HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE
"Homosexuality and the Bible: An Interpretation," by Walter
Barnett. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill Pamphlet #226.
32pp.
Way back in the 1987 Richard Nickels (founder of "Giving and
Sharing") answered the main arguments that homosexuals give to
try and prove God and the Bible do NOT condemn what we could call
"the straight" homosexual or lesbian. I here reproduce Richard
Nickels' answer - Keith Hunt
Over half the states in America have repealed criminal laws
against homosexual acts between consenting adults in private.
Thanks to the Gay Liberation movement and favorable treatment of
homosexuals in education, government and media, homosexuals have
come out of the closet and into the schools, streets, professions
and businesses of this country. It is estimated that ten percent
of Americans are homosexuals.
We have presented the Biblical evidence against
homosexuality. An opposing view is given by the homosexual
community. "Homosexuality and the Bible", published and written
by a Quaker, represents the "gay Christian" point of view.
Seventh Day Adventist homosexuals advocate its principles.
There is a growing homosexual movement in the SDA church, and
possibly other Sabbath keeping groups. Catholics have their
"Dignity" movement. The Church of England ordains avowed
homosexuals. What used to be unheard of and unthought of is now
commonplace. (And Canada as of 2007, has given legal right on par
with marriage, children, death benefits, etc. that only
heterosexual couples were given - Keith Hunt).
Let us examine the ideas of those who claim that they can be
both homosexual and "Christian".
They reject the term,"homosexual", preferring to be called
"gay". These people have no conscious recollection of ever having
deliberately chosen their sexual orientation. They feel it is an
integral part of their personality which cannot be changed. They
feel God has made them the way they are. They do not consider
themselves perverts. As Barnett states: "Now in order for
anything to be a sin there must be a possibility of moral choice.
Where there is no choice there can be no sin. So if one's sexual
orientation is not a matter of choice, it cannot be a sin to be a
homosexual .... the option open to the rest of the world -
heterosexual marriage - is immoral and unethical, yes sinful, for
a Gay person.". (pages 6-7).
Let's understand the nature of man and of sin. Sin is the
transgression of the law. There is ONE LAW applicable to ALL.
Man was created with free moral agency. Like Adam, he soon
follows the way of sin and develops a carnal mind, Romans 8:7.
The carnal mind is enmity - in total opposition - against the
Almighty, and continually sins. Carnal man has given up any
sense of right and wrong because he rejects Biblical Law. He
feels he is doing right. In many cases, he does not even
recognize that he is choosing the way of sin and death. The
person being called, however, is in a different position. He
realizes that he has to continually make moral choices. Even
then, without God's Holy Spirit, he is helpless to change from
the ways of sin.
It is claimed that homosexuality and homosexual behavior is
nowhere mentioned in the Bible, and that the Bible condemns only:
(1) homosexual rape (as in Sodom and Gomorrah).
(2) ritual homosexual prostitution that was part of the Canaanite
fertility cults.
(3) homosexual lust and behavior on the part of heterosexuals
(page 7).
Referring to Genesis 18 and 19, it is held that Lot objected
only to gang rape of his angelic guests, but had the angels
willingly consented to homosexual acts, it would have been
perfectly fine. The angels, however, needed no further evidence
for the decadence of Sodom and its worthiness than this show of
homosexual lust. Isaiah 1:9 and 3:9 indicate that Israel followed
the sins of Sodom. Even their rulers openly professed their sins
and weren't ashamed of them. Sounds very much like today, when
homosexuals are no longer ashamed for their sins. 2 Peter 2:4-9
describes how Lot was vexed with the filthy (Greek "asleaeia,"
#766 defined in Thayer's Lexicon as "wanton [acts or] manners, as
filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of
males and females") conduct of Sodom.
It is claimed that today's consenting homosexuals are not
condemned by these verses.
The fact is, homosexuals who frequent bath houses often
make dozens of anonymous sexual contacts a week. If this is not
homosexual lust, what is? Jude 7 shows that the Sodomites went
after strange flesh (margin "other flesh"). Not just when
handsome male visitors came passing by, but on a routine basis
they engaged in unnatural sexual relations.
Barnett says that references in Deuteronomy 23:17-18,
I Kings 14:; 15:12 and 22:46, 2 Kings 23:7 and Job 36:14 are not
injunctions against homosexual relations, but only against
homosexual prostitution which was part of the Canaanite fertility
cult whose priests and priestesses engaged in sexual intercourse
with male worshippers as part of the ritual. Likewise, Leviticus
18:22 and 20:13 are held to be only against Canaanite religious
practices. If all these assertions are true, then if we merely
strip away Canaanite religious ceremonies, then one can freely
practice homosexuality, bestiality, and incest, and do it to the
Eternal, because these practices are all condemned in Leviticus
18.
Reading such a twisted explanation of Scripture as contained
in this booklet made me feel as if I was mentally raped.
In trying to explain Paul's strong language in I Corinthians
6:9, I Timothy 1:10 and Romans 1:18-32, Barnett says that we
cannot know what Paul was talking about, because the Greeks
didn't have a word corresponding to the English word
"homosexual."
In I Corinthians 6:9, the Greek word translated in the KJV
as "effeminate" is 'malakoi,' #3120, which means 'catamite,' - "a
boy kept for purposes of sexual perversion" from Ganymede,
cupbearer of the gods of pagan mythology. This refers to the
passive partner in homosexual anal intercourse. The word for
"abusers of themselves with mankind" is the Greek 'arsenokoitai,'
#733, which is a composite of the two Greek words "male" and
"sexual intercourse".
Green's Interlinear Bible renders it as "homosexual."
Lexicons concur that 'malakoi' and 'arsenokoitai' denote the
passive and active partners of homosexual anal intercourse.
Barnett in "Homosexuality in the Bible" cannot deny this.
To discredit Paul, he says that the Apostle's views were colored
by the culture of his time, and that he had a degrading view of
the status of women and was not opposed to slavery. "Yet there is
perhaps no Christian alive today who does not believe human
slavery to be absolutely and fundamentally opposed to the will of
God at all times and in all places." (page 21)....
(Moving out of certain practices after centuries of doing them,
and taking a generation to do so, which could also be said for
"polygamy" as God allowed under the Old Testament, does take some
time. In the first century Church of God, it was quite possible
that a man was converted into the Church of God and he had 3 or 4
or more wives, and children from each of them. Did he throw all
of them out on the street except one wife? Which wife would he
have kept? Why that wife? Did the "church" decide which wife he
kept and which went out to the "woman's shelter" or "Salvation
Army"?
Some "practices" like polygamy and "owning servants" would have
taken some time to work itself out of people's lives. Some
practices were "allowed" by God, under the Old Covenant, as Jesus
said, "because of the hardness of the heart" - some of those
practices would have taken a while to throw out. The civil rights
movement in the 1950s and 1960s by the blacks - Martin Luther
King being a prominent leader - did not change overnight. Neither
was slavery abolished in the USA overnight, in fact it was partly
responsible for the United States civil war.
But a daily "moral" choice of sexual sins of one kind or another
is not the same as God allowing polygamy and ownership of
servants, which would then take some time to evaporate and not
have in the Church of God - Keith Hunt)
For Barnett, Romans 1:26-28 only speaks against
heterosexuals who go into homosexual acts, not homosexuals who
are "born" that way and stay that way. Just because God created
Adam and Eve and NOT Adam and Bruce doesn't in the eyes of
pro-homosexuals mean that deviations from the norm are
fundamentally evil. It is not evil to be left handed. Therefore,
it is reasoned, it is not sin to deviate from the heterosexual
norm.
Some believe that consenting homosexuals are not doing
anybody any harm. A brief reading of medical observations of
homosexuals totally refutes this. Anal lesions and bleeding are
common among active homosexuals. A number of sores and diseases
with strange sounding names are given to the frequently reported
ailments caused by vile homosexual acts. If there were no AIDS or
venereal diseases, homosexuality would still produce physical
problems. It is false that they do not hurt anyone.
Understanding the Homosexual Problem
Homosexuals often feel condemned by false religion that
doesn't know God and has no answers or power to overcome.
Homosexuals may waste a great deal of time and money to change
themselves through psychotherapy, or even go through with a
heterosexual marriage in the vain hope that they can work out
their difference. Without God's power of the Holy Spirit, this is
indeed impossible. Imagine how it would feel to be constantly
despised and jeered at by your peers and told by both church and
society that your desire for love from members of the same sex is
sick and sin and a crime, when neither church nor society has the
answers nor the power to help you change.
There is a conspiracy against manhood, a constant
bombardment against the proper role of man in leading a family,
home, business, government and society. As a result, some men
fall into the homosexual trap. Women likewise become Lesbians.
Situation ethics says that it is a sin for heterosexuals to
be homosexuals, and vice versa. As one pro-homosexual said,
"...there was no choice; they were gay. God has made them that
way - either genetically or in very early life. And over time
they are learning to rejoice in God's gift."
God did NOT make them that way? Their carnal mind and
society allowed them to sin. Vain reasoning against the Scripture
evidence cannot prove that one can be both homosexual and a Bible
believer.
Recently we received a touching letter from a man "still
plagued with homosexual feelings and lust." He attributes this to
having been sexually molested as a child, being addicted to
homosexual pornography, compulsive drinking in gay bars and his
parents divorce when he was eleven. "I was always looking for a
father-figure substitute, companion and a friend. I believe these
are sins and problems, which with God's mercy and help from the
Holy Spirit after repentance can be overcome. Please pray for my
complete deliverance and healing from my Past.... I consider
myself a 'reformed' homosexual, and I have fallen short of
complete deliverance.... I do really want to completely repent
and be baptized into the Church of God and receive God's Holy
Spirit to help me overcome."
He fears dying of a brain tumor or of AIDS. He has
continuous headaches, trouble sleeping, nightmares and nervous
disorders. Homosexualism is a NOT a "victimless crime."
For the unrepentant homosexual, the penalty of physical and
later.. eternal death will be paid. For the truly repentant
homosexual, there is mercy and forgiveness, compassion and power
to overcome by and through the Holy Spirit.
"Homosexuality and the Bible" is a twisted attempt to
justify perversion. We should hate the sin, not cover it up or
say that it is not sin. And we should love the sinner, and urge
them on to repentance.
Jude 21 - Keep yourselves in the love of God.... 22 And of
some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save
with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment
spotted by the flesh.
....................
Written by Richard C. Nickels August 1987
NOTE:
The few of the plain and simple to read verses in the Bible
AGAINST Homosexuality and Lesbianism are:
Leviticus 18:22-30; 20:10; Romans 1:25-32.
Like drug addiction, alcohol addiction, there are groups that
devote themselves to helping homosexuals and lesbians come out of
such a life-style, for those who REALLY DO want to escape from
it.
