The Bible’s Teaching On: Homosexuality and Marriage Part 2 Answering the “Biblical” Argument for Same-Sex Unions

THE LAW OF LOVE Jesus and His Apostles commanded that you “love” me and that I “love” my partner! “the law of love requires us to embrace same-sex couples… to deny these committed same-sex couples the right to marry and be together is not only to violate the law of love. It is to deny them the right to love.”* *Brown, Michael. Can You Be Gay and Christian? Pgs 3-4. Ellipses added

THE LAW OF LOVE Is it loving to: Bring guilt and shame to people by “clobbering” people with scripture? Tell someone they cannot love the person they desire to love? Dehumanize someone by saying they cannot love the one who they, by orientation/birth, were created to love? Be judgmental and intolerant of someone because of who they love? Say that the homosexual cannot have the same right to marry? Say one must live alone and celibate if they don’t want to burn in Hell forever?

Problems w/ This Argument Appeal to emotion: appealing to the emotional side of man to win the argument Equivocation: shifting of definitions in an argument Redefinition: What does ‘tolerance’ really mean?

Agape Love How did Jesus show love for sinners? “[Love] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).

Reinterpretation of Scripture “[Justin] Lee’s conclusions are more “about me” than they are “about Him [Jesus]”—more man-centered than Christ-centered, and that is a central problem with the “gay Christian” approach: it sees the Scriptures through the lens of homosexuality rather than seeing homosexuality through the lens of the Scriptures.” From… Brown, Michael. Can You Be Gay and Christian? Pg 28. Kindle EBook.

Passages Reinterpreted 9  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals (Gr. arsenokoitês), 10  nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11  Such were some of you… (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) 9  realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10  and immoral men and homosexuals (Gr. arsenokoitês) and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching… (1 Timothy 1:9-10) 'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22) ”If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act” (Leviticus 20:13) 24  Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26  For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27  and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. (Romans 1:24-27 NASB) Old Testament Genesis 19; Ezekiel 16:49-50 Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 New Testament Romans 1:24-27 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 1 Timothy 1:9-10

The word in modern translations that is translated as ‘homosexuals’ (in 1 Cor 6 and 1 Tim 1) is the Greek word arsenokoites Paul formed this word using two Greek words: arsenos, which refers to "male", and koiten, which literally means "bed” or figuratively “to lie with (or to go to bed’ with) in a sexual sense” Lev 18:22 “meta arsenos ou koimethese koiten” with (male) (to lie with sexually) Lev 20:13 “hos an koimethe meta arsenos koiten” with (male) (to lie with sexually) LXX quotations taken from The Same Sex Controversy by James R. White and Jeffrey D. Niell. Kindle eBook. Pg137