GAY TRUTH

A response to Brad Chilcott.  Homosexual sin - the Law and the Old Testament Biblical support for legislation respecting homosexuality is not without importance, even for those who disregard the authority of the Bible. The Old Testament was the most important force in shaping the ethics and legislation of Western Europe and especially the United States and Canada.2 The Old Testament law’s position on homosexuality. Yet, this legislation takes its foundational principles from an ethic that derives from religious truth. The ethical system of the Bible rests on a creation ethic, which affirms that God created humankind as male and female in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26–27).  Created humanity bears the divine image as a rational, moral, and spiritual being. Human life is sacred. Society from the beginning has used legislation to punish murder because it destroys something sacred. From the Flood onward, God has ordained capital punishment for murder to preserve th...

Narrow and specific Biblical references to homosexuality.  These include bdelygma and kyōn. The term bdelygma occurs only in the list in Revelation 21:8, where it is a participle (ebdelygmenois). It is a term found frequently in contexts where same-gender activity occurs.  Indeed, Leviticus 18:23 and 20:13 use the term to forbid sodomy explicitly as an “abomination,” and 20:13 commands that the death penalty be exacted on offenders. It is the only sexual vice that both of these chapters so identify as an “abomination.”  The word translates the Hebrew toʿeba. Anomia and anomēma translate toʿeba in Ezekiel 16:2, 49–50, 58, and Isaiah 1:13 uses bdelygma to compare Judah to Sodom . In the intertestamental literature, the verb form (“detested”) occurs in Ecclesiasticus 16:8, where the author identifies the people of Sodom as “detested for their pride ” (cf. 15:13; 17:26; 41:5, where this term may again refer to sodomy). Again, bdelygma is the term the author empl...

Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In addition to his comments about Sodom, Jesus spoke strongly about sexual ethics. He set forth monogamous, permanent, heterosexual marriage as the norm to be practiced.   He reinforced the inherent opposition of God to divorce by restricting it at least as narrowly as did Moses, if not more so (cf. Deut. 24:1–4; Matt. 5:31–32; 19:3–12).  In His citation of Genesis 2:24, He cites the narrower translation of the LXX, with its addition of the word two to emphasize that only two people, one man and one woman, can make the one-flesh of marriage.  Only then, in the union of man and woman, does marriage take place. This union gains greater significance from the fact that both male and female are necessary to reflect the divine image (Gen. 1:27; 5:1–2). Homosexuality inherently violates the standard of marriage and the divine image. Jesu...

The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah, a painting by John Martin (painter), died 1854, thus 100 years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Christ on Sodom Perhaps the most convincing implicit references to homosexual conduct and orientation occur where Christ mentions the city of Sodom and events surrounding its destruction.   Christ makes six references to Sodom, including parallel texts (Matt. 10:15; 11:23–24 [2 x]; Mark 6:11; Luke 10:12; 17:26–37). Jesus said more about Sodom than did any other New Testament teacher. The statements fall within three categories. Matthew 10:15 Jesus sends out His disciples to teach and preach and do miracles throughout the cities of Israel. They are to shake from their feet the dust of any house or city that rejects them or their words; those who reject will come under severe judgment (v. 14). The pattern for this judgment is the utterly devoured cities of Sodom and Gomorrah . This is a clear object lesson describing God ’s disapproval an...