The Nashville Statement is a document stating what Bible-believing Christians see in the Bible about human sexuality. In fourteen statements it addresses a broad scope of sexuality issues: heterosexual purity and immorality, same-sex desires, homosexual purity and immorality, transgenderism, human identity, and how all people may find redemption in Christ regardless of their sinful condition.
The statement was written by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This group was founded in 1987 for the purpose of clarifying the biblical view of gender roles as being complementarian which means, “the biblically derived view that men and women are complementary, possessing equal dignity and worth as the image of God, and called to different roles that each glorify him.” They seek to clarify this for the benefit of the church and society in a secularizing culture. See more about the organization here: www.cbmw.org.
The Nashville Statement got this name because it was introduced in Nashville, TN, where it was signed by more than 150 evangelical leaders. Some of those signers were John Piper, retired pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, DA Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Russell Moore, of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, and Steve Gaines, President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Go here to see all original signers.
These signers and many other leaders, including me, think this statement is much needed in our current setting. Huge cultural shifts are taking place, today, so that many things are now called into question which Christians have known for centuries that the Bible teaches clearly. The Bible describes what it means to be a human being – made in the image of God, male and female (Genesis 1:26). Human identity is not learned from one’s sexual desires or confusion. Rather, one’s identity is drawn from the created design with sexuality and the marriage union drawn from that original design. God gave all the rules humans need in order to obey Him in their sexual practices and gender roles. All violations of God’s laws are equally sinful and displeasing to Him including heterosexual and homosexual acts.
But the statement goes farther than that. It affirms the worth of all humans as created in the image of God regardless of physical disorders or ambiguous biological development. Those who have same sex attraction may live a life of purity, abstaining from sinful acts and be pleasing to God. Christians must obey God in the way we are think, speak, and act toward anyone who may struggle in these ways or who disagrees.
The reason I signed the statement is because, personally, I want to teach and lead in such a way as to help bring the beauty of God’s eternal design for His creation into reality on earth now and in His eternal kingdom later. There is God-given beauty in every person. That beauty is amplified more and more with every step taken in the pursuit of holiness after the likeness of Jesus. This amazing truth is spread abroad for all to enjoy as more and more Christians think, speak, and act toward those who are different or disagree like our Lord Jesus did. Much of that is found in article fourteen of the statement:
We affirm that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners and that through Christ’s death and resurrection forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available to every person who repents of sin and trusts in Christ alone as Savior, Lord, and supreme treasure.
I hope you will go here to read the statement for yourself. And I hope you will live out a thoroughly biblical approach in your own life to all these things.
And if you have a question or comment, please leave it in the comment section.
