Riff's Christian Journal

A Layman's View Of Christian Theology

Posts Tagged ‘homosexuality

Is There Discrimination Against Christians? … Yes!


The basic meaning of “discrimination” is prejudice, bigotry, bias, intolerance, etc. Without a proper realization of what it means to discriminate against something or someone how can it be told that discrimination is real and that it is a clear and present danger.

The 1st Amendment of the Constitution begins this way:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

The Bible is the guide for how Christians are to live while in this world, and the 1st Amendment guarantees our rights in living out our lives as guided by the Bible. The problem arises when secular society sees differently on whether the Bible or secular humanism should rule the lifestyle of the average citizen. As the Church has become less important in the societal life of the average citizen so has the influence of the Bible become less important as a guide for morality, and because of that so has the outspokenness of Christians become no longer welcomed.

The decline of Christian influence because of the increase of secular humanism has now made Christianity irrelevant in the average life of the non-Christian in the United States. Thus what was once considered immoral or unnatural has now become the norm and is now the leader in how the average person is to view their lifestyle. In most cases, as long as love is involved, it is OK to now do what the Bible calls sinful because society says it is OK to do.

This is where discrimination comes to the fore. Here is an example. Secular society says that homosexuality is OK. After all, they love one another and they should be able to marry like heterosexuals. The Bible, however, says much about the homosexual relationship but let us look at some verses from the New Testament. In Romans 1: 26-27 we read:

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

So, Christians, “born again” Christians, see homosexuality as an unnatural act, and one that God says is a sinful activity. Secular society says that it is OK. What was once seen as evil is now seen as good and for that reason Christians have no right in “judging” others in a relationship that is now deemed “natural”. Basically, we are being told to stop spreading ridiculous ideas about homosexuality being sinful. They tell us that we should embrace this movement and allow it to go on, no matter what we believe, and to refrain in protesting in our responding to it being forced upon us, even though it goes against our religious beliefs to participate in it in any way that acknowledges its legitimacy, and by doing so we are being discriminated against and are looked upon as being intolerant bigots.

This clearly is a violation of our 1st Amendment rights in being denied our God-given, and Constitutional guarantee, to freely exercise our religious beliefs by refusing to participate in this activity in any way that would make it look as a legitimate activity instead of it being a sinful activity as proclaimed by God and the Bible.

As for homosexual marriages, in Matthew 19: 4-6 Jesus said the following:

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Clearly, Jesus says that a marriage is to be between “a man and a woman”. Jesus also stated that “what God has joined together, let no man separate.” By secular society saying that homosexuals can legally get married is to go against Jesus (who is God in flesh) by separating what God has joined together by willfully disobeying God in so doing.

Again, by forcing Christians to participate in a homosexual wedding, even if they are only forced to provide a service as part of the activity, is to violate their 1st Amendment right to refuse to engage in an activity that legitimizes this un-natural activity, one that God says not to do and, in being forced to do so, they are being discriminated against by that very act.

Yes, discrimination is being done in a big way, covered by a secular society crying foul for the “civil rights” being denied of people engaging in an activity that God says is an un-natural and sinful activity, and doing so by using secular law which they make superior to God’s Law.

In short, you are guilty of discrimination against Christians and you are in violation of their 1st Amendment right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. What is worse, you are willfully disobeying the commands of God in allowing this activity to take place.

 

Written by Glenn C. Riffey

April 10, 2016 at 1:00 pm

Marriage – One Man and One Woman


This month, my wife and I celebrated our 44th Anniversary. It is hard to imagine a time that we haven’t been together. Not only is Mary my wife, but she is also my best friend. We like being together, we go almost everywhere together, we cook together – although I like her cooking better – and we can just be together and do nothing. We truly have become one.

In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19 and verses 4 through 6 we read the following:

And He (Jesus) answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

We had a Church wedding and we are both Christians. As we have grown in our marriage, and as I’ve grown in my Christian submission to Jesus, I’ve come to realize what Jesus was saying when He made that statement. My wife and I have become one in our marriage.

In our natural state of male and female, we were made to come together physically, physiologically and psychologically; two men or two women can not do this.

No matter what this world says, two men or two women cannot achieve this same kind of relationship. It is unnatural for them to come together in a physical way and they are incompatible physiologically and psychologically. To say otherwise is just refusing to face the facts in order to indulge in a perverse relationship.

However, the biggest reason that Marriage is to only be between one man and one woman is because God has commanded it to be so. Jesus, the Creator, knew this and in the passage above He makes it very clear that God the Father made them male and female, and that for this reason – Marriage – a man will leave his family, as will the woman, and be joined together to become one.

So, marriage is to be between one man and one woman. God made us different and He made us to complement one another. And in that difference God will only bless the union that is between a man and a woman. The union that my wife and I share has been blessed, and we thank God daily for His blessings. No other relationship can expect to receive the same blessing. for God cannot, and will not, bless that which is contrary to what He has ordained.

If you think otherwise, if you believe that marriage, especially one that will be blessed by God, can be between two people of the same gender, you are only fooling yourself. You have been deceived, and more’s the pity…

Written by Glenn C. Riffey

March 14, 2013 at 8:02 pm