The Nashville Statement - A Response to Totalitarian Secularism

The Nashville Statement is a recent declaration created to be affirmed by Christians that believe in and support the traditional biblical descriptions of ethical sexual relationships, even as confirmed by Jesus Christ Himself. A key goal by the organizer of the event was outlined by Jim Denison: “It was our aim to say nothing new, but to bear witness to something very ancient.” The increasings threat against traditional views was summarized by the following somewhat euphemistic quote in the preamble:

"This secular spirit of our age presents a great challenge to the Christian church."

Jim Denison highlighted a quote by Albert Mohler, one of the authors: “It would be much easier to be quiet, to let the moral revolution proceed unanswered, and to seek some kind of refuge in silence or ambiguity.”

Well, getting into specifics, we live in a society that is increasingly governed by subjective secular emotive ethics, and harsh penalties if you don't happen to agree with that. The Nashville Statement is a defense, not an attack. If a person "self-identifies" as any particular gender, then not using the "correct" PC gender pronoun, that is, other than the "incorrect" biological birth gender, can result in jail time for committing a hate crime. In ancient Roman times, Nero would use true Christians unwilling to compromise as human torches. But we are only in the first stages of this current trend. Jesus predicted that things would become progressively worse.

The Nashville Statement addresses behavior and not the important foundation of ethics. It appears to be more of a line in the sand than light in the darkness or a topic for discussion. This is one of the problems of society today, a lack of discussion on logical foundational ideas. Ethical decisions are increasingly shallow, emotive and reactionary. The Nashville Statement is not likely to slow down the rush to bully and criminalize anyone that believes in religious freedom of conscience. And without a spiritual awakening, deep changes and increased ethical literacy in society are not likely.

In choosing authors of the Nashville Statement, it would've probably been wiser to enlist teachers that employ more logic in assessing doctrine and ethics. For example, Greg Koukl shows basic understanding that Christian essentialism is an important understanding in ethics: "Morality is grounded in the immutable character of God, who is perfectly good. His commands are not whims, but rooted in His holiness." When properly understood, Christianity offers the most cohesive and logical explanation of ethics.

Personally, I don't believe that John Piper was a good choice for writing such a document. We have someone that ultimately encourages feeling-based ethics writing a statement opposed to feeling-based political correctness. Piper's doctrine of Christian Hedonism encourages the idolatry of pleasure and denies the essential basic authority of Christ. I believe that someone extremely experienced in logic and apologetics, such as William Lane Craig has proven to be, would have been a much better choice in terms of having an influential effect on our extremely relativistic society.

CBMW President Denny Burk organized this effort and the goal was to “shine a light into the darkness” and offer clarity in an age where “confusion reigns over some of the most basic questions of our humanity." Over 150 Christians have signed the document so far that was prepared by popular teachers: "While Burk is responsible for spearheading the statement, CBMW told the Institute on Religion and Democracy that key Evangelical leaders such as John Piper, Albert Mohler, and Daniel Akin advised the proclamation’s spiritual architecture."

The webpage of the Nashville Statement is linked here. I'm also posting links to progressive responses. The Denver Statement is a reply to The Nashville Statement and it basically accuses people that support a biological and scriptural basis of gender, such as Jesus Christ, of being "binary and backwards thinking," and ironically it implies that closely following scripture is somehow an attempt to be God, more so than completely rejecting scripture and following cultural trends: "Know that the LORD Himself is God (and we are not)."-Psalm 100:3. Perhaps it's because their views are so secular that any view that is more conservative appears to be as authoritative as the

The Episcopal Cafe response falsely implies that alternative gender relations, such a homosexuality, are something new and that their approach is to accommodate their preconceived choice to accept LGBT values and work it into the church is a valid approach: "We have encountered the diversity of God’s creation, sought to understand it's place in the created order, and begun (at last!) to celebrate that diversity within the life of the church."

The main people opposed to this document are not secular atheists, but humanistic Christians. In many ways, the liberal progressive church seems to have more in common with secular atheist ethics than Christian ethics. It's sad to see someone like singer Don Francisco claim that the basic idea that Christ emphasized is "error and self-righteousness" regarding relationships, according to Don Francisco's facebook page:

“The Nashville Statement” is something I find personally embarrassing. I was an Evangelical for most of my life, born into it at a high level-- the son of a seminary department head-- and believing everything a good Evangelical believes. Although I never was so hardened as to be signatory on such a polarizing statement, I silently assented to most of the doctrine behind it. Today, I call myself a follower of Jesus, not an Evangelical Christian; I’m sorry I ever associated myself with such a body of error and self-righteousness.

These are the signs of the times. In light of what the Nashville statement reveals about present society, I'm glad that we as Bible-believing born-again Christians have a hope in something far superior to politics and relativistic human goodness, a hope in our powerful personal relationship with Christ:

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in youthan he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4 KJV)

The Nashville Statement

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his. -Psalm 100:3

PREAMBLE Evangelical Christians at the dawn of the twenty-first century find themselves living in a period of historic transition. As Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian, it has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being. By and large, the spirit of our age no longer discerns or delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life. Many deny that God created human beings for his glory, and that his good purposes for us include our personal and physical design as male and female. It is common to think that human identity as male and female is not part of God’s beautiful plan, but is, rather, an expression of an individual’s autonomous preferences. The pathway to full and lasting joy through God’s good design for his creatures is thus replaced by the path of shortsighted alternatives that, sooner or later, ruin human life and dishonor God.

This secular spirit of our age presents a great challenge to the Christian church. Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age? Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life? Will she maintain her clear, counter-cultural witness to a world that seems bent on ruin?

We are persuaded that faithfulness in our generation means declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it — particularly as male and female. Christian Scripture teaches that there is but one God who alone is Creator and Lord of all. To him alone, every person owes glad-hearted thanksgiving, heart-felt praise, and total allegiance. This is the path not only of glorifying God, but of knowing ourselves. To forget our Creator is to forget who we are, for he made us for himself. And we cannot know ourselves truly without truly knowing him who made us. We did not make ourselves. We are not our own. Our true identity, as male and female persons, is given by God. It is not only foolish, but hopeless, to try to make ourselves what God did not create us to be.

We believe that God’s design for his creation and his way of salvation serve to bring him the greatest glory and bring us the greatest good. God’s good plan provides us with the greatest freedom. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it in overflowing measure. He is for us and not against us. Therefore, in the hope of serving Christ’s church and witnessing publicly to the good purposes of God for human sexuality revealed in Christian Scripture, we offer the following affirmations and denials.

ARTICLE 1 WE AFFIRM that God has designed marriage to be a covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife, and is meant to signify the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church. WE DENY that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship. We also deny that marriage is a mere human contract rather than a covenant made before God.

ARTICLE 2 WE AFFIRM that God’s revealed will for all people is chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage. WE DENY that any affections, desires, or commitments ever justify sexual intercourse before or outside marriage; nor do they justify any form of sexual immorality.

ARTICLE 3 WE AFFIRM that God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female. WE DENY that the divinely ordained differences between male and female render them unequal in dignity or worth.

ARTICLE 4 WE AFFIRM that divinely ordained differences between male and female reflect God’s original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing. WE DENY that such differences are a result of the Fall or are a tragedy to be overcome.

ARTICLE 5 WE AFFIRM that the differences between male and female reproductive structures are integral to God’s design for self-conception as male or female. WE DENY that physical anomalies or psychological conditions nullify the God-appointed link between biological sex and self-conception as male or female.

ARTICLE 6 WE AFFIRM that those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers. They are acknowledged by our Lord Jesus in his words about “eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb.” With all others they are welcome as faithful followers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known. WE DENY that ambiguities related to a person’s biological sex render one incapable of living a fruitful life in joyful obedience to Christ. ARTICLE 7 WE AFFIRM that self-conception as male or female should be defined by God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption as revealed in Scripture. WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption.

ARTICLE 8 WE AFFIRM that people who experience sexual attraction for the same sex may live a rich and fruitful life pleasing to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as they, like all Christians, walk in purity of life. WE DENY that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God’s original creation, or that it puts a person outside the hope of the gospel.

ARTICLE 9 WE AFFIRM that sin distorts sexual desires by directing them away from the marriage covenant and toward sexual immorality — a distortion that includes both heterosexual and homosexual immorality. WE DENY that an enduring pattern of desire for sexual immorality justifies sexually immoral behavior.

ARTICLE 10 WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness. WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.

ARTICLE 11 WE AFFIRM our duty to speak the truth in love at all times, including when we speak to or about one another as male or female. WE DENY any obligation to speak in such ways that dishonor God’s design of his image-bearers as male and female.

ARTICLE 12 WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ gives both merciful pardon and transforming power, and that this pardon and power enable a follower of Jesus to put to death sinful desires and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ is insufficient to forgive all sexual sins and to give power for holiness to every believer who feels drawn into sexual sin.

ARTICLE 13 WE AFFIRM that the grace of God in Christ enables sinners to forsake transgender self-conceptions and by divine forbearance to accept the God-ordained link between one’s biological sex and one’s self-conception as male or female. WE DENY that the grace of God in Christ sanctions self-conceptions that are at odds with God’s revealed will.

ARTICLE 14 WE AFFIRM that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners and that through Christ’s death and resurrection, forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure. WE DENY that the Lord’s arm is too short to save or that any sinner is beyond his reach.

Photo is by Anja of Deutschland, CC0 Creative Commons

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