Why “Gay Marriage” is not Real Marriage :: By Alexander Major
Why “Gay Marriage” is not Real Marriage :: By Alexander Major
Introduction
On the morning of June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that under the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment, all fifty states were legally required to grant and recognize same-sex marriages performed within the United States. The individual sentiments on the matter held by many Americans were not taken into account when this decision was made, nor was the biblical definition of marriage considered. Rather, the Supreme Court redefined marriage to include a union beyond what has been recognized as the bedrock of civilization in Judeo-Christian society.
The Bible is abundantly clear that God defines marriage as a covenantal union between one man and one woman for life (Matt 19:4-6). It is pure and honorable and should remain undefiled (Hebrews 13:4). Because God instituted marriage, it can never be redefined by man to promote his depraved desires. Upon this basis, this essay will contend that “gay marriage” cannot in any sense be qualified as real biblical marriage because it (1) presumptuously defies what a holy, just, and omnipotent God established within the order of creation, and (2) is entirely founded upon an abomination; a perverse lifestyle that desecrates what God established, seeking to normalize wickedness instead.
What is Biblical Marriage?
When God created Adam, He gave him the privilege of naming all the animals. This was one of the ways in which Adam was intended to exercise dominion over creation. Just before God brought the animals to Adam for him to name them, God observed that Adam would need a companion. Scripture says, “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him”‘ (Genesis 2:18). Apparently, this helper (lit, “a helper corresponding to him,” or “a corresponding helper” [1] would be suitable for Adam in a way that no other created being up to this point was. Adam, upon seeing the woman, said, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen 2:23).
The narrative continues in verse 24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Here is found the establishment of marriage. It was created to be a union between one man and one woman, witnessed by God, with the result that the newly constituted couple is “one flesh.” Speaking of this, one commentator writes, “God originally planned marriage so that one man would ‘be joined’ by God in a covenant relationship to one woman for life (Gen 1:27; 2:24; 1 Cor 7:2).” [2]
“Gay marriage,” in which two people of the same gender are legally declared to be spouses, is a direct affront to the creative order because it nullifies and disregards the very reason marriage was established when Adam was alone. “Gay marriage” can no more be considered real marriage than a union between any two random objects of nature. Marriage, by its very definition, is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. Because “gay marriage” cannot meet this biblical and fundamental requirement of marriage, it is not marriage at all. One may disregard the Bible and reinvent marriage, but he or she can never obscure the fact such attempts only alter something that was created by God to be holy and pure.
“Gay Marriage” is based on an Abomination
Homosexuality is characterized throughout the Bible as an abomination (Lev 20:13), vile (Romans 1:26), and strange (Jude 7). In Romans 1, it is the result of a deliberate rejection of God’s general revelation. Romans 1:18 speaks of God’s active wrath being revealed. Men who have had the truth about God revealed to them have not only rejected that truth, but they actively “suppress” or “hold down” the truth.
The downward spiral continues in Romans 1. Verse 26 says, “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.” The result of man’s heinous idolatry is that he is given over to vile passions as an act of judgment. Man is actually “given over” three times in Romans 1, with each instance being increasingly consequential and resulting in a greater plunge into depravity. The word translated vile (ἀτιμία) can also be translated “disgraceful” or “abominable,” and it describes homosexuality, a deplorable sin punishable by death under the Old Testament law, still an abomination before God in present society. N.P. Williams writes, “The result of the mental confusion engendered by sophistical dialectic is idolatry, in gross and fetishistic forms. This is punished by God with ‘judicial abandonment’ to sexual impurity, of a monstrous and unnatural kind.” [3]
“Gay Marriage” and the Wrath of God
According to Romans 1:18-32, homosexuality is not the reason God’s wrath is poured out; rather, it is the very evidence that God has already rejected a society and given it over to impurity. How does “gay marriage” fit into this active demonstration of God’s wrath? Far from being legitimate marriage, “gay marriage,” and the very promulgation of it, is evidence that a civilization has been abandoned. The divine restraints on sin have been taken off, allowing both the society and the unrepentant sinners in it to perish under the wrath of God.
Because God has blessed marriage and declared it to be holy, there could not be a more sharply defined dichotomy between the blessed union of marriage and the vileness of homosexuality. A “marriage” of the two is only illustrative of the depravity of mankind and the depths to which he goes to promote and normalize his sin. One commentator writes, “Homosexuality would likely have been about as prevalent and accepted in Paul’s context as it is for us today, but not in the form of marriage or open relationships.” [4]
Can Marriage be Redefined?
The thesis of this essay is that “gay marriage” is not real marriage in the biblical sense. The interlocutor may object that marriage can still be redefined to accommodate a societal need to be more diverse, inclusive, and tolerant. However, in the Bible, marriage is a foundational component of God’s design for the home and for society at large. After God created the man and the woman, He blessed them and told them to “be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). Thus, reproduction is not only a vital part of marriage but is the primary divine commandment within marriage. “Gay marriage” will never meet this requirement; it is a monumental deviation from marriage with respect to its most basic responsibility of procreation.
The attempt to redefine what has already been established is nothing new. With respect to the ancient Romans, Tacitus, speaking of the emperor Tiberius, indicates that new words were even coined in order to specifically express homosexuality. [5] In contemporary civilization, laws are created to accommodate sin, but marriage cannot legitimately be incorporated into any of them because “gay marriage” defies everything that biblical marriage is. It, therefore, is not real marriage but a grotesque mockery of it that should not be recognized in any civilization with a semblance of morality left within it.
Conclusion
In summary, it has been seen that marriage was instituted by God in the Garden of Eden for the purpose of procreation, that one man and one woman would be united in a lifelong covenant that is witnessed by God. Because marriage was established by a holy and righteous God, any attempts by man to degrade and defile the marriage covenant are done without biblical warrant. These attempts only illustrate mankind’s total depravity. The Bible unilaterally and unambiguously condemns homosexuality as vile and unnatural. It cannot be colligated with the most holy and sanctifying union between two people that there is – the marriage union. Marriage has already been defined by its creator; it needs no redefinition. It only needs to be honored and kept pure.
Alexander Major
Southern California Seminary, El Cajon, CA
Endnotes
(1) Ross P. Allen, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1, Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985, 454.
(2) Haller M. Hal Jr., “The Gospel according to Matthew,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin, Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010, 31.
(3) Williams N.P., “The Epistle to the Romans,” in A New Commentary on Holy Scripture: Including the Apocrypha, ed. Charles Gore, Henry Leighton Goudge, and Alfred Guillaume, vol. 3, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942, 225.
(4) Runge E. Steven, High Definition Commentary: Romans, Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014, 31.
(5) Jamieson Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2, Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997, 86.
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