HAS GOD SPOKEN ON THE SUBJECT OF HOMOSEXUALITY?"

by Frank Worthen

The Decision That Must Be Made.

Today, we find many of the mainline denominational churches advancing the

idea that God has NOT spoken on the subject of homosexuality. In the past,

this was not an issue. Traditionally, the church has always considered

homosexuality a sin and, in fact, reacted rather badly at times to this

problem. It was not seen as just one sin among many sins, but as a special

sin, a crime against nature. Many times in church history, punishment was

extreme, including torture, humiliation and burning. Whether homosexuality

was a sin or not was not open to question: sin it was.

The Situation Today

It seems incredible that such a homophobic church could come full circle

and now openly advance the idea that gay is good. Yet we are seeing this

take place before our eyes. We find Anglican theologian Norman Pittenger

saying, "Gay is an expression of God's intended variety in His creation."

The Episcopal Church has ordained two lesbian priests and 50 male priests

who are homosexual. The United Presbyterian Church unites with the gay

church to present "Gay Day" to a community and to jointly run a pro-gay

ministry to homosexual people.

The Catholic Church allows Dignity, a pro-gay group, to use it's facilities

and helps in planning a pro-gay conference. We've come a long way ... but

have we came too far?

Did God Say?

There is an urgent question facing the homosexual person today: Has God

spoken on the subject of homosexuality? Now where have we heard these

words before? Do they have a familiar ring? The three words, "Did God say

... ?" have had a more devastating effect on mankind than all the nuclear

explosions man could ever set off. Found in Genesis 3:1, Satan questioned

God's directives and mankind's personal relationship with his God was

severed. Today, since we live in a fallen world, we serve under fallen

authority. So it is right that we carefully examine what authority is

telling us to do. There can be no blind trust.

Does a Standard exist? Is there a message from God that is not affected by

the Fall? We know that the Bibles we hold in our hands contain misprints

and other discrepancies from the original manuscripts. Do these things

disqualify the Bible? Does this mean that we are free from divine

direction? What if we discard God's Word and believe the message of the

serpent. "You shall not surely die?" Will we die, or will we live? When

the Apostle Paul says, "Homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of heaven"

(I Cor. 6:9), can we dismiss him as some bigoted fool who simply wrote his

own personal viewpoints into Scripture? Some difficult and pivotal

decisions must be made.

One of the first Biblical encounters with homosexuality is the story of

Sodom (Genesis 19). From the city named Sodom comes the word "sodomite",

the legal term for a person who engages in some type of same-sex behaviour.

But does the Bible say that the men of Sodom were homosexual? Does the

Bible say that they were judged for their homosexuality? It is "no" on

both counts. We can ask a multitude of questions about the story of Sodom,

but we will never arrive at a clear and satisfactory answer to our queries.

The Bible simply does not give specific answers to all our questions about

this incident.

The next encounter is in the book of Leviticus chapters 18 and 20. These

two passages have much the same message. Men are not to use other men as

they would use a woman. This seems crystal clear as to it's meaning, yet

it is sandwiched in between other directives that we no longer consider

valid, such as the breeding of domestic animals with different kinds of

animals, or the wearing of garments of linen mixed with wool.

The New Testament

Using the technique of viewing the Old Testament through the New, we now

turn to Romans 1. This is a chapter of great magnitude, of almost

unlimited scope. Here, Paul tells us that we all know the truth. God has

not withheld the truth, but has shown every person His truth in their

innermost being. God will not deal kindly with those who distort and

hinder His truth. He tells us that mankind is without excuse. Man knew

God, but rejected Him. He left behind the "natural" and sought after the

"unnatural".

But what IS natural for man? Have we come so far from natural that we can

no longer recognize what natural was? Today, after thousands of years and

many printing and copying errors, the Biblical message remains the same.

One has only to read the Genesis account of Adam and Eve to see that

heterosexuality is God's norm. We find the same statement over and over

again, "a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united

and cleave to his wife." This is described as a "one flesh" relationship.

Jesus reaffirmed this Genesis account in Matthew 19:4-6 when He said, "He

Who made them from the beginning made them male and female." Paul picks up

this message in Ephesians 5. He uses the same words (vs. 31) and relates

man's relationship with his wife to that of Christ and His Church. Natural

isn't something we feel is natural. It is not defined by how many people

are doing it. Natural is determined by how God made things in the

beginning and this is the Biblical message.

Paul says that it is not natural for men to burn in lust for one another,

or for women to use each other sexually. Paul carries his message to great

lengths, saying that even those who approve of such behaviour are out of

the will of God. There can be no doubt that Romans 1 is talking about

homosexuality, sexual relationships with people of the same sex, the kind

of relationships that gay people engage in today and that gay people

engaged in during the time of Paul. There are no new sex acts.

Paul again addresses this issue in 1 Corinthians 6:9. This verse considers

almost all sex outside of marriage. We see the mention of fornicators,

those who engage in sexual relations while unmarried. Paul then speaks to

the issue of adultery, sex with someone other than your marriage partner.

Two words are used to describe homosexual relations. The first in the

Greek is malakoi; the second, arsenokoitai. Greek scholars have generally

considered these two words to mean the passive and active side of

homosexual sex. The reasoning is that, even though a person may allow

himself to be used sexually by another, he is still without excuse and must

bear the penalty. While pro-gay theologians attempt to alter the meaning

of these two words, they do not speak with one voice. It would be very

discomforting to a person who wants to remain gay with God's blessing to

review the various theories on this single passage. It seems that when

someone comes preaching a different Gospel, certain things simply do not

fit together.

One position is that malakoi does not mean a homosexual person. It's

describing a man who identifies himself as a woman, thus transferring the

sin from homosexual people to transsexuals. This seems grossly unfair and

one wonders just where is the sin of the transsexual person? Does identity

confusion immediately bar one from the kingdom of heaven?

Many think that arsenokoitai describes a male prostitute. They see this as

engaging in sex for money rather than for love. He may be seen as a

heterosexual street hustler type of person, or a homosexual person who

violates the gay theologians' concept of loving relationships.

For centuries, sex was seen as a privilege of marriage, rather than as a

human right. Humanists today see sex as everyone's right, regardless of

marriage commitments. They see all sexual relationships as right before

God if they contain the element of true love. Thus, we may engage in

loving fornication, loving adultery and loving homosexual relationships

without guilt.

A few consider the two words in question to mean the child and his

molester. One immediately wonders just why the victim of such abuse would

be barred from heaven.

Another view is quite complicated. This passage is seen as speaking of two

differing kinds of heterosexual men. One is a passive man who thinks he is

a woman (yet he remains quite heterosexual) and the other, a homosexually-

active heterosexual man. One wonders just how all this is possible, or

just how often such a case might turn up that Paul would address such an

obscure issue.

Still another view is that it takes the two words together to mean a

homosexual prostitute. This causes one to wonder why Paul used only one

word, arsenokoitai, in 1 Timothy 1:10.

Those Who Distort Scripture.

Peter knew that people would distort Scripture. In fact, they were already

doing it in his time. In 2 Peter 3:16, we read:

"There are some things in the Epistles of Paul that are difficult to

understand, which the ignorant twist to their own destruction, just as they

distort the rest of the Scriptures."

Isaiah also knew that people wanted things their way, not God's way. He

said:

"Prophesy not to us what is right, speak to us smooth things, prophesy

deceitful illusions." Isaiah 30:10.

Is this not what gay theology is doing today? The stakes are high. Our

happiness is not our only consideration -- our eternity rests on our

decision. Are we to accept the scrambled rambling of the pro-gay movement

as Gospel truth, or are we to accept the traditions of the church handed

down to us from the very first century?

Has Scripture become so distorted that it is no longer understandable? Are

we willing to bet our eternal life on this? If we take this viewpoint, we

are then discounting all recent archaeological discoveries that continue to

prove the Scriptures remarkably accurate. If homosexuality was really

within God's will, would all Scripture (whether considered valid today or

not) be negative towards it?

"They promise them liberty, when they themselves are slaves of depravity

and defilement, for by whatever any one is made inferior or overcome or

worsted, to that person or thing he is enslaved."

2 Peter 2:19 (Amplified).

Are you following a blind guide?

For further information about homosexuality or about other areas of sexual

brokenness, please contact:

LOVE IN ACTION

G.P.O. Box 1115

ADELAIDE SA 5001

Phone (08) 371-0446

This article is reprinted by permission from:

Love In Action

P.O. Box 2655

San Rafael California 94912

U.S.A.



MINISTRY TO HOMOSEXUALS

Database Listing - Ministry To Homosexuals.
Christian Resources on Homosexuality on the web


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