Nathan Green, Minot

I am responding to an editorial dated February 18, 2023, titled “Support legislation that reflects North Dakota values.” After reading this article, I see the false, no repentance gospel is alive and well in certain denominations across our state. The article states that, “We believe Jesus preached a Gospel that embraces the marginalized. We believe that LGBTQ+ people are beloved children of God.”

The gospel (good news) that Jesus preached required repentance and faith. He condemned self-righteousness by highlighting the utter impossibility of a human being with a sinful nature keeping God’s law perfectly. Jesus also communicated the utter necessity of God’s free grace in salvation by providing His son as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of His people, because they couldn’t do it themselves. We’re all familiar with John 3:16 that says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Finally, he went out of His way to profile an authentic disciple as one who obeys God’s commandments. In fact, one of the last instructions He gave to his followers was to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that He commanded.

Declaring a lifelong, unrepentant homosexual to be a beloved child of God is unscriptural. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church wrote, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Notice how the apostle says, such were some of you. In other words, they repented and believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They stopped practicing these things and started to obey God’s commandments.

The authors of the February 18th article were concerned that the ND legislators were targeting the LGBTQ+ community with fear-based bills such as banning trans athletes and endorsing gender conversion therapy in an attempt to remove them from participating as members of our society, Church, and communities. The authors went on to state that the real threats to our children are “poverty, hunger, lack of health care, gun violence, bigotry, social pressures, mental health… and bills like these.” As damaging as these potential threats would be, they pale in comparison to our children going to a church where this false gospel is preached, and they are continually being told you’re a child of God, but they have no genuine affections for God evidenced by a changed lifestyle because the true gospel is not taught.

Lastly, this is not a political article whatsoever, but I do want to encourage the ND legislators not to be fooled by this false gospel. In recent history, the Canadian government passed Bill C-4 which banned conversion therapy because it relies on the assumption that sexual orientation can be changed or cured. In other words, the Canadian government criminalized that nasty “R” word of repentance. By doing so, Canadian legislators deemed the LGBTQ+ community to be unworthy of eternal life. If you are discerning and care about the souls of the LGBTQ+ community, you will not repeat the same mistakes our neighbors to the north did in November 2021.