What the Bible Says and doesn’t Say about Homosexuality

 I just joined a Facebook group called “Liberal Evangelicals.” Unsurprisingly, several postings wrote positively of same-sex marriage (SSM). I therefore asked:

• In view of the biblical testimony against homosexuality and the fact that the church has never affirmed homosexuality, what is the best Christian evidence in favor of SSM?

One responded:

• I reject both of your premises. There is no biblical testimony against homosexuality and the Church did in fact perform SS unions in some parts of western Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries. The stark opposition to "sodomy" only began in fervor in the middle of the 14th century, when the Sodom story started being interpreted as a denunciation of male homosexuality.

Did some early churches perform SS unions? I had my doubts. However, his other claims were clearly erroneous.

Denying that Sodom had been destroyed because of homosexuality, many advocates cite Ezekiel 16:49:

• Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

No mention of homosexuality! However, these advocates neglect to cite the next verse:

• They were haughty and did an abomination before me. (49:50)

“Abomination” usually refers to sexual sin. Jude 6-7 is more explicit about Sodom’s sin:

• And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

The respondent’s other claim - “there is no biblical testimony against homosexuality” - is directly contradicted by the evidence:

• Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. (Leviticus 18:22-24)

• If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (Leviticus 20:13-16)

• Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened… Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. (Romans 1:21-27)

• Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (Cor. 6:9-11)

Besides these verses, there are many others that speak against homosexuality. How then can this respondent and many others deny the biblical teachings against homosexuality? Even more seriously, how can “evangelicals” misrepresent what God has uttered in His Scriptures?

Some have argued that Jesus would have received adulterers and homosexuals. Indeed, but He would also have required them to repent of their sins (Luke 13:1-5; John 8:1-11).

Sadly, we often confuse love with endorsement of questionable behavior. However, James had warned us to be hesitant about our endorsement of cultural trends:

• You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? (James 4:4-5)

As the Apostles had confessed, it is better to obey God rather than man! Another “evangelical” answered:

• I would contend that the burden of evidence lies on those who argue that same-sex marriage, if consecrated by the church, is somehow offensive to God. 

Although he is right about the “burden of evidence,” I think that the evidence is there, and the burden now rests with such evangelicals.

A Letter to Frank Schaeffer about Jesus and the Bible

Your father, Francis Schaeffer, was a defender of the Christian faith, and I am therefore so glad to see that you also are a defender of Jesus!

• If Jesus is God as evangelicals and Roman Catholics claim he is, then the choice is clear. We have to read the book–including the New Testament–as he did, and Jesus didn’t like the “Bible” of his day.

Wow, you really threw me a curve ball there. I never dreamed that “Jesus didn’t like the ‘Bible’ of his day. I guess He must have had a different one. Didn’t he say:

• “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)

I guess Jesus must have been referring to a different “Law” and the “Prophets.” Whatever, these might have been, it seems that he must have really venerated them. Are you suggesting then that the Pharisees had a different Bible?

I am also puzzled by this statement:

• “Worship in the Spirit and in truth,” is not about a book, let alone “salvation” through correct ideas or tradition.

I started to wonder what Jesus meant by His teaching that we must “Worship in the Spirit and in truth?” So I went back to John 4 and found that Jesus had contrasted this requirement with the Samaritan worship:

• You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (John 4:22-23) 

I was surprised to find Jesus telling the Samaritan woman that she had to receive the revelation that had come to the Jews if she wanted to be saved – not very inclusive to me! I had thought that there were multiple ways to be saved, but Jesus keeps coming back to the Bible:

• “It is written [in Deuteronomy 8, right?]: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mat. 4:4)

It certainly doesn’t seem that Jesus hated the Bible. How am I misunderstanding him?

Your next statement really confuses me. Are you saying that the Torah is on the same plain as “church tradition?”

• Every time Jesus mentioned the equivalent of a church tradition, the Torah, he qualified it with something like this: “The scriptures say thus and so, but I say…” Jesus undermined the scriptures and religious tradition in favor of empathy.

You inspired me to go back and to read the Sermon on the Mount, but I couldn’t find where Jesus corrected Scripture with these words: ““The scriptures say thus and so, but I say…” Instead, I found Jesus saying:

• “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder.” (Mat. 5:21)

Hmm? Perhaps I read that wrong? Or perhaps I have a sub-standard translation. Please, be assured that I am convinced that you would never try to mislead anyone! You have always demonstrated such exemplary love and inclusiveness, that no one could ever accuse you of wrongly battering Evangelicals and Catholics. But I was surprised by your statement:

• In evangelical and Roman Catholic fundamentalist terms, Jesus was a rule-breaking humanist who wasn’t “saved.”

I thought that they did believe that Jesus was saved. I guess I just haven’t been around long enough. You, of all people, certainly understand the Evangelical mind. I’m so grateful that I have been able to learn from you. My own reason seems to serve me so poorly. (BTW, I really do enjoy your painting!)

Christian Love, Progressive Style

While Progressive “Christian” churches boast that they include all, Evangelicals – those who are Bible-centered – are consistently bashed. While they talk about their brotherhood with Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists, they have nothing but disdain for Evangelicals. Sometimes, this yuck-word is left unspoken, but the message is clearly and consistently an Evangelical head-hunting orgy. One Episcopal rector disguised his attack like this:

• Christian faith is not about submission to dogma [doctrine, teachings]… We walk by faith and not by doctrinal certainty.

This is an unmistakable portrait of Evangelicalism, which has always been Scripture and doctrine-centered. As such, we try to live as Jesus instructed:

• “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21)

Oddly, for someone who declared that the Christian faith is not about doctrine, the rector’s sermon was all about doctrine. He insisted that Jesus was “ultimate love” – a love that receives everyone without any qualifications regarding their beliefs or lifestyles (not like those pharisaical Evangelicals).

The Progressives have cast us into the role of the judgmental, narrow-minded Pharisees. They excluded people, especially the marginalized, just as those Evangelicals do. Meanwhile, the Progressives liken themselves to Jesus Himself who included everyone, or did He?

If Jesus is “ultimate love,” was He all-inclusive as the Progressives insist? Did He receive everyone without concern for their doctrine and lifestyle? Certainly not! He set the bar high for His followers:

• But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

They not only had to grab hold of His plow; they had to keep their hand on it:

• Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mat. 16:24-26)

Was Jesus all-inclusive? Was He against the use of all power and coercion? No! In fact, He spoke the first word on excommunication:

• “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.  But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector” [and separate from them]. (Mat. 18:15-17)

While Jesus did receive everyone who was willing to truly follow Him, there were also qualifications. They had to repent of their sins:

• And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2-5)

For Jesus, repentance wasn’t merely a quality-of-life issue. It was salvation itself, as He taught in His commission to His Apostles:

• Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47)

What then is love? Is it merely a matter of receiving everyone – (as long as they are not Evangelicals) - regardless of their sins? Instead, if we care, we will warn and point to the only Source of hope. Meanwhile, in the minds of the Progressive “Christians,” the Evangelical is a Pharisee, because, faithful to Scripture, he insists on repentance.

Also, in their zeal to demonstrate that they are truly the ones who love as Jesus did, the Progressives eliminate any doctrinal requirements. Doesn’t removing these artificial barriers between people prove that they love as Jesus did? It depends on what Jesus taught. Did He teach, “It doesn’t matter what your believe as long as you are following me.” Certainly not! He taught that His disciples had to abide in Him by abiding in His teachings:

• “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you… If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love… You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15:5-14)

Keeping Jesus’ commandments aren’t optional, and to keep them, we first need to believe and understand them. Nor is it optional what we think about Him. He warned the Pharisees:

• “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:24)

This again raises that contentious question, “What is love.” Is love a superficial “making nice,” or is love a matter of being devoted to the ultimate welfare of the other? And isn’t this welfare a matter of eternal salvation! Is it therefore pharisaical to point to salvation through Jesus alone? Certainly not!

At this point, you find that the Progressive “Christian” jumps ship. It is here that you will discover that what is most holy for the progressive is not Jesus’ teachings or Scripture. Instead, it is they! Instead of Scripture judging them, they are sitting in judgment over Scripture. They are the ultimate authority. Sometimes, they will admit that they pick-and-choose those verses that support their own worldview. However, Jesus would never approve of such a thing. Quoting Deuteronomy 8 against the Devil, He stated:

• Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mat. 4:4)

According to Jesus, we are not free to stand in judgment over the Word but must submit to “every word” as He did. It is therefore a gross charade, when the Progressive churches will read Scripture and then claim that this is “The Word of God.”

Progressive ministers also use Scripture in their sermons. Of course, they expect you to regard their selected verses as authoritative – as the final word and proof to settle any question. However, these hypocrites discard everything else in Scripture that they find unappealing. They choose to maintain a façade of Christian love as they conform their modernized religion to the values of the day. Meanwhile, they disparage those who take the Bible seriously, falsely claiming that doctrinal confidence has never been the focus of Christianity.

Is it unloving to call these deceivers, “hypocrites,” or is this something they need to hear? If Jesus is our model of “ultimate love,” then we have to observe how He talked to others:

• “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (Mat. 23:13-15)

We are all undeserving sinners. Without the Lord’s light, we’d all be hypocrites and worse. However, this is not the question. Instead, the question remains, “What is love?” Clearly, sometimes love requires shaking. Jesus loved the Pharisees, so He shook them so that some light would enter through the newly formed cracks.

Progressivism is a modern form of liberalism and skepticism – a gross perversion of the Christian faith. Shouldn’t we shake it until the ugliness of its hypocrisy is exposed!

The Liberal Church does not Understand Grace, nor can it!

While the liberal church talks much about grace, they know little about it. They meet at stately structures that point to a Biblical past. Within, are cultured, educated, well-mannered, respectable and highly refined people. But they seldom carry a Bible and even more seldom do they spontaneously share a verse from it. They “say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing,’” (Rev. 3:17), but they no longer believe much of the Gospel, the parts that are uncomfortable – the judgment and righteousness of God and the depravity of humanity.

In contrast, the believing church meets in store fronts, rented halls, and even in new, shiny buildings. Generally speaking, the people within are not refined and respectable. Nor are they highly educated or cultured. They often come limping, bringing within them scars from their broken past, but they come with their Bible and are excited about what they find in it. This is because they know that they need its Gospel message of peace, reconciliation and healing.

How do they know this?  Because God has revealed it to them! And why does the liberal church not know this and instead has exchanged the Gospel message for an updated message of universal salvation or one of, “There are many ways to salvation?” Because they have rejected God’s revelation! In rejecting the message of judgment and depravity, they have also rejected the message of grace. The great 18^th century American theologian, Jonathan Edwards, put it like this:

• The glory of divine grace appears chiefly in its being on the sinner when he is in a condition exceedingly miserable and necessitous. In order, therefore, that the sinner may be sensible [aware] of this glory, he must first be sensible of the greatness of his misery, and then of the greatness of divine mercy…Indeed, the soul is not capable of receiving a revelation or discovery of the redeeming grace of God in Christ, as redeeming grace, without being convinced of sin and misery. He must see his sin and misery before he can see the grace of God in redeeming him from that sin and misery. (From the sermon, God Makes Men Sensible of their Misery)

Edwards preached that we are unable to understand and appreciate grace until we see our need for it. Likewise, we have little esteem for the Savior, as long as we refuse to see that we are miserable sinners who require His mercy.

This is not merely a psychological principle; it is the will of God! He will not reveal himself to the self-satisfied:

• At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” (Matthew 11:25-26)

Why is our God pleased to reveal Himself only to the meek and lowly - the brokenhearted as the Psalms assert?

• The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 66:1-2; 57:15)

And why must we first know of the judgment of God (and our deserving it) before He will reveal to us His mercy? Edwards warned that we need first to have an appreciation of both judgment and mercy:

• If men were sensible of the love of God without a sense of those other attributes, they would be exposed to have improper and unworthy apprehensions of God…For this is the very end of Christ’s laying down his life and coming into the world, to render the glory of God’s authority, holiness, and justice, consistent with his grace in pardoning and justifying sinners.

Truth and beliefs are the foundation for any relationship. If I believe that my wife is trying to hurt me, this belief will influence how I feel and act towards her. Similarly, what we believe about God will determine the nature of our relationship. Therefore, it is essential that we understand God – His hatred of sin and love of righteousness combined with His willingness to endure the judgment that we deserved:

• God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)

Why is this knowledge – that we are sinners who deserve nothing from God other than condemnation – so essential? Without it, we would become arrogant and boast. This is why God chose to reveal Himself the broken people of this world (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

Before we are ready to see the glory of grace, we have to see our utter unworthiness. Before we can be raised and honored, we must first be humbled:

• But he [God] gives us more grace [to the humble]. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. (James 4:6)

·         Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time…God of all grace…after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. (1 Peter 5:6, 10)

Humility is the doorway to grace. Therefore, God will not graciously reveal Himself to the proud. Instead, according to Jesus, He must first humble them:

• “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

But how do we humble ourselves to receive this grace? We acknowledge the truth about ourselves – that the only thing that we deserve from God is judgment, and that it is only by His sheer mercy that we have anything good in our lives! Paul claimed that this was the purpose for the Law:

• Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

The Law was given to show us our true moral status and to humble us by making us “conscious of our sin.” Solomon acknowledged this truth as he dedicated the Temple:

• “When a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts, and spreading out their hands toward this temple— then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act.” (1 Kings 8:38-39)

Solomon acknowledged that it is “the afflictions of their own hearts” that will produce q humble awareness of our hopelessness and bring about true prayer. It is only in the context of brokenness that we learn to die to ourselves – to cease self-trust in favor of God-trust:

• “The Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut. 8:2-3)

The humbling reveals to us our failures and needs. Ultimately, it leads us to abandon our ways in favor of His. However, the humbling process does more than simply to reveal to us our needs and insufficiency in the face of trials. It also uncovers our moral corruption.

When Israel was deprived of their needs and desires, they not only had an angry bio-chemical reaction. They also rebelled against the God who had provided so graciously for them. The trial – the humbling experiences – brought to their awareness not only feelings, but a fully developed self-righteous program, complete with its self-justifications and vicious accusations against their Benefactor. It uncovered beliefs – “I will only follow You if I get what I want. You are my need-provider. If I don’t get what I want from You, I will hate You.”-  that were entirely contrary to blessed love-relationship with their Savior. These beliefs needed to be exposed and confronted. However, without the trials and humbling, this script would remain hidden and true loving relationship would be undermined!

If, instead, mercy and blessing is extended to the self-satisfied, this would only serve to harden and affirm them in their self-righteousness and entitlement mentality.

It is the humble who will see God (Matthew 5:3-8) and enjoy Him forever. This is the message we must continue to preach. Without the preaching of judgment and our deserving it, we will not be humbled, and our appreciation and adoration of our Savior will suffer – also discipleship! Paul therefore reminded Titus about the nature of true preaching:

• At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy…And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. (Titus 3:3-5, 8)

Lest we become proud, we need continual reminder of who we are and from where we have come. It is only in the context of humility that gratefulness will thrive, and with it, devotion to our Lord. The Lord will not throw His pearls before unrepentant swine (Mat. 7:6)!

However, we evangelicals are forgetting from where we have come and who we are. We rarely hear sermons on judgment, sin, and human depravity, and so we are losing our appreciation for grace. By neglect, we are becoming the liberal church. God help us!