The PCUSA will ordain homosexuals

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted to allow the ordination of "openly gay people in same-sex relationships." Their stated clerk said, "I hope that going forward we can stay together and be faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ," the NY Times reported today. Well, there is little chance of being "faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ" now! They have compromised one of the most fundamental elements of that gospel by embracing homosexual clergy living openly homosexual lives.

But this is a natural progression from ordaining women as pastors. Once you muddy the waters of God's creation, it's harder to see the truth that nature and Scripture proclaim in unison. How did the church get here? One path was by misunderstanding Eve's purpose.

Let's back up to the question of whether women should be ordained. I'm not saying women aren't smart enough to be pastors. Many have used this argument over the centuries, but women graduating from seminaries in increasing numbers proved this false years ago. Women are capable and wise teachers who can "rightly handle the Word of God" as well as men. In fact, as a friend once said, almost all heresies have come from men! But the role of pastor involves more than teaching. We don't call our pastors "vicars" anymore, but we should. A "vicar" is "one serving as a substitute or agent" (Webster's), a representative or proxy. The pastor is a "vicar" or representative of Christ to the congregation. What does that mean and how does it relate to Eve?

The "original fact" God had in mind when he made Eve was Christ and his church ("Canticles," Fausset's Bible Dictionary). As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5, Adam represented Christ and Eve represented the church in their relationship as husband and wife. Marriage is natural revelation; that is, it teaches us about God and our relationship to him. (See, for example, Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). The marriage relationship involves all the senses; it is the most intimate and "complete" of the metaphors that Scripture compares to our union with Christ (cornerstone and building, vine and branches, head and body, husband and wife).

When we ordain women as pastors, we smear the picture of marriage as revelation of the relationship of Christ and his bride-church. We put a woman in the role of Christ our Husband. That should grate against our consciousness of God and ourselves, but the further we get from a biblical worldview, the less it seems to.

And so the next step is ordaining open homosexuals. Now we can't see even human marriage and sexuality correctly. The plain witness of nature tells us that marriage as God created it is between a man and a woman. But when we suppress the truth, God gives us more blindness (Romans 1). We can see how far the blindness has progressed in the church when the highest church officer of the PCUSA expresses hope that they can be "faithful witnesses to the gospel of Christ" while putting practicing homosexuals in the vicar's seat. Sorry, guys, but the picture has just gotten too fuzzy to be the gospel of Christ and his church.