Friday, March 28, 2025
GOSPEL OF JOHN PARTS 23 & 24
Click on the picture below for Dr. Kevin Hart's study on John 8:12-20, and the second picture below for his study on John 8: 21-30.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
THE ANNUNCIATION 2025
The Sermon follows the Collect and the Epistle and Gospel readings, and was preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on Tuesday March 25, 2025 (the Feast of the Annunciation). Click on the picture below to be taken to the video.
If you want to send a financial offering to support our parish, you may use the link below. Thank you.
Monday, March 24, 2025
The Feast of the Annunciation
Isaiah 7:10-15
Luke 1:26-38
Luke 1:26-38
It is no accident that today's Collect summarizes the entire Gospel, both with its glorious history of Christ's saving acts, and with our sure and certain hope for the promise of the future.
WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
A few years ago, my friend and fellow editor of Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity, Dr. William J. Tighe, professor of History at Muhlenberg College, presented in the magazine a thesis brand new to many. Whereas it has been assumed for a long time that Christmas is on December 25th, because it borrows the date of a pagan festival, the very opposite is true. The date was chosen by the Roman emperor to compete with the Christian holy day, the Feast of the Nativity. Tighe writes:
As things actually happened, Aurelian, who ruled from 270 until his assassination in 275, was hostile to Christianity and appears to have promoted the establishment of the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” as a device to unify the various pagan cults of the Roman Empire around a commemoration of the annual “rebirth” of the sun.
He goes on to explain the origin for the Christian date:
Second-century Latin Christians in Rome and North Africa appear to have desired to establish the historical date on which the Lord Jesus died. By the time of Tertullian they had concluded that he died on Friday, 25 March 29 [AD]...At this point, we have to introduce a belief that seems to have been widespread in Judaism at the time of Christ, but which, as it is nowhere taught in the Bible, has completely fallen from the awareness of Christians. The idea is that of the “integral age” of the great Jewish prophets: the idea that the prophets of Israel died on the same dates as their birth or conception. This notion is a key factor in understanding how some early Christians came to believe that December 25th is the date of Christ’s birth.
Therefore, we have a triangle with points in succession: Good Friday-Annunciation-Nativity. That is, the day of his atoning death for the sins of the world, pointing back to the day of his conception (today's Feast), then leading to a day in which they came to celebrate his birth. It does not matter that these dates are likely not to be historically accurate; they represent three major events in the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that remain forever linked in the mind of his Church: Good Friday, Annunciation and Christmas. Indeed, if we see Good Friday as the first part of the Christian Passover, which includes the Resurrection and our whole liberation from sin and death accomplished by Christ's victory on the cross and his triumphal rising on the third day, this triangle of dates fits well with the brief but penetrating summary of the Collect. And, it cannot fail to be sufficient pledge to us that God intends good for us, even everlasting life as we enter fully into Christ's resurrection life on the day when he will come again.
It has been suggested, with irony, tongue in cheek, that the Incarnation is the "Anglican heresy." That is, based on what theology students are taught as a basic point: That over-emphasis of any single point of doctrine causes imbalance, and therefore neglect of other points of doctrine, resulting in distortion of the truth so severe that it becomes heresy. And, indeed if any single point of doctrine comes across as the one most strongly emphasized by authentic Anglican teaching, it is the Incarnation of the Word: Nonetheless, we must insist that the Incarnation and the Trinity are two points of doctrine that, by their nature, cannot be over-emphasized. It is impossible to say too much about the Incarnation; and frankly, impossible on a human level to say enough about it, ever.
Where would we be without this simple fact? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) The whole opening of John's Gospel is about the Trinity and about the Incarnation.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
And we learn that this Person (ὑπόστασις) called the Word (λόγος) has both made and given life to the world and all mankind. Then we learn that this Person, the Word who is with God, who is God, and who is from the beginning with God (that is, he who who is eternally begotten of the Father as the Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father-"from the beginning") was made flesh. As the Greek text says in the original, he pitched his tent (or his tabernacle) among us. Or, as the King James Bible translated it:
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
So we must ask this question:
What was God's purpose in making man? None other than what we see at the end of the Book of Revelation, foretelling the destiny of the saints when the Redemption will have been completed.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Rev. 21:3)
God made the human race to manifest his glory among us, and that is the essence of the Divine plan and his great love for a creature made as the icon of God, for "God created man in his own image." (Gen. 1:27) And this was very good. But, we know that our race fell into sin and death, all mankind thus plunged into death by sin as the due reward of being "in Adam." Therefore, the manifestation of God's glory among us as a human being took on emergency measures. So, the Son came into the world to bear the cross and die to take away sin, then to rise to immortality as the new and everlasting man, thus to conquer death.
As we saw in the portion read for this Feast from the Gospel of Luke, God Almighty sent his Angel Gabriel to announce the Divine will to a virgin whose purity reflected the faith of her father Abraham She obeyed with such courage as faith alone produces in the human heart. She understood that she would conceive as a virgin, that it would be a miracle; for so the angel had explained in unmistakable and clear language (as the text plainly says). But, knowing it would be a miracle did not remove the need for her courage; for what was presented was no easy path, certainly not easy by any estimation.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
This was the faith of Abraham, expressed perfectly in a purified and seasoned people, from the mouth of Israel's finest, the pure virgin mother. She now bore in her womb the conceived God, the embryo, the fetus, the baby; the Word made flesh sanctifying even the most helpless and earliest stages of human life, which human life deserves protection at every stage; (lest failing to protect the helpless ones in the womb, who share this with Christ himself who also was there, we hear it said to any of us: "Verily I say unto you, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels...Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me'"- Matt. 25:41 KJV).
What happened at that moment of Christ's conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary his mother? Did he diminish his own glory and Godhead? Did he distill it down so as to fit in a human container? Did he leave behind the fullness of Divine Nature? Not at all. As St. Athanasius put it in The Incarnation of the Word of God :
The Word was not hedged in by His body, nor did His presence in the body prevent His being present elsewhere as well. When He moved His body He did not cease also to direct the universe by His Mind and might. No. The marvellous truth is, that being the Word, so far from being Himself contained by anything, He actually contained all things Himself. In creation He is present everywhere, yet is distinct in being from it; ordering, directing, giving life to all, containing all, yet is He Himself the Uncontained, existing solely in His Father. As with the whole, so also is it with the part. Existing in a human body, to which He Himself gives life, He is still Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and He is revealed both through the works of His body and through His activity in the world...His body was for Him not a limitation, but an instrument, so that He was both in it and in all things, and outside all things, resting in the Father alone. At one and the same time-this is the wonder-as Man He was living a human life, and as Word He was sustaining the life of the universe, and as Son He was in constant union with the Father. Not even His birth from a virgin, therefore, changed Him in any way, nor was He defiled by being in the body. Rather, He sanctified the body by being in it. For His being in everything does not mean that He shares the nature of everything, only that He gives all things their being and sustains them in it. Just as the sun is not defiled by the contact of its rays with earthly objects, but rather enlightens and purifies them, so He Who made the sun is not defiled by being made known in a body, but rather the body is cleansed and quickened by His indwelling, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (1 Peter 2. 22) 3.17
Let me summarize his words thus: While Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, walked the earth as a man, he filled the heavens as God.
And, he gives us the promise of glorification in him; as St. Peter wrote:
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (II Pet. 1:2-4)
The drop that fell was human nature, and the ocean that it entered was Divinity. Christ did not lower himself; rather he raised us. He did not diminish himself; rather he made us into children of his Father. He took into his proper, uncreated and eternal Person, an alien, created and temporal nature. Properly, he is from everlasting to everlasting God, eternally begotten of his Father. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of Very God, begotten not made; Being of homoousioun, that is, of One substance with the Father, and through whom all things were made..
He took human nature into his Godhead.
He took created nature into his uncreated Person.
He took time into his Eternity.
He gave back to us recreated, justified, redeemed, sanctified, and (at his coming again) immortal unending life.
No wonder, as we are told by St. John, the spirit of Antichrist refuses to confess this glorious doctrine (I John 4:1f). That spirit will never confess that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and will always deny either his Divine Nature as God the Son, or deny his full human nature. The spirit of error cannot deceive us once we know that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; for then we can hear the whole Gospel with the fullness of this complete truth for us.
WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
A few years ago, my friend and fellow editor of Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity, Dr. William J. Tighe, professor of History at Muhlenberg College, presented in the magazine a thesis brand new to many. Whereas it has been assumed for a long time that Christmas is on December 25th, because it borrows the date of a pagan festival, the very opposite is true. The date was chosen by the Roman emperor to compete with the Christian holy day, the Feast of the Nativity. Tighe writes:
As things actually happened, Aurelian, who ruled from 270 until his assassination in 275, was hostile to Christianity and appears to have promoted the establishment of the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” as a device to unify the various pagan cults of the Roman Empire around a commemoration of the annual “rebirth” of the sun.
He goes on to explain the origin for the Christian date:
Second-century Latin Christians in Rome and North Africa appear to have desired to establish the historical date on which the Lord Jesus died. By the time of Tertullian they had concluded that he died on Friday, 25 March 29 [AD]...At this point, we have to introduce a belief that seems to have been widespread in Judaism at the time of Christ, but which, as it is nowhere taught in the Bible, has completely fallen from the awareness of Christians. The idea is that of the “integral age” of the great Jewish prophets: the idea that the prophets of Israel died on the same dates as their birth or conception. This notion is a key factor in understanding how some early Christians came to believe that December 25th is the date of Christ’s birth.
Therefore, we have a triangle with points in succession: Good Friday-Annunciation-Nativity. That is, the day of his atoning death for the sins of the world, pointing back to the day of his conception (today's Feast), then leading to a day in which they came to celebrate his birth. It does not matter that these dates are likely not to be historically accurate; they represent three major events in the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that remain forever linked in the mind of his Church: Good Friday, Annunciation and Christmas. Indeed, if we see Good Friday as the first part of the Christian Passover, which includes the Resurrection and our whole liberation from sin and death accomplished by Christ's victory on the cross and his triumphal rising on the third day, this triangle of dates fits well with the brief but penetrating summary of the Collect. And, it cannot fail to be sufficient pledge to us that God intends good for us, even everlasting life as we enter fully into Christ's resurrection life on the day when he will come again.
It has been suggested, with irony, tongue in cheek, that the Incarnation is the "Anglican heresy." That is, based on what theology students are taught as a basic point: That over-emphasis of any single point of doctrine causes imbalance, and therefore neglect of other points of doctrine, resulting in distortion of the truth so severe that it becomes heresy. And, indeed if any single point of doctrine comes across as the one most strongly emphasized by authentic Anglican teaching, it is the Incarnation of the Word: Nonetheless, we must insist that the Incarnation and the Trinity are two points of doctrine that, by their nature, cannot be over-emphasized. It is impossible to say too much about the Incarnation; and frankly, impossible on a human level to say enough about it, ever.
Where would we be without this simple fact? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) The whole opening of John's Gospel is about the Trinity and about the Incarnation.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
And we learn that this Person (ὑπόστασις) called the Word (λόγος) has both made and given life to the world and all mankind. Then we learn that this Person, the Word who is with God, who is God, and who is from the beginning with God (that is, he who who is eternally begotten of the Father as the Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father-"from the beginning") was made flesh. As the Greek text says in the original, he pitched his tent (or his tabernacle) among us. Or, as the King James Bible translated it:
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
So we must ask this question:
What was God's purpose in making man? None other than what we see at the end of the Book of Revelation, foretelling the destiny of the saints when the Redemption will have been completed.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Rev. 21:3)
God made the human race to manifest his glory among us, and that is the essence of the Divine plan and his great love for a creature made as the icon of God, for "God created man in his own image." (Gen. 1:27) And this was very good. But, we know that our race fell into sin and death, all mankind thus plunged into death by sin as the due reward of being "in Adam." Therefore, the manifestation of God's glory among us as a human being took on emergency measures. So, the Son came into the world to bear the cross and die to take away sin, then to rise to immortality as the new and everlasting man, thus to conquer death.
As we saw in the portion read for this Feast from the Gospel of Luke, God Almighty sent his Angel Gabriel to announce the Divine will to a virgin whose purity reflected the faith of her father Abraham She obeyed with such courage as faith alone produces in the human heart. She understood that she would conceive as a virgin, that it would be a miracle; for so the angel had explained in unmistakable and clear language (as the text plainly says). But, knowing it would be a miracle did not remove the need for her courage; for what was presented was no easy path, certainly not easy by any estimation.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
This was the faith of Abraham, expressed perfectly in a purified and seasoned people, from the mouth of Israel's finest, the pure virgin mother. She now bore in her womb the conceived God, the embryo, the fetus, the baby; the Word made flesh sanctifying even the most helpless and earliest stages of human life, which human life deserves protection at every stage; (lest failing to protect the helpless ones in the womb, who share this with Christ himself who also was there, we hear it said to any of us: "Verily I say unto you, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels...Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me'"- Matt. 25:41 KJV).
What happened at that moment of Christ's conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary his mother? Did he diminish his own glory and Godhead? Did he distill it down so as to fit in a human container? Did he leave behind the fullness of Divine Nature? Not at all. As St. Athanasius put it in The Incarnation of the Word of God :
The Word was not hedged in by His body, nor did His presence in the body prevent His being present elsewhere as well. When He moved His body He did not cease also to direct the universe by His Mind and might. No. The marvellous truth is, that being the Word, so far from being Himself contained by anything, He actually contained all things Himself. In creation He is present everywhere, yet is distinct in being from it; ordering, directing, giving life to all, containing all, yet is He Himself the Uncontained, existing solely in His Father. As with the whole, so also is it with the part. Existing in a human body, to which He Himself gives life, He is still Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and He is revealed both through the works of His body and through His activity in the world...His body was for Him not a limitation, but an instrument, so that He was both in it and in all things, and outside all things, resting in the Father alone. At one and the same time-this is the wonder-as Man He was living a human life, and as Word He was sustaining the life of the universe, and as Son He was in constant union with the Father. Not even His birth from a virgin, therefore, changed Him in any way, nor was He defiled by being in the body. Rather, He sanctified the body by being in it. For His being in everything does not mean that He shares the nature of everything, only that He gives all things their being and sustains them in it. Just as the sun is not defiled by the contact of its rays with earthly objects, but rather enlightens and purifies them, so He Who made the sun is not defiled by being made known in a body, but rather the body is cleansed and quickened by His indwelling, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (1 Peter 2. 22) 3.17
Let me summarize his words thus: While Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, walked the earth as a man, he filled the heavens as God.
And, he gives us the promise of glorification in him; as St. Peter wrote:
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (II Pet. 1:2-4)
The drop that fell was human nature, and the ocean that it entered was Divinity. Christ did not lower himself; rather he raised us. He did not diminish himself; rather he made us into children of his Father. He took into his proper, uncreated and eternal Person, an alien, created and temporal nature. Properly, he is from everlasting to everlasting God, eternally begotten of his Father. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of Very God, begotten not made; Being of homoousioun, that is, of One substance with the Father, and through whom all things were made..
He took human nature into his Godhead.
He took created nature into his uncreated Person.
He took time into his Eternity.
He gave back to us recreated, justified, redeemed, sanctified, and (at his coming again) immortal unending life.
No wonder, as we are told by St. John, the spirit of Antichrist refuses to confess this glorious doctrine (I John 4:1f). That spirit will never confess that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and will always deny either his Divine Nature as God the Son, or deny his full human nature. The spirit of error cannot deceive us once we know that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; for then we can hear the whole Gospel with the fullness of this complete truth for us.
WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
—-
First posted in 2009.
GOSPEL OF JOHN PART 22
PART 22 GOSPEL OF JOHN
In this installment Dr. Kevin Hart expounds for us on John 8:1-11. The origin of this text is unique to the Gospels.
PART 21 (Corrected Sequence)
Because of repeated technical difficulties I had posted Part 23 (which I will post again in its proper place) as Part 21. This is the correct Part 21 in corrected sequence.
In this video Dr. Kevin Hart expounds on John 7: 37-51.
Fr. Robert Hart
Sunday, March 23, 2025
FELLOWSHIP IN JESUS' SYNAGOGUE
THIRD SUNDAY in LENT 2025
For the video with the Collect, the Epistle and Gospel readings, and the sermon preached by Fr. Hart on March 23, 2025 at Saint Benedict's Anglican Church (Third Sunday in Lent), click on the picture below.
If you would like to send an offering for the continued ministry of our parish, please use the link below. Thank you.
Sunday, March 09, 2025
CHRIST IN THE WILDERNESS First Sunday in Lent 2025
For the Sermon on Christ's temptations in the wilderness, you may click on the picture below for the link. It was preached on March 9, 2025 and is preceded by the Collect and two appointed scripture readings of the day.
To send an offering to the ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Church you may use the link below. Thank you.
Wednesday, March 05, 2025
ASH WEDNESDAY 2025
Click on the picture for the video that contains the Collect appointed readings for Ash Wednesday, and the sermon preached by Fr. Hart at the Noon Ash Wednesday Mass on March 5, 2025 at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church.
To contribute to the ongoing ministry of the parish you may use the link below.
Sunday, March 02, 2025
QUINQUAGESIMA 2025
To see the video with Fr. Harrelson's sermon, which follows the Collect and appointed readings, preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on March 2, 2025 (Quinquagesima), click on the picture below.
If you would like to contribute to the ongoing ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Church, you may use the link below.
Monday, February 24, 2025
ICE Raids Churches During Services
It would seems that it is not “the Left” who are willing to send jack boot government thugs into church services after all.
As a man of God I am offended whenever Trump is praised as some sort of “messiah” or otherwise compared to Jesus. His 2020 tear-gassing of a church for a photo op with an upside down Bible (how symbolic) and his alleged concern about “anti-Christian” activities is all show-biz and no substance. Raiding churches is an attack on “the free exercise” of religion (First Amendment). The Right claims that the Democrats threaten religious freedom. But Trump’s ICE are invading churches during services! I have no doubt that his “Christian Nationalism” fans will, if they ever have the power they lust after, persecute the church in which I am a priest if only because they are anti-Tradition Fundamentalists. My local parish is significantly an immigrant congregation, and even has refugees as faithful members.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
SEXAGESIMA 2025
For the video with the sermon (which follows the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the day) preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on Sexagesima, Sunday February 23, 2025, you may use this link.
To Send a money offering to Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church you may use this PayPal link. Thank you.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025
Clarification
It has been stated by one Calvin Robinson “Fr. Robert Hart has been attacking me publicly.” Actually, I have not attacked him at all. I have simply defended myself by reminding people of my indisputable Cultural Conservative credentials to dispel the notion of some kind of relevant comparison. I am not a political figure, and I have never defied the archepiscopal authority to which I answer. My name has no more relevance to Robinson’s problems than that of any given ACC priest. Neither he nor anybody else has any business bringing my name up.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
PREPARING FOR LENT Septuagesima 2025
This sermon (February 16, 2025) is a very practical guide to preparing your heart and mind for a holy and fruitful Lent. It follows the Collect and the appointed readings.
If you would like to send along a contribution for the ongoing ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Church we hjave provided the linkl below for your convenience. Thank you.
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Thursday, February 13, 2025
HERE WE STAND
Fr. Robert Hart on Opposing Caesar on Same-Sex "Marriage"
Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. (Book of Common Prayer)
Following the news of the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, there have been warnings among the editorial writings in papers and posted on the internet to the effect that, having made same-sex "marriage" the law of the land, the courts might very well start taking away the religious liberties even of churches themselves. That may very well be true. Strange things are coming out of court rulings these days, and I would not dismiss anything as impossible anymore. What seems more likely in the foreseeable future, however, is that the government will take away tax-exempt status from churches that do not fall into line and that refuse to march in lockstep.
But whatever the powers-that-be may throw at us, no faithful Christian clergyman will ever, under any circumstances, perform a so-called same-sex wedding. It isn't going to happen; end of discussion. As St. Peter said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). In response to the times we live in, that means (among other things) that the Church has no authority to recognize or perform same-sex "marriages." This is a matter of doctrine, coming from God and recorded in Scripture.
Some people speak as if they have never heard of civil disobedience. For a Christian, those words of St. Peter in Acts 5 lay the foundation for civil disobedience. Some may ask, "But what if they make us comply?" Or, "What if they rule against us in some future court case?" The answer remains, "We ought to obey God rather than men." For ancient Christians, this meant dying as martyrs rather than offering incense to Caesar as a god. And, indeed, we are speaking of choosing to obey either human authority or God when the two conflict. So, what has God revealed?
Clarity in God's Word
In Matthew 19, we have been given God's word on the matter. Here, Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24, but he deliberately modifies that passage by inserting the word "two" into it, thus ruling out polygamy for his followers. What we have, therefore, from the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, is his word that marriage is between one man and one woman (Matt. 19:4–6).
A little later Christ says that "some have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake" (v.12). Christians have always understood this to mean there are two states of life for believers. One is marriage, and the other is complete abstinence from sexual relations, whether one remains open to marriage in the future or lives as a celibate by vocation.
Also, we have the teaching of sacramental marriage, that is, that marriage is God's own work. For, after declaring that the married couple are "no more two, but one flesh," the Lord says, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (v.6). Not simply the Church, not simply the power of the state, not simply the man and woman making a covenant between themselves, but God makes the man and the woman one flesh. This is the sacramental marriage that we celebrate and bless in the Church.
Clarity in Vocabulary
Moreover, the vocabulary in both Genesis and Matthew makes it clear that two people of the same sex cannot be married in the eyes of God. The Hebrew words in Genesis are unmistakable. The words for "woman" and for "wife" are one and the same: ishah. The word for "man" is ish. The same applies to the Greek original in Matthew. The word for "wife" is gyne (from which comes the English word "gynecology"), which means a woman of any age, and which also means "wife."
Furthermore, this is in accord with the words from Jesus' own mouth: "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female," making the following words obvious in meaning: "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain [two] shall be one flesh" (vv. 4–5). Sexual complementarity, something two people of the same sex do not have and cannot have, was created by God for marriage as a sacramental bond, to produce children and establish the family.
It is quite understandable why the English Bible translators used the word "wife" rather than "woman" in both Genesis and Matthew. In English, to say that a man shall cleave to his woman might suggest something other than marriage to lazy ears, even though it is clear from the context that the only possible understanding of the words is in reference to the marriage relationship. But in this day and age, we need to know that both in Hebrew and in Greek the words for "woman" and "wife" are the same, with the obvious meaning of a married couple derived from the context.
Absurd Redefinition
I was made aware of some celebrity championing same-sex "marriage" with the argument that its advocates do not want to change the definition of what marriage is. That statement is absurd on the face of it. Of course it is a redefinition. In the whole history of the world, every civilization has known that sexual complementarity—male and female—is of the very essence of what marriage is. It has never been understood in any other way. From the teaching of Scripture we see why: marriage is literally a part of God's creation and not a man-made institution. Its roots do not originate in jurisprudence. It is a part of human nature itself, as anthropology confirms.
This celebrity went on to bring up women's suffrage and the civil rights movement as if there were a connection between those important accomplishments and this new thing. But there is no genuine connection, none whatsoever; only what some want to create by the power of suggestion rather than by reason and logic.
One might as well argue that a triangle has the right to be defined as a type of circle, and that expanding the definition of the word "circle" to include "triangular circles" would not change the nature of circularity. But if a circle can be defined as either triangular or round, then we have lost the distinctive meaning of the word "circle." The new definition is too inclusive to be meaningful. If the cause of recognizing a triangle as a circle were fortified by the ruling of a court, all that would happen is that mathematics teachers could no longer teach geometry—at least not legally.
Well, the courts could force mathematics teachers to obey, I suppose, if it ever came to that. But if they tell us to disobey God and to obey them instead, they would be wise to get this message and never forget it: We will not obey you under any circumstances, no matter what force you bring to bear upon us. Christians have been persecuted many times, and are being persecuted even to the death in faraway lands today. "We ought to obey God rather than men," and so we will. •
Robert Hart is Rector Emeritus of St. Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Anglican Catholic Church Original Province). He also contributes regularly to the blog The Continuum.
Surgical Fantasy
First published in Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity
Robert Hart on Biblical Compassion for Sex-Change Confusion
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. (1 Cor. 14:33)
The invention of a new "civil right" is being forced upon us. I believe that if the great martyr of genuine civil rights could see what is being done in the name of his cause, he would be displeased—that is, if the things he actually believed in his lifetime are taken into account. In recent months the world has been subjected to the sight of Bruce Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair, calling himself Caitlyn and appearing like a woman.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins Hospital is bucking the trend. As CNS News reported on June 2 of last year:
Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and its current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, said that transgenderism is a "mental disorder" that merits treatment, that sex change is "biologically impossible," and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.
He also reported on a new study showing that the suicide rate among transgendered people who had reassignment surgery is 20 times higher than the suicide rate among non-transgender people.
Johns Hopkins, one of the finest hospitals in the world, used to perform such operations, but does not do so anymore. The CNS story continues:
Dr. McHugh also reported that there are "misguided doctors" who, working with very young children who seem to imitate the opposite sex, will administer "puberty-delaying hormones to render later sex-change surgeries less onerous—even though the drugs stunt the children's growth and risk causing sterility."
Such action comes "close to child abuse," said Dr. McHugh, given that close to 80% of those kids will "abandon their confusion and grow naturally into adult life if untreated."
To actually change one's sex, one would have to change every cell in the body, as well as brainwave patterns. The frontal lobe of the brain would also have to be transformed.
"Sex change is biologically impossible," said McHugh. "People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is a civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder."
It is time for the Church to look this matter squarely in the eye, and determine how to respond to it in the light of doctrine, including sacramental theology.
Charity & Truth
Obviously, we want to respond to all human needs with compassion, and to share the hope offered only by the gospel of Jesus Christ. What does this mean for a person who feels "transgender"? What does it mean for a person who has undergone the surgery? This problem did not exist in the days of the apostles in exactly the way it exists today. We must, therefore, draw principles from Scripture to guide us rightly. Here, I seek to demonstrate that both receiving and performing this surgery is a sin against the Creator. Those who are in pastoral ministry must urge anyone considering such surgery not to go through with it. To those who have already been so altered, pastors must offer forgiveness on the same terms as for any other sin: confession and repentance. That is the only way to walk in charity and truth.
The first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans shows two things that are revealed from heaven: on the one hand, the righteousness of God and the message of salvation offered to everyone who believes; and, on the other hand, the wrath of God "against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." In the latter category belong all those "who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." These latter are those who act "against nature." Essentially, their entire treatment of created things, including human sexuality and their own bodies, is a form of idolatry that pulls them into every kind of evil (see Rom. 1:16–32).
I am sure that Paul is not speaking here of confused people who suffer a genuine crisis of identity, and certainly not of minors. But we live in a culture so corrupt that it is coming to look more and more like what he describes in Romans 1. The "misguided doctors" that Dr. McHugh mentions are part of this modern culture. Minors are easily influenced, and the adults who encourage their confusion, and problem, are acting dangerously. In a very real way, they are setting a stumbling block before children (Matt. 18:6–7).
Doctors who administer puberty-delaying hormones have no valid medical justification for doing so, and they ought to have their licenses revoked. Doctors who perform sex-change surgery, which is really just sexual mutilation and plastic surgery, are performing no genuine medical service at all; they also ought to have their licenses revoked. Beyond that, a whole set of politicians, celebrities, publishers, and others, perhaps even counselors in various schools, are part of a trend to "change the truth of God into a lie."
People trapped in their confusion and in need of psychiatric help (and, no doubt, spiritual help as well) live in a culture that is increasingly offering them the opposite of what they need and is encouraging them to make a disastrous choice. In the midst of such a culture, the Church must, for those who are vulnerable, be a safe place of refuge from the pull of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Sacramental Doctrine
The truth of God, concerning the sexual nature of the human race, his creation, is best summed up in Genesis: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply'" (1:27–28).
We have already had to deal with the current confusion in the world concerning marriage, specifically the problem with what is called same-sex marriage. We need to understand, as well, the added problem that "transgenderism" brings to the table. As Dr. McHugh has stated, sex-change operations are a lie, a lie carved into one's flesh and supported by ongoing injections, but a lie nonetheless. No such thing as a sex change is possible for human beings—or, for that matter, any species of mammal. All that can be done is mutilation that creates sterility.
The matter of sterility is no minor detail. In truth, persons who have this surgery done are not changed from one sex to the other; rather, they are rendered eunuchs. Their ability to "be fruitful and multiply" is destroyed. In a sense, such surgery is an outworking of "the culture of death," as it necessarily embraces sterility.
So what ought a member of the clergy to do if a real man wants to marry a "transgendered" woman, or a real woman a "transgendered" man? Sadly, some modern Evangelicals have exhibited a readiness to treat the world's lie as if it were the truth. Some Catholic clergy want to corrupt Roman Catholicism in the same way. But such a marriage would be just as much a fiction as a so-called same-sex marriage. It cannot be reconciled with sacramental theology, or even with simple reality.
Identity
Radical feminists have coined a new term: "cisgendered." It refers to a person who identifies with his or her own sex, and it often carries the implication that there is something somehow wrong, or at least stodgy and conformist, with accepting one's sex as part of one's identity. In actual fact, of course, the opposite is true. For, as Dr. McHugh states:
This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder in two respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality. The second is that it can lead to grim psychological outcomes.
I am very happily "cisgendered." I like being a man, and I feel like a man. My wife likes being a woman, and feels like a woman. To be unhappy with the nature God gave you is to be unthankful, and is also quite sad. The fact that having sex-change surgery increases one's likelihood of committing suicide twenty-fold shows that it is anything but compassionate to support such a decision.
Rather, anyone who is unfortunate enough not to be "cisgendered" is deserving of pity. Such individuals need psychiatric and spiritual help. To encourage their psychosis is simply to take part in the culture depicted in Romans 1, a culture with which Christians must have no fellowship. •
The CNS News report quoted in this article can be found online here.
Robert Hart is Rector Emeritus of St. Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Anglican Catholic Church Original Province). He also contributes regularly to the blog The Continuum.
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