Why are you cherry-picking laws from Leviticus to condemn homosexuality?

Question:

I just read the article on homosexuality and was concerned it excludes all the other 613 commandments of God dealing with slavery, leprosy, woman's issues, dietary codes, etc. Instead of cherry-picking laws from Leviticus, the guidance of Jesus is far more valuable and would have been of more useful.

Jesus said the old is past and all things are made new. How dare you or anyone put themselves above Jesus to cherry-pick from the Old Testament, or if you believe in God and not Jesus, how can you ignore all of Leviticus and rest of the Old Testament by selecting some and ignoring other passages? How self-aggrandizing.

The ignorance of most Americans can be demonstrated by this sobering fact: Currently, 22 thousand Americans study Mandarin while 300 million Chinese study English. America grows ignorant, quibbling over personally selected passages from the Old Testament while our government destroys our natural environment, destroys the middle class, makes a huge national debt, aids special industries, and special Arab interests.

Jesus spoke up regarding bad government and you should too.

Answer:

What an interesting, but silly, way to argue one's point. An article is written to address a particular point, but because it doesn't address all other possible points you feel justified in condemning the message presented. I notice that no point was presented to say that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is acceptable, only an expressed desire that I focus my attentions elsewhere.

I did a quick sweep of all the articles on this site that address homosexuality and found that these verses were referenced many times. As you should be able to see, Leviticus is not being "cherry-picked." The condemnation of homosexuality has been a consistent theme in the Bible.

  • Genesis 19:4-5, 13 "Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally." ... "For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.""
  • Leviticus 18:22 "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination."
  • Leviticus 20:13 "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."
  • Deuteronomy 23:17-18 "There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God."
  • Judges 19:22-24 "As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him carnally!" But the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brethren! I beg you, do not act so wickedly! Seeing this man has come into my house, do not commit this outrage. Look, here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine; let me bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them as you please; but to this man do not do such a vile thing!"
  • I Kings 14:24 "And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel."
  • I Kings 15:12 "And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made."
  • I Kings 22:46 "And the rest of the perverted persons, who remained in the days of his father Asa, he banished from the land."
  • II Kings 23:7 "Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image."
  • Romans 1:26-27 "For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 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."
  • I Corinthians 6:9-11 "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. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
  • I Timothy 1:9-11 "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, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust."
  • Jude 6-7 "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

See "What kinds of homosexuality does the Bible mention?" for an explanation of terms.

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