What is the REAL Reason God Destroyed Sodom? (Responding to Matthew Vines)

Matthew Vines and the Reformation Project

Matthew Vines is the founder of the Reformation Project, which has nothing to do with the Protestant Reformation. It's an attempt to reform church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity. Vines authored a book entitled God and the Gay Christian, in which he attempts to argue that God is actually for homosexuality.

In his reinvention of the text, he says that Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed because of same-sex fornication. The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with the two angels who came to rescue Lot from the wrath of God, but this was a threatened gang rape.

Ezekiel 16 and the Charge Against Sodom

Vines says the real reason Sodom was destroyed is given in Ezekiel 16 .49,. So even though Vines acknowledges the Sodomites wanted to rape visitors, he still insists Sodom was destroyed because they didn't invite the angels to dinner.

Ezekiel 16 is one of the most shocking chapters of scripture with its use of sexually explicit language. Jerusalem was unfaithful to God, who labeled the city a promiscuous whore. In addition to being prideful and uncharitable, God said Jerusalem was guilty of all Sodom's abominations, having at one point employed male prostitutes.

So that passage really doesn't work in Vines' favor. He also ignores other passages, like in Jeremiah and Jude, that mention the sexual and unnatural desire of the infamous Sodomites. According to the Bible, homosexuality is a serious sin worthy of the wrath of God.

Sin, Repentance, and the Hope of the Gospel

But it's not an unforgivable sin. Those who repent are washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God when we understand the text.