The mainline United Methodist denomination held an international conference in St. Louis in February to decide whether to approve homosexual leadership and same-sex marriage.

For years, LGBT activists inside the denomination have ignored God’s mandate on homosexual behavior. One bishop and hundreds of UM clergy have come out as LGBT, despite a ban in place since 1972. For Bible believers, the vote went in the right direction mainly because members from outside the US voted to reject the assault by the homosexual wing.

Methodists in the US were once a vibrant, Bible believing, major denomination. In 1970, they claimed 15 million members in the US. Now, US membership has dropped almost by half while UM affiliated denominations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have shown significant growth. In the convention voting, these overseas groups succeeded in tamping down the attack by the US homosexual activists.

Methodism originated from the open-air preaching of John and Charles Wesley during the 19th century. Prior to the revivals that they initiated, the institutional church was hidebound by layers of hierarchy and ritual. The Wesleys invited the people to open-air services where the music was familiar to the common people and the preaching spoke to their sin with solid gospel solutions.

By the 20th century, the Methodists had begun to lose some of their fervor, replaced by Baptists and Pentecostals. Their emphasis shifted to social welfare issues, away from preaching the basic gospel of salvation. Along the way some refused to follow the trend and broke off from the United Methodists to form other groups, such as the Wesleyan Methodists, in order to stay with a more biblical foundation.

True to form, when the vote went against the homosexual activists, they resorted to mob rule and stormed into the center of the convention creating chaos. Security had to prevent other activists from entering the convention floor to add to the disruption. Some were even arrested.

Reports on the discussion that followed shows how unbiblical the activists are: Jan Lawrence, head of one of the LGBT pressure groups said, “There’s still queer people that are born every day into churches everywhere...” —implying that homosexuals are born that way and can’t help themselves. This denies the scriptural truth that it is just another brand of sin for which there is deliverance through the finished work of Christ.

Some in the United Methodists were hoping that the conference would end the strife but that is not likely. The history of the LGBT movement shows that they may be motivated by the same spirit that possessed the men pounding on Lot’s door. If they don’t get their way, somebody is likely to get hurt. For them, tolerance is a one-way street.

This whole scenario demonstrates what happens when we ignore God’s beautiful plan for our joy and peace. And if we ignore His preserved words, we can neither understand nor implement that plan. Many modern Bibles have removed or tweaked God’s words to make sodomy something other than what He calls it —an “abomination.” When He uses such a strong word, then the consequences must be serious.

The LGBT scene is only one result of the “sexual revolution:” Sixty million abortions, a swamp of pornography, wholesale breakup of the family units, demoralized fatherhood, same-sex marriage with children, drag queens teaching kindergarteners —the wholesale destruction of our basically Christian culture.

Some Methodists had hoped for peace after the conference but feel that that is unlikely. If they would review their history, the Wesley brothers laid a firm foundation for the denomination in the King James Bible. They also produced thousands of Gospel tracts to call the common people to repentance. The resulting revivals are legendary. Revival is the only hope of the world —not a global government under the anti-Christ.

Chick tracts carry the same message that the Wesleys preached —from the same Bible. If we are going to rescue America, we must again saturate our neighborhoods with the Word, God’s preserved words.