Of Mankind, Gender, Marriage, Family, & Sexuality
While we affirm Chapters 4 and 25 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession on creation and marriage, and while we agree substantially with the Danvers[1] and Nashville[2] Statements on gender, marriage, and sexuality, ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church has taken a stand which aligns more closely with us as a free church, drawn in part from other documents like the New Hampshire Confession and the Baptist Faith and Message.
Mankind & Gender
Men and women are created in the image and likeness of God, whose chief end is to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever. Man, furthermore, “is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake…. Nevertheless, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, but all things originate from God” (1 Cor 11:7-9, 11-12).
Man, however, under the law of his Maker, fell by voluntary transgression from that holy and happy state; in consequence of which all mankind are now guilty sinners, being by nature utterly void of that perfect holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil; and therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin, without defense or excuse.
The Fall radically corrupted mankind, including their intrinsic image of God—our nature, rationality, knowledge, glory, preeminence—and obliterated their original righteousness, which can be restored solely by the redeeming grace and regenerating power of God.
Gen 1-3; Eccl 7:29; Rom 2:14-15; 2 Cor 11:3; Rom 3:23; Rom 5:12-21; Titus 1:15; Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9; Rom 3:10-19; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Cor 15:21-22,45,49; Ps 51:5; Job 14:4; Eph 2:3; Rom 6:20; Rom 5:12; Heb 2:14-15; 1 Thess 1:10; Rom 7:18,23; Eccl 7:20; 1 John 1:8; Rom 7:23-25; Gal 5:17; Col 3:10; Eph 4:24
Marriage
God ordained marriage, and by extension the family, as the foundation for human society and flourishing. Marriage has only one proper meaning: a covenant union sanctioned by God alone, which joins one qualified biological man and one qualified biological woman in an exclusive, monogamous, lifelong commitment, a “mystery” which typifies and reveals the loving spiritual relationship between Christ—the Bridegroom—and all the elect people of God, the invisible, universal church—the Bride—according to Scripture. It is God's design and gift which provides the man and woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship and love, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for fruitful procreation.
Marriage typifies and ought to reflect the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, to lay down his life for her. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, protect, and lead his family. A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church lovingly submits to the headship of Christ. She has the God-given duty to support and respect her husband, to be his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
The Bible clearly reveals the roles of men and women and the purpose of marriage, including, but not limited to, the following:
"Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." (Ephesians 5:22-33)
It is 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; and therefore such as profess the true religion, should not marry with infidels (unbelievers), nor idolators; neither should such as are godly, be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresy (cf. 2LBCF 25:3).
Marriage ought not to take place between a man and woman who are within the degrees of close relationship by blood (consanguinity) or by marriage (affinity) forbidden by the Word. Such incestuous marriages can never be made lawful—so that such persons may live together as man and wife—by any law of man or by the consent of the parties involved (cf. 2LBCF 25:4).
Neither should a man and a woman marry if either one is unlawfully divorced from their last marriages, which is adultery.
Gen 2:18-24; Deut 24:1-4; Matt 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-12; 1 Cor 7
Marriage Licenses
The authority to grant and sanction marriages is God’s alone, by way of covenant: “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh’; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. ‘What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate’” (Mark 10:6-9).
A marriage is considered valid under God when a man and woman are biblically qualified to marry and sign a formal covenant that is attested by witnesses. Therefore, neither the church nor the state has the authority to license marriages or to grant marriage licenses, for both church and state are mere witnesses. The church attests to the validity of the marriage and can solemnize it with public ceremony and witnesses; but the marriage covenant itself is made solely between the man and the woman before God, with the support and approval of the church and the respective families. The state has no legitimate jurisdiction to marry anyone, but merely recognizes the marriage and the family accordingly. The elders of ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church will therefore discourage, but not require, those desiring to marry from ensnaring themselves with state marriage licenses. (Romans 13, Matthew 19)
The Family & Worship
The family is an extension of biblically defined marriage and a reflection of God’s loving trinitarian fellowship and heavenly family. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Children are to honor and obey their parents. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage and godly living, teach them the truth and spiritual and moral values, catechize them, and raise them in loving discipline seasoned with grace and a consistent Christian lifestyle—to think, choose, speak, and act rightly according to the truth and sound doctrine of God’s Word. All these relations must be grounded in biblical truth and love.
An important duty that parents have, especially fathers, is to practice family worship in the home, since they are ultimately responsible for teaching and modeling the Scriptures to their children. It is likewise important for the church, especially the elders, to encourage and equip parents to worship with their children and fulfill their duties to them according to Scripture, which also addresses children directly and expects them to be present with their parents during corporate worship (Eph 6:1-4), instead of segregating children on the Lord’s Day or creating an unbiblical rift between parents and their children.
Our Baptist forefathers acknowledged that, as Christians “in this backsliding day we might not spend our breath in fruitless complaints of the evils of others, but may every one begin at home, to reform in the first place our own hearts and ways, and then to quicken all that we may have influence upon, to the same work; that if the will of God were so, none might deceive themselves by resting in and trusting to a form of godliness without the power of it, and inward experience of the efficacy of those truths that are professed by them” (2LBCF Preface).
Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:15-25; Gen 3:1-20; Exod 20:12; Deut 6:4-9; Josh 24:15; 1 Sam 1:26-28; Ps 51:5; Ps 78:1-8; Ps 127; Ps 128; Ps 139:13-16; Prov 1:8; Prov 5:15-20; Prov 6:20-22; Prov 12:4; Prov 13:24; Prov 14:1; Prov 17:6; Prov 18:22; Prov 22:6,15; Prov 23:13-14; Prov 24:3; Prov 29:15,17; Prov 31:10-31; Eccl 4:9-12; Eccl 9:9; Mal 2:14-16; Matt 5:31-32; Matt 18:2-5; Matt 19:3-9; Mark 10:6-12; Rom 1:18-32; 1 Cor 7:1-16; Eph 5:21-33; Eph 6:1-6; Col 3:18-21; 1 Tim 5:8,14; 2 Tim 1:3-5; Titus 2:3-5; Heb 13:4; 1 Pet 3:1-7
Sexuality
God designed marriage as defined by His Word to be the only proper channel for physical and sexual intimacy. All other sexual thoughts, words, and actions, including, but not limited to: adultery, fornication, same-sex attraction, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, pornography, and any intent to change or disagree with one’s biological gender—gender dysphoria, transgenderism, cross-dressing, and the like—are sinful and offensive to God. Prov 5:15-19; Heb 13:4; Matt 5:27-30; Eph 5:3; Gal 5:19; 1 Cor 6:9, 18-20; 1 Thess 4:3-5
God justifies, redeems, regenerates, delivers, restores, sanctifies, and preserves those struggling with these and all other sins by granting them repentance (a change of mind or conviction) and belief (understanding and assent) in the gospel, and empowers them to actively confess and mortify their sin, walk victoriously in holiness, and receive God’s transformative promises and means of grace, for “such were some of you [past tense]; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11).
Any harassing, insulting, sinful behavior toward anyone struggling with the above sins is contrary to Scripture and must be corrected and disciplined through genuine repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Christians must also recognize the dangers and exceeding sinfulness of sin (Rom 7:13), especially sexual sin, as well as the need to “flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body” (1 Cor 6:18). Prov 28:13; Acts 3:19; 1 John 1:8-9; James 5:16; Heb 3:12-14; Gal 6:1
Denials
We renounce the false spirit of Antichrist and all of its ungodly agendas, including, but not limited to: the papacy and the Roman Catholic church-state; postmodernism; atheism; materialism; scientism; evolutionary theory, including theistic evolution; feminism; Marxism; communism; Critical Theories, including Critical Race Theory; tyranny; lesbianism, homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism, pedophilia (LGBT); eugenics, abortion; and all other like sins, as well as their destructive impact on gender roles, marriage, family, sexuality, government, and on society. “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8).
As for abortion, euthanasia, and suicide, since Scripture that life begins at conception and that mankind is made in the image of God, then the intentional, biblically unjustified killing of unborn children or of individuals already born is therefore murder and forbidden by God. Furthermore, there is a difference on the one hand between extracting a baby with the intention of also saving the baby, but which may end up dying, in order to save the life of the mother; and on the other, intentionally killing a baby or extracting a baby from the mother with no intention of saving the baby, which is sinful and unjustifiable.
[1] ‘The Danvers Statement’ (The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 1988) <https://cbmw.org/about/the-danvers-statement/> [accessed 25 January 2025].
[2] ‘The Nashville Statement’ (The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood) <https://cbmw.org/the-nashville-statement/> [accessed 25 January 2025].