Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 18:2 (Fall 2013)
Article: A Review Of Peter Hubbard, "Love Into Light: The Gospel, The Homosexual, And The Church"
Author: David Schrock

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JBMW 18:2 (Fall 2013) p. 42

A Review Of Peter Hubbard, Love Into Light: The Gospel, The Homosexual, And The Church

Greenville, SC: Ambassador International, 2013. 175 pp. $12.99.

David Schrock

Associate Editor, Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood
Senior Pastor
Calvary Baptist Church
Seymour, Indiana

Peter Hubbard begins his book Love Into Light: The Gospel, the Homosexual, and the Church by asking an important question.

The first time I counseled a man struggling with same-sex attraction (SSA), I felt awkward. I didn’t really know what to say. I wanted to help, but I wasn’t sure how. He didn’t really know what to say either. He felt defeated, yet addicted to homosexual porn and anonymous ‘hookups.’ He wanted help, but he was uncomfortable talking about such a personal area of his life. We seemed so different. How could a happily married pastor help a man struggling with homosexuality? (11)

Hubbard’s earnest question set him on a course to study the issues and embrace a ministry to those struggling with SSA. Pastor Hubbard led his church to do the same and over the course of years, God has grown his ministry and the ministry of his church to embrace homosexuals with compassion, even as they have called them to abandon homosexuality for the greater pleasures of knowing Christ.

Love into Light is the fruit of Hubbard’s commitment to biblical truth and compassion for sexual sinners. His book consists of nine chapters with an additional introduction and conclusion. While no immediate outline guides the reader, Hubbard progresses from the heart to the ministry of the church, from faith to practice, and from the specifics of the gospel to the way Christians must communicate the gospel to others.

As a book that stands on God’s Word and employs a model of biblical counseling that reaches the heart, Love into Light has a number of strengths. First, Pastor Hubbard is unashamed of the gospel. In his first chapter, simply entitled “Gospel,” Hubbard gives a series of reasons why Christians have difficulty relating to homosexuals. He challenges Christians to consider the fundamental truths of the gospel, and how it applies to everyone.

Outlining the ‘gospel story’ in four points, he states that all men (1) are made in God’s image and (2) have turned aside from righteousness. Likewise, no matter what their background, if they have trusted in Christ, all believers (3) find a new identity in Christ and (4) have the promise of becoming more like Christ. Christians who are skeptical of how to relate to someone “unlike” themselves will find great help for building bridges with the gospel.

Second, Hubbar...

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