The Coming Defeat: “The Church will be defeated, and Christians will soon forget about the defeat.”
This was the conclusion of a law professor, who was also a serious Christian, regarding the current battle between the Church and the homosexual movement.
Those words made me feel like someone who found a fly at the bottom of a delightful chocolate milkshake. Yes, it was a chocolate milkshake occasion. How many times do you have a serious intellectual conversation with someone?
Few of my conversations are what I would consider serious intellectual exchanges, but the faculty colloquium at Regent University School of Law brings guest speakers who often challenge my thinking. I prize these meetings because they are a chocolate milkshake moment in life without the calories. It was one of our guest law professors who predicted both defeat and acquiescence.
The Church Will be Defeated
As to the guest professor’s assertion that the Church would lose the current conflict, I’m far from certain that is a foregone conclusion. In any legal discussion, it is essential to correctly identify the issue.
The issue is the conflict with the Church.
The Church is not trying to get the state to outlaw homosexuality any more than it is trying to outlaw adultery. Rather, it is the homosexual lobby that is trying to outlaw Church institutions and members from taking a position on homosexuality and practicing that position. The homosexual lobby is attempting to bully the Church and Christians into accepting its point of view.
Not only do I believe in the sovereign power of God, but I also recall the astonishing defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment. After all, who could be against equal rights for women? That was the subject of the Equal Rights Amendment, yet memory reminds me that Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum led the charge that flat-out defeated the Equal Rights Amendment. She did it by making people look closely at all that it would bring in its train. I’m doubtful that the cluster of activities around homosexual practices can bear close scrutiny.
Are you attracted by hairy old men dressing up as woman to entertain young children? How about the logical connection between being attracted to your same sex and deciding that you were born the wrong gender?
But who knows? I cannot predict when God will intervene on this specific subject, and I don’t currently see a Phyllis Schlafly equivalent standing against the homosexual movement. Although, some powerful figures are arising to challenge the transgender movement. Perhaps this Christian law professor was right about his first conclusion.
Christians Will Soon Forget About the Defeat
It was his second conclusion that especially troubled my mind: the Church would soon forget its defeat. The Regent law faculty challenged the basis for his conclusion. The professor’s response was this: the debate over institutionalizing and protecting homosexual sex does not touch on a central doctrine of the Church. It is not like the doctrines of the Trinity, righteousness by faith, or heaven. The Church will shake off this defeat on a minor point and carry on as usual. The problem will disappear from the collective conscience of the Church.
What Do You Think?
I was surprised that a serious Christian would believe this, but also intrigued by the question of whether the Biblical teaching on homosexuality was a minor point that could be painlessly disregarded.
The Chess Game
The book of Revelation reveals that a former leader in heaven (Satan) literally exists, and that he rallied a third of the angels of heaven into a great battle to overthrow God. Satan and his followers lost the battle, and were given a one-way ticket to earth, where in exile Satan and his former angels continue the battle in a world-wide conflict against God and His followers. I believe this Biblical narrative and it shapes my thinking on most topics.
Before any legal contest, whether it is a trial or an oral argument, I ask myself what will the opposition do, what will they argue? This is perhaps the most important preparation a lawyer can make: to correctly anticipate and counter the arguments of opposing counsel. It would be foolish to fail to do this. Let’s engage in that kind of strategic legal thinking right now.
If you were Satan, and you wanted to win the earth battle against God, what would be your main strategy? What is God’s main strategy? If those thoughts are too large to fit between your ears, let’s think about this on a smaller scale. In a divorce, what is the battle plan of a mother who wants the children to choose her instead of her husband? A very devastating argument is to tell the children that the person they thought was their father is not their biological father. He had nothing to do with them coming into this world.
Several years ago, I did a survey of the Bible for the most common argument God makes to humans in His claim for their allegiance. My study found that over a hundred times, in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, God claimed His sovereign right over humans based on the fact that He is their Creator. He “fathered” humans, indeed He fathered everything around us, and therefore He has a legitimate claim to our allegiance.
There are other arguments, of course, such as the fact that God became human and died painfully on our behalf to give us the opportunity for eternal life. But, the predominant claim is that God is our Creator.
If you were Satan, what is your counter-strategy? It doesn’t seem that complex: undercut God’s claim as the Creator. If God is not our father, and that title goes to chance instead, why should we show allegiance to Him?
Consider the accuracy of my analysis. Is there any proof that Satan is working to destroy the credibility of God’s claim to be our Creator? As a Seventh-day Adventist, I’ve noticed that almost the entire world has abandoned worship on Saturday, the weekly memorial of creation (Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:8-11). Surely, Satan could not diminish God’s claim as Creator with a pesky weekly reminder hanging around.
Anything else?
Almost the entire scientific and educational world is now aligned against the creation account, and supports instead the evolutionary theory of chance and natural selection. If I’m correct in predicting Satan’s strategy, he is doing great so far.
How else would you attack the creation account? What is the genesis for the idea that a man and a woman are the proper marriage partners? Well, well, we now come to the heart of the issue. In the marriage debate God’s old friend, the creation account, is once again in the crosshairs. If the creation account is a fable, and God did not even create humans, much less being the author the idea of heterosexual marriage, why should it matter who we marry? Aside from the natural design argument, there would be no reason against marrying anyone to whom you were attracted.
Are there other Christian views grounded in the Creation account? If you eliminate the origins account, the weekly Sabbath reminder, and heterosexual marriage, what remains? I can think of two that are red hot right now.
If God did not create us male and female, then you should be able to choose your gender, right?
What about God subordinating the creation to humans?
The argument that your gender is your choice, and climate change should limit fundamental liberties, are the current conflict. If you can think of something else, write it in the comments below and consider whether it is currently under siege.
Which brings us back to the beginning of our chocolate milkshake. Will the Church pick itself up after being defeated by homosexuality and forget the loss because it does not affect a central doctrine of the Church? The correct answer is that the identity and authority of God is the most central of doctrines.
The good soldier notices the point of attack and fights there. Standing firm where no attack is taking place is less than useless. Fighting where a breech seems imminent shows the most courage and wit. Just like the battle for the Sabbath and Creation, observant Christians should stand firm in support of God’s marriage plan.
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Bruce N. Cameron is the Reed Larson Professor of Labor Law at Regent University School of Law and is on the litigation staff of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. He is also the author of the popular GoBible lessons (www.GoBible.org).
