You’ll certainly see more rainbows during June. When you do, remember what the rainbow really means. Long before the LGBT+ community used the rainbow to communicate their message, it belonged to God, and he was sending a different message.

June is Pride Month. For some, that means nothing. For others, it means everything. And for many Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction, the hurricane of emotions is precarious to navigate. Rainbow propaganda floods our streets and screens, tempting some to wonder if “love is love” after all.
Because of the spiritually treacherous terrain many face, I’d like to offer six encouragements to help Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction to persevere in putting to death sinful desires and holding to a biblical sexual ethic.
1. Soak in Scripture
Nothing is more important for children of God than to hear from their heavenly Father, especially during an extreme spiritual attack. This month, millions of voices will attempt to tell you how to think. That’s why it’s dangerous to neglect your Bible. Heed the command of Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God.”
The world wants to make you callous toward your Creator. God’s will is to conform you to his glorious image (Col. 3:10). Jesus says feasting on God’s Word is as essential to your spiritual survival as eating food is to your physical survival (Matt. 4:4). Child of God, turn up the volume on your Bible reading this month so you can hear your heavenly Father’s voice.
Spend extra time at his feet (Luke 10:38–42). Guard your time with him as you’d guard your most precious possessions. Don’t just survey Scripture; soak in it. Hear his promises. Heed his warnings. Trust his assurances. Memorize sections that stir your soul. Discuss what you’re reading with Christian friends. If there’s ever a time you need to feast on God’s Word, it’s now.
2. Shut Off the World
As you turn up your heavenly Father’s voice, mute the father of lies. Satan is a deceiver, and the world is his megaphone. Everywhere you look, colorful symbols call you to reconsider your commitment to Jesus. Celebrations of sin assure you that anything other than affirmation is oppression. Social media parades before your eyes the lie that true freedom is found outside the bounds of your heavenly Father’s loving law.
Fasting from worldly influences should be a normal part of the Christian life. Embrace it this month. Be vigilant to shut off the world’s influence. Ask a friend to change your social media passwords to reduce the influx of deceptive messages. Abstain from shows that provoke unhealthy romantic feelings or sexual indulgence. If your company hosts Pride celebrations and you find them tempting, consider taking vacation days off. If old friends invite you to compromising parties, don’t go. Your sinful flesh only gets stronger when you feed it. So starve it by keeping your heavenly calling in view.
3. Surround Yourself with Godly Christian Friends
One of the most appealing qualities of the LGBT+ movement is the community. The LGBT+ family welcomes those who feel misunderstood and marginalized. Tales of painful pasts are met with open arms. Fierce loyalty defends each person’s right to self-expression without judgment or correction. It’s a “found family” with the “love is love” banner as their rallying point.
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How good it is to know that when God looks at you in Christ, he doesn’t see your shabby catalogue of sins and failures—he sees the pristine life of his beloved Son. He doesn’t see your bad temper, but Christ’s perfect patience and love. He doesn’t see your lusts and fantasies but Christ’s perfect purity and chastity. He doesn’t hear your cruel words, but his Son’s sinless speech.

J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was one of the great theologians of the twentieth century. He served as a Professor of New Testament first at Princeton Seminary from 1906 until 1929 when he founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in response to the incursion of modernist theology at Princeton. He travelled widely, preaching and teaching all over the world, exercising an international influence for orthodoxy. He wrote many books and scholarly articles expounding and defending Biblical Christianity. And yet, as he lay dying on New Year’s Eve, 1936, he wasn’t thinking about any of his many and considerable achievements throughout his life. He dictated a telegram to his colleague John Murray in which his last words are recorded, ‘I’m so thankful for [the] active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.’
What did he mean by this? Simply this: that Jesus Christ saves us by living the life of perfect obedience to the law of God that fallen human beings cannot ever live. Of course, he must do more than this—he must also die the death that we deserve to take the punishment for all our sins. It’s not one or the other—both are essential if we are to be saved from hell and gain entrance into heaven. Theologians distinguish between the two by referring to Christ’s keeping the law in our place as his ‘active obedience’ and his dying to atone for our sins as his ‘passive obedience.’
If a J.G. Machen, at the end of a life of godliness, brilliance and faithfulness couldn’t rest on his own righteousness to secure his place in heaven, how much less can you or I. We need a Saviour who has lived the life we cannot live. There is no hope without it.
Just pause and think of what it meant for the Lord Jesus to obey for us, in our place. For thirty years he never once said or did anything wrong. More than that, at every single moment he positively said and did exactly the right thing, in the right way, to the right degree! More than that, his obedience didn’t just extend to his outward actions and words—his inner life was perfect in line with the law of God. In his thoughts, his feelings, his will, his desires, his reactions, his attitudes, motives and disposition—not once, not for so much as a millisecond, was there even an infinitesimal lapse.
Remember, too, that Jesus wasn’t living closeted away from the corrupting influence of sinful people. He was plunged into the middle of the world, surrounded by and in close contact with sinners. He experienced the weaknesses of a human nature that give temptation extra power. He knew what it was to be tired—weary to the point of exhaustion. (So weary, indeed, that he was able to sleep through a windstorm at sea when the boat he was in threatened to capsize!). How often we give in to temptation when we’re tired and our guard is down. Jesus never did.
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Keep making disciples, keep baptising them, keep teaching them; in the power of the Spirit and the name of Jesus. What makes Amillennialism so exciting and encouraging is not that is introduces anything new, but that it encourages us to continue in faith with the work appointed to us. Yes, persecution may come, but Jesus is on the throne, he is ruling, and is our ultimate hope.

I recently bought myself a fountain pen. I’ve had terrible handwriting as long as I can remember—an excellent trait to have as a writer—and I thought it was time I did something about it. I decided on a fountain pen partially because a number of other writers have recommended it, and also because it seems to force one to be more careful. No one suggested it had to be yellow though.
Yellow, I thought, If I’m going to convince myself to use it, it ought to look exciting.
In sales, new recruits are often asked to “sell” a pen to a colleague to exercise their skills. Well, I marketed the pen to myself and I bought my own logic, so I guess I’m one step towards winning salesman of the year in the Ravenhill household. Today I’m facing a similar issue, should I—should we—paint a theological model “yellow” too? Would that make it more attractive? Easier to understand? Less boring?
Important: My guess is that you’re in one of two camps:

You’ve clicked on the name but might not make it past the next couple of paragraphs because they might seem more dense
You’re savvy with the terms and you just wanna get on with the article.

For those in the first camp, I’d love to encourage you that this article isn’t as dense, boring, or aimless as it might seem. There are reasons we need to discuss subjects like this and although “academic” theological terms might be an immediate barrier, getting to know the terms can open up deeper biblical and theological understanding as well as simplifying future reading.
Here are some key terms:
Eschatology is the study and theology of the end times, post-, pre-, and amillennialism are models to help understand the shape that the end times will take and although there are others, these tend to be the most common amongst protestants.Premillennialism (Pre-M)—Things will get worse before they get better. Some time during that period the saints will be raptured—or taken away from the world—then God will judge the earth.Postmillennialism (Post-M)—Things will get better before they get worse, followed by judgement day. The better time will begin by being ushered in by the work of the church.Amillennialism (A-M)—The end times started at pentecost and since then things have been both good (the work of the church) and bad (the persecution of the church) and this will be followed by the coming of Christ, the final judgement, and the new heavens and new earth.
The “good” in each of these is usually referred to as “the reign of Christ”, and the bad is referred to a “tribulation.”
In a recent YouTube video Matthew Everhard, Senior Pastor of Gospel Fellowship PCA, suggested that Amillennialism might be in need of a rebrand1. He’s not the first to suggest this, for instance, in a commentary on Revelation Beale says:
It is better to refer to [“amillennialism”] as “inaugurated millennialism,” since “amillennial” literally means “no millennium.”G. K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary, page 420.
In researching for this article I’ve found that it’s quite a common practice for those arguing for the Amillenial position to produce or provide an alternative term, suggesting that the one we currently use is at best confusing—potentially even unfit to carry the weight of the theological implications it carries. Throughout his video, Everhard suggests a number of alternative terms such as:

Nuncmillennial—Nunc meaning “now”
Supramillennial—Supra meaning “over” or “above”
Optimistic Amillennials—As opposed to the pessimistic portrait painted of us by our critics.

Beyond these possible new designations, however, Everhard doesn’t go into much detail as to what the benefits of a rebrand would be. Clarity is certainly an admirable goal, but theological terms are often difficult to understand at first. There seems to be an underlying emphasis that Everhard never quite gets to, but seems to be present throughout his video.
It’s Just So Boring
One of the main reasons, as I see it, that Everhard’s argument came about in the first place is that Amillennialism seems boring. I will come onto why that isn’t actually true, but on the face of it the Amillennial view doesn’t bring an urgency or new “mission” to the table in that same way that the Pre-M and Post-M views do.
This is part of what makes these models so exciting. They often come with particular markers to look out for, or goals to achieve. These include but are not limited to:
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