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Fact Sheet | Sexuality & Gender

What Does the Bible Say?

A New Theological Movement Says Homosexuality is OK

As American culture increasingly promotes the LGBTQ+ agenda, a growing opposition to the long-held views of the Bible's stance on the subject has emerged. In fact, it is a whole new theology.

Before we address some of the claims made by gay-affirming faith leaders, we should remember two foundational points to seeking instruction from the Bible.

1) God is all powerful. He is sovereign, which means that He is able to control events. As such, a fundamental tenet held by most Christians is that in his love for us, and His wanting to be known by us, He has protected His words throughout time. God does not want to be misunderstood. The Bible on your shelf, regardless of the translation, is reliable for guidance and life decisions.

Differences in Bible translations and original texts, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, are few and stylistic, not doctrinal. These historic finds have served to affirm the accuracy of what Christians and Jews have read for centuries.

As Brian Rickett Principal Researcher, and lecturer for the MIKRA Research Laboratory which specializes in artifact analysis and research notes: "The text of Scripture that forms the Bible has been remarkably preserved from ancient scrolls to modern Bible translations. What believers have accepted by faith for centuries has now been confirmed by discoveries and technology. There is no doubt that God providentially ensured and continues to ensure the existence and integrity of His Word. Additionally, faithful men of the past have cooperated with God to ensure that those texts are readable for us in our native language. For that, we can all be thankful."

2) Our motivation for searching the Bible makes a big difference. When seeking Biblical answers, there is one question we must always ask: "Am I trying to interpret Scripture in light of my own inclination; or should I interpret my inclination in light of Scripture?" We must always be careful not to ignore what the Bible says in favor of what we would like for it to say.

"Gay theology" is a new construct with its foundational works first appearing around 1980 with a history professor from Yale named John Boswell. He wrote a book titled Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality. Almost any current gay affirming religious text will cite quotes from Boswell, who died of AIDS in 1994.

For thousands of years, Biblical scholars accepted at face value the Bible's numerous passages on human sexual behavior. The time-honored theology was that God's design for sexual behavior was to be between a man and a woman within the context of marriage.

The Bible has several teachings and expectations for men and women, parents, children, widows, the divorced, husbands and wives. Nowhere does the Bible offer conduct guidance for homosexual relationships.

What most "gay theologians" or same-sex affirming churches seem to hang their hat on is a cultural argument. They tend to argue that passages prohibiting homosexuality (Lev. 18:22; Lev. 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10) have been yanked out of context.

The problem with this is these passages are so clear that it is dishonest to claim today's Christians misinterpret them out of "prejudice against homosexuals." Besides, most Christians condemn heterosexuals for their sexual sins, too. To deem same-sex activity permissible, one has to believe that Bible scholars and translators for centuries have gotten all five of these passages wrong from both testaments, (Oddly, many "gay theologians" affirm the rest of scripture, or at least freely cite other verses as accurate, contending that only passages on homosexuality are in error.).

Another problem is the obvious context of the larger passages, containing those specific verses - they clearly speak of sexual or immoral behaviors. Those verses were also written centuries apart in very different cultures and times, (Hebrew and Roman, for example,) yet each disapprove of homosexual behavior.

A point we often hear from gay affirming advocates is that Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality. First off, this claim has a true contextual problem because it assumes that the Gospels are more authoritative than the other books of the Bible. Never did the gospel authors claim their books were more authoritative. Second, this argument assumes that if Jesus did not mention something it is not important or it is acceptable. But Jesus did not mention incest or spousal abuse. Are we to believe that those things did not matter to Him and are therefore allowable, even though they are condemned elsewhere in the Bible? Third, this assumes that we know everything that Jesus said. (John 21:25 says the world could not contain the books describing all he did.)

Remember when Jesus was asked about divorce (Matt 19: 3-12 & Mark 10: 5-9)? He pointed back to the book of Genesis, affirming God's original design for marriage. He said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, [This is a problem for transgender affirming churches.] And said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?" While we do not have record of anything Jesus said about homosexuality, he did say this about heterosexuality as the standard and God's created intent, and that God designed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Some within the religious community may praise homosexual couples who are monogamous (a religious virtue) and married (also a religious virtue) and happy. They ask how could such a union, perhaps even blessed by a church, be illegitimate? This sidesteps the issue of whether homosexuality is right or wrong. Did the person come to this conclusion because of careful study of the scriptures? Many believers can spend years struggling with a temptation or desire, yet no where in Scripture does God's standard change because of human desires or struggles. Sin is not allowed if the person committing it is unable to get over his feelings or desires, or believes that behavior is beneficial. God warns us not to lean unto our own understanding. Self-control is a fruit (evidence) of the Holy Spirit within us.

There is hope for those who struggle and seek answers through an accurate faith. Paul, specifically notes that in the Corinthian church there were those who had left the "unrighteous" behavior of homosexuality. In 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 God inspired him to write, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. 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."

If we honestly seek, He will answer. Perhaps these points can help as we look at this issue through an accurate Biblical lens.

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