Monday, February 11, 2008

Top 20 Bible Questions #2: Homosexuality

Q. “What does the Bible teach about homosexuality? Is it a sin?”

A. Every social group tends to frown on deviation from the norm. According to Fuller Seminary writers, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was social blocking and had nothing directly to do with the so-called sin of sodomy.

Paul, in the first chapter of Romans says that men sleeping with men is an abomination. In 39 of 40 uses of the word sin, he uses hamartano, the word which means pain, fragmentation, struggle. He uses “missing the mark” in the only other use of the word sin.

It is important to understand that Paul starts a long argument in Romans, chapter one. By time he gets to chapter four, he asks the question: “What shall we say that Abraham has found working in man?”

By time he gets to chapter seven, he cries out in verse 15, “What I’m doing, I don’t understand; for that which I would, I don’t do, and that which I would not, that I do. If I do what I do not wish to do, and don’t do that which I would do, I find that I am not the one doing it, but the law of sin.” This is the law of pain and confusion we call sin.

Paul continues his argument by crying out in vs. 24: “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” His answer is simply: “I thank my God, through Jesus Christ."

He ends his argument with the first part of chapter 8. “There is therefore (You have to pay attention to the therefore, to see what it is there for.) no condemnation to those in Christ, for the law of freedom in Christ has set us free from the laws of sin and death. For what the LAW could not do, weak as it was in the flesh, the SPIRIT did for those in Christ."

When the LAMB was slain before the foundation of the world, that holy event took care of all sin. God can not see sin that’s covered. Certain kinds of pain (sins) are easier to focus on than others, but in the final analysis, any judging is of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We center in the Tree of Life and let God worry about so-called sin. It’s all covered by the Blood.

The answer to Question #2 is a strong no, the way I see it.

2 comments:

EDWIN H. PEART said...

So nice to see that someone really studies the Bible with regards to homosexuality and doesn't just follow the leader and human tradition. The Bible was misused in the past to support slavery, segregation, denying women the right to vote and genocide of Native Americans. Now it is being used in the same way by people who want to bash gays.It seems that some people only want to use the Bible as a club to pound people into submission instead of a lamp to light the pathway. I'm thankful to know people like you who have studied and found out what God really says about gays and lesbians. He has never condemned them in the first place and that's good news for sure.

EDWIN H. PEART said...

I know a wonderful Christian lesbian woman from California whose name is Darlene. You know she is a Christian because the love of God just flows from her. She tried the ex-gay route but found out it was only promising false hope and wasn't really changing anybody. Today she is living a very happy life with her partner Becky. I would never in a million years ever try to break up this happy relationship. I just don't feel comfortable around people who call themselves Christians but say that homosexuality is a sickness and/or a sin. Darlene and Becky are to me positive proof that it is neither and that you certainly can be gay and Christian at the same time.