Answering LGBT Objections to Biblical Marriage – Part 1

Over the past few weeks I have been dealing primarily with the biblical claims about homosexuality and how Christians should respond. In this next series of articles, I am going to address marriage from a biblical perspective and LGBT objections to the biblical model.

Here in America, most Christians are calling for only “traditional marriage” to be legally recognized. The term “traditional” is an inaccurate term. The issue with the term “traditional marriage” is that traditions change from culture to culture and generation to generation. What is acceptable in one context is not acceptable in another.

When I was in high school, gay rights was an issue, but gay marriage wasn’t on anybody’s radar. Sure, it was an issue in very fringe circles, but it wasn’t a big media issue like it is today. What is culturally acceptable has changed.

What most American Christians mean is “biblical marriage.” Perhaps a better term to use would be “heterosexual monogamous marriage” and then Christians can let doctors, scientists, mental health professionals, and politicians debate the merits.

Regardless of what happens in the culture or how laws may change, Christians should stick to the Bible and promote the biblical pattern for marriage between one man and one wife.

³ The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? ⁴ And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? ⁶ Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

– Matthew 19:3-6

Most LGBT activists when addressing the Bible will say that Jesus never mentioned homosexuals or gay marriage. That’s true. Jesus never directly addressed these issues and many others. However, Jesus did give us a basis for understanding these issues.

When discussing marriage, Jesus did not appeal to the cultural standard, He did not use logic and philosophy, and He did not appeal to priests or politicians. Instead, he appealed to God’s original created design.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

– Genesis 2:24

Two people, a man and a woman, and nobody else is God’s set pattern. That is God’s definition of marriage.

Again, LGBT activists object by saying there are many kinds of marriage addressed in the Bible. That is also true, but what LGBT activists fail to take into account is the difference between what is described and what is prescribed. The Bible describes many kinds of marriage, but God only prescribes monogamous heterosexual marriage.

A LGBT objection to what is prescribed is that the Bible seems to prescribe many other kinds of marriage too. These objections are annotated in the poster at the top of this article which charts the many kinds of marriage described in the Bible. This poster has become very popular and has been widely shared by LGBT activists and supporters on the internet to show that the Bible doesn’t just define marriage as one man and one woman.

Three of the examples given are not from Moral, Civil, or Ceremonial Law, but are just the histories of certain biblical characters where their non-monogamous marriages are described. Four are regulations regarding marriage, but they regulate marriage between one man and one woman. In one case, what has been called “Levirate Marriage” regulates how childless widows are to be treated.

Why did God put regulations on things He doesn’t approve of? Jesus Himself answers this question in the very same passage where He discusses divorce.

⁷ They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? ⁸ He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

– Matthew 19:7-8

In this case, Jesus said divorce wasn’t ideal (“from the beginning it was not so.”) but it was allowed (“suffered”) because of the hardness of the hearts of men. Hardheartedness is due to sin and being in a fallen world.

The fact that God provides regulations on anything shows that His intent is to protect His people. God knows that because man has fallen, bad things are going to happen, so His Law deals with how to protect the disadvantaged so that they won’t become victims. In fact, many people who claim the Bible is anti-woman will find that God did all He could to protect women in a patriarchal society in a fallen world.

Over the next few articles I’ll take a look at the marriages described in the Bible, explain which ones are prescribed, which ones are described but not prescribed, and how God regulates marriage to fit within the pattern He designed.