A Baptist Pastor named Grayson Fritts in Knox County Tennessee said God has granted the power to government to arrest and execute homosexuals. He made these statements while preaching from Leviticus 20:13 which says homosexuality is capital crime.
What is also very noteworthy is that Pastor Fritts was also a Knox County police detective for 19 years. He had quietly accepted a buyout a couple weeks ago. Some are calling for his police pension to be reviewed.
He claims that this never affected his job as a police officer equating it to if he worked at Burger King that he would still make food for homosexuals and not do anything to their food because it was his job to do so and this is the same way he carried out his duties as a police officer.
In the recording above, after his initial sermon which caused the media firestorm around him, he made it clear if you listen to his whole sermon, he never called on individual civilians to kill or do anything to homosexuals. He was saying God has invested the civil government with this power to arrest and execute homosexuals.
So those who were saying he was inciting his church members or other civilians to go out as individuals and cause harm to homosexuals are factually incorrect and the recordings of his sermons prove this.
You can read more about him in this article from WBIR.com entitled
Many Christians on Facebook and elsewhere have said his statements saying he hates homosexuals are the complete opposite of the Christian faith and that hate of any kind has no place in true Christianity.
However, those Christians who say this may want to consider the words of King David in the Psalms:
“Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.”
Psalm 139:21-22 (KJV)
God Both Hates and Loves Sinners
While anyone who reads this blog will know I have some disagreements with John Piper in some areas of theology, on this subject of hatred in regard to sin he has a great sermon and article about this entitled “God Loves the Sinner, But Hates the Sin?” where he states the following:
“The problem with the statement—“God loves the sinner, but hates the sin”—is that it is misleading. It is not a false statement. And what is misleading about it is the word but, but hates the sin, because but should be and. God loves the sinner and hates the sin. But implies he doesn’t hate the sinner—that is not true. God does hate sinners. Psalm 5:4: “You are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers.” Or Psalm 11:5: “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” So it is just not true to give the impression that God doesn’t hate sinners by saying he loves the sinner and hates the sin. He does hate sinners. His wrath is real. It is not something he pours out on people he approves of.
This infinite disapproval is what the Bible means when it says God hates sinners. He infinitely disap-proves of them. Sin is not sinful except as committed by sinful hearts. Sin is an expression of anti-God human corruption, human hearts. Sinful volitions are owing to sinful hearts. Sin doesn’t just hang out there with its own existence, it is in hearts or it is nothing. Sins do not suffer in hell, sinners suffer in hell. I wonder what people who say that believe about hell, because he is not punishing sin in hell, he is punishing sinners in hell. He hates—now here is the paradox—and he loves at the same time. For God so loved the world that he hates. Hate and love are simultaneous as God looks upon hateful, rebellious, corrupt, loathsome, wicked God-dishonoring sinners.
Now here is the distinctions we need to make. This is just so crucial. I hope people will listen carefully. Hate and love both have two meanings each. Hate can be intense loathing of a quality or hate can be be-yond that the intense intentionality to destroy. Love, similarly, can be an intense delighting in a quality and it can be an intense intentionality to bless even in spite of the presence of some unsavory quality.”
And now after showing Piper’s words on the subject of hatred in the Scriptures I will add a few thoughts of my own on this subject.
If we examine the Scriptures we will find a truth that is uncomfortable for many modern Americans. We are taught in our American culture that all forms of hate are bad and all forms of love are good. The Bible however, teaches something very different.
The Bible teaches that hate is sometimes holy and love is sometimes vile.
Consider these two passages from the Scriptures below which illustrate these twin truths:
“Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.“
Psalm 97:10 (KJV)
“26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
Romans 1:26-27 (KJV)
This is Both a Religious Issue and a Political Issue
I have quoted the following statement from Leviticus 20:13 multiple times on this blog in past articles and comments:
“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.“
While no punishment is prescribed for women in Lesbian relationships, the practice of Lesbian relationships is condemned by God in Romans 1:26. But the government could punish Lesbians in some way short of capital punishment.
However, God has granted the civil government the right to treat men having sex with men as a capital crime and Romans 13:4 says the following of the civil government’s authority by God to perform capital punishments for certain sins which he allows it for:
“For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
This power DOES NOT belong to individual citizens . There is no Biblical warrant for individual citizens to execute men for having sex with men, only the civil government has this power.
I understand where this Pastor was coming from and I partially agree with him. If we are talking about male homosexuals – then I 100% agree that the government has the right to make homosexuality a capital crime for men. If we are talking about female homosexuals, then I would support criminalization for female homosexuality short of capital punishment.
Conclusion
Many who even disagree with his statements have said it was his free speech right as well as religious freedom right to make the statements he did from his church pulpit. But as I have stated on this blog several times, there are others in this country that want to criminalize what this man did from his pulpit.
But these same people do not realize that if this man were to be led away in hand cuffs for what he stated from his pulpit that this would probably ignite a second American civil war just as there are a few other issues that would as well (like gun confiscation). So be careful of what you wish for (criminalizing Pastors preaching against homosexuality) because you may just reap the consequences of what you sow.
Biblical Gender Roles 
This is a good article and will be a tough one for people to realize. It seems like a lot of christians believe the God that gave instruction to put adulterers, homosexuals and rebellions children to death was the OT God, and that the NT God is all about love and forgiveness and would never, ever allow this. God, however, is unchanging, and His righteous judgments are still righteous and still very much approved by Him. That we don’t practice such things in the Western world is of our own volition, and not because of biblical restriction. I wouldn’t suggest putting any of the previous groups to death in the modern world, but neither would I speak out against it if it was done according to biblical practices.
I think what people don’t understand, especially christians, is that God commanded this partly to prevent the spread of these activities. People tend to avoid certain activities when being found out resulted in a very legal and very certain execution. Look at how fast adultery, homosexuality and rebelliousness have spread in the West since Western civilization has slowly lost its disapproval of these activities! We embrace them now! Wholesale! The West has done nothing but suffer from these maladies and it will continue to until we at least start to frown upon them again and make them shameful activities. Of course, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon, so…..
For everybody reading this – I just want to make it clear that just as I disagree with John Piper on some areas of theology and practice so too I am going to disagree with this Pastor Grayson Fritts as well as Pastor Steven Anderson with whom he is closely associated. So please do not think this is ringing endorsement of all things said and done by these two men.
But my point remains that calling homosexuality wicked, saying that God has authorized the death penalty for homosexual behavior to be carried out by civil government if they so wish and hatred of sin is absolutely right.
For a thorough and compelling treatment of this principle (theonomy), I recommend “By This Standard” written by the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen.
The abomination-cancer that is killing the society-host has been protected while God’s remedy has been vilified by the American church of cheap-grace. Christians desire the approval of men more than they fear God. The church inc. has marketed an idol they call a Jesus who is really nice, nothing but pure love and positivity , never judgmental, never wrathful and certainly would never kill someone for loving differently. This idol commands no laws but the law written on your heart (whatever you want), has erased the OT and is the perfect boyfriend for daughters of the King. “In those days every man did what was right in their own eyes.”
Homosexuality IS a capital offense in Islamic countries, but of course, since their populations are largely non-White, the Left gives them a free pass every time.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2019/06/19/anti-lgbtq-detective-grayson-fritts-not-welcome-cracker-barrel-tennessee/1497351001/
Seems that this restaurant has denied Fritts service because of their “zero tolerance” policy against discrimination.
I wonder if they assess their other patrons for any possible discrimination? Probably not, but its just a matter of time we create a “social credit system” similar to China’s that will rank people based on their beliefs and other factors, denying them services for lack of a proper score, if you ask me. Hopefully he will sue.
I love your site and your insights on gender ans marriage howver, with all due respect,
I disagree wholeheartedly with your article here. It is not our place to be judge, jury and executioner of homosexuals.
He didn’t say WE do it he said the GOVERNMENT can do it.
Georgia you are absolutely right that it is not our place as individual citizens to be judge, jury and executioners for homosexuals. But his point was that God has given this authority to the government. And one day if our nation returned back to God there would be nothing immoral about the government executing homosexuals.
Do u reject that God has given this authority to governments if they wish to exercise it based on God’s law allowing it? If u do reject it where do u see in the in Bible God removing that authority from civil government?
To paraphrase 1 Cor 4:6: “Be careful not to go beyond what is written”.
While the Old Testament does prescribe the death penalty for male homosexual acts, it doesn’t even mention female homosexual acts. While you can cite Romans 1:26 to say it’s a sin, very few sins carry the death penalty. And since the Bible often treats men and women so differently, can you reasonably assume that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”?
I’d be VERY careful prescribing the death penalty where the Bible doesn’t.
Recommending the death penalty for something – even a sin – where the Bible doesn’t seems unwise to me. Again, “be careful not to go beyond what is written”.
BereanPatriot,
Your concern is well received and i re-worded my end statements which you can see above.
I mentioned exactly what you are saying in my review of the Handmaid’s Tale last month:
Just because it is lawful doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.