Reformed   |   Elder Led   |   Family Discipleship   |   Hilliard, OH

Position Statements

Marriage

Marriage was instituted by God.  As the Creator of the institution, God defines marriage and not the state.  He ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman for life who enter into a covenant relationship, complement one another, serve one another, and sanctify one another for as long as they both shall live.

We reject any attempt by the state or the culture to redefine marriage as a union between people of the same sex or as between more than one man and one woman or as an incestuous union.

The Lord created marriage for the mutual help of husband and wife, to increase the numbers of mankind, to provide mankind with joy and pleasure and to prevent immorality.

We share Adam and Eve as our common grandparents, therefore, we are all one human race.  It is absolutely lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent; yet it is the duty of Christians to marry in the Lord.  Therefore, people who profess Jesus Christ as their Savior must not marry idolaters (anyone participating in other religions), non-believers, unrepentant professing Christians or anyone who professes heresy.

Leviticus 18; Mark 6:18; 1 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Timothy 4:3; 1 Corinthians 7:39; Nehemiah 13:25-27; Genesis 2:18; Genesis 1:28; 1 Corinthians 7:2, 9; Genesis 2:24; Malachi 2:15; Matthew 19:5,6; Genesis 2:18; Genesis 1:28; 1 Corinthians 7:2, 9

Abortion

Human life begins at conception.  The unborn child is a living human being created fully in the image of God.  Abortion constitutes the unjustified, unexcused taking of unborn human life.  Abortion is murder and cannot be justified even in the instances of rape, incest, birth defects, gender selection, birth or population control, or the physical or mental well-being of the mother.

Abortion does not constitute the unforgivable sin.  There is love, hope and forgiveness in the Church to be found for mothers who abort their babies.  After all, the Church that Christ died to reconcile is full of forgiven murderers, adulterers, the sexually immoral, swindlers and other dishonest people (Matthew 5:21-22; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Romans 3:10-25).  No person, except Jesus, has been born without sin.

Job 3:16; Psalm 51:5; 139:14-16; Isaiah 44:24; 49:1, 5; Jeremiah 1:5; 20:15-18; Luke 1:44