The History and Origins of the Homosexual Movement (Part Three), by Dr. Albert Mohler Jr.

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Homosexuality in Biblical and Theological Perspective

Even as evangelicals must reject the therapeutic construct, they must point to a biblical model. We must continue to bear faithful witness to the clear biblical injunctions concerning homosexual acts--that such acts are not only inherently sinful, but also an abomination before the Lord. 

 

But the evangelical approach must be far more comprehensive, for the Bible is itself more comprehensive. Scripture does not address mere homosexual acts; it also provides a basis for understanding the implications of homosexuality for the family, society, and the church.

First, as Romans 1 makes absolutely clear, homosexuality is an act of unbelief. As Paul writes, the wrath of God is revealed against all those "who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (verse 18 NASB).

God has endowed all humanity with the knowledge of the Creator, and all are without excuse. As Paul continued:


The broader context of Paul's rejection of homosexuality is clear: Homosexuality is rebellion against God's sovereign intention in creation, and a gross perversion of His good and perfect plan for created order. The logical progression in Romans 1 is undeniable. Immediately after his description of rebellion against God as Creator, Paul turns to an identification of homosexuality--among both men and women--as the first and most evident sign of society upon which God has turned his judgement.

Essential to understanding this reality in theological perspective is a recognition that homosexuality is an assault upon the integrity of creation and God's intention in creating human beings in two distinct and complementary genders. Here the confessing church runs counter to the spirit of the age. Even to raise the issue of gender is to offend those who wish to dispose of any gender distinctions as mere "socially constructed realities" and vestiges of patriarchal past.

But Scripture will not allow this attempt to deny the structures of creation. As Genesis 1:27 makes apparent, God intended from the beginning to create human beings in two genders--"male and female He created them" (NASB). Both man and woman were created in the image of God. They were distinct, and yet inseparably linked by God's design. The genders were different, and the distinction transcended mere physical differences. Even so, the man recognized in the woman "bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23 NASB).

The text does not stop with the mere creation of woman, however. Rather, God's creative intent is further revealed in the cleaving of the man to the woman ("his wife") and their new identity as "one flesh." This bond between man and woman was marriage. Immediately following the creation of man and woman come the instructive words: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed" (Genesis 2:24-25 NASB). This biblical assertion, which no revisionist exegesis can deconstruct, clearly places marriage and sexual relations within God's creative act and design.

The revolt against this divinely established order is one of the most important developments of this century, and it looms as one of the defining issues of the cultural revolution. Evangelicals must lay bare this assault upon creation, and yet do so in a way that is tied inextricably to biblical foundations, and not to cultural assumptions, however comfortable they may seem to secular society.

Part Four Will Appear Tomorrow, Friday, June 25.
Click Here to Read Part One.
Click Here to Read Part Two.

Excerpted from The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics, Edited by Ed Hindson and Ergun Caner

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