I had a friend suggest that the state ought to get out of the marriage business altogether and only do civil unions. His position was it is the church's job, not the state's job to marry. Your thoughts?
Thank you, 'joshhuntnm', for inviting us to volunteer our thoughts on the matter of Gay Marriage.
The most important thing to reckon is that marriage is first and foremost a 'spiritual' event. In this respect, it is similar to water baptism. Marriage too is an visible sign of an invisible event. The invisible (spiritual) part of the event concerns the mystery of two (individual human spirits) becoming united as one in the Kingdom of Heaven (heavenly places / invisible world of the spirits).
In the Kingdom of Heaven, it is an abomination that two identical sexes should desire a spiritual union to one another.
However, this visible world is ruled by powers of darkness which are intent on destroying the intents and purposes which God has reserved for man.
For instance, when an individual is born, he has already been equipped physically with anti-bodies to fight against decay and disease. However, the evil one has increasingly defeated this natural ability of man. Much worse, in recent years they have ushered into existence even more destructive viruses and deviant bacteria which man is unable to so easily triumph over.
The spiritual body (human spirit) of man behaves in a similar manner to his physical body. Every man is born with with the creation laws of God instilled within him. This functions as conscience; the rudimentary ability to discern between good and evil. Thus, every man is equipped with the inherent ability and desire to triumph over evil.
However, just as exampled with the physical body, the spiritual body also has come under increasing attack in recent years. Evil is having an ever-enlarging presence in the world because man is having great difficulty discerning between good and evil; their consciences have become dulled and the creation laws have morphed into a deviance.
When the previous generation was growing up, they were aware about how power corrupts. But in our present day, we are witnessing the corrupt seeking power. While in previous years we were wary about the occasional falsehood being taught behind church pulpits, today we are witnessiing spiritual sociopaths who traffic in disturbing news and pass on destructive information which damages and injures the “hidden man of the heart”.
.
We know of course that AIDS is the abbreviation for 'Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome'.
Spiritually speaking, there is also something which might be appropriately named "
AFRAIDS" ... that is:
'
A Factor
Related [to an]
Acquired
Immune
Deficiency [of the human]
Spirit'
.
This principle goes back to the Scripture where Jesus said, "He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so", (Matthew 19:8).
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter
", (Is 5:20).
What a person witnesses on TV (for instance) can often injure or ‘harden’ the hearts of men much more severely than we might presume.
It's deteriorating influence can be likened to the inner damage of ‘AFRAIDS’ ... an injury to the human spirit's which circumvents it's ability to voluntarily surrender to the creation laws of God. AFRAIDS is the most determining factor in our days towards the de-volution of man’s spirit. Not surprisingly, it is also one of the determining powers complicit with Armageddon.
I don’t believe that nominal Christians today are fully cognizant of the dramatic meaning behind Cain's desire to build himself a city. Not unlike earthly Jerusalem, Cain's city too is a visible image of an invisible reality. By its very construct, Cain's city was fundamentally opposed to God; a counter-creation possessing a negative spiritual identity ... a counterfeit reality.
Cain's city has spiritual significance because it's capable of directing and changing a man's spiritual life. It brings its domination powers to bear in man and swallows up his life, - his entire being, not simply his 'house' -. And that is both the fearful legacy of Cain and also its fearful mystery. From the times of Cain, Nimrod, and through to Babylon, (including our present day), the city represents a desire to violently dominate and destroy man for the sake of human works. At the moment that Cain decided to "build himself a city", he had entered into a personal reverse-metamorphosis which would ultimately have him sanctify, justify and glorify the violence (against the human spirit) contained within it.
It's not for nothing that the Bible warns, 2Tim 3:1 says, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come"; and another verse saying, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold".
These words of Jesus bring us great comfort: ""I have given them your teaching. And the world has hated them. The world hated these men, because they don't belong to the world, the same as I don't belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world. But I am asking that you keep them safe from the Evil One (the devil)."
Not only do we not belong to this world ... neither does this world yet belong to us. This is why creation is groaning ... awaiting the time of it's deliverance from the realm of sin and death.
So, we should not become too alarmed about the activities of those who do belong to this world; about the sinful deeds that they do.
Homosexuality and abortions and a host of other sinful tragedies can threaten to shake our joy and peace every day.
But we keep our minds on things where Christ is.
