Homosexuality - what should we think?

Propaganda
A striking evidence of this degeneration is the way in which homosexuality or sodomy is being brought out of the closet. Once unmentionable in polite company, we are now bombarded by propaganda from the advocates of this lifestyle. Today homosexuals are demanding recognition. They want to be equal with other citizens. They want to teach our children about their ways. They want to serve in the armed forces. They even want to pastor our churches. They seem to want to dominate our very society. What should we think of homosexuality?

Standard for Belief and Behaviour
In the House of Commons recently one Member, concerned at the direction being pursued by the Scottish Executive in seeking to repeal Section 28, challenged the Secretary of State for Scotland: “Is he aware of the fate of the cities of the plain?” The response he got suggested that Dr. Reid is not and the many jeers indicated that most of our MPs are not – or that they do not wish to be reminded. Sadly the same applies to most people today.

However, the question was of far greater value than most of what has poured forth from politicians, press and other pundits during recent months. It points us to the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. This is the ultimate standard for all human belief and behaviour, the only rule to direct us. God the Creator sets the rules for the people He has made. It is our duty to study these laws and obey them. God’s Word has much to say about sodomy. None of it is good.

Sodomy Outlawed in the Old Testament
The first reference to homosexuality is found in Genesis Chapter 19. There we learn of the incident where the men of Sodom tried to beat down the door of Lot’s house so that they could have their way with two male strangers who were in the city. In their vile lust they called to Lot, “bring them out unto us, that we may know them” (v.5). Lot went out and tried to reason with them but they would not listen and became even more violent such that he had to be rescued (vv.6-10). How like today! The homosexual lobby is becoming increasingly militant. Whatever arguments are stated or concessions made they are not satisfied and in their perverted zeal they seek to influence more and more people to their ‘cause’. The only wise response is to “shut the door” against this evil (v.10). That is why Section 28 is of great value and should remain and indeed be strengthened. 

                What happened to Sodom? These wicked men were quickly smitten with blindness (v.11). The next morning judgment fell upon the cities of the plain. There came “brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (v.24). Sodom and the surrounding cities, with their inhabitants, were reduced to ashes. “The smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace” (v.28). Why such a fearful fate?

         Far from being a “valid lifestyle” Scripture describes the culture of Sodom as sin. It is “ungodly”, “filthy”, “wicked”, “unlawful” (2 Pet. 2:6-8). It is “very grievous” (Gen. 18:20); “abomination” (Lev. 18:22). The men of Sodom were “wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly” (Gen. 13:13). This speaks for itself: God detests sodomy! Homosexuality is evil in His sight. In condemning the cities of the plain the Lord was “making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Pet. 2:6). Beware! The inhabitants of these wicked places are “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7). Suffering now.

         The law of Moses strongly condemned sodomy, demanding the death penalty for those who practised it (Lev. 18:22; 20:13). The condemnation and prohibition of this practice is a principle that has not changed. Indeed it is something written upon man’s conscience. Those who commit such things know that in God’s eyes they are “worthy of death” (Rom. 1:32). And the same verse also denounces those who consent with them that do such things – surely a warning to our government. Probably not all in Sodom were ‘sodomites’ but they all perished because they either committed or condoned this wickedness. The exception was Lot, who “vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (2 Pet. 2:7,8). He and his family alone were spared.

         When Judah sank to an all-time low, sodomy was one of the abominations present in the land (1 Kings 14:24). However, when the good and godly king Asa came to the throne, he took the sodomites away, an action which was pleasing to the Lord (1 Kings 15:11,12); king Jehoshaphat completed the work (1 Kings 22:46). The later reformation under king Josiah involved the destruction of the sodomites’ houses (2 Kings 23:7). Our leaders today have a similar duty to promote national righteousness by punishing sin, not by promoting it.

Sodomy Condemned in the New Testament
In the New Testament Scriptures we discover that, far from being condoned, homosexuality is still outlawed. Romans Chapter 1 delivers a denunciation of sodomy. “[They] changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 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, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom. 1:25-28). 

This passage stresses that homosexuality is unnatural behaviour. All forms of disobedience are hateful to God but the Bible does highlight this sin as especially perverse. We have been told that homosexuality is a matter of genes, but there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that people are “made that way”. If we give in to the argument that it is wrong to deny anyone the opportunity to express his or her instincts because they are “inborn” then we will soon have to abandon any rational idea of morality altogether. Homosexual activity is in reality a choice of lifestyle made by certain individuals. Neither should we heed the suggestion that an activity is allowable as long as it does not “hurt” anyone else. This ignores the fact that we are made in the image of God to glorify Him and that we are firstly accountable to God for the way we behave. And who says that homosexual activity has no ill consequences for those outside the circle of those who actually practise it? Many others are affected by the disease, degradation and even death that is part and parcel of this perverted activity.

                What this thinking does is to ignore the solemn fact of the fall of mankind into sin. That is the explanation why every man wants to do what is “right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). If we would know the norms for human conduct then we must learn how the Lord made things in the beginning. The Bible tells us that God created our first parents male and female for the purpose of companionship in the bond of marriage (Gen. 2:18,24) – a unit which was not to be dissolved. God also created the first couple male and female for the purpose of procreation through a physical union. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28). They were to be “one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). A ‘marriage’ of homosexuals therefore is clearly an absurdity. It is a physical impossibility. Sodomy has destructive consequences for the bodies of those who practise it, as Scripture warns and the spread of AIDS bears witness (Rom 1:27). The “vile affections” of homosexuals can in no way be approved.

                Romans Chapter 1 also shows that sodomy is the final stage of sexual debauchery arrived at by a people who deliberately reject God. The further a culture departs from the Lord, the greater the incidence of homosexuality among the people. The spread of sodomy today is itself a judgment on a nation which has rejected the true and living God (Rom. 1:24-28). It is a powerful reminder that repentance toward God is the great need of the hour. Sodomy is once again denounced in 1 Timothy where its practitioners are referred to as “them that defile themselves with mankind” (i.e. those engaging in sexual activity with persons of the same gender) (1 Tim. 1:10). 

The Attitude of Christ
Sometimes it is claimed that Jesus Christ had a different, more tolerant, attitude towards these matters. Did He not, for instance, forgive the woman taken in adultery when the scribes and Pharisees wanted her condemned? He refused to play the role of an accuser once her original accusers had walked away, but He told her plainly, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). Early in His ministry Christ said to His disciples: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). The moral law as an expression of God’s eternal righteousness must forever bind all men. It is our rule of life. It is so very relevant to this controversy: by the sixth commandment (“Thou shalt not kill”) God forbids bullying; under the seventh (“Thou shalt not commit adultery”) the same God forbids sexual perversion. 

“And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus sayeth the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death” 

                We hear today about “alternative” lifestyles. Is there any real alternative to the “lifestyle” set out for us in the Ten Commandments? Yes, there is. It is called sin. It is called rebellion. It is called the way of death (Jer. 21:8).

                Jesus emphasised that an improper lust in the heart was equivalent to adultery (Matt. 5:28). He was saying that not only our actions but also our thoughts and desires may be sinful. The whole homosexual mindset is wrong, not simply the physical act.

                It is very important to note that the Lord Jesus Christ, in warning His own generation of how conditions would be prior to His return, spoke of what happened to Sodom as a real, historic, terrible judgment which fell upon that city and its people (Luke 17:29).

Our Attitude
There is nothing “gay” about homosexuality! The Bible refers to the remorse experienced by sodomites when it says that “their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter” (Deut. 32:32). Sodom after God’s judgment was an utterly barren place where nothing grew (Deut. 29:23). The place is now known as the Dead Sea. God is not mocked.   

                Paul spoke of sodomy in writing to the church at Corinth. He made it clear that those who are “effeminate” or “abusers of themselves with mankind” will not enter heaven (1 Cor. 6:9,10). A homosexual lifestyle is wholly incompatible with the Christian one and a “gay” or “lesbian” Christian is a contradiction in terms. But Paul indicated that the gospel is for these sinners too: “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.” (v.11). There is grace and mercy for the homosexual – but he must confess his perversion and forsake it.

                We should pray then for homosexuals that they will repent and seek the Lord while He may be found. They are not beyond redemption. We do not condone their behaviour in any way; we strongly oppose it and warn against it. But the homosexual also has a soul which needs God’s salvation. However far we have sunk in sin it remains gloriously true for all who repent; “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18).