The year was 1973. A nation was polarized regarding a singular issue. Discussions and sometimes even heated debates were springing up everywhere. Protesters were mobilizing in the streets in hopes that they could make an impact. Yet what was done was done. The Supreme Court had ruled and the murder of pre-born babies was now the law of the land.

Even once abortion was legalized, clinics didn’t simply pop up overnight. Many hoped that somehow they never would. Yet they came. First it was a few but over time they multiplied. Killing babies was a lucrative business. Doctors who had taken the Hippocratic Oath (promising to do no harm) were becoming murders for hire. Meanwhile, those who knew the truth about what was occurring mourned. They mourn still; even to this day. Soon it appears our nation will hit an infamous landmark. 60 million pre-born children will have been slaughtered on the altar of convenience. To put this in perspective, it is as though we were reliving the holocaust… x30.

Many skirmishes have taken place since those dark days 42 years ago. Those who persist in their position that truth is absolute have had many occasions to bemoan. Laws that could only be deemed as originating from the pits of Hell continue to be put into place. Truth is no longer an absolute. It is a matter of opinion. The lines of right and wrong are blurred beyond recognition as confusion spreads. The agendas of men who deny God and despise truth continue to successfully advance. The moral high ground seems all but lost.

Then on Friday, June 26^th, 2015, a day that will forever live in infamy, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) passed down the most monumental ruling in decades. In a 5-4 decision they declared that the covenant of marriage was the right of all. Whether marriage joins the opposite sex, or the same sex, no longer matters.

[ Download and read SCOTUS decision: No. 14–556
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf]

The nation exploded with rainbows and equal signs in celebration. The streets were filled with cheering. Even the White House was set aglow with the colors of the rainbow. Yet there were those who wept, moaned and wailed. They cried for the great nation which once was, knowing that barring a miracle, the United States of America would never return to her prior glory.

Once again the nation is divided. Some are adamantly for, some vehemently against and others not sure where to stand. The divide threatens to widen as neither side is willing to give. Some would say that it is the gays and their sympathetic supporters versus the Christians. Yet this is not entirely true. Even within the church there is a fracture.

Many have mistaken the issues as a battle between love and hate. Those who support gay marriage are said to support love while those who oppose it hate gay people. Frankly, in some cases this may be true but those who call themselves Christians and hold this position of hatred are in error. The real issue is one of love. It is an issue regarding the definition and intent of marriage. It is an issue of progressing moral values versus timeless absolute truth.

Those who oppose gay marriage are labeled by many as judgmental. Even the word of God in the Holy Bible is quoted to support their position. Words such as, “God is love” and “Jesus said not to judge” are swung wildly as though being wielded by an impassioned, drunken swordsman. Yet many of these are simply parroting words that they have seen elsewhere. The truth is that they have seldom, if ever, cracked open a Bible or read from its pages. Moreover, many of them despise the Bible and use its words only because they must.

The problem with labels like “hater” and “judgmental” is that they are misguided. The very ones who are quoting the Bible as justification of their position are either ignorant of or have completely ignored many other passages that specifically address the subject. For the sake of understanding some of these scriptures are cited below.

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination,” Leviticus 18:22.

See also Genesis 19:1-26.

The Genesis account is one of the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Prior to the cited text Abraham made a case with God for sparing the twin cities but after his inability to find ten righteous people within them he was relegated to the position of saving only his nephew Lot and his immediate family by pulling them out prior to the destruction. Yet when the angels who appeared in human form came to his home they drew a crowd. Homosexual men gathered from all around the city and mobbed Lot’s door. They demanded that Lot surrender his visitors so that they may “know” them. Lot refused to yield to their demands and even went so far as to offer up his virgin daughters to be dealt with as the mob should desire. Yet their desires were not for women. Only a remnant of Lot’s family escaped as fire and brimstone fell upon the cities and utterly destroyed it.

Hundreds of years later Moses penned these words in Leviticus which are a clear statement of God’s position regarding the uniting of gays. Even then it was defined as defilement of the marriage bed.

Some may argue that the Old Testament is outdated as it was replaced by the new covenant of grace. However, the New Testament also paints a clear picture. Here are some examples.

“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due,” Romans 1:26-27.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God,” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

Based on these words those who hold a position against gay marriage are not judging individuals. They are simply judging whether the word of God is accurate. If they believe that the Bible is God’s word and is inerrant then their position is already decided. As such the argument of judgment is misused as the definition if twisted and misconstrued. If something is established as fact in an individual’s mind there is no longer a position with which to judge.

Note that 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 contains a lengthy list of sins, but they are not just sins. Each item listed is indicative of a lifestyle. The author of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul, in verse 11 goes on to say, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

Clearly the people of Corinth had engaged in such behaviors before they were born again. Yet their lives came down to a choice. They could either choose to bend their wills and their old, dead desires to God or they could choose to try and bend God to the lifestyle that they predetermined to live. The choice they made determined the camp in which they belonged. They were either counted among the repentant who turned from their sins and were washed clean by the blood of Jesus or they were persistent in their sinful lifestyles and went on to perish. None of these issues is greater than the other. Each lifestyle leads to death according to the scripture.

So whether one is a drunkard, a thief, a fornicator or a homosexual matters not. Those who choose a lifestyle of sin ahead of God will not inherit any part of His kingdom.

This is the heart of the issue and those who oppose gay marriage and understand the complete issue know this to be true. Yet one may ask, “Why do Christians not rise up concerning these other sinful lifestyles?” To a degree they do. However there is a vast difference between an individual choosing to steal versus the government writing into law that people can steal as they desire and no governmental organization can oppose them. At the point where the sinful lifestyle becomes the law of the land the judgment not only includes the individuals that choose these lifestyles but the nation that condones them as well.

Remember that had it not been for Abraham’s intercession on behalf of Lot, who did not condone or participate in this lifestyle, he too would have been destroyed in God’s judgment. This is because God was judging the land as a whole.

With all this said, an important question surfaces. “What is the position of love?” Is it love to condone someone’s fornication because it makes them happy? Or is it love to confront them saying, “I love you too much to see you destroy yourself”? Drawing back on the previous point regarding Christians who believe that the Bible is true, the answer is clear. The one who condones the behavior is in error. They are either somehow still blind to the issue or they would rather be thought well of than make a stand for love by persisting in their position of truth. For those who understand the issue it is not one of hatred. It is one of love.

So here we are. No longer is it the north versus the south but this will divide homes and families. It will cause friends to part ways. Sadly, it will lead to animosity and eventually to outbreaks of violence. People from both sides who are incited by their zeal will verbally and physically attack one another. Labels and hateful monikers will be slung like mud in a pig trough. Yet those who resort to such positions will not be helping to advance their ideals. They will only be contributing to the great divide that threatens to rob peace from this nation.

With that I rest my case. I do not hate homosexuals. I love them. I love them enough to speak the truth. Even should they decide not to listen I will love them. This is not only the mandated position of my LORD, it is the desire of my heart. At one point I was lost and dying in my sinful lifestyle. Yet there were people in my life who loved me enough to persist in speaking truth. I stubbornly held out for a time but eventually I could carry on no further. I surrendered to God and He began the process of transforming my life.

My position for many years was that I was simply born the way I was and therefore I could not be held at fault for my actions. It is true, I was born the way that I was but I was in fact accountable for my actions. While I had been born into sin and iniquity, what I needed was to be born again. That changed everything. So now I speak to you from the other side and I urge you, no matter what the sin that besets you, surrender it and surrender yourself at the foot of the cross. My God is capable and indeed promises to strip those who desire of the old and make them new. This is not just a theory. It is my experience. I am on the side of love and I am on the side of truth. I will not be moved.

 

~ Mitch Salmon

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Mitch Salmon is the founder of Fisher of Men Productions and a follower of Jesus Christ and proclaimer of the Good News – The Gospel of Christ Jesus!