AFFIRMATIONS AND DENIALS CONCERNING ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES, PART VII
AFFIRMATIONS AND DENIALS CONCERNING MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, AND REMARRIAGE
I. We affirm that sexual distinction is a part of the essence of humanity and marriage.
We deny that members of the same sex can be married, in God's eyes.
II. We affirm that marriage is designed to be lasting union.
We deny that marriage is a temporary state based upon faithfulness to a mutual contract between partners.
III. We affirm that companionship is integral to the marriage relationship.
We deny that companionship is the only purpose of marriage.
IV. We affirm that sexual intercourse is an integral part of marriage. Indeed, according to scripture, it is an obligation of marriage, a debt which must be paid to one's spouse, because it is the seal of marriage's essential quality, the "one-flesh" union of a man and a woman.
We deny that marital partners should remain sexually abstinent, except by reason of physical handicap or mutual, voluntary consent for temporary spiritual devotion or service.
V. We affirm that procreation of children is normally an integral part of marriage, and that children are to be received as desired issue of a marriage and welcomed as blessings of the Lord.
We deny that marital partners should remain permanently childless by choice or that marital partners should attempt, by unscriptural means, to limit the hand of God in granting children to them.
VI. We affirm that the covenantal marital relationship is symbolic of and of the same essence as Christ's relationship with His Bride, the Church ("True Israel") of all ages.
We deny that the marital relationship has no transcendent model or symbol.
VII. We affirm that commitment to God has priority over all other familial commitments.
We deny that the marital relationship takes precedence over the partners' relationship to God.
IX. We affirm that the marriage bond is broken at the death of either partner.
We deny that the marital relationship continues beyond death.
X. We affirm that the call to celibacy may be a gift of God for the purpose of increased devotion to God's service.
We deny that celibacy makes one holy or, in itself, elevates the celibate's holiness above that of other saints.
XI. We affirm that the Bible condemns adultery, fornication, incest, homosexual behavior, rape, bestiality, and physical and emotional abuse.
We deny that the Bible accepts or is indifferent concerning these and all other sexual sins.
XII. We affirm that God prohibits believers from entering into marriage with unbelievers.
We deny that scripture requires that believing spouses who come to the faith subsequent to marriage must leave or divorce unbelieving spouses who desire to remain in the marriage.
XIII. We affirm that, as Christ is the head of man, the husband is the head of the wife; as the Church is subject to Christ, the wife is subject to the husband.
We deny that a husband may exercise tyranny over his wife or subject her to any role that diminishes her divinely ordained position as a complementary partner for her husband in the cultural mandate.
XIV. We affirm that the effects of the Fall of mankind into sin include: impure and guilty sexuality, unjust domination in the marital relationship, and increased pain in childbirth. We affirm, nevertheless, that the essential authority of the husband as federal head of the wife existed in the marital relationship prior to the Fall.
We deny that the results of the Fall include sexuality per se.
XI. We affirm that God hates divorce.
We deny that man may "put asunder" what God has "joined together" or that divorce is part of God's perfect plan for humankind.
XII. We affirm that the only biblical grounds for divorce are: (1) fornication, narrowly defined as to include nothing more than sexual sin outside of marriage, and (2) the desertion of a believing spouse by an unbelieving partner or by a partner living in such a state of unrepentant sin as qualify him or her to viewed as an unbeliever in the eyes of the Lord and the Church.
We deny that spouses may scripturally divorce for any reason other than those stated by Christ in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 and by St. Paul in I Corinthians 7:15 (as rendered in the original Greek, certain modern translations being unreliable).
XIII. We affirm that men and women are commanded by God to repent of marital sins and to forgive and reconcile with their marital partners upon scriptural grounds.
We deny that God ever commands divorce.
XIV. We affirm that new male Christians in polygamous societies should not divorce their wives.
We deny that believers are permitted to newly enter into polygamous relationships.
XV. We affirm that remarriage is permitted by God for persons divorced under biblical grounds and for surviving partners of spouses who die.
We deny that divorced persons who marry and subsequently divorce other spouses may then remarry their original spouse.
AFFIRMATIONS CONCERNING BIBLICAL DISTINCTIVES BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES IN THE CHURCH AND HOME
The North American Protestant Church Council hereby adopts
of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
We have been moved in our purpose by the following contemporary developments which we observe with deep concern:
1. The widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity;
2. The tragic effects of this confusion in unraveling the fabric of marriage woven by God out of the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood;
3. The increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives;
4. The widespread ambivalence regarding the values of motherhood, vocational homemaking, and the many ministries historically performed by women;
5. The growing claims of legitimacy for sexual relationships which have Biblically and historically been considered illicit or perverse, and the increase in pornographic portrayal of human sexuality;
6. The upsurge of physical and emotional abuse in the family;
7. The emergence of roles for men and women in church leadership that do not conform to Biblical teaching but backfire in the crippling of Biblically faithful witness;
8. The increasing prevalence and acceptance of hermeneutical oddities devised to reinterpret apparently plain meanings of Biblical texts;
9. The consequent threat to Biblical authority as the clarity of Scripture is jeopardized and the accessibility of its meaning to ordinary people is withdrawn into the restricted realm of technical ingenuity;
10. And behind all this the apparent accommodation of some within the church to the spirit of the age at the expense of winsome, radical Biblical authenticity which in the power of the Holy Spirit may reform rather than reflect our ailing culture.
Recognizing our own abiding sinfulness and fallibility, and acknowledging the genuine evangelical standing of many who do not agree with all of our convictions, nevertheless, moved by the preceding observations and by the hope that the noble Biblical vision of sexual complementarity may yet win the mind and heart of Christ's church, we engage to pursue the following purposes:
1. To study and set forth the Biblical view of the relationship between men and women, especially in the home an din the church.
2. To promote the publication of scholarly and popular materials representing this view.
3. To encourage the confidence of lay people to study and understand for themselves the teaching of Scripture, especially on the issue of relationships between men and women.
4. To encourage the considered and sensitive application of this Biblical view in the appropriate spheres of life.
• to bring healing to persons and relationships injured by an inadequate grasp of God's will concerning manhood and womanhood.
• to help both men and women realize their full ministry potential through a true understanding and practice of their God-given roles,
• and to promote the spread of the gospel among all peoples by fostering a Biblical wholeness in relationships that will attract a fractured world.
Based on our understanding of Biblical teachings, we affirm the following:
1. Both Adam and Eve were created in God's image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood.
2. Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every human heart.
3. Adam's headship in marriage was established by God before the Fall, and was not a result of sin.
4. The Fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women.
• In the home, the husband's loving, humble headship tends to be replaced by domination or passivity; the wife's intelligent, willing submissions tends to be replaced by usurpation or servility.
• In the church, sin inclines men toward a worldly love of power or an abdication of spiritual responsibility, and inclines women to resist limitations on their roles or to neglect the use of their gifts in appropriate ministries.
5. The Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, manifests the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of both men and women. Both Old and New Testaments also affirm the principle of male headship in the family and in the covenant community.
6. Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse.
• In the family, husbands should forsake harsh and selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives; wives should forsake resistance to their husbands' authority and grow in willing, joyful submission to their husbands' leadership.
• In the church, redemption in Christ give men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men.
7. In all of life, Christ is the supreme authority and guide for men and women, so that no earthly submission—domestic, religious, or civil—ever implies a mandate to follow a human authority into sin.
8. In both men and women a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never be used to set aside Biblical criteria for particular ministries. Rather, Biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing our subjective discernment of God's will.
9. With half the world's population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism; with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel; with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion from god to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world.
10. We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.
AFFIRMATIONS AND DENIALS CONCERNING HOMOSEXUALITY
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following set of affirmations and denials have not yet been studied or approved by the Church Council Steering Committee but are offered here for discussion purposes only.)
I. We affirm that Scripture describes homosexuality, in thought or behavior, as sin.
We deny that Scripture's discussion of homosexuality is culture-specific, or relevant only to non-committed or "unnatural" homosexual relationships.
II. We affirm that the Holy Spirit empowers homosexuals to change, meaning that, by the grace of Christ, those who were homosexual can learn holy love for both men and women.
We deny that complete change from any sinful practice is instantaneous. Rather, progressive sanctification is a battle that continues throughout earthly life.
III. We affirm that spiritual change affects the whole person: behavior, imagination, motives, beliefs, and affections.
We deny that spiritual change targets behavior alone.
IV. We affirm that, like any sin, homosexuality can be influenced by innumerable factors, such as biology, early homosexual molestation, cultural values, opportunities for homosexual experimentation, etc.
We deny that homosexuality is ultimately caused by biology or life circumstances.
V. We affirm that we should devote as much attention to how we speak with love and grace to homosexuals as to what we speak.
We deny that the clear teachings of Scripture on homosexuality must be muted in order to reach homosexuals in a compassionate manner.
VI. We affirm that the preaching of the doctrines of grace and the fervent worship of the Triune God should attract homosexuals to the church, that they might learn to trust, worship and obey the Lord.
We deny that homosexuals who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ, and who are committed to practice their homosexual behavior, should be allowed to continue as communicant members of the church of Christ.
AFFIRMATIONS AND DENIALS CONCERNING A BIBLICAL APPROACH TO COUNSELING
(Affirmations and denials have not yet been written.)
