Please Note:
Return to: Part One
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This study uses the King James Version of the Holy Bible throughout.
To read this study with a modern English translation of the Bible Go Here
To read a more concise (less detailed) version of this study Go Here The events at Sodom are included in all of the known biblical source materials of Bereshit (Genesis). The following is included here not to question the accuracy of the Genesis account (as some have attempted) but because it gives us insight into the culture in which these events unfolded.
Equating the destruction of Sodom with homosexuality is, as I have shown, biblically groundless and the result of Roman Catholic anti-gay dogma. But there is something very disturbing about the account.
Regardless of what the people of the town were demanding from Lot, the fact that all sources agree that Lot offered the mob his two virgin daughters is deplorable! How could ANY father make such an offer! Granted the times were very different, granted he was a city official responsible for protecting innocent life ... but what about the lives his daughters!
There is in my opinion no justification for that!
There is however a biblical precedent that is worth briefly considering.
Judges 19:17-30 describes an uncomfortably similar account. Here a stranger arrives in need of help, but the law of hospitality is again violated and with similar results.
An old man invites the stranger into his home (Judges 19:20). The kindly man offers him food, fodder for his animals, washes his feet and so on as was appropriate. In other words, he properly observed the demands of hospitality.
As the two men sat speaking with one another, drinking and having a nice time, the people of the town came and began beating on the door and shouting: Judges 19:22 ... "Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him."
Like in the Sodom account, the demand to "know" the stranger is the Hebrew word yada, meaning to interrogate him. As there, the good householder goes out to the crowd and beseeches them saying: "Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly."
And here also the towns people would not accept his words. So the householder says: Judges 19:24 "Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing."
There is a vital point to be made here. Note that it says, "...and humble ye them ..."
This matter of "humbling" is essential to understanding both of these passages (i.e. both this one and the Sodom account). Even if one insists on interpreting yada: "to know" in these passages as to have sex with, still there is no indication of homosexuality in either account.
It was common practice in ancient times and still is today in jails and prisons worldwide, to anally or orally rape someone in order to establish dominance. Such rapes are in not considered sexual acts. It is indeed quite possible that this would be part (or even all of the punishment) inflicted on someone suspected of spying. If this was the case here, and I see no indication that it was from the text, then it is still not about sex but about power and establishing dominance, as in most all cases of rape. But again, nothing in the context of the Genesis account even suggests what the mob proposed to do to the strangers.
It is certain however that they did not intend to engage in mutually consensual love making!
Unlike the Sodom account, in this case, while the people of the town again refuse to accept the trade, they took the concubine and brutally raped her anyway. When the householder and his guest awoke the next morning they opened the door and found the poor woman badly abused, bleeding, on her hands and knees on the porch.
And here is another example of how different the cultures were! The traveler took the unfortunate woman back to his home...
Now, to my knowledge no one has ever suggested that these attackers were homosexuals or looking to rape the traveler. Are we to therefore understand that God condemns heterosexuality because a group of straight men did this almost identical crime?
Of course not!
Nor does the Sodom account imply anything about homosexuals, even if there were some present which is not even implied!
How could such horrible crimes happen? In both instances it was due to the fear which the people of these towns lived with due to the brutal nature of war and the harsh realities of their daily lives.
In Sodom it appears this paranoia had gotten so far out of hand that God decided to intervene. In part to make it clear to Abraham and his Chosen Descendants that they were never to show such disdain for others nor abuses to them.
Another difference in the Sodom account and this one is that the cities and towns of the Jordan Valley had been the recipients of divine protection and blessings. When they therefore gave in to their paranoia and began abusing those in need of their help, their crimes were all the more abhorrent.
Consider the parable of Master Y'shua about the king who forgave his servant's debt only to discover the servant refused to forgive his fellow servant of his (Matt 18:21-30). Sodom had been tremendously blessed by God's servants Abram, Lot and Melchizedek and yet had failed to bless others in need.
In Sodom anyone could be a spy and so no one was trusted, especially strangers. As scripture teaches, its easy to love those who love us, but loving people we don't know, showing kindness to "angels unaware" (Hebrews 13:2) is one of the marks of true spirituality. This quality was utterly lacking in Sodom.
Referencing this account to further our understanding of the sin of Sodom, it is obvious that in both cases the people in question failed to demonstrate godly compassion and to show hospitality to those in need. They wanted to harshly interrogate (yada the "others" rather than give aid and comfort as demanded of spiritual people. This interrogation process, the householder in both accounts believed, would be the death or at least torture of their guests. As godly people they could not accept this.
As explained above, Genesis 19 tells us that the people of Sodom distrusted even Lot's loyalty once he he questioned their actions. They said: "This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door."
Paranoia creates more paranoia, fear more fear.
When California's Prop 8 and similar attempts to recognize the Constitutional rights and protections of all Americans are the news the anti-equality supporters go quickly to work spreading ridiculous lies and furthering the groundless fears. Why? Paranoia: If these American citizens are granted equal rights under the laws people will be having sex with farm animals on your child's playground and the Supreme Court will demand they watch and even join in!!!! they proclaim wringing their hands.
Some things never change. Similar ridiculous things were said about granting legal rights to African Americans, about allowing women to vote and so on.
Then your pastor is mistaken or intentionally deceiving you because it is what the Bible says! We have this interpretation from no less an authority than Y'shua of Nazareth. As Y'shua was explaining to his disciples how they were to live as they preached the Gospel throughout Israel, we read the following:
According to both the context of the Torah and Y'shua himself, Sodom and Gomorrah failed to offer hospitality to strangers to an extreme degree. So great was their offense that they were used as examples of how not to treat strangers. Their hard-hearted paranoia was in clear violation of the laws of hospitality demanded by the Noahide Laws and for this they were destroyed.
This was precisely the penalty paid by the cities of the plains of the Jordan Valley. God's wrath waxed hot and they were utterly destroyed.
Prophet Isaiah sheds even more light on the sin of Sodom here:
So... Had God not left a remnant of people the Israelites would have become homosexuals?
As stated previously in this study, before the war Sodom had been a righteous town in a sea of evil-doors.
The sin of Sodom was their failure to show compassion to those in need, including strangers, orphans and widows.
the Sin of Sodom had nothing to do with homosexuality.
And again, we read at:
Could it possibly any clearer?
Judges 19:17-30
To be Humbled
Judges 19:29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her remains into all the coasts of Israel."
Fear and Paranoia
Matthew 10:11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12 And when ye come into an house, salute it.
13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. Exodus 22:21 Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
23 If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;
24 And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.Isaiah 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.Ezekiel:16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
Moses identified it
Isaiah identified it
Ezekiel identified it
Y'shua identified it...
But some people, including some Christians, are just so filled with prejudice and hate that they don't care what even God says!
If they can twist such verses to their malicious intents that's good enough for them!
Hey! This Has Been Done Before!
You are correct!
Consider:
Genesis 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Not so many years ago -- and still today in some circles -- this verse was widely interpreted by many Caucasian Christians as showing "proof" that the skin tones of Africans was the 'mark of Cain' and justified discrimination against them, as forbidding interracial marriages and so on.
As a child I well remember our Missionary Baptist pastor teaching this from his pulpit. Based upon this faulty interpretation such Christians (including the Southern Baptist Convention) justified slavery and the denial of civil rights to African Americans. When this verse was interpreted in conjunction with verses like I Corinthians 7:21-24 it was firmly believed that God blessed the institution of slavery. In view of their interpretation of Genesis 4:11-15, the African race seemed like the ideal people to enslave. Indeed, among such people being a slave owner was often deemed to a righteous act, a visible symbol of God's blessings!
I Corinthians 7:21 21 Wast thou called being a slave? Care not for it: nay, even if thou canst become free, use [it] rather.Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Such misinterpretations and misapplications of Scripture based on social or personal prejudices and greed is what gave birth to the Southern Baptist Convention, the second largest religious body in the United States (I'm not meaning to pick on them, but its true)!
Are such verses justifying slavery, beating, racism and so on? Of course not! One would be hard pressed to find any Christian who still supports slavery or believes the Bible condones racism (at least one hopes!), but for hundreds of years this was viewed as the correct scriptural understanding by a large segment of the Christian Church. To have denied the Scriptural basis of slavery was considered a great evil and a breech of faith.
But thanks be to God that there have always been sincere Believers who stand with the oppressed and who honor and "rightly divide" God's Word!
It is in part due to such abuses that the literalistic interpretation of Scripture must be tempered by the overall flow of God's Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And again:
I Timothy 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Are modern Christian women really supposed to view themselves as subordinate to men? Is it really sinful for women to hold positions of authority over men? To be pastors and teachers? Does any Christian literally accept the Genesis 3:16 statement that the only reason childbirth is painful is because of the "Fall" and/or this verse which promises women who submit to their husband's authority will have pain free deliveries?
Friend, it just doesn't happen!
I Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
How many Christians today believe that women can not be ministers? Several still do! That one is on its way out but still has a ways to go. But wait! Notice that according to scriptures like these, women are not even allowed to speak in church, let alone to preach!
Before casting stones at gay and lesbian Christians ask yourself whether your church requires women to maintain total silence at all times! I seriously doubt it does!
Women like Beverley Lahey of Concerned Women for America are among the most vocal in condemning gays and lesbians, and yet they "shamelessly" and hypocritically violate verses like I Timothy 2:12-15 regularly!
To such violators of the Word I say in love: What Jesus did condemn, and in the strongest of terms, was religious hypocrisy!
Have you divorced and remarried for any grounds other than your spouse committing adultery? The Bible condemns it!
Mark 10:11 And he [Y'shua] saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
According to this very clear scripture over half of all Christians are living in an adulterous relationships with their wives! Welcome to the club! How does it feel to be shown from the Bible that your so-called marriage is illegitimate and that your children are bastards!
I've heard remarriage justified by using Matthew 5:32, however this verse merely says that the only justifiable reason to divorce is adultery. It doesn't say anything about remarriage. Where Y'shua does discuss it, he says, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her" (Mark 10:11) -- period. That's it. For the cause of adultery one is allowed to divorce, but not to remarry according to Y'shua!
Well yeah, but, ah that doesn't mean... hmm?
Now don't misunderstand me here please... I'm not judging my adulterous sisters and brothers in the Lord, but talk about twisting Scripture and hypocrisy! A generation ago this was the almost universal understanding among Christians. "Divorcees" were considered fallen Christians and generally avoided by the more devout Church goers. Now that most Christians have been divorced and remarried at least once or twice, suddenly the Bible doesn't teach what it used to I guess! Gays are are wrong but heterosexual adultery is just fine!
Does the phrase"Whited Sepulchers" ring any bells? -- Matthew 23:27.
I've had Christians respond to this point by saying that they knew I was right, that the Bible does condemn remarriage, but that they and their second (third, fourth...) spouse had prayed and repented of the sin so it was alright! By this logic, a gay couple can marry, repent, and stay together as a legitimate couple right?
To this blatant hypocrisy Jesus cries out loud and clear: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Matthew 7:5).
"Well, yeah, but that's different...."
Of course it is, this time its you!
Do you honor the Sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday)? The Bible demands it from Genesis to Revelations!
Don't condemn other people for not obeying your interpretation of a handful of verses when you do not obey far clearer commands!
That is called hypocrisy and is a far worse sin than most others!
In love I say to you,
-
Why beholdest thou the mote that is NOT in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that IS in thine own eye?
Friends, isn't it time we stop using the Bible as a weapon of hate?
Christian friend, when you tell lesbians and gay men that they are an abomination to God, when you tell them that they are destined for eternal damnation due to what is an integral part of their basic natures, as innately a part of who they are as your own heterosexuality is of who you are, you are placing a huge stumbling block in their path and pushing precious souls farther farther away from the One who said, "My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Some gay and lesbian Christians know the Bible well. They know that such accusations are anti-scriptural lies out of the pits of Hell and they reject them and continue in their relationship with God.
However most gays, Christian or not, just like most heterosexuals, Christians or not, do not know the Bible very well at all. They have never discovered the depths of its loving assurances, the profound nature of its soul refreshing teachings.
What they know is that "everybody says God hates me, so forget God! If I'm going to Hell anyway I might as well enjoy my time while I'm here!"
Dear Christian sister or brother, I know this is not what you intend to do, to push these people farther away from God and His Love. The vast majority of Christians who believe this anti-biblical lie do so in all sincerity, not knowing what the Bible actually teaches.
Most Christians don't know any lesbians or gay men (or at least don't know that they do). Their understandings about gay people comes from news clips of half nude leather clad men dancing down San Francisco's Market street or from "scary-looking Dykes on Bikes' during the Gay Pride Parades... They assume this is what the LGBT Community is.
They see and hear the edited clips used by hate groups like Concerned Women for America, the Christian Coalition, the American Family Association, GodHatesFags.com and so on to raise millions of dollars on the backs of the oppressed and they think, "I'm supposed to accept this as Christian!" There is nothing new about such intentional misinformation and misleading propaganda!
Most Christians don't know that the largest gay organization on earth is the Christian denomination the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. They don't realize that there are hundreds of mainly LGBT churches and ministries working tirelessly to reach this battered community with God's love. They don't understand most GLBT people live the same basic lifestyle they do. They're just people. People like you. The vast majority of lesbians and gay men hold down regular jobs where they pay, on average, higher taxes than anyone else due the rejection of GLBT marriages and family units for tax purposes. Most don't understand that it is a contradiction to criticize gays and lesbians for being promiscuous, and then block them from the important legal protections of marriage. Most people don't know that even a couple who have been together for many many years, and there are many more of these couples than most would expect, when illness strikes are often told that the most important person in their life can not enter their hospital rooms as they are not "next of kin" while blood relatives who have rejected them since they "came out" walk freely in and out, making life and death medical decisions.
Please, dear Christian friend, understand that hurtful words and stereotypes make it ever more difficult for these people to come to God.
Most people don't seem to understand that by far the vast majority of child molesters and pedophiles are heterosexual males. They don't know what its like to be stared at, ridiculed, and at times beaten severely or even to death because of a good bye kiss at an airport, a simple holding of the hands at a theater. Most people just don't know that one can not be "converted" to homosexuality (nor to homosexuality). Sure, one could be seduced into an act, if the proclivity is already there, but being gay in the straight world is hard work! Gays must constantly come out to people unless they are content to remain in the closet. They must always keep in mind that they are second class citizens due to who they are as individuals. That essential rights and protections guaranteed to them under the Constitution are denied them. At work, when co-workers talk about their families, vacation plans, etc. lesbians and gays often must be careful to remain silent or speak in gender neutral terms lest they be discovered and hence fired, excluded or worse (often worse).
My Christian friend, I urge you to seek God in this matter. God does not condemn gays and lesbians and as Christians we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. If you insist on maintaining your anti-biblical prejudice against this community, would you please at least turn down the hateful rhetoric!
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
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