Should the Church Get with the Times and Embrace Gay “Marriage”?

Posted May 26, 2017 by Michael L. Brown

We’re told that times have changed and that many Christians now realize our understanding of the Bible is antiquated and that we need to embrace gay “marriage.” Should we? This is Dr. Brown’s response.

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[email protected] posted a comment · May 30, 2017
This is the classic objection of an individual who does not understand what the Bible is all about or whose voice it is we hear when we read it. Did Jesus say anything about homosexuality? As WordNerd so ably puts it, the Bible as a whole, including what it records about what Jesus said concerning marriage, always speaks of romantic marital relationships as good and holy, but only when they are between a man and a woman. Never does the Bible bless nor even tacitly approve any other romantic relationship, whether homosexual, transgender, male-female outside of marriage, etc. The problem is not that the Bible is unclear or that the Law has somehow been abrogated. The problem is that people do not understand the purpose of the Old Covenant and its laws. God commanded the Israelites to abstain from many things such as the blending of fabrics and the rounding of the beard, not because they were morally indecent or objectionable, but because God was teaching His people that they were to be a different, holy people. Those actions were not inherently sinful, but they taught the Israelites that they were different, not because they were any better than their neighbors, but because they had been chosen by God to be His very own. However, there were and are certain things that are never approved of by God nor have they stopped being sinful and immoral because we have somehow become “enlightened.” In addition, if you are a true believer, then you understand that what Paul and any of the other inspired writers of scripture declare in its pages is what Jesus in fact says. Proponents of same sex “marriage” are intent in making a difference between what Jesus is recorded to have said while on earth and what His inspired apostles and disciples wrote in what became our New Testament. As John puts it, Jesus did (and by implication, said) many more things than what are recorded (John 20:30-31). And a number of issues that were not in dispute while Jesus was on earth (since He ministered to the Jews), became issues after He had ascended to heaven. But if what you believe is that Jesus and His disciples were somehow at variance, then you have a very distorted view of what the Bible is all about. Peter tells his readers that “holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Paul himself declares that what he delivered to the Thessalonians was in fact “the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Thus, the contention that Jesus never said anything against homosexuality is not only false, but it pits Jesus against His own disciples. If that is your position, then you should abandon Christianity altogether because you don’t really believe it is true! And finally, your argument is self-defeating. After all, it is those disciples and apostles whom you seem to discount, who were the ones that wrote what Jesus said. If what they claimed about Jesus’ revelation to them after his ascension cannot be trusted, then how can you trust that what they say about Jesus’ words is any more trustworthy? If you don’t take the revelation as a whole, then you don’t take the revelation at all.
WordNerd posted a comment · May 28, 2017
Many types of social relationships are illustrated in the Bible. The only romantic or sexual one ever mentioned in positive terms is marriage between one male and one female. Jesus himself quoted the Old Testament frequently, including the one about how God designed human beings: a *man* leaves his *father* and *mother* so that he can be joined to his own *wife* and therefore commence *one* new family. Behavior that is specifically described in negative terms is obviously not acceptable to God. The methods or means of staying "pure" in the eyes of God changed with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the principle behind it: that such behavior is considered by God to be harmful to life and a sin, has never changed. There is such a thing as Truth. What was true at the Creation is still true, otherwise there can be no Truth.
WordNerd posted a comment · May 28, 2017
Many types of social relationships are illustrated in the Bible. The only romantic or sexual one ever mentioned in positive terms is marriage between one male and one female. Jesus himself quoted the Old Testament frequently, including the one about how God designed human beings: a *man* leaves his *father* and *mother* so that he can be joined to his own *wife* and therefore commence *one* new family. Behavior that is specifically described in negative terms is obviously not acceptable to God. The methods or means of staying "pure" in the eyes of God changed with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the principle behind it: that such behavior is considered by God to be harmful to life and a sin, has never changed. There is such a thing as Truth. What was true at the Creation is still true, otherwise there can be no Truth.
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R Kress posted a comment · May 27, 2017
Where, please tell me, did Jesus say anything about homosexuality. Where did HE condemn it? If you refer to the old testament, do you also believe that these people should be stoned to death? At what point do you 'suspend' the old testament or are the stoning requirements 'antiquated' and therefore should be continued in modern society? At what point does the view of these teachings change from perspective? None of the Ten Commandments mentions anything about homosexuality, so why is this sin elevated to such a high level as it seems to be for so many?