The Republic of God

Howdy,
It is the Kingdom of God, not the Republic of God. We are free to have our opinions. After all, God created us with free will. He could have created us as simple robots that would have no choice but to follow His commands. He didn't. We can choose to disobey, we can choose to disbelieve, we can choose to rebel. But it is still the Kingdom of God. God sets the standards. And if we choose to be loyal subjects of the Kingdom of God, it is His standards that we believe, His standards that we teach, and His standards that we strive to live.

The early church, guided by the Holy Spirit, came up with the language of orthodox and heresy. Orthodox literally means "same belief". Heresy comes from a root word that means "different". In the language of same and different rather than the language of right and wrong, the Holy Spirit acknowledges the gift of free will. We do have a choice to believe what we will. We can be orthodox, believing what God commands, striving to be loyal subjects of the Kingdom of God, or we can be heretics and believe differently.

If we choose to bear the name Christian, we are pledging our allegiance to the Kingdom of God as manifested and reveal in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are pledging to participate, with the help of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ here on earth, the Church, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We are pledging to be orthodox.

God created Man as male and female (Genesis 1:27), one or the other. To believe that there is something else or something in between is heresy. Jesus said all the law is based on love (Matthew 22:34-40), the prohibition on homosexual behavior is in the law (Leviticus 18:22 for example) therefore the prohibition is a loving command. To believe homosexuality is loving is heresy. Two people, one man and one woman, define a marriage (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7). To believe two males, two females, or any other combination forms a marriage is heresy.

Again, we have free will, we can believe what we want. But this is not a republic. To be loyal subjects of the Kingdom of God, to faithfully bear the name Christian, we are required to be orthodox. We must believe the same as what the King commands, we must teach what the King commands, and we must strive to live as the King commands.

Thanks for listening. Adios
- Stephen A. Curry