Resolution 79:04: Homosexuality and Marriage
Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States of America has recently ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that marriage will, in every state and territory, be extended to include homosexual unions. And,
Whereas popular opinion across our nation seems to have shifted in favor of homosexuality, such that all opposition to homosexuality is presumed to be unloving. And,
Whereas the Christian Church must be subject to the Holy Spirit speaking in Holy Writ, and as such must, in love, clearly oppose what God therein opposes and affirm what He affirms. And,
Whereas God is love (1 John 4:8), He is not the sort of “love” that allows human beings to remain in sin (which is inherently self-destructive), but He is true love, the sort of love that calls human beings out of the darkness of sin into the marvelous light of his holiness. Further, God is the true love that gives self-sacrificially: He sent His one and only Son to become man, Jesus of Nazareth, and to lay down his very life as a ransom for sinners – wicked sinners, vile sinners, sinners like every member and all the leadership of the Bible Presbyterian Church.
Therefore, be it resolved that we, the 79th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Synod, meeting at the Grace Bible Presbyterian Church in Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 6-11, 2015, striving faithfully to obey God rather than human beings, lovingly oppose homosexuality. Let this resolution take the form of reminding and admonishing our churches to pray earnestly and regularly for our fellow human beings who are trapped in the deep and destructive morass of sexual perversion. Let us pray for the liberation of homosexuals from this sin which has ensnared them. Let us earnestly pray that they, by God’s grace, should become keenly aware of their own sinfulness before the Holy One and should fly by faith to Jesus Christ, that great Savior of sinners. Let us honestly pray that our churches will soon be full of ex-homosexuals, who like us, will have been graciously washed, justified, and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. The Apostle Paul, addressing homosexuality along with numerous other sins, tells early Christians who had been delivered from these sins, “And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
Further, let this resolution encourage our churches to speak the truth in love, but never to speak the truth out of a heart of bigotry or hatred. Let us continue to affirm marriage as God has created it (Genesis 2:24), and as Jesus taught it (Matthew 19:4-6), that is, between an Adam and an Eve, between one man and one woman. Let us hold fast this confession of God’s truth, even if it proves to be detrimentally unpopular. Truth is not always popular. At the same time, let us speak from hearts of love, being willing to give ourselves that God, through our loving ministry, may save many, many homosexuals from their sins through Jesus Christ, the risen, conquering Lord.
May the Triune God of Scripture, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the one true, eternally undivided God bless this resolution and the Bible Presbyterian Church’s effort to be faithful to his holy and infallible Word, the Bible.