Christianity and Homosexuality
Notes
Transcript
Focus: Homosexual lifestyle cannot be justified in Christian worldview
KILL FILLER WORDS
4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
Preliminaries
Preliminaries
This topic is a very sensitive topic.
I know people have different views on this topic.
You are entitled to the way you view this topic.
Me talking about this does NOT mean my views are more valid than yours in any way vice versa.
So just because my views may be different than yours, please do not be angry.
However, I do ask that if my views are different than yours, you do not just dismiss me but give it some thoughts.
Things I will talk about.
I will be using the Bible as the ultimate authority.
As God is the creator, He gets to set the rules.
And the Bible is His words, His rules, and His laws.
I will be approaching the idea of homosexuality from the perspective of Biblical marriage because the Bible will be considered the ultimate, final authority.
I will also be approaching the idea of homosexuality from the perspective of love.
I will also be using some scientific evidence such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DMS) and American Psychiatric Association (APA).
Things I will steer clear from.
Opinionated documents.
Feelings.
Emotions.
Approaching homosexuality from the POV of Biblical marriage
Approaching homosexuality from the POV of Biblical marriage
One of the most common argument for homosexuality in the church or towards Christianity is that Jesus never spoke about homosexuality.
This is true that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality itself directly.
However, He spoke about marriage in Mt 19:4-6, and Mk 10:6-9.
In these passages, Jesus is quoting the Old Testament passages, Gen 1:27
Marriage is reserved for a man and a woman.
That is how God made it, ordained it, thus is how it must be.
Furthermore, it would be outrageous to sever the presence of Jesus in the creation act.
God is a triune God. The paradox of His existence is that He exists in three different persons while He is one.
In the beginning, during the creation, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit were all present.
When God was raining down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, all three of the Trinity were there.
We cannot separate Jesus from God the Father and/or God the Son.
Passages like Lev 18:22
22 ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
Are spoken by Jesus as well. We cannot separate the Trinity.
Problem becomes even greater when we look at the rest of the Scriptures and not just the four Gospels.
Romans 1:25-27
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
1 Timothy 1:9-10
9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
If all scripture is “inspired” by God, remember, we cannot sever the Trinity, so when we say God, it means all three Godhead.
So Jesus, along with the Father and the Spirit inspired the scripture to be written the way they are.
Meaning, Jesus clearly condemned homosexuality and marriage is reserved specifically for a man and a woman.
Approaching homosexuality from the POV of Biblical love
Approaching homosexuality from the POV of Biblical love
There are four different Greek words for love.
Agape
Storge
Philia
Eros
Agape
Agape is the unconditional love of God.
In passages such as Matthew 22:37, when we are commanded to love God, this love is agape.
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
Storge
Storge is the love between families.
We can see this word being used in the passage Romans 12:10
Philia
Philia is the love between friends.
In passages such as John 20:2
2 So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
It’s brotherly affection
Eros
Eros is the physical sexual love. Even though this word is not specifically used in the scripture, we can clearly see examples of it.
The book Song of Solomon is filled with images of eros love between Solomon and the Shulamite.
Passages Heb 13:4 and 1 Cor 7:5 are speaking of sexual relationships. The passages are talking about eros love, just not mentioning the word. However, it is critical to note that both passages are in the context of marriage
5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
And in our previous section, we have made firm that marriage is reserved for a man and a woman.
There is not a single place with the scripture even hints at condoning sexual relation between the same sex.
Then another argument rises that because the Bible is silent on the topic, must mean it is indifferent about it.
Absolutely wrong.
First, we just read a verse that specifically writes our homosexuality (1 Tim 1:10) and the general concensus of the time was that homosexuality was wrong. There was no arguing that practicing homosexuality was normal or okay. It was one of those topics that were silently agreed upon between everyone.
Like we do no need to argue that apple is an apple. When everyone enters a room and sees an apple sitting on a table, everyone knows it’s an apple. There is no need to talk about why that apple is not a banana.
There was no need for the authors of the scripture to mention homosexuality by the word because it was already a general concensus. Not because they were indifferent on the subject.
Voice of science on homosexuality
Voice of science on homosexuality
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder is a manual on psychiatric diagnosis and treatment published by the American Psychiatric Association.
American Psychiatric Association is the professional organization of psychiatrists and trainees in the United States. It is the largest body of psychiatrists in the world.
The first publication of DSM was in 1952.
In DSM-I, homosexuality was classified as a paraphilia. It was classified as a mental disorder where the persons sexual desires has deviated from the norm to abnormal. It’s where the phrase sexual pervert comes from, ones sexual desire has been perverted.
In 1968 DSM-II was published, a revision was made to “sexual orientation disturbance.” Basically, a homosexual has become confused of their sex through various experiences especially in their early childhood.
In 1974 DSM-III was published, another revision was made and labeled homosexuality as a “ego-dystonic sexual orientation.” is an ego-dystonic mental disorder characterized by having a sexual orientation or an attraction that is at odds with one's idealized self-image, causing anxiety and a desire to change one's orientation or become more comfortable with one's sexual orientation. It describes not innate sexual orientation itself, but a conflict between the sexual orientation one wishes to have and the sexual orientation one actually possesses.
Then in 1983, DSM-III-Revision was released and completely removed homosexuality as a mental disorder.
HOWEVER! APA clearly notes that homosexuality was removed NOT because they had any kind of sufficient evidence to support the change in the diagnosis of homosexuality.
So the question is why was it removed?
Not only was it removed, it shifted the discussion from professional medical conversation to social and moral conversation.
Even though I have my opinions, I will not state them as I have mentioned at the beginning that I will steer away from opinions. If you’d like, you are more than welcomed to come and ask me for my opinion at the end.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God has made very clear through the scripture that homosexuality is not God’s design.
In looking at the definitions and examples of love found in the scripture, there is no evidence to support sexual and affectionate love between two of same sexes.
Up until just 50 years ago, homosexuality was considered a mental illness but that has changed and become a social and moral matter for some reason.
However, it does not matter whether homosexuality is a mental disorder or a moral issue. The Bible is the final authority and through it, God has made clear His stance on it.
So what does that mean for us?
Does that mean we shame and shun away the LGBTQ community? Absolutely not.
It means we love them just as we love anyone else. However, loving them does not mean we condone and approve their lifestyle.
We must stand with the truth of the Bible, all the while loving and praying for the return of the lost souls.