first priority is to work out what has gone so badly wrong, both in our understanding and application of what the Bible teaches and the way we have presented our case to the non-churched. And then we must offer a better story, one that fires the imagination with such force that people will say, 'I want that to be true.' This book offers a confident, biblically rooted moral vision which needs to be shared with prayer and courage.