If you consider yourself a Bible-believing Christian, a
follower of Jesus whose chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, there
are important questions I hope you will consider before picking up your flag
and cheering on the sexual revolution. These questions aren’t meant to be
snarky or merely rhetorical. They are sincere, if pointed, questions that I
hope will cause my brothers and sisters with the new rainbow themed avatars to
slow down and think about the flag you’re flying.
1. How long have you believed that gay marriage is
something to be celebrated?
2. What Bible verses led you to change your mind?
3. How would you make a positive case from Scripture that
sexual activity between two persons of the same sex is a blessing to be
celebrated?
4. What verses would you use to show that a marriage
between two persons of the same sex can adequately depict Christ and the
church?
5. Do you think Jesus would have been okay with
homosexual behavior between consenting adults in a committed relationship?
6. If so, why did he reassert the Genesis definition of
marriage as being one man and one woman?
7. When Jesus spoke against porneia what sins do
you think he was forbidding?
8. If some homosexual behavior is acceptable, how do you
understand the sinful “exchange” Paul highlights in Romans 1?
9. Do you believe that passages like 1 Corinthians
6:9 and Revelation 21:8 teach that sexual immorality can keep you out
of heaven?
10. What sexual sins do you think they were referring to?
11. As you think about the long history of the church and
the near universal disapproval of same-sex sexual activity, what do you think
you understand about the Bible that Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and Luther
failed to grasp?
12. What arguments would you use to explain to Christians
in Africa, Asia, and South America that their understanding of homosexuality is
biblically incorrect and your new understanding of homosexuality is not
culturally conditioned?
13. Do you think Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were
motivated by personal animus and bigotry when they, for almost all of their
lives, defined marriage as a covenant relationship between one man and one
woman?
14. Do you think children do best with a mother and a
father?
15. If not, what research would you point to in support
of that conclusion?
16. If yes, does the church or the state have any role to
play in promoting or privileging the arrangement that puts children with a mom
and a dad?
17. Does the end and purpose of marriage point to
something more than an adult’s emotional and sexual fulfillment?
18. How would you define marriage?
19. Do you think close family members should be allowed
to get married?
20. Should marriage be limited to only two people?
21. On what basis, if any, would you prevent consenting
adults of any relation and of any number from getting married?
22. Should there be an age requirement in this country
for obtaining a marriage license?
23. Does equality entail that anyone wanting to be
married should be able to have any meaningful relationship defined as marriage?
24. If not, why not?
25. Should your brothers and sisters in Christ who
disagree with homosexual practice be allowed to exercise their religious
beliefs without fear of punishment, retribution, or coercion?
26. Will you speak up for your fellow Christians when
their jobs, their accreditation, their reputation, and their freedoms are
threatened because of this issue?
27. Will you speak out against shaming and bullying of
all kinds, whether against gays and lesbians or against Evangelicals and
Catholics?
28. Since the evangelical church has often failed to take
unbiblical divorces and other sexual sins seriously, what steps will you take
to ensure that gay marriages are healthy and accord with Scriptural principles?
29. Should gay couples in open relationships be subject
to church discipline?
30. Is it a sin for LGBT persons to engage in sexual
activity outside of marriage?
31. What will open and affirming churches do to speak
prophetically against divorce, fornication, pornography, and adultery wherever
they are found?
32. If “love wins,” how would you define love?
33. What verses would you use to establish that
definition?
34. How should obedience to God’s commands shape our
understanding of love?
35. Do you believe it is possible to love someone and
disagree with important decisions they make?
36. If supporting gay marriage is a change for you, has
anything else changed in your understanding of faith?
37. As an evangelical, how has your support for gay
marriage helped you become more passionate about traditional evangelical
distinctives like a focus on being born again, the substitutionary sacrifice of
Christ on the cross, the total trustworthiness of the Bible, and the urgent
need to evangelize the lost?
38. What open and affirming churches would you point to
where people are being converted to orthodox Christianity, sinners are being
warned of judgment and called to repentance, and missionaries are being sent
out to plant churches among unreached peoples?
39. Do you hope to be more committed to the church, more
committed to Christ, and more committed to the Scriptures in the years ahead?
40. When Paul at the end of Romans 1 rebukes “those who
practice such things” and those who “give approval to those who practice them,”
what sins do you think he has in mind?
Food
for thought, I hope. At the very least, something to chew on before swallowing
everything the world and Facebook put on our plate.
The Gospel Coalition
Kevin DeYoung
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