The Christian view of homosexuality can be summed up in three words: it is sinful. This is the official teaching of all the main denominations. The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church states - ‘Homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law. Under no circumstances can they be approved’ The Orthodox Church is just as blunt – ‘The Orthodox Church is identified solidly with those Christians who see homosexual activity as sinful and destructive.’; Evangelical denominations such as the Presbyterians and the Baptists are as clear, so the Presbyterians state - ‘Homosexuality is not God’s wish for humanity…the practice of homosexuality is sin’; and the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal and the fourth largest Christian denomination in the world , states – ‘Homosexuality is a sin against God and mankind’. And though there has been some compromise with this traditional teaching within Anglicanism in the West, still the official position of the whole church is that it rejects ‘homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture’
Not only is this the view of all the mainline churches today, but this has been the view of the church throughout history All the church fathers condemned the practise, with Tertullian saying that homosexuality ‘contravened the law of nature’ more than other sexual sins. The fathers were particularly incensed by pedastry,
when men used young boys for their lust. The greatest teacher of the church in the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas called it, a ‘carnal, bestial, and unnameable vice’, while the monastic reformer Peter Damian argued that the punishment for sodomy, the activity of male homosexuals, should be the same as that for blasphemer – utter destruction. So too the great Protestant reformers Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, condemned homosexuality, as did the great modern revivalists and evangelists John Wesley, George Whitfield, Dwight Moody and Billy Graham.
The church has held this view consistently for 2,000 years for three reasons: the condemnation of Scripture; the law of nature and the order for the family. In both the Old and New Testaments the homosexuality is condemned. Genesis 19 has the lurid story of the lust of the citizens of Sodom who besieged Lot’s house desperate to gang rape his male guests – ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them’. Given God then rained down sulfur and fire on this city, most readers have assumed that these homosexual passions helped provoke the wrath of God. In Leviticus 18 and 20 God’s commandments for His people newly redeemed from Egypt are very specific – ‘Do not lie with a man as with a woman – this is detestable.’ And in the New Testament homosexuality is both bluntly condemned (1 Timothy 1:10, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Jude 1:7), and in Romans 1 Paul sees it as a sign of how God has reluctantly ‘given up’ sinners to their wilful idolatry. They degraded ‘their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.’ Traditional theologians, espeically Roman Catholics, have also consistently combined the rule of Scripture with that of ‘the law of nature.’ This argument has two pillars. One is that the majority of people feel instinctively repulsed by the same sex, they feel it is unnatural, in the same way they would feel about human beings having sex with animals – that is why Aquinas refers to homosexuality being bestial. And the other is that it is absolutely obvious that the natural body was created for hetero sexual acts which leads to procreation, and not for homosexual ones. Hence the view of the church is that homosexuality is unnatural. Finally there is the divine order for the family, which is founded on Genesis 2 where God creates a woman (not another man) to be a companion to Adam, and then the order is given that the man should leave his parents and become one flesh with his wife and so become the head of a new family. Jesus then reiterates this teaching in Matthew 19. Based on this the church has always held that a family consists of a married man and woman and their off spring. The Roman Catholic church correctly teaches that in fact the family is a ‘sacrament’ operating on a ‘supernatural’ plane because it is through the family that natural children are born, who are then adopted as children of God. Homosexuality by its very nature has to stand outside this divine order of the family, and so sets itself up as a hostile alternative which in the view of the church will inevitably damage the well being of society.
Until the sexual revolution of the 1960’s this Christian view of homosexuality was unanimously held by all denominations. Furthermore it was also widely accepted by countries with a Christain heritage. So for example in the United Kingdom homosexuality was illegal till 1967, in European countries like Germany till the 1970’s, and until recently in most of Catholic South America. However as a result of the rejection of Christian values by the post second world war generation in the West and very specifically the rejection of the Christian view that sex was exclusively for marriage, there has been a strident campaign by homosexuals to have equal rights with heterosexuals which has been largely successful, so much so that in the UK it is now illegal for a hotelier not to hire a room to a homosexual couple, or for an adoption agency not to consider a same sex couple as possible parents. As seen most denominations have held firm to the teaching of Scripture and the Church, but some Christian leaders, especially within the Western Anglican Church and the Methodists associated with the liberals who do not accept that the Bible has been inspired by the Holy Spirit, have felt it necessary to try and revise traditional interpretations of the Bible and church teaching to accommodate practising homosexuals. So for example regarding the story of Sodom, those who want to approve of homosexuality say this is not about gang rape, but about hospitality; regarding the prohibitions in Leviticus they say if a Chrsitian accepts this, they must accept all the requirements of the Jewish law; and regarding Romans 1 they argue this refers to temple worship and Paul is not condemning homosexuality per se. A full consideration of these arguments would need more space, but two points should be noted regarding these arguments. First of all they have failed to convince most of Christendom, and those denominations where liberal leaders have tried to push for an accommodation with homosexuality have suffered bitter division. And secondly there is the witness of church growth. The Assembies of God fellowships, US Mega Churches, or the Alpha Course all take a traditional view on homosexuality and have experienced phenomenal growth and have a constant stream of moving testimonies of people whose broken lives have been restored by Christ. Liberal chuches who support homosexuality have not experienced this sort of growth. So though there is a small section of the church that is questioning the traditional Christian view of homosexuality, Christendom as a whole views it as being sinful. In the past societies that have ignored the sanctity of marriage and indulged in hedonism have always imploded and this is exactly what will happen to Western society and the churches that have tried to accommodate their theology to the demands of lustful pleasure seekers.
The teachings of Scripture and the church though will certainly survive, not least because though it condemns homosexuality, the Christian view is to love and offer grace to the homosexual. Yes, homosexuality is a very serious sin, but it is not beyond the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. If the homosexual will come in repentance not just for sexual sins, but for all his or her sins and the proud independent spirit that insists on his or her own way and confess Jesus Christ to be Lord of their lives, then all their sins are washed away. Total cleansing is there for all sin – but the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cover sin when it is not confessed. Here is the cruelty of those who patronisingly pretend to love homosexuals by defending their sodomy as being acceptable: they discourage them from coming to experience true cleansing from God.
Once a homosexual becomes a Christian, then, he or she will suffer urges to obey the sinful nature - and he or she will discover that the Holy Spirit on a day to day basis can ‘put to death the deeds of the flesh.’ The homosexual’s battle is just as vicious as Christians who fight with other sinful habits, but as countless alchoholics, drug addicts, porn users, gamblers, adulterers, and homosexuals testify, the Holy Spirit is stronger. Certainly there will be lonely nights when the temptations will seem unbearable, but by God’s grace morning comes and they have remained pure.
This is not to argue that every homosexual will eventually become a heterosexual and want to marry and so enjoy sex in a legitimate manner. We live in a fallen world and sometimes there are no easy answers. So it might be that a homosexual who becomes a Christian will continue to have homosexual tendencies which he or she must allow the Holy Spirit to control till death. And such people must accept that chastity is their calling. This would apply to the very small percentage – between 1-2% - of people who are truly born with homosexual tendencies. However the vast majority of people who think they are homosexual are really those who have become homosexual for different reasons. There are some who have suffered an appalling relationship with their father or mother and have sought to relieve the pain of that by becoming intimate with a substitute; in some countries where there is little opportunity to mix with the opposite sex, homosexuality is a teenage thrill which later becomes an adult habit; and there are those who get bored of heterosexaul hedonism and so experiment with same sex to intensity their experiences. When these people repent it is perfectly possible for them to become heterosexual again, and this has happened in thousands of cases, only heaven knows the full number.
This then is the Christian view of homosexuality: it is sinful – but Jesus Christ can completely forgive and cleanse this sin in his blood, and uphold every human being to live a pure life by the Holy Spirit. The duty of all Christians is to share the love of Christ with homosexuals, and to encouage them to repent, and to constantly encourage them if they do. For any Christian to deny that homosexuality is a sin is to betray the Scriptures, the church – and the homosexual who is left under the illusion that all is well, when in fact he or she is ensnared in a very dangerous sin.
All Rights Reserved
T. G. S. Hawksley
Not only is this the view of all the mainline churches today, but this has been the view of the church throughout history All the church fathers condemned the practise, with Tertullian saying that homosexuality ‘contravened the law of nature’ more than other sexual sins. The fathers were particularly incensed by pedastry,
when men used young boys for their lust. The greatest teacher of the church in the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas called it, a ‘carnal, bestial, and unnameable vice’, while the monastic reformer Peter Damian argued that the punishment for sodomy, the activity of male homosexuals, should be the same as that for blasphemer – utter destruction. So too the great Protestant reformers Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, condemned homosexuality, as did the great modern revivalists and evangelists John Wesley, George Whitfield, Dwight Moody and Billy Graham.
The church has held this view consistently for 2,000 years for three reasons: the condemnation of Scripture; the law of nature and the order for the family. In both the Old and New Testaments the homosexuality is condemned. Genesis 19 has the lurid story of the lust of the citizens of Sodom who besieged Lot’s house desperate to gang rape his male guests – ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them’. Given God then rained down sulfur and fire on this city, most readers have assumed that these homosexual passions helped provoke the wrath of God. In Leviticus 18 and 20 God’s commandments for His people newly redeemed from Egypt are very specific – ‘Do not lie with a man as with a woman – this is detestable.’ And in the New Testament homosexuality is both bluntly condemned (1 Timothy 1:10, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Jude 1:7), and in Romans 1 Paul sees it as a sign of how God has reluctantly ‘given up’ sinners to their wilful idolatry. They degraded ‘their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.’ Traditional theologians, espeically Roman Catholics, have also consistently combined the rule of Scripture with that of ‘the law of nature.’ This argument has two pillars. One is that the majority of people feel instinctively repulsed by the same sex, they feel it is unnatural, in the same way they would feel about human beings having sex with animals – that is why Aquinas refers to homosexuality being bestial. And the other is that it is absolutely obvious that the natural body was created for hetero sexual acts which leads to procreation, and not for homosexual ones. Hence the view of the church is that homosexuality is unnatural. Finally there is the divine order for the family, which is founded on Genesis 2 where God creates a woman (not another man) to be a companion to Adam, and then the order is given that the man should leave his parents and become one flesh with his wife and so become the head of a new family. Jesus then reiterates this teaching in Matthew 19. Based on this the church has always held that a family consists of a married man and woman and their off spring. The Roman Catholic church correctly teaches that in fact the family is a ‘sacrament’ operating on a ‘supernatural’ plane because it is through the family that natural children are born, who are then adopted as children of God. Homosexuality by its very nature has to stand outside this divine order of the family, and so sets itself up as a hostile alternative which in the view of the church will inevitably damage the well being of society.
Until the sexual revolution of the 1960’s this Christian view of homosexuality was unanimously held by all denominations. Furthermore it was also widely accepted by countries with a Christain heritage. So for example in the United Kingdom homosexuality was illegal till 1967, in European countries like Germany till the 1970’s, and until recently in most of Catholic South America. However as a result of the rejection of Christian values by the post second world war generation in the West and very specifically the rejection of the Christian view that sex was exclusively for marriage, there has been a strident campaign by homosexuals to have equal rights with heterosexuals which has been largely successful, so much so that in the UK it is now illegal for a hotelier not to hire a room to a homosexual couple, or for an adoption agency not to consider a same sex couple as possible parents. As seen most denominations have held firm to the teaching of Scripture and the Church, but some Christian leaders, especially within the Western Anglican Church and the Methodists associated with the liberals who do not accept that the Bible has been inspired by the Holy Spirit, have felt it necessary to try and revise traditional interpretations of the Bible and church teaching to accommodate practising homosexuals. So for example regarding the story of Sodom, those who want to approve of homosexuality say this is not about gang rape, but about hospitality; regarding the prohibitions in Leviticus they say if a Chrsitian accepts this, they must accept all the requirements of the Jewish law; and regarding Romans 1 they argue this refers to temple worship and Paul is not condemning homosexuality per se. A full consideration of these arguments would need more space, but two points should be noted regarding these arguments. First of all they have failed to convince most of Christendom, and those denominations where liberal leaders have tried to push for an accommodation with homosexuality have suffered bitter division. And secondly there is the witness of church growth. The Assembies of God fellowships, US Mega Churches, or the Alpha Course all take a traditional view on homosexuality and have experienced phenomenal growth and have a constant stream of moving testimonies of people whose broken lives have been restored by Christ. Liberal chuches who support homosexuality have not experienced this sort of growth. So though there is a small section of the church that is questioning the traditional Christian view of homosexuality, Christendom as a whole views it as being sinful. In the past societies that have ignored the sanctity of marriage and indulged in hedonism have always imploded and this is exactly what will happen to Western society and the churches that have tried to accommodate their theology to the demands of lustful pleasure seekers.
The teachings of Scripture and the church though will certainly survive, not least because though it condemns homosexuality, the Christian view is to love and offer grace to the homosexual. Yes, homosexuality is a very serious sin, but it is not beyond the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. If the homosexual will come in repentance not just for sexual sins, but for all his or her sins and the proud independent spirit that insists on his or her own way and confess Jesus Christ to be Lord of their lives, then all their sins are washed away. Total cleansing is there for all sin – but the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cover sin when it is not confessed. Here is the cruelty of those who patronisingly pretend to love homosexuals by defending their sodomy as being acceptable: they discourage them from coming to experience true cleansing from God.
Once a homosexual becomes a Christian, then, he or she will suffer urges to obey the sinful nature - and he or she will discover that the Holy Spirit on a day to day basis can ‘put to death the deeds of the flesh.’ The homosexual’s battle is just as vicious as Christians who fight with other sinful habits, but as countless alchoholics, drug addicts, porn users, gamblers, adulterers, and homosexuals testify, the Holy Spirit is stronger. Certainly there will be lonely nights when the temptations will seem unbearable, but by God’s grace morning comes and they have remained pure.
This is not to argue that every homosexual will eventually become a heterosexual and want to marry and so enjoy sex in a legitimate manner. We live in a fallen world and sometimes there are no easy answers. So it might be that a homosexual who becomes a Christian will continue to have homosexual tendencies which he or she must allow the Holy Spirit to control till death. And such people must accept that chastity is their calling. This would apply to the very small percentage – between 1-2% - of people who are truly born with homosexual tendencies. However the vast majority of people who think they are homosexual are really those who have become homosexual for different reasons. There are some who have suffered an appalling relationship with their father or mother and have sought to relieve the pain of that by becoming intimate with a substitute; in some countries where there is little opportunity to mix with the opposite sex, homosexuality is a teenage thrill which later becomes an adult habit; and there are those who get bored of heterosexaul hedonism and so experiment with same sex to intensity their experiences. When these people repent it is perfectly possible for them to become heterosexual again, and this has happened in thousands of cases, only heaven knows the full number.
This then is the Christian view of homosexuality: it is sinful – but Jesus Christ can completely forgive and cleanse this sin in his blood, and uphold every human being to live a pure life by the Holy Spirit. The duty of all Christians is to share the love of Christ with homosexuals, and to encouage them to repent, and to constantly encourage them if they do. For any Christian to deny that homosexuality is a sin is to betray the Scriptures, the church – and the homosexual who is left under the illusion that all is well, when in fact he or she is ensnared in a very dangerous sin.
All Rights Reserved
T. G. S. Hawksley
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