NOW GOLDFISH HAVE RIGHTS

Guest (Male): This is Viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now, with today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.
Chuck Crismier: It may be stunning, but absolutely true. Goldfish now have been declared to have rights. That's right, goldfish. So if you or your child has a nice little bowl with goldfish in it, be assured they have been declared to have rights. At least rights themselves. But who is going to enforce those rights, by the way? How will the goldfish enforce the rights that have been granted to them? Welcome, my friends, to the reprobate mind. I'm glad that you joined us here today on Viewpoint. It's conversation, as always, with ever-increasing conviction, talk that transforms. Today we don't look just at goldfish, but we look at fish. We look at dogs, we look at horses, we look at animals in general. In fact, we look at plants because all have been given rights now, animals and plants. In fact, the whole Mother Earth has been given deity. Deity Mother Earth has become a god or a goddess in her own rights. In fact, Mother Earth has gradually been replacing Father God for a very long time. In fact, not only has that happened in the area of environmentalism and so on, but also with regard to the whole idea of whether men or fathers should have authority in their homes. When a famous actress sets forth her statement in one of these great honoring entertainment programs, declaring before the world, "Down with patriarchy," what she's basically saying is up with matriarchy and up also with Mother Earth. So we're tying all these things together here on Viewpoint today because it's showing the trajectory of what's happening with the human mind and heart. The issue is the heart. The heart of man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Said the prophet Jeremiah, and it's absolutely true. What's happened to the heart? Well, you might say some of these things have been around for a very long period of time. It's called paganism. Well, that's true. So are we increasingly becoming pagan? The answer is yes. How do we know that? Well, we just see what's happening. We look and see what's happening. Even our courts are becoming pagan across the world. The United Nations has become openly pagan through environmentalism. Today on Viewpoint, we take a look at the bigger picture, and I'm glad again that you have joined us. Before we go further, I want to make available to you again the special offer that we have discussed called the Overcomers Project. My latest book, the 12th book, called The Power to Overcome, is a very, very important book for these times in which we are living. In fact, it's exceedingly important. My wife and I were talking about it just the other day, and she's been reading it. She says, "Chuck, this is so direct. It's so simple, and yet it's exactly the way things really are today." People don't realize. They don't realize what needs to be overcome, how, and why. And so that's what the book deals with, The Power to Overcome. Jesus made very clear in the book of Revelation, eight times, that we must be overcomers if indeed we are to inherit His promises and His salvation. We must be overcomers. No, you can't earn your salvation. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking, though, about living the life that is pleasing to God and consistent with our claim of salvation. The Power to Overcome. It's going to be a very, very important thing for every human being, particularly for professing Christians. So the book is designated to professing Christians. The Overcomers Project enables you, as a listener, who doesn't necessarily have the ability or calling to write such a message but who can help disseminate that message in your sphere of influence. So the book is $25 each. For your gift of $250 to Save America Ministries, we will provide 10 copies of the book, The Power to Overcome, in your hand so that you then can put it in the hands of those that you feel the Holy Spirit would put on your heart to give that book. Because you care for them. You're concerned about them. It might be a relative, it might be a friend, it might be a co-worker, it might be a pastor. When you think about pastors, just today, I received word that in a congregation here in Richmond, Virginia, a very respected evangelical congregation, two of the pastors were recently caught in a sex scam. In other words, they were not overcomers. They were overcome. You think that didn't affect the congregation? You think that doesn't affect their lives? You think that doesn't affect their families? You think it doesn't affect their standing before God? Think again. Pastor and people alike must be overcomers. Jesus said, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." In other words, to we the people who claim to be His followers. So I urge you to become a partner in this particular project, the Overcomers Project. How do you do that? You go to the website saveus.org, and click on right there on the homepage, donations, how to make donations. It'll lead you to give a choice with regard to participating in the Overcomers Project. That's one way. The next way is to give us a call at 1-800-SAVEUSA. That's 1-800-SAVEUSA and say, "I'd like to participate in the Overcomers Project." And then we'll provide the necessary information, get the information from you, and put you on the list. The books now have been delivered. They are available. They're not available anywhere else right now but through Save America Ministries. Nowhere else can you get them. They're only available through Save America Ministries at this moment. In fact, they haven't even been released to the public yet. It's true. They haven't been released to the public yet. The other way, the third way, is to write a check and send it to Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255. Writing a check, actually, you're not going to have to write anything for postage and handling because we're absorbing that. Remember, you're not actually buying books in this instance. You're making a donation to Save America Ministries within the purpose for which this ministry has been established as a 501(c)(3) organization. And therefore, your gift is tax-deductible, and we are providing within the purpose of this organization those books to be disseminated as a message for our time. If you write a check, you need to send a note or put on your check "Overcomers Project." You need to be explicit about that. Otherwise, we will not know what that check is for. All right, I hope you'll become part of the Overcomers Project. Time is increasingly short, friends, as you will see since goldfish now have rights. We'll be right back.
Guest (Male): Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once-great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues, and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the Fourth Commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or anytime at saveus.org.
Chuck Crismier: For all you goldfish lovers out there, in a ruling that could disrupt goldfish tanks all over the world, a court in Argentina has concluded that they are sentient beings, that is, feeling beings with rights. It's documented, the people report documented the stunner, explained the ruling will help protect other fish kept in conditions that they consider to amount to cruelty. There were two fish that were at the center of this legal battle now that had been supposedly rescued from a display tank at a sushi restaurant in Buenos Aires. The report said that the goldfish named Fifi and Magui had been living in a roughly 40-liter, that's about 10.5-gallon, glass tank mounted to the side of a sushi restaurant where they were exposed to direct sunlight, traffic noise, and the elements. It shouldn't be allowed, said an animal sanctuary organization who brought the legal case. Anyone passing by and stopping to look could see it wasn't suitable for the fish, they said. So the fight was over Argentina's law that actually bans animal abuse and cruelty. The plaintiffs, with or without the approval of the goldfish, demanded the court declare them to be subjects of law or sentient beings with legal rights. The court said yes. So Fifi and Magui were removed from the restaurant and relocated to a 660-gallon aquarium at the home of an expert who volunteered to care for them, the report said. So these goldfish were declared to have rights that they themselves could not enforce. They themselves could not go before the court. They required humans to go before the court in order to grant them rights. Were they human rights? Well, not completely, but they were sentient rights. In other words, they had feelings. Of course, Mother Earth is said to have feelings too, so she has rights. In fact, she not only has rights, she is tantamount to a deity. She must be respected and rewarded as a deity because our rights don't come from God. Our provision comes from Mother Earth. That's what we're being told, and that trajectory is carrying on increasingly across the world. While traditional human rights apply strictly to people, a growing global movement recognizes what they call rights of nature, legal personhood for animals and plants. Are you listening? Legal personhood for animals and plants. Ecuador leads this by legally recognizing wild animals as constitutional rights holders. Now over 30 countries, including Switzerland, Germany, and New Zealand, legally recognize animal sentience. So the push for animal and plant rights is divided into two primary legal concepts. The first has to do with legal personhood, the rights of nature. Several nations have granted ecosystems, specific plants, and animals the legal right to exist and to regenerate. In other words, a human that messes with that is a criminal, tantamount to murder. In Ecuador, the first country to embed the rights of nature into its national constitution in a landmark ruling, its constitutional court declared wild animals to be rights holders with the intrinsic right to exist, free from trafficking and hunting. In New Zealand, the forest was declared to have legal status as a person. In Colombia, the constitutional court recognized the Colombian Amazon, the river, and the Andean bear as legal subjects of rights. In Bolivia, they passed the Mother Earth laws, which grant nature the rights to life, water, and clean air. In the US, indigenous nations have passed the Rights of Manoomin law, making wild rice the first plant legally granted enforceable rights. Wild rice, my friends. Then the second area of legal concept is the recognition of animal sentience. That means capable of feeling. Over 30 countries, including nearly all members of the European Union, have formally passed legislation acknowledging that non-human animals are sentient beings capable of feeling pain and experiencing emotions. So member states like Austria, France, Spain, and the Netherlands have updated their civil codes to classify animals as sentient living beings rather than mere property. In fact, Spain, about a year ago, declared apes or chimpanzees to have such rights, tantamount to human rights virtually. Switzerland, known for the strictest animal welfare laws globally, mandates that social animals like guinea pigs have to be kept in pairs and factors animal dignity into its federal constitution. In India, they ruled in 2018 that the entire animal kingdom has the legal rights of a living person. Did you hear that? In India, one of the largest countries by population, in fact, the largest in the world by population, the entire animal kingdom has the legal rights of a person. So what's going on here? How are we to understand this? Is there any way to truly understand it? That's what we want to focus on here for the balance of the program today. And it all goes back to a more generic term called Mother Nature. So I asked the question to the tremendous wisdom of AI: Can Mother Nature be considered a deity? So here was the response.
Guest (Male): A whole list of people were responding to this question and giving their viewpoints concerning the deification of Mother Nature. One says, "For me, Mother Nature, the earth, is very much a deity." Another says, "I exclusively worship nature and life on earth or the biosphere and use the name Gaia to refer to her, so you can say I'm an earth worshipper. Gaia for me is the living, entirely earthy, tangible, and entire mortal web of life." Another says, "Absolutely. Mother Earth is to me as the moon and the sun are to me as well, deity." Another says, "Yes, on a planet scale, the collective consciousness of life on earth is intelligent. Earth is a deity, and so is the sun." Another says, "I have met Gaia several times now. She's beautiful. She is earth, she is goddess." Another writes, "Mother Nature is whom I focus on most. She is also life. She gives us life, air to breathe, and water and food." Notice, it isn't God who gives you life, it's Mother Earth. It isn't Father God, He is to be feared. No, it's Mother Earth. She is the one who hugs you and loves you and gives, at her tender and loving mercy and will, all your provision. Forget about Father God. Another writes, "I subscribe to some view between Wiccan, Catholic, and pagan. Heaven is earth to me. The Garden of Eden we call home. When I'm done, I don't move on elsewhere. I will be consumed for the cycle to renew. So yes, in short, I do worship Mother Earth and Mother Nature."
Chuck Crismier: Now, those are just illustrative comments coming to the question: Is Mother Nature deity? Next, I asked: Is Mother Nature a god? Well, not a single specific goddess, says Google, but rather a universal personification of the natural world. So we worship nature and nature's God. While Mother Nature, as we colloquially use the term today, is often poetic or a symbolic figure, the concept itself is deeply rooted in the worship of earth and fertility goddesses throughout history. So there you have it. Goldfish, chimpanzees, dogs, whatever animal you can think of, even plants, sentient creatures and given personification rights, personhood. Personhood rights, enabling them to have, shall we say, standing before the courts of men for enforcement of those rights. Isn't it interesting that all of these rights are being granted to sentient creatures such as animals and plants, but not little babies in the womb? Isn't that interesting? Where's the hue and cry about that? Where is the cry to go before the courts and say on behalf of this little baby in the womb, "This life is sentient. It has feelings. This is a human being. It should be protected under the courts of law." But it is not. Why? We need to ask ourselves that question. And here's another question: Why is it that bestiality is illegal? Why is bestiality illegal? Why is it that a lawyer was recently charged with a number of felony charges for bestiality relations with a horse? Why is that? Was it because it was sin? Was it because it was contrary to the laws of God? No. It had nothing to do with sin. It had nothing to do with the laws of God. It had to do with the feelings and rights of the horse. So much for the word horsing around, right? On the surface of things, it all sounds so silly. But it's not silly at all. In fact, it goes to the very heart of the times that we live in on the near edge of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, that may sound strange to you, but I'm going to prove it right from the book of Romans, chapter one. And so I welcome you to go there if you have a Bible that's handy. This isn't so much as a Bible study per se, but we're going to go to what the Apostle Paul has to say about these times. He says in chapter one, starting with verse 18, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Now, what is the truth that he's talking about? He's talking about generically the greater truth that God is God. He's the creator of heaven and earth. He's the creator of life. He is the creator of Adam and Eve and all who come after them, human beings, that He charges human beings to be accountable to Him because they were made in His image. In the image of God created He them. Male and female created He them. This is the foundational truth against which unrighteousness prevails. And the Apostle Paul is going to show us that in the following passages. Remember, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Not unrighteousness of goldfish, not unrighteousness of chimpanzees or your favorite plant. Paul says it's because that which may be known of God is manifest or made clear in these other people, for God has showed it unto them. In other words, they're not ignorant. God has made plain animals are not to be held accountable as human beings. They do not have human rights. We should respect them as made by God for His purposes for human beings. But beyond that, they don't come close to having human rights or human responsibility. Why is it we're so interested in rights and not responsibilities? Have you wondered that? We'll be right back.
Guest (Male): There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry, marriage, and morals. Saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage. What does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project. Saveus.org. And many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcast live and archived, Save America Ministries website at saveus.org.
Chuck Crismier: Again, I welcome you back to Viewpoint. As we open the program today, we discovered that goldfish now have been granted personal rights. Not human rights, but personal rights. They are legitimately persons now in Argentina and have a right to be protected as such. And so the courts have ruled. In fact, almost every nation in the European Union has adopted such similar kinds of legislation or constitutional amendments and so on to grant so-called sentient creatures, in other words, animals, personhood. I don't know who, how any of these animals have standing to come before the court because they don't have the ability to speak. They don't have the ability to write. They don't have the ability to respond to the laws of men. They don't have any of that. So I wonder if you have to go before the court to have a legal guardianship appointed by the court over the goldfish before they can be represented. If a human being is deemed to not be able to have the mental ability, physical ability, and so on to conduct business, to conduct their affairs, then you have to go before the court to have a guardian appointed, a legal guardian. So do you have to have a legal guardian for a goldfish? Or for a dog or for your favorite cow or whatever it happens to be? Just asking because I don't find that in these laws. So how are these sentient beings going to present their cases to court? Is it just open sesame, everybody, carte blanche, can go in and represent this plant and that plant and this animal and that? Maybe a lizard. They're going to go in, next thing you'll find a lizard in a cage, and somebody's going to say, "That's not nice, that's not fair. That lizard should be in its open environment. I'm going to bring a court case on the behalf of the lizard." It's interesting we don't find these court cases being brought on behalf of an individual child in the womb. Does this not seem very strange to you? Well, apparently it is strange, but there's a reason for its strangeness, and the Apostle Paul talks about that in Romans, chapter one. For he says, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Because, listen to this, "That which may be known of God is manifest or made clear to them, for God has showed it to them." In other words, this isn't hard to understand. As a human being made in the image of God, it should be a given. Unless, of course, you don't revere God as the creator of heaven and earth. You believe something else is responsible for your well-being. That God isn't the one who gave us liberty, the law gives it to us, or plants gave it to us, or animals gave it to us, or Mother Nature gave it to us. For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world, said the Apostle Paul, "are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." In other words, humankind is without excuse for believing this kind of nonsense. When you abandon God as God, you reject Him as God as the creator of all things, then you have to find a substitute to worship because humankind will always need something to worship. Some people worship sex, some worship money, some worship power, some worship politics, some worship gold and silver or some kind of special thing that they own that nobody else owns, like the $50 million watches we talked about the other day. That's right, $50 million for a watch because it makes you all proud that nobody else owns it. The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen. In other words, you don't have to become a theologian to understand these things. It should be plain on its face. Because, now the Apostle Paul goes in to try to tell us now what happens. What has happened, what was going to happen in our world as we approach the end of the age. "Because when they knew God, they refused to glorify Him as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." So the word imaginations in the Greek actually means reasonings and thoughts. So they become foolish in their reasonings and thoughts, and their foolish hearts become darkened. That's what's been happening. In fact, the whole world, including the Western world that was once known as the Christian world, is becoming pagan, reverting to paganism. And this granting of sentient or personhood to animals and plants is a manifestation, it is a manifestation under color of law that seems to offer some sort of legitimacy to this, that you can reason and rationalize why somebody might do it. But the reason is because we've abandoned God and His authority. We no longer have respect for God who created all things for our benefit. Not for the benefit of the animals, for the benefit of the human beings on the planet. He created the plants and the trees for an environment for humankind. There's no other environment in the universe, according to science, that is sufficient, appropriate for sustaining life. They keep looking for it, but it's not there. This is the planet that God ordained for that purpose. This is the focus from God's viewpoint. So professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. Now, that's what's happening. People think that all of this business about looking at sentient beings and so on and plants and so on, we don't want to treat them cavalierly, and I agree with that. I've had a number of dogs. We don't treat them cavalierly. We treat them as made by God for the purpose and enjoyment of human beings, and we treat them accordingly. But we don't treat them accordingly because they are sentient beings, but because they are given by God. And yes, they do, because they're given by God, they do have feelings and so on. Therefore, for that reason, we treat them rightly, not abusively. But if we have abandoned God as the foundation, then we are left to our own devices to create our own systems of righteousness. So these new laws that are gaining traction throughout the entire Western world, so-called Christian world of the past, are manifestations that we have abandoned the God who made and preserved us a nation, the God of history, the Christ of glory, and have substituted then other things that must be worshipped, which overarching is Mother Earth. So what happens as a result of this shifting in thinking over time? Paul says, "Wherefore God gives us up to uncleanness through our lusts to dishonor even our own bodies with themselves." And that's what's happening. It's happening all over the world. It's happening all over the Western world, just as it was in paganism, sexual orgies and so on in the worship of Mother Earth. Regardless of the continent in which you live, those kinds of things have taken place, sexual orgies and the mistreatment of bodies of human beings created in the image of God have then been abused in the worship of Mother Nature. Do you not realize that's what happened to the children of Israel? Remember when Moses went up to Mount Sinai as called by God and was up there for 40 days and 40 nights to receive the Ten Commandments and to be ministered to by God to bring the message down to the people? And guess what happened? They said, "This guy Moses, he's been gone for a long time. What are we going to do? We've got to have something to worship. We've got to have something to replace him." So they encouraged Moses' brother Aaron to build them a god, a golden calf. Take all their earrings, their gold, and composite them together and build a golden calf. And what did they do? They worshipped the golden calf as the physical manifestation of Mother Nature. And they began to dance around and cavort and conduct themselves sexually in ways that were very displeasing to God. And when Moses came down from the mount and saw what the people were doing, he took the Ten Commandments and smashed them on the ground. What do you think God would do? That's why this says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all of this ungodliness and unrighteousness. We'll be back, friends. We're not finished yet.
Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a hard longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by His Spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family, and it was said by all who observed, "Behold, how they love one another." Incredible. But the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click Cell Church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click Cell Church.
Chuck Crismier: Welcome back to Viewpoint. I'm Chuck Crismier. Today we're taking a look at the exaltation of Mother Nature and all manifestations of it in the form of, as we see it taking place, in the form of raising up personhood for animals and plants. Personhood for animals and plants. The entire Western world is engaged in this paganistic enterprise. Why? Because we've abandoned the fear of the Lord. We have to substitute man's counter-ideas because we've abandoned the fear of the Lord and His judgments, His statutes, His purposes, His plans, His creation ordinances and so on. So we have to create our own alternative. For instance, let's take the case of bestiality. Now, you may think, "My goodness, that's really far out." But it's amazing how many people engage in it. It's shocking. Recently, a lawyer was brought to court charged with felony because he was having sex with a horse. Now, how you do that, I don't know, and I really don't want to know. But it was basically a given. He was doing his thing with a horse. Horsing around with a horse. Why would a lawyer do such a thing? Because he has a reprobate mind. That's why. Why would you do some of the things that you do that are totally and rabidly contrary to the word, will, and ways of God? Because we have some branch of a reprobate mind. That's why. It's not just rebellion. It's beyond rebellion. It's embracing a complete alternative thinking system called a reprobate mind that is disconnected from God, the fear of the Lord, and the consequences that flow from Him as the creator and also judge of the earth. That somehow we can do whatever we want, however we feel we want to do. So that's why feelings have become Lord throughout the Western world, including the United States of America, including in huge portions of the professing Christian community. Feelings have become everything. And it borders on paganism. When feelings become Lord, faith takes short shrift and faith basically is edged out by feelings. Feelings are there to assist us in our relationships with God and human beings, but not to lord it over us. When they lord it over us, truth is completely edged out. So how do the courts, how do our laws justify making bestiality illegal? Well, one of the primary reasons is because they say animals cannot legally or physically provide informed consent. Well, why should we think that animals should have to provide informed consent? They're not human beings. They're not chargeable before God for their behavior. It's because, friends, we have gradually interpreted that animals should be treated like humans, in other words, they have rights. It's not so much whether animals have rights from God's viewpoint as to whether human beings have responsibility. That's our problem. We've become irresponsible because we want to just do what we want to do, however we want to do it, mistreating what God has created for our blessing and turning it into a curse, whether it means having sexual relations with an animal or whatever. It's interesting because there doesn't seem hardly any discussion in the law concerning the law of God with regard and morality with regard to whether or not you should have sexual relationships with animals. It's been historically known as a crime against nature. But so is sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism. They're also crimes against nature. But we don't call them crimes anymore. Why? Because as human beings we want to do what we want to do, that's why we don't call it crimes anymore. They're crimes against God. So why should we justify someone who wants to engage in crimes against God, sodomy, homosexuality, or lesbianism? Why should we justify that when we won't justify a person having sexual relations with an animal? From God's viewpoint, it's the same thing. Do we not see that? But the one because we feel as a human being that that's what we want to do, we justify that. But if you feel like you want to have sex with an animal, that's not justifiable. You see how this works? So we choose to justify that which is against nature. That's what the Apostle Paul is telling us. So God gives us up to uncleanness through the lusts of our own hearts to dishonor our own bodies between themselves, changing the truth of God into a lie and worshipping and serving the creature more than the creator. There it is, serving and worshipping the creature more than the creator. If we were to look at the hierarchy of God's hierarchy of respect and responsibility, humans created in God's image have the total highest level of responsibility before God, not animals. We're the responsible ones. But when we deal irresponsibly based upon what God has said and His creation ordinances, then there are no laws anymore that protect us because we've based them all upon our feelings. We justify our feelings. So homosexuality now is no longer deemed a crime. Lesbianism is no longer deemed a crime. Transgenderism is not a crime. But bestiality is. The murder of our children in the womb is not a crime. But if you were to do the same thing with an animal, that's a crime. Are you beginning to see why the Apostle Paul spoke as he did? So Paul goes on to say in Romans chapter one, "For this cause," what we've just been talking about, "God gives us up to vile affections." Now, what vile affections does he talk about? He puts it in a very nice way: "Women changing the natural use into that which is against nature." That's lesbianism. He says even the women are doing that. "Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burn in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of the error which was meet." Friends, it has nothing to do with whether we feel have that loving feeling toward someone of the same sex. It has to do whether we conduct ourselves responsibly before God according to His word, will, and ways. The intention for which He created human beings who are not just sentient beings, they are responsible beings before God and will receive judgment through Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne judgment. Paul said, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gives them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient," in other words, not appropriate. "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do it." In other words, who approve those that do it. Do you see the problem that we have here, friends? We have turned all of God's perfect plan on its head. His creation ordinances have been rejected. God created man and woman in His image, created He them, male and female created He them. It's very explicit. He didn't create Adam and Steve; He created Adam and Eve. Now, what we're talking about here, friends, is something of very significant importance. You may say, "Well, I don't have any lust for having sex with a beast." Good. But that's really not the essence of what we're talking about here. We're talking about substituting our responsibility before God as human beings and replacing giving animals rights when we ourselves are refusing to be responsible with regard to the things that God has put in our trust for our benefit. The issue is where you put the emphasis. And we put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. We just keep doing it. We put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. It's all about responsibility before God. It's not about rights. Why is it that there is so little teaching and preaching about responsibility? Because it doesn't sell well, that's why. It doesn't market well. So these are things that we need to really take seriously. It's not a game, my friends. Just not a game at all. We've got to very seriously consider these things. Now, this brings up an issue that we talked about earlier. Remember the book, the 12th book, my 12th book called The Power to Overcome. Why do you think that book is so important? Why do you think it might be so important for this particular moment in time in which we live? It's because, friends, we look just like what we're talking about here. These are the things that not only trouble the world, these are the things that trouble the church. How many churches are putting up with and actually blessing homosexuality? Look, The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times. Your gift of $25 or more to Save America Ministries will put that individual copy in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org, The Power to Overcome. Call us, 1-800-SAVEUSA. Write to us at Save America Ministries. Do it today. The Power to Overcome. I guarantee you it will touch your heart. Guaranteed. The Power to Overcome. Thanks for joining us. Become a partner, friends. Send your gifts by faith to Save America Ministries. These are important things that we're talking about, translating the principles of the kingdom of God into our hearts and our lives for such a time as this. God bless, be a blessing, become a partner. Do it today. Don't delay.
Guest (Male): You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.