Homosexuality

“…to make an absolute moral statement about anything you must have an absolute moral standard on which to go by.”

Delivered to the Saints-

Homosexuality

I’ve been avoiding writing on the subject of homosexuality for fear that I come off as one from Westborough Baptist Church. However, this issue is coming up way too much and I see it all too often where Christians don’t speak up or coward down from what the Bible clearly proclaims. To make it clear I’d like to say that I do not hate homosexuals, but I’m not going to back down from what the Bible says regarding this issue.

[25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

[26] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

[27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

These very clear words from Romans Chapter 1 describe those whom God has given over to the dishonorable and unnatural passions of same sex relationships. Christians have rules that are divinely given to us by God Himself. This point is very important to keep in mind.

Although the above verse is clear, some inside the church have given into the homosexual agenda to make Christianity more palatable. Matthew Vines a “Gay Christian” says this about Romans 1 on his tumblr:

the people he (Paul) is describing must naturally begin with heterosexual relations and then abandon them. And that is exactly how he describes it.

But that is not what we are talking about. Gay people have a natural, permanent orientation toward those of the same sex; it’s not something that they choose, and it’s not something that they can change.

Here Mr. Vines is distorting the clear teaching of the Bible and reading back into it (eisegesis) Lady Gaga teaching on homosexuality making the word “nature” and “natural” to be a subjective term meaning natural to those individuals.

Born this way?

It is a common/primary push by the homosexual agenda to proclaim that they are “born this way” meaning, they were born with a natural inclination towards people of the same sex. As a Christian I would have no problem if this were true. If there was a “gay gene” it further proves the Bible’s truthfulness.

The Bible teaches that through Adam’s sin, corruption came to all mankind every person born after Adam inherits a sinful nature (Romans 5:12-21). So the question isn’t really “are they born this way” the question is if they are born this way does that justify the action. If we were all born into sin we are all sinners by birth -“born this way.” If I lie, it’s because I was born with a predisposition towards lying, if I kill it’s because I was born with a predisposition towards killing. Pleading this would not fly in court- neither should it fly in society.

Furthermore all who claim justification for the “born this way” mentality have double standards. What about those who are bisexuals? Should we then make bisexual marriages? Or those who have multiple partners? Are we to now have polygamous or polyandrous marriages? Or those who like animals? Animal marriages? Most would not accept those conclusions; however, they are arrived using the same kind of argumentation.

Gay Marriage = Interracial Marriage?

It is extremely offensive to equate the homosexual agenda to the civil rights movement. Two people of a different color is an arbitrary distinction based off the pigment of one’s skin (not a lower and higher evolutionary process). Homosexuality is a deviant sexual behavior. To say the two are the same is only trying to pull at the heart strings. Some Christians have given into this not wanting to be on “that side of history.” Those who promote the homosexual agenda want “equality” but what they fail to understand is that they have the same rights as us… they can marry anyone of the opposite sex, just like us. Equality does not mean behaving in any way you want.

I Thought God was a God of Love?

Many reply to those who hold to the Bible’s teaching concerning homosexuality with the classic response of “I thought God was a loving God, he should allow me to love whoever I want.” This is a failure of the Christian church in teaching a weak God. God does love, but His love needs to be balanced with His Holiness and Justice. God created laws and requires all to abide by them strictly.

Psalm 11:5 says The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. (emphasis added)

God has extreme hatred of those who commit evil and has His finger on the trigger. This is where the Gospel comes in.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.1 Cor 6:9-11

All Christians have had the wrath of God pointing towards us because of our sins. But we were washed and the Holy Spirit of God works in us to forsake our sins which were nailed to the cross and forgiven so that we can be reconciled by God and to God. If there is a homosexual who becomes a Christian they are to forsake their sins and work though it just as those who came from an adulterous relationship, that person needs to stop the activity and struggle through that, being cleansed by the Word. It is not as if Christians do not sin, rather, we hate the sin that we commit.

God Hates Shrimp?  

The above picture says it all. It is a main contention for homosexual activists to bring up the “holiness code” of Leviticus and call us out on our so called “inconsistencies.” That is, the question of why do we listen to what Leviticus says about homosexuality in Leviticus 20 but not what  says about tattoos or shellfish. This kind of argumentation goes along way with some and is repeated very often, even by President Barak Obama. However, does this argument hold water?

People who make the above argument reveal their ignorance of the Bible and it appeals to those who likewise have an ignorance of the Bible. One survey reveals that less than 10% of Christians have read the entire Bible, and even of the 10% how many of those actually spent time in Leviticus pondering its application?

The first thing that must be pointed out is the nature of Israel’s Theocratic Nation. God chose a nation for Himself that was to be separate from all other nations. This nation, as far as possible, was to have only Jewish believers within the land. God set up rules for this nation that can be categorized into three sections: the civil, the ceremonial, and the moral. The civil laws refer to that which is to take place within the land to govern the people and appoint the penal sanctions.

An example of a civil law is Leviticus 25:29 that explains how one is to sell their house. This also includes the definition of what a slave was supposed to be, not as people ownership as in early American slavery, but a way for those who could not pay their debt to be freed from their debt.

“’If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident” –Leviticus 25:35

A ceremonial law is that which was commanded to be religiously performed in the temple such as Old Testament sacrifices and rituals. The moral law is that which comes from the nature of God or that which God set up for regulating human behavior. God cannot lie and is a truth telling God, therefore lying lips are an abomination to the Lord (Prov 12:22). God is faithful therefore “you shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14).

I think all Christians would agree that not all of the Old Testament applies today. Not because we don’t like it. But, rather, we are no longer the nation of Israel and it served as a shadow to be fulfilled by Christ:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Colossians 2:16-17

 

Within the Civil law we see that the penal sanctions (prescribed punishments) that were dealt, pointed to what we deserve (death). This also cleansed the land of Israel of wrong doers which point to heaven where there will be no wrong doers. Leviticus 20 commands homosexual as well as adulterers and those who have sexual intercourse with his father’s wife are to be stoned. However, in the New Testament the same sin is sentenced not by death, but by being cast out of the church (see 1 Cor 5:1-2).

The sacrifices made point to the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ who is our Passover lamb which appeased the wrath of God and forgives our sins.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:1-4

The moral law however, doesn’t change because God doesn’t change. So we see that even though Leviticus 11commands the people of Israel not to eat certain animals, Jesus says, in Mark 7:

“Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

Within the parenthesis is Marks commentary of what Jesus said- not mine. With all this said, in the above picture touching footballs and shellfish are out (we don’t ignore them).

“Silly haircuts and Tattoos” refer to:

You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD. –Leviticus 19:27-28

God made laws that would separate the people of Israel from foreign nations.

23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

24 But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the LORD your God, who have separated you from the peoples.

25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean.

26 You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. Leviticus 20:23-26

For this reason popular pagan practices were pointed out to the Israelites and they were told not to do what they did. When the Israelites did not round off the hair on their temples it was noticeable that they were different, much like Jews today, you can tell they are Jewish by looking at them, they are different than the rest. Likewise, they were not to make cuts in their body for the dead. The whole practice of being distinguished from other nations is not practiced in the New Testament. Christ commanded in the great commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

And again in John 17:

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

This is a stark contrast to the principals in the Old Testament. John Calvin says this about the above verses: “To become all things is to assume all appearances, as the case may require, or to put on different characters, according to the diversity among individuals.” Haircuts and Tattoos (as long as they are not for a pagan practice or to appease the dead spirits) are back in.

The farming laws and mixed fabric was a simple practice for God to show the Israelites that keeping a single seed and a single fabric in one place because God is one.

As you can see Christians don’t ignore the holiness code. We like the holiness code, Jesus quotes from the holiness code. “Love your neighbor as yourself” and three of the Ten Commandments are found in Leviticus 19. It is obvious that some of Leviticus applies today and some of it doesn’t.

Homosexuality in the Holiness Code

Leviticus 18:22 says “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” This is found in a long list of sexual immoralities along with adultery and bestiality. Sexual immorality falls within the moral law and still applies.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (emphasis added)

Also see the verse at the beginning of this post (Romans 1:25-27).

I take offense at the “Christian logic” picture not only because it creates a straw man but also says that we hate gays.  I know there are many Christian groups that make headlines that promote hate towards homosexuals. However, the Bible prescribes no such thing towards those who are immoral, but rather the opposite. We do not hate the adulterer or the drunkard, or the homosexual.

By whose standard?

However, the adulterer and the drunkard both will (or may admit) that their behavior is wrong or don’t care if it is. The homosexual however takes great offense of the Christian saying that the “love” they have for another is immoral. But, to make an absolute moral statement about anything you must have an absolute moral standard on which to go by. The Christian has an absolute standard from the one who has created the body; He has the right to tell us what to do with it. The unbeliever has no standard on which to go by and for him, he sees no problem. However, with this view he must also renounce all his moral standards and convert them to personal preferences. Killing, for them should no longer be wrong, but rather a personal choice, pedophilia, the same, if you then attach some law of consent, you are then trying to apply or impose an absolute morality that you do not have. You are borrowing Christian values of absolutes in order to deny Christian values. More on this could be found here. Hate mail can be sent here ricky@deliveredtothesaints.com

1 Corinthians 15:32 …If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

additional resource: Gay Christianity Refuted Mp3

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