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Does God lie?

[Portions of this article were printed in the Tulsa World on May 11, 2014: Marriage equality is not a matter of faith.]

Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage. However, in a guest editorial in the Tulsa World, the Reverends Justin Alan Lindstrom and Robin R. Meyers said that regardless of the outcome of the deliberations of the 10th Circuit, the case has already been settled by a different judge—meaning the God of the Bible.[1] The Reverends said that, “…marriage equality is a fundamental right for all Oklahomans…The freedom to marry for all couples fits squarely into the tenets of our faith, the teachings of our church and reflects values of love and compassion that sustains our communities and congregations.” In other words, same-sex couples have the right to marry and that right does not conflict with the tenets of the Christian faith as revealed in the Bible. However, the Apostle Paul’s words are indisputable with regard to God’s condemnation of homosexuality.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth…Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own person the due penalty for their error.” [Romans 1:18, 24-27. RSV]

Therefore, we see that the Reverends’ view of same-sex marriage does not fit squarely into the tenets of Christian faith. It is one thing to disagree with the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality or to reject biblical authority altogether in defending homosexual practices. However, it is blatantly disingenuous to ignore, revise, or twist biblical teachings in order to excuse homosexual practices when the biblical record is unequivocally clear in its universal condemnation of homosexuality. However, the Reverends assume their beliefs supersede biblical commandments regarding homosexuality (and by inference same-sex marriage) on the grounds that those beliefs are “…grounded in love and acceptance of everyone.”

Love

The Reverends beliefs ultimately must place love above basic and clear biblical doctrines which are brushed aside in favor of non-judgmental love and acceptance of people as they are. God is willing to accept and save people as they are, but God was not willing to leave them that way. That is the reason He sent His son Jesus and allowed man to nail Him to a cross. God could not have fellowship with sinful man, and the crucifixion of sinless Christ for man’s sin made a way for man to be restored to a right relationship with Him.

I am a sinner and my sin is no less sinful than that of a homosexual. We stand as equals before God and are given a choice. I am a sinner saved by Christ. I have repented of my sin and have been forgiven. Not only have I repented of past sins, I have turned from my sins. Homosexuals can repent, be saved, and fellowship with God for eternity. However, to do so, they cannot stay in their sin. God does not approve of homosexuality, and He will not contradict or overlook His own commandments regarding homosexuality by coating them with a liberal layer of “love and compassion.” Man has a choice to accept or reject God’s love. The creation of man with a free will meant the possibility of rejection of God and His love. In other words, free will and the potential for rejection of God was the penalty for the possibility of love.

Acceptance

Must Christians also unreservedly accept the homosexual as implied by the ministers? Christians must love the sinner, but it is not a blind love that overlooks sin. Although Christians should reach out in love to the homosexual, we cannot accept homosexuals into fellowship as fellow believers if they continue in their sin nor can we condone the sin of homosexuality by passing laws that allow same-sex marriage. We find our example in the Apostle Paul’s chastisement of the Corinthians for allowing immorality to reside in the midst of their fellowship.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. [1 Corinthians 5:1-2. RSV]

Homosexuals must be welcomed into our churches if they are seeking truth and escape from their bondage to sin. But in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul again warned against communion with unbelievers.

Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? [2 Corinthians 6:14. RSV]

Does God lie?

If the Reverends believe that God accepts everyone including partners in a same-sex marriage and persons engaged in homosexual conduct because of His boundless love, the ministers have effectively labeled God as a liar. But God cannot condemn homosexuality as He has throughout His word and at the same time embrace the homosexual that persists in rebelling against His commandments. If He does so as the Reverends imply, then God would be guilty of a lie. But Paul said that God never lies. [Titus 1:2. RSV]

God created heterosexual marriage as a cultural universal, and the strength and unity provided by it is the foundation of a strong and enduring society. Where traditional marriage is in broad disarray, as it is in most Western societies, it does not disprove the truth of the heterosexual marriage universal but rather speaks of the ravages caused by the ascending humanist worldview. Where traditional marriage declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Rev. Justin Alan Lindstrom and Rev. Robin R. Meyers, “Marriage equality is a matter of faith,” Tulsa World, May 4, 2014, G-2.

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