Biblical Sources

The Biblical references to homosexuality are few enough so that we can look briefly here at all of them. Just as Jesus set the context of marriage in the Creation account [Matt. 19:4], so we might begin by remembering that sex is God's idea. When our feelings do not agree with God's standards, that is when to remember that God's standards are for our good. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." The Bible has only negative things to say about homosexuality.

Genesis 11:22-24.

What was it that Ham did to his father Noah that resulted in the curse on Ham's son Canaan? The text says euphemistically that Ham looked at his father when his father was naked. I believe that Ham took advantage of his father's drunkenness to approach him sexually. The text supports such a view, as does the fruit of the lives of Ham's descendants. The kind of worship that characterized the Canaanites from the beginning, involving prostitution of both men and women, was the kind that God repeatedly told the Hebrews centuries later to wipe out completely.

Genesis 19.

The name Sodom has become synonymous with homosexuality in many people's minds. Here the offense of some men of Sodom is more than simple prostitution but also an attempt at homosexual rape. Of course God condemns Sodom, not because of the men's wanton homosexual behavior, but because of a number of sins -- including sensual conduct, immorality, and abominations [II Peter 2:7; Jude 7; Ezekiel 16:49-50; Jeremiah 23:14].

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.

In both of the previous passages, the homosexuality was not between consenting adults. Here in the Holiness Code, any sexual activity between men is forbidden. It has been argued that Christians are not under the ceremonial law, so these passages do not apply. But when the Jerusalem Council attempted to pare down to the bare minimum the part of the law that should be kept by the new Gentile believers [Acts 15:29], sexual immorality was still on the list of things to avoid. Even within the Holiness Code itself there is a distinction between breaking the ceremonial law, the penalty of which is uncleanness, and breaking the moral law, the penalty of which is death.

II Samuel 1:26.

Saul's son Jonathan loved King David with a love that exceeded the love of a woman. Surely here we have a classic example of a homosexual relationship in the Bible which is not condemned? Not so. The word for "love" here is the same one which God used in commanding all Israel to love each other [Lev. 19:18]. It is not the word to "know" that is used elsewhere in the OT for sexual relations. As for what was going on in Jonathan's mind, one can only guess. Even if he felt a homosexual attraction for David, the Bible does not speak favorably of those feelings. We cannot generalize from what is to what ought to be. King David does not discourage Jonathan's affection, but to assume that David was sexually involved with Jonathan is hard to justify in the light of David's sin against Uriah's wife Bathsheeba.

Romans 1:26-27.

St. Paul puts homosexual behavior, both male and female, in the same category as gossip: sins which are the end result of a life without thankfulness. Is Paul condemning here only the "perversion" of people who feel attracted to the opposite sex but get drunk to do things they would regret if they were more in control? Pro-homosexual writers argue that "inversion" is something different: their behavior is not "against nature" because they are homosexual by very nature. Is homosexuality here condemned because it is against a person's higher nature (as I maintain), or is this passage only condemning those who go against their natural inclinations, drives, appetites, and desires? We misread the society of Paul's day to say that he could not have been addressing in his letter to the Romans "inverts" who were exclusively homosexual. Paul was not naïve.

I Corinthians 6:9-11 and I Timothy 1:10.

Who were the malakoi and arsenokoitai of these passages? If we are to take the literal meaning of the words, they are the "soft" and "men who have sexual relations with men." Pro-homosexuals argue that the words also have technical meanings related to cult prostitution. Will all men who are soft fail to inherit the kingdom of God? No. Then we must take the technical meanings, they claim, and only condemn temple prostitution. I claim that Paul is facing people who are arguing that sex is as natural as eating (see I Cor. 6:12-13, especially as the NIV uses quotation marks to show that Paul is dialoguing with an opposing view).

The above discussion has not touched on Jesus' use of the term porneia. Nor on the overarching Biblical basis for a healthy sexuality. It has made clear that not one Biblical passage views homosexuality in a favorable light. The uniform view of millennia of Biblical and Church history has been that homosexuality is not in God's will for you as a Christian. Jesus said that the last days would be like the days of Noah. I believe that society's increasing acceptance of homosexuality is one evidence that He was right in that assessment.

In the Corinthian passage is the hope that the Bible holds out to Christians: You used to be that way, but now you are washed and the Spirit of Jesus lives in you.

-- Gene B. Chase