The Bible and Homosexuality

Technical Setup and Program Introduction

Alpha and Omega Ministries presents the Dividing Line radio broadcast. The Apostle Peter commanded all Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us. Yet to give this answer with gentleness and reverence.

Your host is Dr. James White, director of Alpha and Omega Ministries and an elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. If you'd like to talk with Dr. White, you can call now by dialing 602 -274 -1360.

That's 602 -274 -1360. Or if you're out of the Metro Phoenix dialing area, it's 1 -888 -550 -1360. That's 1 -888 -550 -1360. And now, with today's topic, here's James White. And good afternoon Phoenix, this is Rich Pierce sitting in on a special edition of the Dividing Line today.

A special edition because we will be listening to a sermon today that Dr. White gave some time ago at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. Strangely, the issue of homosexuality is becoming more and more a serious issue within the confines of the church in America today.

The moral climate in our land has turned a favorable eye upon the homosexual agenda and has become critical of those in the church who dare to stand against it. This moral decline in the culture of our land as well as around the world is having a tremendous impact upon the conscience of our world, the church.

Dr. White addresses the issues that we as Bible-believing Christians need to be aware of so that we don't make the same compromise and fall into the trap of the enemy. We won't be taking calls today, but be sure to have your Bible ready for this poignant and timely message.

And now, from the pulpit of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, here's James White.

God’s Creative Design for Marriage

It was not without a fair amount of fear and trepidation that I undertook to address our topic this evening. It is obviously not a topic that is extremely easy to address, extremely easy to discuss, but it is one that has come up so often over the past year or so that I felt that it was right to look once again at what God's Word says about the sin of homosexuality.

If I might, by way of introduction, mention some of the reasons why I felt that it would be timely to again look at what God's Word says about this topic. A number of recent events have brought it again to our mind.

For example, the Phoenix City Council meeting that took place, I guess, approximately a month to two months ago now at the Phoenix Civic Plaza was probably the straw that broke the camel's back in my thinking as to addressing this topic.

I specifically recall, I guess they call them today, sound bites. I was not there, but I watched with interest, as I knew some people who were there, the television reports. And I don't think this gentleman would appreciate being credited with my decision to discuss this this evening, but I remember very clearly a cleric standing at the podium, speaking, wearing the black priestly garb.

I believe he was an Episcopalian. And his words still ring into my mind to this day. He basically said, the homosexual members of my congregation are kind, loving people. It is the Bible-banging Jesus lovers who are most mean and cold-hearted amongst the people of my congregation.

And I cannot even begin to imitate the way in which he said the Lord's name. The hatred that flowed from the man's lips physically affected me, even though I knew I was only watching videotape of what had happened earlier.

This happened within our own community. And as you know, the council decided to put it to a vote of the people and then decided that wasn't a very smart thing to do. And passed a sort of watered-down version of the ordinance as quietly, in my opinion, as humanly possible.

But the events in our city, recent encounters I've had elsewhere, for example, as you know, every six months we travel to Salt Lake City and pass out tracts to General Conference. And twice within the past year, various groups such as Act Up and Queer Nation have showed up at the Mormon General Conference to present their own message.

And we have encountered some of these individuals at such meetings. I have also noticed, as I'm sure many of you have noticed as well, a consistent media attempt to portray homosexuality in the most positive light possible.

And as I began thinking more and more about this, I recognized this with increasing frequency, especially in the various situation comedies that are presented on the airwaves and quite often in the national news.

One will find the national news broadcast doing everything but handstands, carrying sandwich signs that says, please accept homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle, to get us to believe that homosexuality has truly no moral connotation to it whatsoever.

And that if you are in any way, shape or form opposed to homosexuality, and if you are so backwards as to actually say something against homosexuality in a public context, then you are the person who is in fact sick, because you are suffering from a new national epidemic known as homophobia.

A new disease that seemingly has only developed over the past 20 or 30 years. But this is what we have going on. And this morning I was reminded in our reading prior to Bible study, we read Psalm 12. And I was struck once again by that final verse of Psalm 12.

Psalm 12 verse 8. The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men. The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men. And I don't think anyone needs to be reminded that one could hardly watch recent political gatherings without seeing signs of gay and lesbian rights being waived by various delegates as often as was humanly possible.

And so we see this all across our nation. And we not only see it in the secular media, but what may be amazing to some, and certainly not amazing to all, is the fact there has been a tremendous growth in pro-gay theological writers.

There are many, many individuals who carry theological degrees and claim to be speaking a message that is consistent with the Christian faith who are today encouraging us to embrace homosexuality as a lifestyle that can indeed enjoy God's blessing is not inherently contradictory to Christian faith and that indeed within the past week a minister of a, I guess you still call it a Protestant denomination, the Episcopalian denomination, informed me that it is surely his desire to again see the church blessing homosexual marriages.

And this individual informed me of this in writing as we were discussing this particular topic. We are being told that a loving church would accept, not condemn, homosexuality. That to in any way, shape, or form be negative toward what someone chooses as their sexual orientation is contrary to the loving acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Recently, this was communicated to me by a friend, I did not see it, but the friend described it to me very clearly, a rather well-known Christian leader, Jerry Falwell, appeared on the Larry King show with two other, I put that very wrongly, with two representatives of the homosexual perspective and Mr. Falwell attempted to communicate various Bible passages that we will look at this evening that express the fact that homosexuality is contrary to God's revealed will that it is not a relationship in which love can truly exist, can truly blossom, can truly be a pattern after God's love, that it is something that is an abomination before God.

One of the two representatives of the homosexual perspective interrupted him repeatedly and informed him that he himself was a Baptist and that he was a homosexual and that Mr. Falwell had absolutely no right to tell him what his Christian faith could or could not encompass and accept and include.

And I believe that Mr. Falwell's response was the correct one. He said, I did not mean to speak for all Christians, I meant to speak only for those Christians who actually are biblical Christians, which you are not.

Unfortunately, he took a lot of heat for having said that, even though there was much truth in what he had said. And so it is a subject, though it is very distasteful, the word of God addresses it and as it is coming up more and more in the secular context in which we live, I believe we should be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within us, to know where in scripture to turn, to be able to explain to someone why homosexuality is an abomination in God's sight, why it is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, and why we as biblical Christians must call those who would both practice homosexuality and I would like to add those who even if they do not practice it would defend it, to repentance.

To repentance. First of all, we begin very early in the Bible in Genesis chapter 2. If you would turn with me there, Genesis chapter 2, in a passage that is familiar to all of us. Genesis chapter 2, beginning at verse 18.

I will be reading verses 18 through 25. The Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.

He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man.

The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. Here we have in scripture given to us God's creative design for the relationship of man and woman. We are told that God recognized that it was not good for man to be alone.

He recognized that it was necessary to create a helper suitable to him. Notice that phrase. The one who would be created is created by God to meet the needs of the man. That there would be a proper relationship between the two.

And what does God do? God creates woman. Not another man but woman. Different from man for one man and another man do not meet the needs that God saw existed in man when he said it is not good for him to be alone.

He did not simply create another man to fill that need. He created woman. And so when Adam sees the woman he says, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.

And then we have this statement. We are not told in this particular passage that God is saying the words we find in verse 24. But the Lord Jesus indicates as much when he cites it for he says God is the one who said this.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. Here is God's creative design. One man, one woman together for life. This is the ultimate.

Yes, we see in the New Testament that men who did not have the full knowledge of what God's highest was for example engaged in polygamy. And we see that for example Solomon had hundreds of wives and we see that David engaged in polygamy as well.

But we see from the lips of the Lord Jesus that this was a step down. It was a step away from the highest and best that God had designed for man. And when we look at those polygamous relationships when we look what happens with Abraham and his handmaiden when we look at the grief brought into David's family because of his polygamous relationships when we look at Solomon the fact that his heart is turned away from God because again of the polygamous relationships, many wives he has we see that that relationship is an improper, unnatural relationship and it brings heartache to those who experience it.

Here is the highest that God has for man. One man, one woman together for life. Now we can see that this is the most perfect element of God's created order with reference to the sexual orientation of man and woman because this is the example that is used for us in Ephesians chapter 5.

We looked at this this morning in Bible study. We looked at that passage in Ephesians 5 where the relationship of husband and wife is likened unto that relationship that exists between the Lord Jesus Christ and the church.

And the fact that in Holy Scripture you have the Lord Jesus filling the role of the husband and the church filling the role of the wife and the love that exists but from the Lord Jesus for the church that is to be mirrored in the love that man has for his wife tells us that certainly this is God's created decree for man.

This is God's will for man. This is how God would have man to exist in the marriage relationship, one man and one woman. Now, why do I start off with that particular emphasis? Because even though we will see numerous condemnations throughout Scripture of the homosexual act and the homosexual lifestyle, it is important that when we are asked why it is that we hold the position that we do that we be able to point out positively God's creative decree for man and woman in the marriage relationship.

It is a relationship that is under attack in our culture. We recognize that homosexuality is not the only sexual sin out there. That we see adultery and fornication being glorified in our society. And it is no wonder that those who today are willing to accept homosexuality as some alternate lifestyle were prepared for that acceptance by the attack upon God's best.

That is the monogamous relationship of man and woman together. The idea of fidelity within marriage, of commitment of a man to one woman to love her and to honor her and to cherish her and to commit his life to her in providing for her has been made a mockery of in the very same popular culture and the very same media that today now having accomplished that, now having very clearly made it clear that you are old-fashioned, you are out of step if you are concerned about old moral issues like fidelity in marriage.

Having accomplished that, they are now the ones pushing the concept of homosexuality as a loving alternate lifestyle. There is certainly no coincidence in that situation. You first attack what God says is right before you start offering your substitutes.

And that's exactly what we have seen happening. Now, if you'll take your Bible, I want to move through a number of passages and just simply touch upon them so that we can see what the Word says about various incidents, various mentions of the concept of homosexuality in Scripture.

Sodom and Gomorrah as an Example of Sexual Perversion

Genesis chapter 18, Genesis 18 and 19 specifically, we will be looking at verse 6 of chapter 19, but you recall the incident in Genesis chapter 18, Jehovah God and two angels appear to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre, and God reveals to Abraham that He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

And Abraham walks with the Lord and enters into the rather famous bargaining situation where, well, what if you find 50 righteous men? What if you find 40? Well, 30, and eventually down to 10. And God agrees, well, if I can find 10, I will not destroy the city.

But as you know, that was still not a possibility. The city was so corrupt and so in rebellion against God. And so, in chapter 19, we have the two angels arriving at Sodom in the evening in verse 1. They encounter Lot who encourages them to stay with him during the night and then go on their way early in the morning.

Verse 3, but he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.

They called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we can, and the NIV translation simply says, so that we can have sex with them. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, No, my friends, don't do this wicked thing.

Now, the NIV just simply doesn't pull any punches in translating the term to know. It is very clear, though there are defenders of homosexuality today who would attempt to get around this passage and say, well, they just wanted to get to know them, they wanted to find out where they were from, you know, just sort of get their credentials, they're strangers in the city, we just want to get to know them.

It's very obvious when Lot shuts the door behind him and says, do not do this wicked thing, that they were not the welcome wagon come by to say hello to the visitors who had come by. They wanted to have sex with them and it clearly says that all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the corruption, knew no age boundaries.

And we are told in Scripture, for example, in Jude verse 7, that it was for perversion, sexual perversion, that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is what the Jewish people understood it to be, this is the background of any mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in, for example, the Gospels.

It is very clear that the corruption was inclusive of homosexuality, homosexual behavior. Sexual sin was the reason for God's destroying these individuals. Now, God's law specifically encodes this fact that homosexuality is a perversion, an abomination in God's sight, worthy of capital punishment.

The two specific passages you would want to possibly make note of are found in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 18, Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 18, if you look at the context, the entire chapter is in regards to unlawful sexual relations.

And certainly this is where so many in the modern theological community think that we've totally lost our minds when we actually believe what passages like this say. You see, there is very much in the heart of the natural man a hatred for God's law and a hatred for the idea that God can define for me what is and what is not proper behavior, especially within the realm of the sexual.

But if you look at Leviticus chapter 18, that's pretty much all the chapter is about. If you read the entire chapter, it is a prescription against all sorts of sexual activity. Beginning in verse 4, actually prior to that, verse 3, we are told that the people must not follow the practices of the people who lived in the land of Canaan.

We know that the Canaanite religion was very sexually oriented and encompassed about every kind of perversion it was possible to imagine. And so God says in verse 4, you must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees.

I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am Jehovah God. And then you'll see what is said. No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations.

I am the Lord. Over and over and over again, you find these prescriptions all the way down to verse 22. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable. That is an abomination before God.

Now again, the modern theological defenders of homosexuality will say, well, what this is actually about is about cultic practices of homosexuality, not a monogamous loving relationship as it would exist amongst monogamous homosexuals.

I guess that also applies then to verse 23. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. I guess it would apply to everything else in the rest of the chapter. The entirety of God's revelation concerning what is and what is not proper sexual activity might as well be thrown right out of the door.

Verse 22 does not give us any indication that there is any special context here that would allow for any exceptions. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable. Turn over to chapter 20, verse 13.

Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13. If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. Please notice, they must be put to death. Their blood will be on their own heads.

It is a capital offense in the theocracy of Israel to engage in homosexuality. Now, God does not make simply, no, dislikable things capital offenses. When the capital offense is defined in scripture, this indicates that it involves something that is detestable in God's sight.

It is a complete rejection of God's will for mankind and it must be cut off from the people of God. God knows that those who engage in an activity that is an abomination before Him will be those who will encourage others to do the same thing.

He knows that they will be a poison amongst the people of God. And so He says, they must be put to death. It is a capital offense amongst the people of Israel. Again, the entire context of the chapter rules out any type of exceptions to this prohibition against homosexuality.

Romans 1 and the Rejection of God’s Created Order

Well, someone might say, you poor people, you need to realize that after the old law came the New Testament. And we are no longer under the law, but we are under grace. And therefore, you need to realize that Jesus never said anything against homosexuality.

And if you would just follow Jesus instead of being so tied up with all that Old Testament law stuff that you don't follow all of anyways, then you would realize why it is that people look at you as so narrow and bigoted.

This is a special edition of The Dividing Line today.

As we listen to a message Dr. White gave at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church some time ago on the subject of homosexuality. We're going to take this opportunity to take a break and we'll be right back.

And welcome back to The Dividing Line this Saturday afternoon. We are listening to a special edition of The Dividing Line with Dr. White as he gives a message from the pulpit of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church on the subject of homosexuality.

And so let's go ahead and get right back to the message.

Well, let's look at Romans 1. Romans 1, the book of Romans I think properly called the Gospel According to Paul, the Gospel of God's Grace, the book that most clearly and with the strongest terms points out the grace of God in Jesus Christ, the free and abundant pardon in Jesus Christ, the acceptance that God has of anyone who will draw near unto God through Jesus Christ.

All of it is found in the book of Romans. But before you hear about justification by faith, before you hear about the precious blood of Christ that cleanses from sin, Paul speaks to us about the nature of sin.

And beginning in verse 21, he says that men know God, but though they know God, they do not glorify Him as God or give thanks to things that any man, no matter if he's a pygmy in Africa or a theologian at Princeton, must give to God is honor and thanks.

Any man that exists knows that those things are due to God. They don't do that. Their thinking becomes futile, their foolish hearts are darkened, and although they claim to be wise, they become fools.

What they do is they exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals and reptiles. They worship the created order rather than the Creator. They become twisted.

They want to become God and make God an object of their control. Therefore, verse 24, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

With one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Please note that this section begins with the revelation of the wrath of God being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men. This is not a passage that would indicate to us that God, being a God of wrath, has somehow disappeared.

That God, being a God of law, has somehow disappeared. God's law has not changed in the sense that it reveals for us what God is like, what His standards are. And men continue to sin against that and His wrath is revealed against them.

They twist the created order. And it is God who created man and woman to be together. And so it seems from Paul's perspective that the classic demonstration, the height of the perversion of man, the demonstration that God has given a man over to shameful lusts, is homosexuality.

A denial that God has made me man, and that God has the right to define that sexual orientation that is mine, man and woman. I will rebel against what God did back in Genesis 2. I am going to twist that order and I am going to become so perverted in my mind that I will go against nature.

I will go against what is right for me. And I will burn in lust for my own kind. It is not natural. It is unnatural. It is a perversion of God's created order in the sexual realm. Notice that Paul identifies these things as shameful lusts, indecent acts, and perversion.

It is a perversion of what God has created us to be. Well, that's just that one passage in Romans 1. That catalog of sins. See, all Paul was really doing was he was borrowing from this commonly understood list of sins that exist outside of the New Testament.

And so that was just culturally oriented. That's just how the Jews understood this. Well, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. I'd like to read with you verses 9 through 11. Paul asks in a rhetorical way, do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And that is what some of you were. Not are. Were. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Notice the direct contrast.

The black and white contrast. And such some of you were. Not are. He's speaking to the church. And it is clear from his words that there is not in the church those who continue to practice as a lifestyle any of these things.

Those who are sexually immoral, or idolaters, or adulterers, or male prostitutes, or homosexual offenders. Such some of you were, but that's the reason that you needed to be washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.

And so those in the church knew that their conversion to Jesus Christ meant a radical break with that kind of a lifestyle. And it was not just simply some cultural thing, but that to be a follower of Jesus Christ meant to understand what sin is in God's sight and to repent from that.

Responding to Common Defenses of Homosexuality

Well, I've mentioned a number of the excuses that are made by defenders. I'll just mention two very quickly and respond to them. And then close with how we should react to the homosexual campaign going on in our world.

Just recently, I responded to a statement in an electronic forum that had been entered by a person who claims to be a Christian concerning gay Christians. And this is what they had said. For those who are gay by nature, the church is telling them to repent of something that is as much a natural part of them as left-handedness is to some people.

Please note that this is really what is today the main defense of homosexuality in our culture. That is that homosexuals are born that way. That that is the natural state that they exist in. This was my response.

This is the main defense of homosexuality today. It is based upon the mistaken idea that people are homosexual by nature. This is simply untrue. Homosexuality is a chosen behavior, a decision of the will.

It is not analogous to left-handedness or to blonde hair. God's law does not command us to repent of left-handedness. It does not identify having blonde hair as a sin. It does identify homosexuality as an abomination in God's sight.

Hence, unless one is willing to throw out the authority of the word, I have yet to meet a defender of homosexuality who did not, when pressed, do so. There is no way to logically connect a non-moral condition, left-handedness, with a moral choice, homosexuality.

Homosexuality denies God's created order. God made man male and female to burn with lust for one's own gender is to demonstrate the most twisted rejection of God's plan for man's sexual expression. You would not believe.

These are articles that are written in the public format, so they're read by many people. You would not believe the responses that I got for having said that from those who claim to be Bible believers.

So it is said that homosexuals are born this way, that it is natural for them to be this way. And yet we know that God's law tells us it is an abomination before God, that God is the one who defines the sexual genders in creation.

Another common defense is the important thing is love. As long as the relationship is loving, as long as people experience fulfillment, it's okay. To which I respond, love is defined by God, not by man.

Homosexuality is a selfish act. It is a rejection of God's created order. It is a rejection of God's will for a person's life. It is not a giving act, which is what love truly involves. It is not godly love in any way, shape, or form.

It is destructive and is symptomatic of the final stages of rebellion against God. True love is defined for us, as I said before, over there in Ephesians 5, where you think of what Jesus Christ did for the church and the relationship that exists between Christ and the church.

There is no way to parallel a homosexual relationship with the loving relationship found in Scripture. How then shall we react? Well, first of all, we must always approach the topic of sin as sinners.

We must always approach the topic of any particular sin as sinners. We will never have the right attitude in discussing a particular sin until we recognize our own sin. Until we recognize that we, of all people, have such tremendous light.

The Word of God is open to us every Sunday, every Wednesday night. We are exposed to it on a regular basis. And yet we know that in our heart we are still sinners. We continue to sin against that light.

And we must always keep that in mind as we approach the discussion of any sin. Because there is a group of men in the New Testament who when they approached the subject of sin seemed to forget that they themselves were sinners and they were called Pharisees.

And no one, no one brought upon their heads the strong words of condemnation from the Lord Jesus Christ as much as the Pharisees. The prostitutes, those that were involved in sexual immorality, did not call upon their heads the strong words of vipers and whitewashed walls that the religiously hypocritical did in the Pharisees.

So we must first keep that in mind. We must recognize ourselves as sinners so that we do not set ourselves up as judges. Instead, we must seek to speak the Word of God. Secondly, we must realize that in Corinth, as we read in 1 Corinthians 6, homosexuals were converted.

He said, and such were some of you. So homosexuals had been converted from that lifestyle. Homosexuals had come into the church, not as homosexuals, but they had experienced that lifestyle and they repented of that lifestyle and they came into the church.

They came into a relationship with Jesus Christ. God calls all kinds of men and women unto Himself. Hence, we cannot refrain from proclaiming the Gospel to all men, even to those involved in the most heinous sin.