A Tough Standard For Human Behavior

The Bible teaches that sex is for marriage and that marriage unites the sexes. These things are taught throughout Scripture, as something that applies to all people at all times, rather than something that applies to a specific group of people or for a specific period of time. This has many implications for human sexuality, at least for those who strive to follow Him.

Just one of the implications is that engaging in sex-like behavior with someone of the same sex is sinful.

For years, homosexuality advocates have taken the "don't believe the Bible" approach or "the Bible is outdated" approach for trying to reconcile homosexual behavior with Christianity, or at least neutralize Christian opposition to homosexual behavior.

Lately, homosexuality advocates have tried to say that the Bible doesn't really teach that homosexual behavior is sinful.

As wiser people than me noted even before the Internet came into general public use, a lie can travel halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.

As such, refuting some of the recent attacks on the traditional understanding of Biblical teachings on sexuality can take a long time. With that, I point you to this:

“Gay Christianity” Refuted!

The complete response to Matthew Vines is now available as a single program. Yes its five hours and nine minutes long, (72meg in size), but the world needs to hear this message. We believe this so much that we have decided to make this publicly available to be distributed for free. Share it with your friends and relatives. We’ve titled it “Gay Christianity” Refuted and only ask that you not change it or sell it. All fair use rules apply for criticism too.

You can play it here or right click and download it. All that we ask is that if you are edified by it please consider supporting this work on a regular basis. There is more where that came from Lord willing.

"Gay Christianity" Refuted by James White is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Based on a work at aomin.org.

Good churches will welcome people who have identified themselves as homosexuals. However, a good church will not abandon the Biblical standard for human sexuality for the sake of the feelings of anyone who wants to engage in sex or sex-like behavior with someone who isn't their spouse in the Biblical sense.

 

I listened to the entire file of James White utterly refuting what Matthew Vines taught. Vines repeatedly appealed to emotion, and that might be effective for people who do not think critically and do not have a good understanding of the Bible, but it doesn't make what Matthew Vines taught true. It isn't.

 

Sex is for marriage. Marriage unites the sexes. That is the consistent Biblical teaching.

 

I find it interesting that people who claim:

 

1) To follow Jesus Christ as omniscient & omnipotent Lord and Savior

2) Being "gay" is a God-ordained, God-created identity, a sexual orientation that is every bit a part of someone and every bit morally neutral as having blue eyes

3) That Christians have unjustly condemned all homosexual behavior based on misreading or erroneously being selective in their application of the Bible

...are unable to point to a single, clear, Bible passage or reliable external source documenting that Jesus cleared up typical misunderstandings or animosity of his day about sexual orientation or same-sex relationships. Surely, an omniscient & omnipotent Jesus could have said something like, "You know, grooms don't have to marry brides. They can marry other grooms, if that is the desire of their heart. This is also very good." And He could have seen to it that it was recorded and preserved in the Bible, and thus prevented all sorts of trouble endured by people.

Instead, Jesus repeatedly affirmed the Scripture and, unlike with other things, is never recorded as having cleared up misconceptions about sex being for marriage and marriage uniting the sexes.

Matthew Vines repeatedly referred to "loving" lifelong monogamous same-sex relationships. By his own logic, he is attacking nonmonogamous people, including many people who identify as "gay Christians", in a way he chastises others for doing in his very message.

There is no way around it, folks. You do have the freedom to not follow Christ. You do not have the authority to change what God has taught about marriage and sexuality. Yeah, that can feel like a bummer sometimes. I didn't always live by the Biblical teaching myself. Plenty of churches would have accepted my fornication. That doesn't make fornication right.

 

UPDATE:

Jesus, Scripture, and the Myth of New Knowledge Arguments about Homosexual Unions
 

(Follow that link to watch at 76 minute video.

 

Dr. Gagnon will address the myth that we have radically new knowledge today about homosexuality that allows us to discount the biblical witness on homosexual practice or to claim its affirmation of loving homosexual relationships. Join FRC as Dr. Gagnon clearly presents a Scriptural perspective on today's most hotly contested moral debate: human sexuality.

Robert A. J. Gagnon is Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He has a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is a member both of the Society of Biblical Literature and of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas [Society of New Testament Studies]. He is also an ordained elder at a Presbyterian Church (USA) in Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics; co-author (with Dan O. Via) of Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views; and, as a service to the church, provides a large amount of free material on the web dealing with Scripture and homosexuality.