Gay marriage in Iowa more damaging than a 500-year flood

This post was written by Eric Schumacher, pastor of Northbrook Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids. It was published April 8 in Baptist Press .

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (BP)--Last June, a "500-year flood" ushered millions of gallons of water through eastern Iowa. In Cedar Rapids alone, more than 25,000 individuals were displaced in one day. Hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage was done.

The Flood of 2008 is arguably the most destructive disaster that the state of Iowa has seen -- at least, that is, until last Friday.

On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a state law limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. Licenses will be issued to homosexual couples April 27.

It is not hyperbole to say that this ruling has the potential to be the worst disaster to strike the state of Iowa.

Flood waters destroy houses, ruin offices buildings and displace families. Yet, recovery happens. Houses are rebuilt. Businesses relocate. Families eventually find housing.

Legalized "homosexual marriage," on the other hand, does far more pervasive and irrecoverable damage. Civilization itself is eroded as marriage, the central building block of culture and society, is redefined. Soon, our sons and daughters are confused about what it means to be male and female, as "homosexual marriage" gains both legal status and visibility in neighborhoods and the classroom.

Far worse, the Gospel message is confused. Marriage is established by God to be a living picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the husband representing Christ and the wife representing his church. "Homosexual marriage" presents a distorted picture, a false Gospel, promoting a blasphemous message.

Flood waters erode the soil. "Gay marriage" erodes the soul. A flood impacts for a decade. "Same-sex marriage" destroys generations. A flood draws a community together. "Homosexual marriage" tears the family apart. Communities recover from floods. The promotion of un-natural unions has an eternal consequence.

As a native Iowan and as a pastor, I cannot remain silent. In light of this, I would exhort the church in Iowa to do three things:

-- First, we must honor biblical marriage in the church and in the home.

God commands that marriage be honored (Hebrews 13:4). He is not pleased when it is attacked (Malachi 2:16).

Legalized "homosexual marriage" is not the only way that marriage is attacked and dishonored.

Marriage is attacked when church members go undisciplined for fornication and adultery. Marriage is dishonored through abusive husbands and disrespectful wives, through the use of Internet pornography and the reading of smutty novels.

Marriage is honored when biblical roles for husbands and wives are humbly and joyfully taught, modeled and encouraged. Marriage is protected when pastors ask tough questions of potential and current members about the divorce they are pursuing and the children they have abandoned. Marriage is honored when pastors follow biblical standards when considering which ceremonies to officiate.

-- Second, we must speak through the humility of repentance.

Let's be honest. Much of the church's knee-jerk response to legalized "homosexual marriage" smacks of hypocrisy.

For decades, local churches in America have winked at, ignored, tolerated and even approved of fornication, adultery and unbiblical divorce among its membership. The unrepentant have not been lovingly rebuked and disciplined. Rather, we have allowed marriage to be dishonored by our members, our leaders, our benefactors and our children -- so long as that dishonoring comes in a manner acceptable to our broader culture.

We are uncomfortable with practicing homosexuals in ways that we are not uncomfortable with practicing fornicators, adulterers and covenant-renders. And so, not out of a love for the Gospel, but out of a love for social comfort, we balk at "gay marriage."

So long as we allow marriage to be dishonored by those on our church rolls, we have no credible voice with which to speak against the dishonoring of marriage by those in our state.

The humility of repentance will grant our outcry the ring of truth.

-- Third, we must patiently and kindly preach the Gospel.

The heart of legalized "homosexual marriage" is not bucking against societal norms perceived to be antiquated. The heart of homosexual sin -- like all sin -- is hatred of the glory of God, especially as it is revealed in the good news of Jesus Christ.

The antidote to our situation, therefore, is not solely a marriage amendment.

Government is established by God to approve of what is good. I do hope and pray that our state's constitution is amended to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I've encouraged my legislators to pursue it.

Nevertheless, we know that changing a state's constitution does not change a man's constitution. The kingdom of God does not come through the steel sword of the state, but through the sword of Spirit. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).

Therefore, we must proclaim the saving reign of God through His Son Jesus Christ. We must speak of the eternal Son of God who became man and lived a sinless life. We must proclaim His crucifixion, in which He bore the wrath of God to take away the sin of the world. We must herald His resurrection from the dead and His reign at the right hand of God, from whence He will come again as judge.

It is through the proclamation of this message that God washes, sanctifies, and justifies homosexuals, adulterers, drunkards and idolaters -- as some of us once were (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

We do this not with shouting, arrogant quarreling and picket-signs proclaiming hateful messages. Rather, we must be kind, patient and gentle, praying that "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

To read how "gay marriage" impacts parental rights and religious freedom: click here.

"The unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God"

God is greater than you or I. God is the great I AM. Yet there are many who treat Him as nothing.
Such evilness to be found in the United States, in our very own back yards. The most recent upheaval coming to my mind is the ruling handed down April 3 by the Iowa Supreme Court making it legal for homosexuals to marry.
How sickening.

Have we returned to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah?
(Genesis 19: 1-5, 13, 23-28) "Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way. And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square. But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally ... For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it. ... The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace."

God destroyed the cities to rid the wickedness that prevailed within, but following the path of God was not their way. Disobedience to God's commandments was the way of so many; sin became rampant once again and has continued to be the norm down through the ages.

How dare we ignore the Almighty God. How dare we claim there is no God. How dare we expect Him to sit back and be pleased with what He witnesses. He is not pleased. I am not His spokesperson. He does not need someone to speak for Him. He is. But I am His child, and as His child, I must follow Him and be obedient to Him, showing others the way to true freedom, to eternal security, achieved only one way, through faith in Jesus Christ, His son, who paid the utmost price, going to the cross, dying for the sins of us all, and then too, the eternal punishment when you refuse.

You think, you claim you have no use of Him. One day Jesus will return. One day all of you who profess followers of Christ are imbeciles will discover how much truth is known. One day your end will come and you will have no where to turn, no where to go, but deep into the dark endless pit of hell. The Bible is true. God is perfect. One day you will see how misinformed you really are. God's wrath will be upon you. God will destroy all the evil.

It cannot come soon enough. I wish we didn't have to go through these times. It will get worse. But with God beside me and you, my fellow believers, we will prevail.

"Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13: 4)

"You shall not lie with a man as with a woman: It is an abomination." (Leviticus 18: 22)

"If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20: 13)

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ... will inherit the Kingdom of God. ... Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body."(1 Corinthians 6: 9-10, 13b)

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness ... those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, ... that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter (or her sister), because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit." (1 Thessalonians 4: 3-5a,6-8)

I pray Psalm 119: 133, "Direct my steps by your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me."

For other reading: Church History - the Homosexual Age
Bible Probe

God does not approve

So, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriages legal. Because God has given mankind freewill, choices made often go against God. So, in essence, He does not approve. Look to the days in Biblical time of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the two cities were destroyed because of God's immense disapproval and wrath. The end, as we know it, is fast approaching. Satan may think he is winning, but he is not.