Lux Lucet

Supreme Court rainbow.

Shocked but not surprised, that was my reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in all 50 states. Shocked, because it is difficult for me as a Christian to process how a law so repugnant to the clear teaching of the Word of God could become law. It had been my prayer and my hope that God would intervene and put a stop to the madness. Such was not the case. On the other hand, I’m not surprised at the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges either.
Governments, including the U.S. federal government, sometimes do horrible things. And the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, in the US is such that a victory for gay marriage seemed almost preordained long before the official ruling was handed down.

But now that the deed is done, now that sodomy is the law of the land, now that our government has called good evil and evil good, what are Christians to think? What are they do? Below are a few of my thoughts on the subject.

Christians Must not Lose Hope

For one, Christians should not lose hope. God was not surprised by the 5-4 decision of the court. God not only knew that the court would rule in favor of the plaintiff Obergefell, but he actually foreordained the result. And not only did God foreordain the result, but he foreordained this appalling decision for the good of his elect. What the plaintiff and his supporters intend for evil, God means for good.

“How,” one may ask, “could such a terrible thing work for the good of God’s elect.?” Since God has not revealed every detail of his eternal plan to us, it is impossible to state every way in Obergefell v. Hodges will work to the benefit of God’s people. That said, a few benefits do suggest themselves. For one, this is an opportunity to witness. It is likely that many unsaved people are upset at the prospect of gay marriage, but struggle to ground their opposition to it on anything solid. Arguments against gay marriage from tradition, from natural law and from common sense are leaky cisterns that hold no water. Only Christianity offers a coherent refutation of claims of the homosexual agenda. It just may be that God will use the gay marriage ruling to drive some social conservatives to the cross of Christ. In this, I speak from personal experience. For it was partially through my study of political philosophy – the more I read the more I came to realize that the world, even the world of conservative politics, offered no answers to the political problems of our age – that God brought me to the realization that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus.

Second, God may elect to use the homosexual issue to chasten and strengthen his church. Many of the greatest acts of faith in ancient Israel were performed at a time when God’s people were under attack by foreign powers. Whether it was Gideon’s defeat of the Midianites, David against Goliath and the Philistines, or Hezekiah standing up to the Assyria, the day was won, not because of the strength and power of the Israelites, but by their faith in God who delivered them.

Third, it may be that God intends to use Obergefell v. Hodges to ripen his enemies for judgment. God is not mocked, yet those who have pushed the homosexual agenda boast in their victory as if they have nothing to fear. It is entirely possible that God has taken moral discernment from the homosexual activists and their enablers in the courts, the press, academia and business as a means of bringing them to justice. John Robbins wrote,

The Bible provides several answers to the question: Why do people lack discernment? The fundamental answer, the will of God, is an unpopular and unpalatable answer, and modern men will not hear it. The pagan Greeks and Romans had several similar proverbs: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Publius Syrius (42 bc) wrote: “Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.” Lycurgus (820 bc) wrote: “Whne falls on man the anger of the gods/First from his mind they banish understanding.” The seventeenth -century English poet John Dryden echoed these proverbs in The Hind and the Panther (1687): “For those whom god to ruin has designed/He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.” Removing the pagan meanings from the sayings, we arrive at some pretty sound theology: “Whom God wishes to destroy he first makes foolish.” Or to put in another way, “Whom god wishes to destroy, he first makes undiscerning.” That is exactly what passages such as Romans 1 teach:

They are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hears were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind…undiscerning… (The Church Irrational)

As an American, I am grieved to think that the judgment of God would fall upon my nation. And yet, what is one to say when looking at American in 2105? The whole edifice is rotten. It’s like a house that appears sound from a distance, but upon closer inspection is found to be a hollow shell, eaten up by termites and ready to fall.

Philosophy, it Matters

For many folks, philosophy is an ivory tower game for pointy headed geeks, having no connection to the real world. I one thought that myself. But not only is this notion wrong, it is about as far from the truth as is possible. There is nothing more practical than philosophy. For a man’s philosophy, broadly speaking, is simply the way he looks at the world. It is the grid through which he interprets the events that take place around him. Philosophies are like noses: everybody has one. The question is not whether we have a philosophy. The only question is whether or not we have a sound one.

As a case in point, consider the following assertion from the Justice Kennedy’s opinion in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision,

These considerations lead to the conclusion that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Proces and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.

Had Justice Kennedy and the others of his persuasion used the Scriptures rather than secular philosophy as the basis for their worldview, they would have realized that there is no such thing as, “a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person.” Rights, like justification, are imputed; they are not inherent. Further, they are imputed by the Law of God. We have a right to life because God said “you shall do no murder.” Conversely, where the Law of God forbids an action, there exists no right, fundamental or otherwise, to perform it. Since God clearly has condemned all forms of homosexual practice, no one has a right to engage in sodomy in any form. This rules out any notion that homosexuals have a right to marry.

The Supreme Court is not God: The Fallacy of Judicial Review

Most Americans accept without question the notion that the Supreme Court, like some Pope hurling anathemas from the Vatican, has the power to strike down legislation it deems unconstitutional. “It’s the law of the land,” is the common refrain heard relative to decisions by SCOTUS (The Supreme Court of the United States). Once the court has spoken its ex-cathedra pronouncement, no one, it seems, has any right to question the ruling.

But this power, known as judicial review, is nowhere granted to the Court in the Constitution. Previous to the 1803 case Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court was understood to have the power to determine whether a law had been applied correctly, but it did not have the authority to rule on whether the statue in question was in accord with the Constitution.

Writing about judicial review relative to the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in favor of Obamacare, Ron Paul stated,

It is precisely this lawless usurpation of federalism that liberty-minded Americans must oppose. Why should a single swing vote on the Supreme Court decide if our entire nation is saddled with Obamacare? The doctrine of judicial review, which is nowhere to be found in Article III of the Constitution, has done nothing to defend liberty against extra-constitutional excesses by government. It is federalism and states’ rights that should protect our liberty, not nine individuals on a godlike Supreme Court.

The Constitution is not what the Supreme Court says it is (Romanist legal theory). Rather, the Supreme Court is what the Constitution says it is (Protestantism). And the Constitution says that Congress may strip jurisdiction from the Supreme Court over certain cases. As Ron Paul put it,

Apart from waiting forever for Supreme Court justices who will rule in accordance with the Constitution, however, American who care about our fundamental law and /or are concerned about abortion [or gay marriage/homosexual rights issues] do have some legislative recourse. Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution gives Congress the power to strip the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, of jurisdiction over broad categories of cases (The Revolution, 60).

There is no reason why Americans have to put up with the Supreme Court’s immoral ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. We have recourse if we are willing to use it.

Conservatism: What, Exactly, Has it Ever Conserved?

Well I recall the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s. Leading voices such as Jerry Falwell encouraged Christians to join the cultural wars, and millions of well-meaning individuals eagerly enlisted. Movement conservatives at the National Review stood athwart history yelling “Stop!” Books were written, columns were published. In the late 80s and early 90s, Rush Limbaugh went viral, reaching 10 million listeners coast to coast on a daily basis. A conservative revolution was just around the corner. I was almost palpable. But somewhere along the way, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Senator Barry Goldwater

In the 1980 presidential election, Ronald Regan famously asked the audience during one of his debates with Jimmy Carter, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” For most people, the answer was a resounding “no.” Reagan won the White House in a landslide. Fast forward to 2015, and conservatives should ask themselves this, “Is the country better off now than it was 40 years ago?” Has political conservatism done even one thing to stop our nation from sliding into the moral abyss? If so, I’d like to know what it is. By almost any measure – morally, politically, and financially – our nation is far worse off, than it was when the modern conservative movement was founded.

How is it possible that, after all the fundraisers, all the campaign promises, conservative think tank policy papers, and the Contract with America, that things have gotten to this point? When a baseball team goes on an extended losing streak, fans start calling for the manager to be fired. Evangelicals have bled for the conservative movement for decades, and what do we have to show for it? Gay marriage, Obamacare and the prospect of Hillary Clinton as our next president. Great job, guys. Way to go.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Christians to reconsider their marriage to the conservative movement. The best analysis of the conflict between Christianity and Conservatism I have ever seen was written by John Robbins in his 1978 essay Conservatism: An Autopsy. In the preface to the essay’s 2002 republication, Robbins wrote,

Despite being written almost 25 years ago, this essay remains relevant, for little has changed for the better. If anything, those who profess to be Christians are more gullible, confused, and compromised today than they were 25 years ago. For 50 years Christians in America have been bamboozled by Romanists like Patrick Buchanan, William Bennett, and William F. Buckley, Jr., into supporting their Antichristian programs, candidates, and theologies. The rise of the Religious Right—Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, D. James Kennedy’s Center for Reclaiming America, and Rousas Rushdoony’s-Gary North’s-Greg Bahnsen’s Re-constructionist movement—has exacerbated, not corrected, the situation. Now Romanists are invited to address D. James Kennedy’s political conferences, and putative Protestants endorse books by devout Romanists, and become Romanists and Orthodoxists themselves. And the Reconstructionist movement and its allies and offshoots, by substituting political and cultural action for the proclamation of the Gospel, by substituting eschatology for soteriology, and by mangling the Gospel itself, have become tools of Romanist political action. The lessons of this essay have been ignored.

When I first read the essay 13 years ago, it changed my life. Robbins’ main point was Evangelicals have been dupes of anti-Christian Romanist and neo-conservative political theorists, whose worldviews not only are incompatible Biblical Christianity, but actually hostile to it. I had been coming to this conclusion for several years on my own, but Robbins’ essay was the final blow that caused the scales to fall from my eyes.

Mainstream political conservatism is an anti-Christian waste of time. The sooner Christians come to realize this, the sooner they will be positioned to be the salt and light Christ called them to be.

A Myth: God Hates the Sin but Loves the Sinner

The popular saying, “God hates the sin but loves the sinner,” is simply false. Yes, God indeed does hate sin. But the Bible teaches that God also hates those who commit the sin. “The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5). “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience” (Colossians 3:6). “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:10). “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murders, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fie and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:6-8).

Does any of this sound remotely like Gods hates the sin but loves the sinner? God does not send sin to hell, but he does punish sinners with eternal damnation. Those who practice sodomy do that which is an abomination in the sight of God. God does not love them. Rather, his righteous wrath abides upon them. And unless they repent, he will surely condemn them to hell for all eternity, and be just in doing so.

And Such were Some of You…

It’s popular today to defend one’s actions, however depraved, by saying, “But I was born this way,” as if somehow that provides ethical cover for someone to do whatever he pleases. In truth, due to the fall we are all in some sense “born this way,” and yet in no way gets anyone off the hook with God. We are all responsible for our sins. That is to, we, all of us, will be required to give an account of our lives to God. We must answer to Christ for all of our thoughts, all of our words and all of our deeds. The apostle John tells us,

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).

Jesus tells us that by our words we will be justified and by our words we will be condemned. There is not the slightest suggestion in Scripture that the homosexual who defends his sin with “I was born this way” has any hope of escaping the judgment of God. Our righteous works, the best deeds we have ever done in our lives, are of no avail at the bar of God’s justice. If this is the case, what madness it is to suppose that somehow our sins, no matter how honestly we come by them, could ever justify us in the sight of God. But if we cannot plead our righteousness, if we cannot plead our sins, what hope does the homosexual or anyone else have of escaping eternal damnation?

Writing to the church at Corinth in the first century, the apostle Paul said,

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. 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 (I Corinthians 6:7-11).

Some may be puzzled that Paul distinguishes between homosexuals and sodomites. The reason for the two different English words is Paul uses two different words in the original Greek text as well, with malakoi (soft, effeminate) being translated as “homosexuals” and arsenokoitai (literally “manbedders”) rendered in English as “sodomites.” In using this pointed language, Paul is making a distinction between passive and active male homosexuals. He’s that blunt. And, as he makes very clear, neither of these groups will inherit the kingdom of God

But that’s not the end of the passage. For Paul goes on to make the point, “And such WERE some of you.” Notice the past tense? Some of these Corinthian Christians had previously been active and passive male homosexuals, but now they were washed, now they were sanctified, now they were justified through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear friend, if you are struggling with the sin of homosexuality, know for certain that the Supreme Court ruling will not save you. If you trust in Obergefell v. Hodges, you will die in your sins and be cast into hell forever. The homosexual movement is a lie. It’s leaders do not have your interest at heart. But Christ Jesus, he is strong to save. Believe in him. He will heal your mind and separate you from your sins, as far as the east is from the west. This he will do if you but confess your sins and call upon his name. Whoever comes to Jesus, he will by no means cast him out.

Conclusion

The success of the homosexual movement is perhaps the most shocking turn of events in my lifetime. A scant twenty years ago, most Americans never would have believed same sex marriage would be declared legal in all 50 states. I’m not sure even most people in the homosexual rights movement would have believed it. But that is where we are today.

As a Christian, it is deeply disturbing to know that not a single public institution in our society is on our side. The politicians, the courts, academia, business and the entertainment community all are behind the homosexual rights agenda and arrayed themselves in opposition to God and to his Christ. And if history is any guide, they will not stop with this victory. Since the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, those in the West have enjoyed unprecedented freedom to preach and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That time appears rapidly to be drawing to an end. Unless the Lord sends us a second Reformation or Christ himself soon returns, the prospect of stepped up persecution of Christians in the West is almost assured.

But Christians, take heart. For we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God. To those who are the called according to his purpose. God will use even these dark times to bless his people. For the right man in on our side. The man of God’s own choosing. And he must win the battle.