I
was listening to the news last night and the lead story was that Florida law
has changed with regard to same-sex marriage. The courts have overruled the
attorney general’s position that same-sex marriage was illegal in Florida and
after many appeals the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples
must be afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Now I made a decision some time
ago that my blogs were no longer going to soft-peddle the tough issues for the
sake of risking offending someone, or to satisfy anyone but myself; that I
would be writing based on what I believe to be true to myself, true to God, and
if it offends the politically correct sensibilities of society so be it and
this is going to be one of those blogs. The thing that prompted me to write
this particular blog was the statement made by the Pastor of the First United
Church of Tampa during a local TV interview that First United Church of Tampa
will begin forming same sex marriages after more than six years of refusing to
wed anyone because of the state's ban on same-sex marriage.
According to Pastor Bernice Powell Jackson, the decision to
stop all civil marriages was based on the progressive church's philosophy of
equality. "Our policy was that until we could do weddings for everyone, we
won't do them for anyone," said Powell Jackson, who adds that the church
does perform marriage commitment ceremonies for all couples regardless of
sexual orientation.
Now that the state is lifting its ban on same-sex marriage,
Powell Jackson said it will begin allowing couples to get married again
starting later this month.
"We changed [the policy] on Friday once the final,
final word came down, and yes, we will be doing weddings again," she said.
I suppose the thing that troubled me most was Powell’s
reference to Scripture as justification for this decision. In fact, the
reporter covering the story said words to the effect that “conservative
Christians have long used the Scriptures to justify their stand against
same-sex marriage. Now the same Scriptures are being used to turn the tables
against them.”
"There's nowhere in the bible where Jesus says anything
about homosexuality," said Powell Jackson. "I have lived long enough
to see civil rights for African-Americans in this country, to see a Black
president. I have lived long enough to see Nelson Mandela be president of South
Africa, I've lived long enough to see the Berlin Wall fall, so I knew this one
was going to fall, too."
I’m concerned about this because it shows an absolutely deplorable
lack of knowledge of Scripture on the part of one who is charged with the task
of teaching Scripture to her flock. Ultimately, in can mean only one of two
things. Either the pastor of this particular congregation is herself not a true
Christ Follower, or she uses something that I like to tongue-in-cheek call the Revised
Standard Redacted Version of the Bible. By that I mean it’s a Bible that you
pick and choose the parts of it that you want to believe in you just take a
black marker and redact the parts that you don’t find comfortable; that the
parts that you’re not happy with; the parts that aren’t politically correct.
Sadly I suspect that it is a combination of the two.
The problem here is that Powell is defending proceeds from a
false premise that is that marriage is a civil institution rather than an institution
created by and blessed by almighty God thousands of years before civil institutions
developed. It is an institution begun in the Garden of Eden when God took Adam
and said is not good that man should be alone let us create for him a helper
good for him and he created Eve, saying:
And the Lord God said, “It is not
good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam
called each living creature, that was
its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of
the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a
helper comparable to him.
And
the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam,
and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its
place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the
man.
And
Adam said:
“This is now bone of my
bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because
she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:18-24
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He
created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the
earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of
the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis
1:27-28; and despite the
troubling trend today of genderless or unisex Bibles, something any decent manuscript
scholar will tell you is contrary to the early Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek manuscripts,
they are certainly not gender free the Old Testament was written with genders
in mind Adam is Adam and Eve is Eve or God would’ve said perhaps Adam and Steve.
He created a very specific male and female a man and a woman and the first
marriage was it was blessed by God as a holy union not a civic union long
before there ever were any such things as civil unions and judgeships and
justices of the peace and churches or synagogues or temples to bless those
unions. Marriage was a union ordained by God as an institution between a man
and a woman. Pastor Powell fells to understand this, whether by choice or by
ignorance.
Second, that pastor Power Powell’s claims that Jesus doesn’t
speak about the subject of homosexuality attests to her Biblical ignorance, or desire
to please.
The very first verse of the Bible says “in the beginning God”.
The word for God is Elohim. It’s a Hebrew plural that means three or more, and
it is this plural form from which we get the concept of the Trinity. It includes
God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
When Moses went up Mount Sinai and he convened with Elohim before
descending from the mountain top carrying the stone tablets of that contained
the 10 Commandments, Moses, understanding his people, his leaders and how they
would react, asked of Elohim, “look God, I know those people down there aren’t
just gonna take my word on this “Hey guys, you’ll never believe who I was with
up on the mountain” thing mostly because they know me. When I get down there
they a say “yeah, yeah. You go away, catch a few rays, play Indiana Jones, you
don’t call, you don’t write, and you come trotting down the mountain with yet
another “Had a little talk with Yahweh” story? Not this time, Moses. Not buying it dude.” What
do I tell them? Who shall I say sent me?”
God’s answer was very specific and very important. His
Answer was “I AM. Tell them that I AM
has sent you.” Both significant and historically important. I AM is one of the
Hebrew names for God. I AM.
Now by limiting herself to the Gospels pastor Power Powell
is correct in that Jesus never uttered the words in the Gospels which apart
from a few spoken words in the book of Acts and the book of Revelation are the
only record we have of Jesus speaking, he does not personally verbally condemn homosexuality, but the
Gospels are not the limit of Christ’s words in the Bible.
In John chapter 14, most of the focus is on who He is to his
disciples. Most of us are familiar with the discussion with Thomas were Thomas
says to him “Lord we do not know where you’re going and how can we know the way
and Jesus said to him” (now this is the beginning of something very significant
because it is going to be repeated several times in this chapter) “Jesus said
to him verse six I AM the way I AM the truth I AM the life no one comes to the
father except through me”. Jesus continues in verse 10 where he says “do you
not believe that I AM in the father and the father in me the words that I speak
to you I do I do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me
does the works believe me that I AM in the father and the father in me or else
believe me for the sake of the works themselves.” Jesus repeats this enough
here and a few other places in this chapter but the point is this you have to
understand the Gospels not only in their fluid state, and by that I mean the
Bible is written as a book that has application for every time in history. There
is something timeless and eternal in that passage that has meaning to all of us
now as it did to the disciples in the first century. To those first century
Jews when Jesus said I AM to his disciples, they understood that he was
claiming to be the same person who told Moses “Tell them I AM has sent you”. He
was claiming to be the I AM who sent Moses down the mountain with the stone
tablets containing the 10 Commandments. The present day application is that we
are to understand as well that Jesus is claiming to be God! We are to
understand it the way that they understand because that’s how Christ intended for
us to understand it!
Now we proceed to the next step. John 1:1 says in the
beginning was the word. there’s that Genesis connection again, and the near word for word repetition of
genesis of Genesis 1:1 is not a coincidence. They both start the same way in
the beginning and the word was with God and go word was God just as I am is a
name for God that Christ claimed for himself though word is a name for Christ
now that’s John 1:1 continuing their all things are he was in the beginning
with God all things were made through him without him nothing was made that was
made in him was life and life was the light of all men and the light shines in
the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. This is Scripture
interpreting Scripture – the most accurate interpretive tool we have at our
disposal.
In second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 Paul writes all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for
reproof for correction for the instruction in righteousness that the man of God
may be complete thoroughly equipped to every good work. The key points of this
these two verses second Timothy 3:16 and 17 are in the first sentence of verse
16 “all Scripture” that means every bit of the Bible is given by inspiration of
God that word “inspiration” means breathed by God. It’s the Greek equivalent of
the word that’s used in Genesis to say that God breathed into man the breath of
life.
Now let’s put all these pieces together. You have Jesus
Christ, who by declaration of Scripture is God who spoke creation into being. He
is God by God’s declaration and by His own and He is the author of the
infallible Word of God; in fact He IS the Word of God. Every word of Scripture
is verbally inspired by Jesus Christ. In other words there is not a word of the
Bible that Jesus Christ did not inspire verbally the author of that Scripture
to write.
Imagine that you are dictating your memoirs and your
secretary is taking down your thoughts word for word. Just because your
secretary physically penned them for you, much like, for example a machine is
doing for me right now I’m using a microphone and Nuance Dragon Naturally
Speaking software to transcribe my writing because I have a semi-crippled left
hand and can’t type them very easily does not make this body of work any less
my words, the Bible is the written spoken words of Jesus Christ: every word,
every thought, every punctuation mark in the original manuscripts. Every sentence
every thought every idea. This divine inspiration does not carry forward to
include subsequent translations, but of the manuscripts, where Paul wrote
homosexuality is sin, he speaks on the authority of Jesus!
Now you will no doubt note, if you’re from the Tampa area
that pastor Power Powell did not comment on the Old Testament Scriptures because
she knows that the Levitical law is jam-packed full of instructions regarding
the sin of homosexuality, and, of course, the Revised Standard Redacted Version
lets you delete those passages anyway. But the New Testament is not silent, and
as its author, it follows that neither is Jesus. The positions stated in the New Testament are
without question, to any true student of Scripture who accepts the verbal,
plenary inspiration of the Bible, the words, chapter and verse of Jesus.
So where does Jesus, through his spokesman, Paul, speak most
prolifically about the sin of homosexuality? Romans
The very first chapter of the book of Romans which is
considered by Bible scholars everywhere to be the most deeply theological
doctrinal book of the New Testament. In the first chapter, Paul gets right down
to business:
starting at verse 24:
“and therefore God gave them up to uncleanness and the lusts
of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the
truth of God for the lie they worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator bless them forever amen for this reason God gave them up to vile
passions catch that word about homosexuality vile passions for even their women
exchanged the natural use for what is against nature likewise the men leaving
the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another men with men
committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their
error which was due and even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge God gave them over to a debased mind to do things which are not
fitting and being filled with all unrighteousness sexual immorality wickedness
covetousness maliciousness for love and the murderous strife to see evil
mindedness they are whisperers backbiters haters of God violent proud boasters
inventors of evil things disobedient to parents on discerning on trustworthy on
loving unforgiving unmerciful who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those
who practice such things are worthy of death not only do the same but also
approve those who approve of those who practice them.”
While Paul penned those words make no mistake, it was Jesus
who spoke them because the Bible cover to cover Genesis 1:1 to the last word in
Revelation was written by an spoken by and breathed into the mind thoughts and pens of the authors of the original manuscripts by Jesus Christ and the only
way you can come to any other conclusion but that one is to deny the Biblical
authority of the Bible to deny that Jesus Christ is the author of and the
inerrancy of Scripture and to deny the inerrancy of the Christ authored
Scripture means to deny Christ himself and to deny Christ himself is to be
something far less than a child of Christ matter what church you belong to.
But that’s not all Jesus says. He makes a clear line of
demarcation between the sin and the sinner. And that’s the thought I want to
leave you with. No matter what your sin, Jesus loves you. He dies to vanquish
your sins because He hates sin, but he love you. You can be a recipient of that
love, but it comes at a cost. Give your life to Jesus. Repent – that means turn
away from your sin, confess your sin to Jesus, ask him to forgive you and be
your Lord and Savior. The Bible says that God so lived the world that He gave
His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have
everlasting life. It says elsewhere that
Jesus loved us so much that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our
sins – whatever they may be. Homosexuality is a sin. So is lying, cheating,
adultery, speeding, getting drunk, gluttony, knowingly misleading people about
the Bible. There’s a long list. Jesus died for each and every one of us, but we
have to repent, confess, ask and receive.
