Re-post from 6-29-2015:
A great friend posed this question to me and I also wondered over the weekend of the same thing:
But I was wondering if by keeping completely silent unless approached can it be interpreted as approval? Just wondering.
Someone else asked me what the Bible says about all of this that is going on.
Because few of us want to be perceived as “backward and bigoted homophobes” (as tolerance advocates often brand those with whom they disagree) or as people, who are not in step with the “progressive, equality, non-judgmental” mantra, it’s easy to clam up and play it cool, saying things like, “Of course I’m for equality and non-discrimination.” But that’s not an option for faithful, obedient followers of Jesus! As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned, “When we learn the truth but choose to remain silent, that’s when we begin to die.” Dr Alveda King, Martin’s niece, said in an interview, Is Gay OK? 10 Things Every Christian Needs to Know, if her uncle were alive today, he would remain steadfast in defense of biblical marriage and reject attempts to justify immoral conduct as a “civil right.” He’d remind us again of his oft-quoted words concerning the church’s role in society: “The church is neither the master of the state nor the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.”
1. To call oneself an authentic Christian and remain a practicing homosexual is a direct contradiction of biblical teaching and contrary to the "abundant life" promised by Jesus. Just as "Christian hatred" is an oxymoron, so too is the term “gay Christian.” God offers forgiveness and freedom through His Son, which is the good news (gospel) of the Christian message.According to the Christian faith, once a person responds to the gospel message in repentance and faith, he or she finds a new start to then fulfill their destiny in life. Even as Saul of Tarsus —a murderer—became Paul the apostle, a great saint and missionary leader, Christianity asserts that God redeems repentant people who may be “homosexuals, adulterers, drunkards, idolaters or whatever” and transforms their lives! It happened in the “San Francisco” of their day—Corinth—and has been repeated all over the world. Jesus Christ didn’t invade human history as the world’s Messiah to merely make our selfish, sinful lives a little better and more prosperous. He came to totally transform our lives and not only forgive our sins but free us from sin's power!
2. Practicing homosexuality is most definitely sinful and contradicting biblical teaching on God's order for human relationships and family. We’re aware this is contrary to what some “religious,” “gay-affirming” churches and leaders put forth (they reject the authority of the Bible and twist the meaning of passages), but they must be challenged and called back to faithfulness to the truth. The Bible consistently, unambiguously, without exception prohibits practicing homosexuality and tells us to honor God’s design for sexual behavior between men and women. The purpose is that we enjoy a fulfilling sexual experience in marriage and ideally have children as an expression of our marital love. Stating this forthrightly is not “hate speech.” This is an expression of divine love because sinful behavior not only hurts our Creator, but also is harmful to us (and others). God gives us laws for our own good! 3. Homosexuality is not simply another "alternative lifestyle."In the Hebrew-Christian Bible, there are multiple times in both the Old and New Testament accounts where homosexuality and other immoral activities are explicitly condemned as dishonorable to God and the natural order (the way things were designed to work) and as destructive to those involved with them. An entire chapter in the Old Testament lists certain activities and calls them “detestable,” stating in no uncertain terms, “Stay away!” The New Testament uses five terms to describe both male and female homosexual conduct: “unnatural,” “perverted,” “degrading,” “shameful” and “indecent.” Not to be facetious, but is that hard to understand? Scripture throughout forbids us to be sexually involved in seven areas: with parents, with children, with brothers and sisters, with another spouse, with animals, with dead people and with the same sex. These never change.
4. All of us are born with a fallen nature that gives us a tendency to do wrong.We don’t have to train children to lie, steal, harm others, act selfishly or demand their own way. Having a free will to make choices, all of us are accountable for our own actions. Biology can’t make us do wrong, although circumstances can influence us. To say otherwise leaves people as victims, not responsible for their behavior—a convenient excuse. That's like what a present-day celebrity, married eight years with two sons, who shamelessly committed adultery with a younger country singer and then left his wife to marry her did. He later told his wife, “It wasn’t your fault. I’ve cheated from day one. It’s just who I am.”According to Scripture and science, homosexuality has never been proven to be part of someone’s biological constitution, so everyone decides his or her lot in life (although all of us are influenced differently). The bottom line: We do express understanding regarding people’s upbringing while not releasing people from taking personal responsibility for their actions.
5. There is a major distinction between people's behavior and their race.My black friends can’t decide to become Caucasian. My wife can’t decide to become a full-blown man (though today some try!). One is chosen; the other unchosen. Homosexuality is something someone does—not something someone is. Each of us is personally responsible for our behavior. (Otherwise, drunk drivers, rapists and child molesters are “off the hook" and play the “victim card.”) To confuse this wrongly creates a new “minority” status and special “rights” for a very small segment of the population representing no more than 2 to 3 percent (not the inaccurate, inflated figures of 10 percent or more).
The Bible teaches against any sexual relations except between husband and wife. The Bible specifically mentions sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex as among the forbidden acts. Homosexual acts are mentioned in seven Bible passages: 1• 2 refer to rape (Genesis 19:5, Judges 19:22)• 3 refer to intercourse between men (Leviticus 18:21-22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:27)• 1 refers to intercourse between women (Romans 1:26)• 1 refers to prostitution and pederasty (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)• 1 is general in nature (1 Timothy 1:8-10)Old TestamentThe first mention in the Bible is in Genesis 19:1-13. The wicked men of Sodom attempted a homosexual rape of two messengers from God who had come to visit Lot. As a result of this and other widespread wickedness, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in a storm of fire and brimstone.The next two mentions are in LeviticusYou shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. (NKJ, Leviticus 18:22)If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. (NKJ, Leviticus 20:13)Life was harsh in early Old Testament times. The wanderings and struggle for survival of the Israelites did not permit prisons or rehabilitation. Anyone who deviated seriously from the norm was either stoned to death or exiled. The Old Testament prescribed the death penalty for the crimes of murder, attacking or cursing a parent, kidnapping, failure to confine a dangerous animal resulting in death, witchcraft and sorcery, sex with an animal, doing work on the Sabbath, incest, adultery, homosexual acts, prostitution by a priest's daughter, blasphemy, false prophecy, perjury in capital cases and false claim of a woman's virginity at the time of marriage.
It must be emphasized that, according to the New Testament, we are no longer under the harsh Old Testament Law (John 1:16-17, Romans 8:1-3, 1 Corinthians 9:20-21). The concern with punishment is now secondary to Jesus' message of repentance and redemption. Both reward and punishment are seen as properly taking place in eternity, rather than in this life.In the Old Testament, homosexual activity was strongly associated with the idolatrous practices of the pagan nations surrounding Israel. In fact, the word "abomination," used in both mentions of homosexual acts in Leviticus, is a translation of the Hebrew word tow' ebah which means something morally disgusting, but it also has a strong implication of idolatry2. Thus, many Bible scholars believe the condemnations in Leviticus are more a condemnation of the idolatry than of the homosexual acts themselves3,4.
New TestamentJesus never mentioned homosexuality, but He did condemn all forms of sexual immorality:What comes out of you is what defiles you. For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you. (NIV, Mark 7:20-23)The apostle Paul, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, wrote the verses most often quoted on this subject:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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. (NIV, 1st Corinthians 6:9-11)This verse has been translated in as many different ways as there are different versions of the Bible, so we have to look at the original Greek to see what Paul was really saying. The word translated here as "male prostitute" is the Greek word malakos which literally means "soft to the touch." However, it was used metaphorically to refer to a catamite (a boy kept for sexual relations with a man) or to a male prostitute in general. The word translated here as "homosexual offender" is the Greek word arsenokoites which means a sodomite, a person who engages in any kind of unnatural sex, but especially homosexual intercourse5. Some believe this use of arsenokoites referred specifically to the men who kept catamites6, but that is not certain.
There are two other New Testament mentions of homosexual acts, in Romans 1:25-27 and 1 Timothy 1:8-10. In this passage from Romans, again in the context of idolatry, Paul mentions women who "exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones." This is the only mention of lesbian acts:
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. (NIV, Romans 1:25-27)
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