St. SteVen said:
A monogamous, legally married, homosexual couple comes to the Lord.
Should they divorce, or remain in the relationship?
Would you allow them fellowship in your church? Leadership? Ministry?
God’s laws?
Do you mean the Law of Moses that we are not under?
No…we are now under the law of the Christ which, in principle, embraces all aspects of the Law of Moses as Jesus said….
”And one of them, versed in the Law, tested him by asking: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 He said to him: “‘You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:35-40)
You are trying to find loopholes in God’s law to suit the abberation of homosexuality and gender identification, which are products of our inherited imperfection. God will not change his long held laws and principles to accommodate what he forbids. You need to get that memo.
The question that needs to be addressed:
Is the biblical prohibition against same sex relationships
in reference to uncommitted relationships (promiscuity, like adultery/fornication),
or does it include monogamous (committed) relationships?
Since the Bible clearly states that God does not change, why are you requiring him to, and at the same time requiring us to do the same with respect to this question? What part of his law on these things do you not understand? Shaking your fist at God because you don’t think he is fair, will not alter a thing….neither will so called, “gay Christians” who want to dictate their will to God and expect him to capitulate….it’s never going to happen.
A secondary question would be about adultery/fornication.
Sometimes idolatry is labeled as adultery in the Bible.
Is it the act of idol worship, or the unfaithfulness to God, that is the issue?
Spiritual monogamy compared to spiritual promiscuity.
You are twisting things a bit here…..Those who did not know God when they divorced and remarried are not convicted because of their ignorance. When God yokes a man and a woman in marriage, it is to be a lasting commitment with the two existing as “one flesh” in his eyes. Most who bother to get married these days were never yoked together by God in the first place, so their current situation stands approved by God because now their union recognized and is blessed by him. No homosexual couple can claim to be yoked together by God….it is entirely their own decision.
If they become genuine Christians, no one will have to compel them to do what God requires…they will see the need to bring their lives into harmony with his will and do what is necessary…it is a sacrifice on their part and will have his blessing….OTOH, if they believe that God turns a blind eye to his own standards of conduct concerning his own creation, then they have no future in the world to come. It’s their choice.
Well, in my example, they are legally married. I didn't specify for how long.
For the sake of discussion, I imagined them as having been together for over a decade.
Life had brought them together. They were soul mates. Fully committed to each other.
And if they are genuine in their “coming to Christ”, they will have a new commitment….to God and his son. One that should be stronger than any human relationship.
They will voluntarily separate and do the will of God, not just their own selfish will.
At Matt 10:32-38, Jesus states what is required of every Christian…
”Everyone, then, who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father who is in the heavens. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will also disown him before my Father who is in the heavens. 34 Do not think I came to bring peace to the earth; I came to bring, not peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Indeed, a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me; and whoever has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not accept his torture stake and follow after me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his soul will lose it, and whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it.”
Apply that admonition to a SS couple….our response to Christ’s commands is a test of our loyalty…..we either pass the test…or we don’t.
Now, you are proposing that this couple having at this point found the Lord,
should abandon each other? That they should seek a legal divorce. (since the are legally married)
Break up their family, if they had children together. (through adoption)
How do we suppose the children would feel about this?
Now you are again putting human emotions before God’s requirements……tell me how many monogamous couples do this on a regular basis? Marriage ends in divorce more often than it doesn’t. Children today, do not know what a committed relationship looks like.
If the separation is amicable, the children will be way less affected than if it is hostile, which it usually is because very few have the maturity to make their relationships last.
Same for a divorced and remarried heterosexual couple coming to the Lord?
Been married for 20 years, with two additional children. You would Bible-bash them into a second divorce?
I have never heard of a church requiring this. Pretty sure I have heard advice that they should stay together.
Homosexuality would throw a wrench in that?
This whole thing appears to be a spiritual/emotional/social train wreck to me.
Thinking purely from the flawed human perspective will do that……it elicits the ‘boo hoos‘ and the injustice of it all, as if perfect relationship exist for the majority in today’s world…..Heterosexual couples do not have the same situation as homosexual couples because their union is not forbidden by God….it’s really that simple.
Sacrifices are needed, and if they are not made to please God, no blessings can be expected. It’s a choice….a difficult one, but not impossible as there are quite a few in my own brotherhood who have made that sacrifice and lived the blessings that came from it……they are not miserable or regretful…..they prayerfully sought God’s help and received it…..you seem to leave God out of this altogether as a positive aspect of these decision….you concentrate only on the negative, as satan would want you to. You then spread the negative to influence others to your viewpoint….so do you understand where that then places you?
Are you familiar with the admonition that a well respected Pharisee named Gamaliel, made with regard to Jesus’ apostles when they were trying to force them to stop preaching?…
He told them…
“So under the present circumstances, I say to you, do not meddle with these men, but let them alone. For if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown; 39 but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. Otherwise, you may even be found fighters against God himself.”
From their perspective, the Jews were trying to protect Judaism from the apostasy of these Christians….but Gamaliel gave them something to think about….what if they were wrong? Where did they then put themselves from God’s perspective? That they might find themselves “fighters against God himself”…..
Food for thought….