Response to Clostridiophile on Homosexuality

>Clostridiophile said...”Peck, are you for putting homosexuals to death? It is Biblical, afterall.”

Response: No, I am not for putting “homosexuals” to death unless they commit a crime that is against the law of the country they live in whose consequence is death.

Leviticus 15:33 & 20:3 says that if a person engages in the homosexual act, this is an abomination and that person should be put to death. There are also a number of other actions that are abominations and require that the person who engages in those behaviors be “put to death”. These include adultery, cursing their parents (maybe not a bad idea…) or engaging in sorcery.

Generally speaking, when a law-maker (King, legislature, city council, and parent) makes a law, they require a consequence for breaking the law – in the hope that this consequence is sufficient enough to make one think twice about breaking the law. It is also a statement about how terrible the behavior is viewed by the law-maker. The more an action is wrong, the more severe the consequence or punishment.

For example, it used to be that a drunk driver was usually escorted home by the police. Today, because we view drunk driving as a terrible crime, the consequences are large fines, loss of license to drive, jail time. The idea is to make it not worth the cost to drive drunk and to make a statement about how terrible a think it is to drive while intoxicated.

The reverse occurred with the crime of adultery. It used to be that if a man committed adultery, he could be imprisoned. Now it is not even viewed as a crime and seems rampant in our culture.

So, God is the ultimate Law maker. He obviously views homosexual behavior, along with a lot of other behaviors, as a terrible offense to Him, and the consequences are that if you engage in this behavior you should be put to death…if you were in the nation of Israel while it was a theocracy (interestingly, the Israelites later on asked God for a king to rule them for they did not trust God, but that is another blog at another time). Perhaps it is because God’s Law was perfect and man, being imperfect, cannot keep the law or it is too great a burden.

Now, why am I not running out stoning or executing men who have sex with other men or adulterers or my children who curse me? Because in Matthew 5:17 Christ tells us He is the fulfillment of the Law. That means that when He died on the cross, He took our punishment for breaking God’s Law, even homosexual actions, and we are no longer required to exact the consequences, since it has already been exacted on Christ.

As Christians, we are no longer required to enforce God’s Law on others (though we should strive to keep it ourselves). The exception to this is when it is for the good of the church (the body of believers) – Matthew 18:15-20 – and then it is only to remove that person from fellowship until the person repents of the action that caused the division.

Homosexual actions are no different than lying or stealing or adultery or fornication outside of marriage (or cursing parents) and it really bothers me how some of my brothers and sisters in Christ have conveyed it as more of sin than any other.

The reality is that we have all failed to meet God’s standard (even Bill Graham, even Mother Theresa, even the Dahlia Lama). We are doomed by our own actions, but are saved by Christ when we repent of our sins and receive Him as Lord and Savior.

Then, we no longer define ourselves by the color of our skin, the heritage of our genes, or our sexual desires. We define ourselves in Christ and seek to deny ourselves and glorify Him. Not always good at that last part, but it is our goal.