Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts

Saturday 2 March 2013

Equal Marriage : Just Plain Wrong: A Christian Perspective on the Gay Marriage Debate in the UK

Equal Marriage; Just Plain Wrong.

Today, both in the United Kingdom and other Countries, we face the challenge in the name of Equality and Tolerance to allow same sex marriage (the marriage of a man to another man or the marriage of a woman to another woman) the equal standing in society that marriage between a man and a woman or a woman and a man has in the 21st Century.

Yet those calling for Equality and Tolerance, only believe that their view and understanding of Equality and Tolerance is the only valid view and supersedes the understanding of both Equality and Tolerance of those Groups such as Christians that disagree with their view and understanding, rather than an open and honest debate and discussion, they have decided to demonize those who’s views and understanding of Equality and Tolerance differ from theirs, and criticize and condemn them for not showing or agreeing to both Equality and Tolerance, this is indeed a lack of Equality and Tolerance, for by calling those groups who differ from them In-tolerant etc, they themselves have done exactly what they accuse other groups of!

In recent days, I have followed the on-going debate in today’s media both in favour and against same sex marriage and have examined the evidence and have researched the different perspectives and I believe that our standard and indeed our bench mark for all practices that we the Church hold, is God’s Word The Bible. It is quite easy to be influenced by the opinions and perspectives of others.

Romans 12:1-2 the Message

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—you’re sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I’m on Facebook, which I think is one of the best sources of both news and information available on-line and I subscribe to various news feeds . I read with interest and a high level of disappointment and article on Lib Dem Voice by Steve Gilbert is Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay. “Church Opposition to Gay Marriage is intolerant, out of touch and wrong.”

Mr. Gilbert has quoted that societies in the past such as Ancient China and Ancient Rome allowed Gay Marriage; if we followed the example of these societies today we would still have Slavery and The Death Penalty for various Crimes. So if we follow the Example of Ancient Rome and all that is involved in that in allowing Gay Marriage shouldn’t we also allow Slavery and turn Wembley Arena into a 21st Century version of the Coliseum at Rome! I think not!

The Bible clearly teaches that both Homosexual Practice and Behaviour are wrong and therefore calling for Homosexual Marriage doesn’t legitimise a practice or behaviour that God clearly speaks against, if anything Homosexual Marriage waters down the blessings of Marriage.

To understand why Mr. Gilbert mentioned that practices of Ancient Rome and Ancient China, I decided to examine the evidence and have discovered the following on Wikipedia. (Although Wikipedia is not infallible)

“Various types of same-sex marriages have existed, [52] ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions.[53]

In the southern Chinese province of Fijian, through the Ming dynasty period, females would bind themselves in contracts to younger females in elaborate ceremonies.[54] Males also entered similar arrangements. This type of arrangement was also similar in ancient European history.[55]

An example of egalitarian male domestic partnership from the early Zhou Dynasty period of China is recorded in the story of Pan Zhang & Wang Zhongxian. While the relationship was clearly approved by the wider community, and was compared to heterosexual marriage, it did not involve a religious ceremony binding the couple.[56]

The first historical mention of the performance of same-sex marriages occurred during the early Roman Empire.[57] For instance, Emperor is reported to have engaged in a marriage ceremony with one of his male slaves. Emperor Elagabalus "married" a Carianslave named Hierocles.[58] It should be noted, however, that conubium existed only between a civis Romanus and a civis Romana (that is, between a male Roman citizen and a female Roman citizen), so that a so-called marriage between two Roman males (or with a slave) would have no legal standing in Roman law (apart, presumably, from the arbitrary will of the emperor in the two aforementioned cases).[59] Furthermore, "matrimonium is an institution involving a mother, mater. The idea implicit in the word is that a man takes a woman in marriage, in matrimonium ducere, so that he may have children by her."[60] Still, the lack of legal validity notwithstanding, there is a consensus among modern historians that same-sex relationships existed in ancient Rome, but the exact frequency and nature of "same-sex unions" during that period is obscure.[61] In 342 AD Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans issued a law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) prohibiting same-sex marriage in Rome and ordering execution for those so married.[62]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_marriage

So using the example that same sex marriage was common both in Ancient China and Ancient Rome and had the same legal standing that marriage between a Man and a Woman is not valid and indeed erroneous.

I said earlier that our understanding of issues and our bench mark for all practices should God’s Word the Bible, for example if The Bible supported the idea that the Marriage Union between a Man and a Man and a Woman and Woman was equal to the Marriage Union between a Man and a Woman it would say so, in the Bible there is only one definition of Marriage and that is between a Man and a Woman or a Woman and a Man. So if we believe that the Bible is God’s Inspired Word we Christians shouldn’t support or agree to a Marriage Ceremony or Union that doesn’t involve a Man marrying a Woman or a Vice a Versa, lets us examine some scriptures on Marriage.

All Scripture Verses are from the English Stand Version unless otherwise stated.

Genesis 2:20b-24

But for Adam[g] there was not found a helper fit for him.21 so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made[h] into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 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.”[i]

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Jeremiah 29:6

6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

1 Corinthians 7:2B

, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Ephesians 5:31-33

31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

There are of course many scriptures referring to the marriage between a Man and a Woman, which space wouldn’t allow me to add, I’m sure that the above scriptures will serve as a start to your own personal study.

Ordinary Christians in the Hands of the Extra-Ordinary God. Part 4

Ordinary Christians in the Hands of the Extra-Ordinary God.

Part 4:

I Corinthians 1-12:13, 3:4-11, 3:21 – 23 New Living Translation.

12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, [d]” or “I follow only Christ! …… 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world? 5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 11 for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ…. 21 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Peter,[g] or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

When we look at the Church today, what do we see and what do we mean by the word Church ? to some the word Church has a negative effect on the other hand, the word Church has a positive effect, to others Church should be consigned to the past, and it doesn’t have any relevance to them and society both today in the present or indeed tomorrow the future, some think of the word Church and they think of a physical building others think of the New Testament concept of God’s people or a spiritual building.

The Church today is divided into various camps or tribal groups, that more often or not have very little to do with other camps or tribal groups, sometimes different churches can be close to each in terms of a physical distance, but miles apart in so many other ways. Is the Church somewhere we can go to or is it a body of people that we belong to, and are joined alongside each other to work alongside each other to see the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom preached to those without the Good News of Salvation through our Lord and Saviour Jesus.

We are divided into groups or denominations that have more to do with our past, and very little to do with our present or future. We hold onto ways of both doing and being church because of our history and our responsibilities to that history, and the expectancies of others. Sometimes we're divided into seemingly rival tribal groups, because for some our revelation of being and doing church is driven by being the people of God where His Presence dwells, but on the other hand we're divided because of politics and personalties !.The Church is a movement for change and transformation but for many of us The Church has become a monument to our spiritual forefathers who were a movement for change and transformation !.

We follow men and sometimes women, we follow the traditions that were our spiritual forefather’s doctrines and their distinctiveness from other tribal groups and when someone from another tribe says let’s meet together for fellowship and to share together, we say we can't because we’re group a and your group b and our big chief said in 1920 said that we need to avoid group b because your understanding of church and Christianity is different from way he told us to be the church and to be a Christian and therefore you’re wrong, or we do meet together but in a spirit of reluctance and/or a spirit of mistrust, we’ve created theories, doctrines, theologies and solutions how we’re to be the church and to life our Christian lives and be a Christian Witness, but many of those theories etc belong in the past, and have become hindrances and obstacles for us today.

Many of our tribes or denominations have become tied to the way we did Church, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or a 100 plus years ago, we look for structure and safety in the past. We think that the way we do and are the Church is the right or indeed the only way to be do or be Church, we mistake our history for our present and future and wonder why despite our best efforts, our prayers indeed our prophecies, we’re unfulfilled !

When our Lord Jesus walked the streets of his homeland, he saw a fig tree and when he looked for fruit he found only leaves Matthew 21:18-20, 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?

I would say that so many of our churches are like that fig tree, yes we have life but it has gone to produce only leaves, instead of producing leaves alongside fruit, indeed later in the same chapter, Jesus spoke about the physical nation of Israel, saying that because they trusted in themselves rather than trusting in the Lord, that had lost the Kingdom of God, Matthew 21:43 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

For many of our churches today, we’ve lost the Kingdom of God because we’ve trusted in ourselves, our systems, structures and strategies instead of trusting Him , our Lord and Saviour Jesus, we’ve just grown leaves not fruit and God has gone and left us, even then we’ve created a theology and/or theory/or solutions around that, see Habakkuk 3:15-18 17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

However there is a message of hope, for those Churches that once proclaimed God’s Message, Haggai 1:6 6 You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! See Haggai 1, our transformation isn’t due to our living in the luxury houses that are our own tribal groups/denominations/churches but rather our transformation comes through being part of His Church, or the Temple or the House of the Lord. We’ve become consumed that our way of doing and being Church is also the Lord’s way of doing and being Church, but our ways are not his ways of doing and being Church see Isaiah 55:8-11

We have set in place man made structures, systems and organizations to how to do and be the Church today, we set in place committees, clerical systems and called and commissioned those He’s not called and commissioned to lead us in being the Church and we wonder why nothing is working, we’ve watered down and diluted our message to make it pliable to others, we’ve accepted things that go against Biblical Standards like Homosexual Clergy and wonder why God isn’t moving amongst us and blessing us

Yet, there is hope for us the Church, the old wineskins of our ways, those beloved ways of doing and being the Church aren’t working and if we try to add His way of being and doing Church or the new wine to our old wineskins, our old wineskins are going to tear and break up, instead we need His new wineskins of doing and being the Church, his structure, systems, and Leadership* and following those He has called and commissioned to lead us forward, see Luke 5:37-39.

We notice in Scripture, there is a God Ordained indeed Organized way of being and doing Church, no longer will our man made systems cope with the things, our message should be say no, to the status quo, We don’t need any other or more denominations or tribes, we don’t need another methodology of doing and being the Church. We need to be a Movement and not a Monument. We need to see a restoration of Apostolic Christianity, which is a Movement for the 21st Century Church not a Monument to the 1st Century Church. We need to see Revival through a Renewed Church.

It says in Ephesians 4:11-13* 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. See Ephesians 4:11-16 for context.

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside

Saturday 15 September 2007

Personal Reflections

Well, it's Saturday, and it's time to relax, although I have had a busy morning, shopping and catching up with friends and family, and this week, it's the annual September Fair in Neath, and there's the usual crowds and bargains to be had !

Wales only lost to Australia by 12 points, 32 -20, which is a lot better than England V South Africa, although I ended up watching Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne and Dean Martin, it's a Western, and it's at least the 1ooth time I've sent it, but hey it's enjoyable. Although I want to see 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, which looks brilliant, unfortunately it's a remake of film starring Glenn Ford. I've been reading the Daily Mail, and listening to Welsh Bands (Manic Street Preachers and Stereophonic) on Youtube and playing Scrabble with my friend Matthew Ling on Facebook.

Tomorrow, is Sunday and it's off to Church, this time in Merthyr Tydfil, my Church New Covenant Church, Swansea are meeting with our related Churches, All Nations Church, Cardiff, and Nation Changers, Merthyr Tydfil for a day of fellowship, fun, and a family time, as well as excellent worship and ministry, then it's Monday, it's all change, as it's the first day of my BSc Computing (Information Systems Engineering) course, and now going to be 3 Years of being a (Mature) student

Views, Visions and Values.