Beware of the Adulterous Bride

By: American Decency Staff

Our nation is experiencing a massive seismic shift.  We feel the tremors and see the destruction left in its wake.  The erosion of marriage and family, the crumbling of the moral and religious underpinnings of society, the deterioration of a system of government no longer resting on the solid foundation on which it was established.  There is no institution left unscarred, including the Church.

Recently the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) voted to change that denomination’s constitution to affirm gay marriage.   No longer does the Presbyterian Church USA define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but now as “two people, traditionally a man and a woman.”  Only a minor change in wording, but a massive change in meaning. 

It should be noted that the Presbyterian Church USA should not be confused with other far more conservative denominations also bearing the name “Presbyterian.”  There is the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) – both of which are staunchly committed to the inerrancy of Scripture and to the biblical definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

However, the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) has a long history of not just watering down God’s word, but abandoning its authority, teaching, and inerrancy altogether.  This has included the PCUSA voting in 2011 to ordain gay and lesbian pastors, elders, and deacons.

As Al Mohler writes:  It had blurred the distinctions between the church and the secular world. The name for that is theological liberalism; the effort to try to accommodate Christian doctrine to the secularizing trends of the society. By now the PC(USA) has found room for almost every theological variant imaginable and once a denomination or a church has abandoned the inerrancy of Scripture and the binding nature of a confession of faith that is tied to the inerrancy of Scripture, then it is only a matter of time until the denomination finds compromise on other fronts.

And that’s true not only for denominations but for an individual congregation. The rule is the same, once you abandon the inerrancy of Scripture it’s just a matter of time until you abandon those doctrines that could not be abandoned if the Bible is nothing less than the inerrant and infallible word of God. If the Bible is not the word of God written form, if every word of it is not true, then virtually every individual or congregation or denomination will find some way to get around the plain teachings of Scripture.

Which is what has recently happened at the prominent City Church in San Francisco, one of the largest members of the evangelical denomination Reformed Church in America (RCA).  City Church announced on March 13 that the church will no longer expect lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender members to remain celibate.

According to a March 16 report by Religion News Service:  “The church, which claims about 1,000 attendees and meets at two San Francisco locations, has long welcomed LGBT persons to attend, but has required lifelong celibacy of those LGBT persons seeking membership.”

Senior pastor Fred Harrell Sr. and six board members wrote in a letter to the congregation of City Church: “We will no longer discriminate based on sexual orientation and demand lifelong celibacy as a precondition for joining.”

The letter went on to state:  “Imagine feeling this from your family or religious community.  If you stay, you must accept celibacy with no hope that you too might one day enjoy the fullness of intellectual, spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical companionship. If you pursue a lifelong partnership, you are rejected.’ This is simply not working and people are being hurt. We must listen and respond.”

Laura Turner, communications coordinator for City Church wrote:  “Churches are slowly coming to recognize that if God is bringing people to them who are LGBT they have to meet them where they are and not demand that they change.  …”

Yet isn’t that what Christians are called to do – turn away from our sin?  The leadership of this church wants to avoid “hurting” those who indentify as LGBT, claiming that God’s commands are “simply not working and people are being hurt.” 

The Word of God does not hurt; it heals.  True love does not leave people lost in their trespasses and sins. 

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”  I John 5:2-3  (emphasis added)

Again, Al Mohler states it so well:  No doubt there would be LGBT persons who are telling us that they are experiencing harm by being prevented from getting married, by being dissuaded by means of moral conviction and biblical teaching from engaging in same-sex sexual acts and relationships. … No doubt there are persons who are telling us that they are being harmed by the church’s deep biblical conviction concerning the reality of human gender as one of God’s most precious gifts and creation. And the fact that that gender, that biological sex, is given to us as a gift that is revealed even at the time of our birth.

But this is where the Christian worldview, based upon Scripture, comes back to tell us we are actually incompetent at figuring out exactly what causes us harm. We can demand things that we would say would prevent us harm now, only to understand that what we thought would lead to human flourishing instead leads in the very opposite direction – not towards human flourishing and the alleviation of harm, but towards the cause of harm.

A church who abandons the inerrancy of Scripture, who seeks to bring healing apart from the redeeming work of Christ, is an adulterous bride.  As we try to maintain our balance with the crumbling taking place all around us, make sure that you align with a church that has a sure foundation on the word of God.

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