What the Bible Says About Homosexuality

From time to time I've written in this space about the collapse of Western Civilization that we so going on around us all on a daily basis. And in this author's opinion, there is perhaps no better illustration of this collapse than the rise of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT) movement over the last several decades.

I make this observation as a Christian, and those who do not believe the Bible may be tempted to dismiss my view as personal bias. But interestingly enough, at least one prominent lesbian scholar is in agreement with this view. As this 2015 article from cnsnews.com notes, "Best-selling feminist author, social critic and self-described "transgender being" Camille Paglia said in an interview last month that the rise of transgenderism in the West is a symptom of decadence and cultural collapse."

Paglia is quoted in the article saying, "Nothing…better defines the decadence of the West to the jihadists than our toleration of open homosexuality and this transgender mania now."

The article continues, "Paglia went on to talk about her book Sexual Personae and how the emergence of transgenderism signifies the end of Western culture. 'Now I am concerned about this…In fact, my study of history in Sexual Personae, I'm always talking about the late phases of culture.'

'I was always drawn to late or decadent phases of culture. Oscar Wile is one of the great exponents of that in the late 19th century. He's one of my strongest influences from my earliest years. An I found in my study that history is cyclic, and everywhere in the world you find this pattern in ancient times: that as a culture begins to decline, you have an efflorescence of transgender phenomena. That is a symptom of cultural collapse.'

'So rather than people singing the praises of humanitarian liberalism that allows all of these transgender possibilities to appear and to be encouraged, I would be concerned about how Western culture is defining itself to the world.' "

These are good comments by Paglia.  In fact, what this feminist lesbian has to say about homosexuality and transgender mania is actually closer to the mind of Christ, and far more interesting, than what falls from the lips of many supposed ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when they speak on these subjects. 

The wide-spread acceptance of homosexuality and other deviant behaviors in the West is a flashing red warning signal that our civilization is in deep trouble. It's so obvious that even a feminist lesbian scholar is able to see the problem. But for all that, there are many who name the name of Christ who are either unable or unwilling to grasp this simple and obvious truth.

Proving that God condemns homosexuality, or what the King James Bible calls sodomy, is the theological equivalent of a slam dunk. That is to say, it's not hard at all. But as a minister friend once said to me in conversation, "When we go wrong, it tends to be over simple things." He was right. So in the spirit of re-stating what was obvious to prior, more Christian generations, let us review what the Bible's devastating condemnation of homosexuality.

• Genesis 18:20-21 And the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me."
• Genesis 19:13 "For we will destroy this place [Sodom], because the outcry against them is has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
• Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
• Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a male as he lies wit ha woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
• Deuteronomy 22:5 A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD you God.
• Deuteronomy 23:17 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
• 1 Kings 15:11-12 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. And he took way the sodomites out of the land…
• 1 Kings 22:42, 43, 46 Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when be began to reign…And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD…And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.
• 2 Kings 22:1, 2 and 23:7 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign…And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD…And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD.
• Isaiah 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
• Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even t heir women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
• 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
• 1 Timothy 1:8-10 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but…for fornicators, for sodomites…
• Jude 6-7 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal file.

While this list may not be exhaustive, it does cover the most obvious references to homosexuality in Scripture. And I would ask the reader, after looking over this list, do you think the Bible has a positive or a negative view of homosexuality? This isn't difficult. It's not a trick question.  It doesn't take a theologian of the caliber of Martin Luther of John Calvin to figure it out either.  The obvious answer is that the Scriptures clearly and unequivocally condemn homosexuality.

Homosexuality is not a lifestyle. Homosexuality is not a thing to be proud of. Neither is it a civil right.

Homosexuality is sin. And a particularly heinous sin at that.