Gay Marriage
Pat Donahue | Alabama, USA
Any passage that condemns homosex would automatically condemn gay marriage, because sex is an integral part of marriage (I Corinthians 7:2-5). And there are plenty of passages that condemn homosexuality. Romans 1:24,26-27 destroys the gay church’s contention that the Bible approves of their practice. It reads, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves … For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”
Romans 1 not only proves homosex is a sin, but three times it calls the practice unnatural. That is, we could know homosex is not what was intended by our creator even without the Bible. The physical anatomies of a man and a woman tell us what is supposed to happen sexually. In plumbing you have to join a male part to a female part. Everybody knows it won’t work otherwise. See the parallel?
I once read a Yale and Columbia Universities study which found homosexuality common to only 6.7% of male identical twins and 5.3% of female identical twins. If being gay was genetic, it should have been 100%. They have the same genes, right? So gays are not born that way. Instead their sexual thinking/attraction/orientation has become perverted.
But what does God say about Gay Marriage specifically? When I have debated the gay church they usually claim Jesus personally said nothing against it. But doesn’t Matthew 19:4-5 speak to the issue? There Jesus said “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” Jesus quotes from the beginning to say marriage should be between male and female. The familiar cutesy saying makes a good point: “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
Compare Matthew 19:4-5 with this quote “The Presbyterian Church … voted to redefine the church constitution on marriage to include a commitment between two people …” (Time Magazine, 3-18-2015). Notice they’ve changed God’s (and their) definition of marriage from a “commitment between a man and a woman” to a “commitment between two people” in order to open up to gay and lesbian marriages. I Corinthians 7:2 adds to this discrepancy by saying”… to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” Frank Richey has documented how the Presbyterian Church USA has changed from being staunchly against homosexuality before 1978, to saying it is okay in 1991, to then allowing gay preachers in 2010, to finally performing gay wedding ceremonies in 2015. Here is a link my Personal Evangelism outline which includes Frank’s quotes: http://www.bibledebates.info/PersonalWork/PresbyterianChangesOnHomosexuality.doc
Question: What would a gay married couple need to do if they wanted to repent of their relationship and be forgiven by God? Isn’t it obvious? Then why isn’t the same similarly obvious when we are talking about an adulterous marriage per Matthew 19:9? It is the same in principle.
The Old Testament also condemned homosexuality. Notice Leviticus 20:13 – “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death …” You say “Pat, why is that important?; that’s Old Testament law.” Here’s why it’s important. If the Old Testament admittedly demonstrated homosexuality was wrong for the Israelites, then that would prove homosexuals were not born that way. God would never make something a sin that a person could not help, even in Old Testament times.
As a matter of fact Leviticus 18:22-23 (“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion“) in effect puts a man having sex with another man in the same category as a man having sex with an animal. Pointing this out to my gay audiences is the hardest thing I have ever had to do in a public debate. This parallel (even if I explain it in a super sweet way) is always received with mortification and revolt by many gay churches attendees. Try putting yourself in their shoes, and I think you will understand why.
There are other passages in the New Testament which condemn the heinous sin of homosexuality. Jude 3 confirms for us the sin of “Sodom and Gomorrha” (Genesis 19:1-24) was homosexuality by calling the “fornication” there “going after strange flesh.” I Corinthians 6:9-10 condemns both types of gay men (those taking female roles and those taking male roles respectively) by stating “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers. Neither homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God“ (NKJV). And I Timothy 1:9-10 condemns the former type by saying “We also know this: The law was not made for a good man, but for people who are lawless, rebels, ungodly, sinners, unholy, not religious, father-killers, mother-killers, murderers, sexual sinners, homosexuals, slave traders, liars, and those who break promises. These and other things are against the healthy teaching as found in the glorious gospel of the blessed God which He trusted to me” (The Simple English NT).
Last question: Can homosexuals stop this sin if they put their mind to it? Of course! Remember from above how I Corinthians 6:9-10 condemned homosexuality? Well, verse 11 says “and such were (past tense) some of you.” They had quit being homosexuals in order to become Christians, that is, followers of Christ. Gay marriage is unscriptural. Those who practice homosex need to stop such sexual sin in order to be forgiven and go to heaven (Luke 13:3). Let’s keep being plain about this.
