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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Same Sex Weddings As I write this article in June of 2003 our provincial court of Ontario has told the federal government that their definition of marriage, and the exclusion of same sex couples from this definition is against our charter of rights. The court told the federal government to change the definition of the word marriage from a man and a woman to, "any two people", which would include people of the same sex orientation. This would make same sex weddings legal in Canada. The federal government had the choice to appeal this ruling to the Supreme court of Canada, or to simply change the definition of the word marriage, thus changing the marriage laws in Canada. They chose to change the definition and the law. So Canada is in the process of becoming the third country in the world to allow same sex marriages. So what does that mean to us as Christians? To begin with, we should look back to Genesis. In the very beginning God gave man a choice, to obey Him, or to disobey His command. God put the tree in the garden, told man not to eat of it. In doing this He gave man the opportunity to choose to do wrong. Man was, and still is a free agent to do as he pleases. Although God gave man the choice, He also said that there would be consequences to his choice. If he chose to disobey and eat of the fruit of the one forbidden tree, then "he would surely die". Man did eat of the fruit and he did die. He died spiritually, socially, and eventually he died physically. God allows us to do what we want. He even gives us over to do whatever we want, no matter how evil it may be. Romans 1:24 says, "therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts for sexual impurity..." Also in Romans 1:26 Paul says, "God gave them over to shameful lusts..." Do you see what Paul is saying here? He is saying that God not only allows us to do wrong things, but He actually "gives us over to them". This means that God wrings His hands over us and says, "okay if that is what you want to do, go ahead do it all you want, but eventually you will reap the consequences of your actions". So what does the above Scripture mean to us? It means that if our society has a great desire to do wrong, then let them do wrong. If it is in our ability to stop such activity, we should try our best to end such things. But there comes a time when society will not hear. At this time you give them over to do what they want to do, with the understanding that Jesus is Lord and in the end He will have His way. And what will happen in the end? Read Romans 1 and 2 and it is very clear that God's wrath and anger will be poured out on those who reject Him and His ways. Thus the consequences of people's sin will catch up to them. We can do what we can do to stop sin, but if people refuse to hear, even God gives them over to do what they lust after. One of the things that people lusted after in Paul's day and in our day too is same sex relationships. This kind of relationship is clearly not natural. A simple look at the anatomy of a man and a woman can tell you this. Also it is clear from Scripture. Romans 1:26 - 27 says, "even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the man also abandoned natural relationships with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts..." Same sex relationships according to Scripture is clearly wrong. Yet in today's world we have laid aside any standard to live by. We ourselves, in our own thinking have become the standard. So it is easy to see why people don't see anything wrong with same sex relationship. Any objective standard to live by has been replaced by an inward subjective standard which differs from person to person. Now Scripture does not pick on same sex people alone. Don't think that opposite sex people don't do wrong too. Adultery and sex outside of marriage is just as wrong as same sex relationships. We, nor the Scripture are pointing the finger at same sex people as examples of doing wrong. All sexual impurity is wrong and will have consequences. Also, let me say this, that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He bore in His body the punishment for all of our sins, whether sexual or non sexual. Therefore God loves the same sex person just as He loves the opposite sex person. Jesus died for everyone. Yet because of His perfect justice God cannot go against His own nature and He will punish those who reject Him, even though He loves them. You cannot understand this unless you understand the totality of who God is in all of His perfection, including His sense of justness. The present trend to immorality may be to the churches betterment. It could easily be that God has already given our society over to their own lusts. If so, this will separate the sheep from the goats in the church. As time goes on, those who do not have a true faith will not stand the pressure put on them from the world. We are, and will be branded as intolerant. We may be ridiculed and maybe even persecuted for our intolerant thinking. If this is so, only those with true faith will stand this pressure, thus purifying God's church, and making it what it should have been all along. History proves that good things come as a result of Christians being persecuted. Now for the non Christian this does not make sense and probably infuriates them , but this is what the Bible says, not me. If you choose to think that the Bible is meaningless for today, that is your prerogative, that is your choice. The time will come when we will see who is right.
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