The Sin of Homosexuality
It is very easy to prove from the Scriptures that Jesus Christ Himself and the New Testament (as a whole) teaches that sexual immorality will cause a person to be cast into the lake of fire or be shut out of ‘heaven’—unless they repent of their sin and follow Jesus for the remainder of their lives. It is also clear that the Bible teaches that sexual relations between people of the same sex is a type of sexual immorality. But what exactly was taught by the earliest followers of Jesus concerning the subject of homosexuality, or same-sex relations? How did the ancient followers of Christ interpret their Master’s words about sexual immorality? Did they believe Jesus allowed or authorized sexual relations to be practiced between people of the same sex? Or did they consider it to be sinful? Can we know what is true on this issue? See the evidence below.
Romans 1:24-32: 24 “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality [porneia[1]], wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: 9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators [pornos[2]], nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals [malakos[3]], nor sodomites [arsenokoites[4]], 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Timothy 1:9-11: 9 “knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators [pornos], for sodomites [arsenokoites], for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.”
Jude 7: “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality [ekporneuo[5]] and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”
2 Peter 2:6-9: “6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,”
Didache (c. 80-140 A.D.): “Thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not commit pederasty,[6] thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not practice magic, thou shalt not practice witchcraft, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.” [ANF Vol. 7, p. 377]
Polycarp (c. 100-150 A.D.): “In like manner, let the young men also be blameless in all things, being especially careful to preserve purity, and keeping themselves in, as with a bridle, from every kind of evil. For it is well that they should be cut off from the lusts that are in the world, since ‘every lust warreth against the spirit;’ and ‘neither fornicators, nor effeminate [homosexuals or malakos], nor abusers of themselves with mankind [sodomites or arsenokoites], shall inherit the kingdom of God’[7]…Wherefore it is needful to abstain from all these things…” [ANF Vol. 1, p. 34]
Aristides (c. 125 A.D.): [while speaking of the things done in the stories of the fictitious Greek gods which the Greek people then imitated, Aristides writes:] “…and some polluted themselves by lying with males.” [ANF Vol. 9, p. 269]
Justin Martyr (c. 160 A.D.): [speaking of how the pagans raised up male & female human infants who had been abandoned as infants to die, and then reared them like a herd of animals only to use them as sex-slaves or force them into a life of prostitution, Justin writes:] “…we see you rear children only for this shameful use; and for this pollution a multitude of females and hermaphrodites, and those who commit unmentionable iniquities, are found in every nation…And any one who uses such persons, besides the godless and infamous and impure intercourse, may possibly be having intercourse with his own child, or relative, or brother. And there are some who prostitute even their own children and wives, and some are openly mutilated for the purpose of sodomy.” [ANF Vol. 1, p. 172]
Tatian (c. 160 A.D.): “The Greeks consider intercourse with a mother as unlawful, but this practice is esteemed most becoming by the Persian Magi; pederasty is condemned by the Barbarians, but by the Romans, who endeavor to collect herds of boys like grazing horses, it is honored with certain privileges.” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 77]
Athenagoras (c. 175 A.D.): [speaking of the sexually immoral pagans who falsely accuse chaste Christians, Athenagoras says that these pagans:] “…have set up a market for fornication, and established infamous resorts for the young for every kind of vile pleasure,–who do not abstain even from males, males with males committing shocking abominations, outraging all the noblest and comeliest bodies in all sorts of ways, so dishonoring the fair workmanship of God…these men, I say, revile us [Christians] for the very things which they are conscious of themselves, and ascribe to their own gods, boasting of them as noble deeds, and worthy of the gods. These adulterers and pederasts defame the eunuchs [i.e. Christian virgins] and the once-married[8]….” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 147]
Theophilus (c. 180 A.D.): “…show me yourself, whether you are not an adulterer, or a fornicator, or a thief, or a robber, or a purloiner; whether you do not corrupt boys; whether you are not insolent, or a slanderer, or passionate, or envious, or proud, or supercilious; whether you are not a brawler, or covetous, or disobedient to parents; and whether you do not sell your children; for to those who do these things God is not manifest, unless they have first cleansed themselves from all impurity. All these things, then, involve you in darkness…iniquities, O man, involve you in darkness, so that you cannot see God.” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 89]
Clement of Alexandria (c. 195 A.D.): “But life has reached this pitch of licentiousness through the wantonness of wickedness, and lasciviousness is diffused over the cities, having become law. Beside them women stand in the stews, offering their own flesh for hire for lewd pleasure, and boys, taught to deny their sex, act the part of women….Men play the part of women, and women that of men, contrary to nature; women are at once wives and husbands: no passage is closed against libidinousness; and their promiscuous lechery is a public institution…O miserable spectacle! Horrible conduct! Such are the trophies of your social licentiousness which are exhibited: [because of prostitution…] fathers, unmindful of children of theirs that have been exposed [i.e. left out to die, but ‘rescued’ by pimps], often without their knowledge, have intercourse with a son that has debauched himself, and daughters that are prostitutes.” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 276]
“I admire the ancient legislators of the Romans: these detested effeminacy of conduct; and the giving of the body to feminine purposes, contrary to the law of nature, they judged worthy of the extremist penalty, according to the righteousness of the law.” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 277]
“The fate of the Sodomites was judgment to those who had done wrong, instruction to those who hear. The Sodomites having, through much luxury, fallen into uncleanness, practicing adultery shamelessly, and burning with insane love for boys; the All-seeing Word, whose notice those who commit impieties cannot escape, cast His eye on them.” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 282]
“A true gentleman must have no mark of effeminacy visible on his face, or any other part of his body. Let no blot on his manliness, then, be ever found either in his movements or habits.” [ANF Vol. 2, p. 289]
Tertullian (c. 197 A.D.): “The Christian [man] confines himself to the female sex….The Christian husband has nothing to do with any but his own wife….But it will be said that some of us, too, depart from the rules of our discipline. In that case, however, we count them no longer Christians.” [ANF Vol. 3, p. 51]
“In short, I find no dress cursed by God, except a woman’s dress on a man: for ‘cursed,’ saith He, ‘is every man who clothes himself in woman’s attire.’” [c. 200 A.D.; ANF Vol. 3, p. 71]
“The coupling of two males is a very shameful thing.” [c. 200 A.D.; ANF Vol. 3, p. 509]
“…whoever enjoys any other than nuptial intercourse…makes himself guilty of adultery and fornication….But all the other frenzies of passions—impious both toward the bodies and toward the sexes—beyond the laws of nature, we banish not only from the threshold, but from all shelter of the Church, because they are not sins, but monstrosities.” [c. 208 A.D.; ANF Vol. 4, p. 77]
Origen (c. 230 A.D.): “But even in regard to those [more simple Christians] who…have not gone into these deep questions, we find that they believe in the Most High God, and in His Only-begotten Son, the Word and God, and that they often exhibit in their character a high degree of gravity, of purity, and integrity; while those who call themselves wise have despised these virtues, and have wallowed in the filth of sodomy, in lawless lust, ‘men with men working that which is unseemly.’”[9] [ANF Vol. 4, p. 631]
“But observe here that every great sin is a loss of the talents of the master of the house, and such [great] sins are committed by fornicators, adulterers, abusers of themselves with men [sodomites or arsenokoites], effeminate [homosexuals or malakos], idolaters, murderers.” [ANF Vol. 9, p. 500]
Cyprian (c. 250 A.D.): “Still further, what a degradation of morals it is, what a stimulus to abominable deeds, what food for vice, to be polluted by histrionic gestures, against the covenant and law of one’s birth, to gaze in detail upon the endurance of incestuous abominations! Men are emasculated, and all the pride and vigor of their sex is effeminate in the disgrace of their enervated body; and he is most pleasing there who has most completely broken down the man into the woman. He grows into praise by virtue of his crime; and the more he is degraded, the more skillful he is considered to be….Oh, if placed on that lofty watch-tower you could gaze into the secret places—if you could open the closed doors of sleeping chambers, and recall their dark recesses to the perception of sight,–you would behold things done by immodest persons which no chaste eye could look upon; you would see what even to see is a crime; you would see what people imbruted with the madness of vice deny that they have done, and yet hasten to do,–men with frenzied lusts rushing upon men, doing things which afford no gratification even to those who do them.” [ANF Vol. 5, p. 277-278]
Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390 A.D.): “For the conjunction of man and wife, if it be with righteousness, is agreeable to the mind of God….If, therefore, the difference of sexes was made by the will of God for the generation [i.e. reproduction] of multitudes, then must the conjunction of male and female be also acceptable to His mind. But we do not say so of that mixture that is contrary to nature, or of any unlawful practice; for such are enmity to God. For the sin of Sodom is contrary to nature, as is also that with brute beasts. But adultery and fornication are against the law; the one whereof is impiety, the other injustice, and, in a word, no other than a great sin….For [those who practice homosexuality] attempt the dissolution of the world [i.e. because it does repopulate the world], and endeavor to make the natural course of things to change for one that is unnatural…” [ANF Vol. 7, p. 462-463]
Eusebius of Caesarea (c. A.D. 325 A.D.): “Having forbidden all unlawful marriage, all unseemly practices, and the union of women with women and men with men, [the Word] adds: ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for in all these things the nations were defiled, which I will drive out before you’ [Lev. 18:24].” (Proof of the Gospel IV:10)
Oecumenius (6th century; commenting on Jude 7): “The unnatural lust in which the Sodomites indulged was homosexuality, which is wrong because it cannot lead to procreation. Jude mentions them [the fallen angels of v. 6?] in order to point out that if God destroyed them, regardless of their earlier state of blessedness, how will He spare us if we act in an ungodly and lustful way? However well-disposed and kind He may be toward us, He is still the righteous God, and because of His righteousness He does not spare those who have sinned against him.” [ACCS, N.T. Vol. 11, p. 251, Commentary on Jude]
Conclusion
The link given below will take you to a Wikipedia article which lists the professing Christian denominations that currently tolerate and affirm those within their ranks who openly practice the LGBTQ lifestyle. If you are a professing Christian who believes that the Bible is God’s message to mankind, and if you believe that Christians are called to preserve the essence of original Christianity, then you should have no fellowship with (or cooperation in “ministry” with) these apostate “Christian” groups, nor with anyone who is associated with them. All such organizations, and all professing Christians who agree with them on this topic, have strayed from the faith and are contributing to the efforts of Satan to deceive the world. Such people are heretics and deceivers and wolves in sheep’s clothing, and they should be openly and plainly denounced and called to repentance. If you believe that the gay lifestyle is sinful, and that those practicing it should be excluded from the church, then say so! Otherwise, your silence will speak volumes to those who are trying to convince the world that it is NOT sinful—and they have convinced many professing Christians that LGBTQ practices are compatible with Christianity.
However, before any church group or individual person is able to take up such a strong position on this subject without being guilty of hypocrisy, there is another widespread form of sexual immorality that is now running rampant through most ‘conservative, Bible-believing churches.’ Until we are also prepared to correct and reform our individual practices and our corporate policies of church discipline on the issue of divorce and remarriage (which is probably adultery in most cases, according to Jesus), then we should realize that we have very little moral authority to speak from, and stand on very shaky moral ground. The society around us seems to resemble Sodom and Gomorrah more and more every day. I am truly beginning to wonder: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faithfulness upon the earth?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_affirming_LGBT
Notes:
[1] Porneia—a general term for sexual immorality that is also used by Jesus in Matt 5:32 & 19:9. Strong’s #4202; The term would include all illicit sexual intercourse, such as: a. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals, etc. b. Sexual intercourse with close relatives (Lev. 18). c. Sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman (Mk 10:11-12 is adultery).
[2] Pornos—Strong’s #4205; 1. A man who prostitutes his body to another’s lust for hire; 2. A male prostitute; 3. A man who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator.
[3] Malakos—Stong’s #3120; I. soft, soft to the touch; II. metaph. in a bad sense. A. Effeminate: i. of a catamite (i.e. a boy kept for homosexual practices); ii. of a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness; iii. of a male prostitute.
[4] Arsenokoites—Strong’s #733; one who lies with a male as with a female; sodomite; homosexual; abuser of (that defile) self with mankind.
[5] Strong’s #1608; to be utterly unchaste:–give self over to fornication.
[6] Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary says that a “pederast” is (literally) a “lover of boys”: “one that practices anal intercourse esp. with a boy.”
[7] 1 Cor 6:9-10
[8] The majority consensus among the pre-Nicene Christians appears to have been that if a Christian were to ever get a divorce due to their spouse committing unrepentant adultery or due to their spouse simply abandoning or leaving them, the Christian was to remain by himself/herself and not get remarried to another person—at least so long as their original spouse was still alive. Otherwise, it would be adultery. As Athenagoras wrote: “…a person should either remain as he was born [i.e. a virgin], or be content with one marriage; for a second marriage is only a specious adultery. ‘For whosoever puts away his wife,’ says He, ‘and marries another, commits adultery’” (ANF Vol. 2, p. 146-147).
[9] Rom 1:27