Interesting Questions-145

On homosexual relationships and same-sex marriage

Letter to the Editor:
GOD'S MESSAGE, December 2011, p.2

RAMPANT AS lT is nowadays, homosexuality can be palpably observed in almost all cultures. Consequentially, we once in a while meet and become acquainted with men and women who are called gays and lesbians. I, for one, personally know of people who are romantically involved with members of the same sex and are even planning to get married. When questions of morals and religion are brought out in discussions, they just.‘ brush aside the issues by saying that the Bible has no clear prohibition against homosexual unions. l am not well-versed in biblical teachings, so may I ask you, doesn't the Bible prohibit homosexuality? Biblically speaking, can people get into homosexual relationships and same-sex marriage without committing sin? "

Roger Frost
Ontario, Canada

Editor's reply:

The first book of the Holy Scriptures, Genesis, definitely teaches that in the beginning, God instituted marriage for the union of a man and a woman—and not for two individuals who belong to the same sex. Adam and Eve-—the first man and woman—were the first couple united by God through marriage (Gen. 1:26-
28; 2:21-24).

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all^[b] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:26-
28, NKJV)

²¹ And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. ²² Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. ²³ And Adam said:  “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Gen.  2:21-24, NKJV).

That a man and a woman need each other according to God's design is reiterated in the New Testament (l Cor. 11:11).

¹¹ But in the Lord the woman needs the man, and the man needs the woman.  ERV

Apostle Paul said that every man should have his own wife and every woman should have her own husband:

"But because there is so much immorality, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband.” (l Cor. 7:2, Today’s English Version)

God is against homosexual unions. The Bible clearly teaches that it is unnatural and sinful for women to have lustful affection and passion and worse, sexual relationship, with one another. Males having passion with other males are also denounced:

²⁶ For this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and abnormal one,
²⁷ And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for one another—men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own ^[d]bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution.
²⁸ And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome, (Rom. 1:26-28, Amplified Bible)

Homosexuality is such an abomination before God that no less than death was the penalty imposed upon offenders during Moses’ time (Lev. 2O:13).

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. (Lev. 2O:13, NKJV)

In the Christian Era, God has decreed that those who engage in such abominable sexual relations will not inherit His kingdom:

”Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled): neither the impure and
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality,
will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God.” (l Cor. 6:9-10, AB)

lf these were not clear prohibitions against homosexual unions, what are?

___________________

Note: Some cited verses are printed in full to facilitate study.

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