Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Christian Podcast Central

Home
Evangelical - Sponsored
Summit Lecture Series: Grounded In Truth, Apply Love To People

Summit Lecture Series: Grounded In Truth, Apply Love To People

Last updated on: September 27, 2021 at 10:00 am by Christian Podcast Central

Summit Lecture Series: Grounded In Truth, Apply Love To People 2021-09-25T13:25:22-08:00 Christian Podcast Central

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What Is Marriage?

To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series, Vol. 2 on DVD, visit summit.org.

John Stonestreet:

I am reformed enough in my theology where I think that the reason that I’m going to heaven is because of Jesus, not because I got things right. Does that make sense? It’s grace and the first action of grace comes from God, not from me. And if you’re a Calvinist or Armenian, you agree. I mean, it’s just, God does that. So, I am not ready to look at someone and say, you’re going to heaven, you’re not going to heaven. And you’re going to hell, because that’s not my job and it’s not actually what I’m supposed to do. What I’m supposed to do is encourage everyone who’s a brother and sister in Christ to follow. So if I saw you, right, in heterosexual sin, and I said nothing, that would be a problem. Right. And I think that carries over. One of the things it’s not lost on the homosexual or transgender community that the only time we’re bringing this up is when it has to do with homosexuality or transgender.

We’ve been just stunningly silent on porn addiction of pastors and porn addiction of grownups and of all kinds of different things. Right. And so I think we need to be consistent. I know this isn’t a direct answer, but I’m just not ready to say to someone you’re definitely going to hell. Yeah. I mean, I was in the park the other day and I saw a guy with a shirt that said, “Smoke meth and worship Satan.” That guy might be going to hell, you know what I’m saying? I might be willing to say that, but that’s just a really dangerous thing to do.

The scripture holds that out. And my job is to say, “Look, this is what Christ says.” What option do I have? It’s like Peter saying, “Jesus turns around when all the disciples leave him.” And he says, “Are you going to leave too?” And Peter says, “Where else am I going to go? You have the words of eternal life.” Right? So that’s the thing and that’s what I was kind of tell you. Don’t let your emotions get swayed by situations, let your emotions be grounded in truth, and then apply love to the situation and to the people. So, yeah. Really difficult thing, who you got next?

All right. So there’s been a lot of cases of same sex couples, suing different businesses and organizations and stuff like that. But do you ever think that there’s a situation where a same sex couple does have legitimate legal action to be able to take out on that kind of thing?

Yeah, no, absolutely. And this is one of the things that it’s needs to be understood in terms of these cases that have happened. Okay. In all of the situations so far where it’s happened, what we have been told, is that the same sex couples were discriminated against as people. The reality is in all of these situations, primarily the bakery in Denver, there’s a case in Washington that was a little bit different. But then that photographer in New Mexico, they had served these people products that were part of their business already. They were asked to participate in a ceremony. And that’s when they said, no. Okay, now what’s happening is, and probably the clearest example of this is what happened with the New Mexico photography case. Okay. So here you have a woman, Elaine Huguenin who had been a photographer, they emailed and said, “We’re going to have a same-sex commitment ceremony”.

She emails back very politely and says, “You know what? That’s just not something I do. Here’s someone who does it and you can contact them.” So she referred them to another photographer. They were able to get a photographer there. They were happy with the work, and it was cheaper than Elane Photography would’ve charged them, but they still sued Elane Photography. And what Elane Photography argued was, “I would have done a portrait of someone who claims to be a lesbian. That’s not an issue, but they asked me to participate in a lesbian commitment ceremony. And I’m a person of faith. And I can’t separate my faith from my job, from my work.” Does that make sense? And to participate would be having to force that. So when she was penalized, when the civil rights commission found her guilty, there was a concurring opinion written by a New Mexico judge called Richard Bosson and Bosson, what he said was so stunningly unbelievable.

What he wrote was that in America, you can have deeply held personal beliefs, but you have to curtail those beliefs when you live it out in the public square. That is a definition of religious freedom that they have in China, that they have in Cuba, that they have in North Korea. In of other words, you can believe whatever you want in your own head, but you’re not allowed to bring it into the public square. And what he went on to argue is, you have to, this is what he said, “You have to separate your belief from your behavior, because by doing so, you don’t separate their belief from their behavior.” What’s the first freedom in the constitution, the freedom of conscience, what Richard Bosson just said is the first freedom is the freedom of sexual orientation.

So she was literally told you have to separate your belief from your behavior, so that you don’t separate their belief from their behavior. And he goes on to say, and I quote, “This is the price of citizenship.” This is a brand new understanding of religious liberty. And what’s happened is, we’ve got a reversal. Now your question was, do gay and lesbian people have rights? Yes. They have human rights. They have rights. So if someone discriminated against them, right, because they were human, then yes, that’s a problem. If someone did not serve them, if a doctor did not treat them for surgery, right? But participating in a ceremony that celebrates behavior, that’s a different thing altogether. Do you see that distinction? That’s a really, really important distinction. But what we’re being told is to not participate, not celebrate someone’s behavior is to discriminate it against the person. But we’re only doing that now in the area of sexuality, not in any other area, does that help you at all? Okay, great question.

People who are related can’t have sex because the outcome of their child will be a genetic. disorder.

Not that they can’t have sex, they can have sex. What I’m saying-

… Yeah, but the outcome …

… Is that it’s illegal, that they can have … they’re discriminated against in marriage. Is that what you’re talking about?

No, what I’m talking about is the disease that follows. What I’m not understanding is in Genesis when Adam and Eve … how did that all start? Because that’s one family, that’s all the same genetics.

Right, right, right. So, yeah, no, obviously when you have this and by the way, you have to remember throughout the history of the world, marriage wasn’t about having romantic feelings with someone else. Okay. Romantic feelings, followed marriage. Marriage was used as an institution to secure alliances. Marriage in Genesis is again, the institution by which God is going to build the whole human race. So did Cain marry his sister? Yeah. There’s no other explanation. Okay. But you also have to understand too, that you don’t have this multiplication of the gene pool that’s going to be creepy, that’s going to be effective at this point. Okay. So as a result of the fall, and this is how I think we understand it, as a result of the fall, the gene pool, the fall starts impacting everything, right. And impacts every aspect of God’s creation including our genetic makeup.

And then you start having these negative consequences. And so the mosaic law, right? The law that identifies Israel is one of the first ones to say incest, eh-eh, right. Because, at this point it was no longer necessary. There is going to be these corruptions in the gene pool and that sort of stuff, that there’s not going to be with Adam and Eve’s kids. Does that make sense? Now, what I was saying earlier is not anything having to do with that. Just that now it has just been eternally long established, right? In every civilized country that incestuous relationships are discriminated against when it comes to marriage and there’s a good reason for that. And that is because of the health of the offspring. Does that help? Okay. I will be back on Thursday.

And so if you want to pick up one of the same sex marriage books, they’re in the bookstore, they’re 10 bucks. All right. It’s 160 pages. It’s very readable. Chapter 12, the very last chapter is, What do I do if? With a whole bunch of scenarios and the appendix of the book, is written by a friend of mine who is a same-sex attracted believer who has committed his life to celibacy, and also is going into the ministry. He’s brilliant. And I asked him, what do you need from the church? And that’s probably worth the price of the book alone. All right, good. Thanks guys.

Follow Christian Podcast Central on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see our ongoing discussion with Dr. Jeff Myers regarding worldviews.

(This podcast is by Summit Ministries. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central.)

The Summit Lecture Series

Previous Post

September 26, 2021

I'm A Christian & I Will Stand Strong – Brad Stine Mini-Cast

Next Post

September 28, 2021 A Message From A Cold Warrior in Hot Water | What You’ve Been Searching For

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Brad Stine Has Issues Christian Podcast Central Classic Podcast Experience God Life Grounded Ouxano Parent Like You Mean It The Protest Show with Thor Ramsey The Summit Lecture Series Uncategorized What You’ve Been Searching For

Select a Month July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 June 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz