Word for Word

Rev. Duane Smith

“America is at a crossroads.” This statement has been made many times over the years and may or may not have been accurate in describing the importance of the events that were occurring at the time. While many have spoken these words at seemingly trivial times I believe this is an accurate assessment of events that are going on today.  
While I write this article the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case concerning whether or not “gay marriage” will be legal in the United States. If they rule that “gay marriage” is indeed legal then they will be changing the fundamental definition of marriage and opening the door for many different types of “marriage.” Polygamists are watching this case with keen interest, for if two men or two women can marry, why can’t they have more than one spouse? In England, where “gay marriage” has been legal for some years now, there are people wanting to marry their pets!
Marriage has been defined throughout the centuries as being between a man and a woman. It is an institution that was established by God shortly after creation (Genesis 2:22-25). God defined it as a union between one man and one woman. There are many instances in scripture where men had more than one wife (Solomon had over 700!) but that is clearly not what God intended. In Ephesians 5:33 it says: “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Wife and husband are singular in this verse. In the Old Testament the kings were commanded not to have multiple wives (Deuteronomy 17:17).  God has made it clear in scripture that marriage is between one man and one woman and it is to endure until one of them dies.
Our founding fathers based our constitution on a moral code that was not subject to the whims of man.  They knew that for a nation to endure its morality had to be subject to eternal truths and not merely man’s transient thinking. Because of this they chose to base our constitution on the truths of the Bible, and, more specifically, the Ten Commandments. This is the reason the Ten Commandments and other Biblical scenes are etched in stone in the Supreme Court building. The founders of this great nation desired for this to be a Christian nation, not that everyone had to be a Christian to live here, but that our laws were based on the moral code found in the Bible. Our liberties, then, are given to us, not by government, but by the hand of God himself. If they are given to us by God then no man has the right to take them away. On the other hand, if our liberties are given to us by the government, then the government can take them away or change them as they see fit.
What is on trial over the next few days is about much more than “gay marriage.”  It is really about what standard of morality our country is built on. John Adams, in an address to the military on October 11, 1798, put it this way: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  
Do we really want to live in a country where anything goes? I am afraid that is the direction we are headed. We need to pray for our Supreme Court justices. Pray that they will adhere to the standard of morality our country was founded on.