We are to reject what God forbids
The Lord Jesus Christ in His sermon on the Mount teaches that Christian believers are to prevent moral decay and evil and provide the light of love and moral excellence and guidance for life in the community and resulting in the total common good of the people.
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Christian believers, or the body of Christ, the Church, must impact the community and nation in which they exist for the good of the people and to the glory of God: “You are the salt of the earth.
But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour?
Can you make it salty again? You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.
Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:13-16 NLT).
The Christian believers or the body of Christ, the Church must be “salt and light” in society.
Salt is used for cleansing and preservation from decay; and as flavour.
The desired impact of the Church on society is to prevent corruption in all its forms and in all sectors of national life.
And Jesus in this Bible text gives a warning to the Church: “do nothing that might jeopardise that positive impact.”
The Church is to prevent moral decay in society.
The Church is to prevent the loss of godly values in our nation and the world.
In our nation Ghana, the question might come up: “whose values must we uphold and pursue?”
Traditional Ghanaian cultural values?
Or values in the cultural wars of foreign nations?
Or values of our so-called development partners who are guests in our nation?
For a biblically healthy Christian Church in Ghana, we are to examine and accept or reject any cultural practice in light of what the Lord Jesus clearly teaches.
For the Christian believer, the source of morality, the standard of morality is found in Christ and His word, the Bible.
Divine revelation in the Bible or what the Bible clearly teaches is the source of our ethical or moral knowledge and practice.
An example is Christ’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.
He describes the standard for Christian belief and behaviour.
Bible teacher, Dr Kent Van Til, writes: “Jesus is a good counterweight to cultural virtues and vices.
Jesus was not only a virtuous first century Israelite, he was a model of human virtue across cultures.
Jesus actually lived as the perfect moral example and model for all humanity – for all people, in all cultures.”
Of course, He is Lord and creator and Redeemer God who took on the form of human nature and became human to save humans!
He is the head of the Church, His body that He saved; and the Church derives her knowledge and practice of godliness from Him.
There can be no virtue in practising what the Bible teaches is wrong.
That is, “there can be no virtue in wrongdoing”.
For example, there is no such thing as virtuous armed robbery.
And there is no such thing as virtuous sexual rape,” says Dr Kent Van Til.
Gay sexual practices are forbidden by God in the Bible.
Gay practices or LGBTQ+ belief and practices including gay sexual relations and sexual practices and the so-called “transgender surgical operation” to change a person’s original sex as male or female cannot be part of sound biblical community life.
It is wrongdoing or vice that the church must see to that all people “put off” or completely eliminate.
We cannot embrace what God forbids.
We must reject what God clearly prohibits in the Bible.
It is for Biblical, medical, psychological, social and other practical reasons that representatives of the Church submitted memoranda and appeared before the requisite Parliamentary Committee to make presentations to support the passing of the LGBTQ+ Bill.
The bill has received overwhelming bipartisan majority support of parliamentarians. Indeed, if the LGBTQ+ bill is submitted to a referendum today, it will be endorsed by the overwhelming majority population of Ghana.
And so the Parliament of Ghana representing the people passed the bill to reflect the will of the people of Ghana.
The Christian Council of Ghana (C.C.G) is right: “The CCG was one of the sponsors of the bill.
The bill went through a comprehensive process.
Due diligence was done.”
The CCG welcomed its passage into law and that the bill was in the right direction and said that “we would want to encourage the President to assent to it”.
Indeed, the Church cannot look on for just a very few people to obstruct the functioning of the LGBTQ+ bill as law in the nation.
The Church will roar to see it function as law.
“The US Embassy in Ghana has been one of the first critics of the passage of the Bill.
But Rev. Dr Cyril G. K. Fayose (Christian Council of Ghana) said the law was for Ghana, and not the US.”.
A reflective thinker asked, “do armed robbers and burglars have human rights?
Yet, when convicted of their human behaviours that are inimical to the well-being of society, they are incarcerated.”
So, why can’t those who practice grossly deviant human sexual behaviours, which are also inimical to the well-being of society, and in fact threaten the survival of the human race not be incarcerated?
Ghana’s formal legal rejection of gay lifestyle may well contribute to relieving the threat to the continued survival of the human race globally through gay lifestyle practices of deviant sexual relations and other grievous things inimical to the well-being of society.
The Church cannot embrace what the Bible prohibits.
And for the Church, the teachings of Jesus, “the Bible, remains the final authority in what we believe and how we behave.”
The author is a consultant in Authentic Christian Spirituality and Discipleship and former CEO of Scripture Union
