The SUPREME Court
The Created Verses the Creator
(Due to the Supreme Court ruling on
same-sex marriage (June 26, 2015),
Part II of the study on confronting
textual conflicts has been postponed
until next month.)
The Supreme Court of the United
States now has clearly stated that
same-sex marriage is now permissible
in all 50 states and a marriage
between a man and a woman is legally
equivalent to the same-sex unions.
Since 36 states had already approved
same-sex marriage, the justices may
have concluded that eventually the
remaining states would approve the
matter anyway. Even if the verdict of
the Supreme Court reflects decisions
made by the majority of the 50
states, the verdict is sobering to
Christians because the United
States’ highest court has
formally insulted the Creator of the
universe. Arm yourself with the
following 14 statements and
supporting Bible quotations:
1. Daniel and Paul
indicate that governments are
ordained by the Creator and they
serve at God’s pleasure.
“Everyone
must submit himself to the governing
authorities, for there
is no authority
except that which God has
established. The authorities that
exist have been established by God.
Consequently, he who rebels against
the authority is rebelling against
what God has instituted, and those
who do so will bring judgment on
themselves.” (Romans
13: 1, 2)
“…He sets up kings and
deposes them….. The holy ones
declare the verdict, so that the
living may know that the Most
High is sovereign over the kingdoms
of men and gives them to anyone he
wishes and sets them over the
lowliest of men.”
(Daniel 2: 21; 4:17)
These verses do not imply that
citizens should obey earthly
authorities when they overstep the
boundaries set by the Creator. When a
conflict between the laws of man and
the laws of God exists, we show our
allegiance by complying with the
authority we deem highest. Notice how
early Christians responded to this
challenge:
“Having brought the apostles [from
prison], they made them
appear before the Sanhedrin to be
questioned by the high priest.
‘We gave you strict orders not
to teach in this name,’ he said.
‘Yet you have filled Jerusalem
with your teaching and are determined
to make us guilty of this man’s
blood.’ Peter and the other
apostles replied: ‘We
must obey God rather than men!’
(Acts 5: 27,29)
2. The Earth is
but a footstool of the Creator.
After eating grass like an animal
for seven years, King
Nebuchadnezzar finally discovered
that God has dominion over
everything on Earth.
“This is
what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is
my throne, and the
earth is my footstool.’”
(Isaiah 66:1)
“…His
dominion is an eternal dominion; his
kingdom endures from generation to
generation. All the peoples of the
earth are regarded as nothing. He
does as he pleases with the powers of
heaven and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand or say
to him: ‘What have you done?
‘” (Daniel 4: 34,
35)
3. God raises up
nations and He takes them down.
His patience with nations is
limited.
The word of
the Lord came to me: ‘Son of
man, if a country
sins against me by being unfaithful
and I stretch out my hand against it
to cut off its food supply and send
famine upon it and kill its men and
their animals, even if these three
men – Noah, Daniel and Job
– were in it, they could save
only themselves by their
righteousness, declares the Sovereign
Lord.’” (Ezekiel
14: 12, 13)
4. God declares
that homosexual acts are
detestable to Him.
“Do not
lie with a man as one lies with a
woman; that is
detestable. Do
not have sexual relations with an
animal and defile yourself with it. A
woman must not present herself to an
animal to have sexual relations with
it; that is a perversion.’”
(Leviticus 18: 22, 23)
5. God warned Israel to stay away
from sexual immorality.
“’Do
not defile yourself in any of these
[sexual] ways, because this is how
the nations that I am going to drive
out before you became defiled. Even
the land is defile; so
I punished it for its sin, and the
land vomited out its inhabitants.”
6. Jesus declared
that sexually immoral people
cannot enter the Holy City.
“I [Jesus]
am the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last, the Beginning
and the End. Blessed are those who
wash their robes, that they may have
the right to the tree of life and may
go through the gates into the city. Outside
are the dogs, those who practice
magic arts, the sexually immoral, the
murderers, the idolaters and everyone
who loves and practices falsehood.”
(Revelation 22: 13-15)
7. Paul says those who
practice homosexual behavior deserve
death.
“…
They exchanged the truth of God for a
lie, and worshipped and served
created things rather than the
Creator – who is forever
praised. Amen. Because of this, God
gave them over to shameful lusts.
Even their women exchanged natural
relations for unnatural ones. In the
same way the men also abandoned
natural relations with woman and were
inflamed with lust for one another. Men
committed indecent acts with other
men, and received in themselves the
due penalty for their
perversion….Although they know
God’s righteous decree that
those who do such things deserve
death, they not only continue to do
these very things but also approve of
those who practice them.”
(Romans 1: 24-32)
8. God’s
wrath will come upon those who
participate in sexual immorality.
“Do you
know that the
wicked will not inherit the kingdom
of God.” Do
not be deceived. Neither the sexually
immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor male prostitutes nor sexual
offenders nor thieves nor the greedy
nor drunkards nor slanderers nor
swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God.” (1 Corinthians 6:
9, 10)
“Put to death, therefore,
whatever belongs to your earthly
nature: sexual immorality, impurity,
lust, evil desires and greed, which
is idolatry. Because of these, the
wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians
3: 5, 6)
“Let no one deceive you with
empty words, for because of such
things God’s
wrath comes on those who are
disobedient. Therefore
do not be partners with them.”
(Ephesians 5: 6, 7)
“But because of your
stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you
are storing up wrath against yourself
for the day of God’s wrath, when
his righteous judgment will be
revealed. God ‘will give to each
person according to what he has done.’
To those who by persistence in doing
good seek glory, honor and
immortality, he will give eternal
life. But for those who are
self-seeking and who
reject the truth and follow evil,
there will be wrath and anger.”
(Romans 2: 5-8)
9. Marriage began
when God united Adam and Eve
during Creation Week.
“The man [Adam]
said, ‘This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.
[And God said] For this
reason a man will leave his father
and mother and be united with his
wife, and they will become one
flesh.” (Genesis 2: 23,
24)
[Jesus said] “’haven’t
you read,’ he replied,
‘that the beginning the Creator
‘made them male and
female,’ and said, ‘For
this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to
his wife, and the two will become one
flesh? So they are no longer two, but
one. Therefore
what God has joined together, let man
not separate.’”
(Matthew 19: 4-6)
10. God loves all
sinners and all human beings are
born sinners.
“But God
demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we
were still sinners,
Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8) “For
all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of
God.” (Romans 3:23)
11. The penalty
for sin is death. This penalty
will be executed on those sinners
who do not have a Savior at the
end of sin’s drama.
“For
the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans
6:23)
“If anyone’s name was not
found written in the book of life, he
was thrown into the lake of fire.”
(Revelation 20:15)
12. Eternal life
cannot be purchased or earned by
sinners, but God has made eternal
life freely available for
everyone willing to overcome the
desires of the sinful nature.
“For
if you live according to the sinful
nature, you will die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death
the misdeeds of
the body, you
will live, because
those who are led by the Spirit of
God are sons of God.”
(Romans 8: 13, 14)
13. Overcoming the
misdeeds of the body is required
and possible through faith in
Christ.
“I can do
everything through him who gives me
strength.” (Philippians
4: 13)
“Whoever
claims to live in him must walk as
Jesus did.” (1 John
2:6)
“What good is it, my brothers,
if a man claims
to have faith but has no deeds?
Can such faith save him?.... You
believe that there is one God. Good! Even
the demons believe that
and shudder. You foolish man, do you
want evidence that faith without
deeds is useless? Was not our
ancestor Abraham
considered righteous for what he did
when he offered his son Isaac on the
altar? You see
that his faith and his actions were
working together, and his
faith was made complete by what he
did.”
(James 2: 14-22)
“This is love for God: to obey
his commands. And his commands are
not burdensome, for
everyone born of God overcomes [evil
ways and desires of the] world.”
(1 John 5:3)
“If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us
from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9)
14. Overcoming
sexual immorality is not
optional.
“It is
God’s will that you should be
sanctified: that you should avoid
sexual immorality;
that each of you should learn to
control his own body in a way that is
holy and honorable, not in passionate
lust like the heathen, who do not
know God.” (1
Thessalonians 4: 3-5)
“… These are the words of
him who has the sharp, double-edged
sword…You have people there [in
your church] who hold to the teaching
of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice
the Israelites to sin by eating food
sacrifices to idols and by committing
sexual immorality… Repent
therefore!
Otherwise, I will soon come to you
and will fight
against them with the sword in my
mouth. He who
has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches. To him
who overcomes, I will give some of
the hidden manna…” (Revelation
2: 12-17)
“… these are the
words of the Son of God…
I have this against you:
You tolerate that woman
Jezebel [this is not king
Ahab’s wife who lived centuries
earlier], who calls herself a
prophetess. By her teaching she
misleads my servants into sexual
immorality and eating of food
sacrificed to idols. I
have given her time to repent of her
immorality, but is is unwilling,
So I cast her on a bed of suffering,
and I will make those who commit
adultery with her suffer intensely, unless
they repent of her ways.
I will strike her children dead. Then
all the churches will know that I am
he who searches hearts and minds, and
I will repay each of you according to
your deeds…”
(Revelation 2: 18-28)
The Creator has declared His position
on sexual immorality. God is
changeless. (Malachi 3:6) He holds us
accountable for our actions. “For
we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each
one may receive what is due him for
things done while in the body,
whether good or bad.”
(2 Corinthians 5:10) Nothing escapes
His view: “For God will
bring every deed
into judgment, including every hidden
thing, whether it is good or
evil.” (Ecclesiastes
12: 14) Judgment day is coming.
“… He will judge
the world in righteousness and the
peoples in his truth.”
(Psalm 96:13) “…
The Lord is coming… to judge
everyone, and convict all the ungodly
of all the ungodly acts they have
done in the ungodly way, and of all
the harsh words ungodly sinners have
spoken against him.”
(Jude 14, 15)
Our changeless Creator has never
called something
“detestable” and later
called it “good.” Marriage
was ordained as the union of a man
and a woman in the Garden of Eden. Sexual
immorality is a sexual experience
with another person outside of
marriage and a homosexual act
is a sexual experience with someone
of the same sex. The Supreme
Court of the United States has
spoken, but its words will be
nullified when the Lord reveals His
anger with man’s arrogance,
rebellion, and blasphemy. Soon, the
Supreme Ruler of Heaven and Earth
will rise up and show sinners that He
means business. When He does, 25% of
Earth’s population will quickly
perish (Revelation 6:8) and the
survivors will tremble. Joel saw this
too: “Let all who live
in the land tremble, for the day of
the Lord is coming. It is close at
hand – a day of darkness and
gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the
mountains a large and mighty army
comes, such as never was of old nor
will be in ages to come.”
(Joel 2: 1-2)
Larry Wilson
