Is this Goodbye to Free Speech?

View of the House of Lords Chamber in the Pala...
View of the House of Lords Chamber in the Palace of Westminster, London, looking from the galleries towards the Throne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The second reading of the Same-Sex Marriage bill was passed a couple of weeks ago but I wrote most of this on the day of the vote but for some reason didn’t post it – so here it is!

Will this vote see the end of Free Speech. It should concern any lover of Democracy, that the freedom to disagree with the Same-Sex legislation will end. I believe it will see the beginning of a Witch-Hunt to find and root out ‘deniers’ of Same-Sex Marriage.

Stonewall and other ideological lobby groups will over time entrap unsuspecting believers (Christians)  into saying something that will force a prosecution. This is already happening. Stonewall, I suggest, will not rest until everyone sees Homosexual & Lesbian practice and therefore Same-Sex Marriage as normal.

I haven’t heard or read (please correct me) about any protection for individuals in the work place or any other place for that matter that disagrees or believes that not only same-sex marriages but homosexuality & lesbianism is sinful according to the Bible. There looks to be only protection for Individual Ministers & Religious Organisations (if it happens) but nothing for the ordinary individual Christian, e.g. in the workplace. Not just Christians, but anyone that agrees with the phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (attributed to Voltaire) ought to be concerned. I’ll certainly be writing to my MP (and PM) again about this.

With Martin Luther then we must surely say:

“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

Where this leaves the Bible in all this will be interesting to see because the Bible teaches the very opposite of what could soon be enshrined in UK Law.

Will the Bible be outlawed? Will some passages of the Bible be outlawed and will those that believe those passages and indeed all the Bible be outlawed?

Where to now? The Bill now passes through to the House of Lords and to further scrutiny by Parliament  There is then – I think – a third reading before it becomes law. The Bill will come under intense critical reading as it moves through the Parliamentary process.  Whether this will be the opportunity to build into legislation protection for those that disagree I can’t say. But to not prosecute ‘deniers’ raises the question about what it was all about in the first place. It seems to me prosecutions will follow.

I do not believe the majority are for this change – but what is more likely to be true is that the majority just can’t be bothered. Apathy.

There is another possible alternative for the Church to think about. Go here to read about it – but basically the Church itself re-defines marriage and calls it Holy Matrimony.

I only heard snippets from the speeches but was struck that some MP’s said or at least implied something like: ‘I don’t believe God would be against same-sex marriage’ or ‘a God of love would not allow same-sex couples in loving relationships to be barred from marriage’ or similar sentiments. But how can anyone presume to speak for God when He has already spoken plainly in His Word the Bible.

Why anyone would want to claim the name of Christian or follower of Jesus and yet completely ignore what He has to say can only be explained by the words of the Apostle Paul as follows:

2 Timothy 3:1-9

1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

2 Timothy 4:3, 8 & 9

New International Version (NIV)
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

David Cameron backs Gay Marriage

English: David Cameron's picture on the 10 Dow...

BBC News – Gay marriage plan ‘barking mad’ says Tory MP David Davies.

Surprised? Nope

Disappointed? Yes

That’s another broken promise.

Redefinition of Marriage

David Cameron

Marriage is set to be redefined by the Coalition Government – particularly PM David Cameron. No doubt Mr Clegg will be happy with the liberalisation of pretty much anything he can get away with.

What is marriage? Whose idea is it? Where did it come from?

What is Marriage?

We are told very early on in the Bible exactly what marriage is:

Gen 2:23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Gen 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father (that’s a man) and his mother (that’s a woman) and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Is there another way to interpret the word Man or the word Woman in the verse? Jesus certainly didn’t think so! And neither has the Church down through the last several hundred years. It’s the union between a man and a woman.

Here are the words of Jesus that I quote showing a marriage to be between a man and a woman: Mark 10:12  ‘and if she (that’s a woman) divorces her husband (that’s a man) and marries another (man), she commits adultery.”  The Apostle Paul writes that marriage between a man and a woman has much deeper theological significance:

Ephesians 5:31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
v 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
v 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Whose idea is Marriage and where did it come from?

Well not politicians that’s for sure. The previous Bible verses tell us quite plainly that marriage has its origins in the mind of God and that politicians have no moral (or even legal) authority to redefine it. We all fall under the law of God – The Ten Commandments. It’s no use fighting it. Say what you will. Redefine what you will. It changes nothing. The Law of God stands fast! The Word of God is sure!

By redefining marriage the Government demonstrate their own relativism. They are demonstrating the fact that they have no objective morality and David Cameron as Prime Minister in particular. I don’t want to be accused of political bias because all three of the main political parties are the same. Why should I vote for a party that tells me through their philosophy ‘I can’t be trusted’? In other words without an objective morality political parties and politicians can (and do) change their mind on anything. At least this tells us why they can’t be trusted! The Bible tells us that sinners (that’s all of us) hold down the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, the truth is known to us because we are made in the image of God but the truth must be held down because it’s not palatable. This explains why at the deepest level a mistrust of relativism in the human spirit is realised and that relativism cannot be lived. We cannot live in a relativistic world – it’s impossible. We live in Gods objective world whether we like it or not. I like it.

What I am going to do when it comes to voting at the next election is problematic to say the least.

What’s wrong with Same-Sex partnerships?

(W. M. Craig) THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Image by Fergal OP via Flickr

A few days ago (Christmas Day) over here, Elton’s parenthood made front page news. All sorts of questions are asked when a high profile member of the entertainment industry obtains a child. Why do I say obtained? Although there’s the possibility of his biological parenthood, he didn’t have the child within the parameters of the usual man woman relationship. To be blunt, he bought the child. I do not intend any mean-spiritedness here at all. Like Carnegie perhaps he’s driven by a consuming desire to continue his name. Not in buildings, but in flesh.

But to answer the question – What’s wrong with Same-Sex partnerships? Behind the concept or idea of marriage lies a theology. What do I mean?

The Marriage model is based on the Love of the Lord Jesus for His church. The Church is the Bride and He is the Groom. It’s between a man and a woman. Homosexual or same-sex partnerships strike at the very heart of Christian Theology. Homosexual relationships are actually just as blasphemous as adulterous heterosexual relationships. These are not relationships intended by God. It would be stupid of me to deny that love exists between same sex partners – it clearly does. All I’m seeking to show is that the marriage model is where love is to be appropriately  manifested.

To state it more clearly then, the marriage model begins and began with God. It was not something man (I’m using man generically here i.e mankind) initiated, invented or thought would be a good idea. No, Gen 2:24: ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ So this Biblical idea (Theology) goes way back. Here are the words of the Lord Jesus:

Mat 19:4  ‘He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
Mat 19:5  and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
Mat 19:6  So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”‘

And further, the words of the Apostle Paul:

Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour.
Eph 5:24  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Eph 5:26  that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
Eph 5:27  so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Eph 5:29  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
Eph 5:30  because we are members of his body.
Eph 5:31  “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Then we have the following statement:
Eph 5:32  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Such is the sinfulness of man that he inverts everything, turns it upside down and makes it what it isn’t. So, the marriage model is based on Christ and the Church – a profound mystery.

But just in case anyone is tempted to take me to task for being prejudicial against any form of same-sex relationship, the Bible probably has more to say negatively about adulterous relationships than homosexuality. God hates adultery. This is so popular these days (has it ever been otherwise) that hardly anyone bothers about it – but God is bothered about it, Big Time. Lest we think we’ve escaped the searching gaze of The Lord, Jesus also has this to say:

Mat 5:27  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
Mat 5:28  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The Bible goes right to the heart – not just what we do or don’t do. That covers almost, actually all, people. What all this shows is this:

We all need a Saviour. Not one of us is innocent before The Lord God of heaven and Earth before whom we must all stand to give account at that last great day. Elton might be a sinner, but so am I. He and I need a Saviour – His name is Christ the Lord.