God's Laws on Sexual Sins--Part 2

First, a correction from Part 1 . . .

Midian was the son of Abraham through Keturah, not the son of Abraham's nephew, Lot (Gen. 25:1, 2). Sorry. I have called the Repairman, who has promised to fix the wiring in my brain.

Now, as Paul would say, "forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God" (Phil. 3:13, 14).

The basic premise of Scripture is found in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The most fundamental truth of Christianity is that the God of the Bible is the Creator; therefore, he owns everything and has the right to establish laws by which we are to live and to tell us what to do or not to do.

This same God created New Covenant marriage in Gen. 2:24. After sin entered the picture, God changed the relationship to an Old Covenant marriage (Gen. 3:16) with the introduction of an authority structure. I have explained this distinction in my book, Old and New Covenant Marriage, posted online or available in print.

My point here, however, is that marriage is an invention of God, and that this gives Him the right to establish the terms of marriage. Governments of men have no right to license or to establish any marriage standard unless they are willing to conform to the will of God in this matter. Any time they sanctify a sexual relationship or marriage that God has forbidden, they become subject to divine judgment and correction.

The same holds true for a church or for any individual or organization that claims authority to establish marriage or regulate it by law.

Years ago, it was unlawful for people to have sexual relations outside of marriage. Many did so anyway, and often the law was ignored, but people still believed that such behavior was a sin. Then governments became "secularized," and it no longer was a crime unless an older person had relations with someone "underage." Adultery is still technically a crime in many places, but it is never enforced, because the law has been discarded.

Today the big issue is "gay/lesbian marriage." Christians are trying to stop the government from sanctifying such "marriage," but their argument is undermined by the fact that so much of the Church put away the law of God many years ago. It is hypocritical for such people to refer to the divine law to support their view, while at the same time violating the law, say, on usury.

In my view, it is precisely because of this hypocrisy that God has empowered our government to teach us the seriousness of putting away His law by rubbing our noses in it. Where were the Christians when the government legalized other forms of fornication? Why are we now so concerned with the institution of marriage, after it has been watered down by a lawless counter-culture called "secularism"?

It is much like the farmer who leaves the barn door open and then works ferociously to keep that last cow in the barn so that he can still call himself a Dairy Farmer.

Where were the Roman Catholics when so many of their priests were perpetrating homosexual acts upon children? Such activity was freely reported by the cardinals and bishops for centuries. I find it almost amusing that few people raised any objection until a practicing homosexual priest was about to be promoted to Bishop. Was it alright to be a practicing homosexual priest, but not a bishop?

In 2002 many of these sins were exposed and widely reported. It was embarrassing to Roman Catholics, especially when various diocese went bankrupt paying the victims--most of whom were Catholic. However, the Church has weathered the storm, because people still believed that the institutional church was "The True Church," right or wrong. Because they are not taught the Scriptures in any depth, the people are unaware of the biblical distinction between Saul and David and do not realize that Saul was a type of the Church in the past 2,000 years. For this reason, they feel they have no alternative but to be part of Saul's army.

The Episcopal Church has had its fair share of publicity as well, with the ordination of Gene Robinson as bishop. Before he was born, his parents wanted badly to have a baby girl. Knowing the power of thought upon the physical body, it makes me wonder if this may have been a factor in his sexual orientation. The Wickipedia says of him,

In November 1987, Robinson met his current partner, Mark Andrew, while on vacation in St. Croix. Andrew was on vacation and worked in Washington D.C. at the national office of the Peace Corps. On 2 July 1988, Robinson and Andrew moved into a new house and had itblessed by Bishop Douglas Theuner, an event which they considered to be the formal recognition of their life together.^[2] Andrew currently works in the New Hampshire state government. He was legally joined to Robinson in June, 2008, in a private civil union ceremony, followed by a religious ceremony, both in St Paul's Church, Concord. ^[4][5] Earlier, Robinson had said, "I always wanted to be a June bride."^[6][7]

It is one thing to be a homosexual; it is another to be a practicing homosexual and expect Christians to bless the relationship as if God condoned it. Nowhere does the law of God legislate against BEING a homosexual. The law limits itself to regulating actions. That is the "weakness" of the law, in fact, insofar as its enforcement is concerned. We find the same legal weakness with laws on fornication and adultery. Though lust is a sin in the eyes of God, it cannot be judged by a biblical court of law until that lust is acted upon.

This is a distinction not often made in the secular press. While they seem to be pushing for acceptance of homosexual ministers, what they are really advocating is for us to accept PRACTICING homosexual ministers, as if it is no longer a sin. By that logic, ministers ought to be allowed to practice any other type of fornication or adultery.

In all of this, we are learning the seriousness of putting away God's law. If the Church persists in this view, the world will continue to slide into lawlessness, and the Church will have no right to speak against it.

Paul writes in 2 Thess. 2:7 that "the mystery of lawlessness is already at work." Verse 3 prophesies that the "Day of the Lord" "will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction" (NASB).

At the present time, this man of lawlessness is still in the "mystery" (secret, hidden) stage. It must be exposed, revealed, or unveiled before the Day of the Lord. I do my part to reveal it, but my voice is drowned out in the background noise of modern life. I believe, however, that the day is coming when the Spirit of God will be poured out, and then men's ears will be opened to hear the truth clearly.