During a recent \u2018homosexuality\u2019 debate someone has thrown out (and judging by Google it\u2019s the newest rallying cry) that we can\u2019t oppose homosexuality while at the same time opposing the stoning of disobedient children. I have a feeling that the usual Old Testament versus New Testament law argument is going to be largely ignored. Does anyone have some fresh ideas on the topic?<\/p>\n\t
In the Old Testament a rebellious child — not merely disobedient, but what would be better described as a juvenile delinquent — could face a death penalty. “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).<\/p>\n Similarly, under the Old Testament homosexuality carried a death penalty. “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<\/em>” (Leviticus 20:13).<\/p>\n In the New Testament, being a rebellious child is a sin that can keep you out of heaven and was cause for withdrawal by the church. “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:2-5).<\/p>\n In the New Testament, homosexuality is declared to be a sin that will keep you out of heaven and was cause for withdrawal by the church. “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<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:9-10).<\/p>\n It appears to be consistent to me. While the punishment given for particular sins changed between the Old Testament and the New Testament, what was called sin basically stayed the same. But that makes sense since law (Old or New Testament) doesn’t create sin, but merely defines what is sin. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”<\/em>” (Romans 7:7). Morality remains fixed. Right and wrong do not vary. But the law makes what is sin clear and instructs its followers in how to deal with sin when it appears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: During a recent \u2018homosexuality\u2019 debate someone has thrown out (and judging by Google it\u2019s the newest rallying cry) that we can\u2019t oppose homosexuality while at the same time opposing the stoning of disobedient children. I have a feeling that the usual Old Testament versus New Testament law argument is going to be largely ignored.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-6939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-homosexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13758,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-other-sins-in-the-old-testament-are-no-longer-sins-then-isnt-homosexuality-also-not-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":6939,"position":0},"title":"If other sins in the Old Testament are no longer sins, then isn’t homosexuality also not a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible is the Word of God, but Leviticus, in which Moses wrote about homosexuality, also lists other sins that are on the very same level of homosexuality (because God says that every sin is as bad as every other sin). Leviticus 19:19 says, \"Do not wear clothing of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42821,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-stoning-adulterers-and-not-eating-shellfish\/","url_meta":{"origin":6939,"position":1},"title":"On Stoning Adulterers and Not Eating Shellfish","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh Fulford via\u00a0The Fellowship Room Periodically - at least three or four times a year - someone feels compelled to demonstrate his or her lack of knowledge of the Bible by writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper railing against Bible-believers who oppose homosexuality. (Capital punishment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Oysters.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16618,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-gospels-more-important-than-the-rest-of-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":6939,"position":2},"title":"Are the gospels more important than the rest of the New Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently heard a preacher from a non-denominational church. He touched on a point I totally disagreed with, but it will take me some time to research as I read through the gospels and mark out verses. But in the meantime, I was wondering about your opinion. He made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50532,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-go-there\/","url_meta":{"origin":6939,"position":3},"title":"I Don\u2019t Go There","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant People use many devices to mitigate or cancel out plain Bible teaching. This ancient practice can be traced to the Old Testament. Seven hundred years before Christ, Isaiah was dealing with a rebellious people. God told him: \"Now go, write it on a tablet before them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/hear-no-evil-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2986,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-homosexuality-condemned-in-the-scriptures\/","url_meta":{"origin":6939,"position":4},"title":"Is homosexuality condemned in the Scriptures?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This was received in response to the answer \"What kinds of homosexuality does the Bible mention?\" Malokos\u00a0just meant soft as in weak in faith and\u00a0arsen\u00a0is male or man and homosexual means male and female gay people, so\u00a0arsenokotie\u00a0only meant a gay male temple prostitute. Levitical law is now dead so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19942,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/its-mean-to-say-homosexuality-is-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":6939,"position":5},"title":"It’s mean to say homosexuality is a sin!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am a male thirteen-year-old Christian - more specifically, Roman Catholic. I was reading chapter 12, \"Other Sexual Perversions,\" and I noticed how you said that all homosexuals would be punished with death. You also used the example of Leviticus 18:22. But I would like to point out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}