Strengthening Our Position on Gender and Sexuality

There is always a calling upon the church to be clear.  We are to have clarity about what is truth and what is error.  We must be clear about who the triune God is and who he is not.  We must be clear about what the gospel is and what perversions of the gospel are.  We must be clear about how a person is saved, and how they remain condemned.  Clarity is necessary because the Scripture is clear (the fancy word is perspicuous). We must not lie by way of hedging where God has spoken.  Obscure or muddled stances are the way of the coward trying to ride the fence of public opinion and orthodoxy. 

For this reason the elders are proposing a change to the statement of faith in our constitution.  This is a weighty matter.  We hold our statement of faith as a matter of commitment to truths so clear and consequential that we covenant together to live under them and through them, giving our lives for their protection and propagation.

Having said that, a statement of faith is still a man-made document that seeks to package the faith once-for-all-delivered in a readable and readily usable way.  This means some statements of faith can be better than others.  Additionally, the world can assert error in such a way that a truth needs to be supported and bolstered for the sake of additional clarity.  Refining and reforming a statement of faith for such reasons is not out of bounds, but it should be a serious and weighty endeavor. 

The elders propose to strengthen our statement regarding the nature of man, specifically regarding manhood and womanhood as created in the image of God.  As everyone knows, the whole world is being caught up into a lie regarding the very nature of what it means to be human.  God’s creation of two sexes and their corresponding connection to physical bodies has been considered obvious and unchanging for all of human history.  Yet, it is now being rejected in the name of the freedom of self-expression.  But this is a lie that collides with God’s created reality, and as such it undermines not only the well-being and flourishing of mankind, but also the picture of the gospel in marriage. 

Therefore, for the sake of clarity and the upholding of the critical doctrines of man, we propose the following additions to our statement.  The regular font is what our current statement reads, and the bold italic font is what we propose to add.

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as either male or female. These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God (Gen. 1:26-27). We believe and teach that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex (Gen. 2:24, 19:5, 13, 26:8-9; Lev. 18:1-30; Rom 1:26-29; 1 Cor. 5:1, 6:9; 1 Thess. 4:1-8; Heb. 13:4). We believe and teach that the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman. (Gen. 2:24; Rom 7:2; 1 Cor. 7:10; Eph. 5:22-23).  Additionally, any disagreement with one’s biological sex or attempt to change it by hormones, surgery or any other means is a sinful rejection of the image of God within that person and forbidden by God.

In two weeks our church will have a meeting where we discuss this and the members will vote on the proposal.  May God protect and grow his church.