“Bruce Jenner is still a man. Homosexuality is still a sin. The culture may change, the Bible does not.”
This sign ended up being the reason for a church ousting its pastor. The pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Bible Church announce he and the church were parting ways.
As of today, I am no longer the pastor of Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church.
After much prayer and counsel, I have decided that it is best to briefly communicate what has taken place.
1. I was informed by our other elder that he felt he could no longer follow my lead as Pastor of TBPC.
2. I was informed that essentially all but one couple in membership would leave the church if I continued as pastor of TBPC.
3. Our other elder and the couple felt that those who left would likely return if I would leave.
4. Our other elder was agreeable to stay and assume the pastoral responsibilities.
Therefore it was determined that it would be in the best interest of the local body for us (TBPC and the Hoke family) to part ways.
The sign wasn’t completely random, as it was inspired by the viral video of the man throwing a temper tantrum in the GameStop over misgendering, according to the interview done by Daily Wire.
Daily Wire reports:
According to Hoke, he was inspired to create the sign after seeing the news story in which a biological male who identifies as female “threw a fit because a clerk had accidentally referred to him with the masculine gender [pronoun].”
Hoke said that because “the culture has drawn a line in the sand and dared [Christians] to step over,” he came to the conclusion that the church should accept the challenge – not with hate, but by simply preaching “the gospel.”
The pastor also noted that he wasn’t “fired,” but that the church faced a potential fracture in the wake of the fervor surrounding the sign, and that in order to keep the church intact, he felt it was best to vacate his position. Hoke repeatedly stated that he wanted to be circumspect in the way he spoke about the incident because he “loves” the people at Trinity Bible Presbyterian.
In the end, Paster Hoke was not the bigot the protesters tried to make him out to be. He genuinely wants people to come to Christ and acknowledges that you can’t until you acknowledge your own sin.
“We believe that Jesus commands all Christians to let their light shine. We also believe that salvation is only for sinners,” Pastor Justin Hoke tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Jesus said he came to call sinners, not the righteous. If we give in to cultural demands to stop calling sin ‘sin,’ then we are robbing people of opportunity to hear the truth.”
Don’t feel bad for Pastor Hoke. God will take care of him. We should instead pity the church that ousted a pastor because the Bible offends.
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