According to pew forum, “In the U.S. – the country with the world’s largest Christian population – about a quarter of children live in single-parent homes, making them more likely than children in any other country to do so.” We have seen over the past several years a redefinition of marriage, family and today gender. It is interesting how the world system seeks to define and redefine that which it has not created. Sadly, the world system definition of these things has infiltrated and infected the body of Christ.
The Scripture tells us, “Do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” Romans 12:2. The Bible is clear; the Word of God should inform our minds and the way we view this life of God. Sadly in many churches today, it is controversial for a pastor to proclaim marriage as being between a man and woman and gender being only male and female. Think with me for a moment; if these things are controversial, how can we hold to a biblical view of marriage and family? If we in the body of Christ don’t have a biblical view of marriage and family, why would we advocate for it?
We need to go back to the beginning, all the way back to the foundations of creation.
Genesis 1:1 tells us that “In the beginning God created.” So we see from the very first passages of the Scripture, God is the creator. Everything we see has come from his benevolent hand. Yet, God did not just stop with the sun, moon, and animals; the Lord created humans in his image and likeness. If you ever wondered what gives humans their dignity, value, and worth, it is because we are made in the image and likeness of God. What does this have to do with the family?
Well, if we keep reading in Genesis, the Word of God tells us. “but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place” Genesis 2:20-21. Although Adam named all the animals, there was no found that he could call a helper. The Lord God in His wisdom and providence created woman from man. Ishshah, the Semitic Word found in this text, has two meanings woman and wife. The Scripture goes on to tell us, “And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh” Genesis 2:23-24.
In writing on the history of African American Baptist in America, Leroy Fitts, in his book a History of Black Baptist in America, remarked greatly on the early African American preachers and their high view of humanity. Amid dehumanization, African American preachers stood firm for the dignity of those made in the image and likeness of God. Yet, one central point found in Fitts book is the stand many African American preachers made for biblical marriage. Black preachers saw it as dehumanizing not to allow a man and woman to be married. Understand the foundation we have for biblical marriage in both theological and historical.
Yet the question some may ask, isn’t God’s design antiquated? This argument is often used against marriage and the nuclear family. Today, the push is too eradicate marriage as a whole and bring in postmodern family ideas that do not fit into God’s design. Concepts such as polyamory, polygamy, and homosexuality. Theological liberalism rejects that we can know the absolute truth. This is the argument of Postmodernism, that we cannot know truth. Yet, as Christians, we hold that we can know that which is true. We affirm that the Word of God is our source of truth and sufficient for our life, faith, and practice. Understand to reject God’s design for the family is to deny the very authority of Christ.
Jesus affirmed the family’s foundation being one man and woman, joining in a union to enjoy sexual intimacy and reproduce godly children. Jesus words in regards to marriage, “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them, in the beginning, made them male and female, and he also said, ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate” Matthew 19:4-6. God’s design is not old-fashioned but divinely ordained. As God has designed it, marriage is the best and most efficient means by which reproduction can occur and the most stable means for a child to grow and flourish. “The social science is clear: children who are raised by their own married parents are more likely to thrive. That’s because they tend to enjoy more stability, more money, more consistent discipline, and more attention than their peers in other families.”
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