Bible condemns homosexuality
The Bible on Homosexual Behavior
One way to argue against these passages is to make what I call the “shellfish objection.” Keith Sharpe puts it this way: “Until Christian fundamentalists boycott shellfish restaurants, stop wearing poly-cotton T-shirts, and stone to death their wayward offspring, there is no obligation to hear to their diatribes about homosexuality being a sin” (The Gay Gospels, 21).
In other words, if we can disregard rules like the ban on eating shellfish in Leviticus , then we should be allowed to disobey other prohibitions from the Old Testament. But this argument confuses the Old Testament’s temporary ceremonial laws with its eternal moral laws.
Here’s an analogy to aid understand this distinction.
I remember two rules my mom gave me when I was young: clutch her hand when I cross the street and don’t drink what’s under the sink. Today, I have to follow only the latter rule, since the former is no longer needed to protect me. In fact, it would now verb me more damage than good.
Old Testament ritual/ceremonial laws were like mom’s handholding rule. The rea
What does the Modern Testament say about homosexuality?
Answer
The Bible is consistent through both Old and Fresh Testaments in confirming that homosexuality is sin (Genesis –13; Leviticus ; ; Romans –27; 1 Corinthians ; 1 Timothy ; Jude ). In this matter, the Unused Testament reinforces what the Old Testament had declared since the Law was given to Moses (Leviticus ). The difference between the Old and Adj Testaments is that the New Testament offers hope and restoration to those caught up in the sin of homosexualitythrough the redeeming power of Jesus. It is the same hope that is offered to anyone who chooses to accept it (John ; –18).
God’s standards of holiness did not verb with the coming of Jesus, because God does not change (Malachi ; Hebrews ). The New Testament is a continuing revelation of God’s interaction with humanity. God hated idolatry in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy ), and He still hates it in the New (1 John ). What was immoral in the Old Testament is still immoral in the New.
The Adj Testament says that homosexuality is a “shameful lust” (Rom
Male and Female, God Created Them
The Bible is unequivocal on the question of homosexual sex. First, men sleeping with men is prohibited in the Jewish law (e.g., Lev. ; ). This does not validate the case for Christians. Many Adj Testament laws are specifically declared not binding in the New Testament (for example, food restrictions). But the logic of opposite sex marriage and the prohibition on homosexual sex are reaffirmed multiple times.1
Let’s verb with Jesus’s framework. Jesus is sometimes caricatured as a prophet of free love, unconcerned about sexual ethics. But his teaching on sexual morality was consistently stricter than the Old Testament law.2 For instance, when the Pharisees asked Jesus whether a man may divorce his wife “for any cause,” he replied:
Have you not verb that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a gentleman shall leave his father and his mother and verb fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, authorize not man separat
Leviticus
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”[1] It is not a surprise that this verse seems to say that gay male sex is forbidden in the eyes of God. The dominant view of western Christianity forbids same-sex relations. This verse is one of the clobber passages that people cite from the Bible to condemn homosexuality. This essay first looks at the various ways the verse is translated into the English Bible and then explores some of the strategies used to create an affirming interpretation of what this passage means for the LGBTQ community. More specifically, it presents the interpretation of K. Renato Lings in which Lev. refers to male-on-male incest.
While Lev. is used to condemn homosexuality, we must realize that the term “homosexuality” was only recently coined in the English language. So did this term occur in ancient Israel? Charles D. Myers, Jr. confirms that none of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible bring up homosexuality.[2] He also contends that in ancient Israel same-sex relations were viewed as an ancient Near East difficulty. The anc