THREE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS . . .
By T. F. Tenney and Max Lucado
Across America the topic of gay marriage is being debated. It is one of the “hot topics” of this year’s election process. Our current President solemnly believes and supports the Biblical definition of marriage (whether it’s called that or not) - that it is the sacred union of a man and a woman. Others seek to free those who have adopted a homosexual lifestyle to be granted marriage licenses or something called “civil union” as well.
The popular Christian writer, Max Lucado, published an article on his website that addresses three specific questions: What does God say about marriage? What does God say about gays? What does God say about gay marriage? I am going to borrow from his outline and some his thoughts to give answer to those questions here.
As we read through the Book of Genesis - a book of firsts - of “God created . . .” - we find God saying, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18, NIV). The King James Version refers to a “help meet” - a word that ultimately means a “mate.” The idea was that this additional person would bring completeness to Adam. This “helper suitable” would be God’s divine matchmaking. God created Eve - of equal value, but different. He proclaimed, “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. Name her Woman for she was made from Man!”
Moses added the commentary in Genesis 2:24: “So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two will become one.” There is a “leaving” and a “cleaving.” It clarifies that marriage is not a casual date nor a clandestine affair. It is a sacred covenant publicly sealed between a man and woman. God could have created another man for Adam; He did not. He also could have made two women for Adam instead of just one; He did not. God could have given Eve to Adam for 24 hours and then given them both to someone else; He did not. In this demonstration of creation, God gave us His definition of marriage: One man - one woman - for life - heterosexual monogamy. As God later in His Word called the church His bride - we see One God - one church - for eternity.
Homosexuality is not a new thing. It wasn’t birthed in the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies. Max Lucado pointed out in his article, “In the ancient east, no other religion honored the female as an equal partner of man and no other moral code called a husband and wife to sexual fidelity...Religions were promoting flagrant and unbridled sexual activity...religious life in the nations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyrus, Canaan...were marked by temple prostitution and ritual sex...In such a sexually-saturated era, homosexuality was widely practiced.” These ancients saw their gods as sexual beings rarely if ever monogamous and often incestuous.
So it was into this world the Torah - the written word of Jehovah God - entered. According to its teachings, God was not sexual, but holy. Man was not conceived in a sexual act, but created in a divine one. Men and women were not intended for identical gender but opposite. Sex is not a recreational sport but a matrimonial privilege. Again quoting Lucado, “The God of the Jews put the genie of sex into the bottle of heterosexual marriage.”
Homosexuality resists this truth. So, what does God say about gays? Have you wondered if Jesus lived today, if He came face to face with a homosexual what exactly would he say? What would his reaction be? What would he do? We cannot see any example of such an encounter in the New Testament. While we cannot know what He would say, we can know how He would act.
He would express His love. Max Lucado put it this way:
“Like with Zaccheus, he might go to his home. Like with the Samaritan woman, he might sit in the shade of the well. As he did with Matthew, Jesus might offer a personal invitation. The exact words he would use, we do not know. But of their sentiment, we have no doubt...He would speak to them with compassion. But he would also speak to them with conviction. And he would tell them the truth. As he did with Zaccheus, the Samaritan woman, Matthew and others, Jesus always full of grace and truth, always told the truth.”
That truth is simple. God never approves of sexual union outside of marriage. Two sexually involved but unmarried singles? God disapproves. Two married people who are sexually involved but not married to each other? God is angered by their adultery. The man who seduces children? The sibling with sibling? The man with man or woman with woman? The Bible is very specific regarding God’s feelings toward homosexual activity: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).
Max Lucado cites an unnamed Hebrew scholar who said, “When the word toevah (abomination) does appear in the Hebrew Bible, it is sometimes applied to idolatry, cult prostitution, magic or divination...It always conveys great repugnance.” Max Lucado went on to write, “God’s denouncement of homosexual intimacy Amazons its way through scripture - from one border to the next. From the earliest code of the Torah, to the later epistles of Paul - the sentiment never changes.”
In the days of Moses the Law read: “If a man has sexual relations with another man as a man does with a woman, these two men have done a hateful sin” (Leviticus 20:13, NCV). To the Romans, “Women stopped having natural sex and started having sex with other women. In the same way, men stopped having natural sex and began wanting each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and in their bodies received the punishment for those wrongs” (Romans 1:26, 27, NCV.) To the Corinthians, Paul wrote: “Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers - none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9, 10, NLT).
From start to finish the Bible categorically condemns same sex intimacy. What does God say about gay marriage? He opposes categorically opposes it. His plan is for one man - one woman - for life. So why does the church today oppose gay marriage, there are three clear answers:
- The legalization of gay marriage will erode the traditional family.
We can look to Scandinavia for proof. A Harvard PhD, Stanley Kurtz, addressed a Senate sub-committee and said: “Marriage is slowly dying in Scandinavia. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty percent of firstborn children in Denmark have unmarried parents. Not coincidentally, these countries have had something close to full gay marriage for a decade or more...married parenthood has become a minority phenomenon.”
Same sex marriage undermines God’s plan for the family. Weakened families impact society. Linda Whaite and Mary Gallagher, in their book, The Case for Marriage, wrote: “As marriage weakens, the costs are born not only by individual children or families but by all of us taxpayers, citizens, and neighbors. We all incur the costs of higher crime, welfare, education and health-care expenditures, and reduced security for our own marriage investments. Simply as a matter of public health alone . . . a new campaign to reduce marriage failure is as important as a campaign to reduce smoking.” - Legalized gay marriage will lead to legalized polygamy and other deviations.
Utah polygamist, Tom Green, is using the same legal leverage gays have used to achieve the legal sanction of his marriages to five women. The Utah ACLU seems ready to help him, stating: “the nuclear family may not necessarily be the best model.”
Max Lucado stated clearly, “If we reject the Bible’s definition of marriage - society becomes a weather van whipped about by the whims and opinions of a black-robed panel of unelected judges...If they recognize gay marriage, what will keep them from the next step? Who’s to say that one man can’t marry five women? Or two men and two women? - The highest reason for opposing gay marriage - cited by Max Lucado in his article - is a simple one: God does.
He opposes it because He loves us. “Jesus had your best interest at heart when he said, ‘...a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together” (Matthew 19:5, 6, NLT).
Where is the church? We must react as Jesus Christ does - with compassion and conviction. Compassion is absolute. Homosexuality angers God. But who among us hasn’t angered Him? Remember it was not homosexuality that caused Jesus to plait a whip and cleanse the Temple - it was self-righteousness and greed.
We must not be guilty of gay bashing. We cannot justify gay jokes any more than we mock alcoholics or shun gossipers. We must show the same grace to the brother or sister who struggles with sexual sin - remembering that we, the church, are a collection of saved sinners.
The church must be a house of compassion. She must also be a house of conviction. The Holy Scripture was the first code to call men and women to reign in their sexual desires and express them under the covenant of male-female marriage. Homosexual union is not a step forward, but a step backward.
I share with you Max Lucado’s closing paragraph. As the issues are discussed at length and debated again and again, let the Church be the Church and act and vote accordingly:
“I urge you to elevate marriage. Honor God’s plan for the home by nurturing your own. Also, pray urgent prayers for our national leaders...Think this one through carefully. We cannot budge. Too much is at stake.”
