A Warning To The General Superintendents of the Church of The Nazarene

“We are at a pivotal time in not only our nation’s history, but in the history and future of the Church of the Nazarene. A time more than ever when we as a church are in need of those with unflinching “backbone,” who are bold, courageous, strong, who will provide fearless leadership, and who will not compromise our convictions based on the irrefutable truth of Scripture.”

The following letter from Dr. Orville Jenkins Jr, written to the General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene, was sent a few months after the 2017 General Assembly.  It serves as a sober warning that the church is being corrupted from within. If the leadership continues to stand by idly, then the LGBT movement, led by the likes of Andy McGee and his Love Wins LGBT movement, will prevail and take over the Nazarene denomination completely. This letter was written in August, and since then, warnings from Dr. Jenkins and others seem to have gone unheeded.

It would be wise for the General Superintendents to heed the words of Dr. Jenkins. If not, homosexuality will be affirmed completely within the church someday soon, and the Church of the Nazarene will join the ranks of the Episcopalians and other heretical denominations.

 

August 24, 2017

Board of General Superintendents
Church of the Nazarene

Dear Board Members:

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, has said that the modern world is in a headlong rush to bury the remnants of the Christian conscience. The post-Christian character of contemporary Western culture is most clearly evident in the rejection of biblical ethics in favor of moral relativism.

Mohler further states that we must face the fact that this post-Christian morality is deeply rooted in a subtle form of atheism. And though most Americans habitually claim a belief in God…even some form of Christian identity…more and more Americans are ordering their lives as if God does not exist. Fewer and fewer care about what God thinks, obey what He commands, and submit to His authority…or even fear or worry about the consequences. It’s almost as if millions of Americans claim to believe in a god they no longer fear.

In fact, the breathtaking pace of the moral revolution now transforming Western cultures almost staggers belief. In the course of a single generation, traditional sexual morality based on the biblical standards of God’s law that has survived for thousands of years, is now giving way to a radically different moral understanding and acceptance.

At the forefront of this moral revolution has been the progression of the homosexual movement, which has been on a fast track. First, the gay activists came out of the closet; they then demanded their “rights.” It then didn’t take long before they demanded that everyone recognize those “rights;” and now they want to discriminate against, even criminalize, anyone who opposes them, including same-sex marriage.

As to same-sex marriage, Mohler has written, “For some time now, it has been increasingly clear that every congregation in this nation will be forced to declare itself openly on this issue. That moment of decision and public declaration will come to every Christian believer, individually. There will be no place to hide, and no place safe from eventual interrogation. The question will be asked, an invitation will be extended, a matter of policy must be decided, and there will be no refuge.”

And into this new moral worldview has come not only efforts to condone the perversions of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, but to celebrate their acceptance and normalcy, while at the same time, marginalizing, finding intolerant, and offering no allowance for anyone who might disagree, especially if their argument is based on the authority of God’s Word.

We are at a pivotal time in not only our nation’s history, but in the history and future of the Church of the Nazarene. A time more than ever when we as a church are in need of those with unflinching “backbone,” who are bold, courageous, strong, who will provide fearless leadership, and who will not compromise our convictions based on the irrefutable truth of Scripture. That means leadership which will not bend in the face of growing social and cultural pressures, nor cave in to whatever is religiously and politically expedient. And, it means leadership that will fervently direct our hearts and determination toward God.

Just a short time ago all of that seemed to be in place for Nazarenes here in the United States where we began. But recent trends, activities, and events have provided some uneasiness amid growing concerns that these intrusions may not all be that isolated or minuscule.

In the past five to six years we’ve had campus chaplains at two of our colleges/universities here in the U.S., in chapel messages they’ve delivered to students, in which they have taken issue with our church’s position on homosexuality. They have called for us to have a much more open and tolerant posture, with full participation allowed, and no restrictions placed upon people attending a Nazarene church, even though living in a homosexual lifestyle.

We have always welcomed anyone to seek and find the Lord in the worship and fellowship of a Nazarene congregation. Evangelism has been at the core of who we are since our beginning. And regardless of sexual orientation, our standards have always been to reserve full participation and membership for those in a right relationship with the Lord through their testimony, behavior, and lifestyle, based on our practices and beliefs that come from the authority of Scripture. But these chaplains were advocates for the removal of such barriers, especially regarding homosexuality, and with no accountability for doing so.

There have also been repeated efforts by outside homosexual groups to infiltrate and make their presence known on our U.S. Nazarene college/university campuses. One such group is known as SoulForce who have notified most of our schools of their intentions to visit their campus as a part of their “Equity Ride” tour, with the “heartfelt mission of creating dialogue about the inclusion and community climate of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) people” (quoting from their letter to our schools). They compared their effort to that of the Freedom Riders of the 60’s, seeking a similar liberation of what occurred for African Americans.

I can assure you that honest “dialogue” with us has not been this group’s real intent or design. That is always a ruse used by organized groups of homosexuals, whose real modus operandi is generally militant, confrontational, and always deceitful, of a licentious nature. Yet some of our Nazarene schools have invited them on to their campuses in the name of “Christian hospitality, honest conversation, clarity of biblical understanding,” and a fear that to do otherwise might create a backlash from the media. How naïve and weak on our part. Those are the last things SoulForce is honestly itching to discuss with us. And the media is already unsympathetic to church schools like ours, and in total support of the homosexual movement. So what real risk is there in simply saying no thank you?

Some of the conversation regarding this subject now beginning to appear in some of our churches and our schools today refers to a “conversation” that is “complex” and “difficult,” and to the “journey” of the “community of faith.”

The very capable leader of one of the schools of a sister denomination has made this astute observation: “When you start talking in that manner, it is emblematic of the real disease that is behind these symptoms. Perhaps without knowing it both the school and the church have capitulated to an emergent/postmodern view of the church that diminishes truth by implying it is the subjective product of a human conversation rather than an object revelation given by God.”

He further states, “We don’t talk about adultery as being ‘complex’ and being part of our ‘faith journey,’ nor should we. We don’t talk about pedophiles as being yet another ‘minority group’ struggling with their ‘identity,’ nor should we. We don’t talk about pre-marital sex (fornication…an unpopular word in our day) as being a ‘difficult’ issue in need of understanding and openness, nor should we.”

“So why,” he asks, “have we taken this particular issue of homosexuality and implicitly elevated it to some different level of accountability by putting it on the pedestal of ‘open dialogue’ and community debate?” God’s Word is what it is, and either we accept it as irrefutable truth and authority, or we don’t. And to not do so is symptomatic of an epistemological cancer running through the bloodstream of evangelical Christianity, now including the Church of the Nazarene.

Another indication that our moral resolve is weakening and we are questioning our moral responsibility and leadership as a denomination occurred on the floor of our General Assembly this summer when 97% of the delegates voted to remove the word “perversion” from our Manual statement on Human Sexuality as related to homosexuality. Since when did this behavior cease to be a perversion or aberration of God’s intended best for our lives? Our overwhelming action on this appears to be indicative that we have lost our moral courage as a church, and are now more concerned about “not offending” someone.

On a social level the term homosexuality is just one of a list of several sexual sins representing a perversion of sexual behavior that has always been viewed as wrong, sinful, peculiar, and perverted. And without question, forbidden in Scripture.

When U.S. Presidents Clinton and Obama each gave their blessings to sexual immorality in the form of promoting, commending, and celebrating homosexuality, they unleased the darkness of the principality of sexual perversion. Does that mean we as a church go along with their pronouncements by erasing our own description of perversion? If so, then a business known as Chick-fil-A has more moral clarity, values, and courage than does the Church of the Nazarene. For this restaurant chain has stood almost alone and solely on their biblical values and beliefs, and their desire to honor God, in the face of the assaults from the principality of homosexuality.

There is also now in existence, for the first time, a website known as Nazarene Ally, purportedly comprised of liberal Nazarenes dedicated to the support, cause, and goal of seeing our church embrace, condone, and welcome homosexuals into its accepted and full-fledged membership. Perhaps most shocking on this site are postings by those who identify themselves as Nazarene pastors or elders expressing their unabashed support for this cause. Where is the accountability in our church for “conduct unbecoming a minister in the Church of the Nazarene”?

But perhaps the most alarming and disturbing action associated with all of this also occurred during this summer’s General Assembly when the leadership of our church permitted, for the first time, an exhibition of the rainbow flag and the LGBT letters…world-wide symbols of the homosexual movement. And regardless of what rationale, reasons, or excuses for doing so were given, it was almost as if the false god of the Philistines in the Old Testament, Dagon, had been invited and given sanctuary in the presence of the one true, living, and holy God, Jehovah, and His people.

What I am saying I do so carefully, but strongly, with kindness and respect for each of you who hold the highest office in our church. I consider you as friends. But the Board of General Superintendents are the gatekeepers of our church. You are charged with protecting and guarding the people known as Nazarenes wherever they may be, just as the President of the United States or the leader of any sovereign nation is responsible for protecting the citizens of that nation. But on the watch of the Board in office this summer, that did not happen.

Allowing for the appearance of the rainbow flag and the LGBT letters in full display at a Nazarene General Assembly may have seemed innocuous, but it was not. If anything, it was embarrassingly naïve and foolish.

Those two symbols represent the homosexual community at all gay pride events, parades, and demonstrations, and are most always accompanied by antics spiritually offensive and blasphemous. Wherever the rainbow flag is hoisted and the LGBT letters appear, Christian values and morals are berated, openly scoffed at, made fun of, ridiculed, and even cursed. Often, participants will be dressed as nuns in a display of derision and mockery, and someone will purposefully walk holding a cross so it can be cursed and spat upon. Have you attended a gay pride march or parade recently?

At this year’s gay pride parade in Dublin, Ireland, a noose was tied around the neck of a caricature of Christ.

And in San Francisco these two symbols always appear with the most vile and depraved events in the homosexual community, much of what cannot be printed here. But one such event was openly advertised as “Food! Live Music! Debauchery!”…and at another, people were asked to come “Celebrate a Half Century of Hedonism,” all flanked by these same two symbols.

These symbols are also the banners of the most deviant groups within the homosexual movement. Have you never heard of NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, that advocates open sexual relations between men and boys of all ages? They also proudly include themselves among the various LGBT groups.

All of this is a picture of a culture that has lost its soul, yet whose symbols and emblems were given a place of recognition at our General Assembly, and are also allowed to represent a local Nazarene congregation where most of you reside and sit idly by.

In Winston Churchill’s famous “Never Give In” speech delivered in 1941 to students, not soldiers, and when the early days of WW II looked very bleak for Great Britain, he uttered the word “never” nine times. Three times he exclaimed, “Never give in.” Twice he said, “Never yield.” “Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

And, he said, “Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

Within a year Churchill’s resolve to persevere had caught on throughout the British Isles, and the hard fought battle began to gradually turn in favor of the Allies.

I say to you as the Board of General Superintendents for the Church of the Nazarene, never, never, never give in, appease, vacillate, accommodate, acquiesce, slacken, or apologize for your resolve in opposition to those who would want us to normalize homosexuality…or even soften or modify our stance in opposition…regardless of whatever reasons or arguments they may present.

Again I say…never, never, never give in…without even the slightest hint of doing so!

For if you as our leaders, or if we as a church, capitulate on this, a once great holiness denomination will no longer exist, with a one word obituary—Ichabod—for the glory of the Lord will have departed, all because we ceased to honor, believe, and trust the authority and irrevocable truth of Holy Scripture.

Sincerely,

Orville Jenkins, Jr.

End of letter

Related links:

https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/a-disturbing-report-nazarene-pastor-andy-mcgee-and-love-wins-lgbt-attack-and-protest-those-who-preach-freedom-from-homosexuality/

https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/nazarene-denomination-losing-its-way/homosexuality-what-does-god-think/

https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/a-response-to-dan-boones-report-on-soulforce/

 

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