Does God Approve of Same-Sex Relationships?

by Perry Hall

Since those who affirm that God approves of same sex marriage by reinterpreting the plain passages in both the Old Testament (Leviticus 18,20) and the New Testament (Romans 1), let me suggest plenty of ways we can prove same-sex relationships are not approved by God.

1. Creation: God made male and female (Genesis1:27).
2. Moses’s Editorial Comment about Marriage: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).
3. Jesus affirms male-female marriage in Matthew 19 by going back to creation.
4. Homosexuality was not practiced nor approved by the Jews.
5. Biological Design: God designed male and female bodies to "fit" one another.
6. Biological Difference: One purpose among others for sexuality is the potential to have children (Genesis 1:28). Such is not even potentially possible in same-sex relationships because the bodies are not designed for such relationships.
7. Biological Health: Disease is associated with homosexuality as it also is with promiscuity among heterosexuals; while heterosexuals who are virgins upon marriage and stay faithful are a healthy biological arrangement.
8. Type and Antitype: Israel was considered Yahweh's wife.
9. Type and Antitype: Christ and the Church are the mystery revealed in a bridegroom-and-bride relationship (Ephesians 5).
10. Lack of One Positive Example: Scripture is filled with approved sexual relationships between men and women, with no examples of same-sex relationships even though they existed in pagan cultures.
11. The worldly standard is not God's standard, and homosexuality was acceptable in Roman and Greek cultures, while Scripture does not even show one positive example.
12. Porneia is any unlawful sexual relationship. Since Scripture does not list every type of unlawful sexual relationship (i.e., pederastry), we can rely upon all the above to define lawful even without the reinterpreted Scriptures.

Now for those plain passages which are reinterpreted to not be against what they plainly read as being against:

• "And you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination" (Leviticus 18:17).
• "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them" (Leviticus 20:13).
• "For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions; for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the males abandoned the natural function of the female and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error" (Romans 1:26-27).
• "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 effeminate, nor homosexuals" (I Corinthians 6:9).
• "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having indulged in the same way as these in gross sexual immorality and having gone after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7).

Using a meta-narrative of love to approve what Scripture plainly condemns does not show true love for those who need to repent.

Using a judgmental accusation of Pharisaism to approve what the Bible plainly condemns is prejudicial without evidence.

And finally, we all need grace. However, we are warned not to turn grace into licentiousness (Jude 1:4).