Truth Unites - Fuller Seminary on Marriage: A Mixed Message?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Recently, the Board of Fuller Seminary sent out communication reaffirming the institution's commitment to a historic Christian view of marriage and sexuality, but then added that this is a matter on which faithful Christians can disagree. That raises the question, is a Christian view of marriage and sexuality an agree-to-disagree issue? And in this video, I want to offer a sort of loving appeal to say, basically, no, this is an issue where we need clarity that faithfulness to the historic Christian view is essential to Christian witness today. This would be a brief video. I'll recommend some other resources at the end, but just I want, you know, it's helpful to think about this, even for those just on looking, not as a way to stir anything up, but because actually this is a

Starting point is 00:00:43 pressure point in our culture right now. This is a testing point where we feel pressure from the culture, and every Christian has to think this through, and it's really an important issue. The appeal that I can make very simply is that basically let us not leave space for as a valid or faith full Christian option, that which has absolutely no roots in historic Christianity, either in scripture or anywhere in church history until very recently. Now, let me share where I'm coming from a little bit in this. I'm a Fuller alum. Okay, I want the best for Fuller Seminary. I'm grateful for the years that I was there. I was a PhD student, 2012 to 2016. When I started, I was on staff at a church nearby, a youth pastor, and then after that, an associate pastor there

Starting point is 00:01:25 during those years. And I remember, you know, Wednesday night, Dodgeball, Thursday morning, Latin vocab cards. You know, that was my life as a youth pastor, PhD student. But my studies there were kind of a refuge for me. It was just, I really enjoyed those years, getting a chance to go deep. The academics are very rigorous at Fuller. And I love that challenge, the different languages, the classes I took. I enjoyed my professors. I met some terrific people. So I really am grateful for that experience. and Fuller is a very significant institution in the history of American evangelicalism and even globally. So I want the best for Fuller. But I just feel compelled to speak out on this issue for that reason, hoping that they will retain the historic Christian view and not just affirm it.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Because my understanding, I want to be very clear. My understanding is their policy manual has not changed, and they are affirming. The board is affirming a traditional Christian view. and yet they're leaving space for this as, you know, faithful Christians can disagree about this. And there's also some question in my mind about the extent to which faculty are teaching that view. And so I just think it's, we're in the realm here of confusion and where I think we need clarity. And I think that is helpful, and that's what I want to sort of commend and encourage. Basically, my concern was very well stated by Ed Stetzer, who put an article out about this.

Starting point is 00:02:48 and he characterized Fuller's position as a kind of splitting the baby approach. He said, agree to disagree simply does not work when biblical authority has to be denied to adopt such a position, and it does. Moves that require accommodation of errant views that contradict both scripture and Christian tradition don't need to be accommodated, they need to be resisted. I think that states the concern well. That's basically my concern as well. I think he is correct on this.

Starting point is 00:03:14 Put it like this, we cannot give a license to that which God calls us away from. Now, we all know this on other issues. I mean, if we could just put out other examples, you know, cheating on your taxes. Okay, hopefully everyone watching this video will see immediately red flags waving if I were to say, well, I believe that cheating on your taxes is wrong, but other faithful Christians can disagree and affirm and approve of cheating on your taxes. Now, that issue doesn't raise alarm bells for you. Okay, think of other ones, and you can see the problem with this and the nature of the concern here is that you can't give sanction to and give allowance for that which God calls us away from. Let me show this and put this up on the

Starting point is 00:03:59 screen to try to be nuanced here to acknowledge what they are saying and what they're not saying. In the red, you can see the Fuller's commitment, expressed commitment to a historic theological understanding of marriage and human sexuality, a union between a man and a woman, sexual intimacy within the context of that union. But then what is confusing is following up in blue here, where they're saying at the same time we acknowledge that faithful Christians through prayerful study, spiritual discernment, and lived experience have come to affirm other covenantal forms of relationship. And so while I'm grateful for the red portion, what I would love to encourage and appeal for is the removal of this blue portion to say, no, we're not going to make this an

Starting point is 00:04:42 agree to disagree issue. And part of the reason for this will be, and the reason I've wrestled with this in the past, how do I pastorally deal with a friend who may be confused on this issue or may disagree with me? And where can I allow for? I hope they are still a Christian and that kind of thing. And I've wrestled with that, but what I've come to feel is it's very important to be clear on the scriptural boundaries. Marriage is an institution that God himself has ordained. It is a divine invention. It is a holy mystery of God that God created. We see that in Genesis 2. We see that in Matthew 19 in Jesus Christ's teaching about marriage.

Starting point is 00:05:19 Paul in Ephesians 5 categorizes marriage as a picture of the gospel. So marriage is very important. And let me just put up the words of our Savior here. And this is the words of the Son of God, to whom we want to submit, to whom we want to follow Jesus and submit to his teaching. And what he says here is that marriage is something God does. You can see that in verse 6 with these words, what God has joined together. According to Christ, marriage is a divine institution where God is knitting

Starting point is 00:05:45 together two different people. And when people try to create wiggle room around this, you know, most of you who watch my videos know that I do try to embrace nuance when it is appropriate. So there's lots of issues where we need to triage them and try to figure out, you know, what's the level of error here and what are the different views of church history? Are there differences of interpretation on the scripture? And that's all very important. But there are sometimes where you run across an issue where there isn't a lot of nuance. And I would say, trying to be respectful, but also again, trying to be clear here, there is absolutely no precedent anywhere in all of church history, east or west, any different church that is out there,

Starting point is 00:06:27 for the idea that sex difference is not essential to this institution. That is a modern Western innovation. And now it becomes a pressure point that Christians need to resist. And the pastoral burden behind this is that how we live out this area of our lives and what we put forth as our public witness is profoundly important, leaving ambiguity on an important matter like this creates confusion, especially for those who want to do the right thing. They want to hold to orthodoxy with compassion. That's what we want to do. People who are trying to do that, I think can be confused by this language, making it an agree-to-disagree issue. Now, the president of Fuller, the current president of Fuller wrote a response to this. I don't have a relationship with him, so I would welcome the chance to talk with him. In fact, if he wants to come on to my YouTube channel and have a discussion about this, we could talk through our differences. I don't want my video to seem like a drive-by criticism.

Starting point is 00:07:22 I want it to come across with love and with an open heart and with a desire for the best for Fuller as one who wants that institution to succeed and move forward and so forth. but I do need to share my concern here because after, in responding to Ed Stetzer, the statement that he wrote references how they're both affirming a traditional view but then acknowledging you don't have to do that as a faithful Christian, other faithful Christians disagree. And he says, some see a contradiction in holding both positions. Perhaps there is a logical tension, but theologically this reflects the incarnation, God entering human reality, not in abstract concepts, but in flesh and blood. My concern is this is not a good use of the incarnation.

Starting point is 00:08:05 The incarnation is a mystery because it is the union of the divine nature and the human nature in one person. That is a holy mystery. That's very different from confusion and different signals about an important ethical issue. So pastoral confusion and a holy mystery are not the same thing. and I guess I would make the appeal that any of us can see that if we just substituted another moral issue in. I don't want to be too provocative in giving a... So you think of something you believe in your heart of heart is absolutely clearly condemned in Scripture. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:08:42 I don't even want to give an example because I don't want it to feel too provocative or in someone's face. But just think of something you think is absolutely clear. Christians must be against this. I said cheating on your taxes, maybe it could be something even more provocative than that. Now, if somebody were to say, well, I affirm that that is wrong, but other faithful Christians can see it differently, appealing to the mysteries of the incarnation is in no way, a way to justify that hedging. And again, the concern is here for pastoral reasons. We need to be clear where God has been clear.

Starting point is 00:09:14 Now, toward the end of his statement, he says that many believers hold to the traditional view of marriage while also loving and listening to friends, family members and neighbors who see things differently. I would say amen to that. Amen to loving people and amen to listening. And that is not to be assumed, but part of how we love people is being clear about what Jesus requires. So Jesus spoke, for example, of the necessity of putting to death,

Starting point is 00:09:43 sexual immorality as a prerequisite for entrance to heaven. And this is again our Savior. We want to submit to his teaching. If we ever feel as though the words of Christ seem harsh to us, we need to humble ourselves before his teaching and say, he's the boss, he's the Lord, we submit to him. And what Jesus is doing in this passage is giving a warning. And I think faithful Christian witness today must be clear about these warnings. Clarity is loving. The reason for this is it's hard enough to follow Christ in this area of our life when there is

Starting point is 00:10:18 clarity. But if we remove the clarity about where the parameters are, it's even harder. It's like if someone puts the target over there and you're trying to shoot an arrow at the target, you can miss. It can be hard to hit it. But if they just move the target so it's invisible, then you're certainly going to not be able to hit it. So we want to have clarity about what Jesus calls us to. For a fuller case on all of this, I've done two further videos on this topic that I hope could be helpful to people who are wrestling through this, my friend Rebecca McLaughlin. and I did a more detailed review of the book by Christopher and Richard Hayes, The Widening of God's Mercy, Chris is on faculty at Fuller. That's one of the questions where you kind of wonder what's being taught,

Starting point is 00:10:58 you know? My other video was a response to Andy Stanley and some of his comments on this topic. My friend Sam Albury has written an excellent book called Is God Anti-Gay. If you're looking for a written resource on that, I'd highly recommend that. I'll put a link to that in the video description. But let me just make a final appeal here. There is grace in the gospel for any and all sins, and I always try to emphasize that, point on this topic. If we ever talk about marriage and sexuality, it can bring up lots of different responses from people, and we want to be clear. Here's the point. Clarity about God's standards and just what is historic Christianity is important precisely because God is such a merciful and forgiving

Starting point is 00:11:36 God, because we need to know what we need mercy for, right? And then how we live in response to God's mercy. Lately, I've been thinking about this passage in Exodus 34 because my dad's been helping me understand it, and I just love the way the Lord introduces himself to Moses as one who keeps steadfast love for thousands for giving iniquity and transgression and sin. The emphasis and the tilt of this passage about the heart and character of God is his mercy, his loving kindness. I think we are not going too far in light of the cross of Christ and what God did through Christ to bring mercy to us to say that God is more merciful than we could ever dream. He's a very merciful. He is truly good and kind down to the core. There is more mercy in God than we can fathom. He is

Starting point is 00:12:20 astonishingly and surprisingly merciful. There are oceans of mercy in him. He will forgive any and all sin that is repented of and brought before the cross. But we need to know what sin is to get mercy for it. You see, clarity about biblical standards is so important precisely so that we can experience the mercy of God. And so I hope Fuller will continue to affirm the traditional position and maintain their current community policies while also making clear for those who are confused. This is not an agree-to-disagree issue. Thanks for watching everybody.

Truth Unites - Fuller Seminary on Marriage: A Mixed Message?

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