Was the death penalty for homosexuals only referring to hell?
Question:
Does Deuteronomy 20 really say that we should kill gay people? I was always under the idea that it was saying God was going to kill them by sending them to hell when they died because they knew better and refused to change. Am I right? It came up in conversation and I was unsure.
Also, I was wondering if people born with both sexes are talked about in the Bible? The guy I was talking to was a gay man who later in life found out that he had non-functioning ovaries. Could this contribute to his lifestyle and are they exempt from some judgment because it was a birth defect?
Answer:
You are referring to: "If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:13). This is part of the Old Testament -- a covenant we are no longer under. See Why We Don't Follow the Old Testament. In that law, the list in Leviticus 20 contained the penalties judges (not ordinary people) were to impose for different crimes. Yes, homosexuality carried the death penalty under Israelite law if two or more independent witnesses to the crime testified (Deuteronomy 17:6). The rule was referring to what people were to carry out and people cannot send someone to hell. Therefore, the law was not referring to future punishment in hell; though, this doesn't mean that someone who committed a crime that carried the death penalty did not have to be concerned about also facing God in Judgment. "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
I suspect that the man you were talking to told you a lie. When a child is developing in the womb, the gonad tissues in women become their ovaries and in men, the same tissue moves down and becomes the testicles. But this man is claiming to have had four gonad tissue, something that just doesn't happen. See: Does the existence of intersex justify a transgender claim of a mistake?
