Is Alistair Begg Right?

Piper answers it for me.
Would You Attend a Gay Wedding?

 

These are pics of my grandchildren. Could a gay couple have produced such beautiful kids. They will grow up, God willing, in a normal house with normal (mother & father parents. As God intended it to be).

Ahh, PS was trying to get my grandsons pic but I screwed up… so little granddaughter Sophie will have to do. She makes the point though.

 

Transcript:
Alistair: Well, first of all, you know, I hope that I will be different. The old song that we never sing—you know, “It’s not my brother nor my sister, but it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer”—I mean, that is foundationally the case. And so I hope that that would be multiplied. I hope that our church family, those who choose to read this book, that it might have an impact among us. Because learning to say, “I’m sorry,” learning to say, “Please forgive me,” learning to say, you know, “I’m not at my best at the moment; can you come alongside me?” learning to say, “Yes, I know that these people believe a very different agenda, that their lifestyle is orientated in another direction,” and learning to say, “But I have no basis upon which I could argue that I myself would not be where they are were it not for the amazing grace of God, were it not for his compassion towards me.”

And in very specific areas this comes across. I mean, you and I know that we field questions all the time that go along the lines of “My grandson is about to be married to a transgender person, and I don’t know what to do about this, and I’m calling to ask you to tell me what to do”—which is a huge responsibility.

And in a conversation like that just a few days ago—and people may not like this answer—but I asked the grandmother, “Does your grandson understand your belief in Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“Does your grandson understand that your belief in Jesus makes it such that you can’t countenance in any affirming way the choices that he has made in life?”

“Yes.”

I said, “Well then, okay. As long as he knows that, then I suggest that you do go to the ceremony. And I suggest that you buy them a gift.”

“Oh,” she said, “what?” She was caught off guard.

I said, “Well, here’s the thing: your love for them may catch them off guard, but your absence will simply reinforce the fact that they said, ‘These people are what I always thought: judgmental, critical, unprepared to countenance anything.’”

And it is a fine line, isn’t it? It really is. And people need to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.[11] But I think we’re going to take that risk. We’re going to have to take that risk a lot more if we want to build bridges into the hearts and lives of those who don’t understand Jesus and don’t understand that he is a King.

Full Transcript and Video: ‘The Christian Manifesto’ Interview - Archive - Truth For Life

 

I do… he is wrong, he is very wrong… he is sanctioning a sinful lifestyle and by participating in a sinful gathering you would be sending a mixed message to the grandson that it is all right to be queer. Well it’s not all right… you weren’t made for this, evidenced by your inability to naturally Procreate… and that will nullify your opportunity for greatgrandchildren. This is truly a wasted life!

 

Since I live in New Jersey, my wife and I had access to the preaching of Bishop John Shelby Spong of the Episcopal diocese of Newark who turned his denomination into an ultra progressive hodgepodge of a Church. He began with the novel idea of believing it was just to ordain men with homosexual histories, as long as they remained celibate, so the bishop did that with the promise of the priest that if ordained he would remain chaste. Well that promise never got kept and Bishop Spong was made to look foolish. Attached is this priests bio for your review. It testifies to the path that sin, dishonesty& deceit have on church downfall… after all what harm is there… you find it in the blanks.

Robert Williams (American priest) - Wikipedia.

it’s noted in the biography that …in January 1990 Williams stated 'Monogamy is as unnatural as celibacy. If people want to try, O.K., but the fact is, people are not monogamous. It is crazy to hold up this ideal and pretend it's what we're doing and we're not', (Williams subsequently died of AIDS @ 37 yo)

 

His arguement for attending was that it should love and would dispell their thought that we are judgmental, and to build bridges. This is wrong. Each person is different, but alot believe that unless one affirms/agree with what i do/believe then you are hateful/bigot. So just attending a "wedding" won't change that, and may cause more confussion. That what is happening is wrong/sinful but are also to take part in the celebration? it opens the christian to accusations of hypocrisy, and may lead to compromising the faith.

The christian can show love to them by having lunch with them, helping them out etc. Like we would do with any other who is living in sin.

 

I cannot envision a situation in which I would ever be invited to a same-sex marriage.

Would the example of Jesus in Matthew 9 be instructive on this subject?

Matthew 9:10-13 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

 

I gotta believe that he is attempting to posture himself in solidarity with the gay community…. If that is so then it’s best for everyone that he walk away as he does nobody any good…. Not the gay community, not the relatives of these people, not the true church. Perhaps Begg needs to take a break from the church, study scripture more closely etc. Right now, he is a disaster.

 

Why must you believe that? I think thats a bit far. He gave bad advice and thats not good. No where does he support what you're saying.

 

i quoted Earth Wind and Fire's post about Begg's motivation.

 

Yes, Alistair Begg is right.

We need to start prioritizing connection with our friends, family, and our communities. If you're healthy enough to go and if you have the time and money to afford it, just go to the wedding and have a good time. Make some memories while you still have family on this earth to love.

How would you like it if you found out the reason why someone didn't go to your wedding was because you drink alcohol on occasion? Or because you smoke? Or because you voted for someone they didn't like? Or because you are a Christian? Or because you drive too fast? Or because you don't go to church often enough?

I agree with Alistair Begg. To not go for such a petty reason makes us look like judgemental, arrogant, self-righteous holier-than-thou hypocrites. Jesus built a bridge connecting God to man. The least we can do is treat our family like family.

 

The setting in that passage was having a meal in someone's home, one might even call it a party, a dinner party. It was not a "church setting".