Which Jesus?

The Real Question About “Gay Christians” and Salvation

A New Season of Ministry

As many know, following my heart attack in late 2024 and subsequent retirement from frontline culture-war activism, I have redirected my energies into a less stressful but equally important ministry: the Victory in Christ Trust. This initiative supports and partners with ministries dedicated to helping individuals find victory over behavioral disorders listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11—“such were some of you”—with particular emphasis on drug and alcohol addiction, same-sex attraction disorder (SSAD), and gender dysphoria. The focus is on holistic gospel-centered transformation: repentance, faith in Christ, discipleship, and reliance on the Holy Spirit’s power to redeem and restore lives in alignment with biblical truth. This work is not about coercion or shame but about offering genuine hope rooted in the unchanging Word of God.

It was in this new season of ministry that a longtime friend and supporter—one who has stood with me through many battles in the culture war—reached out with a question that cuts to the heart of the current confusion among believers. He asked plainly: Can homosexuals be saved as Christians? He voiced concern over the campaign led by Preston Sprinkle to persuade churches to embrace what is termed the “Side B” stance on the heresy of “Gay Theology.”

Side B refers to a theological position that upholds traditional biblical prohibitions on same-sex sexual behavior and marriage (no same-sex acts or unions), while accepting ongoing same-sex attraction as a morally neutral or non-culpable aspect of personhood. It permits individuals to identify as “gay Christians” (meaning they experience persistent same-sex attraction but commit to celibacy or mixed-orientation marriage) and emphasizes empathy, spiritual friendships, and discipleship without expecting or promoting change in orientation.

This contrasts with Side A, which fully affirms same-sex relationships, marriage, and sexual expression as compatible with Christianity. Side B is promoted as a “non-affirming” middle path but is criticized by many conservatives for normalizing identity labels rooted in fallen desires and treating homosexual inclination as immutable rather than something to be mortified through sanctification.

My response, expanded here into this article, addresses both the personal salvation question and the broader threat posed by Sprinkle’s efforts.

The Real Question Christians Should Ask

The question Christians should be asking about homosexuals and salvation is not merely whether a genuine Christian can also be a struggler with sin. Of course a true believer can battle temptation—same-sex attraction included—while still belonging to Christ, regardless of temptations or stumbles, past, present, or future. Christ paid for it all, making “works”—whether good or bad—matters of sanctification, not justification.

The decisive issue is far more profound: Is the so-called “Gay Christian” claiming the real Jesus as Savior, or a false Messiah who condones what the Father has unequivocally condemned?

Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Romans 10:9-10 declares that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. This formula applies universally to every sinner, regardless of temptations or past behaviors. Works—whether good or evil—are matters of sanctification, not justification—areas where the Holy Spirit works transformation over time.

Yet the critical distinction lies in which Jesus one confesses. The authentic Christ is fully one with the Father, and His Word remains the infallible measure of truth. Scripture portrays homosexual practice as profoundly sinful—singularly tied in Romans 1 to the reprobate mind, cultural apostasy, and divine judgment, linked to desolations from the Flood onward. The true Christ condemns what the Father condemns and offers forgiveness and victory to repentant believers who trust Him for transformation.

If the Jesus one proclaims endorses homosexual identity and practice as good, normal, or neutral—if He is presented as tolerating or even celebrating what the Father has called sin—then that is not the Christ of Scripture. That is a false Christ, an idol fashioned to accommodate cultural pressures. Faith in such a counterfeit leads not to the Bride at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb but to outer darkness, with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In my First Century Bible theology, this corresponds to life on Earth during the outpouring of the Bowl Judgments—a final tribulation window before Christ’s bodily return (Rev. 19:11-21) and the Great White Throne Judgment. Proponents of compromising teachings may fall among the deceived unsaved, yet still have time to repent and enter the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Preston Sprinkle and the Side B Compromise with “Gay Theology”

Preston Sprinkle—whose actual given name is Preston M. Sprinkle, born January 4, 1976, making him 50 years old—is a biblical scholar with a Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of Aberdeen.

I confess what when I first heard the name -- before I had researched him -- I assumed he was a leftist activist who had adopted it from Drag Queen culture. When I realized my mistake and offered him a mental apology, my next thought was that he likely suffered a lot of boyhood teasing by peers that may have made him sympathetic to the “Gay” community. In any case I do not want in any way to suggest in this article that Sprinkle is a culture war adversary or a heretic on LGBT issues. I generally share his views. My concerns relate to what I perceive as serious flaws in his approach and his apparent naivete on the history of the LGBT movement and its strategies. 

Sprinkle has taught at Cedarville University, Nottingham University, and Eternity Bible College, where he also held administrative roles. A New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue (2015), Embodied (2021 on transgender issues), and Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage? (2023), he is married to Christine (often called Chris), and they reside in Boise, Idaho, with their four children (three daughters and one son).

He publicly identifies as a straight, “cisgender,” heterosexual man with no apparent personal history of same-sex attraction or involvement in the LGBT movement; his background is in conservative evangelicalism, and he frames his work as upholding traditional biblical prohibitions on same-sex sexual behavior while emphasizing empathy and relational care.

Through his leadership as president of the Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with recent reported revenue around $1.08 million, expenses $690,000, and net assets $593,000 for FY 2024), Sprinkle runs a campaign to equip Christian leaders, churches, and organizations on issues of faith, sexuality, and gender. The Center provides online courses, pastoral resources, podcasts (Theology in the Raw), conferences, consultations, and training, often targeting evangelical and conservative-leaning contexts. His ministry has received endorsements or positive engagement from figures like Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, and Karen Swallow Prior, and has been promoted in outlets such as The Gospel Coalition, Biola University’s Think Biblically podcast, and Living Out—a non-affirming ministry for same-sex attracted Christians.

On the surface, Sprinkle’s intentions appear generally positive: he seeks to address real stories of harm and rejection in churches, promote grace-filled discipleship, and help non-affirming congregations respond compassionately to those with same-sex attraction without compromising historic Christian sexual ethics. He maintains a “non-affirming” stance—no same-sex sexual activity or marriage—and positions his work as a balanced path in a polarized culture.

The Compromising Effect of Sprinkle’s Approach

In actual effect, however, his approach risks compromising biblical fidelity by subtly normalizing postures of accommodation to secular cultural pressures rather than calling for transformation of that culture through repentance and renewal. This manifests in a hint of virtue signaling—prioritizing perceived empathy and relational sensitivity in ways that soften doctrinal edges and concede rhetorical ground to prevailing ideologies. Two particularly alarming facts underscore this concern.

First, Sprinkle adopts and normalizes the phrase “gay Christian” as a legitimate descriptor for believers who experience ongoing same-sex attraction while committing to celibacy. He defends this within his Side B framework, arguing it describes attraction without endorsing behavior. Yet this usage implies that defining oneself by a sin-temptation category is biblically acceptable, even beneficial for missional purposes. It suggests God endorses or at least tolerates a sin-based identity claim, which is anathema to true Christianity. Scripture calls believers to identify primarily in Christ (e.g., “such were some of you” in 1 Corinthians 6:11, emphasizing past-tense transformation), not to retain labels rooted in fallen desires as enduring markers of self.

Allowing “gay Christian” to take root in conservative churches dangers diluting the gospel’s call to full renewal: it risks entrenching temptation as a neutral or even virtuous aspect of identity, blunting the urgency of mortifying sin (Colossians 3:5), and confusing sheep by blending biblical truth with cultural accommodations. Over time, such rhetoric can erode distinctions between temptation and identity, making compromise seem compassionate rather than concessionary, and potentially paving the way for further doctrinal drift as empathy trumps clarity.

Instead of “gay Christian,” a more biblically accurate and culturally redemptive phrase would be “SSAD Christian”—a believer affirming they are sad that they struggle with Same-Sex Attraction Disorder, desiring to overcome it, and refusing to embrace homosexuality as the basis of their identity, akin to those with comparable disorders who insist “I am not my diagnosis!”

Second, Sprinkle has made no apparent effort to call LGBT-affirming churches or progressive denominations to account for their heresy or to persuade them toward a return to scriptural views on homosexual conduct and identity. His outreach remains directed almost exclusively at conservative, evangelical, or historically non-affirming contexts—helping them refine their posture, listen to stories of pain, and disciple same-sex attracted individuals faithfully. There is no public record of campaigns, partnerships, speaking engagements, or resources aimed at confronting affirming mainline bodies, queer-affirming theologies, or progressive congregations to repent of blessing what Scripture condemns.

In essence, this one-sided focus softens conservative churches toward pro-LGBT compromises—framing empathy as the primary virtue—while ignoring the duty to protect the flock from the “ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15) in liberal churches that openly promote heresy.

A gold standard for pastoral care in this area remains the 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, issued by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Approved by Pope John Paul II, the document affirms the Church’s teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and gravely sinful, while calling for respectful, compassionate ministry to persons with homosexual inclinations—urging chastity, rejecting unjust discrimination, and offering hope through Christ’s redemptive power. It balances truth and love without concession or normalization of identity labels rooted in inclination. 

While I have numerous doctrinal difference with the Roman Catholic Church, I strongly approve of this approach as a model of fidelity: clear on doctrine, tender toward persons, and unyielding to cultural revisionism.

Surrendering to Sexual Orientation Theory

A deeper and more foundational problem with the Sprinkle/Side B approach is its surrender to Sexual Orientation Theory—an invention of the modern LGBT movement designed to reframe the entire debate on sexual conduct. This theory rests on the lie that same-sex attraction disorder and gender dysphoria are normal variants of human sexuality, fixed and immutable, arising from factors supposedly outside human control or remedy (genetics, prenatal hormones, brain structure, or early environment).

By adopting this paradigm, even in a “non-affirming” form, Sprinkle and his allies concede the central premise of the sexual revolutionaries: that homosexual orientation is an innate, unchosen, and unchangeable trait akin to race or left-handedness, rather than a dysfunction that can and should be addressed through repentance, renewal, and reliance on God’s design.

The biblical and historical truth, known from time immemorial and affirmed by Scripture, is that all humans are heterosexual by divine design—created male and female for complementary union in marriage (Genesis 1–2; Matthew 19:4–6). Deviations from this design are dysfunctions, temptations, or disorders resulting from the Fall, much like other behavioral or emotional struggles (addiction, anger, anxiety). These are not fixed identities but conditions that can be overcome through the gospel’s power, as 1 Corinthians 6:11 declares: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

By normalizing the term “gay Christian” in the church, Sprinkle is surrendering to the false “Sexual Orientation” paradigm—an extremely harmful and unnecessary concession to the deceivers that undermines and neutralizes biblical reality in the public debate. It cedes the linguistic and conceptual high ground, allowing the culture to dictate the terms of the conversation while the church merely negotiates the boundaries of acceptable behavior within that framework. This approach does not transform the culture; it accommodates it, weakening the church’s prophetic witness and confusing believers about the nature of sin, identity, and redemption.

The Historical Trajectory of “Gay Theology”

“Gay Theology,” as I define and expose it in The Petros Prophecy, is not merely a recent cultural trend but the culmination of a long-prophesied end-times heresy warned about by the Apostle Peter in his second epistle. Peter describes false teachers who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and many will follow their sensuality, causing the way of truth to be maligned (2 Peter 2:1-2). These teachers are characterized by greed, exploitation through fabricated stories, and following the error of Balaam—motivated by profit and rebellion against God’s authority.

A close, careful reading of 2 Peter 2 reveals that this heresy is rooted in beliefs about sexuality, particularly the normalization and celebration of sexual immorality, with homosexuality singled out as a key marker. Peter references four biblical texts on sexual sin, including the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:6) as an example of God’s judgment on ungodly living, and he links this to the broader descent into lawlessness that invites divine wrath. The book argues exhaustively from Scripture that “Gay Theology”—the reinterpretation of the Bible to affirm homosexual practice, identity, and relationships as compatible with authentic Christianity—fulfills Peter’s warning precisely. It redefines sin as virtue, elevates human desire above divine design, and leads many astray by maligning the clear truth of God’s Word.

In its modern form, this heresy emerged prominently in the late 20th century as part of the broader LGBT agenda’s infiltration into the church. A pivotal early figure was John Eastburn Boswell, a Yale history professor whose 1980 work Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality attempted to recast biblical condemnations of homosexuality as cultural misunderstandings rather than timeless moral prohibitions. This laid groundwork for subsequent efforts to “queer” Scripture—reinterpreting passages in Leviticus, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and elsewhere through lenses of liberation theology and queer theory, prioritizing subjective experience and marginalized identities over the plain meaning of the text.

What began as academic apologetics in the 1980s and 1990s spread into mainline denominations, where affirming views gained footholds through ordination of openly homosexual clergy and blessings of same-sex unions. By the early 2000s, “Side B” approaches emerged in evangelical circles—upholding prohibitions on behavior while accepting persistent same-sex attraction as a fixed, non-sinful orientation and even permitting identity labels like “gay Christian.” This represents a subtler but no less dangerous form of the heresy, conceding the language and framework of the sexual revolutionaries while claiming fidelity to tradition.

The Petros Prophecy posits that this trajectory mirrors the reprobate descent outlined in Romans 1:18-32, where suppression of truth leads to exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, culminating in a culture that approves of such things. The rise of “Gay Theology,” including its Side B variants, illustrates Peter’s prophetic warning: what starts as compassionate engagement or scholarly nuance ends in doctrinal compromise and widespread apostasy. It is the ultimate expression of the last-days heresy—blinding believers to the unchanging moral order of God and paving the way for greater judgment.

My Heart for Strugglers and the Path Forward

My heart for those with same-sex struggles stems from direct involvement. I ministered to Sonny Weaver (Dennis “Sonny” Weaver), who had lived deeply in homosexuality after childhood trauma. In his last year with AIDS, he lived with my family, renounced the lifestyle, received Christ, and found transformation and love previously unknown. This underscored that no one is beyond redemption. I also shared friendship with Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, founder of NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), whose work affirmed and proved that change is possible through truth, compassion, and God’s design for sexuality.

These experiences shape the Victory in Christ Trust, supporting efforts to help individuals overcome behavioral disorders in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11—including substance abuse, SSAD, and gender dysphoria—through repentance, faith, discipleship, and reliance on the gospel’s power to redeem. It partners with like-minded ministries offering hope without shame or coercion, emphasizing that God’s grace enables holiness and alignment with biblical truth.

Earlier, in Why and How to Defeat the Gay Movement, I predicted that ex-gays and adult survivors of the first generation indoctrinated by LGBT propaganda would dismantle “Gay Supremacy.” Today’s anti-DEI backlash—parents reclaiming education, institutions rejecting ideological mandates, and former participants exposing harms—fulfills that vision. Resistance grows from those who know the costs intimately.

The cultural tide turns, but the spiritual battle endures. Salvation remains open through the true Christ. For strugglers: repent, believe, and pursue victory. The Jesus of Scripture condemns sin but saves, sanctifies, and glorifies those who trust Him fully.