The past few days have been rough for Bible-believing Christians. Those who reject same-sex marriage and homosexuality will become targets of anybody who hates historical Christianity. I have seen many Christians ask what they can do to fight the rampant immortality that is on the rise in this country (warning: that link goes to some very vulgar pictures of a gay pride parade). However, I believe that the way for Christians to fight immorality is not necessarily by fighting homosexuality, abortion, divorce, or whatever other issue plagues our society. Don’t get me wrong we need to speak out against them and give an answer for why we reject them. However, these issues are a result of something else going on in our society.
The main issue in our culture concerns the authority of the Bible. It used to be that many believed or didn’t believe in something because of what Scripture taught. If Jesus or the Apostles taught that something is wrong then it is wrong. But today’s culture does not believe in the authority of the Bible. Instead, if you say that you believe that homosexuality is a sin because of what the Bible teaches you will generally get a weird or hateful look and questions or comments like “you believe those myths,” “you follow that outdated book,” or “you are a hateful bigot.”
This is the problem plaguing our culture. We no longer have any respect for God and we no longer believe his Word. No one cares about that “outdated book of myths.” The culture will never reject same-sex marriage or abortion or any other moral issue until it has a reason to, and what’s the point of rejecting those things if there is no God to punish us like so many believe? To add to that, the church has done a horrible job at convincing society to believe in the God of the Bible.
Sadly, most Christians cannot even defend or explain its core beliefs. Most preachers are too politically correct to even speak about sin (especially in connection to homosexuality). If we cannot even talk about basic theological issues how then will we be able to discuss more complex issues like same-sex marriage or the authenticity and authority of Scripture? How can we even teach against homosexuality if so many self-proclaimed Christians have accepted that its lifestyle is ok?
This is the problem. Same-sex marriage is going nowhere until the church returns to biblically based beliefs, begins to defend them, and lives as salt and light in a rotting and dark world.
What do you think?
Timothy Johnston
January 2, 2017 1:33 pmMany people love to read and attempt to understand their bibles. That is good in my opinion and I respectfully understand that it is not some folk’s cup of tea (all pun intended). But the danger here is if the majority reach a concensus on a religious/moral issue they then want to by rule of law impose it on everyone else. Sorry but that is a clear violation of our first amendment. “Congress shall make no law…” that does not mean we have to all quit reading and trying to live out our faith, in fact quite the opposite. And if a person cannot in good conscience voluntarily serve a purpose they deem ungodly they must by that amendment be free from such involuntary servitude. I agree with the Supreme Courts decision to allow same sex marriages in the context of reference to the 14th amendment regarding equality of rights. I do not think it is proper morality or acceptable practice for a jewish, christian, or even muslim believer. But by current american law if its consenting I understand it to be legal here and now. It is sad to me that we have allowed the institution of marriage to degenerate to that level and I applaud the efforts of the Alabama Senate to try to get the state out of the marriage business altogether by removing all license requirements from their statues. I would have no problem with the court ruling simularly on polygamy and any other sexual/social relationships. But the moment we force, by our discrimination statues a religious person to service or participate in any activity they find unconcienable by their own definition, then we have made the first amendment without its intended effect which is to preserve religious freedom. The more I ponder this the more assured I become that we must preserve the right to serve or not serve freely whosoever we choose.