The theology of sexuality begins in Genesis and is re-iterated by Jesus in Matthew. After that we go to Ephesians where the male-female distinctive continues and finally to Revelation.
Only then do we go to Leviticus, then Romans! Maybe after that we could drop in Sodom and Gomorrah.
What does the Bible say about homosexuality?
To me this is crystal clear with no room for error. The Bible forbids sexual activity outside of a marriage. A marriage can only be between a man and a woman, because God invented it (marriage) and so He gets to define it; which he did in Genesis 2:24:
"24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."
Because God took man out of the woman then only a union between a man and a woman can produce "one flesh" both literally (as in an actual baby) and spiritually (which is even more important as I will show you in a second).
And that is where we get the idea that homosexual sexual activity is wrong. Not from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (which despite what you might have heard has next to nothing to do with homosexuality).
1. Maleness and femaleness together represent the fullness of God in man.
Everything that God creates is supposed to give us an idea of who He is. This is especially true in the case of human beings.
When God said: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness" (Genesis 1:26), and then proceeds to create male and female, He is saying that maleness and femaleness mean something very special. They tell us something about his character together.
" So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."
(Genesis 1:27)
We will see why in a second.
2. Jesus stresses this point in the Gospels.
A lot of people say things like: "Jesus never said anything about homosexuality." But that's almost exactly like saying "My mother never told me not to date my sister." Of course she never did (few mothers or fathers ever do). What they do however, is teach you what is or is not appropriate sexually (eg. what age to slow down and what age to take it to another level, how to treat women with respect, and by example who you can and cannot think abou tin a sexual way--i.e. relatives). You have to put two and two together and figure out that your sister is off limits.
In the same way, Jesus does not say the word "homosexual" but he stresses marriage between a man and a woman in Matthew 19:
"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'[a] 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'[b]? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.""
3. Male and female appear to be important because they help show the relationship between God and his Bride (the church).
Sometimes God gives us hints as to why He does certain things. Other times we just have to take it on faith and obey. This is one time when we get a hint.
If you read Ephesians 5 you will begin to se ethat the order God sets up in Genesis he begins to use to describe his relationship with the church. And it gets even more so in the Book of Revelation.
I encourage you to read it all, but look at part of Ephesians 5:
" 22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."
You see that?
He uses what He created in Genesis (male-female marriage) to show us how He relates to us--his church.
4. Lastly, The Bible is consistently negative in tone about homosexual sexual behavior. Consistently.
That line speaks for itself, but go ahead and read Romans 1:26-27, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 and even in the story about Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 (which is not about homosexuality), homosexual acts are mentioned in a bad light.
So that's that.
Anyways, I will try to post two videos--one is a debate by Harry Knox from the HRC and Dr, Michael L. Brown. Dr. Brown really takes him to task for the un-scholarly assertions about Romans and Leviticus.
It used to be that people were modest about such rank speculation that re-wrote the plain text of the Bible. They would qualify heavily with terms like "could have been" and "might have referred to" and "possibly". Recently I have seen a new MO whereby much of this speculation is repeated as fact (without the previous qualifications)! They are smart. Nobody would change theology for a "maybe" or a "possibly". There is no evidence in history or the plain text to suggest that Paul was not talking about homosexuality as we know it (which by the way is nothing new).
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 06:56.
What are you doing in ROMANS?
What does the Bible say about homosexuality?
To me this is crystal clear with no room for error. The Bible forbids sexual activity outside of a marriage. A marriage can only be between a man and a woman, because God invented it (marriage) and so He gets to define it; which he did in Genesis 2:24:
"24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."
Because God took man out of the woman then only a union between a man and a woman can produce "one flesh" both literally (as in an actual baby) and spiritually (which is even more important as I will show you in a second).
And that is where we get the idea that homosexual sexual activity is wrong. Not from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (which despite what you might have heard has next to nothing to do with homosexuality).
1. Maleness and femaleness together represent the fullness of God in man.
Everything that God creates is supposed to give us an idea of who He is. This is especially true in the case of human beings.
When God said: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness" (Genesis 1:26), and then proceeds to create male and female, He is saying that maleness and femaleness mean something very special. They tell us something about his character together.
" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
(Genesis 1:27)
We will see why in a second.
2. Jesus stresses this point in the Gospels.
A lot of people say things like: "Jesus never said anything about homosexuality." But that's almost exactly like saying "My mother never told me not to date my sister." Of course she never did (few mothers or fathers ever do). What they do however, is teach you what is or is not appropriate sexually (eg. what age to slow down and what age to take it to another level, how to treat women with respect, and by example who you can and cannot think abou tin a sexual way--i.e. relatives). You have to put two and two together and figure out that your sister is off limits.
In the same way, Jesus does not say the word "homosexual" but he stresses marriage between a man and a woman in Matthew 19:
"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'[a] 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'[b]? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.""
3. Male and female appear to be important because they help show the relationship between God and his Bride (the church).
Sometimes God gives us hints as to why He does certain things. Other times we just have to take it on faith and obey. This is one time when we get a hint. If you read Ephesians 5 you will begin to se ethat the order God sets up in Genesis he begins to use to describe his relationship with the church. And it gets even more so in the Book of Revelation.
I encourage you to read it all, but look at part of Ephesians 5:
" 22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."
You see that? He uses what He created in Genesis (male-female marriage) to show us how He relates to us--his church.
4. Lastly, The Bible is consistently negative in tone about homosexual sexual behavior. Consistently.
That line speaks for itself, but go ahead and read Romans 1:26-27, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 and even in the story about Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 (which is not about homosexuality), homosexual acts are mentioned in a bad light.
So that's that.
Anyways, I will try to post two videos--one is a debate by Harry Knox from the HRC and Dr, Michael L. Brown. Dr. Brown really takes him to task for the un-scholarly assertions about Romans and Leviticus.
It used to be that people were modest about such rank speculation that re-wrote the plain text of the Bible. They would qualify heavily with terms like "could have been" and "might have referred to" and "possibly". Recently I have seen a new MO whereby much of this speculation is repeated as fact (without the previous qualifications)! They are smart. Nobody would change theology for a "maybe" or a "possibly". There is no evidence in history or the plain text to suggest that Paul was not talking about homosexuality as we know it (which by the way is nothing new).