What does the Bible say about
Homosexuality?By
Jack Kettler
As in previous studies, we will
look
at definitions, scriptures, lexical, and
commentary evidence for the purpose to
glorify God in how we live.Today many
so-called evangelistic churches are open to
marrying people of the same sex. In
the name of tolerance and love, age-old
biblical standards are being swept
aside. Being open and asking questions has
taken the place of doctrinal
certainty.
Doctrinal
uncertainty about homosexuality is shocking
in light of the numerous warnings
in the Scriptures about homosexuality. How
many of those that are taking a new
tolerant view of homosexuality have read the
Bible in its entirety? The problem
is not with biblical clarity on this issue
but with willful biblical
illiteracy. Biblical ignorance is not an
excuse that will work on judgment
day.
What does the
Bible say about homosexuality? Is
homosexuality a sin?
Answer:
In some people’s minds, being homosexual is
as much outside one’s control as
the color of your skin and your height. On
the other hand, the Bible clearly
and consistently declares that homosexual
activity is a sin (Genesis 19:1–13;
Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26–27;
1Corinthians 6:9). *
The Scriptures:
“Thou
shalt not lie with mankind, as with
womankind: it is abomination.” (Leviticus
18:22)
From Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible on
the passage from Leviticus:
“Thou
shall not lie with mankind as with
womankind, By carnal knowledge of them, and
carnal copulation with them, and mixing
bodies in like manner: this is the sin
commonly called sodomy, from the inhabitants
of Sodom, greatly addicted to it,
for which their city was destroyed by fire:
those that are guilty of this sin,
are, by the apostle, called "abusers of
themselves with mankind", 1
Corinthians 6:9, it is abomination; it is so
to God, as the above instance of
his vengeance shows, and ought to be
abominable to men, as being not only
contrary to the law of God, but even
contrary to nature itself, and what is
never to be observed among brute creatures.”
(1)
Moses continues:
“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)
The next entries
are from the Apostle Paul:
“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.” (Romans 1:27 ESV)
From the Pulpit
Commentary on Romans 1:27:
“Verse
27. - 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 recompense
of their error which was meet. By
the “recompense” (ἀντιμισθίαν)
is
meant here, not any further result, such as
disease or physical prostration,
but the very fact of their being given up to
a state in which they can crave
and delight in such odious gratifications of
unnatural lust. It is the ἀντιμισθία
τῆς πλάνης αὐτῶν, the final
judgment on them for going astray from God.
And surely to the pure-minded there
is no more evident token of Divine judgment
than the spectacle of the unnatural
cravings and indulgence of the sated
sensualist.” (2)
“Or
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.”
(1Corinthians 6:9 ESV)
Matthew
Poole's Commentary on
1Corinthians 6:9:
“That
by the kingdom of God is here meant the
kingdom of glory, the happiness of
another life, is plain, because he speaketh
in the future tense; this kingdom,
he saith, the unrighteous, that is, those
who so live and die, shall not
inherit.
If
we take the term unrighteous here to be a
generical term, the species, or some
of the principal species, of which are
afterwards enumerated, it signifieth
here the same with notoriously wicked men.
But if we take it to signify persons
guilty of acts of injustice towards
themselves or others, it cannot be here
understood as a general term, relating to
all those species of sinners after
enumerated; for so idolaters cannot properly
be called unrighteous, but ungodly
men.
Be
not deceived, (saith the apostle), either by
any false teachers, or by the many
ill examples of such sinners that you daily
have, nor by magistrates’
connivance at these sins.
Neither
fornicators; neither such as, being single
persons, commit uncleanness with
others (for here the apostle distinguisheth
these sinners from adulterers, whom
he mentioneth afterward).
Nor
idolaters, nor such as either worship the
creature instead of God, or worship
the true God before images.
Nor
adulterers, nor such as, being married
persons, break their marriage covenant,
and commit uncleanness with such as are not
their yokefellows.
Nor
effeminate persons, nor persons that give up
themselves to lasciviousness,
burning continually in lusts.
Nor
abusers of themselves with mankind; nor such
as are guilty of the sin of Sodom,
a sin not to be named amongst Christians or
men.” (3)
“The
sexually immoral, men who practice
homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers,
and whatever else is contrary to sound
doctrine.” (1Timothy 1:10 ESV)
Again from Matthew
Poole's Commentary on 1Timothy
1:10:
“The
two next terms express violaters of the
seventh commandment, whether by
fornication, adultery, incest, sodomy, or
any beastly lusts.
Men-stealers;
the word signifieth such as carry men into
captivity, or make slaves of them in
the first place; it signifies also any
stealing of men. It is probable the
first of these is the man-stealing
principally intended, being the most common
sin by pirates at sea, and soldiers at land;
yet not excluding any other
stealing of men from their relations, which
he instanceth in, as one of the
highest violations of the eighth
commandment. By liars, he meaneth such as
knowingly speak what is false, especially to
the prejudice of others.
By
perjured persons he means such as swear
falsely. And cause it would be too long
to reckon up all kinds of sinners, he
comprehends them all in a general phrase,
and if there be any other thing that is
contrary to sound doctrine, that is,
the holy and pure truth of God, that is not
corrupted, but judges aright of
good and evil:
for
these he saith the law is made, that is, to
deter from such crimes, or to
condemn for them; but not to terrify such
who either never were guilty of such
flagitious crimes, or if they have been
guilty, yet are now washed, and
sanctified, and justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of
God, as the apostle speaks, 1Corinthians
6:11. The law (as the apostle here
saith) was never made to terrify, or to
condemn and affright, these, for,
Romans 8:1: There is no condemnation to
those that are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” (4)
Jude the brother
of James declares:
“Even
as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about
them in like manner, giving
themselves over to fornication, and going
after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of
eternal fire.” (Jude 1:7)
Comments:
The
New Testament passages along with the
Levitical passages considered thus far,
if taken at face value are overwhelming in
answering the question of our study.
What we have seen to this point on
homosexuality seems irrefutable.The Bible states
that homosexual activity is a sin.
In
hermeneutics, the literal interpretation or
face value reading of a text is
usually correct. It is also similar to an
approach known as Occam's razor. This
principle says a simpler solution is more
likely to be correct. If the reader
has read pro-homosexual interpretations of
the Scriptures, the simpler face
value interpretation is discarded. See the
link below for interaction with
pro-homosexual interpretations of biblical
texts with theologian Greg Bahnsen.
From Strong’s
Lexicon:
From
a previous, study the definition of sexual
immorality comes from the Greek word
porneia.
Porneia can also be translated
as “whoredom,” “fornication,” and
“idolatry.” It can include adultery,
prostitution, sexual relations between
unmarried individuals, and homosexuality.
Sexual
immorality Πορνεία
(Porneia)
Strong's Greek 4202:
Fornication, whoredom, met: idolatry. From porneuo;
harlotry; figuratively, idolatry.
The
reader is encouraged to obtain the following
book.
Selections from Homosexuality
A Biblical View by Greg Bahnsen:
From the preface
“Historically
Christians have taught that people do not
have an unlimited right to do with
their bodies as they please. Such a view is
undermined today by defenders of
three discernible and outspoken factions in
our culture: feminists,
abortionists, and homosexuals. Ethical
questions pertaining to this last group
are examined in the present study. While
specific variations within sexual
identity and orientation are recognized, the
general term homosexual will be
used here for any person, male or female
(thus including lesbians), who engages
in sexual relations with members of the same
sex or who desires to do so.
Homosexuality is an affectional attraction
to or active sexual relation with a
person of the same sex.
The
ironic problem with the modern discussion of
homosexuality is its virtually
uncritical perpetuation of cultural
prejudices — despite its espoused open
mindedness
and neutralized bias. Certain questionable
assumptions in ethics, the human
sciences, and political thought have misled
our society toward tolerance for
homosexuality in personal, ecclesiastical,
and civil spheres. Study of the
Scriptures should bring one to contest those
popular assumptions and has
convinced me that homosexuality ought to be
challenged in all three of these
areas. Individuals should disapprove of and
oppose homosexuality rather than
making it a civil right. We must equally
insist that individuals not take a
holier-than-thou attitude toward homosexual
sin, that churches faithfully
proclaim the goodness of deliverance to
homosexuals, and that the state not
persecute them by entrapment, invasion of
privacy, or intentionally selective
and uneven attention.”
From Chapter Two
“God's
verdict on homosexuality is inescapably
clear. His law is a precise
interpretation of the sexual order of
creation for fallen man, rendering again
His intention and direction for sexual
relations. When members of the same sex
(homo-sexual) practice intercourse with each
other (expressed by the idiom “to
lie with,” shakar
eth), they violate
God's basic creation order in a vile or
abominable fashion. Throughout
Leviticus we see God's absolute standards
for purity; in the sexual realm one
may not profanely use the creation of God,
“uncovering the nakedness” of man,
woman, or beast indiscriminately. Sexual
relations must be conducted within
God-given boundaries.
What
was revealed in the creation account and the
history of Sodom has been
confirmed in statutory form. The Lord will
not tolerate homosexuality. However,
it is not surprising that those who suppress
the implications of sexual
differentiation at creation and who
reinterpret the sin of Sodom have also
attempted to mitigate the condemnation of
God's law regarding homosexuality.
Some
attempts are hardly worth refuting. We are
told that love is the only issue in
any sexual relationship, and therefore it
would be submitting to a double
standard of morality for the Christian to
condone heterosexual love-making and
condemn homosexual love-making. As their
argument goes, God surely would not
expect the manner of attaining sexual
gratification to be made important,
setting down a standard that commends one
sexual preference while condemning
another. Such a rationale not only ignores
the specific revelation of God in Leviticus
18:22 and 20:13, where it is clear that God
does indeed regard the specific
manner of one's sexual gratification to be
morally important, but also it
easily can be reduced to absurdity (e.g.,
“surely God would not have a double
standard regarding the attainment of money,
distinguishing between work and
theft”).
New
Testament confirmation of the Old Testament
ethic regarding homosexuality.
For
this reason God gave them over to degrading
passions; for their women exchanged
the natural function for that which is
unnatural, and in the same way also the
men abandoned the natural function of the
woman and burned in their desire
towards one another, men with men committing
indecent acts and receiving in
their own persons the due penalty of their
error . . . And although they know
the ordinance of God, that those who
practice such things [the sins listed in
verses 28-31] are worthy of death, they not
only do the same, but also give
hearty approval to those who practice them.
In
this context, Paul was teaching that the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against those who turn from their proper
relationship to the Creator;
suppressing the truth of God, they resort to
various forms of idolatry, serving
the creature with darkened minds and foolish
reasoning. In response, God gives
them over to impure lusts and the
dishonoring of their bodies specifically, to
homosexuality, which in turn stimulates
further depravities. Men who give up
God and His law are eventually given up by
God to wander in morally polluted
practices that become a way of life.
Specifically, the penalty for man's
rebellion against the true service to God is
homosexuality, which Paul
described with reinforcing disapprobation as
“impurity,” “dishonoring of the
body,” “degrading passions,” “indecent acts”
(or “shameless deeds”), “error,”
the “improper” activity of a “depraved
mind.” Homosexuality exchanges the
natural use of sex for unnatural sexual
practices, thereby evidencing immoral
perversion in the most intimate of human
relations and being “worthy of death.”
The best commentary on this teaching is
found in the Old Testament, upon which
Paul drew heavily.
Scripture's
most obvious condemnation of homosexuality
as intrinsically immoral is found in
this Romans passage. Nevertheless, there are
those who seek to evade its
straightforward indictment. In the first
place there are those who maintain
that Paul did not single out homosexuality
as especially offensive among sins;
it is not taken up as a subject in its own
right but merely dealt with
incidentally among the results of a
perverted relationship to God presented
simply as part of a broader pattern of pagan
excesses.”
From Chapter Four
“An
ever-increasing flow of rhetoric from
unorthodox churchmen maintains that
homosexuality should be normalized and that
the church should side with
homosexuals as an oppressed minority. The
propaganda can get quite heavy in
this regard: “homosexuals are the scapegoats
for fears felt by the majority in
the church,” “homosexuality is at base a
heterosexual problem (inability to
cope with one's own inverted feelings),” “a
condemning church and society are
to blame for the promiscuity among
homosexuals,” “homosexual marriage should
not be precluded simply because there is no
possibility of conception,” “it is
a pitiful irony that the agency for
proclaiming God's gracious and loving
activity should behave so ungraciously and
unlovingly toward people who simply
have a different sexual orientation,” and so
on. These and similar charges are
part of a campaign launched on the
persuasive force of emotion rather than
substantial exegesis, ethical reasoning, and
good arguments. The aim of such
accusations is, as many authors admit, to
convince opponents of homosexuality that
they are in fact the guilty party,
persecutors of healthy and brave people who
want only the normal rights of any human
beings and acceptance in the church.
In
contrast to such delusive personal opinions,
Paul clearly and authoritatively
placed homosexuals outside the kingdom of
God. In 1Corinthians 6:9, 10 he
wrote: “Do not be led astray; neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the
kingdom of God.” Paul was very
specific. Whereas all the other sins on this
list are simply repeated from
1Corinthians 5:9-11 (a similar catalogue of
sins), the sins of sexual
immorality are amplified into specific
forms: fornication, adultery, and
homosexuality. And the latter category of
sexual immorality is further
detailed: Paul excluded from God's kingdom
both malakoi and arsenokoitai.
The former (literally meaning “soft,
gentle,” and in moral contexts “yielding,
or remiss”) refers to those who allow
themselves to be homosexually misused,
taking the passive role; the latter is in
the masculine gender and is a
compound from the words for “male” and “bed”
(English transliteration, “coitus,”
from its Greek euphemism), thereby referring
to men who have intercourse with
men; it is analogous to the Old Testament
reference to men who go to bed with (“lie
with”) other males — i.e., those who take
the active role in a homosexual
relation.
Paul
introduced this list of those who are
excluded from God's kingdom with the
phrase, “do not be led astray.” This seems
to have been a technical expression
used by Paul to charge Christians not to
participate in the sins of pagans. It
parallels Old Testament passages such as
Leviticus 18:24-30, where God's people
were instructed not to practice the
abominations that characterized reprobate
nations. “Do not be led astray,” indicates
that it is precisely in such matters,
as this that men deceive themselves,
rationalizing that God cannot mean His
moral demands seriously. This fundamental
error is encountered increasingly
today in the form of ingenious but wayward
defenses of homosexuality.
It
must be concluded that practicing
homosexuals should not be admitted to the
church and, even more certainly, to its
ordained offices. Rather the church
must declare with Paul, “The body is not for
immorality, but for the Lord.” The
bodies of those who belong to Christ are
members of Christ, temples of the Holy
Spirit, and they are bought with a
redemptive price; therefore, Christians must
flee immorality and glorify God in their
bodies. Since homosexuals give
manifest evidence that they are unsubmissive
to these requirements and commit
abominable sins against their own bodies,
they cannot make a credible
profession of faith in the Savior without
repentance from and repudiation of
this sin.
To
those supporters of homosexuality who argue,
contrary to Paul's teaching in
1Corinthians 6, that homosexuals deserve to
be accepted as such into the church
and that Paul's condemnation of them is not
to be taken seriously today, we
must point out Paul's further warning in
1Corinthians 14:37-38. Anyone who does
not recognize the things, which Paul wrote
as the Lord’s commandment, is
himself not recognized by the Lord, nor is
he a spiritual man. By this, the
church can know the spirit of truth and the
spirit of error: the one who
genuinely knows God will listen to the
apostles, and the one who is not from
God will not listen. As apostolic doctrine
is a mark of the church of Christ,
those modern assemblies that admit
practicing homosexuals to membership and
ordination jeopardize their Christian status
— the very charge they level
against churches that obey the apostolic
instruction and “ungraciously” refuse
admission to unrepentant homosexuals.
In
conclusion, the response of the church to
the homosexual must be that of Paul
in Romans 12:1, 2, urging them by the
mercies of God to present their bodies as
living and holy sacrifices to God, not
conformed to this world but transformed
by the renewing of their minds, so that they
may prove the good, acceptable,
and perfect will of God. To that end, the
church excludes unrepentant
homosexuals and evangelizes them, showing
the gospel to be the basis of
forgiveness before God as well as the power
of ethical renewal. When converted
by God's grace, the homosexual must be
wholeheartedly received by the church as
a person for whom Christ died, and the
church must exercise the same care and
admonition toward him as for all repentant
sinners. Encouraging the converted
homosexual in his new life includes
instruction in the means of grace, active
Christian fellowship, and informed and
practical pastoral counsel.
In
short, the church must both express strong
disapproval of homosexuality as a
vile sin and engage in an effort to bring
God's powerful and good news to bear
on the lives of homosexuals. Here as always
the Christian must strive in
sincerity to speak Christ's full Word as
from God, manifesting the knowledge of
Him in every place, and thus being either an
aroma from death to death or an
aroma from life to life.” (5)
In
closing:
Jesus
never directly addressed the subject of
homosexuality. To use this silence as an
argument in support of homosexuality
is to use a fallacious argument, namely, an
argument from silence.
Jesus
did speak to a topic that has implications
on a relevant lifestyle question,
that of marriage:
“And he
answered and said unto them, have ye not
read,
that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female, And said,
For this cause shall a man leave father and
mother, and shall cleave to his
wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?”
(Matthew 19:4-5)
In
Matthew 19:4-5 Jesus is quoting from Genesis
1:27,
2:24.
Can
someone genuinely repent from homosexuality
and live
life as a heterosexual or as a single person
living chaste and struggling with
acknowledged
unwanted sexual desires? 1Corinthians 6:11
must be consulted for an answer to
this question. In 1Corinthians 6:9 Paul
mentions “the sexually immoral, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who
practice homosexuality” inherit the
kingdom of God.
Then
Paul says:
“And
such were some of you: but ye
are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
(1Corinthians 6:11)
Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible
get right to the point on the phrase “And
such were some of you:”
“And such
were some of you, not all, but some of them;
and of these everyone was not guilty of all
these crimes; but some had been
guilty of one, and others of another; so
that they had been all committed by
one or another of them. The Corinthians were
a people very much given to
uncleanness and luxury, without measure (i),
which was the ruin of their state:
and among these wicked people God had some
chosen vessels of salvation; who are
put in mind of their former state, partly
for their present humiliation, when
they considered what they once were, no
better than others, but children of
wrath, even as others; and partly to observe
to them, and the more to
illustrate and magnify the grace of God in
their conversion, pardon,
justification, and salvation; as also to
point out to them the obligations that
lay upon them to live otherwise now than
they formerly did.” (6)
In
conclusion, we believe that Paul is speaking
the
Word of God; and it is possible by the
goodness of God, which leads men to
repentance (Romans 2:4) that a sexually
immoral person can be changed and live
a pure life.
Notes:
1.John
Gill, Exposition
of the Old and New Testaments,
Leviticus, 9 Volumes, (Grace Works,
Multi-Media Labs), 2011, p. 279.
2.H.
D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, The
Pulpit Commentary, Romans, Vol.18.,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans
Publishing Company reprint 1978), p. 13.
3.Matthew
Poole's Commentary
on the Holy Bible,
(Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985) p. 556.
4.Matthew
Poole's Commentary
on the Holy Bible,
(Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985) p. 774-775.
5.Greg
Bahnsen, Homosexuality
A Biblical View,
(Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing CO.), pp. 5-6;
36-37; 48-49; 87-89; 98-99.
6.John
Gill, Exposition
of the Old and New
Testaments, 1Corinthians, 9 Volumes,
(Grace Works, Multi-Media Labs), 2011,
p. 117.
“To God,
only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ
forever. Amen.” (Romans 16:27) and “heirs
according to the promise.” (Galatians
3:28, 29)
Mr.
Kettler has previously published articles in
the
Chalcedon Report and Contra Mundum. He and
his wife Marea attend the
Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr. Kettler
is the author of the book defending
the Reformed Faith against attacks, titled:
The Religion That Started in a Hat.
Available at: http://www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com
Interaction
with pro-homosexual interpretations with
theologian Greg Bahnsen Use the following
link to down load Homosexuality
a Biblical View See; 4.The
Response of the Church
https://veritasdomain.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/homosexuality-greg-bahnsen.pdf
Rosaria
Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely
Convert, an English professor’s
journey into the Christian faith