Ravi Zacharias 回答提問：一個人可能同時是同性戀、且是真基督徒嗎？
Question: Is it possible for a man or woman to live a sincere Christian life as a homosexual?
Ravi Zacharias: That’s a very tough one (question).
It’s one of those questions no matter how you answer, somebody is probably gonna take exception to what you say.
Let me take a few minutes to answer this because it’s very critical.
Let me start off by telling you a discussion I had with a reporter--
The reporter: “You people would talk against racism but discriminate against the homosexual; I see that double standard.”
Ravi Zacharias: “I notice a very interesting way in which you phrase your question.
The first part of the question you were phrasing it about an idea: racism.
The second part of the question you’ve personalized it and put a person in there-- that you discriminate against homosexual.
I think you should position the question univocally with equal meaning to both terms."
The reason we are against racism is because a person’s race is sacred. One’s ethnicity is sacred; you cannot violate it.
My race is sacred, your race is sacred, I dare not violate it.
The reason we react against the issue of homosexuality the way we do is because sexuality is sacred, too. You cannot violate it.
How do you treat sacred one and de-sacredlized the other?
Sex is a sacred gift of God. I can no longer justify an aberration of it in somebody else’s life then I can justify my proclivities to go beyond my marital boundaries.
Every man here who is an able body man will tell you temptations stalks you everyday!
Does it have anything to do with your love for your spouse? Probably not.
Because you can love your spouse with a 100% desire to love the person But the human body reacts to the sight, entertained by the imagination and gives you all kinds of false hints that the stolen waters are going to be sweat -- they are not. They will leave you emptier.
The disposition or proclivity does not justify expressing that disposition and that proclivity. That goes across the board for all, all sexuality.
When God created mankind and womankind--it was His plan, not our plan. It is extraordinary to me in what He said. He said, “It is not good for a man to live alone. ”
Man wasn’t living alone. God was with him. Why did He say that? He created the mystique and the majesty and the charm and the complimentary nature of womankind in a way that made it possible for her to meet his emotional needs that God Himself put only within earth.
Outside of Himself, from Himself, in her, in that complimentariness, so you take that sacred commitment. It is a design by God.
[Giving the example of Henri Nouwen]
He was dispositionally a homosexual, but never fulfil that for the sake of Christ.
To the one who has that disposition: Yes it has to be tough. But sometimes we renouce our dispositions for the sake of Christ, and just wait and hope and trust for the possibility that He will give us the resistance.
What does it take to believe and do to be [what]? You have to fill in the blanks.
If you say to me, “Ravi, what does it take to be a Christian?”
I would say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; that God is rised from the dead. You with your heart and my trust in Jesus Christ you are a believer.
"Ravi, what does it take to, say, to come and belong to your church?”
I’d say “well, if you join this particular church where I am a member now , there are certain doctrinal beliefs you have to believe.
For example, you can’t believe the Bible is 90% rubbish and 10% nice and still be a member of that church: you can’t do that. There are certain doctrines that shall be committed, certain calls of conducts to be committed. So if you belongs to a community of believers, it is not just the belief in Christ but a certain community expression of that belief that you are submitted to."
Now you say, “what does it take to teach at _________(?) University?”
I’d say, “Now you have to add even more than that.”
With each line of affiliation you put the plus plus plus, not because the second and third make you a Christian, but it places upon you greater accountability and responsibility as a dispenser of truth to which you are held accountable by a community of believers.
So: is it possible for one in that state of mind in that disposition to be a Christian?
Absolutely.
But can one be practicing that and then become a part of a teaching community /a community of believers?
I think one would have to raise serious quesitons: where does one draw the line?
Is it OK. for the pastor to be a polygamist and be a pastor of a church at the same time?
(It ends up dying the death of a thousand qualifications on the character God has built in the process.--?) 這句我不確定
