Last Friday our nations Supreme Court by a razor thin margin
of 5 to 4 struck down any remaining same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional.
Thus in effect it became the law of the land. I want to start out by saying
that although this grieves me greatly it was not surprising and did not send me
into a panic. First of all, I was 99.9% sure that the court would make this
decision. This did not happen overnight. Thus I was (as much as is possible
with something like this) ready for it.
Secondly, it is worth noting that we as believers should
have no expectation that the world would side with us on this crucial matter.
There is no way for the carnal man to completely understand the divine picture
of marriage and the parameters which God has put on it. If they do not love God
why would they care about the way he wants us to live?
With these things being said allow me to share with you what
does concern me. It saddened me a great deal to see the number of people that I
know who claim the name of Christ who voiced approval of this decision. Many
people use the excuse that we are all sinners and we shouldn’t judge. I have a
couple questions for you. First of all, if you’re going to use the argument
that we are all sinners are you not in fact admitting that same-sex
relationships are part of a sinful lifestyle? If they are, why should they be
recognized by our country (or perhaps more importantly by its Christians) as a
normal way of life? If they are not, the “We are all sinners” argument doesn’t
fly. You can’t have it both ways.
Many people have spent a lot of time in the last few days
trying to reason away the passages from both the Old and New Testament that
speak of this issue. Instead of going into major detail on these, I would
simply ask you to provide me with the passage that you think shows God’s
approval of these actions.
Through my study of the Bible, I have found that whenever
marriage is mentioned it is talked about in the context of a man and a woman.
Jesus said that God made men and women and that the reason a man should leave
his household was to be joined to his wife in a one flesh relationship. “And
he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at
the beginning made them male and female,
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” (Matthew 19:4 –5) In
this passage Jesus is quoting from Genesis and sharing God’s only intended plan
for marriage.
Another argument people make is that if we actually lived by
the Bible we would be polygamists and we should all own slaves. I just want to state
here that just because polygamy and slavery were mentioned in the Bible that
does not constitute God’s approval of either. If you read the stories of those
in the Bible who practice polygamy you will often find that it carried with it
its own penalties. Wives fighting amongst each other, sons of one wife killing
sons of another or other undesirable results.
As far as slavery goes, much of what is written about that
is dealing with how you should respond if you are a slave not necessarily how
moral or holy it is to own them. It is important for us to remember that
stories in the Bible do not shy away from the faults of those who stories they
tell. The men and women of the Bible dealt with sin and had flaws just like the
rest of us.
The Bible speaks clearly against homosexuality. “Wherefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile
affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is
against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which
was meet. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do
those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder,
debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,” (Romans
1:24-30)
People often say that homosexuality is only one sin in many
and that we who don’t practice it are just as guilty as those that do and that
would be absolutely correct. When I look at the list of sins that are contained
in the above passage I’m reminded just how guilty I am. I have no merit of my
own to stand on and my only hope for heaven is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on
the cross.
That being said, there is a difference between realizing
that you are in a lifelong battle against sin and trusting God to make you more
like Jesus each day, and simply accepting a sin as normal behavior. That is the
major difference between what is going on with same-sex marriage and how we
deal with other sins in our life. It’s not the sin that is worse, but rather
the acceptance of that sin.
You may choose to disagree with what God says on this topic,
but you can’t deny that He said it. I would encourage you to take a good long
look at what the Bible truly has to say on this issue and ask God to reveal his
truth to you.
Another thing that greatly distresses me is the amount of
power that we as a nation have bequeathed to the Supreme Court. In 1973, they
decided that a woman’s right to choose preempted the right to life. It wiped
out all previous restrictions which the citizens of the United States had
placed on this procedure. There was brief mention about the age of viability
but since it was never established this became a blank check to obtain an
abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
As I sit here in the summer of 2015 I feel a very definite
case of judicial déjà vu. Once again the Supreme Court has wiped out all
previous decisions by the citizens of the United States in one single vote.
They did so by once again conjuring up something in the Constitution that was
not there. In the words of Chief Justice John Roberts “Celebrate the
achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression
of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits,” he
read from his opinion as crowds outside the court’s doors cheered the decision.
“But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”
I have a final question for those celebrating the Supreme
Court decision. Is it only all right for the Supreme Court to decide things you
agree with? What if they outlaw guns next or something else you hold dear? What
will you do then? We as citizens are being given less and less of a voice in
our government. We must be willing to stand up for what is right. This is the
cornerstone of liberty.
In closing please know that I understand that our only true
hope is found in Jesus Christ, but it’s worth repeating here that William
Wilberforce was able to see the end of slavery in Great Britain because he was
willing to serve Christ faithfully within the parliament. We must seek to serve
the Lord wherever he has planted us and to remember the glorious truth “Blessed
is the nation whose God is the Lord…” (Psalm 33:12)
Speaking4Him,
Andrew Gommesen
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