“A SCRIPTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE"
--Charles P. Schmitt
Comments on Lisa Miller’s 12/15/08 Newsweek Article, “Our Mutual Joy”, on Gay Marriage
Lisa Miller’s 12/15/08 Newsweek article defending gay marriage has caused a stir, even surfacing on Larry King Live in Larry King’s recent interview with Joel and Victoria Osteen. As I read Lisa’s article, I was impressed with Paul’s words in II Corinthians 4:3-4, “If our message is obscure … it’s because these people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention…. They’re stone-blind to the brightness of the Message...” (The Message). I sensed this to be the case as I read Lisa’s statements defending gay marriage.
A salient paragraph in her article reads --
Let’s try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel – all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments – especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. “It is better to marry than to burn with passion,” says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple turn to the Bible as a how-to script? Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so.”
Lisa Miller sounds impressive until one stops long enough to consider the implications of her words. First of all, these men and women of Scripture are not presented to us as role models whose total moral lifestyle we are to emulate and whose wrong behavior gives us license to flagrantly sin against God. Quite the opposite. In its honesty and integrity, the Holy Scriptures present to us men and women who are often seriously morally flawed, but who suffer for their moral failures. With their trust in God they deeply challenge us, but in their flaws they severely warn us. Abraham’s sin of unbelief with Hagar, his slave girl, reaped a whirlwind of consequences, which we live with to this very day in the cauldron of Middle-East hostilities. Jacob summed up his own devious moral life in these pain-filled words, “My years have been few and difficult...” (Genesis 47:9). David pierced himself and his family through with many sorrows by his own wayward life (II Samuel 12:10), and Solomon kindled a firestorm, including a civil war in Israel, by his polygamous and idolatrous marriages (1 Kings 11:1-11). In this sense it is true that no “contemporary heterosexual married couple [would] turn to [these accounts in] the Bible as a how-to script.” These moral failures are warnings to any serious person on how-not-to!
And Lisa’s thoughts about our Lord Jesus are not any more sound -- “Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments – especially family.” Actually, Jesus preached no such thing. The honoring of family ties was clearly upheld by Jesus (note His care for His mother in John 19:26-27, as just one example). But what Jesus did teach was priorities. As Lord and Master, He required a priority allegiance to Himself -- “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). Honoring and loving family is a biblical mooring -- but not honoring or loving them more than God Himself!
And as for Paul, who, according to Miller, “regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust” – she apparently overlooked Paul’s awesome definitions of marriage in Ephesians 5:22-33, in which he presents human love and marriage as a living demonstration of the awesome union of “Christ and the church.”
One fundamental flaw in Lisa Miller’s thinking lies in her half-true/half-false observation that “the Bible is a living document, powerful for more than 2,000 years because its truths speak to us even as we change through history.” And that is true! But her following conclusion is false: “In that light, Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be…married -- and a number of excellent reasons why they should.”
“While the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman,” Lisa writes. Jesus Himself says the exact opposite -- “Haven’t you read, [Jesus] replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator made them MALE AND FEMALE’, and said, ‘For this reason A MAN will leave his father and mother and be united to HIS WIFE, and the two will become one flesh’?” I believe we are seeing in Miller’s arguments the reality of the songwriter’s words, “with eyes made blind because they will not see.” In other words, “Don’t bother me with the biblical facts, my mind is already made up!”
When Lisa finally comes around to confronting the clear biblical condemnation of homosexual lifestyles and unions, she does it in this fashion: “The Bible does condemn gay male sex in a handful of passages. Twice Leviticus refers to sex between men as ‘an abomination’ (King James Version), but these are throwaway lines in a peculiar text given over to codes for living in an ancient Jewish world….” “Throwaway lines”! Whatever is a “throwaway” line in God’s holy word? Proverbs 30:5 is clear: “Every word of God is flawless… Do not add to his words or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” Wise people cleave to “every word of God;” they do not throw away as much as “a jot nor a tittle”
(Matthew 5:18, KJV), and they add no deviant understandings to any of the holy words of God! And while it is true that customs change and lifestyles vary from generation to generation, and that some of God’s word addresses customs and lifestyles that are no longer relevant to us today, the morality of God’s holy law does not change. The Ten Commandments are unalterable, and they uphold the same biblical morality in all ages. “Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89). Murder has been and is always wrong. Theft has been and is always wrong. False testimony has been and is always wrong, and immorality has been and is always wrong. And God’s word is very clear on what constitutes immorality.
Lisa’s article similarly dismisses Paul’s statements in Romans 1 using author Neil Elliott’s words, “Paul is not talking about what we call homosexuality at all.” Even a surface reading of Paul’s words say the exact opposite: “Women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones [contrary to Miller’s claims “that nowhere in the Bible does its authors refer to sex between women.”] In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (verses 26-27). Miller and Elliott may object to Paul’s description of homosexual acts as “indecent acts” and “perversion,” but that does not change the fact that this passage clearly describes homosexual acts as such, and condemns them, and also condemns those who applaud them: “Although they know God’s righteous decree… they not only continue to do those very things but also approve of those who practice them” (verse 32).
Lisa Miller’s erroneous conclusions continue as the article winds down: “Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition.” (FALSE, as we have seen.) “A mature view of scriptural authority requires us, as we have in the past, to move beyond literalism. The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it’s impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours.” (Also, FALSE, as we have seen.) “We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future.” (FALSE AGAIN, for “all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” II Timothy 3:16).
A side-bar on Lisa Miller’s take on David and Jonathan is important: she writes, “Here [II Samuel 1:26] the Bible praises enduring love between men. What Jonathan and David did or did not do in privacy is perhaps best left to history and our own imaginations.” Actually, what Jonathan and David did or did not do in privacy is history, and it is not left to anyone’s imagination! What they did not do is clearly spelled out in Leviticus 20:13, for David and Jonathan were God-fearing men who walked in the holy light of God’s Word. And what they did do in private is also clearly spelled out for us in Scripture -- in 1 Samuel 18:1, 3-4; 19:1; 20:17; 20:41-42. (Statements no different than what is written throughout the New Testament concerning our own deep interpersonal relationships: Acts 4:32; Romans 12:10 (KJV); Colossians 3:12-14; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13; 5:26; II Timothy 1:3-4; I Peter 4:8; 5:14.)
Lisa Miller closes her article with this observation: “If Jesus were alive today, he would reach out especially to gays and lesbians among us for ‘Jesus does not want people to be lonely and sad’.” Well actually, Jesus is alive today and He is reaching out “to gays and lesbians among us”! Human loneliness and sadness touch our Lord Jesus Christ very deeply as He seeks to draw all mankind to Himself. Our Lord is a compassionate Savior, as His Church should be. Unfortunately, when it comes to human sin and fallenness, misguided Christians often paint Jesus as merciless and they themselves reflect that same ungodly demeanor in their actions (gay bashing, abortion clinic bombing, etc.). Such behavior is a travesty. In all His righteousness and justice, our Lord Jesus is yet a loving and forgiving Redeemer; but He is also one who has come to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). He comes to lift us all out of the muck of our personal human depravity and place our feet on the solid foundation of God’s holiness. For this reason Paul could write to the Corinthians these balanced words: “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). And for this amazing grace we can only praise our heavenly Father from the bottom of our hearts! Jesus seeks us and finds us; He rescues us and cleanses us; He transforms us and sanctifies us. He is our wonderful Savior and our holy Lord! And to Him we give honor and praise forever and ever!
—Pastor Charles Schmitt
—To read other articles from Pastor Charles take a look at, “Is the Body of Christ a Melting Pot or a Tossed Salad?” , “Why are our Nations’ Flags in the Rotunda (and not in the Sanctuary)?” and A Distortion of Biblical Prosperity. Please check for them on this website.
