Is the Church Outdated?

Message / Question Is the church just an out of date institution that gets its morality wrong? For instance because you follow the bible because in the Jewish era they had teenage marriages, some priests think this is ok, and child abuse has become rampant in the church? But yet sex before marriage is somehow wrong? Why not just go with the times, instead of inventing your own moral standards?

Response:

First of all, I certainly don’t think that the church is “out of date”, because the church is established by and for One who is always relevant – God is the great “I am” (not the “I was”) and He holds all time in His hands. Having said that, we must also recognise that the church is comprised of people, and people do mess things up and do get out of step with the culture in which they live. I have previously addressed the issue of sexual conduct, but I’ll repeat this much again – any sex outside of the context of Biblical marriage (i.e. the lifelong union of one man and one woman) is wrong. Sexual abuse can never be justified – regardless of whether the perpetrator is a priest or an atheist, it happens outside of the context of Biblical marriage and is therefore unacceptable to God, i.e. it is sin. So sex before marriage, infidelity by a married person, prostitution, homosexual acts, sexual abuse – all of these things are equally wrong.

I am certainly aware that there has been lot in the media recently about child abuse by “priests”, where this has occurred there is no excuse and no Christian can accept or condone such practices. They are wrong, it is sin.

Why not just “go with the times”? Because times change, community standards change and vary between cultures, but God’s standards remain the same – they are the unchanging foundation upon which Christian behaviour and morality must be based. In some cultures it’s OK to abuse women, but the cultural approval doesn’t make it right or acceptable to God. We need a standard that is NOT changed by cultural practice or the whim of human approval. That’s why, regardless of where the times “go”, I will stick with God’s unchanging standards and the church must do the same.