What the Lord Says (part 2)

I first want to apologize for not writing sooner my response to Philip Liebenberg's sermon as I had promised to do. I wanted to look up some Scripture references and digest the information and elaborate on why I think what he said is valid and something for us all to ponder. What happened is I found out I was pregnant December 12th and had very bad morning sickness and major fatigue and am just now feeling more energetic and finally not feeling sick 24/7. So, while it is good news that I am pregnant, it did slow me down from being able to spend time in studying my Bible and writing on my blog as I had wanted. Every time my 2 year old went to bed or took a nap I did too, so my waking hours were spent caring for her and taking care of the house as best I could. My husband was gone from Dec 14th until Jan 18th (he is a pilot) and even though this past month he has been home I still have been sick and he has been taking over many of the duties of taking care of the house and cooking and caring for our 2 year old. This being said, I am back to write you now about my thoughts regarding Philip Liebenberg's sermon.

Philip Liebenberg mentioned several things in his sermon, "The Lord Says in His Word," that I would like to specifically address and expand on.

A. He said, its important to understand the culture, the thoughts and origin of the text to understand the Bible. "Literal interpretation of the Bible is not correct."

I believe he is correct in saying this. If you were to look at the Levitical laws layed out in the Old Testament you would need to understand that this law was given to the Jews, by God, as a way to separate them from the other tribes and to increase their number/ population. For example, it is a sin for a man to spill his "seed" on the ground during intercourse. To not allow the possibility for procreation to happen was considered a sin. Catholics still follow this policy to this day, it is considered a sin to use condoms or birth control. Another interesting fact is that in Biblical days a woman was considered "unclean" curing her menstration and was unclean for a period of time after her menstration ended (See Leviticus 20:18 for example). What happened then is that the only time it was acceptable for a man to lay with his wife was when she was her most fertile! Wow, God wasn't fooling around. He really wanted the Jewish people to increase in their numbers and dominate over the rest of the tribes and nations.

Today we are given a different commission, The Great Commission: Matthew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. " We are to increase our numbers in a Spiritual sense. We are to add to the number of God's children by bringing others to Christ. There are other reasons that make more sense for us today to not just continually bear children. It makes sense in today's economy to consider how many children you are able to support. If you are able to support 4, 6, 8, or even 12 kids and have the room in your home for that many kids... then go ahead and procreate away! But, however, if having more than one or two kids will bring you to financial ruin is it really prudent to live your life this way? Either abstain from intercourse from your wife or prepare to have another kid? Don't we all agree by this point that sex in marriage is more about a deeper connection you seek to enhance in your marriage and about becoming "one flesh" rather than procreation alone?

B. Philip said, "... we realize that we don't have to apply certain statements anymore. We debate certain rules right out of 'our times.' This is 100% fine and correct. BUT what is not right, is the fact that we do not act consistently.

Here is an example. Consider these two verses: Leviticus 19:19c "Do not wear clothing woven of two kind of material." Deuteronomy 22:10 "Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together." But today we wear mixed materials, we do not consider it a sin. The point is that we can't just apply the Bible's words straight across the board in a literal manner. We have to understand the context and the people and the times of the day when we read the Bible. We consider it permissible to wear mixed material clothing and it is not considered a sin. And there are verses that say to kill people when they break the Levitical laws. And we aren't stoning people for certain behaviors now a days. We may still think of certain behaviors as sinful, but we aren't killing anyone over it. There are just some things that are not reasonable to apply to us today, in this time, in our culture, and with our current knowledge and modern laws. It's not prudent and it isn't justified. So why do we apply some things so adamantly and not others? Why do some rules apply still and not others?

C. Philip says, "Christians are inconsistent. The Bible forbids marriage to a second wife. But we are okay with 2nd marriages." And then Philip adds that gay Christians do the same thing, "... justify gay marriages. But then we stop right there." Sometimes we take the Word literally and other times ignore what it teaches. "If you believe the words in the Bible to be the spoken words of God, you have to take the gay texts literally as a command from God." He continues later saying, "The Bible does not like sex between people of the same sex and that's that. That is how Israel felt about it."

Romans 7:2-3 Addresses this topic of remarriage. And Jesus very boldly stated in Matthew 5:32, "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery." Yet we are okay today with divorced man or woman remarrying and do not call them sinners and kick them out of our churches.
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Philip brings home his point beautifully. "My theological argument is that I read that command against being gay in the light of their knowledge vs. the knowledge we have today... That it's just as bad for gays to be alone as for straights."

This fits very well with what Jesus and Paul say about celibacy. Jesus talks about people that have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven, in Matthew 19:11-12. This refers to someone who has chosen celibacy, like a monk or a nun today, or was used to describe some Eunuchs of Biblical times who chose to not marry. And Paul talks about staying single to further God's kingdom, but not to do so if you are burning with passion to have sex, in which case he says you are better to marry. That can be found in 1 Corinthians 7:1-9 where Paul addresses the subject of marriage. Not to say that the Apostle Paul would consider marriage between two men or two women acceptable. As Philip said, it is accurate to read the Bible in the terms of their beliefs of the day and their convictions. Paul, if asked today, would not condone same sex marriage. Based on the fact of who he was, a Pharisee, a Jew... no, he would not say that it is okay. But today we should be able to acknowledge that forcing people into celibacy just because they are gay is not right. We ought to know better by now that people are not making a choice to be gay. If it were that simple than many Christian gays would simply choose to not be gay anymore and change their lifestyle.

I say consider this, if we were as a church to not consider it a sin to be gay and were to love and accept our children and fellow Christians when they came to us and said they realize they are gay, then there would be no need for anyone to "choose to be gay" as a form of rebellion... If there are people out there that are actually choosing to be gay (which many still believe and credit that to the work of Satan). If they are out there, and we don't see it as a choice but the way you are born, then those that have been living a lie and living that way to simply "rebel" would no longer have a reason to do so. Take away the taboo and the shame and the problem will disappear. I think we are creating more of a problem then actually exists by continuing to be adamant and say that gays need to repent and choose not to partake in homosexual behavior anymore. Pushing people to either be celibate or pressuring a gay person to marry a straight person is not the answer.

I have mentioned before the book "Exchanging the Truth of God for a Lie" by Jeremy Marks before but it is worth mentioning again. Marks ran an ex-gay ministry in the 80's and for 20 years tried to rehabilitate gay men and help them enter into heterosexual marriages. He realized this simply was not working. Even though he himself looks like the poster boy for how ex-gay ministries work, he is still married to a woman, he has admitted that forcing gay men to marry straight women is not fair to either partner. Interesting how the "poster boy" wouldn't recommend this to anyone else. He admits they are the exception, not the rule. He has come to the same conclusion that Philip has, that it is not good for gay people to be alone, to be withheld love of a life partner, marriage. That is the conclusion I have come to as well and I still believe, even though the Bible doesn't not tell us marriage is okay for people of the same sex, that marriage should be allowed for those that want to be married and are gay. Allowing the gay community to do that would alleviate all the problems associated with homosexual acts, the fact that it is outside of marriage alone is a problem. Any sexual act that is outside of marriage is not condoned by Biblical standards. And again, although I realize the Bible would not say "it's okay for a man to lie with a man, as long as they love each other and are married," I also realize that this is because of when the Bible was written, and what the culture understood of that act. We have come so far in so many other aspects over the history of the church; slavery, prejudice against blacks, sex as an act of love not just procreation, why can't we cross this final gap that is so destructive and causing more division than bringing people to the point of salvation? What is more important? For gay people to stop loving other gay people or for gay people to be welcomed with open arms into the family of God and to feel loved and accepted finally by fellow straight Christian brothers and sisters and, most importantly, God?

Thank you for reading my blog, hope that gave you some food for thought.