This book was Bahnsen's attempt to apply the Bible as the normative standard for social ethics. In other words apply the theonomic thesis to a real world situation. It is out of print but can be found here:
Bahnsen: Homosexuality: a Biblical View Used from Amazon.com
An article that is worth reading can also be found here:
"In the Shadow of Sodom: Does the Bible Really Say What We Thought About Homosexuality?"
And because the following article was not appearing correctly online here it is in its entirety. It is an adaptation of the book mentioned above.
http://www.antithesis.com/features/homosexuality.html
Homosexuality as Sin: A Biblical Study
Dr. Greg Bahnsen
The church of Jesus Christ is being called upon repeatedly, both from within and without, to reappraise its historic posture toward homosexuality. Once the church proclaimed the necessity of repenting of homosexuality as sinful and endorsed its prohibition by civil authorities. Now it is told that new approaches in biblical studies and newly discovered data in psychology and sociology should lead it to abandon such an impractical pastoral approach and to renounce such an unjust social policy. The overworked vocabulary of liberation and tolerance is pressed into service, as are charges of unfounded fear and prejudicial stereotyping. It is thought that the present enlightened and compassionate atmosphere of study should foster a healthy view of sex in which all civil restraints against homosexuality would be erased and the form of one's sexual gratification would be considered morally indifferent.
Such a prevailing public challenge demands a response from those charged with shepherding the flock of God, teaching the disciples of Christ, and refuting those who oppose His truth. In the spirit of the Reformers, they must labor so that God's truth is not obscured by the traditions of men. Against the drift of society and the delusions of the natural man the church must present a prophetic witness, calling men to repentance and teaching the nations to observe whatever the Lord has commanded. It is scandalous to suggest that one can enter the kingdom or promote its ends in society while rebelling against the standards of the King. For these reasons the present study has been prepared in the twofold conviction that the church must urge men by the mercies of God to be transformed through the renewing of their minds rather than being conformed to the world, I and that the state and its rulers must act as servants of God, avenging His displeasure against evildoers. | Romans 12:2; 13:4 |
the foundational question of scripture
Differing attitudes toward homosexuality within the professing Christian church can often be traced to conflicting views of Scripture. Many disputes over the morality of homosexuality turn on another question: will Scripture be the Christian's normative guide Or must it yield that position of authority over ethics to modern scholarship, personal experience, natural reason, new mystical insights, public opinion, or some other standard? The twentieth century has proved to be an age of increasing doctrinal permissiveness among professing Christian teachers; this trend emerged from the modernist abandonment of the absolute authority of God's revealed Word in the Old and New Testaments. Contrary to Scripture's own self-witness as God's inspired and infallible Word, many churchmen have attempted to synthesize Christian commitment with humanistic or secular perspectives in philosophy and the sciences. Throughout the theological spectrum the effect has been distortions of the Christian message that are evident to any thoughtful student.
Moreover, the alarming aftermath of replacing the God-centered theology of the Bible with the man-centered outlook of worldly wisdom is the amazing capacity of many churchmen to tolerate any and every deviation from the clearcut biblical standards of morality. By suppressing the truth in unrighteousness they can make concessions to homosexuality, granting it either sympathy or hearty approval. In Romans 1:18-32 Paul depicts this progression-from exchanging God's truth for a lie to approving unnatural sexual inversion-as the object of divine displeasure.
Paul's teaching has received startling confirmation in the enlightened atmosphere of modern theological study, where perversion of the truth about God has produced a corresponding perversion regarding man, God's image. In an idolatrous fashion man has become the focus and authority of unorthodox theology, with the result that he has been debased through homosexual self-love at the very point of the essential distinction between male and female. Departure from the Word of God to other "lords" over life is theological inversion, a denial of the distinction between the Creator and His creation. Theological inversion today advertises its disgraceful, ungodly character by fostering sexual inversion in man as God's image, denying the male/female distinction in creation.
The justification of this disordered sexual orientation in contemporary theological literature, grounded in a refusal to be directed by God's Word, demonstrates dramatically that the self-professed wisdom of many theologians' secular mindset is, in fact, foolishness with God. It is time to recognize the depths of sin to which the liberal and humanistic attitude toward Scripture is prone. When revealed theology is reduced to an autonomous study of man, when biblical authority is replaced by an unstable human wisdom, when behavior is directed by the descriptions of social science instead of the prescriptions of God's Word, then we have returned to the situation prevailing at the time of the Book of judges: every man will do what is right in his own eyes.
As the church takes a fresh look at the moral question of homosexuality, therefore, it must recognize that without God's clear, infallible Word and its pronouncements Christianity has nothing to contribute to the issue. Without an authoritative word from the Lord regarding homosexuality there is no distinctive Christian discipleship in reference to it, nor is there a Christian word of hope for the individual or society. If theologians are not heralds of the King's Word, proclaimers of divine revelation, then their pronouncements are just more opinions among many others, and they deserve no special hearing. Christian standards are defined by the revealed Word of God in Scripture. Men can accept God's prescriptive will for behavior or they can reject it, but they cannot tamper with it. If the biblical witness offends them, then it is God whom they must blame and reproach.
The church cannot condone what God condemns in Scripture without losing its own integrity and coming under His judgment. For the true disciple of Christ, moral boundaries are never drawn by man but only and always by God. Therefore, it should be noticed at the outset of this study that many cases arguing for tolerance of homosexuality are based on doctrinal premises that deviate from biblical teaching. Those who put forth such arguments cannot be seen as attempting to worship the living and true God as He directs and desires. Their antipathy to biblical revelation means that they will follow something less than the God of the Bible, who is the only Lord recognized by the believer.
There is a sense, therefore, in which recent requests for the church to review its attitude toward homosexuality are really a challenge to the church's very identity, purpose, and direction and a challenge to its view of the Word of God. Such calls for reappraisal require a defense of the authority of the Bible-a defense that is, and has been, readily available elsewhere. It is assumed here that the authority of the Bible, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, depends not on popular endorsement and human wisdom but completely upon its divine Author and His self-attesting identification of Scripture as the Word of God. While the philosophical argument and external evidences for the Bible's truth are objective and inescapable, our full persuasion of the divine authority of Scripture comes as the Holy Spirit bears witness by and with the self-attesting Word in our hearts. Proponents of homosexuality who are indifferent to the authority of God's Word and its teaching about this practice will obviously require such a basic defense of biblical authority.
Yet the defense of the faith at the foundational level of Scripture's authority is only preliminary, for much of the modern challenge to the church's condemnation of homosexuality is not grounded openly in a repudiation of the Bible's teaching. Professing Christian advocates of moral tolerance toward homosexuality have recently alleged that a correct reading of the biblical record will undermine the belief that it condemns all homosexual activity, independent of circumstances. They claim that there is no clear revelation of God's will that prohibits homosexuality as we understand that condition today. Moreover, they believe that scriptural ethics focus on personal considerations and situational factors, while condemning preoccupation with rigid legal stipulations.
Finally, even if it could be shown that God's law should form the Christian ethic and that homosexuality as such is to be condemned, it is still maintained that this is a private matter of personal morality-not something that the state should recognize and prohibit in society at large. That is, even if homosexuality is a sin, it should not be deemed a crime by the state, according to some Christian writers; for them sexual preference is a civil right, a matter indifferent to public morality in a pluralistic society. Consequently, the basic defense of biblical authority must be supplemented today with answers for recent challenges to the traditional interpretation and application of Scripture regarding sexual inversion. The remainder of this study is given over to this task.
How should the Christian understand and morally evaluate homosexuality? Some church teachers reject its acceptability and would apply ecclesiastical and civil sanctions against it; others would omit the latter. Some teachers reject the acceptability of homosexuality; however, they would not apply any discriminatory or punitive sanctions to it in either ecclesiastical or civil life. Others would take a mediating or qualified position, accepting homosexuality under some conditions. Still others would grant homosexuality full acceptance and view its practice as morally neutral. The particular attitude assumed by the disciple of Christ must be determined by the Word of God: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word." | John 14:23 |
The supreme judge by which all religious controversies are to be determined and all human opinions are to be examined can be no other than the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture. For that reason it is necessary to study particular passages of the Bible that speak of homosexuality. But first a word is required about the broad hermeneutical assumptions and procedures that will be involved in this study. Too often, interpreters employ excessive ingenuity and exegetical gymnastics to reconcile biblical teaching with what they want to believe. However, if we can reinterpret Scripture to endorse homosexuality, then we can make it endorse anything else anyone would like to do or believe. Consequently, a preliminary word about interpretation is appropriate.
By saving faith a Christian believes whatever is revealed in the Word of God to be true, and he responds to the biblical commands by yielding due obedience to them and by trembling at their threats. The believer approaches the Bible as fully authoritative-inerrant in its assertions, binding in its requirements. Accordingly, he views the biblical teaching as unified and consistent, without pitting one portion or author against another, but rather acknowledging "the consent of all the parts and entire
perfection thereof." In understanding individual texts, moreover, the Christian will take into account their local contexts and their specific literary genres. Furthermore, the individual text, interpreted in ' its local context, will also be read in the light of the Bible as a whole, preventing contradiction and keeping in focus the centrality of Christ and His redemptive economy.
It follows from these considerations that the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. The evidence of the biblical text itself must have priority in its interpretation over the results of other scholarly disciplines. Since our study of creation through the sciences must presuppose biblical truth, the results and explanations of disciplines dealing with general revelation must be weighed in terms of God's special revelation. This fact does not mean that cultural history should not be studied to understand the biblical writers better; such background considerations are, in fact, necessary to insure that our present cultural situation and modern perceptions of religion are not foisted upon the scriptural material, deforming its doctrine. Finally, in all theological controversies ultimate appeal must be made to the original languages of Scripture, being immediately inspired by God and providentially preserved in all ages. This is required so that doctrinal conclusions may not be misled by faulty translations but conformed to the original meaning of God's revealed Word.
the law as an expression of GOD's will
Before examining the biblical texts pertaining to homosexuality, it is necessary to discuss not only interpretation but also the general moral theology presented in God's Word. This need arises because of contemporary theology's hostility toward a normative approach to Christian ethics guided by unqualified divine commandments. Today ethicists shun any decision-making process which rests on an examination of God's law, maintaining that Scripture abhors such legalism and favors a situational or existential approach to morality.
Two things must be observed in response. First, the Bible certainly does lay stress on the goal of Christian ethics and the moral agent. The situations in which we attempt to live righteous lives, the consequences of our behavior, and the motivation and character of the righteous man are all of concern in the scriptural revelation of God's will for our lives.
But second, it must be remembered that such moral considerations are revealed by the Author of the law, and that they are presented along with divine commandments. The situational and personal factors in Christian ethics do not contradict absolute norms of morality set down in God's law. Indeed, when we look fully at our situation, we will bear in mind such factors as creation (man was made by God as morally responsible to His Word), the fall (natural conditions are not what they ought to be), redemption (sin no longer has dominion over the believer), and the ever-present special revelation of God (i.e., part of our situation is that revealed law which we either obey or disobey). When we consider that the goal of Christian living is to glorify God in all things and to seek first His kingdom, we realize OUT need for divine direction. When we consider the consequences of our actions, we cannot forget the final judgment, which will be according to the criteria of God's revealed Word. Therefore, a situational ethic demands that the Christian pay attention to God's law, which was given for man's good | Deut. 10:13 |. The same holds true for an existential ethic which is concerned with the character of the moral agent. God's law makes us new persons | Psalm 19:7-14 |; it is the pattern of ethical freedom | Psalm 119:4-5; James 2:12 | and the specific form of Christian love |John 14:15, 1 John 5:3 |. The internal work of the Spirit in the believer produces conformity to the law of God | Romans 8:4 |.
Therefore, it is not contrary to biblical ethics or Christian morality to look to Scripture for divine commandments that bind us, without qualification, to a particular kind of behavior. The normative perspective of God's law cannot be suppressed in considering the way God wants man to live. Much of modern Christian ethics fails to understand that our situation is structured by redemptive history and includes a clear directive from God. It fails to understand that love is not without content or form but is defined by God's law. It fails to understand that the law is the pattern of sanctification and life for the believer-that by it he can pursue God's glory and kingdom, achieve the good God intends for man, and walk freely, lovingly, and spiritually. The righteous man can declare, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" | Psalm 119:97; cf.1:2 |.
Of course "the wicked" walk in different counsels and scoff | Psalm 1:1 |. Biblical morality is an offense to the modern relativistic and hedonistic mentality. Those who view the homosexual as an innocent victim of harsh discrimination by the church and society deem God's revealed will as anachronistic and perverted. This response is ultimately unavoidable. Two opposing ethical systems will always condemn each other as a perversion. The mind set on the sinful nature of man is hostile to God and is unable to subject itself to His law;" yet he who delights in God's law burns with indignation toward the wicked who forsake it | Psalm 119:53 |. Divergent attitudes toward homosexuality are to be traced to different moral standards, different laws.
For the believer, the disciple of Christ, the servant of God, every biblically condemned action or attitude is a transgression of the righteous law of God and, as such, brings man under His wrath, resulting in spiritual, temporal, and eternal miseries. Any deviation from God's holy will, no matter how small, deserves damnation. Therefore, the law of God and its precise details must be regarded with due respect by the Christian, despite the detractions and ridicule of those who cannot bear it as a standard of behavior. One must relinquish the impossible desire to please all men and finally settle on his ultimate moral commitment. The choice of differing standards will unavoidably generate enmity, but the follower of Christ is willing to bear the opposition it entails. He knows that the wicked will not stand in the judgment, and that their way will perish | Psalm 1:4-6 |; thus he purposes to take God's law as his moral authority and final criterion of righteousness, whatever that law may turn out to require. "Let God be found true, though every man is a liar" |Romans 3:4; cf. Job 40:2; Rom 9:20 |.
Not only is God's law a necessary part of Christian ethics and an unquestionable standard of righteousness, it is a relevant guide for morality. Some writers propose that Christian morality needs to be updated-that a valid ethic cannot be established with respect to homosexuality today unless one takes into account modern data and scientific research and correlates the Christian attitude to them. Such a procedure indiscriminately accepts the "scientific" conclusions of modern psychology and sociology, despite their speculative presuppositions and faulty methods, and overlooks the fact that modern psychologists and sociologists are actually strongly divided in their theories and conclusions about homosexuality. More importantly, the attempt to generate a valid Christian ethic out of modern scientific research tends to commit the "naturalistic fallacy"-assuming that what is is what ought to be. What is the case often is not what ought to be the case, and for that reason a fallen perspective of the world cannot lead to binding and relevant standards of ethical obligation.
Christian ethics does not have its source in human research, evaluations, plans, or authority, but rather in the revealed Word of God. In His sight all things are open and manifest. His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent of the creature, and He is most holy in all His counsels, works, and commands. Because God is omniscient, because He has created man with his specific nature, because He sovereignly governs every event of history, God does not depend upon man's modern research to make His law applicable or relevant to man's every historical situation. Being the eternal creator and sustainer of the world and unchanging in His nature, God is not threatened with obsolescence; He and His law are relevant to every moment of finite man's existence.
Accordingly, the ancient Word of God will be the very standard of judgment on the final consummation day: "He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last-day" | John 12:48 |. The moral authority of Scripture is not historically and culturally limited | Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:24,25, Proverbs 14:34, Romans 2:14, 15, Matthew 28:18-20 |, and for this reason contemporary culture is to be evaluated in the light of Scripture-not vice versa. Therefore, while modern research can facilitate a Christian application of the biblical norms, it cannot be utilized to alter those norms themselves.
In the midst of the current debate over the morality of homosexuality, it also needs to be underscored that the necessary, unquestionable, and relevant law of God is absolute-there are no exceptions that go beyond the text of revealed Scripture. A common sentiment is that, since God's ideal cannot always be achieved in the present sinful world, concessions or exceptions must be made in line with man's circumstances and proclivities. If a man finds himself possessed of a homosexual passion, is there not some appropriate-albeit less than ideal-sense in which he can exercise it? Must he be frustrated with unfulfilled physical desires, or is there a possible exception that can be granted? The assumption underlying such questions is that man's imperfections and personal limitations call for a lowering of God's requirements; it is thought that secondary moral demands are suitable enough in Christian ethics when circumstances beyond an individual's control prevent him from full obedience to God's revealed will. This indicates a critical failure to understand the nature of God, whose eyes are too pure to approve evil and who cannot look on wickedness with favor | Hab 1:13 |.
God demands in both testaments that men be holy in all manner of behavior: "You shall be holy, for I am holy" | Leviticus 11:44ff.; 1 Peter 1:15ff. |. Christ settles for no lowering of this unqualified standard of holiness, no rationalizations, no exceptions to God's high demand: "You are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" | Matthew 5:48 |. Therefore, where the law prohibits or commands something, nonscriptural limitations cannot be read into it or excuses made for imperfect performance; the slightest departure from any detail of God's standards renders the offender guilty of the whole law | James 2:10 |.
The law of God is perfect | Psalm 19:7; 119:160; Proverbs 6:23; Romans 7:12-25 | and as such reflects the nature of God | Deut 32:4; Matthew 5:48 | . God alone is good | Mark 10:18 | and holy | Revelation 15:4 | but because the law expresses His moral character, it too is characterized as good | Micah 6:8; Romans 7:12, 16; 1 Tim 1:8 | and holy | Romans 7:12 |. Doing what is good and right in Jehovah's eyes is | Deut. 12:28 | observing all His commandments. All these commandments reflect the attributes of God: justice |Psalm 25:8-10| truth | Psalm 25:10; 119:142. 151; Rev 15:3 | faithfulness | Psalm 93:5; 111:7; 119:86 | purity | Psalm 119:140 |. If these attributes are to be applied to believers as well, it is only as the Holy Spirit fulfills the righteousness of the law in them | Romans 8:4 |. This law which bears God's character is revealed consistently throughout Scripture | see below | and includes the Mosaic commandments | Exodus 31:18; Nehemiah 9:13 |. Our response to this law in Scripture is considered our response to God Himself |John 12:48; cf. Matt. 5:17-19 |: the godly man delights in the Iaw | Psalm 1:1,2; 119:16, 47 | even as he delights in the Lord | Psalm 37:4 |.
| Romans 2:14,15; 5:3; Genesis 6:9,22; 7:1; 26:5; Deut. 8:2; Galatians 3:19; Psalm 119:97, 105, 106; Isaiah 8:16; Hosea 8:12; Malachi 4:4; Matthew 5:16-18; Romans 3:31; James 1:25; 2:8-11; 1 John 5:3 |
Because the law reflects the character of the immutable God | Malachi 3:6; James 1:17 | it too is unchangeable. The moral law of God forever binds all persons, believers or not, to obedience. God's commandments are established forever | Psalm 111:7; 119:152 | indeed, every one of His righteous ordinances is everlasting | Psalm 119:160 |. Consequently, nothing can be subtracted from God's law or ignored | Deut. 4:2; 12:32; cf. Rev. 22:18.19 |. Nor does Christ in the gospel dissolve in any way our responsibility to every word of God's law; rather, He strengthens that obligation. His advent, far from repealing any part of this perfect, good, holy, and unchangeable law, actually reinforces the immutability of God's commandments in full detail:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven | Matthew 5:17-19, ESV |.
Therefore, the law of God is perfect and binds everyone to full conformity and to entire obedience forever; what God forbids is never to be done, and what He commands is always our duty. God's law is the absolute standard of holiness and justice, and He cannot tolerate its neglect or violation at any point. The moral law (summarized in the Decalogue and further illustrated in the case laws) is the declaration of God's will to mankind. It directs and binds every one to perpetual obedience in the performance of all those duties that are owed to God and man. Thus God's law stands as a permanently binding norm for personal righteousness and social justice. It is established by faith rather than voided | Romans 3:31 |; the believer sees the law as a gracious provision | Psalm 119:29 | and adheres to it as a result of God's work of grace within him | Deut 30:6-8; Pslam 119:166, 174; Jeremiah 31:33, 34; Ezekiel 11:19,20; Romans 6:17-19; Titus 2:11-14 |. The law is not burdensome to him | 1 John 5:3 | but is kept in love | John 15:10 | and taught according to Christ's direction | Matthew 28:20 |.
Consequently, the Christian's attitude toward homosexuality must be determined by a faithful study of the infallible Word of God in Scripture, recognizing the law of God as providing authoritative norms for ethics. The present study will try to arrive at conclusions within this biblical framework.
The preceding discussion has laid the groundwork for a Christian appraisal of homosexuality in response to current challenges. Scripture is received as the self-attesting, fully inspired, infallible Word of God. It is to be interpreted as inerrant, authoritative, and consistent, with careful attention to context, cultural setting, original languages, and Scripture's interpretation of itself. The commandments of God revealed in Scripture are necessary to Christian morality, unquestionable in their requirement, relevant to every age, allowing no extrascriptural exceptions, and perpetually binding. In such a framework, an authentically Christian position regarding homosexuality can be derived. Those who resist the conclusions about homosexuality drawn in this study and who promote contrary attitudes often do so because they are working out of a completely different theological, hermeneutical, or ethical context. Consequently, many contemporary disagreements as to the morality and acceptability (ecclesiastical or civil) of homosexuality can be resolved only at this level. Recognizing this, we can examine now the scriptural materials for their assessment of homosexuality and our response to it. We must turn to the Bible so as to think God's thoughts after Him on this subject.
the creation account
When God created the world, He established a fundamental distinction within the human race, reflected in the human body:
male and female created He them.
| Genesis 1:27; cf. 5:2 |
In the creation order upon which God pronounced His benediction | Genesis 1:31|, there were but two sexes; the human body was deliberately shaped male (zakar) and female (neqevah) — the Hebrew words referring specifically to biological, sexual distinction. This natural difference defines and underlies the polarities of man and woman: such a distinction is not an arbitrary accident of evolution (as though survival of the fittest preserved only species able to Procreate by couples), nor a mere cultural convention having the force of long-standing tradition. The distinction enunciated in Genesis is more than incidental historical detail. It is a declaration of the proper creation order, cited with authoritative approval and moral significance by Christ | Matthew 19:4 |. It was God's ordained design for sexual relations to be in the form of male-female union, man and wife becoming "one flesh" | Genesis 2:24 |, and God created the distinction between the sexes to that end.
This creation of sexual differentiation by God from the beginning established heterosexuality as the normative direction for the sexual impulse and act. God the Creator gives created things their essential identity and function and defines man's proper relationships. Man's sexual function has been defined by God as male-female behavior. This fact refutes the claims of homosexual apologists who say that all human beings have the right to self definition. Such an existentialist rationale (existence preceding freely chosen essence) reflects an autonomous desire to replace God's intended distinctions and created designs for man with the relativistic will of the creature, who would be worshiped as his own creator.
The opening chapters of the Bible present us with God's original norm that sexual activity was to be within the context of marriage, and they present marriage as exclusively heterosexual in nature. This is true totally apart from any thought that sex and marriage serve solely a procreative function. Man needed a companion and suitable helper | Genesis 2:18 |, and in response God fashioned a woman from the man; there was unity and distinction. She was called "woman" (isshah) precisely because she was taken out of "man" (ish) | Genesis 2:23 |; there was common humanity with sexual differentiation. These two creatures were made for each other; their union and interdependence were grounded in the natural order — that is, in their God-given identities and functions.
Marriage, the ordained sphere of sexual relations, is accordingly described as a man and woman "cleaving" to each other and becoming intimately one flesh | Genesis 2:24 |. This creation ordinance, with its natural differentiation between male and female, is continually reaffirmed by the interpretations of the creation account in the New Testament | Mark 10:6-8; 1 Cor 6:16; Eph 5:31 |. Thus Paul maintains that the heterosexual drive is the natural God-given orientation of male and female | Romans 1:26, 27 |. Its proper culmination in external expression is reached in marriage, where husband and wife have authority over each other's bodies | 1 Cor 7:2-5 |. Only when sexual impulses are expressed in that specific fashion is the bed undefiled | Hebrews 13:4 |.
Because man's sexual identity is defined by God, because his orientation is ordained by God, and because his sexual activity is circumscribed within a heterosexual marriage context, homosexuality cannot be viewed merely as a variant sexual preference or accidental variation within creation (akin to lefthandedness). It is not a third natural sex or alternative sexual orientation in God's diverse world. Instead it represents a choice, in some sense, to set one's desires and satisfy one's physical drives in a way contrary to God's appointment and creation. There is no natural homosexuality, for homosexuality is precisely a perversion of nature (understood as God's design for human relations). Homosexuals are made, not born; their disorder is developed contrary to their God-given identity, learned in opposition to the created order, pursued in defiance of the marriage ordinance.
Therefore, where defenders of homosexuality accuse its opponents of secret fears of their own homosexual feelings, of projecting their inability to accept their own desires, they are just rationalizing. In the first place, such a claim rests on the allegation that all adults experience homosexual feelings, which in turn must be defended against counter-evidence by claiming that these feelings are often relegated to an "unconscious level." This way of arguing imposes a contrived theory on the data, a theory which dies the death of a thousand question-begging qualifications.
Ironically, psychological projection may indeed enter the picture here. But given the creation account in Scripture, the projection is that of the homosexual, who projects on the heterosexual his own inability to accept his homosexuality as natural or normal. He cannot genuinely accept his condition, for it defies what God made him to be. The creation account in God's Word undermines the homosexual's defense. Homosexuality, in light of creation, is a severely disordered condition.
Accordingly we conclude that homosexuality cannot be assimilated to the divine order of creation, but belongs to the realm of man's fall into sin. God's will for man is universally heterosexual with respect to sexual expression and activity. In principle, heterosexual marriage is approved within the creation order for man; sins pertaining to heterosexual activity are not sinful simply in virtue of the heterosexual nature of that activity. On the other hand, homosexuality is in principle disapproved by God, for it is contrary to the creation ordinance of marriage; such activity is sinful simply in virtue of its homosexual nature. In the case of heterosexuality, redemption renews and perfects the sexual relations ordained at creation; heterosexual activity-which is indisputably affected by the fall-is sanctified through the redemptive work of the Savior. However, in the case of homosexuality, redemption aims to bring the pursuit of this disorder to a stop, replacing it with the original creation ideal of heterosexual monogamy. Homosexuality is thus contrary to the orders of creation and redemption (re-creation); it is a perverted consequence of man's fall.
the story of sodom
The previous judgment is given strong ethical force by the account of Sodom's destruction in Genesis 19. The men of Sodom demanded that two guests of Lot be brought out that the Sodomites might "know" them | Genesis 19:5; Hebrew verb yadha |. The final outcome was that the Sodomites were smitten with blindness and the city divinely destroyed by fire and brimstone. Later biblical references indicate further sins of Sodom which displeased the Lord | see below | — even as a syndrome of unrighteousness is associated with homosexuality in Paul's mind | Romans 1:29-31 |. Although a general wickedness characterized Sodom | Genesis 18:20 |, the fact cannot be suppressed that the Sodomites' desire to "know" Lot's guests is the manifest sin set forth in Genesis 19 and the specific confirmation that the city was worthy of devastation | Genesis 19:13; cf.18:21 |. This was the mark of their extreme degradation and rebellion against God.
Ezekiel 16:49, 50 (which includes the mention of "abomination," cf. Leviticus 18:22); it is worth noting however that most references are apparently not attributing particular sins to historic Sodom but simply holding up the city as "an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter," as 2 Peter 2:6 says.
What was this sin? Some have suggested that yadha is not the normal word used for homosexual coitus (shakhabh) and should be taken in its ordinary sense of knowing something, thus meaning here "to get acquainted with." The theory is this: as a resident alien in Sodom, Lot was responsible for introducing his guests to the townsmen and letting the established citizens examine their credentials; for that reason the Sodomites asked to "know" Lot's visitors. They wished to get acquainted with them. Since in the Hebrew mind a stranger had a right to hospitable reception | E.g., Genesis 18:1-5; Hebrews 13:2 |, the sin of Sodom would hereby be interpreted as inhospitality to the visitors | cf. Luke 10:10-13, where Jesus linked rejection of His messengers with Sodom's judgment. | For such a breach of love and social courtesy the Lord reduced the city to ash.
This theory will not withstand serious scrutiny. In the first place, Lot was not merely an alien resident in Sodom, but a prominent social figure "sitting in the gate" |Gen 19:1 |. He knew well enough the moral character of the city, so much so that he became alarmed at the prospect of these visitors spending the night in a public place and strongly urged them to accept his invitation of accommodations in his home | Gen. 19:2,3 |. When the citizens later came and asked to "know" his guests, Lot did not see this as simply an accepted civil routine whereby visitors have their credentials inspected; he defensively shut the door behind him and characterized the requested "knowing" as a great wickedness | Gen. 19:6,7 |. It calls for a strange mentality to see (1) how a simple desire of the townsmen to get acquainted would be a breach of hospitality, (2) how it could be deemed seriously wicked (especially in light of the city customs, which Lot certainly understood), and (3) why it would be so vile as to warrant dramatic divine punishment.
Moreover, on this interpretation what would explain Lot's offer to substitute his daughters? | Gen. 19:8 | The citizens were already acquainted with them; their appearance would have done nothing to prevent the breach of hospitality to Lot's guests. The reply to this objection is that Lot's offer of his daughters was a tempting sexual bribe, intended to appease the crowd and change the subject (away from town protocol regarding visitors). This is psychologically incredible. Why would a father go so far as to propose the violation of his daughters in response to a mere impolite request? Moreover, such a reply requires that we interpret Lot's offer to bring out his daughters "who have not known man" as a sexual bribe, taking the verb yadha to refer to Coitus | As it sometimes does in the Old Testament, e.g., Gen. 4:1 |. In that case the same translation should be favored in the immediate context at verse 5 as well; the Sodomites were requesting not mere social acquaintance but sexual relations with Lot's guests — the conclusion this interpretation sought to avoid.
As a final resort, one defender of the reinterpretation of Genesis 19 has suggested that comparison with a similar incident in judges 19 warrants us to see the intention of the Sodomites as in fact murderous | Judges 20:4-6 |; this accounts for the wickedness perceived by Lot, his extreme preventative offer, and the Lord's wrath at such inhospitality. However, this view suppresses the obvious sexual character of the event in Judges 19 and illegitimately transposes the narrower interpretation onto Genesis 19. It either exceeds acceptable translations of yadha in verse 5, or requires one to read between the lines of the scriptural account. The conclusions of such an arbitrary procedure commend themselves only to those already predisposed to avoid the obvious and natural meaning of the text.
The men of Sodom desired to have sexual relations with Lot's visitors, to "know" them. Lot rightly perceived their homosexual designs as wicked and made his own (unrighteous but contextually appropriate) counteroffer to let these men do as they wished with his daughters, who had not "known" men (engaged in sexual relations). In the similar story of judges 19:16ff., the townsmen of Gibeah surrounded the house of a host, demanding that his male guest be brought out so that they might "know" him. Again the request was deemed wicked, and a counterproposal was made that the guest's concubine be accepted in the place of their homosexual demands; as a result she was raped until morning and found dead. In both stories it is clear that the townsmen were interested in homosexual relations, not mere social acquaintance. In the case of Sodom there is no textual reason to view the intentions of the townsmen specifically as that of homosexual rape. We have no evidence that they anticipated resistance from Lot's guests and were seeking sexual assault.
We cannot avoid the obvious conclusion that God devastated the cities of the plain with a catastrophe because of the homosexuality of the Sodomites. It is pure, ungrounded speculation to hold that they were punished for an idolatrous fertility cult of which homosexuality was a part, or for an attempted transgression of the bounds between men and angels; the text has no cultic indications, nor does it even hint that the Sodomites recognized Lot's guests as supernatural beings.
Sodom was utterly destroyed because it was a city full of
homosexuals | "Young and old, from every end," Gen. 19:4 | who day after day practiced their impious, sensual debauchery | 2 Peter 2:6-8 |. Unlike many Christians in this secular age, Lot was continually shocked and repulsed ("vexed, tormented") by the lawless deeds of the Sodomites. The use of the word "lawless" (anomos) in 2 Peter 2:8 indicates that the Sodomites violated God's command. Even though they were not the elect theocratic people of God, they were responsible to the content of the case law in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. The law deep in their heart | Romans 2:14, 15 | informed them that those who transgress God's ordinances and practice such things are "worthy of death" | Romans 1:32 |.
God's inspired Word interprets the Sodom story for us, leaving no doubt that Sodom was devastated for violating God's creation order. In Jude 7 it is precisely the unnaturalness of the vice practiced at Sodom that is stressed as the cause of divine wrath. The Sodomites are there described as "committing fornication and going after strange flesh." The Greek form, ekporneuein, is intensive, denoting extravagant lust. The participle, apelthousai, adds further intensification and brings out the sense of utter abandonment to impurity. The object of this extravagant, abandoned fornication is said to be sarkos heteras, "different flesh." It was unnatural sexual intercourse, a departure from the laws of nature (God's ordained pattern for sexual relations), that placed Sodom under God's vengeance.
GOD's law
Both the sexual differentiation and marriage ordinance of the creation order and the exceptional destruction of Sodom for its homosexuality in the patriarchal period teach the moral prohibition of homosexuality. God condemns homosexuality as unnatural, a severe disorder against creation, and so vile as to warrant death. Creation and history, seen through the spectacles of God's inspired Word, teach us as much. A direct and specific formulation of God's prescriptive will for human behavior is found in the revelation of His law during the Mosaic period; this sharply defines the moral norms implicit in creation and history.
In the law we learn of the Lord's strong hatred of homosexuality as an abomination. The seventh commandment ("Thou shalt not commit adultery") protects sexual chastity and the integrity of the family. It is elaborated and illustrated in various case laws. Under one commandment in the Decalogue we are to understand that all sins or duties of the same kind are forbidden or commanded, together with all the causes, means, occasions, and provocations thereto. The general moral equity of these judicial laws is that of the original, foundational requirement of the Ten Commandments; they cannot be dismissed as lacking validity today | Cf. Matt. 5:17-48; 1 Cor. 9:8-10; 2 Cor. 6:14; 1 Tim. 5:18; Mark 10:19 |. Therefore, one of the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment is sodomy and all unnatural lusts:
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman;
it is an abomination.
| Leviticus 18:22 |
If a man lies with a male as with a woman,
both of them have committed an abomination;
they shall be put to death,
heir bloodguiltiness is upon them.
| Leviticus 20:13 |
God's verdict on homosexuality is inescapably clear. His law is a precise interpretation of the sexual order of creation for fallen man, rendering again His intention and direction for sexual relations. When members of the same sex (homo-sexual) practice intercourse with each other (expressed by the idiom "to lie with," shakareth), they violate God's basic creation order in a vile or abominable fashion. Throughout Leviticus we see God's absolute standards for purity; in the sexual realm one may not profanely use the creation of God, "uncovering the nakedness" of man, woman, or beast indiscriminately | Cf. Leviticus 18:20 |. Sexual relations must be conducted within God-given boundaries.
What was revealed in the creation account and the history of Sodom has been confirmed in statutory form. The Lord will not tolerate homosexuality. However, it is not surprising that those who suppress the implications of sexual differentiation at creation and who reinterpret the sin of Sodom have also attempted to mitigate the condemnation of God's law regarding homosexuality.
Some attempts are hardly worth refuting. We are told that love is the only issue in any sexual relationship, and therefore it would be submitting to a double standard of morality for the Christian to condone heterosexual love-making and condemn homosexual lovemaking God surely would not expect the manner of attaining sexual gratification to be made important, setting down a standard that commends one sexual preference while condemning another. Such a rationale not only ignores the specific revelation of God in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, where it is clear that God does indeed regard the specific manner of one's sexual gratification to be morally important, but also it easily can be reduced to absurdity (e.g., "surely God would not have a double standard regarding the attainment of money, distinguishing between work and theft").
Others have argued that the prohibition of homosexuality is rooted in the arbitrariness of the Jewish people regarding sexual matters, and that there is no reason for it in terms of social consequences (i.e., it does not harm society or violate the rights of others). Such thinking contradicts the divine authorship of the law | Cf. Leviticus 18:1-5 |. If, contrary to the views of Jesus and Paul | Cf. Matt. 22:39, 40; John 10:35; 2 Tim. 3:16,17 |,the moral code of Leviticus 18-20 is not received as inspired of God, then it is superfluous to debate its binding character. But if it is deemed to be divine in origin, then it is arbitrary on the part of the critic to renounce the sections unfavorable to his preconceived notions.
Presumably there are good social reasons for the laws that confine sexual relations to heterosexual marriage. God's Word says that they are laid down for our positive good | Deut. 6:24; 10:13; 30:15,19,20; 32:46,47 |. The blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience are momentous | Cf. Deut. 28 |. Any other attitude would certainly lead to a permissiveness toward sex that would degrade and destroy the integrity of the family. However, we would be bound to God's law regarding homosexuality even if we could not see its positive social consequences. The goal of our ethical system is not to satisfy the tastes of the creature, but to please the Creator and reflect His absolute holiness.
More serious challenges to the apparent meaning of the laws against homosexuality in Leviticus have been leveled: namely, that they are ceremonial (and thus temporary), or that they are simply circumstantial (i.e., condemning the associations and uses of homosexuality in ancient society). The first argument is that the injunctions of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 appear in connection with cultic purification and thus belong to the "shadows" of the ceremonial law dispelled by fulfillment in Christ. Therefore it would be inconsistent to apply Leviticus's prohibitions of homosexuality today while rejecting Leviticus's prohibition, for example, of unclean meats | Lev. 20:25 |. Now it is true that the covenant of grace was administered differently before and after Christ's coming. Some Old Testament laws served primarily not to define sin and its just sanctions but to reveal by means of types the way of redemptive restoration to God's favor. Under the Old Testament dispensation God's gracious covenant was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the passover lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the Jews; they were "the gospel in figures," signifying Christ and His redemptive work | Hebrews 8:5; 10:1 |.
These ceremonial laws have all been fulfilled for the believer by Christ's obedience, so the covenant of grace under the gospel is administered now through preaching and the sacraments. The ceremonial laws God gave Israel, containing several typical ordinances prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings and benefits, have all under the New Testament been "put out of gear" | Cf. Heb. 7:11, 12, 28; 8:13; 10:8,9; Eph. 2:14-16 |. This distinction between moral and ceremonial laws is not arbitrary. It has a rationale required by Scripture as it interprets itself. moral law defines justice while ceremonial law guides redemptive restoration.
Therefore, we recognize the category of temporary, ceremonial law in the Old Testament. However, there is no good reason to assign the prohibitions of homosexuality to it. They do not anticipate the person and work of Christ for salvation in any sense. Further, the fact that homosexuality was to receive the death penalty in Israel places it in the sphere of other moral offenses punished by the Jewish magistrate, not in the sphere of temporary ceremonial legislation.
Moreover, the context of these prohibitions suggests that they pertain to moral holiness, not mere cultic purification. The list of injunctions in Leviticus 18 is introduced with emphatic divine authority:
You are to perform my judgments
and keep my statutes, to walk in them;
I am the Lord your God.
| Leviticus 18:4 |
it ends,
Thus you are to keep my charge....
I am the Lord your God.
| Leviticus 18:30 |
The next chapter contains further laws, introduced with these words:
You shall be holy,
for I the Lord your God am holy.
| Leviticus 19:2 |
it ends,
You shall thus observe all my statutes,
and all my ordinances,
and do them: I am the Lord.
| Leviticus 19:37 |
Chapter 20 is a continuation of such injunctions:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
You shall also say to the sons of Israel ...
| Leviticus 20:1,2 |
It similarly ends,
Thus you are to be holy to me,
for I the Lord am holy.
| Leviticus 20:26 |
In contrast to such ethical requirements reflecting the lordship and holiness of God, chapter 21 begins a new section dealing with requirements for priests and their cultic service. The preceding passage | Lev. 18-20 | contains some requirements that are no longer observed in their Jewish form, e.g., those which symbolize the separation of Israel from the abominations committed by her pagan neighbors | Cf. Lev. 18:3, 24-30; 19:19; 20:22-26 | and a few ceremonial instructions | Lev. 19:5-8, 21,22 |. But the predominant character of its commandments is moral, and their content is generally recognized as binding today (e.g., prohibiting incest, adultery, child sacrifice, idolatry, oppression of the poor, slander, hatred, unjust weights and measures). Christ Himself appealed to them as summarizing all the law and the prophets | Lev. 19:18; cf. Matt. 22:39,40 |.
Therefore, the context does not support the automatic dismissal of the prohibitions against homosexuality as ceremonial. The defender of homosexuality must produce a viable criterion for distinguishing between moral and ceremonial laws, or else consistently reject them all (contrary to the emphatic word of Christ). We have New Testament warrant for discontinuing obedience to the sacrificial system," and the failure to observe the symbols of separation from the Gentile no longer displeases God | Acts 10:9-20 |. However, the Scriptures never alter God's revealed law regarding homosexuality, but leave us under its full requirement | Cf. Deut. 8:3; 12:32; Matt. 4:4 |. Indeed, the Bible repeatedly condemns homosexuality, the New Testament itself stressing that it is contrary to God's law | 1 Tim. 1:9,10 |, bringing God's judgment and exclusion from the kingdom | Rom. 1:24ff.; 1 Cor. 6:9,10 |. Therefore, the prohibition against homosexuality cannot be viewed as part of the ceremonial system prefiguring Christ or as temporary in its obligation.
Another attempt to loosen the binding character of the prohibition of homosexuality in God's law reinterprets the prohibition as dealing with homosexuality's aggravating circumstances and not with homosexuality as such, independent of its ancient associations or social implications. One reinterpretation maintains that in the Jewish mind homosexuality was associated with the idolatry of Israel's neighbors, who practiced cultic fertility rites in their temples, using male and female prostitutes. Thus the Holiness Code in Leviticus, which (as we have noted above) warned repeatedly against the idolatrous practices of the Canaanites, should be seen as condemning cultic homosexuality. This connection is explicit in Deuteronomy 23:17,18, where it is prohibited for the sons of Israel to become cult prostitutes and thereby bring the wages of a "dog" into the Lord's house | Cf. Rev. 22:15 |. This derisive term indicates how abominable this was to God. It is also clear from Israel's later history that such cultic homosexuality was a moral problem for that Society | Cf. 1 Kings 14:23,24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7; Hosea 4:14 |.
By association, then, the prohibition of homosexuality becomes in fact a metaphorical prohibition of idolatry; it was revealed in order to keep the Israelites from contact with alien religions, which practiced cultic defilement, homosexual fertility rites as part of their idolatrous worship. In this way the prohibition against lying with a man as one does with a woman | Lev. 18:22 | is taken in the same way as the prohibition of boiling a kid in its mother's milk | Exodus 23:19|, namely as forbidding participation in what historical research has shown to be heathen religious practices. In this connection it could be observed that the verse immediately preceding Leviticus 18:22 mentions an obvious idolatrous practice of the Canaanites (child sacrifice to Molech), and it has been speculated that the verse immediately following (prohibiting the perversion of bestiality) refers to an Egyptian goat cult and/or Canaanite heifer cult. Hence God's law against homosexuality is circumstantial and has nothing to say about homosexuality in non-cultic contexts.
Another reinterpretation attributes prohibitions to the procreative emphasis among the Jews, who saw childlessness as a spiritual curse and/or an economic hardship and who viewed the willful destruction of viable human semen as a serious crime | As seen in the Onan story, Gen. 38:8-10 |. Thus homosexuality was actually prohibited because it was impossible through such sexual activity to propagate the chosen race.
Another reinterpretation claims that in the ancient world homosexual rape was inflicted upon a defeated male enemy as a symbol of domination and an expression of scorn (as in the Egyptian epic, The Contending of Horus and Seth). Therefore the Jewish law prohibited homosexuality as a sign of disrespect for a person and a dishonoring of the superior male gender (which was reduced to the performance of a female function). In these views, the biblical prohibition would have no continuing moral force outside of cultures that insist on procreation as the key function of sexual relations or that see homosexuality as a symbol of scorn and dishonor.
What can be said about these various circumstantial reinterpretations of the biblical prohibition of homosexuality? First, they are not consistent with each other; an act of religious worship, a failure to pursue the best end for man, and a positive act of scornful domination are completely different and incompatible things. The circumstantial reinterpreters of the biblical prohibition against homosexuality need to resolve their own disagreement as to what the law "really" meant to forbid. Without a clear candidate for the sin which actually stands behind the apparent meaning of Leviticus 18:22 in its alleged cultural setting, there is no serious challenge to which we must respond.
More importantly, these theories, one and all, do not warrant any definite conclusion about what is actually prohibited when God speaks of homosexuality; at best they are speculative searches for what might possibly be an underlying rationale for the prohibition of homosexuality. And at many points they are not even very plausible possibilities.
The "homosexuality-as-scorn" theory rests on pure conjecture as to the meaning of the biblical texts themselves | or else an illegitimate interpolation of Gen. 9:22 |. Moreover, the idea that homosexuality represents a willing submission to a scornful and dishonorable manner of behavior does not detract from the traditional understanding of the biblical prohibition in the least, but supplements it.
The "homosexuality-as-contrary-to-procreation" theory completely overlooks the fact that sexual relations served an essential role in man's need for human companionship, not simply procreation, in the Old Testament theology of marriage | Cf. Gen. 2:19-25 |. The allegation that Hebrews viewed semen as somehow sacred rests on a complete misreading of the Onan story, for Onan was punished for a violation of the levirate institution and not simply for wasting his seed. Homosexuality was punished as a positive sin of commission, not merely as the failure to generate children through one's sexual activities. Otherwise heterosexual barrenness would be similarly condemned.
Such imaginative views are not based on an exegetical study of the Bible's own teaching but are imposed from outside. Scripture's own inspired rationale for God's prohibition of homosexuality is simple and direct:
It is an abomination (toevah)
| Leviticus 18:22 |
that is, detestable in the sight of God, loathed as degrading and offensive to the moral sense.
Of course it might be idolatrous abomination, as the first circumstantial reinterpretation of the prohibition suggested. The problems with this theory, however, are textual and historical. God's Word contains a separate and explicit prohibition of cultic homosexuality | Deut. 23:17,18 |, whereas in Leviticus 18:22 there is no reference to cult prostitutes and thus no necessary association with idolatrous rites.
The prohibition in Leviticus is found in a context predominately moral in character (as discussed above). The alleged cultic character of verse 23 is entirely speculative, and even the idolatrous reference in verse 21 does not make that particular command any less moral in its intention. After all, the prohibition of child sacrifice serves to protect human life and prevent the destruction of the family, as well as shunning pollution with Canaanite idolatry; the fact that this sin was historically a cultic rite does not make it any less a perpetual moral issue. The point, then, is that Leviticus 18:22 is distinct from the law against cultic homosexuality; the contexts of the two prohibitions are different, and there is no suggestion of idolatrous sexual rites in the Leviticus passage.
The appeal to historical and cultural background will do nothing to remedy this defect; in fact, it will defeat the theory altogether. The historical fact is that in Canaanite culture homosexuality was practiced as both a religious rite and a personal sexual perversion in general; it was popular in the temple and the town, performed both religiously and hedonistically. Israel's pagan neighbors knew both secular and sacred homosexuality, which would make two different biblical prohibitions all the more necessary for God's will to be clearly revealed to His people. The Bible condemns the sex life of the heathen town as well as the sexual idolatry of the heathen temple.
The advocates of the circumstantial reinterpretation of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 do not prove that these verses must be interpreted as saying what Deuteronomy 23:17,18 says and no more. In fact they illegitimately collapse the two distinct prohibitions into each other, thereby suppressing a portion of God's moral will-as does an interpreter who reads Romans 13:13 and I Corinthians 11:21 and concludes that God merely forbids drunkenness at the sacraments of the church and not drunkenness in general.
Even if it could be shown that there is some cultic association with the homosexuality prohibited in Leviticus 18:22, there is still no reason to think that the law is exhaustively cultic in its reference; after all, God would abhor homosexuality all the more, it seems, for its incidental idolatrous connections. The circumstance would in this sense aggravate the offense of homosexuality, not reformulate the basic meaning of the prohibition.
The error of this circumstantial reinterpretation of Leviticus 18:22 is all the more clear when one realizes that the same line of interpretation could be applied to the prohibition of bestiality in verse 23. Parallel reasoning would lead us to deem bestiality outside of religious or cultic contexts as morally acceptable today — a conclusion that ought to shock our ethical sensibilities (even if we have become insensitive to the continual propaganda for homosexuality in present-day culture).
Many counterexamples to the pattern of argument used in the circumstantial reinterpretation undermine its validity and credibility. For example, the historical fact that stealing is always associated with envy or covetousness, which is idolatry according to Colossians 3:5, would not reduce the eighth commandment to the second or tenth.
Homosexuality is so vile in God's sight, so repugnant to His moral character, that in ancient Israel it carried the sanction of capital punishment | Leviticus 20:13 |. We must remember that in the Old Testament "every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense" | Hebrews 2:2 |. Homosexuality is so contrary to creation and to God's will that every hint of wiping out the created distinction between the sexes was also forbidden. Even impersonating the other sex by one's clothing was abominable | Deut. 22:5 |.
Homosexuality is presented in God's just law as worthy of death. Now with other capital crimes the law of God draws important ethical distinctions relating, for example, to the offender's motivation | E.g., murder: Deut. 19:4-13 | or the circumstances of the offense | E.g., rape: Deut. 22:23-29 |. When qualifications and mitigating circumstances are relevant in evaluating the crime, God lays them down for us and does not leave them to speculation and later historical research. But no excuse, amendment, or circumstantial consideration mitigated the prohibition or punishment of homosexuality. The instructions for the severe sanction against it in Israel were simple and direct. Under no circumstances could homosexuality be tolerated as morally acceptable.
Therefore we are compelled to say that God's law against homosexuality cannot be deprived of its force. It is not an objectionable double standard, is not arbitrary and inconsequential, cannot be taken as a temporary ceremonial law, and ought not to be reduced to circumstantial sins associated with it or its social implications. The numerous attempts to escape its binding character are futile and lead to the distortion of God's Word through interpretive methods that must read things
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