No, People Cannot Change Their Sexual Orientation
Is it possible to change my sexual orientation?
Rick Brentlinger Answers: You've asked a very important question. My answer is: No, people do not change their sexual orientation and there is no proof that God has ever changed anyone's sexual orientation. We are born gay or lesbian according to Jesus in Matthew 19:12, where He tells us, eunuchs are born that way. Eunuch is an ancient word which described gays and lesbians when the Bible was written.
It is possible to sublimate your orientation and act like you're no longer gay or lesbian. And its possible to modify your outward behavior but changing who you are inside, who God made you to be, is not possible.
Obviously, some gays (and some hets) NEED to change their behavior (not their orientation) IF they're living a promiscuous lifestyle. Sleeping around is a poor way to live and a great way to get a disease.
Many Christians are taught that getting saved changes you from homosexual to heterosexual. Of course, the Bible never says that so to be scriptural, we need to stick with the Bible, instead of someone's opinion.
There are change "ministries" around the world, many of them affiliated with Exodus International, which advertise themselves as helping people leave homosexuality. What generally happens in these ministries is that they take your money, waste your time and when you come out the other end, you're still gay or lesbian.
I've written about Exodus International, the best known change ministry. Their "success" rate is less than 15% and most of those "successes," including the President of Exodus International, Alan Chambers, admit that they still struggle with same sex attractions.
That means Exodus has an 85% failure rate AND the people they claim as "successes" didn't really change. Real heterosexuals don't struggle with same sex attractions and real homosexuals don't struggle against opposite sex attractions.
I've also written about the Ex-Gay myth. I hope you will also read that page because it helps to answer your question.
I encourage you to always read and believe the Bible. God loves you and Jesus died so that you can be saved.
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And fix that bookcase before you stand in front of it to get your picture taken. Take some pride in the way you store your reading materials.
People choose to be what they are. You are what you do.
Brentlingerer is wrong.
Let's start at the top, shall we?
You are no expert. It appears you are unwilling or incapable of getting a dictionary and being honest about what you read. (And certainly, no lesbian was ever called an eunuch in the Bible, sir!) Go look up the meaning of the word. You are WAY off track, sir. Wrong!
So much for your statement about how we should all "stick to the Bible and not someone's opinion". Thank God, you had the wherewithal to capitalize the word "Bible", though, but I digress.
Secondly, God created us male or female and the two are meant to go together within the blessed, holy bonds of matrimony. Nowhere do men marry men, or women marry women in holy Scripture. It IS forbidden in the Bible and homosexuality IS condemned and they CAN be saved just like the rest of us and I have prayed for nearly 40 years for a massive movement/revival of homosexuals to come into the church in salvation. "We catch 'em, You change 'em!" is my motto.
(Pls check somewhere in 1 Cor, I believe where it lists homosexuality in the middle of a long list of sins, and then states, "such were some of you before salvation" in Christ Jesus, come on in, the water is fine, glory be to God, alleluia!
YOUR opinion, sir, gives no hope to homosexuals, totally misguides them into deceiving themselves that God made them that way when it is clearly a choice out of either lust or brokenness and you give them no hope of anything other than an eternity in Hell, also a very real place. Some like it hot and I guess you will end up there unless you, too, get saved and stop publishing this nonsense of yours.
Best regards. :O)
PS....as regards "change" it is not God's job, initially. The onus is on us to receive Jesus Christ "by FAITH" and then we allow the Holy Spirit to "change" us.....on us. :O)
skbnwinters-
Hey friend, slow down, take a deep breath and read my remarks more carefully.
If you will do that, you will discover that I did not say lesbians are called eunuchs in the Bible. I wrote:
"We are born gay or lesbian according to Jesus in Matthew 19:12, where He tells us, eunuchs are born that way. Eunuch is an ancient word which described gays and lesbians when the Bible was written."
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Same-Sex-Attracted-Eunuchs.html
You wrote that "God created us male and female..." I certainly do not dispute that. But you are reading so much else into the Creation texts when you conclude that everyone is born heterosexual.
http://www.gaychristian101.com/adam-and-eve.html
You mentioned the 1 Corinthians 6:9 passage which in some modern English translations, contains the English word, homosexual. If your mind is still open to God's truth, it might interest you to know that the Greek word, arsenokoitai, was NEVER used in the first century with the meaning of homosexual.
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Define-Arsenokoites.html
You wrote: "YOUR opinion, sir, gives no hope to homosexuals ..."
On the contrary, the Bible offers great hope to homosexuals because God saves us eternally just like He saves heterosexuals eternally. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, with no works involved, no water baptism involved.
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Saved.html
You wrote: "you give them no hope of anything other than an eternity in Hell, also a very real place..."
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Jesus-On-Hell.html
My faith and hope rest in the Jesus of the Bible. I sincerely hope you are trusting Jesus as your only hope of salvation.
Your brother in Christ,
Rick Brentlinger
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Who-Is-Jesus.html
In your comment above you wrote:
"You wrote that "God created us male and female..." I certainly do not dispute that. But you are reading so much else into the Creation texts when you conclude that everyone is born heterosexual."
If that were the case please explain hermaphrodites to me.
When I was single, I noticed that I found myself attracted to those who resembled who I was datting at the time. That physical resemblance always seemed to catch my eye.
I think we can be guided in our physical attractions. I'm married now, and I still find women that resemble past girlfriends, more attractive than those that don't resemble women I've dated.
Don't even get me started on the whole pregnant women thing.
I don't follow anyone, because those that appear to be on the same path usually end up just getting in my way.
How can you seriously take a definitive position on whether or not a supernatural, non-human being ( god is an alien after all) who is said to have created all that there is, thinks it is OK for certain of his subjects to exchange bodily fluids and give pleasure to each other? Even if he exists, do you think god cares about how we get pleasure?
If we held god to our standards, wouldn't we put him to death for routinely condemning and torturing people because they refuse to worship him? Jim Jones, Charles Manson and others have done the same thing.
"God gave the word. Great was the company of those who published it." -Psalm 68:11
That was written more than 3000 years ago, around 1000 BC. Throughout the history of humanity on earth, God has been actively involved, working through His Holy Spirit in the hearts of His followers.
Far from holding God to our standards, God holds us to His standards. God's primary attribute is absolute holiness. His holiness made it impossible to simply ignore our sin.
So that He would have a righteous basis to forgive our sins, God Himself came to earth as a man, Jesus, and lived a perfect sinless life.
He then died on the Cross, shedding His perfect blood as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. In other words, Jesus took our place and received the punishment that we should have received.
That shedding of sinless blood and that death in our place was the only payment a holy God could accept for our sins.
NEWSFLASH!
We know God accepted the payment Jesus made for our sins because God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is not a dead religious martyr. He is a living, loving Savior.
NOW, it you want to be saved, the ONLY thing you have to do is repent of your sins (repent means to change your mind and agree with God about your need to be saved). Accept the fact that Jesus already paid for your sins and trust Jesus as your Savior.
When you do that, God saves you, changes you from the inside out, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and makes you a new spiritual creation in Christ.
Its free but it wasn't cheap. Its easy for you but it was so difficult for Him that it cost Him his life.
So, what keeps you from trusting Jesus right now?
More information is available at:
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Saved.html
Rick,
The idea with this portal is that we reply to each other's positions and comments. Your last reply looked like it was auto-generated or cut-n-pasted from a tract or other source,
Have you really read the bible ? If you had, I don't think you'd be using it as a reference for arguing either gay or moral issues. Bod is the leading cause of death among innocents and needs to confess His sims to someone. Minorities, slaves, women and gays were all told to be subservient to their masters, though it is said that there was a bit of "hide the salami" being played by the apostles on their long fishing trips ...
I suggest you read "a short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson" for reality check regarding your belief that an alien power created the heavens and the earth and is standing by to forgive little John for his sinful acts behind the barn with little Ricky.
Its difficult to give a serious answer to such obviously facetious remarks.
You jumped from a post about sexual orientation to accusing God of being like mass murderers Jim Jones and Charlie Manson.
Your second post makes further accusations against God and contains sophomoric innuendo about Jesus' disciples.
I wish you the best but will not waste any more time answering childish assertions.
http://www.gaychristian101.com/Who-Is-Jesus.html