There is a crisis in 21st-century American evangelicalism, and that crisis seems to flow from a failure to believe in God, the only true God, the God who communicates to humanity through the holy Scriptures, the Christian Bible.

And yet a growing number of evangelicals, who agree that Christ alone saves from the wrath of divine justice, will defend those who practice abortion, same-sex marriage, and transgenderism — hot-button issues of contemporary culture — and say nonsensical things such as, “You can’t put God in a box. He can bless these things if he wants to.”

Actually, God cannot bless such things because such things violate who he is. He does not bless what he calls sin, and sin includes idolatry, sexual immorality, greed, pride, covetousness, lying, stealing, etc. The Bible communicates that God does not change, and his decrees are righteous and holy because that is who he is. There is not a law outside of God. The commandments that God gives communicate his very nature. To allow what his word prohibits would be to deny himself.

But many 21st-century evangelicals, in the name of a distorted notion of “love” and even in the name of the gospel, defend on social media the promotion of drag queens, justify homosexuality, and rationalize abortion. I’ve read their posts, and you may have, too. It is these “evangelicals” who are attempting to box in God. They would have a god who is made in humanity’s image, a god who is not essentially holy, a god who can change, a god who submits to culture’s whims of right and wrong. They create an idol, robe it in verbal Christian garb, and select Scripture which appears to support their view while ignoring or re-interpreting Scripture that clearly opposes their view. On Sunday they go to church and sing praises to the God whom they have essentially denied on social media.

As has been often noted, “In the beginning God created man in his own image, and man has ever since returned the favor.” Sadly, the god of much of 21st-century American evangelicalism is an idol created by religious people, by cultural Christians.

We want God, but we want our culture’s approval, too. Consequently, it is all-too-easy to devise a god who satisfies our desire for forgiveness and salvation but who does not interfere with the whims of culture in which we live. The Bible deems these elements of the “new morality” as sin, but that does not deter those who profess Christ from downplaying these sins. Ed Litton, recent past-president of the Southern Baptist Convention, opined in a sermon on Romans 1:24-32: “In the Bible, sexual sin is whispered, compared to the shout God makes about greed and judgmentalism.” Coincidentally, Pastor Litton plagiarized that sermon from the previous SBC president, J. D. Greear, and Greear made the same statement, drawing from Jen Wilkin’s writing.

Regardless of who plagiarized or quoted whom, the statement contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture. The Bible condemns sexual immorality, including homosexuality, and would never conceive that a same-sex couple would marry, as though a monogamous same-sex relationship elevates the elevated it to a moral position. The Bible does not “whisper.”

The Bible clearly states that sexual immorality, and that most clearly includes homosexuality, will be judged by God. Consider, for instance, Romans 1:26–27: “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (see also such passages as 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-6, and Revelation 21:8 and 22:15).

Let us be clear, humans would do well to recognize that one clearly-stated verse is sufficient to determine one’s position on a matter. In the case of sexual immorality, including homosexuality, there are several.

The sad reality is that professing Christians do not want to be viewed as out-of-step with culture. “Like me, please!” But the Bible does not allow followers of Christ to go there. The Bible declares that those who practice sexual immorality will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whatever our motive, we would do well not to minimize what God has clearly condemned. Remember, also, that those not allowed to enter the city of God are the “cowardly” and the “faithless.” Indeed, “their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). Minimizing what God has clearly condemned in order to appease our culture may indicate the state of one’s own soul.