Homosexuality, the Old Testament, and GOD

Recommended: the CD “How to Think Like a Christian.” This CD is or should be a reminder to all Christians! The Vision Forum book sale ends Tuesday night.

I suggest you check out the following website if you are a policy holder of Farmers Insurance Group or thinking about having them insure you in any capacity: www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com



https://affiliates.visionforum.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=367


The above link is for a company—Vision Forum—that provides unique products for the family. I am an affiliate for the company and receive a small commission whenever someone uses this link and then makes an unreturned purchase while using the link. Check it out. I think you might like the products offered. I do. See my more complete explanation on my post of February 1, 2008 entitled “Affiliate program with Vision Forum.”

Based upon past historical data: 3,287+ UNBORN BABY MURDERS have occurred in the last 24 hours in the United States. See my post “BABY HOLOCAUST” posted January 22, 2008.

I’ve been involved in a problem one of my clients has with Farmers Insurance Group. My previous posts in relation to this problem were:

September 10, 2007 post: “Beware of Farmers Insurance Group”
September 11, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group’s response”
September 18, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Company received the requested list”
September 19, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Company’s response to the list”
October 16, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and my request for information”
November 27, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group does not respond to my request”
January 11, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group latest stall”
January 12, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group is sent a response”
January 14, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group pays some money”
January 19, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group continues to be obstinate”
January 26, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group receives another request”
February 11, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group shows how low they will go?”
February 12, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group: If I were going to respond to the final letter”

I will not be continuing my Creationism posts today. I do plan to return to them soon.

Then, I plan to answer the response about Iraq. I am sorry for the change in plans. Plans, in reality, often are altered for one reason or another. “The best laid plans … often go astray.” Thank you for your understanding and patience.

How many unborn toddlers were murdered today because of the humanistic, paganish, barbaric decisions of the United States Supreme Court?

Stop the
Murder of
Unborn
Toddlers

“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4: 17 (NIV)

www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com

www.childpredators.com

www.lifedynamics.com

www.libertylegal.org

www.alliancedefensefund.org

www.searchtv.org

The Vision Forum book sale:

“Normally, each smythe-sewn, hardback book in the Ballantyne Christian Adventure Library retails for $22. If you were to purchase each of these books individually, the total price would be $440. However, for one week only during this one-week special offer, Vision Forum is offering the entire twenty-volume set for $220, plus shipping. That’s just $11 apiece for these beautifully bound, substantial, hardback, collectible books.

Also available are the ten titles just released this month, the Ballantyne Adventure Library—Set 2, available for a 35% savings, at a price of $143. Offers expire at midnight on Tuesday, May 20 (CDT), and are good only while supplies last.”

In the second chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, GOD—the CREATOR of the universe—defines marriage. “But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” Genesis 2: 20b-24 (NIV)

This is clear and rationally can not be disputed if the Bible—the Word of GOD—is the source of reference for what is the acceptable definition of marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the only provision GOD has established in relation to marriage. Nowhere in the Old Testament does GOD make provision for or allow any other type of marriage or arrangement such as a “domestic partnership.”

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 18:1-5 (NIV)

In the next verses beginning with verse 6, eighteen actions are forbidden by GOD. The last two of which are: “‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.’” Leviticus 18: 22-23 (NIV)

“‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways because this is how the nations that I am
going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.’” Leviticus 18: 24-30 (NIV)

GOD speaking through Moses gives eighteen specifications that the people of Israel were NOT to do. GOD states unequivocally that the people of Israel must obey these laws and decrees. They must keep these laws and decrees because they came from the LORD and the LORD is their GOD. The seventeenth one given states absolutely that a man is NOT to lie with a man as he would with a woman. A man is not to have sexual relations with a man. That is emphatically clear and precise. In fact, according to GOD; to do so is detestable. In fact, all eighteen of the actions listed are detestable as specifically stated three times in verses 26-30. The people of Israel knew these eighteen acts were SINS according to GOD’S will.

The punishment for a man who commits a homosexual act is given in Leviticus Chapter 20. To begin this chapter, it is again declared that these pronouncements come from the LORD. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites:’” Leviticus 20: 1-2a (NIV)

In verses 7-8 of Leviticus Chapter 20 (NIV) GOD continues by stating, “‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy.’” The people of Israel must follow these decrees because they come from the LORD their GOD and because it is GOD who makes them holy.

GOD through Moses then establishes the punishment for homosexuality. “‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.’” Leviticus 20: 13 (NIV)

The punishment for a homosexual act is death as decreed by the LORD. Every Israelite who knew the Old Testament knew that a homosexual act was a SIN, that a homosexual act was detestable to the LORD GOD, and that a homosexual act was punishable by death. These three conclusions are irrefutable from the plain language of the text.

Along with the punishment for a homosexual act, GOD delivers the punishment for other SINS. HE then once again orders the people to keep all HIS decrees and laws. “‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. But I said to you, ‘You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations.’” Leviticus 20: 22-24 (NIV)

Finally, the classic example of GOD physically punishing a people for their SINS including homosexuality is given in Genesis Chapters 18-19 (NIV). “When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’

Then the Lord said, ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.’

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: ‘Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’

The Lord said, ‘If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’” Genesis 18: 16-26 (NIV)

Then, in verses 27-31 of chapter 18 of Genesis; Abraham bargains with the Lord to reduce the number of righteous people needed to spare the city from fifty to forty-five, from forty-five to forty, form forty to thirty, and then from thirty to twenty. “Then he said, ‘May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?’

He answered, ‘For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.’

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

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. And they said, ‘This fellow came here as an alien, 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 two men said to Lot, ‘Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.’

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, ‘Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!’ But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.’

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’

But Lot said to them, ‘No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.’

He said to him, ‘Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.’ (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

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, including 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.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.” Genesis 18: 32-33 and Genesis 19: 1-29 (NIV)

Without going into great analytical detail, these conclusions can certainly be drawn from this episode in the history of man as recorded in the Bible—the WORD of GOD.

1) The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were involved in grievous SIN including homosexuality—the word sodomy is derived from the homosexual actions of the men of Sodom.
2) The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked.
3) There were not ten righteous people in Sodom.
4) GOD spares others because of the presence of righteous people, not because he is willing to tolerate SIN.
5) People in SIN often do not recognize or acknowledge their SIN and do not think they will be punished for their SIN.
6) GOD punishes SIN but is merciful to the righteous.
7) No one in SIN will win when they pit themselves against the Living LORD and GOD of the universe.

The following conclusions can be drawn from this brief examination of homosexuality as discussed in the Old Testament.

1) Marriage is designed for and to be utilized by a man and a woman.
2) Marriage has never been designed for a man and a man or for a woman and a woman. 3) Homosexuality is a SIN according to the very WORD of GOD.
4) Homosexuality is punishable by death.
5) GOD does and will punish people for their SINS if they do not repent.
6) GOD decides what is and what is not SIN—not man and not a man-made court.