What Must I Do To Be Saved?

  

FROM: 7/03 Radio Program

Question:

I saw an article in the newspaper which referred to families, saying that a family can be a: married man and woman, an unmarried man and woman, or same gender marriages. What does the Bible say about this?

Answer:

It is unfortunate that in our society today, we have such a break-down of the home and family. Sadly, this has been going on for some time, and it seems we continue to get worse and worse as definitions for what a family is continue to change.

Our responsibility though, is to look to the Scriptures and find God's definition of the family and home, and then comply with this standard if we want to please God.

Please understand that marriage and family is NOT the invention of Western culture, nor is it something created by "Puritan" thinking. Rather, God has had a plan for marriage and the home since man was first created. Looking to Genesis 2:18-25 we read:

"And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."

In this short reading, we see that God's plan for the home is to have one man and one woman married and sharing their lives with each other. It is in this relationship that sexual intimacy is proper and fitting; it is in this relationship that children are legitimately brought into this world; it is in this relationship that two people are united in purpose, in will, in thought, etc. Any man or woman (or people of the same sex for that matter) who attempts to have such things outside of the relationship so described in Genesis 2 and in other places in the Bible, is sinning and just fooling themselves if they think they are pleasing God in their current situation.

In the New Testament, we see that Jesus refers to this passage saying that this has been God's intention "from the beginning" to have "man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh" (Matthew 19:4-6). Later on, the writer to the Hebrews said, "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4). It is high time we got back to respecting the Bible plan for marriage and the home!!

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