“Jesus Didn’t Condemn Homosexuality”

[Garland-Green]

by Kyle Butt, M.A.

By and large, the American culture is aggressively promoting the sinful lifestyle of homosexuality. In the midst of such pressure, many people who call themselves Christians are caving in and accepting this perverted lifestyle in spite of God’s clear teachings against it (Butt, 2003). Just recently, the country singer Carrie Underwood stated that her Christian faith lead her to support gay marriage (Nilles, 2012). In truth, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ could never be accurately understood to lead a person to conclude that homosexual marriage is moral (Miller and Harrub, 2004).

One of the most common arguments made in support of homosexuality is that Jesus Christ did not explicitly condemn the practice. Supposedly, since Jesus never stated specifically: “Homosexuality is a sin,” then His failure to denounce the lifestyle can be interpreted to mean that He approved of it. This reasoning is riddled with error.

First, Jesus explained to His followers that He did not have time to teach them everything they needed to know. He told them that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance all that He had taught, and would include additional teaching that He had not had time to cover. He told His disciples: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12-13). When we look to the inspired writings of the New Testament, we see the authors boldly and specifically condemning the practice based on the revelation they received from the Holy Spirit (Miller and Harrub, 2004). Thus, it is wrong to suggest that only the “words in red” are Jesus’ teachings. On the contrary, He foretold that more teaching would be done after His return to heaven due to the fact that the apostles “could not bear” all of it at the time.

Second, even if Jesus did not explicitly condemn the practice (though He actually did, as will be noted later), that certainly could not be used as evidence that He condoned the practice. For instance, where does Jesus explicitly state that bestiality is wrong? Where in the New Testament does Jesus state that polygamy is wrong? Where are the “words in red” that specifically condemn *****? Are we to suppose that the Son of God condoned using crystal meth because there is not an explicit statement from Jesus’ mouth that says “do not smoke crystal meth?” The idea that silence from Jesus on a subject means He approved of or condoned the practice cannot be substantiated.

Finally, it must be considered that Jesus did, in fact, speak against homosexuality. On numerous occasions, Jesus condemned the sins of adultery (Matthew 19:18.), sexual immorality (Matthew 19:9) and fornication (Matthew 15:19). These terms describe any type of sexual intercourse that is not within the confines of a marriage ordained by God. Jesus then proceeded to define exactly what God views as a morally permissible marriage. He stated:

Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate (Matthew 19:4-6).

By defining marriage as between one male and one female, Jesus effectively condemned all other arrangements, including but not limited to one man and two women, one woman and two men, three men and one woman, three men and three women, one man and one man, one woman and one animal, etc. You can see the overwhelming logic of such. For Jesus to have to explicitly condemn every assortment of genders and numbers would be absurd. When He defined marriage between one man and one woman, He clearly showed that such an arrangement is the only one authorized by God.

Several years ago a man named Cory Moore “legally married his 2004 Cherry ES-335” Gibson guitar (“Man Marries Guitar,” 2007). He said: “The day I got her, I just knew she was the one…. I know it seems weird, but I really love her—like, really love her, with all my heart. I just wanted to make it official” (2007). Are we to conclude that because Jesus never specifically condemned a man marrying his guitar then the Son of God approved of such? To ask is to answer. In 2006, 41-year-old Sharon Tendler married a dolphin (“Woman Marries Dolphin,” 2006). Jesus never said one word explicitly about refraining from marrying a dolphin. Does that mean His “silence” should be viewed as approval? Not in any way.

Homosexuality is a sin. It always has been, and it always will be. The inspired New Testament writers repeatedly teach that to be the case. Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit would bring to the inspired writers information that they could not handle at the time of His departing. In addition, Jesus did explicitly define marriage as being between one man and one woman. The ruse to suggest that Jesus approves of homosexuality because He never expressly condemned it cannot be sustained logically, nor can it be defended on any type of moral grounds. The person who presumes to claim to be a Christian, and yet supports homosexuality, misunderstands the teachings of Christ and needs to repent and stop approving of a perverted, destructive practice that Jesus condemns (Matthew 19:1-9).

REFERENCES

Butt, Kyle (2003), “Homosexuality—Sin, or Cultural Bad Habit?” Apologetics Press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=7&article=1239.

“Man Marries Guitar” (2007), http://www.messandnoise.com/discussions/865688.

Miller, Dave and Brad Harrub (2004), “An Investigation of the Biblical Evidence Against Homosexuality,” Apologetics Press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=557.

Nilles, Billy (2012), “Carrie Underwood Reveals She Supports Gay Marriage,” http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2012/06/11/carrie-underwood-supports-gay-marriage-christian/.

“Woman Marries Dolphin” (2006), http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/woman-marries-dolphin/2006/01/01/1136050339590.html.



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Source  

[Bloopercat]

People shouldn't adopt such sexual habits to represent characteristics of their personality anyway. It's just nasty. confused  

[MeleKeli]

Aloha!
I wanted to say thank you for posting this. I've seen much discussion since the Supreme Court decision and your article hits on the very essence of the whole "...Christ didn't say it so it must be okay" stance.

I truly appreciate this Guild. We've got some great brethren here. Thank you for creating it. I never thought I'd see this in Gaia of all places. But I'm so very glad it's here.  

[Scarlet_Teardrops]

This is a great post. Jesus didn't mention homosexuality specifically. But He was a first-century Palestinian Jewish rabbi of the Pharisaical tradition.

In other words...He didn't need to mention it. He assumed His audience knew better. Even still, He does add qualifiers to what a Godly marriage looks like, as the post demonstrated, and what constitutes sexual immortality, which is anything outside of a Godly marriage.
 

[Garland-Green]

Cristaliacat15

People shouldn't adopt such sexual habits to represent characteristics of their personality anyway. It's just nasty. confused

It is not strange to me that sexuality is also affected by sin and that most people no longer see it as sin. It is not strange that society is abandoning previous understandings of right and wrong. It is what societies do when they abandon God (Romans 1). Just look at the history of Israel. My advice for anyone who encounter someone who is enslaved by this particular sin is to remember to be respectful ,objective and patient keeping in mind that we also walked in darkness once and that if it was not for the power of God we would still be walking in darkness. Use the Bible and point to the need for Jesus.  

[Garland-Green]

MeleKeli

Aloha!
I wanted to say thank you for posting this. I've seen much discussion since the Supreme Court decision and your article hits on the very essence of the whole "...Christ didn't say it so it must be okay" stance.

I truly appreciate this Guild. We've got some great brethren here. Thank you for creating it. I never thought I'd see this in Gaia of all places. But I'm so very glad it's here.

Thank God. It is He who has made it happen. He has opened up doors and allowed for it to be created. I can take no credit for it. ^_^

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  

[Garland-Green]

Scarlet_Teardrops

This is a great post. Jesus didn't mention homosexuality specifically. But He was a first-century Palestinian Jewish rabbi of the Pharisaical tradition.

In other words...He didn't need to mention it. He assumed His audience knew better. Even still, He does add qualifiers to what a Godly marriage looks like, as the post demonstrated, and what constitutes sexual immortality, which is anything outside of a Godly marriage.

Not sure He would agree with being called someone of the Pharisaical tradition with how much bad He had to say about the Pharisees. I know it is a belief commonly held that He was, but I am not sure if I agree with that. It was commonly understood in the Jewish community that homosexuality was not something one should engage in and so there was no need for Him to address it as you pointed out, and it had also been pointed out in Leviticus, a book of the Torah Jesus gave validation to by quoting it on other topics He saw the people had lost sight of.  

[ButterFlyCross89]

A very informative article and I agree with what was said. I feel theses verses relate to this topic.

Evil in the Last Days
1But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,…

Cross References
1 Timothy 4:1
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Jude 1:18
They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."  

[guy30]

I really don't think there is another way to interpret the bible on this issue, that is if you are being honest with yourself.  

[Scarlet_Teardrops]

Garland-Green

Scarlet_Teardrops

This is a great post. Jesus didn't mention homosexuality specifically. But He was a first-century Palestinian Jewish rabbi of the Pharisaical tradition.

In other words...He didn't need to mention it. He assumed His audience knew better. Even still, He does add qualifiers to what a Godly marriage looks like, as the post demonstrated, and what constitutes sexual immortality, which is anything outside of a Godly marriage.

Not sure He would agree with being called someone of the Pharisaical tradition with how much bad He had to say about the Pharisees. I know it is a belief commonly held that He was, but I am not sure if I agree with that. It was commonly understood in the Jewish community that homosexuality was not something one should engage in and so there was no need for Him to address it as you pointed out, and it had also been pointed out in Leviticus, a book of the Torah Jesus gave validation to by quoting it on other topics He saw the people had lost sight of.

He was a part of the Pharisaical tradition. His criticism of the Pharisees was not, per se, their views, but rather their hypocrisy and religious self-righteousness, as well as their additions to God's Law (i.e. man's traditions).

The Pharisees believed in the Resurrection. They believed the words of the Prophets. They believed in angels and in demons. They believed in miracles. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi of the Pharisaical tradition. They also awaited the Messiah. This runs in contrast to groups such as the Herodians and Sadducees, for example. I think there is good reason to claim that Jesus was of the Pharisaical tradition. I am not calling Him a pharisee, but rather that His views were in line with the Pharisaical tradition, or theology.

Some people claim that Jesus was more of an Essene, but I disagree.