Gay marriage and the bible
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Tell About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Research 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 say about attraction to someone of the alike sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even coined until the after time 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 vault 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 short 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 is God’s very written word, it is widely understood that God produced its content
The Bible and matching sex relationships: A review article
Tim Keller, 2015
Vines, Matthew, God and the Queer Christian: The Biblical Case in Help of Same Sex Relationships, Convergent Books, 2014
Wilson, Ken,A Letter to My Congregation, David Crum Media, 2014.
The relationship of homosexuality to Christianity is one of the main topics of discussion in our culture today. In the plummet of last year I wrote a review of books by Wesley Hill and Sam Allberry that take the historic Christian view, in Hill’s words: “that homosexuality was not God’s authentic creative intention for humanity ... and therefore that lesbian practice goes against God’s express will for all human beings, especially those who trust in Christ.”
There are a number of other books that take the other side view, namely that the Bible either allows for or supports same sex relationships. Over the last year or so I (and other pastors at Redeemer) have been regularly asked for responses to their arguments. The two most read volumes taking this position seem to be those by Matthew Vines and Ken Wilson. The review of these two books will be longer than usual because the topic is so contested today and, wh
The Case Against Christians Attending a Gay Wedding
The case against Christians attending a queer wedding is relatively straightforward. We can lay out the case in three premises and a conclusion.
The Argument
Premise 1: Gay “marriage” is not marriage.
No matter what a government may sanction, the biblical definition of marriage (see Gen. 2:18–25, Mal. 2:13–15, Matt. 19:4–6; Eph. 5:22–33) 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 agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith when it says, “Marriage is to be between one dude and one woman” (WCF 24.1). Gay “marriage” is not only an offense to God—sanctioning a kind of sexual activity that the Bible condemns (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:24–27; 1 Cor. 6:9–10; 1 Tim. 1:9–10)—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 gay wedding declares what is false to be true and calls evil good.
Premise 3: Attendance at a gay wedding bears public witness to Answer
What does the Bible say about same-sex attracted marriage?
The Bible says nothing about male lover marriage directly, but it does place 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 bloke leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
In passages that consist of instructions regarding marriage, such as 1 Corinthians 7:2–16 and Ephesians 5:23–33, the Bible clearly identifies marriage as creature between a bloke and a gal. Biblically speaking, marriage is the union of a dude and a gal in a lifetime commitment. Primary purposes of marriage are to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the church (see Ephesians 5:22–33) and to erect a family and provide a reliable, secure environment for that family to grow. As families prosper, so does society at massive, and stable families contribute to balanced societies.
Again, the Bible does not explicitly mention gay marriage or same-sex marriag