HOMOSEXUALITY, WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

by Simeon Nkola Matamba ( Follow on Twitter )

        Today, human rights have become of great concern to everybody, political leaders and countries are judged by their way of dealing with people's rights and freedom. Western leaders are the ones advocating for human rights-though they violate them everyday with their NSA and whatever spying techniques, torturing people, Guantanamo and so forth-and some go as far as to deliver sermons of love and tolerance, as they mention Jesus and the Bible to support gay rights. I am writing about this issue to show what the Bible really says about same sex relations, so that people may know where to draw their arguments from and to show if there is any way to rest upon the Bible to be an advocate of homosexuality and gays.

Starting with Genesis which is the "seed book" of the Bible, we discover God's attitude towards homosexuality in the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah. We find  in Genesis references about it as follows: Genesis 13, verse 13:"Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord." The story carries on like this: Genesis 19, verses 1 to 10 inclusive:"The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.“My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.  Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”  “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.  But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door."

The story ends when God finally destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with fire in the same chapter from verse 23 to 28:"By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace." God's attitude towards homosexuality is clearly defined here.

Those supporting homosexuality on the ground of God's love must suffer that we present yet other biblical references because they are speaking about what they do not know. God driving the children of Israel out of Egypt in the great exodus told them not to imitate customs and habits of people living in Canaan at that time. Among those filthy habits homosexuality is once again mentioned,  as we can read in Leviticus 18 verse 23:"Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable." The Bible clearly condemns homosexuality and considers it as a sin! In the New Testament in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9-11 the Bible says again:"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

The point of this text was to show that the Bible is totally against homosexuality. There is no way to take the Bible and preach that God supports homosexuality. Standing for homosexuality tantamounts to standing against the Bible! Homosexuality is a choice that people make and they remain free to choose that. But the Bible is against that. Going through the scriptures-you have had the opportunity to read the Bible today- gives a clear understanding. God is a God of Love and compassion, forgiving sinners, but also a God of anger when people do what He declared to be wrong in His Bible. Our God, the One we believe in, is against homosexuality. I accept that people are free to be gays, but I totally refuse them the right to use the Bible to pretend it is acceptable. It is not acceptable, it is detestable.