Growing up, I believed everything my church said without question.
But Tony Campolo once said that even if you have infallible Scriptures, none of us are
infallible interpreters—all churches are made of fallible people, and that really hit
home with me when I realized I was still attracted to guys despite all my efforts not to be.
See, my church had taught me that being gay was a choice, but I clearly hadn't chosen it.
They'd gotten that part wrong.
And I started to wonder, if they'd gotten the choice question wrong, had they gotten
other things wrong about homosexuality and gay people?
And so started years of me asking difficult questions and doing serious Bible study instead
of just taking people's word for things.
In my book "Torn" and in other videos, I've discussed what I learned from those years
of Bible study that changed my mind from non-affirming to affirming.
I started to wonder if maybe there was room for me to actually be in a relationship.
Maybe God hadn't actually said the things my church said God said about being gay.
But when I talked to a respected leader in my church about my questions, he said to me,
"Justin, you're falling for the Devil's oldest trick."
I'm like, "What do you mean?
What's the Devil's oldest trick?"
He says, "In the Garden of Eden, the serpent comes to Eve and says, 'Did God really say…?'
"That's the Devil's oldest trick.
Encouraging people to doubt the word of God.
And that's what you're doing: asking 'Did God really say?'"
He's not the only one who's said this to me.
I was on a panel a few years ago when a conservative radio host compared my affirmation of gay
Christians to watering down God's words on theft or adultery:
If we do not believe that God could speak clearly—let's say we're the Israelites
at Mount Sinai,
say, yeah, "God did speak plainly, don't steal, don't commit adultery, but what does that
really mean?"
That's always the danger.
"Hath God really said" the old lie from the garden.
"Hath God really said…?"
"Did God really say…?"
The Devil's oldest trick—doubting and watering down the clear words of God.
Now, look, I'm the last person to advocate disregarding God's words, if God really
said something.
But is it so wrong to ask if God even said it in the first place?
I mean, it sounds pretty damning, doesn't it?
Until you actually read the passage.
The quote is from Genesis chapter 3, verse 1.
Here's the context: God has created the first two humans, Adam and Eve,
and given them a paradise to live in, the Garden of Eden.
The garden is filled with fruit-bearing trees, and God tells the humans that they can eat
from any of them,
except for one forbidden tree.
Ah, temptation.
But things seem to be going well until a serpent, commonly associated with the Devil, slithers
up to Eve and asks,
"Did God really say…?"
But wait.
Look at the question he actually asks.
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden"?'"
So wait.
Think about that question for a minute.
Did God really say they couldn't eat from ANY tree in the garden?
No!
The answer to the question, "Did God really say…?" was no!
God didn't really say that!
Only one tree was forbidden!
This really is a very crafty question.
Because look at what the serpent's doing.
He isn't questioning the words God actually said.
He's doing something much sneakier.
He's subtly adding rules God never made, so as to make God seem like an unreasonable tyrant.
"Did God really say you couldn't eat from any tree in the garden?!
How unreasonable is God?
Why bother trying to follow the rules of someone that unreasonable?"
If you're going to call this the Devil's oldest trick, then the Devil's oldest trick
isn't questioning God's rules;
it's adding rules in God's name to create an unrealistically heavy burden.
And this is exactly what some churches, like the one I grew up in, have fallen for.
Growing up as a gay teen, the message I heard in church wasn't, "Be responsible with
your sexuality," or, "Wait until you get married to have sex";
it was, "Don't be a sexual being at all,"
"Don't be attracted to anyone,"
"Don't fall in love,"
"Don't even admit that you're gay."
The best I could hope for was a life alone or trapped in a loveless marriage to keep
up appearances—
but even that wasn't good enough, because I was condemned just for being gay, even if
I never acted on my feelings.
It was an unreasonable burden: Don't eat from any tree in the garden.
So is it any wonder that lots of gay kids who grew up in churches like mine just decided
God was an unreasonable bully and walked away from the church altogether?
Contrast this with Jesus, who said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
That wasn't remotely the message I heard as a gay teen.
So next time someone tries to use Genesis 3 and the "Devil's oldest trick" to
keep you from asking questions about whether God really said something, encourage them
to actually read the passage.
Because the only way to avoid falling victim to "the Devil's oldest trick" is to
actually ask the question.
Did God really say that?
Maybe the answer is no.
For more infomation >> Robert Irvine Show (August 06, 2018) A woman suspects a girlfriend is cheating - Duration: 43:30. 
For more infomation >> Robert Irvine Show (8/6/2018) A woman suspects a girlfriend is cheating in exchange for marijuana - Duration: 43:30. 
For more infomation >> A Sister is Born for a Time of Adversity - Duration: 5:03. 
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