Before I play this short video clip, all you need to know is that the woman being interviewed had been asked to prioritize the two most important things in her life. Her number one priority was family and number two was fashion.  (She goes on to say: “I love God, but do I have sex premaritally? Yes, I do. I love God and I love Jesus and I pray to him because I love him and he is what gives me life, but I don’t necessarily believe what the Bible says because it was written by man.”)

We should be shocked by what this woman said but we should not at all be surprised. Her viewpoint is easily the predominant view in our nation. People like their own vague creation of Jesus but they don’t like what Jesus said. They want a happy Jesus but not a holy Jesus. They want tolerant Jesus to function like a lucky charm to rescue them from harm and help them in a pinch, but they don’t want a holy Jesus who spoke of judgment, Hell, morality and the need for a Savior. Nowhere is this more evident than when people talk about their personal lives. “If I want to have sex outside of marriage, that’s OK because the Bile doesn’t apply to me. If I want to live out my homosexual urges, then don’t you dare tell me I am wrong. I can abort my baby if I choose to because I have the final authority over my own body.” It wouldn’t be so bad if these people completely rejected the Bible and didn’t claim to be Christians, but the vast majority of people who throw Biblical morality out the window also claim to be Christians, and many of them actually read their Bibles sometimes.

I made the claim last week that the gay activists—those who support homosexual behavior as normal and healthy—attack the authority of the Bible as one of their primary weapons of propaganda. There are at least three ways that people reject the authority of God’s word. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not merely the gay activists who are rejecting the authority of Scripture, but the examples are much more prevalent and easier to find.

Let me say something that I should have said last week. The challenge with a controversial topic like homosexuality is how to present a balanced, Biblical and complete message in a single sermon. Many of you made helpful comments afterwards about things I could have included. That was the challenge, because I have enough Scriptural studies and information to give at least ten sermons, but I don’t think we need ten sermons on homosexuality and that would not do justice to our study in Genesis. There are many things I wish I would have had time to say, and here is one of them. I don’t think homosexual behavior and gay activism is the most dangerous and harmful form of sexual immorality. If the best research shows that gays and lesbians only make up 1-2% of the population, then it follows that their sexual immorality is less harmful than the other 98% of heterosexual immorality.

There are two basic principles in Genesis that Jesus emphasized in Matthew 19. The first principle is that God created man as male and female and the second is that these two will become one flesh. Homosexual sin violates the first principle and very often the second, and heterosexual sin violates the second principle. But which causes the most harm. Even mathematically speaking it is obvious that the sexual sin by heterosexuals is going to far exceed that of homosexuals. Premarital sex, adultery and pornography cause incalculable harm to individuals and families. If you violate the “one flesh” principle by having premarital sex, some of the consequences of that will follow you for the rest of your life. Becoming one flesh with another person is like a covenant of super glue. You cannot be glued to one person, torn apart, glued to another person, torn apart, glued to another person torn apart in successive ripping and tearing of your inner being without causing some inner damage. I don’t need to list the massive damage done by adultery and pornography—divorce, rejection, insecurity, abuse, seared consciences—the consequences are devastating and far reaching. My point is that we are far too quick to point fingers at homosexual sin from 2% of people while ignoring the damage from the other 98%.

But there is one thing that skews this statistical probability. Gay activism is causing so much damage precisely because it is an extremely active campaign to support sexual sin. To my knowledge there is no such thing as an “adultery activist.” There are no lobbyists in Washington fighting for the civil rights of adulterers. I realize there are sub-groups of people who join together to celebrate all manner of sexual perversions, but I don’t think any of them have hundreds of millions of dollars to promote their message. None of them have developed organized outreach programs in thousand of public schools around the nation. There is no such thing as official theology which supports adultery. There are no adultery pride days celebrated in churches. There are no adultery pride parades in big cities. There are no Christian denominations who are actively fighting for the ordination of adulterers. There is no is no adultery lobby attacking the authority of the Bible.

But all of these things and more are true of gay activists, which is why it is so easy to find plenty of examples to use in a sermon, and since a primary tactic is to attack Scripture, then we must defend Scripture from these attacks.

There are three ways that the authority of the Bible is attacked. The first way is like what we saw in last week’s message. These people claim that the Bible is authoritative but that we are wrong in our interpretation. They claim that Jesus did not condemn homosexuality and even permitted it, but our interpretation, like the one I gave last week, is that Jesus condemns it. We are wrong and they are right. Now I realize that many or even most of people who make these claims do not really believe that the Bible has ultimate authority over their lives, but they are using the Bible against us and using Jesus as a type of trump card to win their argument.

The second type of attack on Scripture is to claim that the Bible has a certain level of authority but that there is an even higher authority. This kind of thinking is typified by people like Dr. Johnson, a theologian with the Methodist Church.

"Accepting covenanted love between persons of the same sex represents the same downward spiral with respect to Scripture, since the Bible nowhere speaks positively or even neutrally about same-sex love… I think it is important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good.  And what exactly is that authority?  We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience and the experience thousands of others have witnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us.” [i]  (Dr. Johnson)

At least this viewpoint is honest enough to admit that the Bible clearly condemns homosexual behavior, but in the next breath they claim a higher authority, namely their own experience. Lest you think that this viewpoint is limited to the ivory towers of academia, let me tell you about a similar story right here in Viroqua. Some of you know that I started a community marriage policy about four years ago in order to have as many local clergy as possible agree to a minimum standard for conducting weddings, meaning a certain amount of premarital counseling, etc. It has been shown that similar policies can help reduce the divorce rates in a community. A few months ago, one of the clergy in our local ministerial objected to one word in the policy. He wanted the word “sanctity,” as in the “sanctity of marriage” removed because the word is offensive to gays and lesbians. In making his case, he said, “I realize that I am going against Scripture on this.”

The third type of attack on Scripture is simply to dismiss any and all authority it has over our life and is typified by comments like these.

"The scriptural texts in the Old and New Testaments condemning homosexual practice are neither inspired by God nor otherwise of enduring Christian value. Considered in the light of the best biblical, theological, scientific, and social knowledge, the biblical condemnation of homosexual practice is better understood as representing time and place bound cultural prejudice."[ii]

In this type of attack, the Bible is nothing more than an ancient, culturally biased opinion of man. For this reason, just like man’s body is evolving, so too his mind is evolving in wisdom and moral superiority. This makes the Bible, at best outdated, and at worst, a tool for hatred and oppression. You can probably see that the third type of attack is a subset or a natural progression from the second type. If our experience and wisdom is superior to the Bible then why do we need it at all? The heresies of old at least pretended to be basing their views on what the Bible said, but these new heresies and false teaching don’t even bother to do that. Can you see the slippery slope inherent in this one issue? Once you begin to question the authority and reliability of Scripture, then you are in a quick slide to rejecting it altogether. When it comes to Scripture, it is all or nothing. If you only want to accept certain parts, then you have placed yourself in judgment over Scripture

In my opinion, this is the real danger of gay activism—it intentionally chips away at the authority of Scripture. Once you have lost confidence in the Word of God, you no longer have a place of refuge. You no longer have a strong tower. You no longer have a Creator, a purpose in life, a Savior or an eternal life. Once Scripture is thrown underfoot, all of our hope is trampled down as well. This is why there is such a clear polarization between gay activism and evangelical Christianity. It’s not that homosexual sin is any worse than heterosexual sin, but that homosexual sin wants to claim it is normal and healthy and destroy the Bible at the same time. The importance of this point cannot be overestimated. If I am wrong and people actually are born gay and homosexual behavior is fully accepted by God, then I am the worst of all sinners. If this is true, then I really am a homophobic, hate-filled oppressor. I am guilty of great evil. But if the Scriptures are authoritative and trustworthy, then I cannot dishonor the character of God by changing his creation and standards.

But even more than all of this, a denial of these two creation principles—“the Creator made them male and female” and “the two will become one flesh” is an attack on the gospel itself. In Ephesians chapter five, Paul was very clear that marriage is a living symbol of the gospel of Christ.

^22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ^23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ^24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

^25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ^26 to make her holy, cleansing^ her by the washing with water through the word, ^27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ^28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ^29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— ^30 for we are members of his body. ^31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. ^32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ^33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Did you see the reference to Genesis 2:24? In all of Scripture, this verse is only repeated two times: Jesus quoted it in Matthew 19 and Paul quoted it n Ephesians 5. This passage in Ephesians is the premier passage on marriage. Even though Paul was addressing husbands and wives, I hope you noticed the gospel message woven throughout. Wives are to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ and husbands are to love their wives with the kind of sacrificial love that Christ had for the church. Husbands and wives are woven together like a tapestry with Christ and the church. The church is the bride of Christ and is the greatest love story ever told and marriage is to be patterned after this perfect love relationship.

More than that, look again at verse 32. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. When Paul quoted the creation mandate from Genesis 2:24, he declared that these two creation principles in Genesis is about Christ and the church, the gospel. Paul did not say, this is a profound mystery—but I am talking about husbands and wives, but rather he said, I am talking about Christ and the church. Many people read this passage and they think that Paul is illustrating marriage by talking about Christ and the church, but just the opposite is true. Paul was illustrating the gospel by talking about marriage. God did not invent the gospel so that he would have a convenient symbol of marriage, but rather God created marriage for the purpose of illustrating the gospel. Do you see? When he created male and female and when he instituted the covenant of the man and woman becoming one flesh, primary in his mind was the gospel of Christ. This is not the only purpose of marriage, but I would argue that it is the primary purpose.

Paul called this a “mystery,” but he did not mean that it was mysterious, ethereal and impossible to understand. When Paul uses this word, he almost always means that he is sharing a truth that has been hidden prior to that time. It was a mystery to previous generations, but now it is being revealed to us.

Do you see the implications in this? It means that every violation of these two principles is an offense against not only creation, but an offense against the gospel itself. Homosexuality is an offense against the gospel.

Eric Schumacher is a pastor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa who, along with his town and congregation, persevered through the 500 year flood last year, which was much worse than our flood. Here is his comment on the judicial decision in Iowa two months ago which legalized gay marriage.

Far worse, the Gospel message is confused. Marriage is established by God to be a living picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the husband representing Christ and the wife representing his church. Homosexual "marriage" presents a distorted picture, a false Gospel, promoting a blasphemous message.

Flood waters erode the soil. Gay "marriage" erodes the soul. A flood impacts for a decade. Same-sex "marriage" destroys generations. A flood draws a community together. Homosexual alliances tear the family apart. Communities recover from floods. The promotion of un-natural unions has an eternal consequence. [iii]

But it’s not just homosexuality that offends the gospel. Adultery is an offense against the gospel. Pornography is an offense against the gospel. Any violation of the Genesis creation principles is also an offense against the gospel. It mocks our Savior. It scoffs at his sacrificial death and resurrection. Sexual sin has endless devastating consequences for those willingly choose it or are victimized by it, but the earthly consequences pale in comparison to the consequences that ripple through the spiritual realm.

But thanks to our merciful Creator, the gospel, which is mocked by those who violate these marriage principles is the very gospel that can save those who make a mockery of it. It’s a tragedy that we mock the gospel but it is triumph that we can be saved by the same gospel. There is no sin that is so great as to be beyond the reach of the grace of God. But you cannot maintain authority over God and his word and receive this saving grace. You must throw down your arms and wave your white flag. You must surrender to the King. The Bible calls this repentance.

The most powerful antidote to a gay-crazy culture is not the passing of marriage amendments (though I fully support and have often rallied for such[iv]), but a gospel-elevating, Christ-glorifying covenant marriage. We need to fight for the proper application of these creation principles more than we fight against their improper use.

Rich Maurer

June 21, 2009

Appendix

Below is my mini-commentary on the Diversity Day speaker from the April 2009 Diversity Day held in Viroqua. The speaker was a lesbian who used to work with battered woman and who used to be heterosexual (and had a child with her ex-husband). The awful irony is that lesbians report a 4,600% increase in partner violence. If you were to have asked her if she would be in favor of increasing violence against women by 4,600% and I confident that she would be appalled at the suggestion. However, the gay activism that she is now promoting will eventually harm women to an enormous extent.

Sources: "Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence," U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs: 30; "Intimate Partner Violence," Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report:11.[v]

The second bit of irony is the fact that she made the claim, as almost all gay activists do, that she was born gay and cannot change herself. However, she had already changed from being heterosexual to homosexual. There is much proof that homosexuals can change. Moreover, many gay activists support the right to advocate for change.

(Chart is taken from Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, by Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse, the most thorough and rigorous examination to date of the question of sexual orientation change through religious-oriented programs. [vi])