The Church and Same Sex Marriage
Author: Michael Dewar
What is the Church?
From a biblical perspective, the Church is not a building. The Church is the people of God. Under the Old Covenant, the people of God were God’s covenant people of ancient Israel. Under the New Covenant the people of God are those with a salvation experience with Jesus Christ; they have a transforming experience of redeeming grace. They are Book of Life registrants.
The Church is consisted of people who have been called out from among the masses of humanity to form what the apostle Peter called, “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). This spiritual body is made up of people with a new birth experience (John 3:1-16). They are the people who live in faith and obedience to Christ and have love and compassion for their fellow humans.
The Church was born on the Day of Pentecost in First century Israel; it was a movement that developed in an organization to fulfill its global mission of making disciples of all nations and to teaching them to obey the teachings of Christ (Matt.28:19-20).
A Church in Crisis
It is self-evident that the contemporary Church is in crisis, and one of the crisis-point is same sex marriage. You cannot blame the same-sex movement for kicking down doors to gain access as other groups have done. The Church must shoulder the blame for their own crisis. Why?
Local churches, including whole denominations, have decided to cast the Word of God into the trash bin to ride the beast of political correctness and accommodation. Once it was commonly held that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. But liberal academics in seminaries and divinity schools kept chipping away at it, changing its values affirmation to accommodate an increasingly decadent, secular culture. Churches kept lowering the biblical standard to win over the culture, but instead, the culture has won over those churches.
The secular State may be free to grant same sex marriage under its constitution that covers the rights of every citizen. But the Church is a separate institution from the secular State. It is governed by the constitution of the kingdom of God which is the written Word of God. The United States cannot abandon its constitution and not be in crisis. The same is true of the Church, if it abandon the Word of God, it is going to be crisis.
Leaders of the Church cannot legitimately overrule the Word of God to grant same sex marriage than a local judge can overrule the constitution of the United State. Church leaders may think they do have the power to legitimately overrule the constitution of heaven. And may have done so for decades and have fed that lie to their people. But in fact, they are usurping the authority of Christ and misrepresenting Him to the world.
Jesus respected the authority of Scripture. He never violated the written Word of God; He lived by it perfectly. When he was upon earth in the flesh, He submitted Himself to the written Word of God. He said to Satan three times, “It is written” (Matt.4:1-11). Jesus was quoting from the Hebrew Bible, the inspired Word of God. Scribes and Pharisees tampered with the Word of God and completely missed the Messiah and the Kingdom of God.
The Word of God is the constitution of the Church, both Old and New Testament. Except for few ceremonial precepts, every bit of it is the inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Word of God is not a set of suggestions to be ignored; it is executive orders from the Almighty to be followed, to be obeyed.
By Ignoring spoken Word of God, our ancestral parents got themselves judged and expelled from the paradise garden (Genesis 3:13-24). Ancient Israel got themselves driven off their covenant land for ignoring the written Word of God. They were clearly shown the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience (Deut. 28:1-68). They ignored the terms of the covenant and suffered the consequences.
What do you think will happen to contemporary churches, denominations, bishops, priests, and pastors that ignore the Word of God? Throughout history, from Eden to now the Holy Spirit departs from individuals and groups that persistently ignores the Word of God. The glory that covered Adam and Eve departed, the glory departed during Eli’s time, and eventually from the whole nation of Israel.
When the Holy Spirit departs from a church—that church becomes a mere social club, perishing in its own sins. But still dressed in religious attire, reciting empty, meaningless liturgy. If you are in one of these social clubs, get out now while you can! Find a Bible believing church that honors the Lord Jesus Christ and can feed your soul.
Emergence of the Apostate Church
What we are seeing today is the emerging apostate church of Revelation 17. Here we see a harlot dressed in fine jewelry with the communion chalice in her hand. She is riding a scarlet color (liturgical red), seven-headed, ten horn beast (i.e., world government). I say to ordinary folks who want to be on the LORD’S side, come out from among them. If you do not you will perish with the harlot.
The Bible calls this worldwide false religious system, “the mother of harlots,” because it is a large denomination with many churches under its control. It is a very wealthy religious system, that is why the woman on the beast is well decorated with fine jewelry. She is a harlot because she has many lovers: power, money, prestige, while keeping one eye on Jesus. Get out of her.
Here is what most people overlook—the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land. All practicing lawyers, judges, and courts must abide by that supreme law of the secular State. What is the constitution? It is written words of paper that express the collective interests of a people, all are bound by it, if these people wish to remain as one nation.
By contrast, the Bible, the Word of God is the constitution or supreme law for the Church of Jesus Christ which is separate from the secular State. Bishops, pastors, cardinals, elders, deacons, popes, and archbishops are not above the Word of God (the constitution of the kingdom). They may think they are, but they are not! Thos who wish not to abide by it are usurping the authority of Christ. They are not belonging to Christ. He Himself said, “My sheep listen obey to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10: 27).
The Church and Its Witness
The Church must bear witness to everybody, but no one who works for the Church has the legitimate right or authority to overrule Christ and His Written Word. People who want to be received as members of the Chrich must repent and turn away from the practice of their sins. Because Jesus saves us from our sins, not to live in our sins (Matt.1:21).
It is absurd to think that the thief can follow Christ and continue to practice his old craft of stealing, or the liar his lying, the sexually immoral continue fornicating, practicing adultery or a sodomite lifestyle. The constitution of the kingdom demands repentance (radical change), and it explicitly states that those who practice these lifestyles shall “not inherit the kingdom of God” (Rom.1:24-32;1Cor.9-11). It is not unloving for a church abide by the Word of God and tell people the truth. But let me hasten to say, the truth must be stated in love, and no one should maliciously harm or seek to harm anyone who practices a non-biblical lifestyle.
Living by the truth is hard, really hard! For that reason, people are advancing all types of arguments to get around the written text of the Word of God, but it is a fool’s game, it will not work. Do we have to be hard as well? Compassion is needed, but church leaders cannot legitimately overrule the constitution of heaven to make getting into the kingdom easier. Getting into the kingdom is a small gate and a narrow road. If you find yourself on a broad street with many lanes of choice, you are going the wrong way (Matt.7: 13-14).
Conclusion
Let the secular State do what it must do, abiding by its constitution. Let the Church do what it must do, abiding by its constitution which is the Word of God. Let every national or local church remain a prophetic witness to the State. And by no means should any church abandon its Biblical standard to appease a corrupt, deprave and decadent culture, but remain as salt and light and stand out a shining city upon a hill (Matt.5:13-16).
God will judge the unrighteous no matter what kind of vestment they cloak themselves in (Romans1:18-32; 2Timothy3:1 -9). The visible church on earth has many members but they are not all registered in the Lambs’ Book of Life; check to see if you are.
Now an Offer You Should Not Refuse:
Eight (8) available volumes of the 10-volume series, “Related Events to the Second Coming of the Christ.” Get all 8 vols. with one click. (eBooks only).