How Should the Church Respond to the Equality Act?

How should the church respond to new LGBTQ legislation that's being voted on in the U.S.? the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can check us out on YouTube, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Evan in Kansas City, Missouri. Evan, welcome to CORE Christianity. Hi, thank you for having me.

Thanks for joining us today. What's your question, Evan? Yeah, Pastor Sanchez, I am discipling another person right now, and in the discipleship process, this person has told me that they have the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues, and will even pray in tongues at will. And I'd just love to hear guidance on how I can disciple this person and really get into God's Word on what it says about speaking in tongues.

Yeah. Well, the places you're going to want to look in scripture regarding the gift of tongues are, first, in Acts chapter 2. There you have the day of Pentecost, where the Spirit of God fell upon the church, and they spoke in unknown tongues, that is, languages that they had never learned, but the Spirit of God gave them utterance, and they were declaring the wonderful works of God there in Acts chapter 2. And what it did was it actually opened a door for Peter and the rest of the disciples to preach the gospel. One of the things I think is really important for us to understand is there in the New Testament, those miracles, those sign gifts, really pointed to something else, a greater reality.

They weren't an end in and of themselves. They were helping to point to the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, I think even of what Jesus did in healing the paralytic in Mark's gospel. He says, I did this so that you would know that I have authority on earth to forgive sins. That's the greatest miracle of all, regeneration, the new birth, the forgiveness of sins. And so I think in the discipleship process, as you talk about some of these things, you want to focus on that. A lot of us, a lot of people coming out of different church traditions, they focus on maybe the signs and the wonders at the expense of the gospel, who Jesus is, his identity, what he's accomplished for us.

And so we want to be really careful with that. Another place you can go to is 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14, really, where there's an extended discussion there about the gift of tongues. And again, really the signs of the spirit, if you will, are not, for believers today, these gifts of the miraculous, the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, but the fruit of the spirit that the apostle Paul described in the book of Galatians, that's what should be prioritized for each of us.

Do I have love, joy, peace, patience? I mean, that's really the sign of the presence of the spirit of God in my life. And Paul actually talked about that in the middle of his discussion regarding spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. He said, look, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm just a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. And he goes on to talk about the importance of love and the fruit of the spirit for the Christian life. That's not that the gifts of the Holy Spirit aren't important, but I think that we oftentimes focus on them at the expense of the gospel and at the expense of even the fruit of the spirit. Now, there's a broader question, a bigger question here, and that's were those gifts, those sign gifts, meant to continue into the everyday ordinary life of the church?

My position is that the answer to that question is no, that those gifts were given for a specific time to help the advancement of the gospel. Those are the kinds of things that you're going to want to talk about as you continue this discussion, but I want to commend you, brother, for meeting with someone and continuing to help them grow in their faith and their walk with the Lord, dig into those passages of scripture, and do so with humility, prayerfully looking to Christ and to his word. So, Evan, God bless you. Thank you, thank you, Pastor Sanchez. Thank you, Evan, appreciate your call, and thank the Lord that you are taking the time and making the effort to disciple somebody. What a blessing.

All of us should be doing that if we feel that God is calling us to that role, and perhaps we should be doing that at all times in the church, in the body of Christ, being disciples to one another. Well, let's go to Brandon from Lake Ozark, Missouri. Brandon, welcome to Core Christianity. Thanks for taking my call, guys.

Hey, Brandon, good to hear from you. What's your question, brother? All right, where do we find an Old Testament reference to the New Testament synagogue, and if so, where are the restrictions? Are there any restrictions like the temple? And this is coming from the man with the shriveled hand. In a Bible study, we were talking that the man with the shriveled hand, the Pharisees were breaking the commandment that a lame person not being able to enter the temple just to try and catch Jesus by healing.

Yeah, that's a really good question. And the synagogues that existed there in the ancient world were distinct from the temple. I mean, the temple was the place where sacrifices were being offered. It was the primary meeting place between God and his people.

It was where atonement was made. You have all the types and shadows of the Old Testament sort of pictured there at the temple. And so what ended up happening, though, is over time, what you had is the development of these gatherings, these assemblies of Hebrew people, of Jewish people coming together around the Torah. And there's speculation about what exactly was taking place in those synagogue meetings. It's clear from the New Testament that they had scripture readings.

I mean, you think of Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue. They probably had prayers, singing of the Psalms, those kinds of things. And so this was more of an informal gathering of people to study and to grow in the Word of God. And it did not have the same kinds of regulations and restrictions that were related to the temple. And so the person with the withered hand, it was totally fine for him to be there, whereas, as you know, there were laws, regulations that kept people who had stuff like a withered hand from entering into the worship of the people of God or serving in the priesthood in particular.

And so, yeah, so there is a distinction there. And really, in the New Testament church, I mean, what we have in the Book of Acts is the disciples gathering together. Oftentimes, they would go to the synagogues, and that would be one of the primary places that they would preach Jesus. The message of Christianity and the early Christian gatherings really reflected, looked like these synagogue gatherings that were happening in the New Testament, that were happening throughout that world. And so it was kind of an interesting thing there, but they weren't the same.

They were distinct, and so there were distinct rules that governed each of them. Brandon, thank you for your question, brother, for giving us a call. May the Lord bless your day. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We would love to hear from you. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel, here's the phone number to call right now. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, we should mention that we also have a podcast, and some radio stations air our program on a delayed basis. So the best way, if you want to talk to Pastor Adriel live, is to call at this time, 1130 Pacific Time, 1230 Mountain, 130 Central or 230 Eastern Time, and you can connect with us there. Well, let's go to a voicemail that we received here at Core Christianity yesterday. Yeah, Pastor, thanks for taking my call.

I'm John from Surprise, Arizona. You know, this week the Senate is voting on the Equality Act. It's kind of an LGBTQ act that prevents any kind of discrimination against them, and even religious and other institutions or smaller businesses. We talk a lot about religious freedom, and I'm just wondering how aggressive the churches might need to be and be proponents of religious freedom and speaking out on these types of things. What can the church do?

Should it be doing more? I'm interested to hear your thoughts and reflection on that. Thanks so much for what you guys do. Take care. Bye.

Yeah, John, thank you for that voicemail that you left us. And for those who are unfamiliar with the Equality Act that's right here in front of us right now, I want to give you a little bit of a summary about the bill. So here's some information. The bill prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in a wide variety of areas, including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system. Specifically, the bill defines and includes sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation. The bill expands the definition of public accommodations to include places or establishments that provide one, exhibitions, recreation, exercise, amusement, gathering, or displays, two, goods, services or programs, and three, transportation services. And then the bill allows the Department of Justice to intervene in equal protection actions in federal court on account of sexual orientation or gender identity. One of the things that a lot of evangelicals are concerned about is the bill prohibits the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 from providing a claim, defense, or basis for challenging such protections.

And one last thing, the bill prohibits an individual from being denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room that is in accordance with the individual's gender identity. Well, first, let me just say Christians believe in the inherent dignity of all people, of all human beings, not because of our sexual identity or that kind of a thing, but because we're made in the image of God. Each and every one of us is an image bearer, called as image bearers to reflect the goodness and glory of God the creator. And so we have this fundamental basis for treating all people with dignity and with respect and for fighting for life and the propagation of life. We also have a very clear sexual ethic and view of identity that's given to us by God himself in Holy Scripture. It's handed down to us by the Lord. And it's contrary to the current cultural definitions that are and have changed over the last 200 years and certainly are continuing to change.

It seems like sometimes almost every single day. And the concern that many Christians have with this Equality Act is not the prohibition of discrimination against people. We're against discrimination as Christians. We believe all people have inherent dignity.

As I just said, we're made in the image of God. It's how the bill continues to define sexuality, sexual identity, those kinds of things. And the concern is that it doesn't have much wiggle room for people who don't embrace the culture's definition on sexuality to disagree on the basis of religious conviction. And so there are a lot of people, myself included, who are concerned with these things. And I think we ought to be a part of this discussion and engage on these issues. And the question is, well, what should the church do?

And I really appreciate that you asked that. Well, one, I think we can definitely see that the church is always, and with regard to things like this, we're always called to pray, to seek the face of God. And to ask, Paul says this in 1 Timothy 2, to pray for the peace of the church so that in all that we do, we're able to and will continue to faithfully preach the truth of God's word. And we may be challenged. Society, culture might disagree with us. And I think that's one of the big concerns is, are we going to be able to hold fast to what the Bible teaches without facing repercussions?

And that's what many are concerned about. But we're called to pray. Another thing I'll say is we're called to know the truth. You need to know what the Bible teaches about sexuality, about identity, where it's rooted more than ever, because the fact of the matter is, is the broader culture wants to catechize you.

And that wants to tell you their own narrative of what that is. And as I said, it's contrary to the teaching of scripture. And so we need to know and hold fast to the word of God, what God has clearly revealed. And we don't have to be ashamed of what the word of God teaches. We need to hold fast to it with boldness. And so know the truth, pray, know the truth, be engaged in the broader discussion, speaking the truth in love.

Once you know it, as I just said there, don't be ashamed of it. We can be honest about these things. And I would say this, have a gospel confidence. I think stuff like this comes up and many believers are concerned. They feel like, oh no, if something like this passes, the church, we're in so much trouble, what's going to happen? It seems like we're losing the quote unquote fight, the culture war.

Well, let me say this. Every single day, the gospel is gaining new ground. The gospel of Jesus Christ is going to continue to advance, regardless of what the culture does or says or believes. Our confidence, our hope is ultimately in the power of God's word and spirit.

And so the world around us, the culture around us, their views on things have changed regarding sexuality and identity. And they're totally contrary to so much of what we find in scripture. But our confidence is not in the fact that they agree with us.

Our confidence is in the fact that God is going to accomplish His purposes by His word and spirit. And so pray, know the truth, and immerse yourself in it. And share that truth with the people who are around you. I think as you asked, to what extent should we be engaged in these kinds of discussions?

Be engaged in them. We're called to love our neighbors. And part of that is speaking the truth in love, respectfully, charitably, and being a part of this broader discussion.

And so I really appreciate the question. And I hope that all of us can ultimately rest our hope in the power of the gospel and in Jesus's promise to build the church. He's going to do that no matter what happens. And so we can be confident in that, brothers and sisters. As we've said before, the gates of hell shall not prevail against God's church. And so we should not be living in fear, right? We should have that confidence, that gospel confidence you talked about, Adriel.

That's right. And I mean, you just think about what Jesus Himself said in the gospels, the upper room discourse. We, the church, are going to experience, you know, there are people who aren't going to agree with us.

We recognize that. Jesus said it very clearly. The Apostle Paul said, everyone who desires to live a godly life in Jesus Christ is going to suffer persecution. Now, what that looks like is, you know, I think sometimes we here in the United States can really feel like, oh man, we're being so persecuted. And we don't face anything compared to what our brothers and sisters in other places like North Korea are facing. But there is certainly opposition to what we believe according to scripture.

And so how should we respond? Well, what does Jesus say? We love our neighbors, we pray for them, and we continue to preach the truth and to hold fast to it. We don't have to be afraid because we're with the Lord, and He's with us, and He promised to be with us to the end of the age.

Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, if you're new to this program, we would love to send you our Core Kit. It's absolutely free and has some great resources that we know will help you.

Yeah, if you have not gotten ahold of the Core Kit yet, please be sure to do that. It's a free resource for you. We get into some really important questions related to how to know whether or not you're a Christian. How can I have assurance and be confident in the fact that I truly belong to the Lord?

That's one of the questions that we get over and over again here on the broadcast. We have resources that speak to that. There's a DVD teaching series about how, essentially, God has written you into His great story, the story of reality, the story of the gospel in that He brings us in through His Son and calls us to follow Him.

A lot of wonderful resources there. Please get ahold of our Core Kit. It's free, and you can request it by going to corechristianity.com forward slash kit. That's corechristianity.com forward slash kit. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-843-2673.

Again, that's 833, the Core. Let's go to Cindy, who's calling us from Shawnee, Kansas. Cindy, welcome to Core Christianity.

Thank you for taking my call. We're approaching the Easter season, and I was reading in Mark's gospel in chapter 14, the scene at Gethsemane where Jesus is captured, and it speaks of a young man who runs away naked, and I'm wondering what the significance of that little part of the gospel is. Is that mark that ran? Is the nakedness a symbol of our sinful man fleeing, or what's the significance of that part of the story? Such a good question, Cindy, and it sort of is this mysterious scene in Mark chapter 15 verse 51. A young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. This is in the context of Jesus's arrest. There's this young man there who runs away naked, and I think maybe you're onto something there in terms of this being a picture of sin, nakedness, not being clothed.

What's really interesting, this is what I go to, is in chapter 16 we have another picture, quote unquote, of a young man, but this time he's clothed. In Mark chapter 16 in verse 5 and entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed, and he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here.

See the place where they have laid him. So you have this sort of bookend, the betrayal of Jesus prior to the crucifixion, this young man who flees naked there in the dark wilderness, if you will, and then afterwards a young man who's clothed there on the side of where Jesus had been placed, and he essentially proclaims the message of the resurrection. And so there are some who have said, well, you kind of have this picture, as you said, of nakedness, sin prior to the cross, and then after the cross, after the death of Jesus and the resurrection, you have the young man clothed. You know what's really interesting is in the ancient church, when they would baptize people, people are going to think this is totally wild, but oftentimes they would baptize them naked. It's kind of crazy. I'm glad we still don't do that.

I'm glad we don't do that anymore. But they would baptize them naked, and afterwards they would give them a white robe, this picture of being clothed. And oftentimes there's that sort of imagery, that baptismal imagery related to being clothed. You think about what Paul says, putting on the new man, that kind of a thing, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And so we really aren't given more than that, but I would say those two scenes right there in Mark, it actually was 14, not 15, Mark 14, 51, and then in Mark 16, verse 5, the picture of the two young men unclothed prior to the cross and then clothed after the cross and the resurrection. Cindy, thank you for that question. Good question, Cindy. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, I want to mention something. If you're a regular listener of our program, we would love to have you join the inner core. That is the group of people that keep this ministry on the air. For your gift of $25 a month, you'll receive exclusive benefits on a monthly basis, including a video devotional directly from Pastor Adriel. So if you want to check that out, just go to our website corechristianity.com. If you join the inner core, we'll send you a copy of Michael Horton's book, Core Christianity, the book that really launched this program, and you'll be signed up for those exclusive benefits. Let's go to Steve calling in from Linwood, Kansas. Steve, welcome to Core Christianity. Hello, thank you for taking my call. I certainly get a lot from your show.

Wonderful to hear, Steve. What's your question? Well, it plays with the topic that you're on right now, that all of the anti-gospel, anti-Christian, it seems, legislation that's so popular. We know probably where this comes from, but what do the legislators think they're doing? Do we have a view?

Yeah, well, I mean, Steve, it's really hard. I mean, I can't speculate about what they think they're doing. My assumption is, I mean, we live in this, what we might call a therapeutic society, a therapeutic age, where in the minds of so many, whatever a person wants to believe about themselves, we just need to let that be, and you are the master of your own destiny, that kind of a thing. And that really, that ideology has been bought hook, line, and sinker by so many in our culture today.

That's the sort of reigning ideology. And so I think one of the ways in which some of these politicians are thinking that they're helping is by legislating that ideology as well, as certainly it's not the truth that we embrace according to the word of God. And we also know on the basis of scripture, like you said, that we are in a spiritual war, and that it involves people's minds and their beliefs, and that the spirit of the antichrist is at work in the world today, trying to take our eyes off of Jesus and trying to destroy, essentially, the image of God in the world.

John said in 1 John 5 verse 19, we know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And that can be really, really discouraging for so many. But we also have the hope, as I've tried to stress, and I keep going back to this over and over again, because it's easy to look around us at the outside world and to feel like, oh man, it's so discouraging. Look at all these things, these legislations, these bills, so on and so forth. Well, look, brothers and sisters, we have the promise of the gospel. We have the Word of God. That's going to continue to advance throughout the end of the age. That's something we know, something we can rest in, and something we can celebrate. Word together.