Genesis 2
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
At this point in our nation’s ethical and moral history, it should be clear that Christians are faced with two very clear and contrasting choices: either we will allow the scriptures to shape our views of gender, marriage, and human sexuality or we will allow the culture to do so. I would compare these two choices to, respectively, a lighthouse and a sea-bound ship. The lighthouse does not move. It is unchanging and it gives light and, when heeded by those at sea, life as it steers us away from the deadly rocks. The sea-bound ship of the culture has set its back to the lighthouse and is speeding with narcissistic confidence into the great unknown of the deep. Those on this ship are calling out to those in the lighthouse to abandon the set light of scripture and to join them in the thrilling wilds of adventure. And many, tragically, are swimming frantically out to sea hoping to catch up. Others in the lighthouse remain inside, but only just so, and feel deeply conflicted. “Are those on the boat right after all?” they wonder. “Are we in the lighthouse out of touch and outdated?” Then there are others—and we would call these orthodox, biblical Christians—who realize that the lighthouse is very different from the seabound ship, but who believe that the light of the lighthouse is truth, that it is God-given, and that it is indeed the path to life and joy!
Our church wants to be a lighthouse church. Even now there are water-logged survivors of the speeding ship of culture who are climbing back onto shore after being thrown into the chaotic deep by the instability of the boat. These survivors are announcing that what was promised at sea was not what was actually at sea! Others on the boat remain defiant.
Even so, the church is a lighthouse and a lighthouse we must remain. We are founded on Christ. Our light is the gospel. The scriptures are our guide, for they are God-breathed. Therefore, when it comes to these crucial matters of gender and sexuality, we are fully aware of their unpopularity but fully convinced at the same time of their truthfulness.