Marriage: One Man, One Woman

There has been a lot in the news about marriage lately.

Especially where I live.

A federal judge arbitrarily chose to declare Utah law unconstitutional, thus allowing gay and lesbian marriages across the state.

Why do I care, you ask? How is it hurting you, you ask?

Let me try and explain, if I may.

The Biblical Facts

The Bible has made it clear that marriage and the accompanying intimacy is for a man and a woman.

Here are the following for your information:

1. Genesis 19:5: "And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them."

2. Leviticus 18:22: " Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

3. Leviticus 20:13: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

4. Deuteronomy 23:17: " There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel."

5. Judges 19:22: "Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him."

6. 1 Kings 14:24: "And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel."

7. 1 Kings 15:12: "And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made."

8. 1 Kings 22:46: "And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land."

9. 2 Kings 23:7: "And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove."

10. Romans 1:26-27: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."

11. 1 Corinthian 6:9: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind."

12. 1 Timothy 1:9:10: "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;"

God's Rules

I know it is common for many people out there to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they like to follow, but, really, that doesn't work. You either take all of it and live by it, or you don't. Sorry. There are no fence-sitters in the Kingdom of God.

Many would say that that assessment is harsh, that the "rules" are harsh, old-fashioned, lacking compassion, understanding, whatever-argument-fits, etc. 

The fact is, God has laid down the law. 

And none of it is arbitrary. 

He made those rules for us to be HAPPY. And not just you. For your neighbor, too. All the commandments are for you and your neighbor (your literal brother or sister) to be happy, with life, and with each other.

It makes sense.

If you kill someone, you just won't be happy, and they won't either... 

If you steal, you are always looking over your shoulder, and you aren't happy. and the other person will be sort of miffed/sad that you took their stuff.

If you lie, you are always having to make sure that your lie is concrete, and you aren't happy.

And so on and so forth.

You can look at all the Ten Commandments and ask yourself this question: Will doing this make me happy? 

Will (lying, stealing, killing, fornicating, adulterating, coveting, blaspheming, pridefulness, idol-worshiping, lusting...and on the flip side, keeping the Sabbath, honoring parents, worshiping only God) make me happy? 

I have seen the whole gamut, the entire spectrum, displayed before me, and the utter despair and misery of those who don't play by God's rules. You can't tell me someone cheating on their spouse or someone who thinks they are better than everyone else is happy. They aren't. They really, really aren't. They might try and convince you they are, but they cannot be. It is impossible. Don't confuse momentary satisfaction with true happiness.

He WANTS us to be happy. And those rules will get us pretty darn close to bliss here on Earth. 

So, when God says that marriage is between one man and one woman, then you can probably jump to the conclusion that He set it up this way for the overall joy of His children. 

Why this matters, even if you don't believe in God

Now, I know there are people out there who don't know God, or don't believe in one, but the Happiness Rules still apply. Just because you don't happen to believe in gravity, or know that it exists, that doesn't mean you are exempt from the inevitable results when you toss yourself over a precipice.

Why does the matter anyway, you ask? Isn't this a free country?

Regardless of whether or not you believe in God, this country was founded by men who were God-fearing, and the laws they passed were (if not intentionally religious) at the very least heavily influenced by the religious beliefs of those men. That's a fact. It's not made up. Whether you are agnostic, atheist, satanist, Christian, Jewish, whatever, you live in a country founded by men who were motivated by the desire to do what they believed was right, and that sense of rightness of conscience came from their belief in God and the Bible.

Our country is free because of them. 

Our laws were made by them, and were undoubtedly influenced by the Bible.

There is no getting around that. 

We live in a day and age when people want to slough off these ideals, and still have it all. 

That isn't possible. Our country is great because of what those men built on principles from the Bible. 

You take away those pillars, and the whole thing crashes down.  Our country will disintegrate around us, and many will be standing there baffled as to why. Look around at the world, and the countries that have forsaken God, and you can see the chaos and turmoil. 

Our country and our freedoms were dreams of God-fearing men. They built this nation on God's principles. "One nation, under God." 

Indivisible.

Liberty.

Justice.

But, you cannot have those things without rules. Rules designed for the general contentment of everybody.

Don't kill people. It will put you in jail, and you will be unhappy, and the person you popped off certainly won't be happy.

Don't steal. It will land you in jail, and you will be unhappy. 

Sound familiar? 

I will bet you five pennies that George Washington and his friends didn't just arbitrarily make up these rules. They got the ideas from somewhere...

So, whether you like it or not, this country was founded on Christian principles. You want to be free, you want to do what you like (generally), then you have to follow those rules. 

If you don't like it, there are many places on the Earth to live. If you want those freedoms, if you want the beautiful, glorious blessing of living in the United States, then you have to follow the rules.

Marriage

Now, there are many people in power trying to make up new rules to accommodate the discontent. Mark my words, if these men and women meddle with the structure of this country's Constitution, we will all live to rue the day. You cannot break this rule, without it hurting you, and others.

You cannot remove the key stone without the rest of the bridge crumbling down around your ears. 

God established marriage to be between one man and one woman. The founders of this country did the same.  It may not seem "fair," or it may lack "equality." The truth is our sense of fairness may be askew, and no matter how far our society comes, there will never be "equality," or the oft-coveted "sameness," because while we are all beloved children of God, and have divine potential, and have access to all the same blessings and benefits, we are not the same. To one is given some, to one is given another. But all is just in God's kingdom. 

I was talking to Mom the other day about something that was bothering me, how unfair it seemed, and she replied with something like, "It all balances out in God's economy." 

We may not understand everything, but this I know to my very bones, that all the commandments, rules, restrictions, laws, or whatever you want to call them, are for our benefit, and our ultimate joy. It may not always come in this life, but that joy will follow us into the next in incalculable ways.  

And we need to trust that.