Back in June Kirsten Powers wrote an article suggesting “most American Christians” may eventually “support same-sex relationships.” She claimed, “It will be due to the emergence of conservative Christians who say orthodox believers can support life-long, monogamous gay relationships without undermining their commitment to biblical authority.” Powers was incredibly naïve.
The history of the Church reflects mistakes in belief and practice. Most were made because of misunderstanding biblical truth, not a lack of commitment to biblical authority. In fact, the historical record reflects in each instance that the Church corrected its course; it was due to its commitment to biblical authority. Probably the greatest corrective was the Reformation spearheaded by Martin Luther who declared, “I am bound by the texts of the Bible, my conscience is captive to the Word of God.”
The Church has not been without error, but the Scriptures have. Christians believe that the Bible was inspired and preserved by God; when the Scriptures speak, God speaks.
There may be those who claim to be orthodox Christians who agree with supposedly conservative theologians who twist the truth of God’s Word to suit popular opinion, but they come across like a defense attorney pleading for a guilty client. There have always been traitors of the faith, and those who claim to be Christians but are not. Those passages of the Old and New Testaments that address the immorality of homosexuality are crystal clear on the issue and not subject to the sort of eisegesis we have witnessed.
In an article entitled “Why so many Christians won’t back down on gay marriage” Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry makes several compelling points. Christianity began during the rule of the Roman Empire, which cruelly persecuted the fledgling faith because its adherents refused to recognize the emperor as god. Christians also held to a “strange sexual ethic” that “refused polygamy…sexual exploitation of slaves…prostitution, premarital sex, divorce, abortion, the exposure of infants, contraception, and homosexual acts.” He continues, “Because of the fact of pregnancy…most pre-modern cultures enforced sexual restraint on women” but Christianity was considered bizarre because “it insisted on the same restraint on…men.”
Gobry further comments “the unique sexual complementarity between men and women…in a marriage reflects the complementarity of the Persons of the Trinity” and “isn’t some encrusted holdover from a socially conditioned patriarchal era on its way out, but is instead deeply connected to [Christianity’s] understanding of who God is and what human beings exist for.”
Powers may be a pundit, but she is no prophet. If being crucified and thrown to the lions did not cause Christians to cave to popular opinion then, why should we now because we are called names and hauled into court?
When accused of preaching the Gospel and ordered to stop, Peter and John replied, “We must obey God rather than men,” Acts 5:29. So must we.
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