Daily Archive

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

From Way of Life

The Bible condemns the practice of homosexuality unequivocally.

The Bible teaches that sexual relationships and activities outside of the holy bond of marriage are sinful. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). From the beginning, the Bible defines lawful marriage as a holy union between one man and one woman (Gen. 2:21-25), and Christ pointed back to the beginning as the divine standard (Mat. 19:4-6). The Law of Moses defined marriage as a covenant relationship between one man and one woman (Mal. 2:14-15). Since sexual relationships outside of marriage are sinful and since the Bible nowhere legitimizes marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, it is obvious that homosexuality is forbidden. It is nowhere legitimized by Scripture. To say that homosexual unions are right is to reject the authority of the Bible.

In the Old Testament, homosexual practice is condemned severely. The homosexuals in Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire from Heaven (Genesis 18:1-24). Homosexual activists claim that the cities were destroyed for their lack of hospitality or for some reason other than homosexuality, but the New Testament makes it clear that they were destroyed for their “filthy conversation” (2 Peter 2:6-8) and their “fornication” (Jude 7).

Under the Law of Moses homosexuality brought the death penalty:

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:13).

This Law of Moses was given to Israel and it is not in force in Gentile nations today, but it does teach us what God thinks of homosexuality. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19).

What about the biblical term “sodomite”? Some say that it referred only to prostitution associated with pagan temple worship and not to homosexuality in general. It is true that the term refers to male prostitution and homosexual moral perversion practiced in connection with idolatry (Deut. 23:17; 1 Ki. 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Ki. 23:7). But the term is also identified with homosexuality and moral perversion in general. The 1828 Webster dictionary defined sodomy as “a crime against nature.” The Webster’s Deluxe Unabridged Dictionary of 1983 defines sodomy as “any sexual intercourse regarded as abnormal, as between persons of the sameSex, especially males, or between a person and an animal.” The term is descriptive of the moral perversion of the city of Sodom (Genesis 19; Jude 1:7).

The New Testament also treats homosexuality as a moral abomination. In Romans 1 homosexuality is described in especially intense terms.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:22-28).

Paul identified homosexuality as the product of men’s rejection of God and God giving them up to their own sinful ways. This passage calls homosexuality “vile affections” (v. 26), “against nature” (v. 26), “leaving the natural” (v. 27), “unseemly” (v. 27), “reprobate mind” (v. 28), and “not convenient” (v. 28).

The passage warns that homosexuality is the corruption of the imagination. It is the product of a reprobate mind. When the imagination is allowed to pursue wicked things it is dragged farther and farther into darkness and moral perversion, and this can begin at a very young age.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9, we learn that some of the members of the church at Corinth had been involved in homosexuality before they were saved.

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.”

The term “effeminate” is from the Greek word “malakos.” It is used three times in the New Testament and twice it is translated “soft” (Mat. 11:8; Lk. 7:25). Webster defines it as “having the qualities of the femaleSex; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish.” The woman is supposed to be effeminate, but 1 Corinthians 6:9 refers to moral perversion. It refers to the passive, feminine side of homosexuality.

The term “abusers of themselves with mankind” refers to the masculine side of homosexuality. It refers to that which is “against nature” (Rom. 1:26-27). The Greek word “arsenokoites” means “to lie with, or to cohabit with, a male.” Matthew Henry (1662-1714), exemplifying the common interpretation of this term in earlier centuries, identified “abusers of themselves with mankind” with sodomy. The Bible Exposition Commentary says: “‘Effeminate’ and ‘abusers’ describe the passive and active partners in a homosexual relationship.”

Some try to make the case that Jesus didn’t mention homosexuality, pretending that this (if it were true) would prove that Christians should also be silent on the subject. The fact is that the He did mention homosexuality. He mentioned the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah twice in His teachings (Mark 6:10; Luke 17:29). Christ also upheld the Law of Moses (Mat. 5:18-19). Further, after His resurrection and ascension Christ sent the Holy Spirit to lead the disciples into all truth and to inspire the completion of the Scriptures (John 16:7-15). All of the words of the New Testament are given by divine inspiration and are inerrantly authoritative and come to us as revelation from Jesus Christ.

The New Testament commands us to abhor and reprove the evil works of darkness.

To say that it is wrong for Christians to reprove sin in society is to reject the Bible’s own instruction.

“But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done” (Luke 3:19).

“Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Romans 12:9)

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:2).

The homosexual can be saved by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of the homosexuality in the church at Corinth in the past tense — “and such WERE some of you” (1 Cor. 6:11). The members of the church at Corinth had repented of their sin and had become new creatures in Christ. No sinner is so evil that God cannot save him, but he must repent of his sin rather than justify it, and when God saves He changes (2 Corinthians 5:17). This doesn’t mean the believer is sinless; it means he is converted and he delights in righteousness even when he doesn’t always live up to God’s righteous standards.

The modern movement to allow homosexuals into churches without repenting of homosexuality is unscriptural. Bible believers are not “homophobic” any more than they are “adulteryphobic” or “thiefphobic” or “lierphobic.” They do not hate homosexuals. They simply believe that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin before God and that men must repent of sin in order to be saved.

They also know that homosexuality is a special kind of sin in the sense that it is a sin against nature itself and a sin that is a particular attack upon biblical marriage and therefore has the power to corrupt society in a unique way.

by David Cloud