Of the world, but not in it?

I'm afraid that (consciously or unconsciously) we are allowing the culture of this age to design the floor plan, build the foundation, construct the framing, and install all of the mechanical trades and fixtures in our thinking, and only then do we allow the Unadulterated Truth of Christ and His Word to choose the paint colors and hang a few pictures on the wall, and occasionally do a small repair or a tiny remodel.  I am concerned that this type of surface deep "Christianity" will not withstand when the pressures of life come.

The current divorce rate in the church; the rate at which student-age-church-goers are exiting the faith, never to return are both foils against which I filter this thought, and they leave me more concerned, not less.

We need to start considering how the culture we are inevitably, and even purposefully living in has informed our definitions of life, humanity, marriage, parenting, education, truth, entertainment, friendship...and whether the conclusions the culture has drawn, which we have accepted very deeply, harmonize with a deeply-rooted biblical view of the same topics.

An Example

The currently held definition of marriage, by those who are on the extremely conservative Christian side of our culture appears to me to be:

 "One man and one woman; in partnership; for mutual fulfillment and pleasure; a joint economic venture to cut costs of living; sexually fulfilling; children optional; pleasure non-optional; divorce frowned on but ultimately accepted without much ado besides surprise and chagrin and awkwardness on the part of others within the church."

There is, pragmatically speaking, a very slender, if any, difference between that definition of marriage and a union between two of the same gender.  All you have to do is replace a gender in the first clause of the marriage definition above, and the rest works perfectly.

Not so, a biblically grounded view of marriage.  Not even close.  In fact, you can not get from biblical marriage to same-sex union!  There is no road in between.

Biblical marriage is, for one thing, a demonstration of submission to God's rule and authority in the world to the fallen angels, thus a man by submitting to Christ as his head, and a woman by submitting to her husband acknowledges that Satan is wrong in his posturing lie that God's rules are hindering true fulfillment, (which was his primary lie in the garden and still today).  A woman, by submitting to her husband's authority says "No, Satan, you are wrong!  God is good, and you are not!"

How can a same-sex union do this?  It can not, by it's very nature!

A Biblical marriage is for submitting to the Lord as he allows the bearing of children.  Sex is not for pleasure primarily according to scripture.  Pleasure is a wonderful, fulfilling and important secondary consideration, but it is not its only or even its primary function.  We have allowed the culture to tell us differently, but the Scripture does not.  

How can a same-sex union accomplish this?  It can not, by it's very nature!

A Biblical marriage is an opportunity for a man to love a woman as the weaker vessel.

How can  a same-sex union accomplish this?  It can not, by it's very nature there is no weaker vessel to be honored.

I'm sure this will stir up controversy.  Stir away!


Citation:
Clark, David.  "Some of David's Thoughts on Culture and Living". David's Brain. Gurley, AL.  Accessed: 30 January, 2011.