A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of attending a pastor’s luncheon at Focus On The Family with guest speaker, Alistair Begg. I jumped at this chance and thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to Pastor Begg rightly divide the Word of God and encourage us pastors with the importance of faithfulness to God and to His Word.
Recently Pastor Begg has fallen under criticism for his latest comments and the American Family Association has chosen to remove his programme, “Truth For Life” from their programming because of Pastor Begg’s advice regarding the attendance of a Christian at a same-sex ceremony.
Pastor Begg believes that if the person you might be supporting knows you do not approve, it’s okay to attend and “bring a present”. Here is an excerpt from the embroiled issue from Pastor Begg:
“We field questions on a regular basis that go along the lines of, ‘My grandson is about to be married to a transgender person, and I do not know what to do’ which is a big responsibility,” Begg said.
“And in a conversation like that just a couple of days ago — and folks may not like this answer — but I asked the grandmother, ‘Does your grandson understand your belief in Jesus?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Does your grandson understand that your belief in Jesus makes it such you can’t countenance in any affirming way the alternatives that he has made in life?’ ‘Yes.’
“I said, ‘Well then, OK. As long as he knows that, then I suggest that you simply do go to the ceremony. And I suggest that you simply buy them a present.'”
Begg went on to clarify that Christians not attending such a ceremony could reinforce “judgmental” stereotypes the culture holds concerning the Church.
“I said, ‘Well, here’s the thing: your love for them may catch them off guard, but your absence will simply reinforce the incontrovertible fact that they said, ‘These persons are what I at all times thought: judgmental, critical, unprepared to countenance anything.’
“And it’s a high-quality line, is not it? It really is.”
Well, let’s break down Pastor Begg’s comments from a definition of countenance perspective after which a biblical perspective.
The web’s universal definition of countenance is: “If someone won’t countenance something, they don’t agree with it and won’t allow it to occur.”
It appears Begg’s advice goes against the universal definition of “countenance.” If you disagree with something you might be to not only disagree with it, but not allow it to occur, meaning on this case in any case, don’t attend and positively don’t take a present!
As Christians, after we engage in a proper ceremony with our faces turned toward the “altar” of this ceremony, we’re giving credence and approval to the ceremony we’re attending and anything beyond this can be a representation of approval.
Marriage is primarily a logo of Jesus’ relationship to us the church (Ephesians 5). Jesus’ first miracle was at a marriage. Marriage is the centerpiece relationship of God’s created world. Adam and Eve were not only the primary humans, they were also the primary female and male to be married, and the primary two to offer us the instance we’re to follow as a society.
Outside of your relationship with Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as a more essential relationship in human society. Once it’s removed, tampered with, or redefined, as Romans 1 tells us, that is the start of the top. Once this happens God eventually turns us over to a series of unlucky realities that produce greater and greater self-destruction.
Now I understand the truth that we don’t desire to be “perceived” as judgemental and we would like to indicate “love” to our family members, me too. Yet the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, the nice chapter on love, that love in verse 6 “doesn’t enjoyment of evil but rejoices with truth.” In other words, God’s love has its limits. A same-sex or transgender ceremony isn’t God’s design, meaning it’s evil. It is sin.
God’s love requires us to not go to a same-sex or transgender ceremony. And if we go, we’re functioning outside of God’s love and delighting in evil and the “taking of a present” becomes the celebration or rejoicing against truth. God requires our love not to thrill in evil and never to rejoice in untruth. We have a responsibility to our family members to show our countenance from them because we love them.
It is shocking to me that Pastor Begg would give such advice with no biblical backing when his own life and ministry has been centered around this approach. The moment Scripture isn’t our primary technique of informing how we engage the relationships of our lives, it’s the moment when the whole lot becomes grey.
If I apply Pastor Begg’s approach to my life then I’m obliged to have interaction all relationships of my life this manner, thus if someone needs an abortion I do not agree with, but a ride to the clinic, then I drive them and show “love” to them. If someone desires to destroy their life through drug usage, but I do not agree, I give them a spot to live while they use their resources to destroy their life, but I “love” them regardless.
Sometimes love requires you to decide on Jesus over the human relationships of your life when their selections go against the life Jesus has called us to live. Jesus spoke of this in Luke 14:26, “If anyone involves me and doesn’t hate his own father and mother and wife and kids and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he can’t be my disciple.”
The selection is yours: do you ought to be ‘perceived’ as non-judgemental by the human relationships of your life or do you ought to be referred to as a disciple of Jesus? The selection is yours on this. Pastor Begg was right when he said, “we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”
God’s love requires we decide correctly!
