Why is homosexuality wrong?
EVERY PERSON COMES TO THE matter of homosexuality with an established opinion, which has been shaped by a worldview. By worldview I mean a person’s concept of self, the world, and everything else. Every worldview encompasses what one views as real, the nature of truth, how we come to know what is true, and how we define what is “good” in an ethical sense. One’s worldview determines whether homosexuality is perceived as right or wrong.
My own worldview is founded upon my confidence in the existence of a creating and governing God. This God has spoken or communicated both in general revelation through the created order and in the special revelations of Scripture and His Son, Jesus Christ. General revelation includes the complexity of the design and creation of the human body, the awareness of the spiritual self and conscience, and the unfolding of a plan that is shown through history. Reality encompasses both seen and unseen dimensions, the earthly and the heavenly. Jesus Christ embodies truth, reality, and love, and so is the final standard for what is good. Ultimate reality and infinite love, truth, and ethical perfection flow from the nature and character of God.
This is the Bible’s worldview, and it is the Christian’s. As a Christian, I have experienced a spiritual and personal transformation so dramatic that it can be described as a “new creation” or a “new birth.” That newness places me in relation to the very God of the universe. My sins have been forgiven, and God’s nature is being actualized in my experience—as it is in the experience of all believers. I take seriously the last instruction of Jesus Christ to His followers that they should make disciples by sharing the good news with everyone. The universality of this commission reflects the universal claims of Jesus Christ to be one with God and to be the way, the truth, and the life.
What God has revealed about reality, truth, and ethics is authoritative for all Christians. What God has revealed about the ethics of homosexuality also is authoritative, so this revelation is crucial. If it is true, it is not just crucial for every Christian. It is crucial for every person, in light of who God is and the universal claims and commission of Jesus Christ. He is the redeemer of all who believe in Him and the judge of all who do not believe. The scope of God’s concern encompasses all men and women on earth.
Virtually all peoples have viewed at least some forms of homosexual behavior as out of the ordinary and more or less unsociable, even if they tolerated other forms. Some will strongly deny that this is true, so this volume will take care to substantiate this claim.
As far as I can determine, the Bible is unique in its condemnation of all homosexual behavior. The Bible makes no allowance for pederasty, prostitution (cultic or other), adult consensual male or female same-gender activity, or any other form of homosexual expression. Again, the reader will have to decide whether this claim is reliable in light of the following chapters.
If it is true, then we still must look for reasons why some societies accept some kinds of homosexual behavior in some social circumstances, for example, in certain forms of prostitution or cultic rituals. The polytheistic Greeks and Romans were relatively tolerant of homosexuality and even saw its model in the actions of the gods.
The Bible claims that the unique God (see Deut. 4:7) has revealed Himself in righteous laws (Deut. 4:8) and in the incarnate, living Christ. While other religions may contest this uniqueness, they cannot produce a resurrected God-man. Paul identified the Resurrection as the basis upon which to call all to universal worship of Christ and to exalt Him as the Judge of all (Acts 17:31).
One way by which God has revealed Himself is in the creation of all that exists, including people. Genesis 1–2 clearly sets forth the principle that male and female human beings stand at the apex of God’s creation, formed in His own image and likeness. In some respects we understand what God is like by understanding what people are like. We are theomorphisms, forms or images that proclaim God.
One of the chief traits proclaimed about humans in this first account of Creation is that they have sexuality or gender. According to Genesis 1:26–27, God made His image-bearers in the form of male and female. Both share the divine image. In chapter 2, the words give special attention to the making of Eve as distinct from the making of all the other creatures. She comes from Adam. Female animals do not come from their male counterparts. This fact implicitly speaks of complementarity, mutual dependence, and similarities of nature that reflect the divine image. It is not possible that male reflects the divine image apart from female. The sexual differences are especially prominent and complementary in the creation of man and woman.
Homosexuality must affirm that the male gender by itself, or the female gender by itself, is an adequate representation of the divine image. It claims that the sexual differences arising from Creation are not foundational and essential and can be bypassed or overlooked.
This sounds like rebellion against the Creator and His way. Homosexual behavior is rebellion that violates the created order. All other objections to homosexuality (such as its unsociability, corrupting impurity, unhealthfulness, nonproductivity, corrupting of public morals, violence against youth, and its greed) pale in comparison with the two most serious complaints. First, it fails to faithfully represent the divine image. Second, it is open rebellion against the order God has chosen, whereby one male and one female become one flesh within marriage. That one-flesh divine design for marriage is reflected in the couple’s physical relationship. In its belief system or worldview, homosexuality rejects the created order and designs its own contrary vision. Moreover, it involves repeated, personal acts of rebellion by those who engage in the homosexual lifestyle, however conscious the rebellion may be.
The Bible shows that pride is the essence of all sin. Pride defines the self in ways contrary to God’s definition. It claims to be something different from what God says it is. When Satan rebelled against God, he was motivated by pride (cf. Isa. 14:12–15; Ezek. 28:12–19) because he wanted to be as God (Isa. 14:14) rather than be merely an angel. When Satan tempted Eve and Adam, he promised them that they would be as God (Gen. 3:5), contrary to God’s defining them as creatures. Out of a desire to define themselves as God defines Himself, they ate the forbidden fruit and sinned against God.
Homosexuality is commonly linked with pride and arrogance in Jewish and Christian literature. Sometimes this literature explicitly identifies homosexuality as pride, and sometimes it asserts that pride is the sin of Sodom. Such a link with pride occurs in Scripture (Isa. 1:2–17; 3:8–10; Ezek. 16:49–50, 56f.; Zeph. 2:9; 2 Peter 2:8–10; Jude 7–8). It also appears in the intertestamental literature of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (Ecclus. 10:12, 13–18; 16:8; T. Levi 17:11; 2 Enoch 10:4–5a [rec. P, J, and A]; 3 Macc. 2:3–6; 4 Ezra 2:8–9; Letter of Aristeas, 152). It is so considered in rabbinical literature (Bab. Sanh., 109a–b), it is described by Flavius Josephus (Antiq. 1.194–95), and it is so linked in the early church fathers (1 Clem. 30.1). First Clement is especially informative:
Seeing then that we are the portion of one who is holy, let us do all the deeds of sanctification, fleeing from evil speaking, and abominable and impure embraces, drunkenness and youthful lusts, and abominable passion, detestable adultery, and abominable pride (bdelyktas epithymias … bdelykten hyperēphanian).
Far on the other end of the spectrum, Plato, in Phaedrus 232a, also links homosexuality to pride: “Consider that lovers [in context homosexual], believing that others would be as envious of them as they are of others, are likely to be excited by possession and in their pride to show everybody that they have not toiled in vain.”
The metaphor of being cast down to the earth, to hades, or to the depths also suggests the rebellious nature of homosexuality, which reproduces the pride of Satan (Isa. 14:12–15; Ezek. 28:17; pseudepigraphal 4 Ezra 2:8–9).
Why do Jews and Christians tend to connect the concepts of homosexuality and pride? The answer seems inescapable. The same evil design motivated Satan, Adam and Eve, and the Sodomites. It is rebellion against the purpose and pattern of God. It is a redefinition of what God’s design for sexual expression should be. Redefinition according to one’s own standard is the essence of pride.
Homosexuality as the demonstration of pride and arrogance means that same-gender activity violates the ethical norm of obedience, humility, and submission to God.
There is only one God and one form of human sexual behavior that constitutes an acceptable union before God, namely, the marriage of a man and a woman. Homosexuality as pride and arrogance redefines sexual union. A homosexual union is rebellion against the image of God and so against God Himself as the Definer of the image. The following pages will present evidence for this aspect of homosexuality sufficient, I believe, to convince most that homosexuality violates the ethical norm of obedience to God the Creator.
So what? some readers will ask. If one acknowledges that the Bible presents universal claims regarding God, then there is no escaping the universal significance of what the Bible reveals about homosexuality. The essence of the error of homosexuality is pride, and pride is always wrong, for everyone.
De Young, J. B. (2000). Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law (pp. 13–17). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
