(By: Norm Rasmussen)

Founder, Precious Testimonies

Was I born a "homosexual?" This is a question some perplexingly ask themselves these days.

The answer to this question can be both “Yes” and “No” I believe. But … both answers need qualifying. To begin with, it seems as though we need to agree on what a "homosexual" IS anymore, things are becoming so complicated. What one might determine is a female someone else may determine is a male, or BOTH ... or maybe an entirely new clone ... and like WOW - "This world is getting way too complicated!"

And THEN, if I show appreciation to my guy dog who chases bears away more successfully than a female dog chases bears away that may be trying to attack me, because he's a male dog the Vet says, does that mean I have a prejudice against girl dogs, so therefore I must be a "female dog sexist"? I know it sounds nuts, but that is what this world seems to be evolving into (with Satan's intense assistance, of course) - MASS identity confusion.

Mommie! I'm so confused! Does it really MATTER what kind of dog I take with me to chase away mean bears wanting to rip my flesh off? Do angry bears really CARE what "sex" of dog is trying to ruin their day and maybe the angry bear is trying to ruin mine TOO? Are guy dogs supposed to be the head bear chasers, or are girl dogs? The world is getting so complicated.

Let's transition from angry bears and gender of dogs to sinning against God.

Mainline Christianity has always taught that I studied under that we all are born sinners, as the New Testament Bible says: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We inherited our sin nature going all the way back to the sinful bloodline of Adam and Eve, mainline Christianity has taught. Thus to say, "I was born a homosexual," is no more correct from God's perspective than saying, "I was born a serial killer" or "I was born an "adulterer" or "fornicator" or a "compulsory liar" or "child molester" or "tax cheat," therefore people need to accept me the way I am for cheating on my spouse and lying whenever it suits my purpose or cheating the authorities when it comes to paying legal taxes, or breaking other government laws, for instance."

It is the nature of us sinners to not want to be held guilty for our actions that God calls sin. Thus if we can get mainline society, and hopefully other Christians, to agree that we should not be considered guilty of sinning against God "Because God made me this way at birth," is nothing more than trying to deaden one's conscience to sin they are committing.

So, were you and I and everyone else born with a sin nature? YES, the Bible says, so I choose to believe what it says. I can't prove other wise until I have a one-on-one with the Lawmaker and Judge.

Were you and I born serial killers? NO. Where you and I born chronic liars? NO. Where you and I born adulterers and fornicators and drunkards? NO. Where we born drug addicts. NO ... but very possibly YES, if our mother was a heavy drug user when we were born, so tragically I have to say, but doctors try to help that baby child as quickly as they know how so as not to have that little child be be afflicted by the drug/s their mother took, thank God. Thus the questions continue? Were you and I born prostitutes? NO. Thankfully the human race still says prostitution is a choice. Were you and I born with a sinful nature to commit all kinds of sin, which can include the "sin" of homosexuality? I don't believe anyone forces us to "sin" but I believe all of us have been given the free will by God to do as we please in this life and suffer whatever consequences when we exit it ... calling out on the mercy and forgiveness of God before we enter into the next life, and none of know when that will be, do we?

Thus I don't personally believe God ever created a person to be a "sinner" such as a "homosexual," anymore than He has created a person to be a "serial killer" or a "prostitute" or a "drug addict"; etc., ... yet God says in the Bible that we are ALL born sinners. Personally I don't think it's wise trying to bargain with God what is sin against Him and what isn't, but that again is my personal belief. If He determines I'm a sinner then it's: God help ME if you determine I'm a sinner and please have mercy on me and forgive me and help me stop sinning against You! That's tough for some to wrap one's head around I realize, like once was for me for many years. But can some people be born with a propensity to engage in same-sex relationships, sometimes the authorities says because of things that have happened to them ... and/or because of inheriting something in their bloodline lineage -- ultimately going all the way back to the bloodline of Adam and Eve? Absolutely, I personally feel. Why not? If we can inherit physical deformities and/or diseases through our lineage ... wouldn't it seem logical that we can potentially inherit "sinful" characteristics/weakness as well due to inherited DNA matters and/or perhaps a lack of our complete understanding of things we are born with and/or grow into and perhaps pass along to our off-spring?

So why DID God create us? I've declared repeatedly since I've come to understand that we are created for the glorify of God. Nothing has or will change that in my firm opinion. That's what I'm willing to die believing. People can and will disagree with me on that but if they can prove differently, more power to them. So in my opinion we're chasing the wind trying to decide what we are born with or with not and trying to decide if it's "sin." God says we are born with a nature to rebel against Him. He promises Jesus Christ died on the cross to have our offenses forgiven if we'll place our trust in Jesus Christ because of what He accomplished for us by dying on the cross. Does that include "serial killers" and "child molester's" and "rapists" and "tax cheats" and on and on? It does I believe.

When God created the very first family, He gave Adam a woman to meet the need for companionship and sexual fulfillment as well as to procreate offspring (See Genesis 2:18-25). This has always been God’s design, and it is obvious in the natural and complimentary function of the male and female sex organs and the male and female temperament.

Before sin entered the world through man’s disobedience, heterosexual marriage was the only sexual relationship that existed on earth. It was after man’s fall that such things as polygamy (Genesis 4:19), adultery (Genesis 12:17), prostitution (Genesis 38:15), and rape (Genesis 34:2) entered the human race. Homosexuality was also an obvious development because of the affects of disobedience to God, (more commonly known as sin.)

“Well I don’t believe the Bible, so that proves nothing!” (Some will be thinking this very thought right now. It’s understandable. I've thought that myself about the Bible in times past, before I became spiritually born again, and I can understand why people feel that way. Whatever it is we enjoy doing, we don't want ANYONE telling us it is wrong, nor calling it a sin, especially when the emotional and sexual gratification we receive from it is so meaningful to us.).

Where does sin come from? What makes people do evil things? The Bible makes it very clear right in the beginning of Genesis that Satan (or commonly called the devil) was the one who tempted Eve to disobey God’s command. We read in the book of Job about how God allowed Satan to try Job, and then when we jump forward to the New Testament, we read a great deal about Satan and demonic spirits under Satan’s command. We are given eyebrow raising insight into the spirit realm that influences the affairs of mankind … when we are told in Ephesians 6:12 that we are indeed battling evil unseen spirits and we cannot possibly protect ourselves and our children completely without implementing “The whole armor of God” in verse 13. [Editor's note: You may want to read: Why The Need For The Armor Of God? also listed under the Exhortations section of Precious Testimonies].

A website I would recommend everyone read who desires more insight into the topic at hand can be found by clicking on: Roots Of Homosexuality

We read warnings such as are found in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

The devil started “devouring” in the Garden of Eden. He started “devouring” when one of Eve’s sons killed the other son. Though Jesus dealt Satan a lethal blow on the cross by making a way for all people to have a right-relationship with God the Father … observe carefully: Satan was not totally stripped of his ability to influence mankind yet. Far from it, in fact!

Otherwise, why did the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter warn people long after Jesus had resurrected with His departure back to heaven “To be on your toes, because the devil and his demonic hordes are looking for an opportunity to sift you like wheat (devour someone)? And because the devil’s influence is very alive and well on planet earth, nothing says in the Bible that he can’t start his devouring influence the moment you were born … if not sooner.

Is it possible for the devil to be able to affect the emotional makeup of a developing child in the mother’s womb? There is nowhere in the Bible that says he can’t. To assume that he can only influence someone once they are outside the mother’s womb is misunderstanding the influence the devil can have.

We need to understand something here. If Satan was able to get his way completely, every person born would most likely be bi-sexuals (he wouldn’t just stop there either). Do you know why? Because it is Satan’s nature to make everything God has created good to become perverted and twisted.

In Genesis 7 we read where Satan had so corrupted mankind that God could no longer tolerate mankind’s evil, and so He flooded the world to destroy it. Yet once Noah and his wife and their offspring began to repopulate the earth …we then read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 (only 12 chapters later, however many years that was). For anyone perceiving God as someone who “caused” the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to be born homosexuals, then destroyed them with fire and brimstone out of heaven for their craving of sexual lust, it sure would make God to look pretty schizophrenic. No – God saw that the people in that part of the world were so sexually and emotionally corrupt that there was absolutely no safety any longer in that group of people. (Child molestation and emotional instability had to be rampant; we just aren’t told of it in the scriptures). How did those people get that way? Satan can tell you.

Some people escape Satan’s influence over them at birth, only to have parenting that is not healthy, and the emotionally fragmented child can then become an innocent victim of Satan’s influence … causing strong emotional feelings for the same sex in the very young years, for different reasons that can become very complicated. Again, I strongly recommend clicking to this link for those who want to better understand homosexuality: Roots Of Homosexuality

Some children are sexually molested at a young age and this opens doors for Satan to put hate in that child for the gender who molested them. Lesbians who are honest will often share how they were sexually and/or severely emotionally abused at a young age, whereby not being able to be emotionally close to any men as they grow older, at least sexually with any feelings of deep love.

Boys sexually molested by an older male give Satan legal grounds to twist the emotions and feelings of that child as he grows older. Boys having overly dominating and/or controlling mothers can open emotional doors for Satan to put in that child’s mind that women cannot be trusted to be given affection to. Fathers who don’t give both sons and daughters quality love can cause vulnerabilities in those children that Satan can take advantage of. The list goes on and on with all kinds of different situations that cause vulnerabilities in children. It can even happen in adulthood. Adults can get hurt by the opposite sex and in their emotional pain, they can find the security of someone of the same sex much more “safe” and “satisfying.”

People caught in Satan’s lie that they should be the opposite sex are victims of Satan’s “devouring.” There is no end to the cruelty Satan inflicts upon the human race. There is no sinful perversion so bad that Satan isn’t interested in introducing it to the human race.

With pornography on the Internet running rampart, with television following a close second, children viewing it are allowing Satan to program their minds that lesbian sex is “normal” and so is “gay” sex. If Satan isn’t being effective enough in his brainwashing techniques with same-sex porn, can any God-loving adult begin to imagine what images and lies are being ingrained in the minds of children now surfing the Net and coming across pictures and stories of people having sex with animals? If children view enough of it … more children than what we might imagine are going to be deceived by Satan into thinking it’s really very “normal” to have sexual relations with animals "because I was born that way."

Satan will stop at nothing to twist and pervert what God created for good. (Especially the offspring of Christian parents who refuse to believe that Satan could have any influence over their newborn). Satan’s track record down through history has been to take mankind’s thirst for sexual and emotional gratification, and twist it and pervert it every way possible. Do you believe Satan doesn’t have the ability to do such things? Hang around a few more centuries and watch what evolves, should God allow it. Living will be one mass sexual orgy with anything that moves (and yeah, doesn’t move too, probably). Satan longs to outdo Sodom and Gomorrah – it’s what gives him pleasure. He’s always trying to outdo himself.

People scoff when they hear of “vampires.” Yet there are people addicted to blood. I know a lady some years ago whose brother was so addicted to blood that he couldn’t make it a day without sipping from his flask of fresh blood. I won’t bother sharing where the blood came from (though it wasn’t from animals).

Having sexual relations with spirit beings (demons) should not surprise anyone either.

I want to make something perfectly clear before proceeding. God does not want people to fear what the devil can do to them, or their offspring. However, God does not want them to be ignorant of the devil’s influence and/or devices either! The New Testament Bible gives followers of Jesus Christ sufficient insight to stop the devil’s influence in their lives, and the lives of their children.

Anyone can be freed from Satan’s influence in their lives, if they want it bad enough. It may not be easy to receive total deliverance and healing from God with a snap of the finger, but God wills deliverance and healing to happen for every person caught in Satan’s deception and influence, no matter how young in life it started, or how old they are now.

Qualified Christian counselors know how to help people get healed and made normal – the way God originally intended for them to be. Forgiveness is the key in most cases for the healing process to begin. The greatest weapon (gift) God has given us to stop Satan’s strategies (outside of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible) from prospering is forgiveness. (Not forgiving Satan: forgiving humans who have hurt us). Engaging in outright spiritual warfare is necessary in almost every situation, to one degree or another, to walk in full and complete victory.

Here’s the ONE thing God would love to have happen. He would like every person who struggles with homosexuality to channel that HATE toward the one who is truly responsible for it all: Satan. Humans who may have used and/or abused you, being partly responsible for the way you are now, were operating out of their own sin, which invariably opened legal doors for Satan to have greater influence not only in them, but in you as well.

People who truly begin to hate Satan for bringing about all the harm he’s caused in their lives are usually those who become sold out totally for Jesus Christ. They read the Book of Revelation, and find out who the winner will be at the culmination of the ages.

If you are struggling with feelings for someone of your same gender, consider yourself a victim of Satan’s influence. To believe Satan’s lie that you are just “normal” -- that “God” made you that way from birth, so you don’t have to put yourself through such emotional torment -- my prayer is that you seek God to give you enlightenment of just how much Satan has had his ruthless influence over your life … probably from birth, if not before.

Satan is doing everything he can to try to convince people that sin is not sin.

If someone hasn’t brought this to your attention recently, let me also say this. The Lord Jesus Christ died a painful death on the cross because of any sin Satan may have you trapped in. Acknowledging sin to Jesus Christ is the first step in being right with God, and to help get set free of it's affect on you. Satan is using everything at his disposal to try to convince his victims that sin is not sin. If he can succeed in brainwashing a person to not acknowledging sin as sin in their lives (or sin in someone else’s life) … he can turn that person into a ruthless terrorist that will kill others “in the name of God,” … especially those who refuse to believe the way they believe.

God gives some ominous warnings in the Bible to those who give so much place to sin that they no longer seek Him to stop it’s influence in their lives. A hardened heart towards sin becomes the first step in God’s possible removal of the protection of His holy angels that have watched over you before you were even born. If you demand your God-given right to believe sin is not sin … there are some potentially serious consequences to pay.

On the other hand, If you believe the truth that you were “born a sinner” as scripture says, (see Romans 3:23) and that being born with the propensity of being a homosexual is really no different than being born with the propensity to be a mass murderer … you are on the right wavelength with your Creator and Judge. All sin is forgivable. It is promised to followers of Jesus Christ, as documented in 1 John 1:9. But when sin is no longer believed to be sin (however the devil has influenced someone to get that way) … what fear does one have of even asking forgiveness for practicing the sin, let alone seeking God for forgiveness, healing and ability to no longer give into the temptation of that sin?

Can you fathom terrorists killing others “in the name of their God” - as they stand before God the Creator on the Judgment Day, giving an account of their actions while on earth - trying to convince God that killing someone in cold blood out of vengeance and hate (and/or because of their perverted and twisted spiritual beliefs) is not sin? Yet guess what? Children are being brainwashed by the multitudes by the devil and his demonic hordes to believe this very lie: that sin against God and people that is clearly stated in the Bible is not sin.

What makes it even worse is the devil’s lie that killing certain people “in the name of their God” is actually going to be rewarded by God in eternity. Jesus warned us a time would come when this very evil would happen.

Jesus gave this warning in John 16:2: “The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.” Sobering … the influence of Satan over the human race.

Yet with much thanksgiving and comfort … the promises and assurances God gives followers of Jesus Christ, (though they may end up having their lives taken by the devil, should God allow ... as He has since the early days of the Church) brings eternal hope and eventual assured justice to every person who puts their trust in Jesus Christ at whatever the cost required.

At the Judgment Day, we'll find out who was right and who was wrong in what they believed, and what they practiced ... won't we?

Mainline Christianity teaches that the ONE thing Christians have that non-Christians don't have is power available from God to have strongholds of sin broken off their lives. (Romans Chapter 6 is a great place to start learning about the power Christians have been given to break sin off their lives).

All sin is forgivable by God according to the New Testament bible (See: 1 John 1:9). But nowhere in the Bible is sin to continue indefinitely in the life of a person who considers themselves a true Christian:

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors -- not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the sinful flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:12-14)

Though this writing was not written specifically to try to dissect whether engaging in homosexuality is a sin, make no mistake what I believe God has to say about same-sex sexual relationships. To me it's very clear in Leviticus 20:13. This was what God had to say to the Jewish people initially about homosexuality. One can rationalize all they want that Christ's death, burial and resurrection somehow changed what sin is and how God still views it, but they need to try to convince God, not me. He's the lawmaker and judge and jury.

Furthermore, lest anyone misunderstand what is being communicated here, please know that being tempted to sin is not the same thing as engaging in sin. Furthermore - sin is forgivable in Jesus Christ, when God's mandates about sin in our life are acknowledged to Him.

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Remember: All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity.
(Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)