Does god support gay marriage
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Utter About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Analyze Center has reported that one of the most enduring ethical issues across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For many Christians, one of the most frequently first-asked questions on this topic is, “What does the Bible state about attraction to someone of the same sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the word homosexual wasn't even coined until the late 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.
Before we can jump into how it is that Christians can maintain the authority of the Bible and also affirm sexual diversity, it might be helpful if we started with a brief but clear overview of some of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to understanding the Bible.
What is the Bible?
For Christians to whom the Bible
The Bible and Same Sex Marriage
The Bible repeatedly uses the metaphor of marriage to illustrate the association between Christ and His church. How does that metaphor speak to the subject of same sex marriage? Does the operate of that metaphor render same sex marriage doomed to harmonize with the Bible? Can transgender people fulfill the model of marriage laid out in Ephesians 5? Join Scott for this discussion with Rachel Gilson, author of Born Again This Way.
Rachel Gilson serves on the leadership team for theological development and culture at Cru. She has an MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and is functional on her PhD at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the writer of Born Again This Way: Coming Out, Coming to Faith, and What Comes Next. Her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and Desiring God.
Episode Transcript
Scott Rae: The Bible repeatedly used the metaphor of marriage to illustrate the relationship between Christ and His church. But how does that metaphor actually speak to the subject of same-sex marri
The Case Against Christians Attending a Gay Wedding
The case against Christians attending a gay wedding is relatively straightforward. We can lay out the case in three premises and a conclusion.
The Argument
Premise 1: Queer “marriage” is not marriage.
No matter what a government may sanction, the biblical definition of marriage (see Gen. –25, Mal. –15, Matt. –6; Eph. –33) involves a man and a woman. I won’t belabor the point, because I assume in this post that I’m speaking to those who approve with the Westminster Confession of Faith when it says, “Marriage is to be between one bloke and one woman” (WCF ). Gay “marriage” is not only an offense to God—sanctioning a benign of sexual activity that the Bible condemns (Lev. ; ; Rom. –27; 1 Cor. –10; 1 Tim. –10)—gay “marriage” does not actually exist.
Premise 2: A gay wedding celebrates and solemnizes a lie.
Whether the service is done in a church or in a reception hall, whether it is meant to be a Christian service or a secular commitment ceremony, a homosexual wedding declares what is false to be real and calls evil good.
Prem AnswerWhat does the Bible say about gay marriage?
The Bible says nothing about gay marriage directly, but it does set down the foundational principles of what constitutes marriagein God’s eyes. Every reference to marriage in the Bible indicates a union of male and female. The first description of marriage coincides with the creation of Eve in Genesis 2. According to that route, marriage takes place when “a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they grow one flesh” (Genesis ).
In passages that contain instructions regarding marriage, such as 1 Corinthians –16 and Ephesians –33, the Bible clearly identifies marriage as entity between a man and a woman. Biblically speaking, marriage is the union of a guy and a woman in a lifetime commitment. Primary purposes of marriage are to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the church (see Ephesians –33) and to build a family and provide a stable, secure environment for that family to expand. As families prosper, so does society at large, and reliable families contribute to stable soci