Today (October9, 2014) at 5 p.m., mountain time, we will know what the courts will say in regard to Idaho’s defense of marriage. In the mean time I’ve received messages like this in response to my calling the church (Eastside Baptist) to prayer.
“OK, well in my place of worship my pastor fully supports gay rights. I’m a bisexual Christian I married a man when I was 19 and that man cheated on me and divorced me and with man or woman I’m happy and God is happy to call me his child and is proud that I spread love throughout the state.. So keep your rude remarks to yourself.. Same sex is here to stay and God is proud of his same sex children.”
When I’m in conversation with someone that goes here I recognize immediately that this person has found a church that will make them feel good about their sin. But the greatest tragedy in this conversation is when she said… “in my place of worship my pastor fully supports gay rights.” As a result of that kind of apostasy, the people begin to assert other lies about God being proud to have practicing bisexuals spread love throughout the state.
She has great capacity to spread love throughout the state as a converted repenter, no longer in the practice of depravity. When the grace of God rests on a persons life it is the result of a costly grace. Few people want to submit to that kind of grace, they want a cheap grace that doesn’t call them out of the sin they are in.
I don’t doubt that she believes what she’s saying. There is little doubt she is passionate about her belief, more so than many professing conservative “Christians”. The problem is that it is a belief based on lies.
In his sermon “Backsliding”, Richard Owen Roberts says:
“The religious leaders had joined the backsliding hosts. The priests failed to ask, “Where is the Lord?” Those responsible for handling the law did not know God. The pastors also transgressed against the Lord, and the prophets joined the forces of Baal. Thus, all the religious leaders engaged in activities totally devoid of spiritual benefit.”
7 “I brought you into the fruitful land
To eat its fruit and its good things.
But you came and defiled My land,
And My inheritance you made an abomination.
8 “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’
And those who handle the law did not know Me;
The rulers also transgressed against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And walked after things that did not profit.
Jer 2:7-8 (NASB)
Preachers, be sure this Sunday, when we speak the oracles of God that we don’t spew a spiritual poison that makes our hearers twice as fit for hell as we would be for such blasphemy.
S. Scott Maxwell
October 9, 2014 at 12:34 PMBro. Paul,
Thank you for your timely words. Beside speaking out against this decision of the Supreme Court, I have personally felt a conviction to take a particular stand. The following is what I have shared both online, and officially in our business meeting. I would encourage all pastors to consider at minimum making a personal public statement of conviction, to proclaim truth, and to protect themselves and their church (particularly) from future legal entanglement.
My statement follows (others may not want to make the initial statement on the branches of our government):
We have…
1. An Executive branch with an illegitimate president who I believe is not a citizen of the United States of America, who has unconstitutionally created regulatory institutions by administrative fiat (as have his predecessors), and encouraged the passage of immoral laws.
2. A Legislative branch that has created intrusive institutions and laws that go far beyond constitutional limits, and has actively participated in the passing of or allowed judicial activism to create immoral laws.
3. A Judicial branch which has both created and allowed unconstitutional laws through judicial activism and it’s intentional failure to act.
Our nation is imploding in on itself as a result of our moral relativism. We are governed by elitists who believe that they know better than the people who elected them how we should live, and they have no moral foundation.
Today, the United States Supreme Court, in their arrogant inaction affirming the like arrogant judicial activist decision of the lower court, decided that the people of Utah do not matter in our convictions that “marriage” is defined as being between a man and a woman alone.
The resulting impact on my ability to serve my Lord as an ordained minister of the Gospel according to my convictions is profound. I have always counted it a joy to officiate weddings, and with that to sign documents which allow those marriages to receive recognition by the state.
As the state no longer recognizes a Biblical definition of marriage, I can no longer recognize the states authority to legitimize marriages, nor can I participate in the state process.
It has never been the states role to legitimize the joining of a man and woman in matrimony, and it is time we make that abundantly clear.
My declaration:
1. I believe that it is time for people of religious conviction, particularly of the Christian faith, to take back from the government that which is not its domain, the institution of marriage and all other areas of moral conviction. As a consequence…
2. I will no longer serve as an officer of the court by signing government marriage certificates.
3. I will joyously officiate Marriage Covenant Ceremonies between one man and one woman, and I will personally recognize those marriages regardless of any state action.
4. As believers, we must be prepared for attempts by institutions of our government to broaden the control they hold in our lives, and to stand together in faith against that oppression. We must be be prepared for persecution just as our brethren have faced in other times and places. Though prepared, we must not seek conflict where none is forced upon us, but simply live fully believing Jesus, even when He warned that we would be hated by the world.
5. We must be strong in our convictions.
Note: This is not about hating homosexuals, though I am certain some will interpret it that way. . Have homosexual friends and family that I love, this is in no way intended to indicate a change in my heart, nor my conviction that God loves them and sent His Son Jesus to die for them. It is specific in scope to the institution of marriage and it’s Biblical definition.
S. Scott Maxwell
Pastor
First Baptist Church of Vernal, UT
Paul
October 9, 2014 at 1:29 PMBrother,
I appreciate your comments.
I have respect for your boldness and will pray with you as we long proclaim biblical truths in our communities.
I appreciate your declaration.
I too have a similar position that will be published soon, in addition to what I’ve been saying from my post on the city wall.
May the Gospel go forth with joy in Vernal, UT.
Paul
Johnathan Wesley long
October 9, 2014 at 12:52 PMKeep speaking out when you have opposition like you have been getting that can only mean one thing. Satan hates the light and he will do all he can to dimm it.
Paul
October 10, 2014 at 1:12 PMFriday: Update from Times News:
http://magicvalley.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/gay-couples-ask-high-court-to-lift-marriage-stay/article_0122373c-1026-5c9a-a5be-4a087639aa39.html