God's Recipe for Marriage

I have recently been castigated for declaring God's design for marriage from the pulpit at Northpoint. And, what is far more disturbing is that this negative critique has come from those who consider themselves "enlightened" Christ-followers. Simply put, they believe that a strong declaration in favor of "marriage as one man and one woman" coupled with the assertion that homosexuality is sin only reduces the ability of the church to overcome the cultural opinion that Christians hate homosexuals. Let me reply in two ways:

First, to declare that the church must not speak biblically regarding homosexuality because to do so is to promote hatred against homosexuals paints the whole argument with the paint of the "excluded middle." Is it true that the only two options available to us are 1) say nothing, or 2) hate the homosexuals? Of course this is a logical fallacy which is apparent to anyone who has taken even an elementary logic course. There is a third option which, for sake of winning their argument, my opponents eliminate. But here it is: Tell the truth from a biblical point of view, and love the Gospel and the forgiving grace of God so much that we long for those trapped in the sin of homosexuality to be overwhelmed by it. We don't hate them; we see them as those desperately in need of the same freeing, forgiving grace that has captured our hearts.

Second, let me talk about marriage. I have been told recently that the church has no business campaigning for a proposition that would define marriage by Constitutional Amendment. They suggest strongly that the church has no place in governmental or political affairs (see previous post: Church and State for rebuttal). This flies in the face of the historical position the church has held as the conscience of society, including government and the political actions of a society. It also limits free speech. Amazingly, those who don't want the church to participate in the political process are blind to the fact that they are limiting the fundamental right of American citizens and organizations to speak freely.

But, let's talk about marriage itself. First, let's be clear that marriage was God's idea, His creation. He created it and defined it in Genesis 2. This creation and definition means that the Divine Law regarding marriage preceded every man-made law and governmental entity. Further, this law regarding marriage has endured in every culture. While there have been aberrations along the way, marriage between a man and a woman has, for the most part, been the continued and honored practice in every culture and society down through history, including ours. We have laws against polygamy, sodomy, beastiality, incest, and a host of other aberrant sexual practices which are all measured against the "baseline" of what is acceptable sexually, which has always included one-man-one-woman marriage. Until only a few years ago, we had laws against fornication and adultery as well!

Second, since God created marriage, those who follow Him have every right to fight to maintain what He has created. In fact, not to do so constitutes treason against His divine order in terms of the family. And let me go even further. In Genesis 2, God declared that marriage was the way in which His own relationship within the God-head would be recognized and understood - at least fundamentally, if not perfectly - by mankind.

Third, since God created marriage, He has a right to the patent! He has created the "recipe" for marriage, and who can possibly come up with a reason to allow mankind to edit that recipe? Imagine if someone came to Kentucky Fried Chicken and said "we think the secret recipe for your chicken is unfair to the spices of cinnamon and oregano!" We want it declared illegal for you to continue with your secret recipe! We demand that you change it to include these two spices that you continue to discriminate against!"

Of course this is ridiculous! Yet, that is exactly what the opponents of marriage have done in California. And let's be clear. This is not about legal standing; civil unions already confer legal status on unmarried couples. This is about turning the created order on its head. The same thing happened in Paul's day. In 1 Timothy 4:1-5 Paul warns Timothy about some previews of the "last days." Men will come teaching that the fundamental of the Garden of Eden (what you can eat, and the relationship between man and woman) need to be edited! Food and marriage were under attack then, and marriage is under attack now. Further in 4:6 Paul tells Timothy that "in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus." He never tells him the church has no voice in the affairs of the society. Rather, he exhorts him to spread the alarm, and teach the truth. May the Lord raise up an army of Timothys!

Hope this helps,

David