We have a serious battle being waged regarding homosexual marriage. A few claim that they have rights over the many and should be allowed to "marry" regardless of their gender. This article explores the pros and cons of such behavior.
It shouldn’t take much to see that the homosexual activists are violating the First Amendment in trying to censure Churches and Christian’s rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion without government interference. Religion is defined as “a set of beliefs”. By enforcing censorship against Christians and endorsing homosexual behavior, the government is establishing a religion of anti-God homosexual behavior. This is exactly what the ACLU wants to accomplish. They want to criminalize Christianity and remove every trace, mention and practice of it from the earth.
Our nation was founded by Christians on Christian principles. Our government of self-government will only work as long as we follow those Christian principles. If we discard them as the liberals and homosexuals want to do, then we will need more and bigger government, more police and all of the restrictions of freedom that come with it. Without any allegiance and respect for God, our nation will ultimately self-destruct.
Homosexuals and other liberals claim that they want tolerance (which they have had for most of our nation’s history) but their idea of tolerance is only one way. They don’t seem to understand that tolerance is a two-way street.
Liberalism is more enslaving than Christianity. Compare the chart below and explain what is freeing about all of the guilt, shame, diseases, death and destruction that come with sexual immorality.
The bottom line of this entire matter is whether we respect God’s values or not. The homosexuals and other sexually immoral people think that by getting the government to condone their immorality, they won’t feel guilty for their sin. It didn’t work with divorce. It didn’t work with abortion and it will not work with homosexuality. Those who do such things know that what they are doing is wrong and they will not find relief from the guilt until they turn their lives over to doing it God’s way and accepting the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. How can immoral people justify immorality when it is so harmful to themselves and others?
I put this together and have added Scriptures from the New Testament below to back it up. As you can see, this initially approaches the entire sexual issue from a non-religious perspective.
MARRIAGEbetween a man and a woman
Sex between a husband and wife
BENEFITS
God Blesses
More frequent
More satisfying
Strengthens the marriage commitment
No fear of sexually transmitted disease
No risk of getting AIDS (would end sex all transmitted diseases)
Strengthens marriages
No unwanted children
No abortion
Less divorce
Better environment for raising children
Happier, healthier, more stable children
Is not adultery
Is not fornication
No cheating on spouse
Accepted for all of earth’s history (over 6,000 yrs.)
Integrity
Fulfilling
Loving, giving, unselfish
No pornography
No prostitution
No homosexuality
No pedophilia
No rape
No guilt
No shame
Costs
None
SEXUAL IMMORALITY
Any sex outside of marriage
COSTS
Less frequent
Less satisfying
No commitment
Fear of sexually transmitted disease
Spreads AIDS (increases all sexually transmitted diseases)
Weakens or destroys marriages
Risk of unwanted pregnancy (guilt & shame)
Abortion (and post-traumatic guilt_
More divorce (and related guilt)
Worse environment for raising children
Children grow up insecure and more troubled
Adultery
Fornication
Cheating on marriage vows (spouse)
Considered wrong throughout earth’s history
Lack of integrity
Unfulfilling
Selfish, using, taking
Pornography (a crime)
Prostitution (a crime)
Homosexuality (does not produce children)
Pedophilia (a crime that is committed by mostly homosexuals)
Includes rape (a crime)
Guilt
Shame
Benefits
Temporary sexual gratification
God Condemns
It is amazing what our world has come to since so many people have chosen to neglect God’s teachings.
New Testament Scriptures regarding marriage and sexual immorality:
Matthew 5:27-28 – 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”Matthew 5:31-32 – 31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.”Matthew 15:17-19 – 17
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”Matthew 19:8-9 – 8 Jesus replied,
“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9
I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”Matthew 19:16-21 – 16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied.
“There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”18 “Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied,
“ ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered,
“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”Mark 7:20-23 – 20 He went on:
“What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ”Mark 10:2-12 – 2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” He replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.
11 He answered,
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”Mark 10:17-21 – 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered.
“No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him.
“One thing you lack,” He said.
“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”Luke 16:18 – 18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”Luke 18:18-22 – 18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered.
“No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him,
“You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”Acts 15:20, 28-29 – 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:
29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Romans 1:24-27 – 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Romans 2:22-23 – 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
Romans 13:9-10, 13-14 – 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
I Corinthians 5:1-2, 9-11 – It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
I Corinthians 6:9-10, 12-20 – 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
12 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
II Corinthians 12:21 – 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Galatians 5:19-25 – 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Ephesians 5:3-5 – 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Colossians 3:5-6 – 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
I Thessalonians 4:3-7 – 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;
6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.
7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
Hebrews 13:4 – 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
James 2:8-11 – 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
II Peter 2:14 – 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!
Jude 5 – 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Revelation 2:14, 20-22 – 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.
Revelation 9:21 – 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 17:1-4 – One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.
2 With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”
3 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.
Revelation 18:9-10 – 9 “When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her.
10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: “‘Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’
Revelation 21:9, 15 – 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
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