Homosexuality in Biblical and Theological PerspectiveEven as evangelicals must reject the therapeutic construct, they must point to a biblical model. We must continue to bear faithful witness to the clear biblical injunctions concerning homosexual acts--that such acts are not only inherently sinful, but also an abomination before the Lord.
But the evangelical approach must be far more comprehensive, for the Bible is itself more comprehensive. Scripture does not address mere homosexual acts; it also provides a basis for understanding the implications of homosexuality for the family, society, and the church.
First, as Romans 1 makes absolutely clear, homosexuality is an act of unbelief. As Paul writes, the wrath of God is revealed against all those "who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (verse 18 NASB).
God has endowed all humanity with the knowledge of the Creator, and all are without excuse. As Paul continued:
For they exchanged the truth of God for
a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them
over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural
function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the 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 persons the due penalty of their error (Romans 1:25-27).
The broader context of Paul's rejection of homosexuality is clear: Homosexuality is rebellion against God's sovereign intention in creation, and a gross perversion of His good and perfect plan for created order. The logical progression in Romans 1 is undeniable. Immediately after his description of rebellion against God as Creator, Paul turns to an identification of homosexuality--among both men and women--as the first and most evident sign of society upon which God has turned his judgement.
Essential to understanding this reality in theological perspective is a recognition that homosexuality is an assault upon the integrity of creation and God's intention in creating human beings in two distinct and complementary genders. Here the confessing church runs counter to the spirit of the age. Even to raise the issue of gender is to offend those who wish to dispose of any gender distinctions as mere "socially constructed realities" and vestiges of patriarchal past.
But Scripture will not allow this attempt to deny the structures of creation. As Genesis 1:27 makes apparent, God intended from the beginning to create human beings in two genders--"male and female He created them" (NASB). Both man and woman were created in the image of God. They were distinct, and yet inseparably linked by God's design. The genders were different, and the distinction transcended mere physical differences. Even so, the man recognized in the woman "bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23 NASB).
The text does not stop with the mere creation of woman, however. Rather, God's creative intent is further revealed in the cleaving of the man to the woman ("his wife") and their new identity as "one flesh." This bond between man and woman was marriage. Immediately following the creation of man and woman come the instructive words: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:24-25 NASB). This biblical assertion, which no revisionist exegesis can deconstruct, clearly places marriage and sexual relations within God's creative act and design.
The revolt against this divinely established order is one of the most important developments of this century, and it looms as one of the defining issues of the cultural revolution. Evangelicals must lay bare this assault upon creation, and yet do so in a way that is tied inextricably to biblical foundations, and not to cultural assumptions, however comfortable they may seem to secular society.
Part Four Will Appear Tomorrow, Friday, June 25.
Click Here to Read Part One.
Click Here to Read Part Two.
Excerpted from The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics, Edited by Ed Hindson and Ergun Caner
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"For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the 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 persons the due penalty of their error (Romans 1:25-27)."
paul is describing the basis for all sin, to show that all need a savior.
romans1: they exchanged the truth of god's love for a lie(god is love) and worshipped and served powers and principalities(the created) and were given over to those things that served those powers and principalities..................shameful lust. and motivated by shameful lust abandoned( an attraction they lived with 24/7, their entire lives) that which was of the fruit of the spirit and brought peace for that which was not and did not.
"their women" homosexuals dont have women, not from their earliest sexual memory, but instead are attracted to the same sex 24/7, their entire lives. and those gay believers who marry their lives and marriages are full of the fruit of the spirit in the same way as those of heterosexauls.
"abandon" how can someone abandon something they never had. how can someone be accused of abandoning something that they were never attracted to, and never will be attracted to. how can anything be of christ that accuses sin because of bibical interpretation, without any violation of the love of the 2nd commandment
"shameful lusts"homosexuals dont no more bond out of shameful lust than heterosexuals.
where there is lust there is no relationship, because of the persons involved are merely there to be instruments to satiate the lust, which is in conrast to bonding out of mutual love respect, affection, devotion, and trust for a shared committed life together.
"natural" "god is spirit" the things of god are of spirit. the things that are natural are not about physicality but about spirit. the things that are natural, beings having been created thru the spirit of christ, is that which exudes and embraces the fruit of the spirit.......love, joy, peace.
homosexuals most definitely have relationships of devotion and commitment in additon to the sexual intimacy in the relationship, the same as with heterosexuals.
"homosexuality is an act of unbelief."because it violates mohler's interpretation of the law.
romans7:6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
galatians and romans says the entire law of the new covenant is summed up in the 2nd commandment (love neighbor). mohler cannot explain how being homosexual comes against the 2nd commandment.
This is relevant: Adam and Eve had anal sex. Who's smart enough to figure out what's wrong with this exegesis? Google "Adam and Eve"