{"id":6701,"date":"2013-12-13T16:47:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T16:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=6701"},"modified":"2013-12-14T08:09:10","modified_gmt":"2013-12-14T08:09:10","slug":"2013dec13aus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/2013dec13aus\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Court annuls &#8216;gay marriages&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6702\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6702\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/AustralianGays.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6702\" alt=\"Chris Teoh (left) and homosexual activist Ivan Hinton, had their 'marriage' overturned.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/AustralianGays-300x168.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/AustralianGays-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/AustralianGays.jpg 464w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6702\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Teoh (left) and homosexual activist Ivan Hinton, had their &#8216;marriage&#8217; overturned.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Australia&#8217;s High Court has overturned legislation allowing gay marriage in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-25344219\" target=\"_blank\">reports the BBC<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The ACT parliament <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-24619686\" target=\"_blank\">passed a bill in October<\/a><\/strong> making the territory the first part of Australia to legalise same-sex weddings.<\/p>\n<p>But the national government challenged the decision, saying it was inconsistent with federal law, which specified in 2004 that marriage was between a man and a woman. \u00a0The court said the issue should be decided by parliament &#8211; which in September 2012 voted down gay marriage legislation.<\/p>\n<p>It appears that the ACT legislators, and the activists who led a rush to &#8216;marry&#8217; in the Territory, were attempting to &#8216;bounce&#8217; Australia into federal-wide gay marriage. However, the result is that 27 tearful couples who &#8216;married&#8217; since the law came into effect last weekend will now have their unions declared invalid.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the Australian Christian Lobby, which opposes gay marriage, said: &#8220;Marriage between a man and a woman is good for society and beneficial for governments to uphold in legislation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is about providing a future for the next generation where they can be raised by their biological parents, wherever possible,&#8221; the statement said, adding that &#8220;it is now time to move on&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who leads a Liberal-National coalition, opposes same-sex marriage. Last year, a bill allowing same-sex marriage was voted down in both houses of Australia&#8217;s national parliament.<\/p>\n<p>In April, New Zealand became the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to legalise gay marriage. Gay marriage is also legal in countries including the United Kingdom (from next year), Canada, France, Argentina, and South Africa, and some US states.<\/p>\n<p>The Bible specifies that marriage is between a man and a woman, so Australia&#8217;s parliament stands on surer ground than the others mentioned. Jesus Christ took human sexuality right back to the way God made us when he said:<\/p>\n<p>Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.<\/p>\n<p>Becoming &#8216;one flesh&#8217; speaks of an emotional and spiritual bond which is expressed at a physical level in the conjugal act. Two men or two women can never become &#8216;one flesh&#8217;, lacking between them the necessary complentary parts of the anatomy. They cannot be married.<\/p>\n<p>Leviticus, which forms part of God&#8217;s revealed law code, condemns adultery, child sacrifice, homosexual acts and bestiality in consecutive verses:<\/p>\n<p>Lev 18:20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour&#8217;s wife, to defile thyself with her. 21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.<\/p>\n<p>It is important for us to remember that Jesus Christ has the title of King of kings. God demands to rule in the affairs of men:<\/p>\n<p>Psalm 103:19 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, after God warns the people of Israel against the sins listed above, he says:<\/p>\n<p>Lev 18:24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p>God brought judgment on the Canaanites. What will he do to Britain, to Canada, to France and New Zealand? The Bible singles out the lawmakers for criticism. In the words of the prophet Micah:<\/p>\n<p>Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.<\/p>\n<p>While the Psalmist says:<\/p>\n<p>Psalm 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.<\/p>\n<p>Psalm 94:20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, when a civilisation is overthrown, it is not only the leaders who perish. We all suffer. That is why the public good demands that Christians stand up, like the Australian Christian Lobby have done, like, with God&#8217;s grace and help, we are doing, and warn them from the word of God:<\/p>\n<p>Ezekiel 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.<\/p>\n<p>If we do not warn, we are like Ezekiel&#8217;s famous watchman, who saw trouble coming and did not warn the people:<\/p>\n<p>Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman&#8217;s hand.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia&#8217;s High Court has overturned legislation allowing gay marriage in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), reports the BBC. The ACT parliament passed a bill in October making the territory the first part of Australia to legalise same-sex weddings. But the national government challenged the decision, saying it was inconsistent with federal law, which specified in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,500],"class_list":["post-6701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexuality-trans","tag-gay-marriage","tag-australia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":12,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/homosexuality-trans\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Homosexuality &amp; Trans<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Australia&#8217;s High Court has overturned legislation allowing gay marriage in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), reports the BBC. The ACT parliament passed a bill in October making the territory the first part of Australia to legalise same-sex weddings. But the national government challenged the decision, saying it was inconsistent with federal law, which specified in&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}