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Homosexuality
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Although the scope of the problem of homosexuality in society is perplexing, the present predicament is but a shadow of what is on the horizon as gender selection becomes increasingly popular and as female fetuses are aborted in an increasing ratio, placed as high as 20/1 in some estimates. Because of this gender selection we may look for an explanation of this sin in society in general and in the church.
Homosexuality is paired with two other God-defying evils which convulse society: feminism and abortion. Out of the humanistic philosophy that man is god, or even the creator of god, emerges the idea — “I have unlimited (unrestricted) right to do with my body as I please.” Such a conviction is antithetical to Christianity.
A homosexual is any person, male or female, who engages in or desires to engage in sexual relations with persons of the same sex. Considerable sensitivity to the language used to describe a homosexual is necessary because of the sophistry used to escape the import of Christian (biblical) teaching on this subject. Examples of such devious and fallacious argumentation would be to say the homosexual has an inverted sexual nature, or is constitutionally homosexual; homosexual condition vs. homosexual act; orientation vs. act; involuntary psychological orientation; homosexualism vs, homosexuality; etc.
Homosexuality, whether an inward lust or an external act, is declared by the scriptures to be sin, both being the fruit of a depraved nature. “Homosexuality is not a cross to be born, but a pattern of behavior to be thrown off with the” old man and his lusts.
Genesis 1:27: ... male and female created he them. (cf Gen. 5:2; Matt. 1 9:4)
Genesis 19:5: Where [are] the men which came unto thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
II Peter 2:6-8: And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day to day with [their] unlawful deeds;)
Jude :7: 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.
Judges 19:22,23: Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him ... Nay, my brethren, [nay], I pray you, do not [so] wickedly;..
Leviticus 18:22: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination.
Deuteronomy 23:17: There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
Romans 1:26-27: 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 we 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.
Romans 1:28-32
I Corinthians 6:9, 13: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God! Be nor deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, ... Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body [is] not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
I Corinthians 6:9 & 10 states emphatically that adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind ... are outside the kingdom of God. This is an expansion of Leviticus 18:22, 24-30. Leviticus 18:29 states “For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.”
The church must declare, “the body is not for immorality but for the Lord.” I Corinthians 6:15-20 makes clear that a person(s) engaged in such sins cannot make a credible confession of belonging to Christ. Homosexuality is portrayed as a heinous sin before God and warranted capital punishment in Israel. Leviticus 20: 13 says: “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.”
Sympathy for this condition must not be the Christian’s first attitude, but the declaration that the sinner must be sorry for this sin and horrified by it. Thus, this is to be repented of and renounced. To such repentant sinners the church must proclaim healing and restoration, even as it does for repentant idolaters and murderers, who scripture also places under the wrath of God: Romans 1:18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”
Therefore, the church has a twofold obligation to the homosexual: (1) to proclaim God’s judgment on this sin and exclude them, while they continue in such sin, from the body of believers, and (2) to present the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, so that those who repent of this sin may be part of the fellowship of believers.
While the church deals with the question of homosexuality as a sin, society must ask the question, “Is this perversion a crime?” Another way to ask the question — “Is homosexuality a right?” Is homosexuality a right (as a noun) in the sense that fellow citizens are obligated to acknowledge and protect the “freedom” of the homosexual to pursue homosexual relations, receive homosexual favors, and to be free from discrimination against them because of their sexual “preference.”
Homosexuality deals with public (social) morality. Its consequences are harmful in the social realm and fall in the province of the civil government to deal with as much as does murder, kidnapping, perjury, etc. Leviticus 20:13: “If a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, ... they shall surely be put to death;...” clearly places homosexuality as a crime, in the province of the magistrate to deal with and to punish.
Further, I Timothy 1:8-10 speaks of the purpose of God’s law as a deterrent (curb) to immorality to restrain such behavior. God has given the magistrate the commission to restrain evildoing.
Romans 13:3,4: For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power! do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to [execute] wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Hence, Christian morality treats homosexuality as both a sin and a crime.
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