“When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”

-Jesus of Nazareth

One by one they fall. 

An implosion unto itself. Confusion sets the stage for The Church. The Deceiver weaves his way through The Word as he whispers his sweet nothings into the ears of Believers. As pages get torn from the Bible and words are blackened. This causes The Body to rend itself in twain. Believers turn on Believers. One group stands firm in The Truth and faces the storm. The other embraces The Alternative. Churches bend. They break. And one by one…

Breakneck is the speed of the fall. Certain denominations, such as The Metropolitan Church, were birthed with the sole purpose of twisting the words of The Father. Completely ignoring certain passages and rewriting Sodom and Gomorrah into innocence. To make The Alternative as acceptable as The Natural. Recasting man’s purpose in the realm of marriage and procreation. Some factions of denominations, such as The Methodists and recently The Mennonites, have embraced it. It’ll only be a matter of time for The Southern Baptist Convention. But the question is this: Where should the church stand on The Alternative? 

Part I illustrated why The Alternative is a sin. That it goes against God’s design and purpose for relationships and marriage regarding sex and procreation. Part 2 illustrated the relationship and battle between Christians and Homosexuals. That Christians do not hate Homosexuals, but Homosexuality itself. My particular argument was the example of Christ dining at the table with Matthew. He did not condemn or hate these men embroiled in wickedness. Instead He stood in their midst. He was accused by The Elite for partaking in their brokenness. He was accused of becoming one with them. But was that so?

The Son was sinless. Perfect (2 Corinthians 5:21). With this knowledge of His unbroken righteousness, it would have been impossible for Him to have caved to the darkness within Matthew’s home. So why was He there? Because they were “sick” with sin and He was the “doctor” that had arrived to make them well. Because of His sinless perfection, to have become broken and sick as they would have been impossible. He was not there to bend to their level. To become as them. He was there to lift them up. “Mercy”, as He said, gave Him compassion for their sickness. This compassion put Him in their presence to bring healing. Spiritual healing. “Mercy”, He later states, from us to do the same. To not bend into the mire. To offer the hand that extracts.

Unfortunately they fall one by one. Churches. Pastors. Believers. Entire denominations. They understand “Mercy”. However they are too spiritually weak and/or ignorant in The Truth to separate the ability to show it to them without becoming them. They set their eyes into a hard stare at the love of God, completely missing His justice. God loves the sinner so much that He as The Son chose the cross. He hates sin so much that He chose death. This is more than justice. This is justice rooted in love. To save man from his destruction. To give him new life in resurrection. Sadly, the new face of Christianity brings shame to The Christ as they are embracing The Alternative. They tell a tale of a Jesus that loves them no matter what. And then the message dies. No cross. No repentance. No righteousness. No new life apart from the old dead self. Just a loving useless hippie their Jesus is. Molded into their idol.

The Believers that embrace The Alternative believe deep within that they are doing The Father a great service in the name of “Love”. With their Alternative pastors, Alternative wedding ceremonies. Alternative congregants. They twist and distort The Word all the while ignoring what they see fit for obscurity. It is so much easier to bend when you cannot be bound. They believe that they preach the gospel by only showing love without the demand of the cross. The one that we must all bear as we die to live. However, as they believe that they have earned God’s graces by embracing that which mocks Him, they are unaware that they are fueling the freight train into the pit of Hell. Because you cannot have Salvation without Repentance. You cannot have Repentance without knowing your brokenness. You cannot understand your brokenness without understanding the Justice that you have trespassed. You may understand Salvation by means of Love and Grace. But you cannot complete the circle without knowing what you are being saved from. You cannot face the gates of Heaven as you are fighting white knuckle to stay in your sin. To die embracing the shackles.

You cannot belong to The Father and The Alternative simultaneously (1 Corinthians 6:9, James 4:4).

The Alternative is at odds with God’s design for man. It is a sin. It stands in opposition to The Truth. It opposes the True Church that stands firm on the whole word of God. When you embrace it, you are embracing the dishonoring of His name. You are embracing the mockery. You are at war with The Gospel. You are at war with The Truth. You are at war with The Word. You are at war with The Spirit, The Son, and The Father. You cast a deadly shadow on The Believers that stand before God. You become the enemy to Salvation. Your false Gospel gives credence to what The Father of Lies sets out to destroy. And as The Alternative is cast out into outer darkness on the, you will be taken back by the fact that your embrace caused you to go out as well. “In the name of love”, without justice.

So what shall The Church do then? What does The Bride’s Mercy look like? Open the church doors. If a couple from The Alternative arrives, welcome them with love. Treat them as any other fallen soul. Preach The Truth. Preach the true Gospel of Repentance from Sin. If the message deals with The Alternative and Sin, do not bind it. Preach it anyway. If their hearts are right, then they will be broken upon The Cornerstone. They will cry out for Salvation and Repentance. If they remove themselves in anger, then their hearts are not ready for Truth. For Repentance. For Salvation. They love their sin. It is too precious to see die. It is their god. If they attack, then you have suffered for the sake of The Christ. Do not falter. Do not bend to Sin out of fear of man. To embrace The Alternative, to tell them that it is acceptable unto God, is tantamount to throwing them into Hell yourself. It is a lie that you too will answer for.

He demands Mercy. Not to keep the sick shrouded in illness until Death arrives. Not to keep them in their sickbed out of fear of offense. Out of ignorance. No. He demands Mercy that we may bring them to the Merciful Physician.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-The Apostle Paul to The Church at Rome