I’m doing a little Series on how Christian’s should behave if we were following other Christians instead of the Word of God.

All the topics can be found here (How thou shalt livist as a christian!)

Homosexuality, pre-marital sexual activity, substance abuse and double lives are an optional extras to the Christian life. (These extra add-ons can be bought at a price of eternal damnation, but at least you get to keep the name tag, right?)

Okay, so if I was going by order of topic you might be asking yourself where is topic 3 & 4??
No, I haven’t forgotten about it, and NO, I’m not trying to avoid the topic.
The reason why I am tackling this current topic is because of a newspaper article I found in the Mail and Gardian.
The massive heading reads “Marry your like, says the Bible”. (link here)

Now before I start commenting on the article itself, I would like to just lay down some basic biblical truths. (I will quote as much as possible. The less from me the better.)
Firstly, let me tell you what I believe about the Bible.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

So if we take this as a descriptive , non-poetic/non-apocalyptic wysiwyg (google it) text, It clearly says that everything is in the bible because God wanted it there, to help us live godly lives.

What about the nature of God?
Well we can clearly see from Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-2 that God has always been, and will always be. (That kind of puts God in control I’d say.)
Basically, God is the supreme being of the universe. He is the creator of all things (Isaiah 44:24). He alone is God (Isaiah 45:21,22; 46:9; 47:8). There have never been any Gods before Him nor will there be any after Him (Isaiah 43:10). God is God from all eternity (Psalm 90:2). In Exodus 3:14, God revealed His name to His people.
God is a Trinity, knows all things (1 John 3:20), can do all things (Jer. 32:17,27 - except those things against His nature like lie, break His word, cheat, steal, etc.), and is everywhere all the time (Psalm 119:7-12).

God is also constant, if God says something, he doesn’t go back on his word or change his mind, to change is to err in the first place. God can not err, for he is perfect and just. When God says something, he means it. He doesn’t change with the times, nor does he marry the spirit of the age so that somehow he can brainwash that generation into doing his bidding. NEWS FLASH PEOPLE! GOD DOES NOT NEED US! Yes, he loves us, and cares for us. But he definately does NOT need us. So when you start sinning and changing God’s word, and then stating that it’s fine, God will be cool with it. NEWS FLASH!! HE WON’T!

As Galatians 6:7-8 so plainly states
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Please note the following 4 words “God cannot be mocked”, it might change your life.

Enough about the awesome and perfectness of God. Let us take a quick look at what the bible says about us, the awesome human.

If we are trying to please God, a good question would be “how” ? Well I’d say the answer to that is when we pass the same judgment upon ourselves as that which the Word of God passes. But due to our sinful nature ‘There is no one righteous’ (Romans 3:10); ‘there is no one who does good.’ (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1) ‘Every imagination of the heart of a man is only evil all the time’ (Genesis 6:5), and ‘every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.’(Genesis 8:21) Now if we think of ourselves in that light, and think of God in the way I have described above, tell me this: How can we ever even think of playing God? How can we say what his word does not mean? If God’s word says one thing let us not think we can change it, and make it suit ourselves. For God will NOT be mocked.

Now that we have sorted out who is in charge, and who is not. Let us take a closer look at this little article we have found in the mail and guardian. O wait, just one last little passage before I do so. It’s from Galatians 1:6-10 ” For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. ”

Paul clearly knew the difference between serving and trying to please man, and serving and trying to please God. We can not do both, for our sinful nature is everything God is not, and so if a preacher is saying something that is appealing to your sinful nature. Chances are he is trying to please man, and not God.

Finally, the article.. When I first read this article I thought I should just go for the jugular. Attack it straight on, smite this abomination with a single slash! WHAM! But, since then I have realized that it won’t be as easy as this, purely because this article does not only question the biblical portrait of marriage, but it also attacks and undermines the bible itself. I was shocked to see how this author (that calls himself a pastor) was attacking the bible, and trying to point out flaws, saying God’s word is incomplete or not relevant for todays standards.. Well may I just point out that if the problem is with our standards of living, I can assure you.. The problem does not lie with the bible.. But with yourself! okay, okay.. To the article I go!

I must agree that the bible doesn’t say “THOU SHALT NOT MARRY SAME SEX”. But this is because of obvious reasons..
1) The bible teaches that marriage is designed by God for one man and one women. Yes, I know that Mr Muller tries to deny this.. But let me just show you how blind he truly is.. Firstly, in the creation account BEFORE THE FALL OF MAN.. ie.. IT WAS PERFECT.. Everything was as God had intended it, he noticed that Adam was alone ( Genesis 2: 18-25 ) and created for him a wife.
God created man and women to be united, and to be fruitful and increase in number;(Genesis 1:28)
So at the beginning of creation God designed man and women to be together. It’s that simple.. Sure he argues this could as well have been a story of two men, or two women.. ( Sorry Mr Muller.. No, it could not have been. Because then none of us would be here now.. And they would never be able to fulfill God’s commandment:to be fruitful), But besides that, the bible thankfully doesn’t end at Genesis, in fact, it actually goes on, and it tackles the sins of homosexuality (sexual immorality) many times.
Mr Muller (the author) argues that the kind of homosexuality in the bible is not the same as what two men or women might experience today.. I disagree, a brief look into the Roman culture of the day would clearly point out that homosexuality and “love” among the same sex was bad, if not worse than it is today. In fact, if I’m not mistaken. Homosexuality was seen as a form of superiority over straight couples. So, yes when Paul refers to the sinful nature in Galatians 5:19-21 “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” It definately applies to todays standards.. Please note that sexual immorality includes any kind of sex outside the bounds of a married couple (one man, one women).

Remember how I said in the beginning of this article God is just, and unchanging. Well, it is true! Through out the old and new testament the Bible preaches against Homosexuality, and any other kind of sexual sin. In the New testament it even says that even if we LUST after such things we are sinning.

Just a note on the article.. Please note how Mr Muller attacks the bible on the point of slavery (saying see.. the bible is old school it condones slavery), because it condones slavery, and we don’t do slavery anymore the bible must be old fashioned.. He then goes on to build his argument, saying that the bibles idea of marriage has change since creation and because of all of this, we can no longer rely upon the bible as a reliable source of wisdom. Can I just quickly point out how far from the truth this really is (I think that once I’m done with this we can safely put Mr Muller’s article to the sword, because in the end, if his argument about the bible not being reliable for today is not true, the rest of his argument is based on false premise, and from what I’ve learned about logic is that if the premise if false, the conclusion can not be used).

So the slavery item: The bible never condones slavery. Sure the bible mentions how slaves should treat their masters, and how masters should treat their slaves, but let us take a closer look at one of these so called “slavery” verses :
Ephesians 6:5 “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,”
What is that?? You should obey your masters (or in todays standards our bosses..)? O, like you would Christ? Really? So in other words we should not lie, cheat or steal? We should respect and obey, and through all this the goodness of Christ will shine through us so that others might see and come to believe in Him.. O I see, so this isn’t a passage on slavery.. It is a passage about respecting those God has put in authority over you.. Ah, I see now.. Thank you bible..

This is a perfect example of timeless principles, with timely application. The principle is “Obey those in authority”, the application then was “Slaves -> Masters”, “Child-> parent” and so on. Today, the application can be applied to the work place.
(If someone can actually find a passage in the bible where it says “Take anyone you want to work for you, and treat them as you please, for God approves of it” I will remove this article.. But the fact is, the bible does not condone slavery, it just teaches us how to obey, serve and submit.

So now that Mr Muller’s argument about the bible being old fashioned is tossed out the window, lets address the bible’s view of marriage according to Mr Muller.. See he starts to say that the bible first says monogamy is good, then it says, polygamy is good (no idea where he found that [just because it is in the bible, doesn’t mean it is biblical]), then he starts talking about customs of the day, as if that somehow discredits the bible.. Yip, thats right. Because the bible records the customs of the day, it clearly means the bible approves of it. >< Really now.. I’d expect more from Mr Muller. Just on the note of Levirate marriage.. This law was put in place so that the name of that family can continue, and that the women may be looked after and cared for.. This a safety plan for the women, not some bonus deal for the brother.

The bible is clear about marriage, Old and New testament.. 1 Man, 1 Women. No sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage. Also, that nothing may come between a marriage. (I.e, divorce)
When ever the bible refers to marriage or the union of Christ and his church, it refers to a husband and wife, bride and bridegroom. Like I said beforehand : God is unchanging.. He sets marriage as an act between one man, one women and God. Then 4000 yrs later when Jesus comes along it is no shock to us that he preaches the exact same thing.
And believe it or not Paul goes on to write about it.(inspired by the spirit).

It is quite amazing how much the bible has to say about marriage between One man, and one women.. It is like God almost wants us to keep it that way. So like, maybe forever?

O, and on the note of polygamy “In after-times a plurality of wives became more common among the Hebrews, and the Scriptures afford numerous illustrations of its evil results, Ge 16:16 Jud 8:30 2Sa 3:3-5 1Ki 11:18 2Ch 11:18-21 13:21. In the time of Christ there is no mention of polygamy as prevalent among the Jews.”

Okay, I’m done now.. I will be coming back to this article and revise what I’ve written. But for now I’m done.
One last thing.. When people say that Jesus is all about love, and he will forgive you for anything, and don’t stress. The bible has a couple of things to say about that.. But here are just two of them :
1) God will not be mocked! (Galatians 6:7-8 )
2) “She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, ” This, is in revelations talking about Jesus . Please note the words “rule all the nations with a rod of iron”.. Be not fooled.. God will not be mocked.. Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

The question is, do you mock God? Do you fear him?

I’m doing a little Series on how Christian’s should behave if we were following other Christians instead of the Word of God.

All the topics can be found here (How thou shalt livist as a christian!)

1)Thou shalt, and MUST join every facebook group that has anything remotely to do with Christianity (as we all know, the more Christian facebook groups you are part of, the holier thou art).

Firstly, can I just point out how frustrated and irritated I get when I keep getting invites to join all these Christian facebook groups. Just to name a few:
============================
Not Christian By Default, But By Grace ?
Can you give me ONE LOGICAL reason to believe God exists? ?
Christian Guys are hotter because… ?
I’M A CHRISTIAN..AND I’M PROUD TO SAY IT!!
I’m a Christian, and I want all my freinds to be Christians too (>< poor spelling)
Addicted to Jesus
Jesus Love’s You
Largest Christian Facebook Group Ever
Proud To Be Christian
=============================

It seems that people have this urge/need to join Christian facebook groups, because they are scared that other Christians might see them as a lesser Christian if they don’t join. Like as if somehow we will grow in Christian stature if we join these groups.

Secondly, it all just seems so fake to me. All these “Christians” joining all these groups, yet if you look at their facebook pages it is covered with applications like “Would You Do Me?” I mean seriously now, just because facebook is your alter-ego, it doesn’t give you the right to post and do as you please. God judges sin, intellectual and physical, facebook or RL(real-life) sin. To God it is all the same.

See, the crux of the matter is as follows : The problem doesn’t lie in the amount of Christian groups you join (though it does start looking like a blunt sword and lose its impact) , but rather: does the rest of your life, and the rest of your facebook reflect this belief that you are confessing to.

1 John 1: 6-8 Clearly teaches us against such practice
“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Quite simple really. Stop pretending to be a Christian and start picking up your cross and start suffering for Christ.

So well put in “The Pilgrims Progress” by John Bunyan (my new favourite reference book) :
The Evangelist says to Pilgrim and Faithful “My Sons, you’ve heard in the words of the truth of the Gospel that you must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven through many hardships (Acts 14:22), and again that prison and hardships face you in every city. (Acts 20:23) You can’t expect, therefore , to travel far on your Pilgrimage without them in some form or other. … ”

2)If a fellow Christian joins/adds a dodge group/application on facebook thou salt tell everyone else, and thou salt definately not confront the perpetrator (that shalt be done via the facebook grapevine).

Arg!! How this irritates me. If a fellow brother has got applications on their facebook profile which clearly screams “Look at me, I’m the fruits of the sinful nature”. Do not go to every other Christian you know and start gossiping about a fellow brother. No, stand up, and biblically rebuke your fellow brother. It is really that simple.. This bickering on facebook & RL is not only destroying Christian communities, but it is clearly against the word of God. God commands us to love those around us, to suffer with them when they are sinning (and by love I mean Christian love.. ie : not turn a blind eye but to rebuking them gently and with patience).

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

In today’s world people are so quick to label themselves as “Christian” yet they do not even fully understand the fundamental basics of Christianity (the gospel).

See, a lot of today’s Christians believe that if you claim to be Christian, join a Christian facebook group and wear a cross around your neck then you are automatically saved. It is a one way ticket to heaven, no suffering or life change required. How much further from the truth can this be . No wonder so many Christians start to question God and their faith as soon as trials and tribulation’s come down upon them. This school of thought needs to stop!

Okay, that is enough for 1 week. I will tackle point 3 & 4 in the next 2 weeks.

For now I’m just going to end with a quick summery of the phrase”The Gospel”.

The Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,..”

Galatians 1: 3-5
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Romans 10: 8-11
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

God bless.