The Dawn Treader

In case you missed it, the U.S. Episcopal Church elected the bishop of Las Vegas, , to be the leader of the 2.3 million person denomination.  In case you were wondering, she is not gay.  However, when asked interviewed by CNN, she said she believed "homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender."  When asked how she reconciles her view with the Biblical view on homosexuality, she replied.

"The Bible has a great deal to teach us about how to live as human beings. The Bible does not have so much to teach us about what sorts of food to eat, what sorts of clothes to wear -- there are rules in the Bible about those that we don't observe today," she said.

"The Bible tells us about how to treat other human beings, and that's certainly the great message of Jesus -- to include the unincluded."

Then there is the Presbyterian Church USA who is meeting in Birmingham for their general assembly.  This denomination has had declining numbers for years, but still numbers around 2.3 million.  After thirty years debating the same issue, their general assembly voted 298 to 221 to allow local presbyteries to decide whether or not to enforce the ban on openly gay or lesbian ministers.  In other words, a presbytery (which is local) can choose to ordain openly gay or lesbian pastors -- even though there is a requirement in the book of church for pastors to observe "marital fidelity and chastity in singleness." The highest court in the church, the general assembly, will still have authority to review the decisions.

Some of the quotes that are emerging from Birmingham are quite telling.

"I am against homosexual ordination," said former moderator Marj Carpenter, her voice breaking. But she said she nevertheless supported the proposal. "I'm willing to compromise if it will get us back to being the church. I love this church, but please, let us get on."

In other words, peace at any cost.  Carpenter and others are worn out after 30 years of debating the same issue.

The Christian church has battled the same issue for twenty centuries now.

Am I referring to the ordination of gays?  No, of course not.  Homosexuality just happens to be the latest cultural obsession du jour.  The real problem is how one views the Bible.  Is it the word of God for man, or is it the words of men about God.  In other words, is it God-breathed?

That is the dividing line.

In the first century, it was the Docetists and Ebionites who took exception with the gospels.  One group disputed the humanity of Christ, one group disputed the deity of Christ.  The church got infected with both groups and the Apostle John battled to ward off error in latter part of the first century.  In the second century, we have Marcion, a Paul worshipper, who threw out the parts of the Bible he did not like.  In a Thomas Jeffersonian fashion, Marcion deleted half of the gospel of Luke, threw out the rest of the gospels, threw out the OT, and held onto Paul's letters.  Montanus had the opposite problem.  There was not enough scripture, so he added his own fresh revelation to it.  Montanus worked himself into a hypnotic frenzy and then breathed out fresh revelation to his followers, and claimed God's authority in doing it -- even if it disagreed with the Bible.  The Gnostics came and went in the 2nd and 3rd century (and now, they're back).  Then we have Arius in the early part of the fourth century.  And on, and on, and on.

The names change.  The locations change.  The issue remains the same.  Is the Bible just an old book written in a different time for people asking different questions? Or is as we read in 2 Tim 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

Answering that question makes all the difference.  Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing nearly twenty centuries ago reminds us.

“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:24-25

The witness of history bears this out.  Today's headlines are one more stark reminder to that truth.  Those who choose to downgrade scripture to an old dusty book with nothing to say about today's world, will be like the dry grass I see out my front window.  Dry.  Crunchy.  Dying away.  Soon to be taken by the wind.  They will go the way of Marcion - a mere footnote in history.