The Gospel of Traditional Marriage

THE GOSPEL OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

Many evangelical leaders are wringing their hands over traditional marriage. In fact they have made it THE issue for them. Franklin Graham supports Mitt Romney because he is opposed (at least now) to gay marriage. The article is HERE. Here is a quote from that article.

“In an interview, Franklin Graham said Mr. Romney’s opposition to same-sex marriage trumped any concerns over his faith. “We have to remember we’re not voting for a pastor in chief,” he said.”
Imagine for a moment that gay marriage was not an issue. Imagine for a moment that there was only marriage between a man and a woman. How much more saved would lost people be? Now imagine gay marriage was legal and there were thousands of men with men and women with women marriages. How much more lost would lost people be?

Now here is a legitimate question. If professing Christians promote Biblical morality in an unbiblical, secular culture, how does that affect the message of the gospel? And if professing believers were able to institute some Biblical moral issues in this culture, what are the risks for the gospel? If we as believers become politically active and by joining forces with unbelievers and believers of all stripes we are able to pass laws that reflect some Biblical issues of morality, what does that subtly and openly suggest to the culture?

First, let us define the gospel and what it says and what it means. Jesus, God in the flesh, came to die for the sins of the world and rose from the dead to prove He was victorious over death and hell. And whosoever believes on Jesus shall be saved and have eternal life. The entire world has fallen and is separated from the Creator and can only be reconciled through personal faith in Christ. And any person who does not believe on Jesus cannot know God and is blind to sin specifically and in general.

Now against that Biblical backdrop, where should the energies of the church be focused, and what message should the church be presenting? What eternal benefit is there to use political leverage to shoehorn some Biblical issues into the culture, not via personal lives changed by the gospel, but by sheer legislative and democratic force? That may provide some moral comfort to professing believers and conservative unbelievers in the short term, but it may present a false gospel in the long term to the lost culture which now sees the battle as specific moral issues.

It cannot be overlooked that the church is not energizing to make divorce illegal, or to make greed illegal. The western church has now separated a few issues and presented them as the lynchpins for a moral society. If these issues fall the church suggests that the country will fall, and some use Biblical hyperbole and say God will judge the nation. Of course that ignores the fact that the majority of Americans are already dead in their sins and are enemies of God, but it does provide some convenient Old Testament language which can be used to excite the base and ultimately blind us to our own grievous sins.

Just look what this self serving moral war has done. Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham and head of the Billy Graham Association, said that Mitt Romney’s opposition to same sex marriage trumped any concerns over his faith. So if Romney was a member of the Church of Satan but opposed gay marriage, we as believers could still support him? Do you see what has happened? It isn’t the liberals that have made a wall between church and state, it is the evangelicals who suggest that nationalistic issues can be addressed without a concern over Biblical matters. Moral issues take precedence over issues of the Person of Christ and the gospel. How did we ever get to this point?

The path to compromise leads to the path to apostasy. But every path has a beginning, and in this case its nationalism. When people love a nation and pledge their allegiance to the same they voluntarily place their hearts in harm’s way. And the church at large has adopted America as a replica of the Old Testament country named Israel which is absurd. And now the Person of Jesus Christ must take a back seat to America. We are at the very end of it all. I do not intend to be sensationalistic, but the church has now turned its back on Christ Himself. No longer a friend to sinners and no longer a conduit of redemption, the church is now a force dedicated to defend moral structure in a fallen culture. We have lost our calling and have learned the ways of the heathen. The gospel is only a doctrine but politics is for the culture.

The day has come and it is sad to see. I truly feel sorry for men like President Obama and Mitt Romney. Romney feels his industriousness makes him approved of God, while President Obama feels caring for the poor will gain heaven. Both are wrong, but since the church has become a political organization, both men cannot hear the gospel. They only hear angry voices concerning economic and moral issues. Sad.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.