Over 150 Christian leaders have signed a statement clarifying the biblical view of sexuality, including on marriage, gender identity and sexual orientation.
The Nashville Statement, released this week, contains 14 articles which affirm God's pattern for sexuality, and the saving power of the gospel to redeem from all sin.
It has been signed by major Christian leaders from the US and the UK, including Wilberforce Academy Fellows Peter Jones, and Jeffery Ventrella, as well as Robert Gagnon, John Piper, Sam Allberry, Vaughan Roberts, Dick Lucas, Francis Chan, and many others.
Response to increasingly secular norms
The introduction to the statement highlights the growing pressure aimed at the Church to conform to liberal secular norms.
It reads: "This secular spirit of our age presents a great challenge to the Christian church. Will the church of the Lord Jesus Christ lose her biblical conviction, clarity, and courage, and blend into the spirit of the age? Or will she hold fast to the word of life, draw courage from Jesus, and unashamedly proclaim his way as the way of life?"
It adds that the 14 affirmations and denials are an attempt to publicly witness to the goodness of God's design for mankind.
Welcome clarity
The statement makes very clear that marriage is a "lifelong union of one man and one woman", and that "God's revealed will for all people is chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage."
Article 7 discusses self-conception and includes:
"WE DENY that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God's holy purposes in creation and redemption. "
Article 10 makes clear that approval of homosexual practice is itself immoral:
Article 10
"WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.
WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree."
A courageous and compassionate statement
John Piper, who helped convene the coalition statement said:
"The Nashville Statement is a Christian manifesto concerning issues of human sexuality. It speaks with forthright clarity, biblical conviction, gospel compassion, cultural relevance, and practical helpfulness. There is no effort to equivocate for the sake of wider, but muddled, acceptance.
"It is built on the persuasion that the Christian Scriptures speak with clarity and authority for the good of humankind. It is permeated by the awareness that we are all sinners in need of divine grace through Jesus Christ. It affirms with joy that no form of sexual sin is beyond forgiveness and healing. It touches the most fundamental and urgent questions of the hour, without presuming to be a blueprint for political action. And it will prove to be, I believe, enormously helpful for thousands of pastors and leaders hoping to give wise, biblical, and gracious guidance to their people."
Christian Concern applauds the Nashville Statement
We applaud the clarity, conviction, compassion and courage of the Nashville Statement. It is a statement for our time when Christian moral values are under attack. It is a statement that all Bible believing Christians can unreservedly affirm and be grateful for. At the same time, it says nothing new. It affirms the same beliefs and practices that the Church has upheld throughout church history.
We hope that the Nashville statement gains wide recognition and acceptance as a clear expression of Christian values on sexual ethics and sexuality.