The Thirst for Freedom

I just read this article at CNN.com:

My daughter and her partner were married in 2004 and I couldn’t ask for a better spouse for my daughter, or daughter-in-law for me. However, my attitude traveling to the wedding was far different from my attitude on the trip home. God attends gay weddings. Who knew?

People have debated scriptures over the issues of gay marriage and homosexuality until they are red in the face—red because both sides are so angry.

When I asked a wise friend how she reconciled the scriptures with her daughter’s homosexuality, she said, “I can’t. So I just let God sort it out.” I took her advice and I learned things about God I would never have known if I were still telling Him what His scriptures mean.

If we spent as much time obeying God’s two greatest commandments, which are that we love Him and love our neighbors as ourselves, and less time policing everyone who is different from us, imagine what a world it would be.

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Here is the response that I posted:

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“When I hear terms like ‘God’s design’ and ‘Biblical marriage’ I have to wonder who decides these things.”

That is the heart of the question isn’t it. WHO decides these things?

I have often heard this argument: “there are so many different interpretations of the Bible” with an implied “therefore we should not try and interpret it rightly.”

Here is the basic traditional Protestant Christian Doctrine: The Bible is the standard of truth and ethics. We may struggle to understand it. We may debate what it means, but in the end it ACTUALLY MEANS SOMETHING whether we come to the right conclusion or not!

The Bible is the standard, not man’s interpretation of the Bible.

Who decides these things? God does, and he puts instructions in the Bible for us to understand. We can do our best to study but we have to start with the assumption that God is the judge of what is and is not true.

The first account of marriage in the Bible is about how a man leaves his mother and father and cleaves to his wife. One man. One woman. Family unit. Produces children. Vehicle for multiplication and dominion.

This was all in the context of “it is not good for a man to be alone.”

In other words: A one man, one woman family producing and training up children is the fundamental basic building block of society as God designed it!

We mess with this at our peril.

It is not love to say “no problem” to someone who rejects this and tries to replace it with a “same-sex” marriage. In fact, this is very practically a whole lot more like hate.

It is not love to tell someone who is destroying their own life and the lives of others and their potential in God that nothing is wrong.

Love says “God designed you – follow His design!”

Same-sex “marriage” cannot be love. In fact, it cannot be marriage. Even if we “legalize” it as a society. To say “same-sex marriage” is like saying “non-marriage marriage.”

This is what happens when we depart from Jesus Christ and His Word (The Bible) as the standard for truth and life – we become insane and speak nonsense and call it love.

I don’t know whether or not Herman Cain has ever been involved with “sexual harassment.” I don’t know if he had an affair with someone other than his wife.

I do know that neither charge has been proven. I haven’t even seen compelling or interesting evidence.

If indeed this has been a “political assassination” it is a very sad day.

Why are people so willing to believe the worst?

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If some have worked to bear false witness against this man, we know that there is a Judge ruling the universe who makes right judgments every time. All involved will face their crimes one day.

Herman Cain was not my choice for President, but this is not how I wanted to see that come about.

Herman Cain announced Saturday that he is suspending his campaign for president, telling a crowd of supporters in his home state that the allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity had become too big a burden on his family.
His wife Gloria standing by his side in a rare public appearance, Cain decried the sustained accusations as false and declared he is “at peace” with his wife and with himself. But he said the claims have “sidetracked and distracted” from his ability to present a new vision for the country, to the point that he must call off the campaign.

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I have been engaged in a conversation about “who is Babylon” in the book of Revelation here: http://bit.ly/babylon2012

Here is one of my responses:

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Hello again Chris!

Thanks for your reply.

I am not sure how to respond to what you have said about the dating of the book not mattering. Understanding the context is one of the key and most basic elements of interpreting any scripture. I noticed that you said “It seems to me that what John wrote about were future, end-times events.” Are you sure you want to base your interpretation based on “it seems” which is basically an impression?

In case there is confusion about what I meant by “dating” I am referring to WHEN the book was written. I am pretty sure that if you go to any Bible College or read any book on scripture interpretation there will be an almost universal support in all of Christendom for considering the context (include To Whom a book is written and WHEN) when finding an interpretation!

I am guessing that somehow there is a misunderstanding of what I mean by “dating” here. I doubt that you actually mean that when the book was written doesn’t effect it’s interpretation!

Your thoughts?

Is the End of the World in Your Future?

On another topic: I’m not sure that what-people-want-to-talk-about (i.e. “people are interested in the end of the world”) has any bearing on what is or is not true. One of the great things about the Bible is that it starts out with a clear defining of “what is the basic nature of reality” which could also be stated as “what is truth.” Genesis begins by describing a world that is real and comes from a source external to our perception (“In the beginning, GOD created!”). In other words, what is true is REALLY true whether or not you or I or anybody else believes it or wants to know about it or not!

I bring this up because “this is what people want to know about” may have some relevance to evangelism strategy, but it has no relevance to “what is truth” and can be a very slippery slope into making truth fuzzy for the purpose of “reaching” people. The problem is, if you reach people with “what they are looking for” instead of with what actually IS you end up with people converted to a false view of God!

Having said that, I have actually observed that many of the people that I talk to and interact with are not very interested in the end-of-the-world Christianity that has been so popular in the United States. Human beings seem to intuitively know that there is a right way to live and a right way to order life and society. They don’t know what it is and come up with some pretty scary counterfeits, but even atheists try to claim an “ethic” in life!

The end-of-the-world obsessed brand of Christianity has happened to result in a Christianity that doesn’t offer enough principle to guide us in how to live our lives and order our societies. As the saying goes “you don’t polish the brass on a sinking ship!”

Of course, if an apocalyptic focused Christianity is what God intended than it doesn’t really matter. We must believe, live, and preach the truth whether or not it is what people want or not!

Fortunately, the end-of-the-world obsessed version of Christianity is not really what the Bible presents. The Bible presents a comprehensive view of how to live all of life (including everything from eternal salvation to marriage to economics and to civil government)!

God created people to live all-of-life. This fact, ironically, seems to make it so that a comprehensive all-of-life “Gospel of the Kingdom of God” seems to have a much more powerful converting effect than a “get ready for the end of the world” focus. It produces better results in the long term development of Christian Society as well.

Blessings!