The Bible and Homosexuality: If people can eat shellfish and pork now, then why can’t they be gay?
A recent quote from a non-believing, pro-gay organization leader was, “We need to learn to ignore the B.S. in the Bible about gay people just like we’ve learned to ignore the B.S. in the Bible about slavery, shellfish, virginity, masturbation, etc.”
The reasons for the dietary regulations and such in the Levitical Law can be very blurry to most people; many simply do not understand why God commanded abstinence from things like shellfish, pork, etc. God was not being insensible or needlessly dictatorial when putting these restrictions into place, but He was orchestrating a bigger plan than the people of Israel would realize at that time. By external means, God was separating His chosen people from the rest of the civilizations of the world. He was making them different, peculiar, wholly separate; and when the inhabitants of the earth would look at Israel, they would see that God’s people were different than them. This is the whole point of the specific commands regarding food and drink, and now that Jesus has come we are no longer held to these external prohibitions in the law because no longer does God separate His people by means of the flesh (externally), but He does so by the means of spiritual regeneration; by changing the heart. The Levitical Law was only a shadow of the things to come, things which are now being fulfilled because the Christ of God has come into the world and suffered the death for sinners, tearing down the wall of separation between man and God, freeing us from the enslavement of our sin. All the sacrifices, dietary regulations, social restrictions, etc., of the Law were pointing to Jesus Christ…. and He has come, therefore nullifying the Old Covenant of the Law and establishing the New Covenant of Grace by the shedding of His own blood.
Now, as you’ll notice, the forbidding of homosexuality (along with all other sexual immorality) appears in the New Testament as well as the in the Old Testament Law. People often are confused by this because they’ve been told that Jesus eliminated the Old Testament so we don’t have to adhere to it anymore. What they don’t understand is that although Jesus has in fact freed us from the ritualistic aspect of the Law and from the condemnation of the Law, He has also freed us to pursue the holiness of God through Him. The moral part of the law is different than the ritual/sacrificial part of the Law because it is a reflection of who God is and who He desires us to be.The prophets foretold the day that God would write His law and statutes on His people’s hearts (spiritual regeneration), and today is that day. The Holy Spirit comes into those who believe on Christ and convict them of their sin and leads them to repent from dead works and conforms them to the image of Christ. When God put the moral standards into place (through the O.T. Law) regarding sex, murder, lying, etc.; He was reflecting to His people His own character. God’s character never changes, so the God who prohibited sexual immorality in the Old Testament also forbids it today. The difference between that old age and the new age we live in today is that Jesus Christ has come and absorbed the wrath of God for anyone who will believe in Him. The wages of sin is death (and surely we deserve it), but if we believe on Jesus, He has paid that penalty for us on the Cross. When someone truly trusts in Jesus, they no longer will desire to pursue the sin that killed their Savior, but will rather desire to pursue the holiness and purity that God desires. Of course we all fall and mess up, but the grace of God is there to sustain us. Like I said, those in Christ are free from the condemnation of the Law… meaning that if we mess up, we will not be condemned because Jesus has paid in full the debt for that sin; but because our heart is changed, we will repent and continue to pursue God and forsake the sin that He hates.
Very well stated Matt, and I will say AMEN to that! The Lord bless you Matt.
Thank you, Cal!
Good post.. Dan Savage should be glad he wasn’t born a flamming clam in bondage, he’d really be screwed. I can’t say I agree totally with everything you said about Christ, redemption, and salvation, or about the old covenant but this is hardly the place for theological debate. But it was entertainment and thought provoking. Thank you.
David it really dosn’t matter what we believe, it’s what did God says
. It’s not theological because God is not theology he is truth and he is God. Read John 3:16 thru 36 and Romans 10 nine and ten.
We have a choice to either take the scriptures as the basis of our faith proven by prophetic accuracy over 4000 years unlike anything else in human history or go along with man’s teachings which seek to replace God’s word with their own speculations or traditions. Christ took our place on the cross and no religious ritual can add or complete it. We are simply taking by faith the work of Christ our means of salvation by repentance and surrendering ourselves to his Lordship in faith by the Holy Spirit who convicts us and does the work of regeneration in us. It is amazing and baffles the wisdom of man. Religious institutionalism sought to replace and destroy the teachings of the apostles and Christ for the last two thousand years but God’s word still prevails. Matt has spoken not from his speculations or a church leader’s man-made tradition but the proven scriptures which bring us to faith and salvation. The LBGT movement has sought to confuse people over the old and new covenants by either implying that Christ wanted us to stone gay people and forbid us to eat shellfish or imply that Christ condone immortality including homosexuality which gives us a license to live in sensuality. Both are deceptions spawned by demonic forces which seek to enslave people because we are not fight humans but demonic forces which seek to blind people to the reality of sin and eternity.
Please address the slavery argument Matt. Thx.
@ Don, It is true to say God is not theology. But our understanding of God (religion) is theology. Within Corpus Christianum we have three bodies: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant. All Christians fall somewhere in one of these three groups. The Protestant faith has around 34,000, sects/denominations all with their own creeds and/or believes (disciplines, deposit of faith). Then we have those Protestants who are the stay at home variety never belonging to a congregation they also have their creeds ect. There are literally thousands of ways a man/woman can interpret Holy Scripture. Some is obvious some is not….for instance a obvious Christian interpretation of Scripture is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that He is equal to God, therefore He is God–That one is easy for us. Other things in Holy Scripture is not so easy for us to understand….
Forgive me went on far long…but there are clear difference over theology even among Christians but yes you are correct there is only one God.
Grazie
Davide
@ Dan,
It is true to say God is not theology. But our understanding of God (religion) is theology. Within Corpus Christianum we have three bodies: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant.
All Christians fall somewhere in one of these three groups. The Protestant faith has around 34,000, sects/denominations all with their own creeds and/or believes (disciplines, deposit of faith).
Then we have those Protestants who are the stay at home variety never belonging to a congregation they also have their creeds ect. There are literally thousands of ways a man/woman can interpret Holy Scripture.
Some is obvious some is not….for instance a obvious Christian interpretation of Scripture is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that He is equal to God, therefore He is God–That one is easy for us. Other things in Holy Scripture is not so easy for us to understand….
Forgive me went on far long…but there are clear difference over theology even among Christians but yes you are correct there is only one God.
I posted the other comment without edit.
Grazie
Davide
While the dietary laws are generally considered no longer binding, the moral laws stated by Christ Himself regarding divorce *ARE* binding if you claim to believe the Bible for what it says.
What are they?
Matthew 5:32 “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. ”
I don’t see any allowance for physical abuse here, do you? It says what it says. If you divorce your spouse and remarry, you’re committing adultery. Perpetual and unrepentant adultery.
Yet, what Christian church is holding to this standard today? None. Not one. “By and large, the story of evangelical Christianity in the United States since the advent of legal no-fault divorce has been near total capitulation. ” – Al Mohler (http://www.albertmohler.com/2012/05/01/is-the-megachurch-the-new-liberalism/)
Total capitulation. What does that mean? Well, it means that conservative churches either don’t believe what the Bible says or they no longer enforce its standards at all when it comes to remarried heterosexual couples in their congregations.
Even the Catholic Church has bent over backwards to accommodate the needs of its heterosexual parishioners with the “annulment”. For a fee and a bit of pastoral counseling, you can pretend your previous marriage never existed at all, even if it was performed in and blessed by the Church. They did this for Newt Gingrich who has been divorced not once but twice with both instances involving marriages to women who were his *mistresses* during his previous marriages! And the Church BLESSED his third marriage! They were not forced to do so. They were not pressured by divorced activists. They CHOSE to.
Yet, you people become Biblical literalists when it comes to homosexuality. This will not do. Any person with a shred of integrity and honesty can see how double-minded and dishonest this all is.
(BTW, I have no wish to sound harsh towards those who are divorced and remarried. People fail sometimes and need to be given a chance to start over again even if the Bible does NOT allow for it. )
James the Catholic faith has never allowed divorce not one time. Annulment is not a divorce. 80 percent of the annulments come from Catholics in America. A annulment is not easy to come by and it is not a payoff. Can you keep the anti- Catholic voodoo to a minimum? I do not know why the Protestant churches allow divorce, it is a clear violation of Holy Scripture but this violation does not have anything to do with same-sex “marriage”. Apples and oranges. There is no dishonesty and there is no doubled mindededess. Same-sex “marriages” do not exists it is a heterosexual institution.
I know you disagree but that hardly matters. I guess take it up with God..he’s the one who makes the rules…
Davide, when the Church (of any denomination) blesses a marriage between a man and a woman who have previously been married, it most certainly means they are recognizing the legal and spiritual *validity* of the divorce, so I don’t know what you mean by “allow”.
There’s no “divorce ceremony”, of course, but in performing a remarriage ceremony, they they are essentially saying “You are no longer married to the other person and we acknowledge your separation from them. We will invoke God’s blessing upon your new relationship.”
I really hate bringing this up. I absolutely hate it. I have people close to me in the Catholic Church who are remarried, and I have no wish to throw stones. That’s not my agenda.
At the same time, I think we can agree that the Christian approach to divorce and remarriage is completely and totally inconsistent with the literal word of Scripture. Is this good? Honestly, sometimes it is. I just wish that same sort of empathy and compassion were extended to gays and lesbians within the church who are striving to live good lives given the hand they were dealt.
@James, Seriously? Come on I think you knew exactly what I meant regarding the Church & divorce
Nearly every person who acknowledges an aversion to homosexuality does so on the basis of what he or she believes the Bible has to say. In their mind, there is no doubt whatsoever about what the Bible says and what the Bible means. Their general argument goes something like this: Homosexuality is an abomination and the homosexual is a sinner. Homosexuality is condemned in both the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, if we are to be faithful to the clear teachings of Scripture we too must condemn homosexuality. Needless to say, this premise is being widely debated among evangelicals today and seriously challenged by biblical scholars, theologians and religious leaders everywhere.
It rarely occurs to any of us that our reading of Scripture is profoundly colored by our own cultural context and worldview. In light of the post above and since I happen to speak and write on this very topic, I thought you might find some of these posts of particular interest and relevance. I would particularly recommend the following:
“Genesis 19: What Were the Real Sins of Sodom?
“Leviticus 18: What Was the Abomination?”
“Romans 1: What Was Paul Ranting About?”
“Romans 2: Paul’s Bait and Switch”
“Genesis 1: Turning the Creation Story into an Anti-Gay Treatise”
“Why No One in the Biblical World Had a Word for Homosexuality”
“Exegesis: Not For the Faint in Heart”
(Links to these and more may be found by simply clicking the link below and then selecting the “Archives” page.)
-Alex Haiken
http://JewishChristianGay.wordpress.com
Wow Matt, I pay that The Almight keep endowing you with His wisdom to the right path. This makes eveything so clear!.cstay blessed
Matt, I liked your very Balanced reply to the original proposition. There is no law written in stone anymore…instead it’s written by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Men. He will lead us into all truth.
You have wisdom beyond your years, Matt. The Lord’s hand is heavy on your life for such a time as this. Keep it up, little brother.
well, if the word is one hundred percent true, then we need to get rid of the english and truely understand the real meaning of it, as penticoastals, baptists and all the rest are hell bound right along with those they claim are, ex. the lgbt community. there are worst sins then being effem. its true, and sins of the church and the way penticoastals blashpheme the holy spirit, oh well, hell bound, baptists, hell bound, catholics, hell bound, and the rest, HELL BOUND> love the traditions of men, over the word, then you are Hellbound, love holidays, and all that goes with them? you are then HELL bound, love the virgin mary and your rosary? Hellbound you are, you better be lead by the spirit of truth and forsake, die to yourself, if you want to inherit the kingdom of heaven, or else all of you are hellbound, especially you self rightous folks, and those who think you got it right, as you are so moral and so good, you will find your place in the lake of fire too. Did you marry in a church, white dress and perform all the pagan rituals? Hell bound, you are. got your little kiddies layin hands and talkingtongues? hell bound they are thanks to you. Are you evangelizing thinking your doing gods work while building up the church of satan? Your hell bound. God hates YOUR sin, more then the one you notice in others.