In the last number of years, authors like Matthew Vines have opened a floodgate of Christians who have concluded that God affirms same-sex marriage.
Citing Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7 that we can recognize good teachers from false teachers by their fruit, Vines proposes that since the traditional teaching on homosexuality has hurt gay people, it is therefore a false teaching.
The problem is, historical Christianity has never affirmed same-sex marriage.[1] So what Vines and others are proposing about marriage and same-sex relationships is an entirely new concept of marriage.
Is it a good concept? Are they right? Has the historical Christian understanding of marriage been wrong?
To begin with, we’ll look at how Vines interprets scripture regarding marriage. Then we’ll interact with scripture directly and see if it supports his interpretation. In closing, we’ll look at three specific ways the church can stop getting it wrong about same-sex marriage.
What the Bible Says about Marriage
Matthew Vines suggests that the first problem with the traditional understanding of marriage presents itself in the first two chapters of Genesis. God said it was “not good for man to be alone.” So he made a helper “suitable” for him (Gen. 2:18).
In the Genesis story, the suitable helper is a woman—which Vines says is a perfectly good option for a heterosexual male. But what about gay men? What about lesbian women? Eve would not have been “suitable” for a man who had no desire for sex with her. In the same way, Adam would not have been “suitable” for a woman who had no desire for sex with him.
Vines submits the fact that the historical Christian view of marriage prohibits gays and lesbians from being able to enjoy their “suitable” helpers as indication of it being an erroneous interpretation of Genesis 2. “We are now declaring good,” Vines says, “the very first thing in Scripture that God declared not good: for the man to be forced to be alone.”
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