The Gospel’s Power
Dear Church,
This week, another denomination caved to the LGBTQ+ agenda. The Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) held their annual general assembly this week and, amongst other things, came up with these new resolutions:
After years of prayerful debate and study, and much passionate and heartfelt discussion, The Presbyterian Church in Canada agreed to make changes to its theology and practice regarding marriage, permitting people to choose to define marriage as either as a covenant relationship between a man and a woman or a covenant relationship between two adult people. These decisions provide Presbyterian ministers with liberty of conscience and the freedom to choose to officiate or not officiate at the marriages of same-sex couples.
Additionally, the church agreed that LGBTQI people (whether married or single) can be ordained and are welcome to serve as ministers and ruling elders.
These decisions accompany other resolutions about policies and programs that will help the church include LGBTQI people more fully in all aspects of ministry. The church will also prepare a confession to all individuals and congregations that have been harmed by the church’s exclusion of LGBTQI.
If you’ve been following this trend, you will recall that this is not the first denomination to compromise its theology, calling something what God has clearly called sin, good and right and something to receive the blessing of God and his church. In all cases that I am aware of, save one, denominations that have allowed this issue to become a matter of ecclesiological (church) debate, have all eventually changed their view. Over a decade ago the Anglican Church in Canada, more recently the Presbyterian Church USA, and now the PCC have all changed their stance on the Biblical definition of marriage and have accepted same-sex unions. The PCC will actually prepare a confession, that is, they will confess ‘the sin’ of calling homosexuality a sin. What they are, in essence, doing is apologizing on behalf of God, which is unbelievable as God does not need to apologize for anything, for nothing he does is wrong.
How, then, does a denomination, church, or individual Christian come to hold a view so different from what was considered normative in the Church for over twenty centuries? I suppose it can be attributed to many things, but for certain it must include a change in our view towards Scripture. Is the Bible the authoritative Word of God? Is all the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, equally relevant and applicable for all peoples in all times? Or, are only parts of the Bible authoritative, and if so which parts, and if so, who decides which parts are authoritative? Faithful Christians throughout the centuries have held to the complete inspiration, inerrancy and authority of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible alone is our standard for all of life, ethics, and morality, but when we begin to weaken and compromise our belief in Scripture, thinking it is merely a human document or merely an ancient document with little relevance for modern people, then we, too, will begin to accept what our culture says is true rather than what is taught in God’s Word.
The Bible’s teaching on sex, gender, and marriage is not ambiguous. There are only two sexes and genders which are assigned to us at birth. Do not believe for a moment what society is trying to force into our thinking. Yes, there is a thing called gender dysphoria, which should be compassionately addressed, but let us not believe that a man can become a woman or vice versa. When it comes to marriage, the Scriptures is crystal clear that it is between one man and one woman until death do us part.
Let’s pray for the PCC to repent of their calling what is sin good. Pray for our faithful brothers and sisters in the PCC as they discern the next steps, which will include deciding whether or not to remain or to leave PCC and let’s pray for Gospel proclaiming churches across our country to love and reach out to the LGBTQ+ individuals, not by calling sin good, but by calling all sinners to repent and receive the forgiveness that comes only through Jesus Christ. Let’s not forget what Paul shared about the Gospel’s power amongst the Corinthians when he wrote:
(1 Corinthians 6:9) Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
We don’t get people into heaven by caving in to sin. Rather, people enter heaven through the most powerful, sin defeating message -- the Gospel -- where Jesus, God’s own Son, died and rose again to save sinners like you and me.
Soli Deo Gloria
Pastor Peter
