Gary discusses the recent controversy with Chip and Joanna Gaines’ new show and homosexuality.
Paul teaches elsewhere that all men—even pagans who do not love God and do not have the advantage of the written oracles of God (cf. Rom. 3:1-2)—nevertheless know the just requirements of God’s law. They know what God, the Creator, requires of them. They know it from the created order (1:18-21) and from inward conscience, the “work of the law” being written upon their hearts (2:14-15). Paul characterizes them as “knowing the ordinance of God” (1:32) and, thus, being “without excuse” for refusing to live in a God-glorifying fashion (1:20-23). This discussion indicates that the stipulations of God’s moral law—whether known through Mosaic (written) ordinances or by general (unwritten) revelation—carry a universal and “natural” obligation, appropriate to the Creator-creature relation apart from any question of redemption. Their validity is not by any means restricted to the Jews in a particular time-period. What the law speaks, it speaks “in order that all the world may be brought under the judgment of God” (3:19). God is no respecter of persons here. “All have sinned” (3:23), which means they have violated that common standard of moral integrity for all men, the law of God (3:20).
A good student of the Old Testament would have known as much. The moral laws of God were never restricted in their validity to the Jewish nation. At the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, when Moses exhorted the Israelites to observe God’s commandments, he clearly taught that the laws divinely revealed to Israel were meant by the Law-giver as a model to be emulated by all the surrounding Gentile nations:
Behold I have taught you statutes and ordinances even as Jehovah my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land whither ye go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, that shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people…. What great nation is there that hath statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? (Deut. 4:5-8).
“All the peoples,” not just the Israelites, should follow the manifestly righteous requirements of God’s law. In this respect, the justice of God’s law made Israel to be a light to the Gentiles (Isa. 51:4).
House Divided: The Break-Up of Dispensational Theology
The book that started a revolution. Drs. Bahnsen and Gentry stir the hornet's nest with this comprehensive refutation of Dispensationalism. The two pillars of law and eschatology are dealt with evenly, fairly—and most importantly—biblically. Bahnsen takes on the law sections, while Gentry handles the eschatology. Dispensationalism teaches that God has two distinct plans: one for Israel and one for the Church. Bahnsen and Gentry show clearly that God never intended or taught about separate plans. Quite the opposite, God's plan for Israel was but the first phase of His plan for the world. Jesus was both God's plan and His solution before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:17-21).
Buy NowGary discusses the recent controversy with Chip and Joanna Gaines’ new show and homosexuality. The Gaines are Christians and made the decision to have a homosexual couple on their show “Back to the Frontier” and have been receiving backlash online for it. Chip Gaines even went so far to defend the decision and chided Christians for their unwillingness to “learn.”