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‘I am still not getting what I want’: UK Gay couple suing church for refusing ‘wedding’. And, God ordained marriage as explained by Genesis
Part 2: Social media is changing child custody disputes, child-support payments, & divorce
Part 3: Tim Gunn chose celibacy thirty years ago. How about you?
With the homosexual agenda advancing into so many areas, especially marriage, I have been thinking deeply about God-ordained marriage and why its absence from society isn't good for society. I have assembled three blog entries that are loosely related to the topic of marriage in these days of apostasy.
The story below from last week notes that the legislation hadn't yet been signed off on by the Queen, but she has approved it by now.
England's Gay Marriage Law To Become Legal After Lower House Approval
Gay marriage is to become legal in England and Wales after the lower house of the British parliament approved the final changes on Tuesday to a law that had Prime Minister David Cameron's backing but split his ruling Conservative party. The law had the support of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Britain's two other main political parties, but damaged Cameron's standing within his own party with many of his own lawmakers criticising him for being too liberal. ... After a two-hour debate, the House of Commons passed the bill, meaning it now only needs to be approved by Queen Elizabeth, a formality.
Prime Minister Cameron had promised that though homosexual marriage would become legal, churches would not be forced to perform them if it went against their beliefs.
However, this did not deter the gay lobby. They are now suing the Church of England to force them to perform gay marriages. As one gay man said, "I'm still not getting what I want."
And isn't that exactly what sin is all about. Pursuing your ungodly lusts no matter the cost to yourself or others. Jude 1:16a says, "These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;"
‘I am still not getting what I want’: Gay couple suing church for refusing ‘wedding’
"Less than two weeks after the coalition government’s gay “marriage” bill was signed into law, a homosexual man has launched a lawsuit against a Church of England parish in Maldon for refusing him and his civil partner the lavish church wedding of their dreams. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow told the Essex Chronicle that he has launched the suit because, despite the law, “I am still not getting what I want.” Section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which comes into effect next year, grants anyone in a civil partnership the ability to convert that partnership into a “marriage.” But the law contains measures specifically to preclude unwilling churches from being forced to participate."
Other articles say that the courts will decide...
You know that satan never stops and he never sleeps. He was given an inch and he is taking a mile. Give him a mile and he will take the city.
Let's go back to Genesis 1-
In the Creation account, God created the universe and everything in it in 6 days. Each time as the day ended (24-hour day) God surveyed His work and declared it good. (Genesis 1:4, 8, 10, 12, 21, 25).
When He created man, it is the first time we read of the Holy Executive Council together, all three intimately participating in the creation. Until that point we read ,"And God said, And God said, And God said." But with man, it is recorded, "Let Us make man..." It is an important moment.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26)
After He made man, he said it was "very good."
So from this we gather that man is the most important of His creations, because he is the only one made in His image. And it was the only creation that God declared 'very good.'
Now, think for a moment. What was the first thing we read of in the bible that was 'not-good'? No, it wasn't the serpent of chapter 3. It is in Genesis 2:18:
"Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
The first thing that was not-good was that man was lonely. He was alone with no society to commune with except God. Then God caused the beasts to come before the man to see what he would name them. And still, the man was alone. We often focus on the helper part of the verse in 2:18. But look at the part that says "fit for him." Dogs are man's best friend. An animal could have become a nice companion for the man, as they have done today. But no. Monkeys are funny and sort of look like humans, they are sociable animals, they have opposable thumbs...why wasn't a monkey a good helper? Because he was not fit for the man. ("The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him." Genesis 2:20).
God made a woman.
"And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:22-24).
One flesh. That is one reason why divorce is such a violent act, it is literally a ripping apart of flesh.
As an aside, notice the comment at the last part; there were no parents yet. No one had a mother and a father. God had just created Adam and Eve. They had no clue about procreation and parents yet. God was ordaining society!
This is the foundation upon which the first society is built. Here we have one man, and it was not good for him to be alone. And all the beasts were brought, and still none helper was found "fit for him." So God created woman. God then ordained future generations of society and of sexual conduct by declaring how society was to continue: through the man and woman as one flesh. They come together as one flesh and they leave the parents and they build another foundational block of society through their marriage. That is how it works, and it is beautiful.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 2: Social media is changing child custody disputes, child-support payments, & divorce
Part 3: Tim Gunn chose celibacy thirty years ago. How about you?
Part 3: Tim Gunn chose celibacy thirty years ago. How about you?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the homosexual agenda advancing into so many areas, especially marriage, I have been thinking deeply about God-ordained marriage and why its absence from society isn't good for society. I have assembled three blog entries that are loosely related to the topic of marriage in these days of apostasy.
 |
| photo credit: jakebouma via photopin cc |
 |
| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron |
England's Gay Marriage Law To Become Legal After Lower House Approval
Gay marriage is to become legal in England and Wales after the lower house of the British parliament approved the final changes on Tuesday to a law that had Prime Minister David Cameron's backing but split his ruling Conservative party. The law had the support of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Britain's two other main political parties, but damaged Cameron's standing within his own party with many of his own lawmakers criticising him for being too liberal. ... After a two-hour debate, the House of Commons passed the bill, meaning it now only needs to be approved by Queen Elizabeth, a formality.
Prime Minister Cameron had promised that though homosexual marriage would become legal, churches would not be forced to perform them if it went against their beliefs.
However, this did not deter the gay lobby. They are now suing the Church of England to force them to perform gay marriages. As one gay man said, "I'm still not getting what I want."
And isn't that exactly what sin is all about. Pursuing your ungodly lusts no matter the cost to yourself or others. Jude 1:16a says, "These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;"
 |
| Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, left, with boyfriend Tony. (source) |
"Less than two weeks after the coalition government’s gay “marriage” bill was signed into law, a homosexual man has launched a lawsuit against a Church of England parish in Maldon for refusing him and his civil partner the lavish church wedding of their dreams. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow told the Essex Chronicle that he has launched the suit because, despite the law, “I am still not getting what I want.” Section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which comes into effect next year, grants anyone in a civil partnership the ability to convert that partnership into a “marriage.” But the law contains measures specifically to preclude unwilling churches from being forced to participate."
Other articles say that the courts will decide...
You know that satan never stops and he never sleeps. He was given an inch and he is taking a mile. Give him a mile and he will take the city.
Let's go back to Genesis 1-
 |
| Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel Painting, God creating Adam |
When He created man, it is the first time we read of the Holy Executive Council together, all three intimately participating in the creation. Until that point we read ,"And God said, And God said, And God said." But with man, it is recorded, "Let Us make man..." It is an important moment.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26)
After He made man, he said it was "very good."
So from this we gather that man is the most important of His creations, because he is the only one made in His image. And it was the only creation that God declared 'very good.'
Now, think for a moment. What was the first thing we read of in the bible that was 'not-good'? No, it wasn't the serpent of chapter 3. It is in Genesis 2:18:
"Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
The first thing that was not-good was that man was lonely. He was alone with no society to commune with except God. Then God caused the beasts to come before the man to see what he would name them. And still, the man was alone. We often focus on the helper part of the verse in 2:18. But look at the part that says "fit for him." Dogs are man's best friend. An animal could have become a nice companion for the man, as they have done today. But no. Monkeys are funny and sort of look like humans, they are sociable animals, they have opposable thumbs...why wasn't a monkey a good helper? Because he was not fit for the man. ("The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him." Genesis 2:20).
God made a woman.
 |
| Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel painting, Creation of Eve |
"And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:22-24).
One flesh. That is one reason why divorce is such a violent act, it is literally a ripping apart of flesh.
As an aside, notice the comment at the last part; there were no parents yet. No one had a mother and a father. God had just created Adam and Eve. They had no clue about procreation and parents yet. God was ordaining society!
This is the foundation upon which the first society is built. Here we have one man, and it was not good for him to be alone. And all the beasts were brought, and still none helper was found "fit for him." So God created woman. God then ordained future generations of society and of sexual conduct by declaring how society was to continue: through the man and woman as one flesh. They come together as one flesh and they leave the parents and they build another foundational block of society through their marriage. That is how it works, and it is beautiful.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 2: Social media is changing child custody disputes, child-support payments, & divorce
Part 3: Tim Gunn chose celibacy thirty years ago. How about you?
Wow. We knew it was only a matter of time once that first domino falls. If churches copitilate, could it be the beginning of the great apostasy?
ReplyDeleteHere is the verse you referred to, hopeful_watcher:
Delete"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).
Apostasy has always been with us since the beginning: Judas Iscariot, Simon the Magician, Demas; many, many have professed and then gone away from that profession. There have always been defectors. As MacArthur points out, five of the 7 churches got a letter from Jesus via John and all five had defectors. So there is a difference between the general apostasy, and The Great Apostasy.
Paul isn't even speaking of the accelerated apostasy as the last days of the last days occurs. He isn't explaining the verse from later times some will fall away from 1 Tim 4, where he explained in another book about the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits, doctrines of demons.
Paul is speaking of a very specific and very pointed singular event. We know this because Paul says "THE" apostasy. As MacArthur puts it. " 'The' is the event of final evil blasphemous magnitude."
I believe we are seeing a cumulative effect of general apostasy piling up because it is the last days of the last days. ('Last days' being the time between Jesus ascent and His return, Heb 1:2). Like how a tsunami piles up in height the closer it gets to shore.
We won't be around for THE apostasy because we won't be here for the Day of the Lord. Thanks goodness. This general apostasy is bad enough.
I'm confused. If "The" apostasy happens before the Day of the Lord (which it surely will) and we are not present for the Day of the Lord (which is a pretribilation doctrine that is debatable on its own), how can you make that leap that we won't be around to see the apostasy? The only way you could say that with any confidence is if we are told that the apostasy happens after the Day of the Lord, which we know is not true.
DeleteBtw, I fully agree the singular event that is the great apostasy will be a far bigger event than some persecution of the church which has been present since the beginning. However, in the context that we believe we are seeing birth pains already, the domimoes seems to be falling faster and faster.
DeleteHi hopeful_watcher,
DeleteThe pre-tribulation rapture occurring before the Day of the Lord is not debatable. it is supported by clear scripture of both the explicit and the implicit kind. I've written about it many times here and I invite you to the search box fmi. Or go here
http://www.gty.org/resources/bible-qna/BQ3911/the-church-the-tribulation-and-the-rapture-
The Day of the LORD is not one day but a period of time which the LORD judges Israel and the remaining unbelieving world post-rapture.
The Thessalonians verse continues from verse 4 which I posted, to mention the restrainer holding him (antichrist) back in verse 6. The apostasy won't happen until the restrainer is out of the way (rapture) and the antichrist is revealed. Satan then begins THE apostasy through the man of sin AKA antichrist.
"The" apostasy happens during the Day of the LORD which we will not be here for.
more here
http://www.gotquestions.org/restrainer.html
I agree it is happening faster and faster. The Lord said he would come quickly in Rev 22:12 and in the verse the Greek word is tachu, from which we get tachometer. It is translated "without any delay" and like a tachometer, the revolutions per minute keep going up, and up, and up. After a certain pint, there is no more pause button and you reach speed. I believe the acceleration is not just weekly but daily compounding.
DeleteI try not to engage in rapture debates as they are not a matter of salvation unless people place faith in escaping hardships over faith in Christ for strength to be overcommers.
DeleteI do find it troubling that a doctrine that people feel so strongly about has not become a central tenet of Christianity like the Trinity. If its an issue that can proven100% with scripture then I feel like there would be some universal consensus in the body of Christ as God is not a god of confusion.
In essentials, unity
In non-essentials, liberty
In all things charity.
hopeful_watcher, I agree, to an extent. There can never be 100% consensus on anything. There wasn't among the apostles' churches the first few years after Jesus rose- and they were eyewitnesses to Jesus! Gnostics, Judaizers, and other satanic deceivers corrupted the faith. They said that the resurrection never happened. They said that Jesus was not really a man. They said that Jesus was only a man. All these things had to be corrected. The Corinthians split on who was the best teacher. (Apollos, Paul, Cephas...) God is not an author of confusion, but satan is.
DeleteToday we have scripture and we *still* do not have 100% consensus on the basic tenets for salvation. Many of the basics are under question: Trinity v. Modalism, hell v. annihilationism, creation v evolution, and more. They can be proved with scripture, but peopl are still confused by those doctrines. Why is that? DO we base our faith on others' confusion, or the word given by the Spirit and led by Him in understanding it?
100% consensus is never a reachable goal on this side of the veil. So the question becomes, what will you capitulate? How many doctrines?
What you must do, as we all should, is to know the doctrines that can be known (and the tribulation is one of these things) to study hard, and to proclaim with confidence.
Elizabeth, you can also add to that list of things that are debated these days the argument over the Word of God itself, i. e. KJV only v. "any-good-translation-will-do-ya" I happen to fall into the former. To me it comes down to the question, do we have the very Word of God, which He promised to preserve forever, that we can hold in our hand and read for ourselves, or not. I find it interesting that all newer translations look to establish themselves as being "as authoritative as the KJV". If the KJV is the standard to be compared to, then why not just stand on the standard itself? Not to mention, just as with all other areas, all of this translation business has been a slippery slope as well. The more translations that come out, the more diluted the Bible becomes. Some of the most recent translations are simply deplorable. If the KJV is "too hard to understand", then it simply means that one needs a better understanding of language, not that the Bible needs to be "dumbed down" a little bit to reach our modern lowered standard of English. Also, the underlying texts from which the modern translations are translated are a different line of texts than that from which the KJV is translated. It basically comes down to (super simplified, of course) Alexandrian v. Antiochan text. Anyway, as you know, I've just opened up a whole can of worms here, so I'll stop there.
DeleteThe KJV is a translation into English, and not even the first one. Geneva preceded the KJV by many years. The "most authoritative" bible are the texts in the original language, Hebrew and Greek, because those were the ones that were inspired by the Spirit
DeleteKJV is a fine translation, yet over 500 years the language does change. In the KJV, 2 Timothy 3:2 says
"Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,"
'incontinent'? As in, men will need Depends because they are urinating all over the place? No. The word incontinent has changed in meaning over the years. If someone "doesn't understand" the KJV or "one needs a better understanding of language" do not lay the blame on their incapacity to understand language but on the very real fact that words change meaning and language is fluid. It is why Revelation is so symbolic. Pictures don't change.
The KJV is not the highest or best translation and it is not the worst. There are others that are equally good. It is a matter of preference, not authority.
Some folks go overboard with their preference. For example, the New King James version is equal to the KJV because both use the Textus Receptus, yet many fanatical KJV-only advocates reject the NKJV, revealing that their loyalty is not to Textus Receptus but to the KJV.
I agree that some modern translations are deplorable. Those which are not profitable did not use proper translating techniques. Here is some information for readers who would like information on a good translation
What is the KJV-only movement? Is the King James Version the only bible we should use?
http://www.gotquestions.org/KJV-only.html
What are the different English Bible versions?
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-versions.html
Why are there so many Bible translations / versions, and which is the best?
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-translations.html
I like this quote from Ravi Zacharius:"These days its not just that the line between right and wrong has been made unclear, today Christians are being asked by our culture today to erase the lines and move the fences, and if that were not bad enough, we are being asked to join in the celebration cry by those who have thrown off the restraints religion had imposed upon them. It is not just that they ask we accept, but they now demand of us to celebrate it too."
ReplyDeletebrian
Very well stated and presented. A whole new perspective! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAbominable. And yet it isn't the last step. *sigh*
ReplyDelete