The term “homophobia” could be used to describe sinful attitudes or actions towards homosexuals. Its typical use, though, is to describe opposition to homosexual practices and beliefs, which is assumed to be irrational. Used in this way, it is an unfair rhetorical ploy to discredit any opposition to homosexuality.

Debates are rarely won on the battlefield of terminology, but they are frequently lost there. This is certainly the case in today’s debates over sexuality. Virtually all of the key terms are so freighted with ideological ordnance that entire regiments of exegetical and philosophical argument can be wiped out at a moment’s notice by a careless choice of words.
One word that we must handle with care is “homophobia.” Of course, this term is frequently leveled at anyone who dissents from the mainstream view affirming homosexual practices. Frequently, though, the term is also used by Christians to describe sinful attitudes or attitudes toward homosexuals. The problem is that when Christians use this term, we are either using it in a highly restricted sense that our secular culture does not recognize, or we are buying into some unbiblical assumptions about homosexuality.
The second half of the term, “phobia,” signifies an irrational fear. For instance, “arachnophobia” is an irrational fear of spiders. You might have arachnophobia if you avoid opening cupboards because years ago you found a dead spider in one. On the other hand, running away from a tarantula is evidence of healthy fear, not arachnophobia.
But what exactly does a homophobe fear? What does the “homo” refer to? It could refer to homosexual people. In this case, “homophobia” would be a useful term to describe someone’s fear of speaking to a homosexual, of stepping on their lawn, or of eating one table over from them at a restaurant.
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The history of the church is one astonishing deliverance tale after another. At every moment she is threatened to be engulfed and drowned by the floods of persecution, internal explosion, anti-God philosophy, apathy, and materialism. Yet the Lord who said on Day Two, “Let there be a firmament-expanse between the waters to separate water from water,” continues to provide breathing space and life for his church.  

My son was two years old at the time. We were in our neighbor’s yard, standing next to their swimming pool. He stepped into the water and fell like a stone. For a split second (though time slows in these situations, and it seemed much longer), he didn’t struggle or try to get out—he simply sat on the bottom of the pool. I reached down instantly and hauled him out. I was much more disturbed than he was, and shocked at how quickly and silently a little child could drown.
God’s church is always in danger of drowning.
God’s church is always in danger of drowning—suffocating in the waters of outward persecution and inward materialism and temptation. This applies to us as a body, and this applies to us individually. But we need not fear, for our Savior—from the very beginning—showed how he can deliver us from the chaotic suffocating waters in whatever form they come.
In Genesis 1:6-8, we read about God’s work on the second day:

And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

The “expanse” (raqia) separates the water that made up the original formless, empty, lifeless, black, and watery chaos (1:1-2). It creates a horizontal space between water that is above and water that is below. And God called it “Heaven” (shamayim), which is the very common Hebrew word for the place, both seen and unseen, that is far above the surface of the earth.
Raqia, thus, is a sturdy barrier that God stretches out above the earth. And when we put this with its name, shamayim, “heaven” or “sky,” we see that on Day Two God made the sky, a powerful spacious barrier that holds apart water that is down from water that is up.
What, though, is the water that is above? Proverbs 8:27-28, a very beautiful picture of creation spoken by “Wisdom” personified, tells us:

“I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep.”

The “waters below” are the oceans, and the “waters above” are the clouds.
What a magnificent picture that God paints before our eyes! First, we see creation: formless, lifeless, lightless, empty, and watery. This is the raw material. On Day One God floods creation with light. And periods of light will alternate with periods of darkness to make “day and night.” Yet, although creation is no longer black, it is still a formless watery chaos. On Day Two God builds structure, a firmament-expanse, a sky which separates water below from water that is above.
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What is new about the “new” antisemitism is not the antisemitism, but the fact that it compels Jews to realize that they cannot escape their connection to Israel, because the attack against Zionism inevitably includes them. Israel’s enemies and Israel friends alike regard American Jews as Zionists. American Jews are thus made to understand that distancing themselves from Israel, from the Jewish community, and from Judaism cannot shield them from antisemitism, because non-Jews see all Jews as one people; one family.  

On October 7, 2023, the Israeli military failed to protect Israel’s border with the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip.  Thousands of Arab fighters crossed freely into Israel to attack the towns and villages there.  They killed the men, slaughtered the children in front of their mothers, raped the women, and led them naked through the streets of Gaza to be humiliated in public and then beaten to death.  The gruesome Palestinian attack left 1,200 Israelis dead and 200 more kidnapped.
This orgy of Palestinian violence and sadism against Jews produced horror and revulsion in most sectors of American life, and expressions of concern and solidarity with Israelis.  But in the most Progressive venues of American life, the massive Palestinian pogrom in Israel produced celebration and anti-Israel protests.   
As soon as the stomach-turning videos began circulating worldwide on social media, the televised slaughter of Jews in Israel was celebrated by various Progressive organizations in America – Democratic Socialists of America (the largest socialist organization in the United States) and a few labor unions, Black Lives Matter groups, and student clubs in Ivy League universities.   Large American cities soon saw large pro-Palestinian rallies that stunned American news audiences. 
On campus, the national chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine called the spree of murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance.” Progressive professors in Ivy League universities likewise issued grotesque responses – one (Cornell) said the Arab slaughter of Jews that day was “exhilarating,” another (Columbia) saw it as “awesome,” another (Yale) called it “an extraordinary day,” and another (Harvard) blamed Israel for the Palestinian atrocities.  At the Cooper Union (a prestigious New York City college), campus police had to lock a small group of Jewish students in the school library to protect them from pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who then tried to force their way into the library.
In the face of silence and acquiescence from university administrations and academic associations, the scope and volume of campus antisemitism has intensified further since those early days.  Such stark antisemitism leaves American Jews shaken and bewildered about their place in American society generally, and particularly in the Democratic Party.
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