THE BIBLE CHALLENGES
HOMOSEXUALITY
James Russell
A new chapter in America's moral revolution came as Atlanta Pastor Louie Gaglio withdrew from
giving the benediction at President Obama's second inaugural ceremony. In a statement released
to the White House and the presidential inaugural committee, Louie Gaglio said he is
withdrawing because of the furor that emerged after a liberal watchdog group revealed a twenty year old sermon
Luie Gaglio preached, in which he had stated that homosexuality is a sin, and that the only way out of a
homosexual lifestyle is through the healing power of Jesus. In other words Louie Gaglo has been effectively dis-invited from delivering a inaugural prayer because he believes homosexuality according to God's teaching is
a sin.
The White House has now declared historic, Biblical truth - out of bounds! It is treated as hate speech,
bigotry, and homophobic.
In a November 2012 survey taken of adults in the U.S.A. found 37 % affirm a belief that homosexual
behavior is a sin. This is a significant change from a September 2011 survey at that time 44 % answered yes,
it is a sin! This is an indication of a shifting public attitude on gay rights.
Homosexuality was the last and final sin the Lord would not tolerate any longer during Noah's time, so
He destroyed all man-kind from the earth, except for Noah and his family. Homosexuality was the last and final
sins the Lord would not tolerate during Abrahams and Lots day, so the Lord rained fire down on Sodom and
Gomorrah, destroying them!
Is the Untied States of America setting its self up next - to be destroyed? Obama staunchly reiterated
his belief that gays, lesbians, and all homosexual people should be allowed to marry one another! Meaning be
allowed to freely sin.
In his last inaugural address, marked the first time a president used the occasion to praise the progress
on gay rights agenda. Meaning, the Supreme Court is to make a ruling on gay marriage sometime this coming
year. Remember the title of this sermon is "The Bible Challenges Homosexuality."
In Newsweek's magazine December 15, 2008 issue, under religion, editor Lisa Miller defends gay
marriage using the Bible as her text. Her basic argument is that God really isn't against loving, monogamous
homosexual relationships, and Bible believing folks should support marriage for same-sex couples. She argues
in her article that Jesus would in fact reach out to gays and lesbians, quoting her friend who is a priest, said
"Jesus does not want people to be lonely and sad."
Unfortunately, Ms. Miller attempts to make the Bible say what society might want it to say, rather than
just taking in the full counsel of God. She also fails to appreciate that when Jesus reached out to the outcasts
of society, the prostitutes and tax collectors, they never stayed the same-they repented. In God's great love and
power, He freed people from the sin that held them down so fiercely.
With Ms. Miller's Newsweek article using the Bible in her effort to support gay marriage and Obama
pushing forward on the same subject, challenges Us to write this article, on challenging her and him on the
subject of homosexuality and gay and lesbian marriage. Obama and her arguments, and those like theirs need
to be answered in far more in-depth understanding than her simple article on this subject can offer. Her
contention is "the Bible does not offer a consistent definition of marriage:" Be it man and women, male with
male or female with female.
Responding to her belief, the Bible makes clear God's pattern and purpose of marriage despite human
deviations and their stumbling's. We do not have to read very far in the Bible to discover how God intended
the human race to function.
The first chapter of the very first book - Genesis, contains information which is crucial for us to consider,
and understand. "And God said, let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: so God created man in His
own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and
God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen 1:26-28).
Four facts stand out in these verses: One: to be made in the image of God means to have an essential
likeness or similarity to God. To be made in God's image means that man= the created is to correspond some
how to God the creator. Two: God's image is shared by the whole human race. Let me put that clearly. Every
person who is born on the earth is made in God's image, regardless of race-color- nationality-gender- age -or
physical condition. Everyone who reads this is made in God's image. White- black -young-old - male or
female - gay or straight!
Every human being is made in God's image. It is our birthright as a member of the human race. We are
made in God's image and no one can take that away from me or you. Three: That image is to be found in - man
and woman -male or female. That is, there is a sense in which God's image is seen in the relationship, the union
if you will, of a man and a woman. Was Adam created in God's image? yes! Was Eve created in God's image?
yes!
Yet Gen 1:27clearly teaches that certain aspects of God's nature are uniquely reflected in the
male-female relationship. That leads us to the fourth fact. Fourth: One purpose of sexual distinction is
procreation. Man and woman are to be fruitful and multiply. Gen 1:28, there is a part of God's image which
is reflected in the coming together as a man and woman. When a man and woman come together -they imitate
God in their creative activity, in the bringing forth of new life, they are doing what God did in the garden of
Eden.
The account of creation is perfectly clear that heterosexuality is God's design for the human race. Full
humanity includes both male and female. Marriage between a man and woman is hence good and pure and holy.
Sexual relations within marriage are thus sanctified.
Homosexuality must be seen as something outside of God's design for the human race. It represents a
denial of the two -fold nature of man as male and female. It is a deviation in the truest sense of the word. The
importance of Genesis chapter 1 - 2 cannot be overemphasized. It is the foundation upon which the entire Bible
rests.
Our judgement of man and woman- male or female of human sexuality must be in accord with what
these verses in Genesis reveal, that is one man with one woman becoming one flesh. Homosexuals cannot
become one flesh! Why? "Because" they cannot be fruitful and multiply, they cannot adequately reflect the
fullness of the image of God and they cannot discharge their sexual drives in a manner consistent with God's
word. In summary, homosexuality is completely out side God's original design for humanity.
There is another way to put this. If God had intended for homosexuality to be the norm, He would have
created Adam and Steve! Instead of Adam and Eve! Another important thought here is Satan's way of sodomy
cannot reproduce life. Just as Satan and the angels cannot reproduce life!
With that back ground setting the stage for us, lets hear again from Ms. Miller. Ms. Miller says,
"Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel, all these fathers and heroes were
polygamists." She then quotes Genesis 2:18, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an
help meet for him." What she does not understand God gave Adam a single Eve to be his partner in life. God
did not dislodge several ribs and hand Adam a harem. Yet - it is a fact, He did put up with His servants
deviating from the position of Gen 2:18, but that did not change God's purpose. God permitted polygamy, but
that was not His set out pattern to follow.
Notice how Jesus answered Moses and Israel on this subject. "He saith unto them, [Israel] and Moses,
because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: But from the beginning it was not
so" (Matt 19:8).
Ms. Miller says, "the New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus Himself was single and
preached an indifference to earthly attachments- especially family." That is just another myth of her's. We know
from reading the Bible - Jesus taught that no relationship is more important than the one with God. Jesus
honored marriage. He recognized its holiness and appreciated that a wedding feast was a joyful occasion. In
fact, He repeatedly referred to Himself as a Bridegroom. And His marriage celebration [reception] is going to
be the greatest ever. See what John wrote in Rev 19: 9. "And he saith unto me, write, blessed are they which
are called unto the marriage supper [reception] of the lamb. And he saith unto me, these are the true sayings of
God."
As a general summary, we can say that whenever Christ mentioned marriage, He upheld it as a divinely
ordained institution. Notice Matthew 19: where Jesus had some very important things to say about marriage.
Some pharisees asked Him a tricky question about divorce. "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for
every cause? (Matt 19:3). His answer is very revealing. He first quoted Genesis 1:27, "At the beginning the
creator' made them male and female." Then He quoted Genesis 2:24, "For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." He then concludes in
Matthew 19:6, "They are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not
separate."
The point is clear, Jesus looked upon human sexuality precisely as it is revealed in Genesis chapter 1-
2. He knows that man was created first male then female and the union of opposites sexes would unite into one
flesh, that was God's plan for humanity from the beginning. He thus endorses heterosexuality in the strongest
possible way.
Where, then, does homosexuality fit in? It doesn't fit in at all. It is eliminated by virtue of the fact
that it contradicts God's original plan, a plan laid down in the book of Genesis and later endorsed by the Lord
Jesus, the Christ.
Reading that endorsement again in Matt 19:4-6: "Have you 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 [twosome] shall be one flesh" Wherefore they are no more twain [twosome,]
but one flesh." It is difficult to be "one flesh" with more than one person.
Ms. Miller says, "the Apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable
to contain their animal lust." She says - Paul during his troubled times, did not encourage people to take on
marriage if they could help it, evidenced in 1 Cor 7:25-29. "Now concerning virgins I have no commandment
of the Lord: Yet I give my judgment, as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose
therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. Art you bound unto
a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art you loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But and if you marry, you have not
sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare
you. But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remains, that both they that have wives be as though they had
none." Paul just give one of the most excellent descriptions of a man's role in marriage. Next Ephesians 5: 25,
28-29, where Paul continues to speak about marriage. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church, and gave Himself for it; So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife
loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourish's it and cherishes it, even as the Lord the
church." The apostle Paul, being a scholar of the scriptures, also recognizes a one-man-one-woman marriage,
just as God set in place from the beginning in Gen 2:18.
God instructs His called and His church leaders to stick to His teachings!! Two more examples of having
one wife and one husband are found in 1 Tim 3:2, and Titus 1:6). "A bishop [church leader] then must be
blameless, the husband of one wife." Titus 1:6, speaks of ordination of elders. "He must be blameless, the
husband of one wife." Ms. Miller's arguments against marriage between one man and one woman does not help
her position.
The Bible is not a prude book, it does not shy away from describing what happens in people's bedrooms.
There is not a single instance in the Bible in which homosexual sex is mentioned in a positive way.
Ms. Miller contends: the Bible's objections to homosexuality are outdated. Response to that thought is
the Bible's objections to homosexuality are part of an unchanging moral law, and not part of the ceremonial law,
which Christ fulfilled, when sacrificed for our sins.
Ms. Miller recognizes that the Bible includes verses that condemn homosexual sex, but she dismisses
those verses as old, worn out laws based on an out-of-date culture. She says, "Most of us no longer heed
Leviticus on haircuts or blood sacrifices; our modern understanding of the world has surpassed its
prescriptions." Ms. Miller as you can see, does not make a distinction between ceremonial laws and moral laws.
Those who follow Judaism cannot keep the complete ceremonial law that they believe in today. Why?
Because they have no temple right now to worship in!
We, who are God's called today, do not worry about those ceremonial law because Jesus fulfilled those
law by His sacrifice. This point is clearly expounded in Heb 9: 9-10. And Matt 5:17. Heb 9:9-10, "Which was
a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that
did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers
washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." Next Matt 5:17, "Think not
that I am come to destroy the law [God's law], or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." These
verses will give you the bases to see the differences between ceremonial laws and moral laws.
Christ calls us His disciples, to a higher morality than the mere letter of the law. After being called we
are supposed to live by the spirit, and avoid fulfilling "The lusts of the flesh." Paul witnesses this to us, "This
I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal 5:16). It's when we try to do this
on our own strength that's when we fail miserably.
Ms. Miller writes, "rejection of gay marriage is the same as racism." My response is: the Bible treats
men of all races as equal in God's eyes, yet consistently condemns homosexual sex. Quoting Ms. Miller again,
"If we are all God's children, made in His likeness and Image, then to deny access to any sacrament based on
sexuality is exactly the same thing as denying it based on skin color -and no serious or even (semi serious) person
would argue that." "End" She is assuming that people are born gay or lesbian. While this is a popular idea in
our culture, it is not been close to being proven scientifically. The precise causes of same-sex attraction are still
not understood.
The Bible states that all human beings are equal in the eyes of God, regardless of their ancestry. Christ
speaks of being "all and in all." "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor un-circumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is All, and in all" (Col 3:11). Another example of all nations
having a equal challenge for salvation in Gods eyes. "Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You only art Holy: for all nations shall come and worship before You; for Your judgments are made
manifest" (Rev 15:4).
Ms. Miller also argues, homosexual sex is always referred to negatively -not simply when it is in violence
or debauchery, meaning excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures. Notice in Leviticus 18, where gay
intercourse is condemned. This verse is sandwiched between bestiality in verse 23, and just after child
sacrificing in verse 21. "And you shalt not let any of your seed [speaking of children ] pass through the fire to
molech [ Moloch was the Fire god, who was worshiped by sacrificing newborn children], vs 21 continues,
Neither shalt you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. Reading now verse 22, that condemns gay
homosexual intercourse, "You shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is Abomination." Lev
20: verse 13, is another testimony that speaks of sodomy and homosexuality. "If a man also lie with mankind,
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."
In 1 Cor. 6: 9-10, the Bible scholar Paul speaks out even more on this subject, "Know you not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of Themselves with mankind." The words "effeminate" and "abusers"
of themselves with mankind" are two different terms for those who engage in homosexual acts. What the King
James Bible translates "effeminate" is the word for a male prostitute, a sodomite or a passive partner, in having
a male intercourse. The next term, "Abusers" … is a Greek word, it is a combination of two Greek words
meaning "male" and "bed," having a meaning of, "Male homosexual," an active partner in having male
intercourse, or in a loving romantic relationship with a male.
Ms. Miller continues to say, we are all in desperate need for the grace of God, on a healthy same-gender
kind of love.
We know the Bible always blesses love between brethren and yet always condemns homosexual sex.
The purity of simple masculine love has gotten skewed and ruined by humanity's focus on sex. It's good for
men and women to "love one another with a pure heart fervently." Peter tell us, "Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you [agape] love one
another with a pure heart fervently" (1 Pet 1:22). This is clearly not saying we are to have a "Burning lust one
toward another."
Now at last, we come to the central verses in the Bible on homosexuality found in the book of Romans.
Here we will find God giving people up to erotic sex starved activities with members of their own sex. Women
became lesbians practicing un-natural sex and knowing no shame while men became sodomites burning with
lust for other men. We read of these charges in Romans 1: starting in verse 25, "Who changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed for ever... For this cause
God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature: 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. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to
a reprobate mind [immoral mind], to do those things which are not convenient" (Rom. 1:25-28). It is difficult
to imagine a stronger condemnation of homosexuality. This is the result of a "depraved mind," the action of
someone willfully suppressing the truth of God and surrendering to the impure desire of the flesh.
If men loved their wives the way Christ loves, cherishes and nurtures His church, perhaps fewer women
would feel drawn to the arms and bedrooms of members of the same sex. Perhaps if women were taught to
reverence their husbands and not be door mats, but truly respect their husbands there would not be the
man-hatred we see in the world today. Either way, it's women's responsibility to love one another, but not,
"Change the natural use into that which is against nature" as we read in (Rom 1:26) that says, "For this cause
God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature."
The word of God absolutely doesn't change just because society changes. His word is living, and it does
not evolve. Notice what Peter says, "But the word of the Lord endures for ever. And this is the Word which by
the gospel is preached unto you" (1Peter 1:25).
God loves each one of us, and we need to recognize He is more powerful than the sin that so easily besets
us. In our weakness He is strong. We need to give ourselves wholly to Him, no matter what that means. His is
the most important relationship, we the called have.
Being called and drawn and having God's Holy Spirit helps us with recognizing the evidence that is
overwhelming of homosexual behavior in any form is wrong. It is a degraded and degrading sin. It is a horrible
lifestyle and there is nothing gay about it. No one was ever created by God to be homosexual. What I am saying
is that when it comes to Homosexuality, the lifestyle is sinful, the behavior is sinful, and so is the lust that goes
with it. Those who take the Bible, God's Word seriously, find there can be no other answer.
Let's pull together the various strands of biblical teaching on this subject. First of all Genesis 1-2 affirms
that heterosexuality is God's design for the human race, and that the image of God is uniquely reflected in the
male- female union. Leviticus 18 and 20, offer clear taboos against homosexual behavior with death the penalty
for violating the law. Homosexuality is one mark of a society which has lost it's moral compass. In short, the
Old Testament and New Testament condemns homosexuality both by principle and precept.
The final conclusion is: Homosexuality is the last sin to prevail before a society of people are turned to
ashes.
Ending this article on a positive note, the writer of Hebrews tells us: "And having an high priest over
the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works" (Heb 10:21-24).