Immorality: Adultery, Fornication and Homosexuality, Part 4

December, 2004

by: Jack Hughes

• Common Sins

The Apostle Paul said in II Tim. 3:1, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” He went on to explain many sins that will characterize the last days and concludes saying, “evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Today we are living in the last days and are seeing Paul’s prophecy come to pass. One of the many sins that is rapidly becoming more acceptable in the world is the sin of homosexuality. Fifty years ago, homosexuality was a rare abnormality. Those who practiced homosexual behavior tried to keep it a secret. Homosexuality was considered to be a gross sexual perversion and in most states was a criminal act. Even in 1995 twenty states still had laws forbidding homosexual behavior.

Today, however, homosexual sins are being marketed in every area of society as a normal, healthy, alternative life style. Some have tried to argue that it is not an act, it is an identity, part of a person’s being, a genetic quality like blue eyes or brown hair and to condemn someone for being a homosexual is like condemning someone because of the color of their skin.

The media is working very hard to make society used to the idea that homosexual behavior is right and normal, that it should be tolerated and accepted. There are movies and television sitcoms that feature and glorify homosexuality. Gay parades are sanctioned in almost every major city in the United States. Legislation which before condemned homosexuality as a crime has been reversed so as to punish those who call homosexuality a reprobate life style and a perversion of nature.

The State of California is leading the way, requiring “tolerance education” for students, so they will respect those who choose to practice homosexuality as an “alternate life style.” Recently, those in favor of homosexuality are fighting for legalizing same sex marriages.

Homosexuality Defined

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines a homosexual as: “relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex or relating to, or involving sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex.” God created sex to be enjoyed between a man and a woman in the context of marriage (Gen. 2:24). God’s plan for marriage is that the husband sacrifice to serve his wife and the wife sacrifice to serve her husband. Men and women are physically different and emotionally different when it comes to sex. It is God’s plan for both the husband and wife to take this into consideration. Yet homosexual behavior allows for selfish behavior as homosexuals do not have to “put up with” the uniqueness of the opposite sex. For men, this leads to hyperactive sexual activity.

In 1982 a study of fifty AIDS victims done by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta discovered that the median number of lifetime sexual partners for these men was 1,100, some claiming as many as twenty thousand sex partners of the same sex. Another study conducted by the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research showed that 15 percent of homosexual men reported having sexual relations with five hundred to one thousand partners, while more than 25 percent claimed more than a thousand partners!

Homosexual behavior is not only a perversion of God’s design for marriage, it is also a perversion of life long monogamy between a man and a woman. While this is not the place to go into detail about specific acts homosexuals engage in, suffice it to say, their behavior is immoral, perverted, and contrary to God’s will. Homosexuality is like abortion in that it is able to thrive when details are ignored. Abortion is just a word, but the details of how abortions are performed are grizzly and sickening. In the same way, being “gay” has a happy sound to it, but when one discovers the kinds of activities homosexuals engage in, it is perverted and sickening.

What the Bible Says about Homosexuality

The Bible condemns all forms of homosexual activity. In Lev. 18:22 and Lev. 20:13 homosexual behavior is described as a man who “lies with a male as one lies with a female.” God calls it a perversion and in the Old Testament era it necessitated the death penalty. In Deut. 23:18 the word “dog” is a reference to a male prostitute hired for homosexual acts (See also Rev. 22:15). God says such behavior is an abomination.

In the New Testament several terms are used to describe homosexual behavior. One compound word combines “male” and “bed” and is translated “homosexuals” in the New American Standard translation (I Cor. 6:9; I Tim. 1:10). The literal meaning of the Greek word is “to abuse or defile one’s self with mankind” and describes the act of sodomy, the sin which moved God to judge Sodom (Gen. 19:5). Another word which can refer to homosexuality is found in I Cor. 6:9 and is translated “effeminate” (NASB). A term that describes pederasts or boys who play the part of a female and engage in homosexual acts with men. More specifically, it refers to the passive partners in homosexual acts. In addition to the texts above, Rom. 1:26-27 describes homosexual sin as “women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own person the due penalty of their error.”

How Homosexuals Twist the Scriptures

After reading the Biblical texts that address homosexuality you might wonder how anyone could call themselves a Christian homosexual or why some mainline denominations now give approval to homosexual behavior. The Scriptures have not changed, so how, you might wonder, do they justify the sin of homosexuality in light of what the Scriptures say?

There are several approaches homosexuals use to explain why the Scriptures don’t mean what they say. First is to say that the reason Sodom and Gomorrah were judged is that the men of Sodom were not practicing hospitality. This is a desperate interpretation that disappears into vapor when one reads what Jude has to say about the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude, after explaining how God judged angels who did not keep their proper domain says in Jude 7, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” Here Jude describes the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as “indulging in gross immorality” and going after “strange flesh” or flesh of a different kind – the men of Sodom were homosexual and wanted to have homosexual relations with the angels.

A second way the Scriptures are twisted by homosexuals is by saying that the laws against homosexual activity in Lev. 18:22; 20:13 are only for the priests. It is argued that these texts appear in the holiness code for the priesthood (Lev. chs. 17–27) and therefore do not apply to those who are not priests.

The problem is that the holiness code also forbids other immoral acts such as incest, fornication, harlotry, adultery, and bestiality. You can quickly see the problem their argument creates. If homosexuality is acceptable because it is found in the holiness code that only applies to the priests then the other immoral acts mentioned only apply to the priests as well, which means incest, fornication, harlotry, adultery, and bestiality are acceptable, also.

A third way the Scriptures are twisted by those who argue that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality is by trying to argue that the Apostle Paul didn’t condemn all homosexual activity. He only condemned homosexual activity among those who were born to be heterosexual, for they would be contradicting their created nature. They argue that Paul assumed that some people would be born with a homosexual orientation and those people would be sinning if they had heterosexual relationships because they would be perverting the way God made them.

Of course the fallacy with this argument is that God doesn’t make anyone a homosexual. Homosexuality is not genetic, but a learned behavior, a sinful choice that people make. Granted, everyone is susceptible to some sins more than others, but a strong desire to commit a particular sin, doesn’t mean God made you to sin in that way. Some people like to lie, others like to steal, but this doesn’t mean God created them that way. It means they have a strong desire to sin in those areas but it does not exonerate their sinful behavior.

A fourth way the pro–homosexual advocates twist the Scriptures is by using the misogynist argument. The misogynist argument says that in biblical times women were treated cruelly and were oppressed. They say that men during that time felt it was important to show dominance over women in every area. They argue that the Apostle Paul was conforming to the cultural standard of the day so naturally he taught that heterosexual relationships were mandatory. Since we live in a different culture where women are not treated like cattle and oppressed, Paul’s teachings don’t apply.

The problem with this argument is that the Bible sets a very high standard for the respect and care of women and requires husbands to treat them as co–equals in salvation and equal in worth. There is no law, ancient or modern which honors women like the Bible. Husbands are commanded to love, cherish, nurture, honor, protect, provide for, love their wives as their own body, help their wives grow in the Lord and love their wives as Christ loved the church who gave himself up for her. Hardly a misogynist agenda, especially when you consider that the Apostle Paul, who was the most outspoken in condemning homosexuality, also was the most outspoken about how husbands are to love and honor their wives. Granted, men have sinned against God in every age by not loving and honoring their wives, but their wicked behavior towards their wives is not sanctioned in the Bible.

The reason homosexuals are so desperate to try and explain away the Bible’s universal condemnation of homosexual behavior is that men, in their selfish desire to satisfy their lusts, have always sought to justify their sin. God has placed within man an awareness that he exists, but men, wanting to sin with a clear conscience, either deny God, deny the Bible is the Word of God, or twist the Scriptures to conform to their own lusts. Yet, in doing this they open the door for every other sin.

If society is not going to base its moral and ethical laws on the Bible, then what standard is it going to choose? If the Bible isn’t the sole authority for morals and ethics, then what is the authority? Does each one get to do what is right in his own eyes? Or maybe the majority gets to decide what is right or wrong which means there is no right and wrong for the opinion of the majority is always in flux. When you reject the standard of God’s Word, which is the foundation of the law system in our country, you get moral and ethical chaos. Our government is rapidly rejecting all biblical morals and ethics. Because of this, the day will soon arrive when a person will claim they have a right to practice bestiality and get married to an animal. The government will have no grounds to reject their request without condemning homosexuality as well.

If the Lord tarries, we will enter an age of total moral chaos and sexual perversion, the likes of which toppled the ancient Roman Empire. Homosexuality will lead to polygamy and polygamy to bestiality and every other form of immoral and wicked behavior. In the next Calvary Review we will discuss how the Church is to live and respond to a morally disintegrating culture.