God’s Word Regarding Same-Sex Relationships

In the middle of last week, 61.6% of Australians took a decisive step towards legislating same-sex marriage. By Christmas, the Australian Parliament, with their Prime Minister leading, will consider the same-sex marriage Bill promising marriage equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT). Forty years ago, the LGBT movement was active, as I had heard stories of gays and homosexuals in Sydney and Melbourne. But then the fight for rights of gays was still very weak. However, in one generation, the entire tide has changed with a majority of Australians rooting for same-sex marriage.

For Australia, in changing her once conservative attitude based on the Bible to one that opposes the Word of God shows that it is no more a Christian-based nation. Sadly, yet not surprising that modern society will do what the Bible tells what men did in the days of Judges: “Every man does what is right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6; 21:25)

Many churches have become liberal, and the modernists compromising, with some denying the Bible as God’s Word. They have rejected the authority of the Bible and treat the account in Genesis 1-11 as mythological, hence denying God’s creation of the Universe and man in the space of six days. Modern man is now not recognizing that God made Adam and Eve, male and female in His own image. In just one generation, the population Down Under had 80% attending church in the 1960s, (Don Batten, Managing Director of the Creation Ministries, Australia told me 2 years ago). But now, in the 21st Century, only 3%-6% Aussies attend church service. It is a sad story how a nation with Christian influence in the past is turning paganistic in its moral standing.

What about our Singapore situation? Same-sex relationships are not recognized under the Singapore laws, and the adoption of children by same- sex couples is illegal. Male same-sex sexual activity is illegal, though the law is generally not enforced. Besides, the Straits Times reported PM Lee’s view on same-sex marriage in Singapore on 5 June 2015, “Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong does not think Singapore is ready for same-sex marriage because the society is still conservative although it is changing gradually . . . . Mr Lee noted that same-sex marriage is gaining acceptance in some developed countries such as Britain and some states in the United States . . . . Even in America, there is very strong pushback from conservative groups.”

What is the Christian stand?

1. 1. Romans 1:26-28 condemns the unnatural use of one’s body (as God intended), and mentions that “God gave them up unto vile affections” (1:26), and speaks against same-sex relationships among women and men with men (vs 27). As a Bible-believing and Christ-centred church, we must take our standard from God’s word against ungodly movements in our society and need to voice our convictions. However, it does not mean that we stop reaching out to these people for Christ. We need to be welcoming to those who struggle with homosexuality, and those who wish to repent. Homosexuality is not an unpardonable sin. Our issue is with those who say homosexual sex is not sinful, not with homosexuals who recognize that this is sinful, and are seeking the grace and forgiveness of Christ.
2. We need to understand the times we are living in: Anyone above the age of 30 has to be amazed at the rapidity at which the gay agenda has been advanced, and with the speed that transgender activism has become the new cause of those who oppose God’s Word and what is morally good. Their goal is the destruction of conservative Christianity, in any form as stated in “Does Legal Gay Marriage Doom Evangelical Christianity?” by Clay Farris Naff. In his book, Naff stated towards the end of the article: “More than two-thirds of young Americans already accept gay marriage. As it proliferates, more will.”
3. God, who created us and therefore owns us, has the authority to determine what is right and wrong. Jesus, wholly God, and wholly Man, did deal directly with the same-sex marriage issue, in the New Testament. In Matthew 19:4–6: “And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning “made them male and female,” and said, “For this cause a man shall leave father and mother and shall cling to his wife, and the two of them shall be one flesh?” So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Christ quoted directly from the book of Genesis and its account of the creation of Adam and Eve as the first man and woman (the first marriage instituted by God) as literal history, to explain the doctrine of marriage as being one man for one woman. Thus marriage cannot be a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.

In John 1 we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Jesus, the Creator, is the Word. The Bible is the written Word. Every word in the Bible is really the Word of the Creator – Jesus Christ. Leviticus 18:22-23 clearly states same-sex relationships are not approved, neither sexual relationships with animals: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shall thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.”

Paul in 1 Timothy 1:9–10 also mentions those things which God condemns: lawlessness, disobedience, ungodliness, unholiness and profanity, murder, manslaughter, whoremongers, those who defile themselves with other humans, thieves, liars, perjurers, and anything that is contrary to sound doctrine.

4. God provides salvation from sin and death through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross so that all sinners will be save, all including heterosexual and homosexual sinners. God created human sexuality, and has a clear will for how it is to be experienced – in holiness and joy. His will is that a man might leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and that the two become one flesh (Mk 10:6–9). In this union, sexuality finds its God-appointed meaning, whether in personal physical unification, symbolic representation, sensual jubilation, or fruitful procreation.

For those who have forsaken God’s path of sexual fulfillment, and have walked into homosexual intercourse or heterosexual extramarital fornication or adultery, Jesus offers astonishing mercy. 1 Corinthians 6 mentions “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” But, God promises cleansing and forgiveness for those who would acknowledge Christ as Saviour and Lord. And those who repent from their sinful ways, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11)

But on June 26, 2015, this salvation from sinful sexual acts was not embraced. Instead, there was massive institutionalization of sin. In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that the states cannot ban same-sex marriage. It is a tragedy when state authority grants “normalization and institutionalization of homosexual behavior”.

As we read about such a tragedy that is taking place in many countries, we must ready ourselves for its eventuality in our own country. Members of the LGBT and their supporters would gradually but surely take their fight to have their rights legalized. Even certain church leaders have been reported to be sympathetic to their desires to be recognized in society. We know what is coming, not only because we see it in the Bible, but because we have seen how man’s other sins have affected many families: drunkenness, gambling, uncontrollable borrowing, unpaid debts, and many other vices. If those we warn do not repent and ask for God’s forgiveness, they will reap what they sow. But, marriages, children, churches, social institutions will all be troubled because many are unwilling to give up their sinful ways.

John Piper says: “We weep over our sins. We don’t celebrate them. We don’t institutionalize them. We turn to Jesus for forgiveness and help. We cry to Jesus, “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:10) … we weep for the world, and for our own nation.

In the days of Ezekiel, God put a mark of hope “on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in [Jerusalem]” (Ezek 9:4).Piper says, that we cannot rely on “political action, but love for the name of God and compassion for the city of destruction.”

May we join in prayer for countries that are suffering from this tragedy, and pray that God will have mercy on our own nation.

Pastor Bob Phee