Into the Wardrobe

Thank you, Dr U!
(It feels pretty lonely sometimes being the among last defenders of orthodox teaching on the sanctity of marriage and sexual relations when so much of Christendom is caving in and abandoning the faith of their fathers in favor of a faith in their own intellect.)

Well, thanks, Rus-M!

I don't think we're quite the "last defenders" of anything, though. I don't know about Russia, but I travel a lot in Latin America, I collaborate in small ways with national Christians in a variety of countries, and I have had numerous undergraduate and graduate students from Africa and Asia over the years. Among the Christians I have met, of many ages, from Latin America, Africa and Asia, almost without any exception, all strongly believe the "pro-gay" churches in the U.S. have lost their minds to the prevailing American pop culture. It's just harder to see that from within our own culture, as it is within any culture in any time. I wish all those liberal-leaning churches that have said so much over the years about "listening to the Third World Church", would seriously listen now!

In the final analysis though, we all fall short oF God's glory in one way or another, we all compromise somewhere with our sinful selves and culture and hide it from ourselves. But Jesus promised the Holy Spirit that He was sending would convict the world of sin and righteousness and the judgment to come. And He's still on the job, we're just permitted to be small and imperfect collaborators. Bless God that we're not responsible for being the "last defenders"!

Sadly, if certain American churches continue down a sensual and narcissistic path, Scripture seems clear that God isn't checkmated, He will just pour out His blessing elsewhere, and those churches embracing unrepentant sexual sin (of any kind) will gradually find themselves merely religious institutions, no longer in a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ the vine. Or God in his mercy may allow a cleansing judgment of some kind, as seems to be happening with the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S., with the many cases of covered-up child molestation finally forced into the light, or as happened with exposure of adultery or embezzlement among several of the high-living Protestant televangelists a few years back.

I keeping hearing from a variety of confidential sources, some of them eye-witnesses, about historically unprecedented numbers of conversions of people to Christ across the Muslim world, not uncommonly under miraculous circumstances. Something really big seems to be going on in God's economy, completely under the radar of the secular press. I suspect that as this new wing of the church gradually emerges from a context of persecution even to death, it will have a zeal for Jesus and purity that is going to offend a lot of the morally compromised churches of "the West" - and maybe some in "the East", too. Regretfully, those churches may not even realize any longer what they're missing....

People change, and people's attitudes toward things also change.

Time was there was no need for a church service to make a marriage. It was sufficient for two people simply to declare to each other that the other was their spouse and that was it - they were married.

It was usual to have witnesses and a celebration and a church blessing, which all grew into the rigmarole surrounding the event today. However it was not necessary.

Who is to say which is 'right'? Maybe there is no 'right' - there is only custom. Which brings us round to the idea of there being moral absolutes - or not. It's easy for religious types - you can just say that what God says is right is right and leave it at that - not so easy for the rest of us mere mortals.

Of course, it's not so simple as that. Your book doesn't change to keep pace with our society so religious morals are necessarily outdated, and I don't mean that as offensive. Hence the problems now arising. Society changes and becomes more accepting - religion doesn't.

But there is an awful lot in the Bible which is quietly ignored because it doesn't fit in with modern outlook - and mostly it isn't the important things so no one really minds. But homosexuality just isn't one of those things.