Post by Guadalupe on Apr 10, 2015 0:28:20 GMT -5
Homosexuality: A Sinful Way of Life
by Harold S. Martin
Brethren Revival Fellowship Witness
We are living in the midst of a tremendous moral revolution. New value-systems are springing up everywhere. Most of our society is pleasure oriented. The mood is permissive and daring. There is an attitude of irreverence toward God and toward sacred things. There has been a very definite change from the standards accepted just a few decades ago.
Homosexuality is sexual activity between persons of the same sex. Both men and women may be homosexuals. Female homosexuals are sometimes called lesbians. Scientists estimate that four percent of the adult males in the United States feel sexually attracted to members of their own sex, and about half that percentage of adult women prefer their own sex. Homosexuality has been known throughout man’s history.
Today homosexuals are demanding that their lifestyle be accepted as valid. They are pressuring courts to grant them the right to adopt children. They are asking to become teachers in our nation’s public schools. Practicing homosexuals are seeking to become pastors in more and more churches. There are a few Biblical teachings about homosexuality that we should note.
1. HOMOSEXUALITY IS UNNATURAL
When God created human beings, He made them male and female. The Bible account of creation establishes human beings as persons who possess a specific sexual identity: “So God created man in his own image….male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). God did not create Man alone, neither did He create man/man or woman/woman. Man was created for another. That other is woman. Their relationship is ordered by God.
Jesus says as recorded in Matthew 19:4-5, “Have ye not read that he who made them at the beginning, made them male and female; and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife?” Jesus reaffirmed the Creator’s original intention for the man/woman relationship.
In Genesis 3 we find the goodness of God’s creation distorted by sin, and the divinely established pattern for male-female relationships was marred. Estrangement and alienation replaced God’s intention. Rebellion and pride brought strain between the sexes. Some of the results of the Fall include adultery (Genesis 26:10), rape (Genesis 34:2), prostitution (Genesis 38:15-18), and homosexuality (Genesis 19: 4-7). These are all deviations from God’s created order.
The Scriptures specifically declare that homosexuality is unnatural behavior. “For this cause God gave them up into vile affections; for even their women changed the natural use for that which is against nature; 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” (Romans 1:26-27). It is not normal to be attracted to a member of the same sex. It violates the basic sexual structure which God created. It is a perversion. It is against nature.
2. HOMOSEXUALITY IS SINFUL
The Bible classifies homosexual practice as sin. It is a violation of the will of God. A simple reading of Genesis 19 (about the two angels who paid a visit to Sodom and stayed in Lot’s home) indicates that sodomy is a great wickedness (Genesis 19:4-5). In the Book of Jude (verse 7), God points to Sodom’s homosexuality as an example of the kind of immorality that brings the vengeance of eternal fire.
In 1 Kings 5:11-12, God commends good King Asa as follows: “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. And he took away the sodomites our of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.” It is hardly conceivable that such an abomination as sodomy should find acceptance in our nation’s churches.
The Bible says that to lie with a person of the same sex is an abomination. In Leviticus 18:22, we read, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.” And while some Old Testament commands have been canceled in the new dispensation, never has anything that is called “an abomination” in the Old Testament been given God’s approval in the New Testament. The New Testament condemns all homosexual activity without qualification. In 1 Corinthians 6:9 we read, “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind ..shall inherit the kingdom of God.” The two Greek words translated “abusers of themselves with mankind” apply to any continuous homosexual activity, whether it is a convenanted permanent relationship or a promiscuously lustful relationship. Homosexuality is an insult against God.
3. HOMOSEXUALITY IS CURABLE
There is hope for the homosexual. The male homosexual and the lesbian can experience the forgiveness of God. They can have a changed life if they really want it!
Some of the Christians at Corinth had at one time been involved in homosexual activity, but they were delivered from it. The writer in 1 Corinthians 6:9 mentions homosexuality (along with other sins), and then says in verse 11. “And such were some of you, but you are washed. you are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” These people were no longer practicing homosexuals. Homosexuality is curable.
The Bible message offers hope to those who practice sodomy, but before one can be delivered – he must acknowledge his sin; he must honestly desire deliverance; he must want to do what is right. Nearly all studies show that homosexual behavior is learned behavior – and what has been learned, can (with God’s help) be unlearned. Every committed Christian does care deeply about the homosexual. He believes that the blood of Christ is sufficient to provide forgiveness and deliverance from this sin, as well as from other sins. I John 1:5-9 says, “God is light. . .and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin….If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We look with compassion toward homosexuals, and see their struggles, and their rejection, and their personal agony. It is not easy to lose a job, nor is it easy to be rejected by one’s own family. We remember too that there is a sense in which those of us who are not homosexual have tendencies and drives and inclinations that can be just as wicked as homosexual conduct. But aside from the unnaturalness of homosexual behavior, there is one additional basic difference: The homosexual in our day is saying, “My gayness is good. My sodomy is not sinful. God made me this way. God accepts my style of living as good. It is natural to me, and it’s time for you folks to accept me as I am, and to join me in saying that a homosexual style of living is acceptable. ” The rest of us are not saying that! We are not seeking to have anyone tell us that our sins are okay. We look at heterosexual immorality (fornication, adultery, prostitution, etc.) as calling down the wrath of God just as homosexual immorality does. God loves the practicing homosexual just like He loves each of us whose besetting sin may be pride, selfishness, impatience, gluttony, greed, or hatred. Christ died for all of us. Thus we invite the person whose besetting sin is homosexual practice to join the rest of us at the foot of the Cross in repentance, in order that we might know God’s forgiveness and His resurrection power to liberate from slavery to that sin.
The avowed, practicing, and unrepentant homosexual is engaged in a great wickedness, just as the practicing unrepentant adulterer or robber or idolater is engaging in great wickedness. All who by the grace of God will repent of their evil behavior, and turn to Jesus Christ, seeking God’s power for a new type of living – may be assured of God’s forgiveness and the Christian’s acceptance.
If you are one who has been caught up in the homosexual syndrome — won’t you acknowledge the practice as an abomination in the eyes of God, confess your sin, and come to Jesus in penitence and faith? May God help you to do it today.
by Harold S. Martin
Brethren Revival Fellowship Witness
We are living in the midst of a tremendous moral revolution. New value-systems are springing up everywhere. Most of our society is pleasure oriented. The mood is permissive and daring. There is an attitude of irreverence toward God and toward sacred things. There has been a very definite change from the standards accepted just a few decades ago.
Homosexuality is sexual activity between persons of the same sex. Both men and women may be homosexuals. Female homosexuals are sometimes called lesbians. Scientists estimate that four percent of the adult males in the United States feel sexually attracted to members of their own sex, and about half that percentage of adult women prefer their own sex. Homosexuality has been known throughout man’s history.
Today homosexuals are demanding that their lifestyle be accepted as valid. They are pressuring courts to grant them the right to adopt children. They are asking to become teachers in our nation’s public schools. Practicing homosexuals are seeking to become pastors in more and more churches. There are a few Biblical teachings about homosexuality that we should note.
1. HOMOSEXUALITY IS UNNATURAL
When God created human beings, He made them male and female. The Bible account of creation establishes human beings as persons who possess a specific sexual identity: “So God created man in his own image….male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). God did not create Man alone, neither did He create man/man or woman/woman. Man was created for another. That other is woman. Their relationship is ordered by God.
Jesus says as recorded in Matthew 19:4-5, “Have ye not read that he who made them at the beginning, made them male and female; and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife?” Jesus reaffirmed the Creator’s original intention for the man/woman relationship.
In Genesis 3 we find the goodness of God’s creation distorted by sin, and the divinely established pattern for male-female relationships was marred. Estrangement and alienation replaced God’s intention. Rebellion and pride brought strain between the sexes. Some of the results of the Fall include adultery (Genesis 26:10), rape (Genesis 34:2), prostitution (Genesis 38:15-18), and homosexuality (Genesis 19: 4-7). These are all deviations from God’s created order.
The Scriptures specifically declare that homosexuality is unnatural behavior. “For this cause God gave them up into vile affections; for even their women changed the natural use for that which is against nature; 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” (Romans 1:26-27). It is not normal to be attracted to a member of the same sex. It violates the basic sexual structure which God created. It is a perversion. It is against nature.
2. HOMOSEXUALITY IS SINFUL
The Bible classifies homosexual practice as sin. It is a violation of the will of God. A simple reading of Genesis 19 (about the two angels who paid a visit to Sodom and stayed in Lot’s home) indicates that sodomy is a great wickedness (Genesis 19:4-5). In the Book of Jude (verse 7), God points to Sodom’s homosexuality as an example of the kind of immorality that brings the vengeance of eternal fire.
In 1 Kings 5:11-12, God commends good King Asa as follows: “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. And he took away the sodomites our of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.” It is hardly conceivable that such an abomination as sodomy should find acceptance in our nation’s churches.
The Bible says that to lie with a person of the same sex is an abomination. In Leviticus 18:22, we read, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.” And while some Old Testament commands have been canceled in the new dispensation, never has anything that is called “an abomination” in the Old Testament been given God’s approval in the New Testament. The New Testament condemns all homosexual activity without qualification. In 1 Corinthians 6:9 we read, “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind ..shall inherit the kingdom of God.” The two Greek words translated “abusers of themselves with mankind” apply to any continuous homosexual activity, whether it is a convenanted permanent relationship or a promiscuously lustful relationship. Homosexuality is an insult against God.
3. HOMOSEXUALITY IS CURABLE
There is hope for the homosexual. The male homosexual and the lesbian can experience the forgiveness of God. They can have a changed life if they really want it!
Some of the Christians at Corinth had at one time been involved in homosexual activity, but they were delivered from it. The writer in 1 Corinthians 6:9 mentions homosexuality (along with other sins), and then says in verse 11. “And such were some of you, but you are washed. you are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” These people were no longer practicing homosexuals. Homosexuality is curable.
The Bible message offers hope to those who practice sodomy, but before one can be delivered – he must acknowledge his sin; he must honestly desire deliverance; he must want to do what is right. Nearly all studies show that homosexual behavior is learned behavior – and what has been learned, can (with God’s help) be unlearned. Every committed Christian does care deeply about the homosexual. He believes that the blood of Christ is sufficient to provide forgiveness and deliverance from this sin, as well as from other sins. I John 1:5-9 says, “God is light. . .and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin….If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We look with compassion toward homosexuals, and see their struggles, and their rejection, and their personal agony. It is not easy to lose a job, nor is it easy to be rejected by one’s own family. We remember too that there is a sense in which those of us who are not homosexual have tendencies and drives and inclinations that can be just as wicked as homosexual conduct. But aside from the unnaturalness of homosexual behavior, there is one additional basic difference: The homosexual in our day is saying, “My gayness is good. My sodomy is not sinful. God made me this way. God accepts my style of living as good. It is natural to me, and it’s time for you folks to accept me as I am, and to join me in saying that a homosexual style of living is acceptable. ” The rest of us are not saying that! We are not seeking to have anyone tell us that our sins are okay. We look at heterosexual immorality (fornication, adultery, prostitution, etc.) as calling down the wrath of God just as homosexual immorality does. God loves the practicing homosexual just like He loves each of us whose besetting sin may be pride, selfishness, impatience, gluttony, greed, or hatred. Christ died for all of us. Thus we invite the person whose besetting sin is homosexual practice to join the rest of us at the foot of the Cross in repentance, in order that we might know God’s forgiveness and His resurrection power to liberate from slavery to that sin.
The avowed, practicing, and unrepentant homosexual is engaged in a great wickedness, just as the practicing unrepentant adulterer or robber or idolater is engaging in great wickedness. All who by the grace of God will repent of their evil behavior, and turn to Jesus Christ, seeking God’s power for a new type of living – may be assured of God’s forgiveness and the Christian’s acceptance.
If you are one who has been caught up in the homosexual syndrome — won’t you acknowledge the practice as an abomination in the eyes of God, confess your sin, and come to Jesus in penitence and faith? May God help you to do it today.