There are homosexuals who claim to be Christians. They rest their claim to the Christian label on the mistaken belief that Jesus never forbade homosexuality as a sin. As the New Testament is the new covenant, they assert, the prohibitions on homosexuality in the Old Testament are done away by the new. So they reason. Sinners in search of loopholes do all sorts of things, even to the Bible. Or rather, especially to the Bible. This reasoning on Jesus accepting homosexuality might be called the Red Letter Argument. By it, the authority of the word of God is pared down to only the words recorded in the Bible that Jesus spoke, and the other New Testament books, especially Paul’s epistles, are discarded. This fallacious line of reasoning is easily dismissed by the simple fact that the Holy Spirit imparted the word of God into the writers of the Old and New Testament books, and the Holy Spirit testifies of: Jesus (Jh 15:26). The Red Letter Argument is even more specious on its face than denying the Holy Spirit and blaspheming the Holy Ghost. This argument on sinless homosexuality actually ignores: the words of Jesus.
We owe much of our scriptural knowledge to temptation. The Pharisees were always tempting the Lord trying to fail Him, and in those discourses we were given some of our most valuable demonstrations of His divinity. One such encounter centers on a question put to Jesus on the subject of divorce. Some may characterize the Lord’s answers to such temptations as overly broad in their brush strokes. They write them off as being of a celestial nature that must comprise the responses given by holy men to probing questions. Actually, they were often broad in the fundamental sense; not only teaching for a correctable moment, but laying again the foundational precepts so that they could not be escaped. Not then, and not now.
Let us with this in mind, then, remove beyond the center question of divorce posed by the Pharisees for the time being, and probe the foundational teaching of the Lord Jesus:
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Mat 19:4-6)
Have you not read? Then, it was the Pharisees, the religious experts of the day, and Jesus held them accountable to know the scriptures. Today, most are Pharisees by their own confession. That is, they make pronouncements on what is morally right and what is wrong, and set in judgment one against the other.
Some even quote from the scriptures, and in so doing make the claim that they know how to apply them. How many times do we hear experts of the day pride themselves on being able to voice such apothegms as “the truth will set you free” casting it about carelessly and wholly out of context. The understanding of what it is to be a Christian is for many wearing the label devoid of biblical context, but that will not be an excuse.
Like the Pharisees, who had the scriptures compiled and accessible in their own language, today’s experts have had the scriptures, translated into their own language, for four hundred years. It was by no small feat that they are almost nearer to the hands than bread to the mouth. It was at the cost of many lives that the Bible has been published in greater numbers than any other book, and is available free from hotels to prisons and can be found in almost any house where there hasn’t been made a conscious effort to ban it.
Today’s self proclaimed religious experts are going to be held accountable for knowing the scriptures. For it is they, from the writing of Moses and the Psalms, and the Prophets, and all the New Testament, which testify of Jesus; and all will be judged on whether or not they know Jesus. That does not mean know of Him. Those wearing the Christian label and at the same time espousing the view that same-sex marriage is equal to biblical marriage need to pay close attention to what Jesus said on the subject.
He (God) which made them at the beginning made them male and female. This is Jesus speaking, and He quoting from the Old Testament book of Genesis. At the beginning, at the inception and implementation of the plan by our creation, and with no intervening changes or modifications to the plan, God created us male and female. Why? For what cause are there two sexes?
In the beginning, God made Adam, and He made Eve by taking a rib out of Adam; and He called her Woman because she was taken, or cleaved, from out of Man (Gen 2:21-23). Jesus quotes the rest of the scripture from Genesis telling the Pharisees that they were made male and female for this cause: that a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and in this joining the two shall be one flesh.
Here in the diverbium taking place between Jesus and the Pharisees the question mark is placed (v. 5), and by this explicit answer, an antipophora where the question is the answer, all are made and held responsible to know this elementary point on marriage, and the sexes.
God cleaved us apart at the beginning so that we would continue to recleave in male to female unions.
A man—a male—joins his wife—a female—in such a close and intimate union that all the distance that was between them is to be closed. The resulting bond is to be so permanent and impermeable that is compared to taking two who were formally cleaved apart and cleaving them back together to the extent that there is not even a seam, but they would be one flesh.
This cleaving is exemplified by the design of the sexual union, and it is the reason that fornication—any other sexual intercourse outside this designed union—is one of the most serious and self-destructive sins we can commit. It is also why in Satan’s assault on the human race and word of God he has attacked marriage from the beginning, and explains why while under his reign as Antichrist fornication will be the crowning sin of humanity (Rev 9:21). Satan, as the Antigod, is the antiplanner; that is, he opposes God’s designs and plans by imitating them, or by promoting what is opposite to them. The Antichrist himself may probably engage in homosexuality. We read about him in Daniel that he will not regard the desire of women (Dan 11:37).
Wherefore they are two no more, but one flesh. This is the only sexual union, or marriage, ordained and recognized by God; regardless of what societies permit, endorse, or celebrate. With such clear and unmistakable authority speaking on the definition of marriage, it seems incredible to many of sound mind that any seriously entertain dissimilar unions and not be able to see the unrighteousness in them. Homosexuals believing they are Christians?
The confusion is similar to that of a person of no relationship to a family believing and claiming to be a relation. The Apostle Paul describes this aspect of the power of unrighteousness as the “deceivableness of unrighteousness” (2Thes 2:10). Those desiring to be the new teachers of the law have swerved aside unto vain jangling (1Ti 1:6-7), and assent to their position is not made purely by a reasoned examination of the merits in an argument. If that were the only matter, absurdities would cease to entertain, but the sway is affected by Satan who deceives the whole world (Rev 12:9). This explains that those claiming to be Christians who are also homosexuals claiming that same sexes can marry are altogether in the bond of inequity (Act 8:23); a bond that is a marriage of sorts, to be sure. Like Simon Magus of old, their belief in the Christian faith is a belief in certain things about it which are attractive to enhancing their own position. Simon was a master of magical arts and willing to become a follower in order to obtain powers from God to improve his own practice. Homosexuals who seek only the Christian label seek its pretense of purity and validation.
What therefore hath God joined together? The clear indisputable word of God is turned into a question by a wicked and perverse generation. The author of this line of questioning is the first disputer who posed to the first woman: “Yea, hath God said?” (Gen 3:1). We are reminded by Jude that God has a remarkably clear way of settling disputations. The sudden and complete catastrophic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a once-and-for-all example to the ungodly on the question of homosexuality (Jude 1:7). The answer: “What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder” (Mat 19:6).
Homosexuals need to break their bonds by receiving the Lord Christ Jesus, the word of God (Joh 1:14). Then, they will be made free. This is the conditional clause to real freedom. “Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jh 8: 31-32; emphasis added). The most important question to be posed then is: to be continued? Again, listen to what Jesus said: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Joh 8:12). Any person who would claim that the sin of homosexuality is no more sin before God is victim of the deceivableness of unrighteousness. Anyone listening to such a person has sought out an advisor whose consultation can only be attributed to familiar spirits (demons) and wizards that peep (Isa 8:19). There is only one determination to be made regarding those who claim that there is compatibility between sin and righteousness. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa 8:20). They cannot be Christians.
