What relevance would the supreme court ruling have in any event? Just because something isn’t legally prohibited doesn’t make it right. Adultery is legal but it isn’t morally right or justified scripturally.
Dividing the wheat from the chaff
What you will hear from the capitulators:
“We are about preaching the gospel of Jesus and we can’t let social issues keep us from reaching the hearts and minds of people who need to be saved.”
It sounds wise and sensible, much like the German Christians who tried to make peace with the Nazis. Yet there are some things that are so clearly evil and so clearly in violation of the Christian walk that a line of disapproval must be drawn.
There will be hard choices. Keep our Christian business or keep our moral standards? Keep our tax-exempt status or stand firm on God’s commandements? Be publicly tarred and feathered as bigots and haters or be willing to ignore God’s Word for the sake of escaping the crosshairs of the heathen mob?
If your church has not taken a public stand, perhaps you need to nudge them off the fence and get a declared position from them. Some will disappoint you with their cowardice but better you should learn that now than learn it when the liberals are emboldened enough to denounce other parts of the Bible they do not like and demand your church conform to it.
The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.--John 7:7
These so-called Christians DO NOT preach the gospel. If they did, the world would hate them for Jesus' sake, because real Christians, like Jesus, "testify of it, that the works thereof are evil".
Sodomy is contrary to sound doctrine. Those who embrace or excuse it not longer "fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." (1 Timothy 1:19)
I have little doubt that the Joel Osteens and the Rick Warrens will cave to the depravity. They’re far more concerned with conforming to the world than in guarding the Word of God.
Joh 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
“Keepeth” (tereo) is in the sense of “go guard.”
Today in history:
1945 - United Nations Charter signed by 50 nations in San Francisco.
“From the Beginning”: God’s Design for Marriage
A Statement from the Anglican Church in North America
The Archbishop and Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America have received the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States of America and are deeply grieved by the stark departure from God’s revealed order. We are concerned for the inevitable results from this action to change the legal understanding of marriage and family life.
While this decision grieves us, God’s truth and the goodness of the order established in creation have not been changed. The kingdom of God cannot be shaken. We pray with confidence that God will reveal his glory, love, goodness, and hope to the world through his Church as we seek to follow him in faith and obedience.
Jesus Christ teaches that God is the author of marriage from the beginning of time (Matthew 19:4-6). God’s design for marriage has always involved a man and a woman: “a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). These truths have ordered civilization for thousands of years. Where God’s designs are followed in any society, including his designs for marriage and families, the result is the greatest possible blessing and abundance of life.
The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is often summarized as, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Because of his love, we love and care for all those who experience same-sex attraction. The Anglican Church in North America continues to welcome everyone to experience the transforming love of Jesus Christ.
Marriage is established by God for the procreation and raising of children and for the good of society. For this reason, governments have an interest in marriage and have delegated authority from God to protect and regulate it. But no court, no legislature and no local magistrate has the authority to redefine marriage and to impose this definition on their citizens.
The United States of America, so its founders believed and taught, is a nation under God whose citizens’ fundamental rights are derived from the Creator. There is no right to a relationship which is contrary to the Creator’s express design. We cannot accept the Supreme Court’s decision purporting to find a fundamental right to same-sex “marriage” any more than we can accept its claim to have found a right to destroy human life in the womb. We will work with others to overturn this decision, and we pray that others will join with us in this effort.
Meeting this week in Vancouver, British Columbia, we are reminded that our Canadian members have been living under a similar legal standard for the last ten years. Their situation includes minimal legal protections for those who in good conscience cannot recognize this redefinition, and it is our prayer that stronger protections will be put into place and honored in the United States.
In the meantime, we shall continue to exercise our religious freedom to perform marriages for those who come for holy matrimony as defined by our Church. The Anglican Church in North America only authorizes and only performs marriages between one man and one woman. We respect the consciences of those clergy who may decline to perform marriages as agents of the state. We ask our churches to respect such decisions and help make arrangements to minister to those seeking to be married. We are also well aware that this ruling may create difficulties for our lay members and Christian institutions as they seek to be faithful in upholding God’s design for marriage, and we will make every effort to find ways to support and stand with them.
The Church bears witness to the truth of God’s Word and God’s design of marriage (see attached statement on “Bearing Witness”). When government oversteps its rightful authority, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Today there is no place for either triumphalism or despair, so we prayerfully and sincerely urge a spirit of charity by all. We speak out of a concern for the consequences that our people and our neighbors will suffer from an unjust and unwise decision by five justices of the Supreme Court. We call those justices to repentance, even as we echo Jesus’ words, praying for God the Father to forgive them, for they know not what they have done.
We call our people to a season of prayer for marriage and offer the accompanying Litany and Prayer to guide us.
Unanimously adopted by the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America.
June 26, 2015