"It's not right!" "It's against my grain!" "It's wrong!" "It's not normal!" "It's bad!" "It shouldn't happen!" "It's fine!" "Why not?" Anyone's opinion is okay!
The above responses represent many of the options often expressed by people interviewed on news programs concerning homosexual rights. Many people have the opinion that homosexuality is wrong; however, if it is just an opinion, then surely the opinion that homosexuality is all right is just as valid. The point is, it is not a matter of one's opinion! It is really a matter of what does the One who is the Creator, who owns us—give us as a basis for the principles governing this area of life. That is to say, what does God, through His Word, say concerning this issue, regardless of what someone's opinion happens to be? Of course, in regard to homosexuality, we know that this is anti-God, so we can say that it is wrong. Why? Not because it is our opinion, but because God, the absolute authority, says so! End of argument!
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: It is abomination" (Leviticus 18:22).
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet" (Romans 1:24-27).
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (I Corinthians 6:9-11).
How can we have standards of right and wrong, anyway? The answer is simple! Because God is Creator! The One who is the Creator owns what He created. God, who is the Creator, knows everything there is to know about everything—He has absolute knowledge. God created everything—therefore, He has absolute authority. As human beings are created beings, they are under total obligation to the One who has absolute authority over them. Our Absolute Authority has a right to set the rules which we must obey, because He is the Creator. Thus, what is right and what is wrong is not a matter of anyone's opinion, but is to be found in the Word of the One who has authority over us, to impose upon us what He declares to be right and to be wrong. He doesn't do this because He is an ogre, but because He loves us, and knows what is best for us.
We often get the comment from people that their children have rebelled against the Christian ethic, asking why they should obey their parents' rules. Many parents have not instructed their children from a foundational perspective concerning what they should or should not do. If children just see rules as parents" opinions, then why should they obey them? It makes a tremendous difference when you tell children that God is Creator and that He has determined what is right and what is wrong—that the rules come from God, and therefore they must be obeyed. You certainly can't expect to build a structure without a foundation—and that's what many parents try to do in regard to the training of their children. The results of such attempts are alI around us—a generation of increasing numbers rejecting God and the absolutes of Christianity.
The same problem (a structure without a foundation) is also reflected in the fact that many Christians may be against pornography, the Anti-Discrimination Act, abortion, and other moral problems in society, and yet they can't really give a proper justification for their opposition.
I Peter 3:15 commands us to have reasons for what we believe. Most Christians have an idea of what is right and what is wrong, but really don't understand why. This lack of reasons for our positions is seen by others as just our opinions—and why should our opinions be any more valid than someone else's opinion?
All these issues relate to an understanding of what the Bible is really about—it is not just a guide book for life. It is the bedrock, the very basis upon which all of our thinking must be built. In reality, we must also understand that all of our doctrine, ultimately—directly or indirectly—has its basis in the book of Genesis. Unless we understand and believe the book of Genesis, we will not have a proper understanding of God and His meaning to man, and thus what a Christian world view is all about.
For instance, to understand why homosexual practices and relationships are wrong, one has to understand that the basis for marriage comes from Genesis, where God ordained marriage and declared it was to be one man for one woman, for life. God created a man and a woman—not a man and a man! One of the primary importances of marriage, as stated in Malachi 2:15, is that God created two to be as one flesh so that they could produce godly offspring. When one understands the foundations of marriage, and therefore the fact that there are specific roles which God ordained for men and women, then he has a reason for standing against legislation that destroys the family.
What we have got to get back to, in our churches, is that Christians have to be prepared to accept what the Bible, as the Word of the One who has absolute authority, says in relation to the principles to live by in every area of life, regardless of what one's opinion is—and this applies to abortion, homosexuality, and other such topics. The reason for the conflict throughout the church at the present time on all these moral issues is that people are fighting over their opinions. It is not a matter of opinion—yours, or mine! It is what God says that matters. The basis for our thinking should be the principles contained in His Word, and they must determine our thinking. To understand this, one must also understand that Genesis is foundational to the whole of what Christianity is all about. One of the major difficulties in our choices is that many people don't trust Genesis, and so they don't know what else to trust in the Bible. The result is that they just read the Bible as an interesting book containing some sort of religious truth. This view is destroying the church and our society, and it's about time that religious leaders awoke to that fact!
