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Does Christs-Bride affirm
or deny gay marriage?

Christs-Bride. From 1976-1978 I attended an ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Bible school for street preachers, Pensacola Bible Institute. I wasn't out at the time. The Founder of PBI, Dr. Peter Ruckman, is rancorously anti-gay. He is fond of name-calling from the pulpit and hurls epithets like fag, fairie, homo, bull dyke, Frisco fairy, queer and sissy boys to demean gay people.

This gets really weird in a
tin-foil hat kind of way

As Dr. Ruckman taught Ephesians 5 verse by verse in Bible class, he shared his personal belief that Christ's bride will be ALL male and ONLY male. This is sometimes referred to as the "no women in heaven" theory.

He arrives at that wacko conclusion by assuming that all saved women will become men at the Rapture - they will be changed into "the [exact] image" of Christ according to the good doctor.

Rapture of
the church

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:3

Dr. Ruckman taught that in heaven, all Christians will become exact replicas of Christ, therefore all of us would become 33 year old Jewish males. He then taught that this ALL-male bride of Christ will literally marry Christ in heaven and physically consummate the marriage.

He was teaching this private interpretation in the late 1970s. I don't know if he still teaches this heresy but Dr. Ruckman was careful never to put this teaching in print although it used to be available on tape cassette. I mention it here because I've never forgotten this strange false doctrine.

On the subject of Christs-Bride, Dr. Ruckman taught that God will transform all Christians to be exact replicas of Christ so that everyone who gets saved in the church age, young and old, male AND female, will become 33 year old men because according to Dr. Ruckman, that's how old Jesus was when He died. These men will then marry Christ and physically consummate the marriage, according to Dr. Ruckman.

Dr. Peter Ruckman, Pensacola, FL

This strange teaching, that Christians will have sex with Jesus in heaven, did NOT come from the "homos" and "bull dykes" Dr. Ruckman delights to castigate.

This odd-ball theory was taught by the anti-gay, street-preaching pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. I wonder why he didn't preach his theory outside the gay bars on Friday nights in downtown Pensacola?

I and many others regard Dr. Ruckman's teaching about Christs-Bride as really strange false doctrine (and that's being charitable).

But the standard teaching about Christs-Bride from anti-gay Christians and the oddball musings of anti-gay Dr. Ruckman about Christ's bride raises interesting questions.

Marriage Supper of the Lamb

I have wondered, as you may have wondered:

How can Christs-Bride, which includes men, actually marry Christ?
Why does the Bible depict Christs-Bride as having lots of men in it?
Since Complementarians use Christs-Bride typology to demean and argue against gay marriage, how can they then defend the concept of men marrying Jesus Christ, who is also a man?

Bride-Groom typology is one of
the main Christian arguments
against gay marriage.

Remember, Bride and Groom typology is one of the strongest supporting arguments for anti-gay Complementarian theory. They argue that the example of Adam and Eve (the first opposite sex marriage on earth) pictures, through typology, the relationship Christ will have with His bride, the church. Since according to Complementarian theory, gay marriage breaks the type, God could never affirm gay marriage. Of course, the problem with that incorrect thinking is that saved gays and lesbians are ALREADY part of the body of Christ.

"For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:30-32

Naturally that raises
some interesting questions

Two happy grooms

If same sex marriage is wrong on earth, why does the Bible use bride typology to describe men (masculine gender) as part of the bride (feminine gender) which marries Christ?
Why is same sex marriage perfectly okay in heaven (Christs-Bride, which contains men, marrying Christ) but not okay on earth?

Please understand. I am not questioning the truth of the Bible. I believe every word of the Bible. I AM questioning why anti-gay Christians get away with using the Bible to exclude gays and lesbians. When you think about it, the Christs-Bride teaching just doesn't make sense, the way they use it to exclude gays and lesbians.

I believe the bride of Christ
is more metaphorical than literal.

In other words, God did not intend us to think that all believers will become exact, look-alike replicas of Christ and then, as men, marry Christ and physically consummate the marriage in heaven.

My advice is simple. Keep believing the Bible but don't accept everything anti-gay religious nuts tell you it means. God gave you a brain and a mind. Use them to read and study and research the Bible on your own. You will be surprised at what you discover.

God listens and God cares for you.

God does not intend gay people to spend their lives alone and lonely even though that's what Focus on the Family and Exodus and Desert Stream would have you believe.

The "love" of the anti-gay crowd is not mediated through the prism of Matthew 7:12 or Matthew 22:36-40. The anti-gay crowd would never be satisfied to be treated the way they treat gays and lesbians.

I believe God knows the longing of our hearts because He made us. God's loving care for Adam, in providing the orientation compatible help meet that Adam needed, Genesis 2:18, encourages me to believe that God is faithful to provide gays with the orientation compatible help meet that we need. The help meet God provides us will be same sex instead of opposite sex.

Many of you have already learned
this foundational truth.

When you trust God, everything is going to be all right.

We learn better and deeper lessons about God and His awesome love for us in the furnace of affliction. Mountaintops are the place for rejoicing. Life's greatest lessons are learned down in the valley where God's grace is made perfect in our weakness. God teaches us, not by immediately taking away everything that causes pain and distress but by giving us grace to lean on Him in our need. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.