“But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Hab. 2:20). Our Creator God is awesome. He is holy, righteous, and good. He has no beginning and no end. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. There is truly no one like him. Isaiah writes, “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it” (Isa. 46:8–11). When our God speaks, his will is accomplished.

The Lord God created everything that we see and even the things that we don’t see. He designed everything in the way that he desired. When the Lord evaluated everything that he created, at the end of day six, he declared that “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). This means that everything as he designed it is good, right, and proper. We learn from reading God’s Word how he designed things to work. Genesis 1:1-2 reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” God, the Creator, did not intend to leave the earth formless, empty, and dark. He would, according to his divine intention, bring form, fullness, and light. In doing so, the Creator chose to fill the earth through mankind. The Lord created mankind, male and female (Gen. 1:27). It was his design that there be two sexes. It was his intention from the beginning. God would use the man and the woman, united in the covenant union of marriage, to be “fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28; cf. 9:1). This is God’s plan. The man and the woman are united for life as husband and wife. The fruit of their union (i.e. children) would be God’s means of filling, subduing, and exercising dominion over the earth. Hear this, the earth was created, designed by God, to be full.

We live on a planet we did not design. We were not involved in the planning, architecture, or assembly of this world. As the hymn writer so aptly states, “This is our Father’s world.” Adam was never destined to be alone. The Lord created Adam knowing that he would subsequently create the woman from Adam’s rib (Gen. 2:7, 18-25). This one man and one woman joined in the sacred, lifelong, covenantal union of marriage would be God’s means to carry out his purposes on planet Earth. The Lord chose to fill the planet with human beings, made in his own image, that resulted from the union of one man and one woman. Yet, we all know that Adam and Eve died (Gen. 5:5). God chose to continue the process of filling, subduing, and exercising dominion over the earth through descendants of Adam and Eve. Marriage, between one man and one woman, was God’s ongoing means of carrying out these divine purposes described in Genesis 1.

When God creates something, he determines its purpose for existence. Mankind, male and female, was created by God for his purposes. Marriage, between one man and one woman, was created by God for his purposes. Sex, between a husband and wife, was created for his purposes. The earth, and all it contains, was created by God for his purposes. Yet, we live in a post-fall world. Every person is born dead in sin and is separated from his Creator (Rom. 3:23). As a result, people in rebellion against their Creator seek to cast off and undermine the purposes and boundaries established by God (Rom. 1:18-32; 3:10-18). We witness this sinful drive, chasing after those things which the Lord has forbidden. As Christians, we grieve over the lengths to which mankind will go to rebel against God’s created purposes and order. We grieve over the fallout and destruction we witness in society. But, we don’t experience this in the abstract or hypothetical. The problem isn’t just “out there” somewhere. It happens with people that we know. We see lives, marriages, and families destroyed through sin before our very eyes.

June has the unfortunate distinction of being labeled “Pride Month”. It’s still June, in case anyone was wondering. There is no amount of advertising or celebration or even intimidation that is going to make activities lauded by the Pride Month advocates acceptable in the eyes of the Creator God or genuine Christians. We pray for the repentance of those individuals who are involved in or support the activities that the letters LGBTQ+ entail. As Christians who believe that God’s Word is inspired, inerrant, and binding upon us, we recognize that such beliefs and activities of the LGBTQ+ movement are in fact acts of rebellion against the Creator God. As I described earlier God has established the proper purposes and boundaries of mankind (two sexes – male and female), marriage (one man and one woman united in a covenant union for life), and the family (one husband and one wife, by God’s grace, coming together in union to produce children – to fill the earth, subdue it, and exercise dominion). These things are not unclear. There is no nuance. There are no grey areas. Christians, we know what God’s purposes and boundaries are. They are detailed in his Word.

What we see in our day are clear acts of rebellion against God (Rom. 1:18-32; cf. Ps. 2). When we look at what God has established, how he created things to work, we see that the unbelieving world has endeavored to do the opposite. They have sought to establish their own purposes and standards, in disregard of the Lord’s. Psalm 94:5-9 reads, “They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’ Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?” They have not learned the lesson that Scripture teaches through the tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Rebellious humanity thought that building a tower would prevent the Lord from causing them to spread out and fill the earth as he had intended (Gen. 11:1-4). God had determined what they were supposed to do, and that was to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it (Gen. 1:28; 9:1). So, he judged them by confusing their language, and he dispersed them over the face of the earth (Gen. 11:7-9). Advocates of Pride Month (and LGBTQ+ lifestyles and activities) can advertise through media, set up displays in retail stores, walk in parades, and seek to indoctrinate the youth of America, but it will never change the fact that they are acting in highhanded rebellion against their Creator. We know that God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7-8). He will not endure such things indefinitely (Rom. 2:5-11). We know that no person living in such sin will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8; cf. Rom. 1:26-27). Christians, we must proclaim the whole gospel, which includes confronting people’s sin and their need for repentance. Paul declared,  “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ac 20:18b–21). We must pray for the repentance and salvation of lost people.

The last thing that lost people need, including those involved in the LGBTQ+ movement, is for the evangelical church to become soft on sin and truth. We need to repent of our accommodation of the spirit of the age and speak the truth in love (Rom. 12:1-2; Jas. 4:1-10). We need to celebrate, as Christians, God’s good design. He created mankind (the two sexes) as male and female. He created marriage between one man and one woman for life. He established the marriage union of one man and one woman to carry out his purposes of being fruitful, multiplying, filling the earth, and subduing it (Gen. 1:28; 9:1). Let us not be uncertain. Let us not be silent. Let us celebrate, teach, and live out God’s good design in our lives, in our families, in our churches, and in the location in which God has placed us for such a time as this. God designed everything in the way that he desired. When the Lord evaluated everything that he created, at the end of day six, he declared that “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). This means that everything as he designed it is good, right, and proper.