This Scriptural study and commentary features many different Scriptural passages, and helps us begin to see that there is a long history of Eunuchs in Scriptures that most people have never heard of, because the Church has traditionally not taught on them. Many times, they have been purposely avoided altogether, because they debunk so many of the traditional teachings on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people that say we cannot be gay and also be Christian. In fact, most traditional teaching the Church has shared has stated that Jesus makes absolutely no references in Scripture to gay people at all, except to condemn us. When we look deeper though, we find much support for our faith and belief that Christ died for all people--including those of us who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender--whether the Church will ever say so or not.
One of my favorite movie lines of all times is:
Logic is the beginning of wisdom. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. --Mr. Spock--Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country--
To me, it is impossible to believe that God hates those of us who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Scriptures show us that Jesus died for all our sins, and that God loved the whole world. (John 3:16).
This tells me that God loves ALL His children. I believe Scripture also shows us His great purpose for the role of gay Christians as part of His divinely created order, as we examine the historical accounts of eunuchs contained in His Word. Over the past 40 years of my life, I have seen many people come to believe that the Church (both Catholic and Protestant) has become a religion based on the bigoted treatment of others. Over and over in Scripture, we see that the ancient Jewish religion also often operated in much the same way as we see in the modern Christian Church today. In the ancient world, and on up into our modern society, we see women treated as property, children disregarded and unprotected, the practice of slavery justified, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people treated as second class citizens. Sadly, many of these practices were justified based on what some people “said” the Bible said. This book is an attempt to shine a more accurate and Scriptural light on our understanding of LGBT people by examining God’s Word more closely, especially as it relates to Eunuchs.
As we progress through this study I believe we’ll see how Scripture reveals the same promises of God to modern day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as He does for our heterosexual brothers and sisters. I pray you’ll be blessed by these findings, and that God will open our eyes and ears to understand what His Holy Spirit is revealing to us at this point in human (and Church) history. As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people continue to make progress toward a more inclusive society, it is also necessary to help people understand the need of a more inclusive Church. I believe that just as God prophesied in Isaiah 56:1-8, His House of Prayer will finally become a House of Prayer for ALL people, including gay people, whom God refers to as eunuchs. Jesus also calls us eunuchs, and in Matthew 19:11-12 we read:
Why this book was written:
As a gay man, I know firsthand just how detrimental traditional Christian teachings can be to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, by those who would use Scriptures to condemn us, berate us, dehumanize us, vilify us, and even kill us, in the Name of God.
I also know firsthand how this can have a detrimental effect on one’s personal relationship with God, and how many Christians tend to push people away from God, rather than drawing people nearer to Him, simply because they don't know that the Scriptures actually speak loudly against such practices.
By sharing these truths, it is my hope that Christians will take another look at Scriptures they are familiar with, as well as to introduce them to Scriptures they likely don’t even know exist, because the Church has largely not taught on them.
It is not my goal to change anyone’s mind or beliefs. It is only my intent to share my own understanding of Scriptures as they pertain to eunuchs and modern day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals who are often told they cannot be both Christian and gay.
As a gay Christian myself, what I hope to expose are the myths and selective teachings of the Church (both Catholic and Protestant) regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of the Christian faith.
In the process of this work, I discovered many Scriptures that (once restored to their literary context) reveal gay marriage being ordained by the Apostle Paul, and even Jesus Christ Himself. I share how I discovered the long history of eunuchs within the pages of Scriptures, including the prophecies of God Himself that are not only dependent upon eunuchs for final fulfillment, but that also prevent the return Jesus until it is fulfilled, by making God’s House a House of Prayer for ALL People. Far more than a case for Biblical Gay Marriage, this book looks to the most significant advent of Christianity, and reveals roadblocks to Christ's return to the earth; roadblocks put in place by the Church itself, whether intentionally, or unintentionally.
It is also my intent to share with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, the facts about Scriptures that we have not heard of, and to shine another light on interpreting the Scriptures we have heard of. And it is my hope to bring people back into the Christian fold who have rejected their pursuit of a God they barely knew, because of the hurtful, demeaning, demoralizing and ignorance filled words from so many Christians that we've all known too well.
Finally, it is my highest hope and prayer that the revelations shared herein will encourage gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to return to the fold, empowered and emboldened to take their rightful and God-ordained place in His House of Prayer for ALL people.
If their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead!
Love, compassion, and encouragement will do wonders when empowered by God through the power of His Holy Spirit and the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. In an attempt to equip church ministry with a firm understanding of how best to approach the subject, I think that refuting traditional teaching that goes against the Word of God is the first place to start.
This book is an attempt to speak to the hearts and minds of believers everywhere in an effort to challenge them to set aside religious tradition, and embrace relationship, including a relationship with those of us who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, and for one reason only: for the increasing of the Kingdom of Heaven! God promises great rewards to those who preach the good news of the Gospel, and has given us the Great Commission to preach it to every living creature....not just those who think and act like we do.
It is my hope that this writing empowers people everywhere to press in to what Scriptures really have to say regarding those of us who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, as well as our families. It is my fervent desire that the fruit of this information is one of a greater understanding that regardless of what Christianity has traditionally taught regarding being gay and Christian, that indeed there is a place for us at the King’s Table, and that the return of Jesus Christ is Scripturally dependent upon us being there!
So let’s get started! But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].
And then Romans 11:15 asks us to consider:Religion vs. Forgiveness
This book is also an effort to make sure that people who find themselves being persecuted by Church Shepherds for being gay will have a resource to study it out for themselves, based on God’s Word, instead of relying only on religious traditions of men. Who knows how many teenagers will read this book and have the strength and courage to ask for help upon realizing they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, instead of committing suicide as so many do. What if we could help people understand who they are in Christ, before they grew hostile toward God or His Word, or before they left their church, their families, or even their very lives in some cases?
I deeply believe this book will help them as well as those who love and minister to them, if accompanied with godly, loving and understanding Biblical counsel. Condemnation, rebukes, and ill-informed messages of damnation will not help. As we have seen over the past 50 years, it simply drives people further away from each other, rather than bringing them together. In 2 Corinthians 5:18, Jesus gave each one of us the ministry of reconciliation:“Jesus said to them, Not all men can accept this saying, but it is for those to whom [the capacity to receive] it has been given. For there are eunuchs who have been born incapable of marriage; and there are eunuchs who have been made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves incapable of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him who is able to accept this accept it.”
I recall the day I read these Scriptures more than 30 years ago during a Sunday School class, and realized only recently how much they were actually great news for me, and to millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people all over the world. In this study, I hope to illustrate why I believe they will also become great news for the entire Body of Christ. Realizing that “born eunuchs” and GLBT people are one and the same took a greater understanding of the Scriptures than I realized, because the church and its theologians have been selective in their definitions of the word "eunuch." I believe the reason for this is to keep the true meaning of the term "born eunuch" hidden away, in order to comply with the disdain most heterosexual people have held toward gay people throughout history.
But within the historical accounts of eunuchs throughout Scripture, we see a subtle yet unmistakable similarity between us. The purpose of this book is to share those discoveries that began to reveal a message of hope for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people that has heretofore been purposely hidden over the centuries, by the Church itself.
It is not my goal to “convince” anyone of anything. Instead, I intend only to share what I believe is Good News from the Word of God with those who have an ear to hear, and a heart to receive, what I believe is a new and profound light on the subject of LGBT people being accepted as full participants in the Kingdom of Heaven. I also hope to encourage and empower those of us who have been excluded from God’s promises for centuries to lay hold of all that His Word promises us, as we begin to understand and fulfill our Scriptural and prophetic purposes in God’s Kingdom.
For the Church, accepting this means that we can finally put aside our religious traditions and begin to truly reach out and embrace all of God’s people, including those of us who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. For LGBT Believers, this means a new call from the Good Shepherd’s own voice as He beckons us into God’s Kingdom with the very Word of God that so many have used to condemn us, and finding instead that it promises more than we could dare hope, think or dream.
As a gay man ostracized by the Church and society, many times I felt condemned to a life of hopelessness. I had no hope of knowing God, no hope of a marriage, no hope of children, no hope of serving in ministry, and no hope of ever having free access to the same faith and hope in Christ that He died to give you and me. Discovering these Scriptural truths regarding eunuchs meant that perhaps there was something the Church was not telling us.
This led me to more thoroughly study the Scriptures for myself, and in doing so, I found that God actually has a very special purpose in His Kingdom for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. In fact, as we'll explore later on, the very return of Jesus Christ is dependent upon the church's inclusion of gay people, and our full participation in all the privileges and sacraments afforded to all other Christian believers. The only problem was, I didn't really know what a eunuch was, aside from being a castrated man, a person who had chosen celibacy, or someone who served in a king's palace. I share now how I came to the conclusion that the "born eunuchs" Jesus discussed in Matthew 19:11-12 are the same as modern day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, as well as what all that means to those of us who profess our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Through sharing the discoveries I have made regarding eunuchs in Scripture, I discovered Biblical support for gays, lesbian, bisexual and transgender believers to at long last be afforded the same promises that God grants to all other believers. This would include the ability to marry the person God has chosen for us, adopt the children God has assigned to us, find a supportive church family that God has prepared for us, and to become ordained clergy in God’s House of Prayer for ALL people, so we can faithfully, joyfully, and Scripturally begin building strong families, regardless of our sexuality.
I hope by revealing these truths that Church Shepherds of all denominations will soon begin to bring more souls into the Kingdom of Heaven than any other generation has ever seen, as GLBT Believers and their families begin returning to Church. I look forward to the day that all believers will be free of the shame and stigma that was once associated with being a parent or friend or relative of someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
One of my favorite movie lines of all times is:
Logic is the beginning of wisdom. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. --Mr. Spock--Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country--
To me, it is impossible to believe that God hates those of us who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Scriptures show us that Jesus died for all our sins, and that God loved the whole world. (John 3:16).
This tells me that God loves ALL His children. I believe Scripture also shows us His great purpose for the role of gay Christians as part of His divinely created order, as we examine the historical accounts of eunuchs contained in His Word. Over the past 40 years of my life, I have seen many people come to believe that the Church (both Catholic and Protestant) has become a religion based on the bigoted treatment of others. Over and over in Scripture, we see that the ancient Jewish religion also often operated in much the same way as we see in the modern Christian Church today. In the ancient world, and on up into our modern society, we see women treated as property, children disregarded and unprotected, the practice of slavery justified, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people treated as second class citizens. Sadly, many of these practices were justified based on what some people “said” the Bible said. This book is an attempt to shine a more accurate and Scriptural light on our understanding of LGBT people by examining God’s Word more closely, especially as it relates to Eunuchs.
As we progress through this study I believe we’ll see how Scripture reveals the same promises of God to modern day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as He does for our heterosexual brothers and sisters. I pray you’ll be blessed by these findings, and that God will open our eyes and ears to understand what His Holy Spirit is revealing to us at this point in human (and Church) history. As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people continue to make progress toward a more inclusive society, it is also necessary to help people understand the need of a more inclusive Church. I believe that just as God prophesied in Isaiah 56:1-8, His House of Prayer will finally become a House of Prayer for ALL people, including gay people, whom God refers to as eunuchs. Jesus also calls us eunuchs, and in Matthew 19:11-12 we read:
Why this book was written:
As a gay man, I know firsthand just how detrimental traditional Christian teachings can be to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, by those who would use Scriptures to condemn us, berate us, dehumanize us, vilify us, and even kill us, in the Name of God.
I also know firsthand how this can have a detrimental effect on one’s personal relationship with God, and how many Christians tend to push people away from God, rather than drawing people nearer to Him, simply because they don't know that the Scriptures actually speak loudly against such practices.
By sharing these truths, it is my hope that Christians will take another look at Scriptures they are familiar with, as well as to introduce them to Scriptures they likely don’t even know exist, because the Church has largely not taught on them.
It is not my goal to change anyone’s mind or beliefs. It is only my intent to share my own understanding of Scriptures as they pertain to eunuchs and modern day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals who are often told they cannot be both Christian and gay.
As a gay Christian myself, what I hope to expose are the myths and selective teachings of the Church (both Catholic and Protestant) regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of the Christian faith.
In the process of this work, I discovered many Scriptures that (once restored to their literary context) reveal gay marriage being ordained by the Apostle Paul, and even Jesus Christ Himself. I share how I discovered the long history of eunuchs within the pages of Scriptures, including the prophecies of God Himself that are not only dependent upon eunuchs for final fulfillment, but that also prevent the return Jesus until it is fulfilled, by making God’s House a House of Prayer for ALL People. Far more than a case for Biblical Gay Marriage, this book looks to the most significant advent of Christianity, and reveals roadblocks to Christ's return to the earth; roadblocks put in place by the Church itself, whether intentionally, or unintentionally.
It is also my intent to share with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, the facts about Scriptures that we have not heard of, and to shine another light on interpreting the Scriptures we have heard of. And it is my hope to bring people back into the Christian fold who have rejected their pursuit of a God they barely knew, because of the hurtful, demeaning, demoralizing and ignorance filled words from so many Christians that we've all known too well.
Finally, it is my highest hope and prayer that the revelations shared herein will encourage gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to return to the fold, empowered and emboldened to take their rightful and God-ordained place in His House of Prayer for ALL people.
If their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead!
Love, compassion, and encouragement will do wonders when empowered by God through the power of His Holy Spirit and the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. In an attempt to equip church ministry with a firm understanding of how best to approach the subject, I think that refuting traditional teaching that goes against the Word of God is the first place to start.
This book is an attempt to speak to the hearts and minds of believers everywhere in an effort to challenge them to set aside religious tradition, and embrace relationship, including a relationship with those of us who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, and for one reason only: for the increasing of the Kingdom of Heaven! God promises great rewards to those who preach the good news of the Gospel, and has given us the Great Commission to preach it to every living creature....not just those who think and act like we do.
It is my hope that this writing empowers people everywhere to press in to what Scriptures really have to say regarding those of us who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, as well as our families. It is my fervent desire that the fruit of this information is one of a greater understanding that regardless of what Christianity has traditionally taught regarding being gay and Christian, that indeed there is a place for us at the King’s Table, and that the return of Jesus Christ is Scripturally dependent upon us being there!
So let’s get started! But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].
And then Romans 11:15 asks us to consider:Religion vs. Forgiveness
This book is also an effort to make sure that people who find themselves being persecuted by Church Shepherds for being gay will have a resource to study it out for themselves, based on God’s Word, instead of relying only on religious traditions of men. Who knows how many teenagers will read this book and have the strength and courage to ask for help upon realizing they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, instead of committing suicide as so many do. What if we could help people understand who they are in Christ, before they grew hostile toward God or His Word, or before they left their church, their families, or even their very lives in some cases?
I deeply believe this book will help them as well as those who love and minister to them, if accompanied with godly, loving and understanding Biblical counsel. Condemnation, rebukes, and ill-informed messages of damnation will not help. As we have seen over the past 50 years, it simply drives people further away from each other, rather than bringing them together. In 2 Corinthians 5:18, Jesus gave each one of us the ministry of reconciliation:“Jesus said to them, Not all men can accept this saying, but it is for those to whom [the capacity to receive] it has been given. For there are eunuchs who have been born incapable of marriage; and there are eunuchs who have been made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves incapable of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him who is able to accept this accept it.”
I recall the day I read these Scriptures more than 30 years ago during a Sunday School class, and realized only recently how much they were actually great news for me, and to millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people all over the world. In this study, I hope to illustrate why I believe they will also become great news for the entire Body of Christ. Realizing that “born eunuchs” and GLBT people are one and the same took a greater understanding of the Scriptures than I realized, because the church and its theologians have been selective in their definitions of the word "eunuch." I believe the reason for this is to keep the true meaning of the term "born eunuch" hidden away, in order to comply with the disdain most heterosexual people have held toward gay people throughout history.
But within the historical accounts of eunuchs throughout Scripture, we see a subtle yet unmistakable similarity between us. The purpose of this book is to share those discoveries that began to reveal a message of hope for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people that has heretofore been purposely hidden over the centuries, by the Church itself.
It is not my goal to “convince” anyone of anything. Instead, I intend only to share what I believe is Good News from the Word of God with those who have an ear to hear, and a heart to receive, what I believe is a new and profound light on the subject of LGBT people being accepted as full participants in the Kingdom of Heaven. I also hope to encourage and empower those of us who have been excluded from God’s promises for centuries to lay hold of all that His Word promises us, as we begin to understand and fulfill our Scriptural and prophetic purposes in God’s Kingdom.
For the Church, accepting this means that we can finally put aside our religious traditions and begin to truly reach out and embrace all of God’s people, including those of us who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. For LGBT Believers, this means a new call from the Good Shepherd’s own voice as He beckons us into God’s Kingdom with the very Word of God that so many have used to condemn us, and finding instead that it promises more than we could dare hope, think or dream.
As a gay man ostracized by the Church and society, many times I felt condemned to a life of hopelessness. I had no hope of knowing God, no hope of a marriage, no hope of children, no hope of serving in ministry, and no hope of ever having free access to the same faith and hope in Christ that He died to give you and me. Discovering these Scriptural truths regarding eunuchs meant that perhaps there was something the Church was not telling us.
This led me to more thoroughly study the Scriptures for myself, and in doing so, I found that God actually has a very special purpose in His Kingdom for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. In fact, as we'll explore later on, the very return of Jesus Christ is dependent upon the church's inclusion of gay people, and our full participation in all the privileges and sacraments afforded to all other Christian believers. The only problem was, I didn't really know what a eunuch was, aside from being a castrated man, a person who had chosen celibacy, or someone who served in a king's palace. I share now how I came to the conclusion that the "born eunuchs" Jesus discussed in Matthew 19:11-12 are the same as modern day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, as well as what all that means to those of us who profess our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Through sharing the discoveries I have made regarding eunuchs in Scripture, I discovered Biblical support for gays, lesbian, bisexual and transgender believers to at long last be afforded the same promises that God grants to all other believers. This would include the ability to marry the person God has chosen for us, adopt the children God has assigned to us, find a supportive church family that God has prepared for us, and to become ordained clergy in God’s House of Prayer for ALL people, so we can faithfully, joyfully, and Scripturally begin building strong families, regardless of our sexuality.
I hope by revealing these truths that Church Shepherds of all denominations will soon begin to bring more souls into the Kingdom of Heaven than any other generation has ever seen, as GLBT Believers and their families begin returning to Church. I look forward to the day that all believers will be free of the shame and stigma that was once associated with being a parent or friend or relative of someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
