Newsweek’s Bible Libel

challies — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:54:00 +0000

Technically, libel occurs against a person, not a book. ¬†But since the Bible is the Word of God, it’s fair to say that Newsweek‘s cover story, The Religious Case for Gay Marriage, is an act of libel against the Author of Holy Writ. ¬†Libel is any written statement that brings undeserved credit on a person by misrepresentation – and that’s exactly what Lisa Miller of Newsweek (in this case NewsWEAK) has done with this cover story. ¬†In fact, the misrepresentations are so numerous, it’s hard to know where to begin.

How about at the beginning? ¬†Here is Miller’s opening paragraph:

Let’s try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. ¬†Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his wife Sarah was infertile? ¬†Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? ¬†Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel – all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. ¬†The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. ¬†Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments–especially family. ¬† The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. ¬†”It is better to marry than to burn with passion,” says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. ¬†Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple–who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender quality and romantic love–turn to the Bible as a how-to script?

Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so.

Miller gets immediately off-base from the very start by looking to polygamous unions as the biblical definition for marriage! ¬†Not only is she wrongfully using a description¬†as a definition, but also she is using descriptions that were sinfully inconsistent with the scriptural definition/standard for marriage. ¬†Having nearly completed a two-year study of Genesis in our church, I can attest to the fact that each time we came to one of the instances cited above, we appropriately labeled it as a sinful union that was inconsistent with God’s blueprint for marriage.

Speaking of which, Miller went on to say that neither the Bible nor Jesus “explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman.” ¬†Hello! ¬†Did God stutter when He said way back in Genesis 2 – immediately after creating the woman and bringing her to the man – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). ¬†Far more than a mere description, that is a divine directive! ¬†And what about when Jesus answered a question on divorce and remarriage in Matthew 19? ¬†He immediately pointed His listeners back to “the beginning” (Matt. 19:4, 8) — God’s standard as recorded in Genesis 2:24. ¬†Read Jesus’ dialogue with the Pharisees in Matthew 19, and you will come to the conclusion that He clearly understood marriage to be a one-man, one-woman, strong-bond, one-flesh, God-ordained, no-divorce union! ¬†

What about the apostle Paul? ¬†Did he really see marriage “as an¬†act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust”? ¬†Hardly. ¬†He did see the sex-drive as something that could be properly fulfilled only in marriage. ¬†He did say that marriage came with concerns that a single person does not have. ¬†But he also acknowledged that “each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that” (1 Cor. 7:7) – i.e. marriage and celibacy. ¬†But far from seeing as marriage as “an act of last resort,” Paul sees it as a marvelous mysterious union that is to reflect the eternal covenant of love between Christ and His Bride, the Church (see Ephesians 5:22-33). ¬†Furthermore, the author of Hebrews (who may well have been Paul) affirms, “Marriage is honorable among all” (Heb. 13:4).

So, as you can see from the opening paragraph, the Divine Author of Scripture has been grossly misrepresented by Newsweek magazine. Such falsity continues throughout the entire length of the article. ¬†Yet such “Bible libel” is nothing new. ¬†God’s Word has been maligned, misrepresented, criticized, mocked and scorned throughout human history. ¬†That’s because “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¬†But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no man. ¬†For ‘who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:14-16).

“Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). ¬†We who know and love the Lord also know that “every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him” (Prov. 30:5).

Note: ¬†For a more detailed commentary on the Newsweek article, visit Dr. Albert Mohler’s blog.

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Newsweek’s Bible Libel