What Does the Old Testament Say About Homosexuality?

I'm in the process of researching and writing a grad paper for my OT exegesis course at Trinity Western on a very controversial and emotional topic: What Does the Old Testament Say About Homosexuality, and Why Does It Matter Today? 

Much ink has been spent by scholars in the last 30 years to explore and expound on this topic. After examining the crucial texts in the Hebrew Bible (and there are really only four, though some would include an additional 2 or 3), I've read literally dozens of scholarly (and popular) articles and books espousing their "truth" on the subject representing every point on the continuum of opinion. 

Once my paper is in final form, I plan on posting it a section at a time. These should begin to appear on this blog by the end of September at the latest, and hopefully earlier. I know that not everyone will agree with my conclusions, but I hope to be able to present a cogent, readable and clear rationale for my position. Of note, this paper will not include what the New Testament says about homosexuality (that will require additional research and writing) though there will be some brief references to the NT texts in question.

Whatever position you presently hold, whatever conclusions you have drawn, I hope you will use these postings as an opportunity to re-examine the subject as objectively as possible. Even if you don't like my paper, I will provide references and a bibliography that will lead you to sources written by both affirming and non-affirming scholars. Below are two quite readable, yet conflicting presentations: Gushee has changed his mind from non-affirming to affirming. Wold is clearly and boldly non-affirming.  

Communion Talk - VCOC August 4, 2019

What is Communion All About?

For me, the single most important claim that is made about Jesus in the NT is found in John 1. In vv. 14, 16–17 we read:

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth…From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John, and the earliest Christians, believed that Jesus is the one and only Son of God who became flesh and lived among humanity full of grace and truth. That’s amazing and exciting but it is not yet the most astounding and life transforming claim made in the NT about Jesus.

Are you ready to hear it? It is found in John 1:18, which reads:

“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known”

The one and only Son of God became flesh and lived among us full of grace and truth in order to make the unseen God known to us! Let that sink in for a minute or two. It means that we can know God as well as possible, by knowing Jesus! People ask, “Is there a God?” “If God exists, can I know who this God is?” “If so, can I know what this God is like – what he thinks, what he wants, and what he thinks of/feels about me?”

John would answer, “Yes, absolutely. Just read my account, where I tell you about the God who became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth." Jesus made the same claim for himself in John 14:6–8:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Yet, amazingly, Philip immediately responded to Jesus by saying, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” What?! Are you kidding me? What I’d want to say to Philip and the other apostles is this: “Come on, guys, get your act together. Open your eyes. The Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. Right there, in front of you, for the last 3 years, is God in human flesh. You are seeing the unseen God!”

Here’s how Jesus responded: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9).

But maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to criticize the apostles here. Perhaps I don’t really get it either–when I still want God to show himself to me, when I'm still confused about what God is like, desires, and thinks of/feels about me; and when I wonder whether God really loves and accepts me "just as I am".

That’s why I need the communion–to remember Jesus, who he is and thus to be reminded of who God truly is! And when I look at God as revealed in Jesus’ life – his deeds and his words – and his death, what is God like? John, who knew God intimately through the life of Jesus, summed up God’s essential nature in 1 John 4:7–9, 16, which reads:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him…So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them

God IS Love. There is no hate in God. He loves all people, all the time. Everything God does is motivated by love, and thus demonstrates his perfect love. And there is no greater demonstration of God’s love than what we are remembering by sharing the bread and the fruit of the vine. Truly, God IS love and that’s I need to remind myself of every time I share in the communion.

Why is it so important that I keep God's essential nature clearly in my mind? Because God wants me live out my faith NOT motivated by fear, but motivated by love! Listen to these words of John from 1 John 4:17–18:

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

God’s love is perfect. And perfect love–the love God has for me–as clearly and consistently shown in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, has NOTHING to do with judgment or punishment and thus God’s love casts out fear.

When you look at Jesus today, what God do you see? Do you see ‘a’ god who is constantly evaluating you to determine if you measure up, if you’ve been spiritual enough, if you’ve done enough good, if you’ve repented completely enough and, if God has determined that you've fallen short, will not welcome you into his eternal presence? Or do you see ‘the’ God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who loves with a perfect love? He wants you and I to live unafraid of judgment and punishment and to cast off our fear-based faith and embrace a love-fueled life of faith.

That, to me, is what I want communion to be about as I move forward in my Christian journey. I want to cast off the fear, as I am reminded, through Jesus, that God is love, perfect love, and that fear has no place in my heart, because God loves me perfectly. For “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

If you will, please pray along with me:

“Thank you, God, for loving us perfectly, so perfectly that you gave your son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Thank you, Jesus, for loving us perfectly so that you did not regard equality with God something to be held on to, but you emptied yourself, and you took on the very nature of a servant and were made in human likeness and you humbled yourself to the point of death on a cross. Therefore, Jesus, as we take this bread and fruit of the vine, we join with the heavenly host and give you praise because…You are worthy…because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God. So to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever. May we honor you, God, this week by living out our faith, motivated not by fear of judgment but motivated by your perfect love for us. May all the redeemed of God say, ‘Amen!’”

Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

(We Have Peace with God)

Read: 1 John 4:7–19; Romans 5:1–11; Ephesians 2:14–22

My dad was a Sherman tank operator in the Second World War. He lied about his age in order to be accepted into the military in 1943, was sent for training in England and then was sent over to Europe to follow up after the D-Day invasion of June 1944. He did not see any actual fighting, but he saw the consequences of the Nazi occupation and the battles as the Allied forces drove the German army back into Germany. The things he witnessed, even in his back up role, he would not discuss. He didn’t want to recount them and he didn’t want me to have those images in my head. War is hell—injury, fear, uncertainty, trauma, hate, unspeakable suffering and death.

Although my dad’s division were not engaged in actual battles, he lived with the reality that at any time they could be attacked by the enemy. In a tank battle, dad and his crew would have been at an incredible disadvantage—he was operating a Sherman tank which, compared to the German Tiger tank, was a toy with a pop gun for a weapon. One on-target shot from the German tank would have ripped a hole in his Sherman’s armour and obliterated the entire crew.[1]

A Sherman Tank & Crew in Europe, June 1945

I don’t know where dad was when he heard the announcement of the Nazi surrender and thus the war’s end. But I can imagine his relief and joy in knowing the peace had been secured. The enemy was completely defeated. He would soon return home and live his life in the peace and prosperity of mid-20^th century Canada. But imagine, if you can, that my dad refused to accept that the war was over and insisted on continuing the fight, searching to find and engage the enemy in battle. He would spend the rest of his life tense, anxious, angry, hateful, fearful and emotionally more and more unstable and uncertain of his future.

Either the NT passages you read (above) are true or they are not. If they express spiritual truth (i.e., spiritual reality), then God has won the victory and has ended the war. We have been reconciled to God (and to each other). And thus we have (present tense; not “will have”) peace with God by means of God’s love and grace. Jesus has won. We can live in spiritual prosperity and peace.

Most of us, who identify as Christians, say we believe that, but our day-to-day lives often betray us and instead show that we still believe we are in a war for our souls’ salvation. Jesus may have won a battle, like D-Day, but the war rages on. There is no peace and prosperity—at least not in the here and now. We act as if our peace with God is something we must each still earn. If and when we win enough battles on our own, then and only then will we be for sure be reconciled to God and experience true peace.

As my dad returned from Europe in 1945, there was healing that needed to happen and rebuilding that needed to be done. There was work he (and all others) had to do to build on the peace that had been sacrificially won. But the war was over. Dad no longer had to live with the moment-by-moment fear that a Panzer Division of Tiger Tanks would ambush he and his crew. The Nazi threat was completely over. Their weapons of war rendered powerless—those still in existence were unmanned and decommissioned, mere museum artifacts and thus no longer a threat.

John Felushko – Nov 1977

I want to live my Christian life out of a place of reconciliation to, and peace with, God. I don’t need to live a fear-based faith, but I am free to live a love-fueled life of faith. I must choose daily to accept God’s perfect love—demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrificial life and death—and thus allow it to drive out all fear of judgment and punishment. I need to live a life of faith believing and knowing that I have (present tense) eternal life (1 John 5:13). The war is over; the victory has been won. I have been reconciled to God, not because I loved God, but because God loved me and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for my sins. Therefore, I know and rely on the love God has for me—a perfect love that drives out all fear of punishment and judgment, a love that has resulted in reconciliation and peace with God.

---

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj0AzL95Weg