SUBJECT: Homosexuality
QUESTION: Is God against Homosexuality? What does
the Bible have to say?
ANSWER:
Note: This
letter is in no way a condemnation of any human who has
chosen to practice homosexuality. The purpose of this
letter is to point out scriptures in the Holy Bible that
speak to the subject.
Let us look at the key verses against homosexuality:
Romans 1:24-32
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through
the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies
between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the Creator, who is
blessed for ever. Amen.
26 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:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men
working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves
that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do
those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy,
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but
have pleasure in them that do them.
Notice this commentary on verse 27:
Romans 1:27
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use 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.
And likewise the men - The
sin which is here specified is what was the shameful sin of
Sodom, and which from that has been called sodomy. It would
scarcely be credible that man had been guilty of a crime so
base and so degrading, unless there was ample and full
testimony to it. Perhaps there is no sin which so deeply
shows the depravity of man as this; none which would so much
induce one "to hang his head, and blush to think himself a
man." And yet the evidence that the apostle did not bring a
railing accusation against the pagan world; that he did not
advance a charge which was unfounded, is too painfully
clear. It has been indeed a matter of controversy whether
paederastry, or the love of boys, among the ancients was not
a pure and harmless love, but the evidence is against it.
The crime with which the apostle charges the Gentiles here
was by no means confined to the lower classes of the people.
It doubtless pervaded all classes, and we have distinct
specifications of its existence in a great number of cases.
Even Virgil speaks of the attachment of Corydon to Alexis,
without seeming to feel the necessity of a blush for it.
Maximus Tyrius (Diss. 10)
says that in the time of Socrates, this vice was common
among the Greeks; and is at pains to vindicate Socrates from
it as almost a solitary exception. Cicero (Tuscul.
Ques. iv. 34) says, that "Dicearchus had accused
Plato of it, and probably not unjustly." He also says (Tuscul.
Q. iv. 33), that the practice was common among
the Greeks, and that their poets and great men, and even
their learned men and philosophers, not only practiced, but
gloried in it. And he adds, that it was the custom, not of
particular cities only, but of Greece in general. (Tuscul.
Ques. v. 20.) Xenophon says, that "the unnatural
love of boys is so common, that in many places it is
established by the public laws.” He particularly alludes to
Sparta. (See Leland's
Advantage, etc. i. 56.) Plato says that the
Cretans practiced this crime, and justified themselves by
the example of Jupiter and Ganymede. (Book
of Laws, i.) And Aristotle says, that among the
Cretans there was a law encouraging that sort of unnatural
love. (Aristotle, Politic.
b. ii. chapter 10.) Plutarch says, that this was
practiced at Thebes, and at Elis. He further says, that
Solon, the great lawgiver of Athens, "was not proof against
beautiful boys, and had not courage to resist the force of
love." (Life of Solon.)
Diogenes Laertius says that this vice was practiced by the
Stoic Zeno. Among the Romans, to whom Paul was writing, this
vice was no less common. Cicero introduces, without any mark
of disapprobation, Cotta, a man of the first rank and
genius, freely and familiarly owning to other Romans of the
same quality, that this worse than beastly vice was
practiced by himself, and quoting the authority of ancient
philosophers in vindication of it. (De
Natura Deorum, b. i. chapter 28.) It appears from
what Seneca says (epis. 95)
that in his time it was practiced openly at Rome, and
without shame. He speaks of flocks and troops of boys,
distinguished by their colors and nations; and says that
great care was taken to train them up for this detestable
employment. Those who may wish to see a further account of
the morality in the pagan world may find it detailed in
Tholuck's "Nature and moral Influence of Heathenism," in the
Biblical Repository, vol. ii., and in Leland's Advantage and
Necessity of the Christian Revelation. There is not the
least evidence that this abominable vice was confined to
Greece and Rome. If so common there, if it had the sanction
even of their philosophers, it may be presumed that it was
practiced elsewhere, and that the sin against nature was a
common crime throughout the pagan world. Navaratte, in his
account of the empire of China (book
ii. chapter 6), says that it is extremely common
among the Chinese. And there is every reason to believe,
that both in the old world and the new, this abominable
crime is still practiced. If such was the state of the pagan
world, then surely the argument of the apostle is well
sustained, that there was need of some other plan of
salvation than was taught by the light of nature.
That which is unseemly -
That which is shameful, or disgraceful.
And receiving in themselves -
The meaning of this doubtless is, that the effect of such
base and unnatural passions was, to enfeeble the body, to
produce premature old age, disease, decay, and an early
death. That this is the effect of the indulgence of
licentious passions, is amply proved by the history of man.
The despots who practice polygamy, and keep harems in the
East, are commonly superannuated at forty years of age; and
it is well known, even in Christian countries, that the
effect of licentious indulgence is to break down and destroy
the constitution. How much more might this be expected to
follow the practice of the vice specified in the verse under
examination! God has marked the indulgence of licentious
passions with his frown. Since the time of the Romans and
the Greeks, as if there had not been sufficient restraints
before, he has originated a new disease, which is one of the
most loathsome and distressing which has ever afflicted man,
and which has swept off millions of victims. But the effect
on the body was not all. It tended to debase the mind; to
sink man below the level of the brute; to destroy the
sensibility; and to "sear the conscience as with a hot
iron." The last remnant of reason and conscience, it would
seem, must be extinguished it those who would indulge in
this unnatural and degrading vice.
See Suetonius' Life of Nere, 28.
~from Barnes' Notes
Here is another commentary on the same verse:
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:
Uncleanness always generates more uncleanness. Here is a
divine judgment in which God handed the Gentiles over to
disgraceful passions. Women are charged with homosexuality
in verse 26 and men in verse 27. Paul uses straightforward
language to condemn perversion of sex from its rightful
place in the marriage relationship. He regards the union of
the sexes in marriage as a natural relationship (AV,
natural use). But here women exchanged natural
sex relations for that which is contrary to nature. The men
did the same thing. Paul pictures the depravity and
degradation of men inflamed with sensual desire for each
other. This is followed by the note of judgment. In
themselves . . . that recompense . . . which was necessary.
Paul does not go into detail as to the exact nature of the
judgment-the psychological and physical consequences. But
the nature of the penalty is said to correspond to the
enormity of the sin. ~from
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary
Note: It is very
clear that God is against homosexuality. Following are a
number of other verses on the subject:
Leviticus 18:22
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is
abomination.
Leviticus 20:13
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.
Deuteronomy 23:17
There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a
sodomite of the sons of Israel.
Judges 19:22
Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men
of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round
about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the
house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came
into thine house, that we may know him.
1 Kings 15:12
And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed
all the idols that his fathers had made.
1 Kings 22:46
And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days
of his father Asa, he took out of the land.
2 Kings 23:7
And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by
the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the
grove.
1 Corinthians 6:9
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind,
Jude 7
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, 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.
Note: Again you
can see that homosexuality is an abomination to God. |