Many conservative Christians are reeling from the gay
marriage ruling handed down by the Supreme Court last Friday. I hesitate to write anything
substantive on the subject as there are others far better equipped to address
the issue than I am. (For a couple
of examples, consider Albert Mohler and Russell Moore.) However, as your pastor, I figured you might find it helpful
to know what I am thinking. What
follows is not a well-organized treatise, but simply a list of things that are
on my mind regarding the future.
1.
It seems clear that the Constitution is now
incidental to the governing of our nation. As Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his dissent, the
Constitution had nothing to do with this ruling. The political, social, and moral leanings of a majority on the
Supreme Court are the real law of the land now.
While this is lamentable, it
should not be ultimately demoralizing because the Constitution is not what
gives Christians hope. We have a
better document, a timeless, unchanging, inspired, and inerrant one – the
Bible. No elected or non-elected
public figures can ever overrule its judgments or silence its truth.
2.
Related to the above, there will almost
certainly be a collision in the future between the freedoms of religion/speech
and gay marriage. We are already
seeing that socially, if not legally, any speech against gay marriage or for
traditional marriage is hardly tolerated.
Numerous newspapers have announced that they will no longer publish
letters to the editor written from a conservative perspective on this
issue. It will become more and
more common for the biblical position on marriage to be labeled “hate
speech.” Now that gay marriage has
been legalized, this label will have more traction. It seems likely to me that eventually such speech will be
outlawed and gay marriage will have trumped free speech.
Likewise with the freedom of
religion. It could be said that a
collision took place here already, even before gay marriage was legalized by
the Supreme Court. The concept of
religious liberty did not protect an Oregon baker who declined to bake a cake
for a homosexual wedding, nor a Washington florist who declined to decorate
such a wedding. Emboldened by
Friday’s decision, we can expect homosexuals to seek out conservative churches
to rent for their weddings so that when denied they can file a lawsuit. It’s simply a matter of time. Gay marriage has already trumped the
freedom of religion and will continue to do so.
While these things are bothersome,
we ought not consider the acts of speaking the truth and honoring biblical
principles as rights afforded us by the United States government. They are not first and foremost rights,
but rather commands from God. Whether the government allows it or
forbids it, I must speak the truth (Eph 4:15-16, 25; Acts 5:27-32). Whether a federal document endorses it
or criminalizes it, I must pursue righteousness and abstain from every form of
evil (1 Tim 6:11-12; 2 Tim 2:22; 1 Thess 5:22). My responsibility is to obey God and trust Him with the
consequences.
3.
It will now be all but impossible for our
children to receive an even remotely balanced education on moral issues in the
public school system. In
curriculums from kindergarten through high school, the concept of traditional
marriage will go the way of creationism.
Previously, education on homosexual culture at the kindergarten level
was something we only expected to hear about in California. I suspect it will be nationwide very
soon.
This means that it has never been more
important for Christian parents to be intentional about bringing their children
up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We need to train our children not simply what the Bible says,
but why the Bible is our authority and how we can know that it is
trustworthy. Most Christians today
could not defend the Scriptures against a skeptic. This needs to change if for no other reason than we need to
be able to train our children in these things.
Additionally, we must teach them
not only that gay marriage is wrong, but why. Beyond all the scientific and sociological arguments, the
greatest apologetic against homosexual marriage is that it defames the
gospel. Marriage has been created
by God to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church (Eph 5:22-33). Homosexual marriage takes an immoral
act – one that is consistently and without exception portrayed as an
abomination to God in the Scriptures – and superimposes it over this
God-ordained picture of the gospel.
Rather than covering sin with the gospel, it covers the gospel with sin. Which leads to #4…
4.
This season will present us with innumerable
opportunities to share the gospel.
It is not uncommon for those who support gay marriage to be
flabbergasted as to why anyone would oppose it. When someone asks, “what is so wrong? Why does it matter to you what other
people do?”, we should proceed as if they have just said, “Please share the
gospel with me.”
Many Christians in response to
this question will say something like, “The Bible says that marriage should
only be between a man and a woman.”
This is true, but it wastes an opportunity. Why does the Bible
teach that marriage is between a man and a woman? As I mentioned in #3 above, it's all about the gospel. In explaining that marriage is a
picture of Christ and the church, we must tell in what sense Christ gave
Himself up for the church (Eph 5:25-27) – He died for her sins.
We must also explain in what sense the church submits to Christ – she
repents, trusts, and follows Him in all things. Traditional marriage pictures that; gay marriage profanes it
by superimposing an abomination over it.
We must also keep in mind that the
gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that provides hope for any sinner,
whether homosexual or heterosexual.
It is a cruelty to withhold the gospel from anyone. Though we are vilified as haters, we
must hold fast the conviction that our message, the gospel, is the only loving
one in existence. All others
further entrap the sinner in his sin.
5.
Christians desperately need to be able to
counter biblical arguments for gay
marriage. I’m not saying there are
actual biblical arguments for gay marriage, but there are professing Christians
attempting to use the bible to make a case for gay marriage. Of course, they can only do this by
twisting the Scriptures. We need
to understand what these arguments are and why they are not valid. To date, the best resource I know of to
equip a Christian to do this is the free e-book, God and the Gay Christian? Don’t
just read it. Learn it.
6.
Historically, good things happen when pressure is placed upon the church. I’m thinking of two things
primarily. First, the gospel
explodes. The 2nd
century church father Tertullian wrote, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed
of the church.” Amazingly, the
more unpopular and dangerous it is to be a Christian, the faster the church
grows. Times of persecution have
always been times of rapid spread of the gospel. In fact, it could be argued that were it not for persecution
of the church in the first three centuries AD, Christianity would not be a
global religion today.
Second, the church is
purified. Pressure serves to
separate the sheep from the goats.
Those who are not truly redeemed do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit
to empower them to persevere, so they fall away. We should not be surprised when many who claim to be
Christians today succumb to societal pressure on the issue of marriage. It is already happening. These people will loosen their hold on
the Scriptures to accommodate the culture and when they do that they necessarily
give up the gospel. We will likely
see many churches going the way of the mainline denominations. They will become increasingly
irrelevant in terms of a gospel witness, and in the event of true persecution,
they will disappear altogether.
That is, nominal Christianity eventually will be a thing of the past.
This means that we will likely see
revival. This is a good thing.
I can’t say that I was happy about the ruling last Friday,
but I’m not at all disheartened. I
believe that God is moving history, not merely watching it. He is accomplishing His plans, not merely reacting to the
plans of men. Whatever the future
holds, it is a future ordained by the God who gave His Son to secure eternal
blessedness for me and all other sinners who follow Him. For
I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I
have entrusted to Him until that day (2 Tim 1:12).
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