This is the title of an article found in the Akron Beacon Journal.  It was in the “Voice of the People” section.  The writer of the article claimed that the Bible does not define marriage as being between a man and a woman.  This writer, portraying himself as a religious leader by calling himself Reverend, referred to marriage between a man and a woman as nothing more than a tradition.

As is always the case, these people, who try to reconcile sinful practices with the Scriptures, are just plain wrong.  Genesis 2:22-25 introduces marriage to us.  The Bible says that God, “fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man and brought her to the man” (ver. 22).  If all Adam needed was another human being, created equally in the image of God, why didn’t God just create another man?  Instead, we find, not according to tradition, but according to what is written, God created for man a woman.

The Hebrew word for woman is found 781 times in the Old Testament and almost every time it is translated as woman, women, wife, wives, or female.  Three or four times it is translated as married and, in each passage, a woman marrying a man is under consideration.  Then, in verse twenty-four of the account where marriage is instituted, the record says, “For this reason, a man shall  leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

Here is the definition of marriage—a man being joined to his wife.  That this involves a male and a female is clear to anyone without a “gay rights” agenda.  This first couple is told to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28),  something that would have been impossible if they were two males or two females.

Next, the writer tried to shoot down the scriptural condemnation of Romans 1:26-27.  His attempt was feeble at best.  He claimed that the passage is a condemnation of idolatry, not homosexuality.  Really!  That is a laughable interpretation of the text.  Yes, Paul is condemning idolatry in Romans one, but he is also condemning sex between two people of the same gender as an unnatural act (Romans 1:26-27).  Anyone who can see through a ladder can see that.

The truth revealed in Romans One is that homosexual activity is always an act of idolatry in which man is worshiping the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:24).  This is exactly what is going on in the world today.  People are elevating the lustful will of man above the will of God by pushing and promoting homosexual acts and same-sex marriage.  That is a form of idolatry because it places the will of man above the will of God.  It constitutes a sin that is both prideful and immoral in the sight of God.

One argument the writer made to prove that Paul was condemning idolatry, but not homosexuality, centered around the temple of Aphrodite located at Corinth and the Aphrodite religion.  His claim was that Romans One condemns the Aphrodite religion in which adherents  “were required to have sex both ways.”

First, even if such could be proven, that is, that Paul was condemning the Aphrodite religion, it still would be a condemnation of the behavior involved in the religion, namely homosexuality.  Second, there is no concrete evidence that the temple under consideration was even active in Paul’s day, and third, and a fact that shows the shallow knowledge of the writer, the temple under consideration was located at Corinth, not Rome.  While Paul wrote the book of Romans from Corinth, he was not writing to the Corinthians, he was writing to the saints at Rome.

Paul’s words condemn sex between members of the same gender, regardless of the motives behind the act.  Thus, even if the Bible did not give us a definition of marriage, which it clearly does, same-sex marriage is condemned by the Bible.  This is what is important to the Christian, not what society thinks or what human laws allow.