We are not getting the whole truth on the homosexual marriage issue.
First of all, it is wrongly reported that the United States Supreme Court Case, Lawrence v. Texas, affirmed a fundamental right to commit sodomy. That is not correct. Instead, what it says is that there is no rational basis for a law that prohibits homosexuals from committing sodomy while it permits heterosexuals to engage in the same act.
The United States Supreme Court, only 15 years earlier, in Bowers v. Hardwick, had decllined to overrule a Georgia Statute that prohibited sodomy between consenting homosexuals. In Lawrence v. Texas, the United States Supreme Court simply overruled Bowers v. Hardwick, which is rather odd, since the court will not touch other cases such as Roe v. Wade and McCulloch v. Maryand. Yet, in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick, the court simply declared it no longer binding precedent. This tends to make Lawrence v. Texas look like a political decision instead of a legal one.
An excellent Texas Supreme Court Justice, Priscilla Owen, had written the opinion that was attacked in Lawrence v. Texas. The 5th Circuit had upheld Justice Owen. Only at the Supreme Court level was the Texas statute finally struck down. It took Sandra Day O'Conner's vote to turn down the Texas Statute. The dissent was soundly argued. Still, Lawrence v. Texas does not declare a fundamental right to commit sodomy.
Had Texas not amended its sodomy statute to permit heterosexuals to commit sodomy, there would have been no victory in Lawrence v. Texas. Texas still has every right to declare sodomy an illegal act. In order to do so, however, it must make findings that apply across the board to all relationships.
There are two types of sodomy. One is oral-genital. The other is anal-genital. Texas has ample reason to declare both types of sodomy illegal. Texas could say that they are illegal because only the male and female genitals are designed to work together. Texas could find that when the anus is used as the tube that gives pleasure during intercourse, it is damaged. Because the membrane surrounding the colon is so thin, it is easily ruptured or torn. Fecal materials are highly toxic. Because the membrane is surrounded by blood vessels, mild tears provide a quick route for infection by toxic elements in the fecal materials.
Oral, genital contact is similarly hazardous, regardless of the gender of the giver or the receiver of the pleasure. The behavior might be prevalent, but if the legislature finds it is associated with genital infections, the legislature could outlaw it. The legislature won't because the legislature will take the position that oral sex does not cause a major problem in society. As long as it keeps people quiet and content, society can go on to solve the bigger problems of how to pay for the roads and education and how to deal with illegal aliens, and the cost of college tuition.
I'm pulled in that direction. I'm inclined to let people want to do with their lives. Let them engage in destructive behavior. What concerns me though, is if they've been warned about the consequences and they do it anyway, is that other taxpayers have to shoulder the consequences of dangerous sexual behavior.
I hear people clamoring for more freedom to express themselves by engaging in what used to be considered immoral activity. Yet, those same people, if they have no insurance, will be clamoring for help from our hospitals. They go out, act without control, and say "damn the consequences,' then proceed to catch a social disease. Then we all pay for it.
I know this about human nature. Until people are transformed in their thinking from the inside, they are going to live for themselves. If they truly loved God, they would want to present their bodies to God. They would not act contrary to nature. They wouldn't misuse their bodies. They would see their bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. Their entire life would be a presentation of their bodies as an offering to God.
By no means do I wish to suggest that human sexuality, as between a married man and woman, is not an offering to God. No, when a man and woman yield themselves to each other, and completely empty themselves of selfish desire, they are most fulfilled. That is when the peak experiences happen. Each of them is focused on pleasing the other. It is then when the spontaneous, uncontrollable spasms take place. That is beautiful, because that creates a deeper, more exclusive bond.
I do not say that human sexuality is a worship experience. It is an act of obedience. But neither is it a time of oppression. No, when a man or a woman oppresses the other and uses the time of sexual intercourse as an opportunity to ridicule, condemn, or to force the other to do something he or she consideres immoral or wrong, that's ugly. It becomes ugly when one of the parties coerces the other.
I think the natural response to a time of pleasure between a man and woman should be deep gratitude toward a merciful God. It is a great and rare privilege to enjoy our bodies as they were designed to be enjoyed. Life has enough trouble. God gives us the grace to enjoy ourselves in spite of the trouble.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, October 04, 2010
The Ideal Fellowship
The Christian parachurch group, The Navigators, use a hand illustration to reinforce the idea of a balanced Christian Life. Those five components are Bible Study, Prayer, Fellowship, Witnessing, and Scripture Memory. A Christian, who neglects any one of these is not living a balanced Christian life. I admit, I fall down in every area. However, I do engage in Fellowship and Bible Study on a regular basis. I just do it intentionally in a one to one relationship. I do it corporately.
I do think our pursuit of God should be individual, but I think it should also be a corporate quest. We need each other. We need each other's insights. We need to hear each other's exhortations. We can't do it alone. I want to describe my ideal fellowship. Perhaps others will join.
The ideal fellowship must have a strong doctrinal statement. It must be so solid it rarely changes. It must be rooted in history and deep in theological understanding. It shouldn't be trendy or adapted to modern customs and values. The fellowship needs to know who they are and what they believe. It shouldn't be changing to fit the whims and desires of modern people.
The ideal fellowship should exist to carry out the Great Commission. It should be a place to gather for the worship of God and the sharing of the Sacraments. It should be a place to receive instruction. It must not neglect Witnessing.
Numbers don't matter. It could be big or small. What matters is the doctrinal statement, the closeness of the fellowship, and its commitment to witnessing.
The fellowship would honor great music. Contemporary Music is not Great Music. It is too subjective. It is based on personal experience. We need rich, doctrinal truth, because truth transforms. Others' experiences do not transform. We seek to be transformed in our own thinking. The scriptures should transform us.
The ideal fellowship should be Coventant and Reformed. I didn't use to think that way. I was more open to the freedom to experiment I found in Bible Churches. Some had elders. Some had deacons. Some had believer's baptism by immersion. Some just dedicated babies at birth. They all seemed to intend to follow the scriptures. It is just that they didn't have a connection with the past. The connections they had seem to be disconnections more than anything. People had come out of mainline churches. They were all escaping the mainline churches to something more authentic and real without the denomination labels. They didn't recite creeds and confessions because they tended to stress hard doctrines that were exclusive, devisive and uncertain.
The Bible Churches tended to say that all they needed was the scriptures. That sounded good on its face, but it ignored Church History. The Great Creeds and confessions settled questions that people are still asking today. We don't have to keep asking questions about the nature of God and Christ for example. The doctrine of God and Chirst was settled by the Council of Nicaea. We don't need to ask that question anymore.
We don't really need to answer the question of faith versus works. We know salvation is by faith alone.
We don't need a step by step how to manual. We simply need a fellowship, heavily rooted in scripture, with a heavy emphasis on worship, confession, and verse by verse exposition.
We could all benefit from a closer community. We really need to care about each other.
Finally, we need to be diverse, in terms of age, sex, marital staus, and socioeconomic level. Our diversity, though, must not divide us. It will not divide us as long as the study of the Scriptures remains our primary focus. We need to do more than just study the Scriptures. The Scriptures should challenge us and change us.
I do think our pursuit of God should be individual, but I think it should also be a corporate quest. We need each other. We need each other's insights. We need to hear each other's exhortations. We can't do it alone. I want to describe my ideal fellowship. Perhaps others will join.
The ideal fellowship must have a strong doctrinal statement. It must be so solid it rarely changes. It must be rooted in history and deep in theological understanding. It shouldn't be trendy or adapted to modern customs and values. The fellowship needs to know who they are and what they believe. It shouldn't be changing to fit the whims and desires of modern people.
The ideal fellowship should exist to carry out the Great Commission. It should be a place to gather for the worship of God and the sharing of the Sacraments. It should be a place to receive instruction. It must not neglect Witnessing.
Numbers don't matter. It could be big or small. What matters is the doctrinal statement, the closeness of the fellowship, and its commitment to witnessing.
The fellowship would honor great music. Contemporary Music is not Great Music. It is too subjective. It is based on personal experience. We need rich, doctrinal truth, because truth transforms. Others' experiences do not transform. We seek to be transformed in our own thinking. The scriptures should transform us.
The ideal fellowship should be Coventant and Reformed. I didn't use to think that way. I was more open to the freedom to experiment I found in Bible Churches. Some had elders. Some had deacons. Some had believer's baptism by immersion. Some just dedicated babies at birth. They all seemed to intend to follow the scriptures. It is just that they didn't have a connection with the past. The connections they had seem to be disconnections more than anything. People had come out of mainline churches. They were all escaping the mainline churches to something more authentic and real without the denomination labels. They didn't recite creeds and confessions because they tended to stress hard doctrines that were exclusive, devisive and uncertain.
The Bible Churches tended to say that all they needed was the scriptures. That sounded good on its face, but it ignored Church History. The Great Creeds and confessions settled questions that people are still asking today. We don't have to keep asking questions about the nature of God and Christ for example. The doctrine of God and Chirst was settled by the Council of Nicaea. We don't need to ask that question anymore.
We don't really need to answer the question of faith versus works. We know salvation is by faith alone.
We don't need a step by step how to manual. We simply need a fellowship, heavily rooted in scripture, with a heavy emphasis on worship, confession, and verse by verse exposition.
We could all benefit from a closer community. We really need to care about each other.
Finally, we need to be diverse, in terms of age, sex, marital staus, and socioeconomic level. Our diversity, though, must not divide us. It will not divide us as long as the study of the Scriptures remains our primary focus. We need to do more than just study the Scriptures. The Scriptures should challenge us and change us.
The Loss of Appreciation for the Lord's Day
My wife and I went to a mall yesterday, which was a Sunday. I preferred to stay home, but she wanted to go out and do some shopping that she didn't have time to do during the week.
I am growing less comfortable with shopping on Sunday. We can't even take one day to reflect upon the fact that we were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
I looked around at all the other people crowding the mall. It was a nice to be outside. I don't think all those people would be there in blustery weather, but there they were. They were consuming. That is our pasttime.
I reflected upon our Sunday School lesson in Revelation. I recalled the message, "come out of Babylon," and I recalled how the merchants of the earth marveled as Babylon fell in one hour.
It could happen here. The United States is deeply mired in debt. We are so far in debt that even if we quit spending, we'd still be obligated to pay for Medicare, Social Security, and the military, far beyond our ability to do so.
We can spend more than we tax ourselves only because other countries are willing to buy our debt from us. We are enslaving the next generation.
The next generation is living off of our spending spree. They are staffing the stores. They are the entry level clerks, making pocket money while they pursue an education. The young people are spending their money as fast as they make it. They aren't saving. They would be fools to save, because inflation is going to rob them of savings. Yet, failing to save is going to make them even more dependent in the future.
I think our Creator had a better idea. There comes a time when our endless quest to consume must stop. There must be a time to rest and worship our Creator. We are His. We belong to Him. The created world is not the most important.
We must make much of Christ. We must glorify Him and we must enjoy Him.
I am growing less comfortable with shopping on Sunday. We can't even take one day to reflect upon the fact that we were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
I looked around at all the other people crowding the mall. It was a nice to be outside. I don't think all those people would be there in blustery weather, but there they were. They were consuming. That is our pasttime.
I reflected upon our Sunday School lesson in Revelation. I recalled the message, "come out of Babylon," and I recalled how the merchants of the earth marveled as Babylon fell in one hour.
It could happen here. The United States is deeply mired in debt. We are so far in debt that even if we quit spending, we'd still be obligated to pay for Medicare, Social Security, and the military, far beyond our ability to do so.
We can spend more than we tax ourselves only because other countries are willing to buy our debt from us. We are enslaving the next generation.
The next generation is living off of our spending spree. They are staffing the stores. They are the entry level clerks, making pocket money while they pursue an education. The young people are spending their money as fast as they make it. They aren't saving. They would be fools to save, because inflation is going to rob them of savings. Yet, failing to save is going to make them even more dependent in the future.
I think our Creator had a better idea. There comes a time when our endless quest to consume must stop. There must be a time to rest and worship our Creator. We are His. We belong to Him. The created world is not the most important.
We must make much of Christ. We must glorify Him and we must enjoy Him.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Dispensationalism versus Covenant Theology
I was a dispensationalist once. It started back in the 1970s. I was looking for meaning. The U.S. was mired in the Vietnam War. I wasn't a hippie and I didn't burn my draft card. My hair only reached my collar once, and I always brushed and combed it. I could never understand why anyone would want to wear unkempt hair. I only had a beard one time, in my thirties, when I played the role of Jesus in a church drama. I was even willing to volunteer for the Navy, but my patriotic parents and grandparents dissuaded me from volunteering for what they saw as a very poorly managed political war, whose objective was not to win. I wanted to be patriotic and loyal to America, but the hippies and the war protesters had a point. What was this empty materialism all about? I wanted to find meaning.
Well, the Dispensationalists had an answer. Israel had miraculously revived after almost 2000 years. It happened in 1948, and now the dispersed Jews were all returning home. Hal Lindsey, in the Late Great Planet Earth, pointed out that Biblical Prophecy was being fulfilled. Then we listened to Larry Norman's song "I wish we'd all been ready." We were convinced the end was near. The world was screwed up and there were wars everywhere. The answer was Jesus. I bought the whole package. What I didn't consider was the tremendous financial support of the United States and the European countries. Israel couldn't survive today without it. Quite frankly, I think some of the European countries were glad to get rid of their Jews after World War II.
There ensued almost thirty years of almost completely devotion to the Dispensationalist cause. Ultra patriotism came with it. I began to envision the takeover by Conservative Christians and the restoration of a truly righteous and just society.
What I've observed is completely opposite of what I envisioned. I see the forces of evil becoming even more bold and aggressive. I see family breakdown. One out of every three children is born out of wedlock, and people are trying to create non traditional families. Whole new sections of attorney generals' offices have been created to force primarily fathers to pay for the children they caused while "making love" to the mothers. We are now beginning to think in terms not of traditional families, but in terms of villages, so that even those who created traditional families out of moral conviction must now be forced to share in the cost of raising children who were created by those who deliberately rejected traditional morality. Bitterness and hatred between biological fathers and mothers has replaced a loving model. Now, some children are having to become accustomed to the fact that, though they are genetically created by the combination of an egg (provided by a woman) and a sperm (provided by a man), they will never know the true identity of both of their true parents. They are going to see themselves as machines created by technology. We are continuing to be depersonalized. We are even on the verge of being custom designed genetically. Children are being led to believe that same sex parentage is perfectly natural, when the very means by which they were created is termed "artificial insemination."
Amidst this societal breakdown, I also saw the breakdown of Christian worship. The choruses became emptier and less creative. Boring and monotonous is the word for it. Screaming guitars and raucous drums took the place of beauty and order. It was supposed to be "relevant to the culture." It was noisy and chaotic. God wasn't the center. The musicians were the center. Instead of singing congregationally, people swayed in the audience as if they were at a rock concert. If it was worship, it was unintelligent worship. I left.
The preaching declined. Expository preaching became psychobabble and pop psychology. More boredom, less intelligent content.
I escaped and found the world of Reformed Theology. I discovered its connections with history. Most importantly, I discovered what Jesus was really saying when he said, "the kingdom of heaven is here in your midst." I discovered why he was unimpressed with the huge stones that the disciples saw when they passed the Temple in the state of being rebuilt.
I now see the Jews in the Old Testament as a type of all of humanity. The lesson we get from them is that even though they were given numerous opportunities to repent and turn, they returned to sin. Paul was right when he said that all have sinned and fallen short. Jerry Vines was right when he said "God does not hear the prayer of the Jews." Because God doesn't hear the prayer of anyone who doesn't approach him through the advocate, our high priest, God's son Jesus Christ. God only hears one prayer of the unbeliever, and that is the prayer of repentance and faith. Neither Jews who claim to know God nor atheists have access to God, because they have no high priest to intercede for them and no atoning sacrifice for their sin. It is only the grace of God and his elective purpose that brings us to repentance and faith. We have no ability to believe without God's elective purpose and power. The true Israel is Christ. Christ is the Kingdom, and only those who are called, who truly repent, and truly believe are part of the Kingdom. The law now dwells in the hearts of those who believe. Jesus is our high priest and our atoning sacrifice. There no longer is a purpose for a temple built with human hands. As Jesus said on the Cross, "It is finished."
I now see the folly of propping up Israel as a Nation State. The message to those who call themselves Jews and to those who do not call themselves Jews is the same. "You are a sinner and you are headed for eternal Hell. Consider the destination of your soul in the face of a perfect and holy God. Consider Christ's atonement and his offer of grace. Repent and flee to Christ." If the Holy Spirit acts upon your heart and draws you to himself, then you will be saved eternally and you will enjoy the worship of God eternally. If you find this message repulsive and reject it entirely, I have nothing more to say. I cannot expect a person who refuses a relationship with God to act according to God's commandments. I will not seek to force you to conform to God's commands by passing laws to make you look externally like a follower of Christ. No, just as Paul said in Romans, God gave them up to their own degrading passions. The results of sin are obvious.
Well, the Dispensationalists had an answer. Israel had miraculously revived after almost 2000 years. It happened in 1948, and now the dispersed Jews were all returning home. Hal Lindsey, in the Late Great Planet Earth, pointed out that Biblical Prophecy was being fulfilled. Then we listened to Larry Norman's song "I wish we'd all been ready." We were convinced the end was near. The world was screwed up and there were wars everywhere. The answer was Jesus. I bought the whole package. What I didn't consider was the tremendous financial support of the United States and the European countries. Israel couldn't survive today without it. Quite frankly, I think some of the European countries were glad to get rid of their Jews after World War II.
There ensued almost thirty years of almost completely devotion to the Dispensationalist cause. Ultra patriotism came with it. I began to envision the takeover by Conservative Christians and the restoration of a truly righteous and just society.
What I've observed is completely opposite of what I envisioned. I see the forces of evil becoming even more bold and aggressive. I see family breakdown. One out of every three children is born out of wedlock, and people are trying to create non traditional families. Whole new sections of attorney generals' offices have been created to force primarily fathers to pay for the children they caused while "making love" to the mothers. We are now beginning to think in terms not of traditional families, but in terms of villages, so that even those who created traditional families out of moral conviction must now be forced to share in the cost of raising children who were created by those who deliberately rejected traditional morality. Bitterness and hatred between biological fathers and mothers has replaced a loving model. Now, some children are having to become accustomed to the fact that, though they are genetically created by the combination of an egg (provided by a woman) and a sperm (provided by a man), they will never know the true identity of both of their true parents. They are going to see themselves as machines created by technology. We are continuing to be depersonalized. We are even on the verge of being custom designed genetically. Children are being led to believe that same sex parentage is perfectly natural, when the very means by which they were created is termed "artificial insemination."
Amidst this societal breakdown, I also saw the breakdown of Christian worship. The choruses became emptier and less creative. Boring and monotonous is the word for it. Screaming guitars and raucous drums took the place of beauty and order. It was supposed to be "relevant to the culture." It was noisy and chaotic. God wasn't the center. The musicians were the center. Instead of singing congregationally, people swayed in the audience as if they were at a rock concert. If it was worship, it was unintelligent worship. I left.
The preaching declined. Expository preaching became psychobabble and pop psychology. More boredom, less intelligent content.
I escaped and found the world of Reformed Theology. I discovered its connections with history. Most importantly, I discovered what Jesus was really saying when he said, "the kingdom of heaven is here in your midst." I discovered why he was unimpressed with the huge stones that the disciples saw when they passed the Temple in the state of being rebuilt.
I now see the Jews in the Old Testament as a type of all of humanity. The lesson we get from them is that even though they were given numerous opportunities to repent and turn, they returned to sin. Paul was right when he said that all have sinned and fallen short. Jerry Vines was right when he said "God does not hear the prayer of the Jews." Because God doesn't hear the prayer of anyone who doesn't approach him through the advocate, our high priest, God's son Jesus Christ. God only hears one prayer of the unbeliever, and that is the prayer of repentance and faith. Neither Jews who claim to know God nor atheists have access to God, because they have no high priest to intercede for them and no atoning sacrifice for their sin. It is only the grace of God and his elective purpose that brings us to repentance and faith. We have no ability to believe without God's elective purpose and power. The true Israel is Christ. Christ is the Kingdom, and only those who are called, who truly repent, and truly believe are part of the Kingdom. The law now dwells in the hearts of those who believe. Jesus is our high priest and our atoning sacrifice. There no longer is a purpose for a temple built with human hands. As Jesus said on the Cross, "It is finished."
I now see the folly of propping up Israel as a Nation State. The message to those who call themselves Jews and to those who do not call themselves Jews is the same. "You are a sinner and you are headed for eternal Hell. Consider the destination of your soul in the face of a perfect and holy God. Consider Christ's atonement and his offer of grace. Repent and flee to Christ." If the Holy Spirit acts upon your heart and draws you to himself, then you will be saved eternally and you will enjoy the worship of God eternally. If you find this message repulsive and reject it entirely, I have nothing more to say. I cannot expect a person who refuses a relationship with God to act according to God's commandments. I will not seek to force you to conform to God's commands by passing laws to make you look externally like a follower of Christ. No, just as Paul said in Romans, God gave them up to their own degrading passions. The results of sin are obvious.
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