Pride Month

Did you ever notice that the gay rainbow has six colors and not seven?
Seven is the number of God's perfection, six is the number of man's failure

It's been over for over a month and as we bid farewell to Pride Month, the month that mass media invites everyone to don your incorrect rainbow tank tops and have a gay time, lets reflect on what God thinks about the whole idea.

Yes, God has told us that homosexuality is wrong in both the Old Testament and the New, but He also listed a multitude of sins such as lying, drunkenness, envy, murder, and taking the Lord's name in vain as sins.

The Roman Catholics have even taken the time to separate sins in to two categories; mortal sins and venial sins. Venial sins are sins where the sinner did not fully consent to the sin or did not have knowledge that his actions where sinful. Mortal sins destroy the grace of God in the heart of the sinner if they are committed willingly and with full consent. These sins are broken down into two categories; grave and capital sins. Grave sins are listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 but the RCC adds  sins of anger, blasphemy, envy, hatred, malice, murder, neglect of Sunday obligation and several others to Paul's list. Capital sins are vices and are defined as contrary to the Roman Catholic virtues of holiness. They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth (acedia). (source)

Now you know where the terms Mortal sin and Venial sin comes from, because they're not listed like this in the bible. To God, a sin is a sin. It's just that simple: sin is rebellion against God and His word. Only blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, and getting forgiveness is a simple act:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanseus from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Ok, there is a caveat:

14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. (Matthew 6:14-15)

This is that "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us" idea that we sometimes stumble with (trespass? debt? sin?). Then there's Pride. Pride is the sin that is at the heart of all other sins.  Even though it's forgivable this is one sin that God really hates.

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling (Proverbs 16:18)

Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. (Romans 12:16)

Pride is the root of all sin, and any sin has pride at it's core. CS Lewis puts it this way:

“According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” (C.S. Lewis, The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon has quite a bit to say about pride, calling it "The Destroyer" and in short says:

There is nothing into which the heart of man so easily falls as pride, and yet there is no more vice which is more frequently, more emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture. Pride is a thing which should be unnatural to us, for we have nothing to be proud of. In almost every other sin, we gather us ashes when the fire is gone. But here, what is left? The covetous man has his shining gold, but what does the proud man have? He has less than he would have had without pride, and is no gainer whatever. Pride wins no crown. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from the sermon Pride and Humility, delivered on August 17, 1856, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark

When I hear the term "Pride Month" I cringe. Pride fouls and corrupts everything that it touches. It doesn't matter if you're celebrating a month of pride for your Christian faith or a month of pride for your favorite sin, pride (not money) is the root of evil. Pride is a condition where a person willingly supplants the rule of God's will over his life with his own will. It was pride that led Adam and Eve to think that they could ignore God's only command to them and attempt to become gods themselves. It was pride that caused Lucifer to rebel against God and lead a third of the angels against Him, thereby becoming Satan.

Because of Satan's and Adam & Eve's rebellions, the sin of pride must be punished. One fine example is in Daniel 4:30-33 when King Nebuchadnezzar  pridefully boasted about his building Babylon for his own magnificence and God immediately laid the smack-down on him and Nebuchadnezzar  ended up spending the next seven years eating hay.

This is not just an Old Testament issue, read Romans 1:18-32, it shows what happens when man supplants his own  virtues over God's

21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

And look at verse 32, if that doesn't describe the platform of the Democrat party I don't know what does.

It saddens me to see the moral frivolity of Pride Month spreading and becoming a more aggressive event. I have friends living in the homosexual lifestyle, friends that I love dearly, and I'm torn especially in June over this whole thing. Pride is the one sin that God promises immediate punishment. And what else is going to be drawn into the whole Pride thing? Pedophilia? BDSM? Will it become Lust Month where pride in all and any things sexual are celebrated?

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. (Proverbs 16:5)

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you (James 4:10)