Over the past several weeks morality has been debated over and over. Same-sex marriage has been defended by saying that we can't legislate morality. They say we can't have moral absolutes. They say that no one has the right to tell another that what they do or say is right or wrong. I saw a video today that made me wonder why then we can judge Islamic culture the way we do if these arguments are correct. I mean we chastise Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and many other so-called third-world countries based on their human rights abuses including against women. Why is what they doing is wrong? Without an absolute moral standard, what can we use to judge societies where it's okay to beat one's wife? Why is it wrong to beat your wife? If she makes you angry or disobeys you as her husband, why can't you beat her until she submits...as long you don't hit her in the face. According to Muhammad Al-'Arifi this is acceptable. Watch him in his own words:
Now, the God of the Bible says this behavior is wrong. He says that wife and husband are equal. He gives the husband charge and authority in a household. It's not "lordship". He has the authority so he can serve not dictate. I plan to write more about this in the future. The problem I want to focus in on now is the issue what moral authority you will submit yourself to: The God of the Bible or someone/something else. Muhammad Al-'Arifi uses a different authority. His tells him and other Muslim men that they should beat their wives so that they submit and Muslim women that it is okay to be violently abused by their husbands, fathers, and brothers. The God of the Bible tells us, men, to protects our mothers, wives, and sisters. And tells women that when they submit to their God-fearing husbands it is because they are trusting in God and obeying God.
I'm not trying to equate the moral question of wife-beating to endorsing homosexuality. They are clearly not the same in many important ways. But from the point of view of what God says, they are both clearly sinful attitudes and actions in His sight. I've blogged many of the scriptures that show what God says about homosexuality. Many try to use the argument that homosexuality is condoned by God (no where in the Bible can we find that) because the people love one another. This is not a good enough reason to ignore scripture (no reason is good enough). If you ask the Muslim man who beats his wife if he loves her, of course he will say he does. If you ask Muslim women being beat by her husbands if they love her, I'm sure many of those women will answer "yes". By what authority can you say that they are wrong? I have the word of God. What do you have?
Here are some scriptures showing husbands how to treat their wives:
Ephesians 5:25-33
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
In the context of 1 Peter 3:7, "weaker partner" only means that the woman does not carry the same level of accountability as the man of a household. God holds him accountable.
Here is the issue. If I use the Bible to condemn wife-beating, then I must condemn everything God condemns. Including those sins I find myself committing. You can't pick out only those things that ruffle your own sensibilities. Because no one stands innocent in God's sight. Romans 3: 19-26 says:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, the only way we can be found righteous in the sight of God is through Jesus. We trust in Him and God consider our debts to Him canceled. That is the good news. Do you wanna pay for your sins? Or do you want Jesus to have paid for them? Personally, I'd rather accept the payment that Jesus made for us rather than try to pay for my sins on my own - through eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire described in the book of Revelation. But that's me. Each to their own.
No where in the Bible does it say that you receive Christ and all your problems disappear. It really is like being released from "The Matrix" as seen in the movie. Like, Neo you get to see reality as it truly is and you are free. You are a work in progress. God constantly refined and improves us so that we are more like Jesus Christ. Here are some scriptures that tell us so much and give me much encouragement.
Romans 8:28-30 says:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Ephesians 2:10 says:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Philippians 1:4-6 says:
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
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