7 Ways Jesus Condemned Gay “Marriage”

Matthew 19:4-6 " He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.""

One of the arguments for those in support of gay "marriage," especially among those who claim to be gay and Christian, is the silence of Jesus on gay "marriage" and homosexuality.

However, just because Jesus never mentioned gay "marriage" doesn't mean that what He said about Biblical marriage doesn't condemn gay it.

In Matthew 19 Jesus is being tested by the Pharisees about divorce, asking Him if it was "lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?" The answer He gives not only condemns divorce, but also condemns any view of marriage outside of God’s original design.

Here are seven ways His answer to the Pharisees condemned gay "marriage."

1. Jesus condemned gay "marriage" by pointing to the Scriptures about God’s only design for marriage- "Have you not read"

It is the Scriptures that define what marriage is. Jesus pointed to the Scriptures to answer the Pharisees, making it clear that Scripture itself was His final authority.

You will not find anything positive ever being said about homosexuality anywhere in the Scriptures.

2. Jesus condemned gay "marriage" by pointing to God’s original and only plan for marriage- "from the beginning"

God never designed marriage to be between two persons of the same sex. His plan "from the beginning" was, and is, only between a man and a woman.

3. Jesus condemned gay "marriage" by pointing to God’s original and only design- "male and female,"

The very fact that Jesus mentions "male and female," and only "male and female," shows that God never intended for marriage to be otherwise.

4. Jesus condemned gay "marriage" by defining the structure of family and marriage- "father and mother," "hold fast to his wife"

The Biblical definition of a family unit is father and mother, husband and wife. Outside of this definition, the family unit does not exist. Even if much of society accepts gay couples with adopted children as "family," the Biblical definition does not. It is God who defines what a family is, not society.

5. Jesus condemned gay "marriage by pointing to the sacred Union of marriage- "and the two shall become one flesh," "they are no longer two"

Marriage is holy. And it is holy because God Himself is the One who established it. Nowhere in Scripture does it ever imply a redefinition of this sacred union. The "two that become "one" can only be man and woman since they compliment each other.

This union would also imply sexual union, since God designed the male and female body to fit together. Two people of the same sex cannot have this union since the parts don’t fit.

6. Jesus condemned gay "marriage" by warning against the desecration of marriage- "What therefore God has joined together," let not man separate"

Although this is specifically speaking of divorce, there is an implication here. God Himself is the One who established the covenant of marriage. Therefore, "man" has no right to redifine what marriage is. Those who do this are in direct opposition with the God who designed the marriage covenant.

7. Jesus condemned gay "marriage" by never referring to it.

The argument goes like this: "Since Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality you have no right to use Him in your arguments against it."

The problem for the homosexual is that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality. Weren't there homosexuals in His day that wanted what homosexuals want in our day, just to be accepted? Since people are supposedly born gay shouldn't Jesus have addressed the issue? Shouldn't He have stood up for the rights of gay people who were obviously treated worse than they are today? And yet He said nothing. Since "sexual orientation is from birth" homosexuals are born the way they are right? And yet nowhere does Jesus even mention it.

 

 

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4 Essential Apps for Mobile Bible Study

Note: This post is not intended to be an exhaustive review of these apps. I highlight some of the better features to give you an idea of what each app can do. 

The mobile age has been thrust on us. And like it or not, we are apart of it. With the dawn of the tablet, the Kindle, and other large screen portable devices, we need not feel overwhelmed or threatened by all the pixels pounding their way into our homes.

In fact, we can take advantage of it; especially those of us who are believers. How so? In bygone days when one wanted to do Bible study on the go, it meant lugging around a bunch of books that weighed nearly as much as we did. Not to mention, if one had a large library then he would have to be pretty selective deciding which books were a necessity for the subject he was studying.

But in today's tech driven world, most times, we can access our entire libraries with a tap or swipe of the finger. And I'm no different. I've learned to take advantage of this truly digital era. I like my study to be just as mobile as me. For that reason, I'd like to share with you what I consider to be 4 essential apps for mobile Bible study. And don't worry. I've included lots of screenshots so you can kind of see what it all looks like. Ready? Here goes:

Bible App

Obviously, you'll need some kind of a Bible app to do mobile Bible study. Because I own a base package for my Mac I have the Logos app on my iPad, as well. It really is a nifty app, allowing you to to do word studies of the original languages on the go, taking notes on passages you're currently studying, and includes the popular Passage and Exegetical guides within the app, though somewhat much more limited than the than the desktop version. One of the biggest downsides of this app, though, is that it doesn't have the capabilities of doing word lookups & studies without an internet connection. Hopefully, this is something they will resolve in the near future, as it has been a long-standing request. For other good Bible apps, also check out Accordance and Olive Tree. Screenshots of the Logos app in action are below!

This is the Home Screen. It features a different verse every day, along with artwork to accompany the Scripture

An array of highlighting styles are available as well as pop-up cross references upon tapping on them. The references are hyperlinked so they can be followed as you tap on them

Long tapping on a word and then choosing the 'Look Up' option brings up the original languages word. You can then choose 'Bible Word Study,' for further info, which will be seen in the next screen shot

The Bible Word Study brings up a ring. Each segment reveals how the English translates the particular English rendering, along with the verse references

The Exegetical Guide pulls from your available grammars and critical apparatuses on the particular passage you happen to be studying at the moment

This is the word-by-word portion of the Exegetical Guide. Having this on the iPad is sweet!!

The Passage Guide is similar to the Exegetical Guide. It pulls all relevant resources from whatever passage you are studying

Pages

Pages is a simple, clean word processor with a lot of features packed into a mobile app. It has the ability to add columns, shapes, styles, and pretty much what you would expect from a word processor. Pages also allows you to export your documents in a PDF format right from the app itself. This is extremely useful, as we will look at with one of the other apps. The $9.99 price tag is bit high for my taste, but I was zealous when I first bought my iPad and went a little haywire. Check out the screenshots below. 

The Start-up Screen

Different shapes that can be added to enhance your document

There are a lot of different styling options. The usual, such as bold, italic, underline are also avialable

Galatians 1 pasted into a Pages document. I set it  up for two columns so it would "feel" more like reading from my Bible

This is where you change the layout (margins, headers, footers, etc). When pasting passages from the Bible in my documents I like to set the margins to .5 inches with double space. It gives a lot of room to make notes

Goodreader

By far, the most useful app that I use is Goodreader. This app is absolutely incredible and indispensable  for mobile Bible study. It has a number of capabilities, the main feature being able to mark up a PDF document almost anyway you can imagine. But the usefulness doesn't stop there. You can import your documents, pics, videos, even read your e-mail from within the app. It also allows you to use its built in web browser to download interesting links, which can be viewed offline. I tested this particular feature by downloading a link  and then turning of my wifi connection. I was still able to view the web article while offline. And for the $3.99 price tag, it's well worth it.

Drawing on a PDF is useful, and this is where the Pages app  works in cooperation with Goodreader. Simply export your pasted passage as a PDF and open it in Goodreader. There are a number of shapes and colors available. You can add arrows, lines, ovals, rectangles, highlights, etc., during the observation phase of your study. Hopefully, the screenshots below will demonstrate the power of this most awesome app!

This is what the text looks like unaltered. This screenshot is in the Pages app before opening it up in the Goodreader app

As you can see, there are a myriad of options for marking up a text: colors, shapes, text boxes, and such help with the observation phase. Even the thickness, weight, and shapes of the lines can be changed. In the pic above, I have devised my own system of different colors and shapes

This is the free-hand drawing option. It has a zoom feature that allows you to draw more precisely. Note, that everything in the box at the bottom is the same as the box on the top. The box can be moved to different parts of the text to accommodate drawing anywhere in the document. A stylus would probably be better for finer drawing, but I didn't have one handy at the time 

The app allows you to import you pics, as well. Notice the tic circles for selecting which pics you would like to import

This feature is great as it allows you to connect the most popular cloud services. Once connected, you can then open any of your docs in the app; even Word & PPts. And yes, I've tried it :)
You can even read your mail inside the app!

This cool feature allows you to open a web page in the app. It's particularly useful if you're like me and use web services such as CCEL (Christian Classics Ethereal Library) to read and study early church writings. 

Just to demonstrate, I've opened up our blog within Goodreader. Notice how it has two separate tabs that can be switched back and forth. It also has the classic "x" button to close out any given tab

Bible Vocab HD

My last essential app for mobile Bible study is Bible Vocab HD. This one is aimed more at the language geeks, but is very helpful for the lay person as well. You can dial in any passage or range of passages and get all the given original language words for that passage. It has a slideshow mode in which you can review and learn all the words in a passage. It also has a parsing slideshow mode so you can learn the parsing for each form as well. It is very useful for original language studies. Bible Vocab HD will cost you $5.99.

This is the screen where you dial in your passage. Currently, I have 3 in my list. Just tap on the 'Add Passage' link and the dial will open, allowing you to choose the range of passage(s) you desire

Here is Psalm 119:1-8, to give an example of how it looks. Notice the 'Parsing' on the top left and 'Vocab' on the top right. Pressing these will take you to the slideshow mode for study and quizzing yourself. Parsing is not yet available for Hebrew

Here is the New Testament. There are also options available for choosing which Greek New Testament you would like to use

Slide show mode. Just tap the screen to reveal the answer

The Parsing mode. The parsings are hidden until you tap the screen. It's a great way to learn your vocab and different forms of all the words in any given passage

Those are my 4 picks for essential apps for mobile Bible study. Feel free to drop me a comment if you have any questions. I hope this post has encouraged you to take advantage of technology for God's glory. Soli Deo Gloria!

Steven

6 Ways You Can Protect Yourself Against False Teachers

The media is saturated with Charismatic preachers and teachers performing wacky signs and wonders ranging from the creepy, to the silly.

 

From self proclaimed prophet Bill Johnson's "glory cloud," to Jesse Duplantis's "conversations" with God, experiencing the supernatural seems to be, and from the mouths of these preachers, should be the "norm" for every Christian.

But rarely, if ever, will you hear these teachers expound Scripture. I'm not saying they don't use Scripture in their "sermons." They do. But they use Scripture to validate their "supernatural experiences" not for "teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work," 2Timothy 3:16-17.

What these teachers are actually doing is leading their people away from God, and not to Him.

They are causing their people to rely upon personal experience rather than what God has already said in His inspired, inerrant Word.

Scores of Christians are regularly tuning in to these hucksters and being deceived by their false visions, prophesies, and "supernatural experiences." They think they're being taught the Word of God, when in actuality they're being led astray.

So what are some things we can do to keep us from falling prey to these false prophets?

1.Read the Bible, and I mean large portions of it daily.

I can't stress this enough. You can't read a chapter a day and think that's enough to be discerning. The average reader can read 5-7 chapters in 30 min.

Just doing this alone will greatly reduce the chances of falling prey to these teachers.

2.Read through entire books of the Bible.

Don't just flip open the Bible and start reading. Start in a book and read it all of the way through.

3.Find Pastors and teachers who expound the Scriptures.

Here are a few to get you started.

Grace to You

Ligonier

Desiring God

Truth For Life

4.Read Church History.

You don't have to go to Bible college or seminary to learn Church History. There are blogs, web sites, and even apps (iTunes University) to help with this.

Why read Church History? Because there is "nothing new under the sun," Ecc. 2:9. Tim Challies puts it this way:

In many ways the history of the church is a history of action and reaction. Much of Christian theology has been developed and strengthened in reaction to error and heresy. When we visit the past we can see how error has arisen in the church and we can see which errors have already arisen and have been decided by a consensus of the church. This can be valuable as we face the inevitable error in our own day. Many Christians engage anew in battles over doctrine for which they could receive a great deal of guidance from great theologians of days past. By studying what has happened, we can avoid future errors and even the patterns that precede error.

5.Study Theology.

Everyone is a theologian. The question is are you a good theologian or a bad one? Studying theology can give us a sound biblical foundation and protect us from error. Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is a good place to start.

6.Test the teacher.

If the Bereans were commended for testing what the apostle Paul was saying by the Scriptures (Acts 17:11) then we have every right to test what our teachers are saying by the Scriptures.

One of the most sobering passages in Scripture not only applies to the False Teachers, but to those led astray by them as well:

2 Peter 2:1-3 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bart Simpson and the Doctrine of Vocation

Several years ago I caught part of an episode of the Simpsons. The Simpson family was sitting at the table ready to have a meal. Bart Simpson was asked to pray. He bowed his head, closed his eyes and said, "Thanks for nothin God. We got this food ourselves."

I worked. I bought. I cooked.

Unfortunately, that's the way many people think. "I worked for the money to buy the food, then I went to the grocery store and bought the food, after that I cooked the food. So, why am I thanking God for the food?" Even Christians can fall into this way of thinking. We pray and thank God before each meal, but we often fail to see just how much God was involved in providing that meal for us.

God works through the ordinary

This is where the "doctrine of vocation" comes in. The word "vocation" comes from the Latin word for "calling." God calls people to their particular stations in life. He calls them to be farmers, truck drivers, teachers, factory workers, grocery clerks, police officers, fire fighters. All of these vocations are necessary for society to function, and God uses these vocations to provide, protect, and bless us.

Your job is your calling

Most people outside of the Christian Faith do not acknowledge that God has called them, but He has nonetheless. He is the One who gives them the skills and abilities to do the work that He has sovereignly placed them in- Acts 17:26 " And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,"

God at Work

So have you ever thought about all of the vocations involved in the breakfast you ate this morning? In his book God at Work, Gene Veith puts it like this:

"When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, observed Luther, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. And He does give us our daily bread. He does it by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal. We might today add the truck drivers who hauled the produce, the factory workers in the food processing plant, the warehouse men, the wholesale distributors, the stock boys, the lady at the checkout counter. Also playing their part are the bankers, futures investors, advertisers, lawyers, agricultural scientists, mechanical engineers, and every other player in the nation’s economic system. All of these were instrumental in enabling you to eat your morning bagel."

"Though He could give it to us directly, by a miraculous provision, as He once did for the children of Israel when He fed them daily with manna, God has chosen to work through human beings, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other. This is the doctrine of vocation."

Sorry Bart

And this is why we can be genuinely thankful to God for the meal we are about to receive. Through the vocations of many different people, it truly was God who provided the breakfast you ate this morning. Sorry Bart.

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Your Job is a High and Holy Calling: The Doctrine of Vocation

God is at work in the world. But He normally works through means. That is, through ordinary everyday situations and people. Now for sure, God is God, and can work in His world any way He chooses. For example, He could have continued to create the human race the way He created the first man and woman, out of the dust of the ground. He could miraculously provide our food by turning rocks into bread. When we get sick He could always heal us through the laying on of hands, or through prayer.

God works through ordinary people

But this is not the normal way He works. He chooses to provide for and bless us through the "vocations" of normal everyday people. He uses the Pastor to teach us His Word, the policeman to protect us, the farmer to provide food, the truck driver to deliver food to the grocery store, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, as well as a host of others in the medical field to heal us. Yes He could have chosen the miraculous to do all of these things but instead He chooses to work through the ordinary.

The elevation of vocation

This should be encouraging to us, especially as believers, because it elevates our "vocations" from the mundane and menial to the high and holy. During the time of the medieval church, the only "vocations" ("vocation" comes from the Latin word for "calling") were those involved in full time church work, priests, nuns, monks, etc. The peasant farmer, kitchen maid, soldier, tool maker, although all necessary, were looked upon as unspiritual and worldly. The "doctrine of vocation" taught by the Reformers changed all that.

Even the most menial task is holy

Through the "doctrine of vocation" Christians began to realize that even the most menial task is holy. The priest, nun and monk were no holier than the handmaid, farmer, shoe maker, and soldier. Because the Christian is justified by faith, whatever the "vocation", it is a high and holy calling. The Bible makes it clear that every believer is a Priest: 1Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Because every Christian is a Priest, every vocation is holy.

God assigned your job

The Apostle Paul says: 1 Corinthians 7:17 Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches." It is God who assigns our vocations. Let that encourage you today. And tomorrow, when you wake up and begin getting ready for the day, remember that whatever you do, whether housewife, teacher, truck driver, or grocery store clerk, your job is a high and holy calling.

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