Upside Down... ~ Gay Marriage ~

   Solomon penned God’s wisdom and warning as follows: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34).  The word “reproach” means “shame, disgrace.”  When sinfulness and wickedness primarily identify the culture of a nation, that nation stands in shame and disgrace before God.  The character of our culture has become increasingly characterized by all manner of ungodly wickedness.  Our culture has been turned upside down!  Our nation stands in shame and disgrace as a result.

   The previous article in this series examined the widespread acceptance and promotion of homosexuality- the gay movement- in light of what God’s word says.  The biblical text is straightforward, clear and repetitive in declaring the active homosexual lifestyle to be grievous sin in the eyes of God (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:27; 1 Cor. 6:29).  This article will continue with that general theme, but zoom in on gay marriage.  Again, this series is not promoting or condoning hatred or violence against anybody who might be caught up in the sinful practices under consideration.  The focus is on the sin, as identified in God’s word.
   Should we view gay marriage as a normal and godly relationship?  An obvious line of reasoning would be to examine examples of gay marriage in the scriptures.  But there are none!  There is not one single example of a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman anywhere in God’s word.  When God designed and instituted marriage (Gen. 2:20-25), He created “a woman, and He brought her to the man.” (vs. 22).  She was created from a bone from the man’s body (21-22) and identified as his “wife” (vs. 24).  God used their marriage as the model for all future marriages (vs. 24-25).
   God is the all-powerful creator.  He could have just as easily created another man to be the helper, or companion (vs. 20), that would fulfill the needs of Adam.  But He did not.  God created a new and unique gender of humanity- woman- to form the special bond with a man that we call marriage.  Notice, too, that God gave instruction related to forming a marriage: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife…” (vs. 24).  The obvious reference is to a man and woman.
   In his classic text on the marriage relationship the Apostle Paul clearly had in mind a heterosexual relationship (Eph. 5:22-33).  He continually referred to husbands and wives.  Never is there any indication that anything other than a male/female relationship is in view.  Indeed, Paul compared the relationship between a husband and wife to that between Christ and the church: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also love the church and gave Himself for her,” (vs. 25).
   In teaching God’s law on divorce, Jesus referred to God’s original design for marriage: “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female,” (Matt. 19:4).  He quoted Gen. 2:24 as to a man leaving “his father and mother, at the point of getting married, and being “joined to his wife.” (Matt. 19:5).  Later He referred to the wife by the pronoun “her” (Matt. 19:9).
   There is another point to consider in this matter.  God instructed mankind to reproduce and “fill the earth…” (Gen. 1:28).  He designed the sexual relationship between a husband and wife to be the means of accomplishing that.  A gay marriage cannot bring forth children through the relationship between the two partners in that marriage.  It is an impossibility.  That basic fact of nature ought to answer the question as to whether gay marriage is a normal relationship.  Morally, all of the scriptural condemnations of homosexuality in general also apply to gay marriage in specific, since that relationship is based in homosexuality…