Sunday 13 July 2008

Random Rant - Church of Ireland accepting gay Marriage?

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Since getting home I've been catching up on some of the news here in N. Ireland.
One article of disturbance is from The Belfast Telegraph concerning a possible acceptance of gay marriage by the Church of Ireland.

Though I'm not surprised by this, I find the arguments by the Archbishop to be very weak.

"It has not yet been conclusively shown that for some males and some females homosexuality and homosexual acts are natural rather than unnatural," the Archbishop told the conference.

"If such comes to be shown, it will be necessary to acknowledge the full implications of that new aspect of the truth, and that insight applied to establish and acknowledge what may be a new status for homosexual relationships within the life of the Church."


Here's the thing - when did the Bible lose its authority within the Church & other things get the ruling vote?
No matter what proof, biological or phsycological, should arise, whatever the argument may be, surely as Christians then what God says goes. We kneel under the Bible & bring everything to it as our only rule of faith & practice, letting Scripture have the authority.

If God says do not murder and there is a discovery of a genetic gene that shows that a killer is just born that way, with the inclination to be a serial killer, then do we begin to bless murder in Church? Certainly Not!

Perhaps a better example is that of appetite, we are each born with a desire and need for food (as we are for sex), these are good but that natural desire would take us into limitless problems as we would eat & become fat, leading to all sorts of health issues, and worse - gluttony is forbidden by God as a sin.
As with food our desire for the pleasures of sex is good, but if not brought under God's rule & guidance then we sin against Him.

God has been pretty clear:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

The above are listed as sins, from sexual immorality to extortion, adultery etc. Sins that God says keep us from inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the next verse talks to the Christian. And such were some of you.
But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

We have been guilty of many of these same things.
Yet Jesus died to free us from them, to cleanse us from them, to release us from their grip upon us so that we can live Spirit Filled, God glorifying lives victorious over sin because Jesus was victorious for us.

Just listen to the call of Christ to us in 1 Peter 4:3
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the [non-christian]--when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

Christ does not simply change our standing toward Himself, He changes our lives. Calling us to leave behind sin and follow Him. We cannot serve two masters, we cannot embrace sin & the Church. We either worship God & follow his ways (Yes, struggling with sin. We all know that to say that we are without sin is a lie and as long as we live in this life we will sin), but the moment we embrace sin, yielding ourselves to it, we cease to yield ourselves completely to Christ.

Even this morning (Sunday 13th July) there was a lady minister on BBC News talking about the gay issue, stating that the church needed to be inclusive of everyone.
My question is - Why?

There are lots of things in which we are not inclusive of others and it is not a problem. For example if I wanted to go play for a female football team I doubt I'd get to play a match; under 17's don't get a driving License & under 16's don't get to buy cigarettes, pedophiles don't get jobs in nurseries... ...the list could continue.

God's Word is God's Word, lets not take away His rights, (He has far more authority than we do & His rights trump what we feel is our rights), He is God after all. He decides what sin is and what its consequences are, even if that means they keep us out of Heaven.

So lets not say we can continue in any sin; lets not bang each other outside marriage, masturbate over porn, gluttonously stuff our faces, be filled with pride or bitterness, lets not make practice of any sin and say its OK and that God should be inclusive of us - He hasn't left that open to us.

As Christians, Jesus is our Lord & King, meaning that He has authority & say over the sex we have, money we spend, web pages we visit, places we go, things we do, what we say, food we eat - We bow to His rule & authority over our lives, not the other way around, Jesus is no longer the suffering servant, He did come like that but accomplished His goal. Now, rather than simply being a lamb, He is also a Lion & as reigning, Sovereign Lord calls us to bow in love for Him or promises that one day we will bow in fear of His wrath & judgement.
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About Boaly
Gary has been involved in printing the Scriptures for 20 years, enjoys photography and rambling online

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been looking at your Blog site and found it very interesting with a lot of very good material. One of the things that I notice is that you mention sexual sin quite a bit. This article is about the gay issue then there is the article about covenant eyes both of which are very good. Then I came to the issue of the most rewatched films.
What surprised me is that there is no comment or issue addressed concerning the language, swearing, cursing and worst of all taking the Lord's name in vain. How about doing an article on the subject and see what comments you get.

Boaly said...

Thanks for the prompting anonymous!
It is something I've thought about & discussed quite a bit with friends, but your right I could post on the issue here.

[I don't mean to pick up on any one sin in particular, perhaps my own struggle & fight with lust along with the knowledge that many other guys struggle with it brings me to mention it more.]

There are many many things that could be addresses, and many that become overlooked perhaps, like the cursing, language & taking the Lord's name in vain that is prominent in society, film, music etc...

Thats one reason I love expository preaching, as someone teaches verse by verse through the Bible they are bound to come to every issue sooner or later.

Thanks again for both your gracious & kind words & your prompting toward this issue.
Over the next few days I'll begin a post on it.

Boaly said...

http://garyboalnireland.blogspot.com/2008/07/random-ramblings-cursing-use-of-gods.html