New testament teaching on homosexuality
What does the Recent Testament say about homosexuality?
Answer
The Bible is consistent through both Old and Recent Testaments in confirming that homosexuality is sin (Genesis –13; Leviticus ; ; Romans –27; 1 Corinthians ; 1 Timothy ; Jude ). In this matter, the Recent Testament reinforces what the Old Testament had declared since the Law was given to Moses (Leviticus ). The difference between the Old and Brand-new Testaments is that the New Testament offers hope and restoration to those caught up in the sin of homosexualitythrough the redeeming power of Jesus. It is the same hope that is offered to anyone who chooses to accept it (John ; –18).
God’s standards of holiness did not switch with the coming of Jesus, because God does not change (Malachi ; Hebrews ). The New Testament is a continuing uncovering of God’s interaction with humanity. God hated idolatry in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy ), and He still hates it in the New (1 John ). What was immoral in the Old Testament is still immoral in the New.
The Modern Testament says that homosexuality is a “shameful lust” (Rom
This article is part of the What Did Jesus Teach? series.
Silence Equals Support?
In a article for Slate online, Will Oremus asked a provocative question: Was Jesus a homophobe?1
The article was occasioned by a story about a same-sex attracted teenager in Ohio who was suing his elevated school after school officials prohibited him from wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe.”
Oremus was less concerned about the legal issues of the story than he was about the accuracy of the remark on the shirt. Oremus suggests that Jesus’s views on homosexuality were more inclusive than Paul’s. He writes,
While it’s reasonable to assume that Jesus and his fellow Jews in first-century Palestine would possess disapproved of gay sex, there is no document of his ever having mentioned homosexuality, let alone expressed particular revulsion about it. . . . Never in the Bible does Jesus himself propose an explicit prohibition of homosexuality.
Oremus seems to offer that since Jesus never explicitly mentioned homosexuality, he must not have been very concerned about it.
There are at least two reas
What the New Testament Says about Homosexuality
The Fourth R Volume May-June
Mainline Christian denominations in this country are bitterly divided over the question of homosexuality. For this reason it is vital to ask what light, if any, the New Testament sheds on this controversial issue. Most people apparently assume that the New Testament expresses strong conflict to homosexuality, but this simply is not the case. The six propositions that follow, considered cumulatively, lead to the finding that the New Testament does not provide any direct guidance for understanding and making assessments about homosexuality in the new world.
Proposition 1: Strictly speaking, the New Testament says nothing at all about homosexuality.
There is not a single Greek synonyms or phrase in the entire New Testament that should be translated into English as “homosexual” or “homosexuality.” In fact, the very notion of “homosexuality”—like that of “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and even “sexual orientation”—is essentially a contemporary concept that would simply own been unintelligible to
The Bible on Homosexual Behavior
One way to argue against these passages is to make what I contact the “shellfish objection.” Keith Sharpe puts it this way: “Until Christian fundamentalists boycott shellfish restaurants, terminate wearing poly-cotton T-shirts, and stone to death their wayward offspring, there is no obligation to attend to their diatribes about homosexuality being a sin” (The Gay Gospels, 21).
In other words, if we can disregard rules favor the ban on eating shellfish in Leviticus , then we should be allowed to disobey other prohibitions from the Aged Testament. But this argument confuses the Old Testament’s temporary ceremonial laws with its permanent moral laws.
Here’s an analogy to serve understand this distinction.
I recall two rules my mom gave me when I was young: hold her hand when I cross the street and don’t drink what’s under the sink. Today, I hold to follow only the latter rule, since the former is no longer needed to protect me. In fact, it would now do me more harm than good.
Old Testament ritual/ceremonial laws were prefer mom’s handholding rule. The rea