Views: 5<\/p>
[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our\u00a0Brief Articles<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n One either believes the Bible to be God\u2019s revelation of Himself to men, or one does not. God does not (and no man can) force anyone to accept the Bible as such. One, however, ought not to profess<\/strong> such belief if one is unwilling to accept what it says without seeking to alter it. Popularity, agreement with my notions, convenience, political correctness, nor any other factors affect or determine the meaning of its words to the genuine believer.<\/span><\/p>\n Whether or not one believes the Bible to be God\u2019s Word, he should be honest enough to let the Bible say what it says. One forfeits any claim of integrity when he knowingly twists Biblical statements (2 Pet. 3:16) so as to make them appear<\/strong> to teach other than what they teach (often making the Bible thereby contradict itself). This statement applies equally to professed believers and<\/strong> to infidels. Countless times each day presumptuous men seek to make the Bible say what they want<\/strong> it to say\/teach (rather than what it obviously says\/teaches<\/strong>) in an effort to justify a position, creed, bias, or agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n While the foregoing premises are true of every issue upon which the Bible touches (whether in religion or morals), a case in point is marriage and those for (and between) whom God ordained it. Morally upright people find consideration of certain subjects disgusting, but the generally corrupted \u201cculture\u201d of modern society leaves us no choice but to discuss and cry aloud against them. While being candid, I shall strive to be tasteful in the following comments:<\/span><\/p>\n Until very recently, no one ever conceived of marriage in any other terms than male-female unions\u2014and rightly so. Same-sex marriage<\/em> and homosexual marriage <\/em>are absurd (to say nothing of perverse) oxymorons uttered by morons concerning morality. To dignify these abominable behaviors and relationships as \u201cmarriages\u201d only compounds the innate evils they involve.<\/span><\/p>\n Applying marriage <\/em>to such unions does nothing to elevate them. Rather, it only serves to trivialize immeasurably the word and the institution. This brazen distortion may so pollute the beautiful and wholesome Biblical concepts of marriage, home, and family that those God-ordained institutions may never again be the societal norm. The Creator of \u201cnature\u201d says that homosexual \u201cunions\u201d are beyond unnatural\u2014they are \u201cagainst<\/strong> nature\u201d (Rom. 1:26\u201327, emph. DM). Some do not like the fact that the Bible so teaches, but only grossly ignorant and\/or dishonest persons will deny that it does so teach<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n [Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it was published in The Lighthouse, <\/em>weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, May 12, 2013, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution: <\/strong>From TheScripturecache.com<\/em>, owned and administered by Dub McClish.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 5[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our\u00a0Brief Articles page.] One either believes the Bible to be God\u2019s revelation of Himself to men, or one does not. God does not (and no man can) force anyone to accept the Bible as such….<\/p>\n\n