Jesus said that someone who led children astray would be better off dead. If Jesus is who the Bible says he is, then many people would be better off dead. Those would be the people who insist not only on pretending that a union of two human beings of the same gender is a marriage, but also insist on teaching children to think that homosexuality and gender confusion are normal, all the while encouraging them to fondle themselves and learn what sexual stimulation they prefer.

Contemporary culture is a moral wasteland. The same people who police everyone’s speech and want to filter out the “N” word from conversation do not want to filter any sexual reference or behavior out of the public eye. The immorality condoned by the culture, and the advocacy for public law that condones and protects immorality owns the floor of the public forum.

People who want to pretend that homosexuality and many other perversions are merely variations on normal behavior make an issue of the fact that Jesus fulfilled all the law. They want to pretend that Old Testament proscriptions on homosexual behavior are null and void, because Jesus ended all those silly ritual rules. With regard to law, it is true that Jesus did away with food laws, and it is true that Jesus fulfilled and transcended ceremonial laws. However, Jesus did not do away with moral law; rather, he enhanced it and called people to higher standards.

Look at Jesus’s response on the subject of marriage. Pharisees asked Jesus to comment on divorce, but he answered by defining marriage: “from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:6-9). Jesus clarified that humans have two genders, and only two. He clarified that marriage is only the union of a man and a woman, that union and no other. Jesus took that definition farther than the Old Testament law, and he made it clear that a marriage is a permanent union. Jesus called people to the highest standard, with no accommodation for sin.

Therefore, those of us who have experienced divorce are guilty of sin. It is important to remember that Jesus said this. Some of us have been led down the path to the sin of divorce by other sins—abuse, for example, or adultery—but divorce is still a sin, and we still need forgiveness if we do it. A marriage that is full of sin may be so evil that the sin of divorce looks trivial by comparison, but the ultimate truth is that sinful humans constantly need forgiveness. Even when we escape the evil of abuse by running to the evil of divorce, it is all still evil. When we participate in evil, we need forgiveness.

Parents and teachers have the huge responsibility to teach children what they need to know in order to live confident, blessed lives. Among the important subjects are marriage and family. Jesus told us what to teach our children when he answered the Pharisees. If we insist on teaching what Christ taught, and we refuse to teach children the current cultural notions, both we and our children will suffer cultural pressure to “fix” our “wrong” notions. If we teach them the cultural notions, however, God will punish us. Jesus himself said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42). In the vivid poetic language of the author of Hebrews, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

The culture will demand its price, as Kim Davis learned recently, but like many people who have gone to prison for their faith, she found that being confirmed in her commitment to the living God was a better thing than falling into his hands for punishment because of failure to live by his standards. God will demand his price, when people flout his law. Those who lead children to accept abominations as truth will pay a price to the living God.

God does not want to punish them, or any of us. That is why Jesus suffered and died. The people who promote and enable sexual perversion and gender confusion in the culture all earn fearful punishment at the hands of the living God. Their sins, as well as mine and the sins of the whole world, weighed heavily on Christ as he hung on the cruel cross, but he endured that suffering and endured death itself in order to redeem us from enslavement to sin. There is hope for all of us, even people who teach that sin is good behavior and that knowledge of various ways to sin is knowledge everyone needs. People can turn away from that sinful way of life and receive Jesus. They can be saved from the punishment being laid up for them by the living God. They can give up their sinful ways and give themselves to Jesus. He will cleanse them from all the degradation they have suffered. He will heal their minds and hearts from all of Satan’s lies.

The remark Jesus made about the horrific punishment in store for people who teach children that wickedness is righteousness was a warning we all should heed. I am very sure that my children heard and saw me mislead them by word and deed more than once, and I know that I only escape the dire judgment in store for people who do such a thing, because the blood of Christ has poured over me and washed me clean. The living God will judge every person who tells children that families with two mothers are normal or that it is normal for two men to have sex with each other. Science tells us that the universe is vast, and nobody knows how vast it is. That fact should give pause to everyone who contemplates the necessity of facing the one who created the universe and loves every person in it. People who are enslaved by sin earn punishment, but when they act and speak with the intent of enslaving children in the same sin, they multiply the punishment awaiting them. Imagine the additional punishment that piles up for those who go even further, legalizing immorality and making it illegal to reject immorality.

People who teach children lies are pretending that the Bible does not mean what it says about homosexuality. People who make it illegal to call homosexuality sin have gone a step further by requiring that people support the homosexual lifestyle with the skills they use for earning a living. LGBTQ activists consider themselves to be doing good work when they suppress biblical truth in public life. They invented a “right” to tell children that homosexuality and gender confusion are normal and that any Bible teaching to the contrary is ancient scribbling to be ignored by the more highly evolved human beings who live today. The activists and teachers who advocate and teach lies as if they are truth need to hope, therefore, that the Bible does not mean what it says about misleading children.

By Katherine Harms, author of Oceans of Love available for Kindle at Amazon.com. Watch for Thrive! Live Christian in a Hostile World soon to be released.