When the Bible is clear, we can’t pretend it’s unclear. Likewise, when the Bible is unclear, we can’t pretend it’s clear. There are few topics in Scripture that are more clear than the blatant immorality of homosexuality.
Notice which side is reading Scripture at face value, and which side needs to do mental gymnastics to prove their point. If we need to twist Scripture into a pretzel to get a certain meaning from it, it’s almost certainly the wrong meaning.
The Biblical position is that the Bible actually means what it says. When the Bible says that men lying with men as with a woman is an abomination, it means that it’s an abomination. We can’t twist it into meaning that it’s actually totally cool.
The other position may argue that the authors of the Bible actually had no concept of sexual orientation so we can’t apply their words to our modern conception of it, or that to truly love our neighbor, we are forced to ignore verses that denounce things our culture approves of.
Alternatively, some laughably try argue that every single one of our modern English translations mistranslate the word “homosexual.” They argue the concept of homosexuality never even existed until 1946. But, even if it were true that the English word “homosexual” wasn’t used until 1946, the Bible doesn’t even need to use the word. It describes the act. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman.” There’s no way around it.
Here are a handful of verses that are good to keep in mind about what God thinks about homosexuality:
Leviticus 18:22 – You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
Leviticus 20:13 – If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
Jude 1:7 – Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Romans 1:26-28 – For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Genesis 2:24 – Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Mark 10:6-9 – But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – 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.
1 Timothy 1:8-11 – Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
1 Corinthians 7:2 – But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
