Do Christians Really Have Anything To Say About Marriage?

Millions of us Christians oppose same-sex marriage as a perversion of our Creator's plan. Our opposition is based upon what our Creator has revealed about marriage and upon the fact that marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship to his bride, the church, as Paul teaches in Ephesians:

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. - Eph 5:31-32 ESV

In my previous post I promised to review the history of same-sex marriage in the United States. In fact, if you wish mere historical data, that has long since been done. You can easily access names and dates for such information. For instance:

• The history of gay marriage in the United States and
• Timeline of gay-rights movement in the U.S.
• Supreme Court DOMA Decision Rules Federal Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

We Christians are not, however, of this world. We are ruled by a different king and guided by His will and decisions. Jesus made this abundantly clear when he stood before Pilate, condemned by the Jewish Sanhedrin of being an insurrectionist.

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." - Jhn 18:36 ESV

Christ does rule the world in spite of its rebellion against him. We know this as his kingdom of the left hand. In that kingdom he maintains a measure of peace and order through various types of earthly governments, including the republic under which we Americans gratefully live.

However, we who have been graciously reborn into the family of God live under Christ's rule in a different kingdom, one we call Christ's kingdom of the right hand. In this kingdom he has revealed Himself as both Creator and Redeemer. In this kingdom we joyfully receive forgiveness for our sins and the certain promises of the resurrection and life eternal. In this kingdom we are guided by the Spirit of Christ who works through His revealed Word and the Sacraments.

The written Word of God (Bible) has come under severe attack during the past two centuries. No longer is it considered authoritative in matters of faith and doctrine. No longer is it seen as the inspired Word of God. The majority of American mainline protestant churches now view the Scriptures as an historical document written by fallible humans, but through which God somehow speaks. It is no longer viewed as inerrant. It is filled with historical inaccuracies. Yet the teachers in these churches want to keep the Bible as a reference book for the church as we seek to apply the gospel to life in the 20th and now the 21st centuries.

 I wrote about the historical-critical method and the authority of the written Scriptures in some postings a few years ago. For review check out the following links and the links embedded within them:

• Beware of philosophy
• Can there be such a thing as Biblical history? 
• Is the Bible history or legend and myth?
• How brilliant we Bible scholars are!
• Foolish spiritual words
• The Spiritual Man makes judgments about all things

My point for today is simple: if the Bible is not God's Word, then we have nothing to say about the definition of marriage. We will have to acknowledge that marriage is merely a human institution that is evolving and changing like everything else. Thus we will have to embrace whatever is happening and try to speak about it in the most loving possible manner. 

In my next post I intend to point out some of that thinking as I find it in a paper about same-sex marriage, presented by a theologian of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.