Are you a Christian?

[Xahmen]

So God gave the sinful the homosexual urges?
What a d**k.  

[Crimson Raccoon]

Zahwomen

So God gave the sinful the homosexual urges?
What a d**k.

No, though it may at first appear that way from that verse. God never tempts people nor makes them sin. The verse our friend Scazarith quoted from Romans says God gave them over to sinful desires of their hearts; meaning that the desire was already in their hearts. And God, who had previously been withholding them from sin by his grace, instead just gave them over to it, because they had rejected him so fully. They didn't want him, so, in a sense, he left; and there was nothing to stop them from falling deeper into their own sin. It may make more sense if you read the whole chapter, to put the situation it's describing in context.


I am a Christian. It's been nice to meet everyone here.  

[Xahmen]

Crimson Raccoon

Zahwomen

So God gave the sinful the homosexual urges?
What a d**k.

No, though it may at first appear that way from that verse. God never tempts people nor makes them sin. The verse our friend Scazarith quoted from Romans says God gave them over to sinful desires of their hearts; meaning that the desire was already in their hearts. And God, who had previously been withholding them from sin by his grace, instead just gave them over to it, because they had rejected him so fully. They didn't want him, so, in a sense, he left; and there was nothing to stop them from falling deeper into their own sin. It may make more sense if you read the whole chapter, to put the situation it's describing in context.


I am a Christian. It's been nice to meet everyone here.

So...
God created Man (and Woman).
God built Man (and Woman) from scratch.
God said "Hrm, I'm gonna put sin in their hearts, but as long as I favor them it won't affect them, yeah that sounds like a great idea. Now if they piss me off I can release my hold on the sin in their hearts, have it flood them, and then make THEM feel bad about it. Man, I am a genius".
And it was good?  

[Crimson Raccoon]

Zahwomen

So...
God created Man (and Woman).
God built Man (and Woman) from scratch.
God said "Hrm, I'm gonna put sin in their hearts, but as long as I favor them it won't affect them, yeah that sounds like a great idea. Now if they piss me off I can release my hold on the sin in their hearts, have it flood them, and then make THEM feel bad about it. Man, I am a genius".
And it was good?

lol, God said "hrm." hrrrrrrmm. whee

Well, just as God doesn't tempt people nor make them sin, he also did not put sin in their hearts. When he created Adam and Eve, they were without sin. There was no sin in their hearts, and that is why he looked on it and said it was good. Actually, after each act of creation, he saw that it was good; but after humans, he saw that it was very good.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. -James 1:13-14

If I may attempt to anticipate the next question that will arise: If God didn't put sin in their hearts, how did they ever end up sinning? Well, God gave humans free will, because he loves us and wants us to be able to love him. If we do not have free will, it would be impossible for us to love him, because though we may obey all his commands, we wouldn't be doing it because we chose to. So God gave Adam and Eve one thing that they weren't allowed to do, just one, so that by not doing it they were able to make a choice to follow God. If there had been nothing they could have possibly done wrong, it would have been like keeping a dog in a cage all the time; you'll never be able to experience it's love for you because you never give it the chance to run away, or to show its affection by staying with you. Or, it'd be like having a robot dog instead of a real one. Never makes a mess, never runs away, never eats what you tell it "Thou shalt not eat." But it has no free will and cannot love.

I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will. -Philemon 1:14. Not describing the same situation, but showing the same principle that free will is necessary for goodness or love to be expressed.

A parable of Christ that relates to this:

Quote:

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
~ Matthew 13:24-30, ESV, italics added.