A dangerous modern heresy called “gay theology” is infiltrating the Christian church at an alarming pace. Many believers, fearful of being called “haters,” are trivializing the threat by calling homosexuality “just another sin.” But from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible teaches that homosexuality is NOT “just another sin.” It is a symbol of extreme rebellion against God and harbinger of His wrath.
But more than that, when the key Biblical references to homosexuality are taken together and laid out in chronological order, they reveal a stark and sobering warning to the church about the last days culture of apostasy before the return of Christ. Specifically, the emergence of widespread homosexuality and its celebration by the world is designed to test the faithfulness of the church to God’s Word. It is, in a sense, a “dress rehearsal” for the Mark of the Beast, as indeed “sexual orientation” laws in parts of our economy today prohibit “buying or selling” without first accepting the normalcy of homosexuality as a precondition — eerily foreshadowing the consequence of resisting the Antichrist in Revelation 13:17.
Courage in defending the Bible regarding homosexuality is certainly not a “salvation issue,” which fact helps the timid rationalize their avoidance of the issue. Yet this is precisely why it serves God’s purpose as a litmus-test.
“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much” (Luke 16:10).
If a Christian is unable to remain faithful to Biblical truth when all he will suffer is the disapproval of the world or the loss of a job, how can he be expected to stand with Christ when the cost is his life? (Revelation 12:11). As Jeremiah 12:5 puts it
“If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”
As we proceed to assemble in sequence the individual components God’s unmistakable warning about homosexuality in the light of current events and present day church compromises, the words of Jesus ring with special significance: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
The “One Flesh” Paradigm: God’s Exclusive Standard for Sexuality and the Model for His Relationship with Mankind
In Genesis 1:27 & 2:24 God sets forth the exclusive “one flesh” paradigm for human sexuality: the lifelong, faithful union of one man and one woman created in His image for procreation. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them“ (1:27).
This male/female complimentarity, consummated in marriage, reflects the very relationship of God and Man, as the Apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 5, citing Genesis 2:24.
” Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.’ This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”All sex outside of marriage is thus wrong and harmful — spiritually equivalent to worshipping false gods — as in fact God condemns as “adultery” all idolatry by His people. [1]
[Footnote 1: The Book of Hosea is especially instructive to this teaching, as the two “Houses” of the divided Hebrew kingdom, Judea and Israel, are portrayed as wives of God, condemned as adulterers for worship of false gods.]
Sexual Sin is Especially Grievous in the Eyes of God Because it Defiles Both His Image In Us and His Relationship With Us.
The teaching of Leviticus 18, which we will address shortly, makes clear God’s perspective of sexual sin as the most destructive to human society and our relationship to Him. It is important to highlight this fact before we proceed to examine the lessons of Genesis 6-19.
As Paul explains “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:18-19). Every human body was created to be a temple of the Holy Spirit! Through Christ, the bodies of the elect are cleansed and made inhabitable by Him, but even the unsaved were created for this same purpose.
Jesus summarized the Mosaic laws with two commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Humans tend to measure the gravity of sins based on the second commandment, and thus we think of murder, or perhaps genocide, as the worst of sins. But from God’s perspective, the worst human sins are violations of the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods before me” tops the Decalogue, and its violation is certainly the greatest of all possible sins, but sexual sins are uniquely grievous in that they violate both the first and second commandments simultaneously.
Homosexuality and Bestiality are the Most Harshly Condemned of All Sexual Sins Because They Deviate the Furthest from the One-Flesh Paradigm.
Genesis 6-9: After the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and 1000 years of increasing sin by their descendents, God pours out His wrath in the form of a global flood which the ancient Hebrew rabbis taught was triggered by homosexual and bestial “marriages” (Talmud, Genesis Rabbah 26:5:4).
The ancient scholars of Hebrew who wrote the Talmud stated expressly what Jesus Himself merely alluded to when He warned that in the time leading to His return, wicked people would be “marrying and giving in marriage” “as in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:38), when “every intent of the thoughts of [their] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
The main points here are that homosexuality in the Bible is equated with bestiality and that the human celebration of marriages based on these sexual perversions represented the final insult to God triggering Noah’s Flood.
The common law crime of sodomy is still on the books (though not enforced) in several U.S. States including Massachusetts. [2] It does not emphasize specific sexual acts (eg oral or anal sex) as in modern statutory law, but prohibits two types of sexual relationships: those between people of the same gender and those with animals, reflecting this same correlation in the Bible. President Thomas Jefferson addressed this crime in his restatement of the common law and observed that of the two forms, homosexuality was the greater threat to society. [3]
[Footnote 2: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 272, Crimes Against Chastity, Morality, Decency and Good Order, Section 34, Crime against nature: “Whoever commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind or with a beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than twenty years.” ]
[Footnote 3: Paragraph 25. H. 8. C. 6. Buggery is twofold. 1. With mankind, 2. With beasts. Buggery is the Genus, of which Sodomy and Bestiality, are the species. 12. Co. 37. Says, “note that Sodomy is with mankind.” But Finch’s L. B. 3. c. 24. “Sodomiary is a carnal copulation against nature, to wit, of man or woman in the same sex, or of either of them with beasts.” 12. Co. 36. Says, “it appears by the ancient authorities of the law that this was felony.” Yet the 25. H. 8. Declares it felony, as if supposed not the be so…. B. Fleta, L. i. c. 37. says, “pecorantes et Sodomitae in terra vivi confodiantur.” The Mirror makes it treason. Bestiality can never make any progress; it cannot therefore be injurious to society in any great degree, which is the true measure of criminality in foro civili, and will ever be properly and severely punished, by universal derision. It may, therefore, be omitted. It was anciently punished with death, as it has been latterly. Ll. Aelfrid. 31. and 25. H. 8. c. 6. see Beccaria. Paragraph 31. Montesq.” Peterson, Merrill D. “Crimes and Punishments” Thomas Jefferson: Writings Public Papers (Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1984) pp. 355, 356.]
God’s Symbol of Promise Becomes a Harbinger of Wrath by Fire
Genesis 9:13 After the flood, God creates the “bow” (rainbow) as the symbol of His authority over the earth, specifically identified with His role as Judge of the Earth. With this symbol He promises never again to destroy the earth by flood (Genesis 9:15), knowing that He will bring a final destruction in the last days by fire:
“[L]ong ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:5-7).The rainbow is intimately associated with the person and power of God. “As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” reads Ezekiel 1:28, and a rainbow emanates from His throne in heaven (Revelation 4:3).
It is not mere “coincidence” that the modern “gay” movement, so hostile to Biblical Christianity, has hijacked the symbol of the rainbow for itself. It is a hallmark of the Antichrist spirit to claim God’s throne for itself ((2 Thessalonians 2:4)
The Culture of Perversion Survives the Flood and Reemerges in the Post-Flood World
Genesis 9:22-25 Corrupted by the pre-flood homosexual culture, Noah’s son Ham passes it to his son Canaan, who sexually molests his grandfather.
“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan…”
To “uncover nakedness” is a Biblical idiom for sexual intercourse. “None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the LORD” states Leviticus 18:6.
The Genesis passage has been interpreted some to mean that Ham had sex with Noah’s wife, producing Canaan by incest, a conclusion bolstered by Leviticus 20:11: “The man that lies with his father’s wife, has uncovered his father’s nakedness.” Alternately, the sin is interpreted to be the homosexual molestation of Noah by Canaan. We have chosen the latter interpretation, partly because this was the conclusion of Hebrew scholars of their own language,[4] but primarily because it more closely aligns with the pattern of conduct we have exposed in this study, and thus seems more plausible.
[Footnote 4: In Call of the Torah, Rabbi Elie Munk interprets the sin against Noah as “an act of pederasty” (p. 220).]
Having been banished for his sin, Canaan and his descendants then brazenly colonize what we know today as the Holy Land and introduce ritual demon worship involving child sacrifice and sexual perversion (Lev.18, esp. 22-24). They also establish the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 10:19-20).
Again, the goal of the Antichrist spirit is to appropriate and defile what is most precious to God. We are of the view that the Holy Land of Israel is the same territory as the Land of Eden, and that Jerusalem is the site of the Garden of Eden. If so, this would explain why evil Canaan would take possession of this particular land of all the places on the earth he could have chosen.
As Sexual Perversion Increases in the Post-Flood World, God Provides a Glimpse of the Wrath to Come, Triggered by the Homosexual Sin of Sodom
In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, foreshadowing the last-days destruction of the earth (2 Peter 2:6, Jude 1:7). The final insult to God is the attempted homosexual rape of the two angelic witnesses whom He sent to Sodom to confirm its wickedness (Gen 19:4-5).
Importantly, the incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah is completely unique in Biblical history. God’s intentional association of homosexuality with the outpouring of His wrath by fire is absolutely unmistakable, as is His warning that it was simply a preview of the last days.
“He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter” (2 Peter 2:6).
“Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).
Widespread Sexual Perversion So Defiles the Land that God Employs Genocide to Cleanse it
In Leviticus 18, God identifies incest, homosexuality and bestiality as the sins which cause the land to “vomit out its inhabitants” (v25). Even in this dark context homosexuality is singled out for special condemnation as “an abomination” (v.22).
In what is probably the most challenging Biblical passage of all, Deuteronomy 20:16-18, God tells the Hebrew people to completely wipe out the Canaanite inhabitants of the Holy Land. His explanation why is detailed in Leviticus 18:24-30.
“‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ‘But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ‘For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ‘Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the LORD your God.’”It is certainly not within our right to judge God. We can only rest in the assurance that, by definition, whatever God does is justified. Importantly, however, his use of genocide to punish sexual perversion is instructive as to His perspective of the relative gravity of human sins, as is His admonition not to tolerate these forms of sexual conduct by any persons in the society, even “the sojourner among you.”
Of course, this does not condone hatred or violence against homosexuals. To quote from one of my recent articles:
“Under the New Covenant by which Christ has instituted an era of grace for those who belong to Him (John 1:17; Romans 11:25) believers are freed from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2), instructed to love the lost, even our enemies (Matthew 5:44) and leave vengeance to Him (Romans 12:19). Our weapons are not physical, but spiritual (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)…under the new covenant it is Christ Himself who “judges and makes war” against the wicked (Revelation 19:11-16)….
“Our instruction from Christ is to lead sinners to Him (Matthew 28:19-20) so that they may be spared the terrible consequence of their sin — both in this life and in eternity — through the acceptance of His sacrifice on the cross (Romans 10:9-10). If they reject Christ their blood is upon their own heads but we have done our job (Ezekiel 3:18-19).”
The Second Witness of Sodom’s Sin
In Judges 19, ala Sodom, the attempted homosexual rape of a Levite by the Benjamites of Gibeah leads to civil war among the Hebrew tribes (v15-30).
Frequently, God give special emphasis to His teachings by sending two witnesses. A we noted above, this occurred when God sent two angels to bear witness to Sodom’s homosexual sin before the outpouring of His wrath. But there are also two separate incidents in the Bible which bear witness to the special relationship of homosexuality with apostasy and judgment. The first is, of course, Genesis 19. The second witness is Judges 19.
Readers of both passages will be struck by the clear parallels in the two stories, the primary common elements being the mobs of predatory homosexual men insistent on raping the male guest(s), the offering of a female substitute(s) as the lesser evil, and the severe consequence to society from the behavior of the homosexuals. The differences in the stories highlight the importance of the common elements but also add meaning to the lesson. For example, the fact that the object of the homosexual’s lust in Judges 19 is a Levite is significant as the Levites were the tribe of priests who served as Old Testament intermediaries between God and man, and thus the offense was against both God and man simultaneously — a violation of the first and the second great commandment.
Sexual Sin Can Corrupt Even the Wisest of Men
In 1 Kings 11, Solomon’s reintroduction of Canaanite ritual child sacrifice and sexual perversion, including homosexuality, causes God to take the Kingdom of Israel away from him and divide it in two (v. 5-13).
Many Christians are unaware that in his later years, “wise” King Solomon succumbed to sexual perversion and sinned greatly against the Lord.
For when Solomon, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods” (1 Kings 11:5-8).In other words, King Solomon allowed and apparently participated in rampant sexual perversion and the murder of innocent children in sacrifice to demons on the Mount of Olives.
While Solomon apparently repented later in his life, as the Book of Ecclesiastes suggests, he nevertheless suffered severely for his sins.
“Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. So the LORD said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. ‘Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ‘However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.’”Thus, solely due to sexual sin, the Kingdom of David was divided in two: the House of Judah (Judah and Benjamin) and the House of Israel (the other Ten Tribes). [5]
[Footnote 5: A useful resource for investigating the so-called “Two House Teaching” is www.jewsandjoes.com.]
The Wickedness of the Kings of Judah and Israel was Measured by the Degree to which they Embraced Sexual Perversion
In 2 Kings 23, Josiah is named as the most righteous of all the Kings (v 25) in part because he “broke down the houses of the Sodomites who were in the House of the Lord” (v.7) — ending what Solomon had begun 300 years before.
Central to the worship of the demon gods of the heathens were fertility rituals including practices involving sexual perversion, which is why God always equates idolatry with adultery in the Bible. As you read the following description of Josiah’s reforms, remember that all of this idolatry was occurring in or near the Temple of God:
“The the king [Josiah] commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven. He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah. Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate. Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech. He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down; and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron. The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled. He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.”The “sacred pillars“ and “Asherim” in this passage were fertility symbols, most likely including giant phalluses carved from oak trees, which were the central feature of the “sacred oak groves“ often found on the “high places” where the demons were worshiped through male and female prostitution. The ritual of “kissing under the mistletoe” derives from this ancient pagan association of sex with oak trees, as mistletoe is a parasite most commonly found in oak groves.
Homosexuality is a Tool of the Antichrist to Corrupt God’s People
In Daniel 11, the Antichrist figure Antiochus IV Epiphanes uses homosexuality to corrupt Hebrew male youth in his plan to turn the Jews away from God (v.21-39, see also 1 Maccabees 1, esp v.14-16).
“Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation. “By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. “Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many …“Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time. “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done. “He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all (Daniel 11:31-37).Daniel does not specify the process by which those who disregard the covenant are turned to godlessness, but the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees 1 does. The Books of the Maccabees are not inspired scripture, but they are highly reliable historical records, and provide key details of the events described in summary by Daniel. The reader is encouraged to read the entirely of 1 Maccabees 1 for context.
“Antiochus Epiphanes began to rule….At that time, some renegade Israelites emerged. These people went against their ancestral laws and encouraged many other Jews to join them. They spoke up, saying, ‘Let’s make an agreement with the Gentiles around us‘…. Consequently, they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, following Gentile custom….They joined with Gentiles and gave themselves over to an evil course…Then King Antiochus sent word throughout his entire kingdom that everyone should act like one people, giving up their local customs….They were supposed to make themselves repulsive to God by doing unclean and improper acts. All of this was intended to make them forget the Law and change its regulations….
The king’s inspectors drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had available….they set up a disgusting and destructive thing on the altar for entirely burned offerings in the sanctuary….When they found the Law scrolls, they tore them to pieces and burned them. If anyone was caught in possession of a copy of the covenant scroll or if anyone kept to the Law, that person was condemned to death by royal decree…. In keeping with the decree, they killed women who had circumcised their sons. They hanged the infant boys from their mothers’ necks” (1 Maccabees 1:10-61).
The Greek “gymnasium,” where young men engaged in sporting events in the nude, was a center of homosexuality and one of the reasons sodomy became known throughout the entire western world as “Greek love.” In his article, Homosexuality & the Maccabean Revolt, Catholic scholar Patrick G.D. Riley notes:
“The all-male athletic club known as the gymnasium was notorious in the ancient world as a nestingplace for pederasty. Socrates himself was susceptible to it, as we learn in the Charmides. The lovers of boys came to the gymnasium in crowds, as Plato notes in that dialogue and in the Euthydemus. Plutarch mentions it in the Erotikos. Hence the gymnasium, with its sexual seductions, was bound to arouse alarm when it arrived in Jerusalem and “attracted the noblest young men” of Israel (2 Macc. 4:12). What follows that phrase bears this out. The original Greek of the text of 2 Maccabees continues with a pun: hypotasson hypo petason, which literally means “subduing [these noble young Jews] under the petason,” the broad-brimmed hat of Hermes worn by naked Greek athletes. But in the Church’s traditional Latin translation, known as the Vulgate, St. Jerome renders this in lupanaribus ponere, that is, ‘to put in brothels’
…Joined themselves to the Gentiles. In the Greek, this has a strong connotation of sexual union. The verb, zeugizein, means “to yoke in pairs,” a graphic metaphor for sexual union. It is used in a love-passage from second-century B.C. Alexandria, hence contemporary with the Maccabees, in a context implying copulation. Since the Greek gymnasium was traditionally exclusive to males, and since the histories present the Jerusalem gymnasium as male-only, the sexual union can only be homosexual. (New Oxford Review, September 1997).
Homosexuality is Singled Out by God to Exemplify the “Reprobate Mind,” and Identify the Period of Apostasy Preceding the Return of Christ
In Romans 1 homosexuality is singularly condemned as the sin associated with the “reprobate mind” and apostasy (v.24-32).
In 1 Timothy 1Homosexuals are equated with murderers, slavers and perjurers (v.9-10).
The condemnation of homosexual perversion in the Old Testament continues in the New Testament under Christ. The Apostle Paul expounds on the theme of natural law from the Biblical perspective, but also frames the discussion in an end-times context:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse….Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 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. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 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 1:18-27).
The phrase “wrath of God…revealed from heaven” invokes both the incineration of Sodom and the coming destruction in the last days and associates it unmistakably with homosexuality.
Moreover, the characteristics of the end-times apostate culture are portrayed as a direct consequence of the embrace of homosexual perversion by the society (note especially the last sentence of the following passage).
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:28-32).Now, keeping in mind that God frequently provides two witnesses to emphasize an important teaching, compare the list of apostate conduct in Romans 1 with the only other place in scripture it is found: 2 Timothy 3:1-5:
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”
Lastly, note the “last days” context of the 2 Timothy passage. Taken together these two Biblical witnesses clearly warn that the societal embrace of homosexuality will define the culture of the end, and the final warning in both passages is for believers to shun that culture.
The Good News is that Homosexuals Can Be Healed and Delivered by Christ
1 Corinthians 6 warns that neither homosexuals (nor transsexuals) can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, but they can be saved and healed of homosexuality by Christ (v.9-11).
“[D]o 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, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God“The simple, powerful truth of God is that He can heal homosexuals and deliver them from their bondage to sexual sin. It is a fact of Biblical history! In declaring that promise, this passage also reveals that former homosexuals were some of the earliest members of the church.
Thus, those who accept the lie of the modern age that homosexuals cannot change insult God and deny the truth of His Word. To these people, which unfortunately includes an increasing number of Christians, James’ warning is especially relevant:
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).Consider further the implications of the lie that homosexuality is innate and unchangeable, especially for children who struggle with same-sex attraction due to sexual molestation or gender identity disorder — frequently from Christian homes. Imagine trying to cope with the shame and fear of abnormal sexual orientation and then being told by the “experts” that you have NO HOPE of ever being healed of it. Is it any wonder that so many “gay” kids commit suicide.
But what is the implication for those who help perpetuate that lie?
“[W]hoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).Every believer in this age should always be ready to rebut that lie and offer real hope to those who struggle with homosexual sin by citing 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
The Apostle Peter Warns of the Rise of “Gay Theology” in the Last Days
2 Peter 2 invokes Noah’s flood, Sodom’s incineration and Balaam’s error, to warn against “destructive heresies” in the last days which are defined by “sensuality” and “the lust of defiling passions” (v.1-19) a clear reference to homosexuality.
A heresy is any theory or teaching that directly contradicts the plain truth of scripture. “Gay theology” is the most blatant example of heresy in the present age and is quite obviously being described in Peter’s prophecy.
“[T[here will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned… For if God did not spare…the ancient world, but preserved Noah…when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter…. And if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men …then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority…..But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct…count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime…reveling in their deception…having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls… [T]hey have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam….speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:1-19).
The phenomenon of “destructive heresies” warned of in this passage is unmistakably the legitimization of sexual perversion, especially homosexuality. The invocation of Sodom alone reveals that, bolstered by the references to Noah’s flood and Balaam’s error. [6]
[Footnote 6: Balaam was the magician who (in Numbers 22-24) refused Moabite King Balak’s command to curse the Hebrews out of fear of God, but advised Balak that the same result could be accomplished by involving the Hebrews in sexual sin. Thus, “the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods” Numbers 25:1-2.]
“Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.” Could any phrase more perfectly capture the essence of the “culture war” in our age in which LGBT activists and their surrogates champion the sexual revolution while declaring Biblical Christianity to be a religion of hate?
And doesn’t this entire passage accurately describe America and the West today: a hyper-sexualized culture of people “reveling” in self-deception, rationalizing that they are “born as creatures of instinct,” driven by insatiable lust and full of boastful “pride” about it, enticing others to join them in what they call “sexual freedom” but which is actually bondage and addiction?
Peter ends his letter with the following admonition, which also alludes to the heresy of “Gay Theology.”
“[B]e diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:14-18).The Tribulation Kingdom of the Antichrist will be Defined by Homosexuality and “Religious Pluralism”
Revelation 6 warns that the end-times Antichrist (a counterfeit version of the Messiah in Rev. 19:11-16) will ride forth on a white horse “conquering and to conquer” holding aloft a “bow” (likely God’s symbol of authority, the rainbow) (v.2).
“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand….When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him” Revelation 6:1-8).Chapter 6 of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John closely parallels a portion of the Olivet Discourse in Matt 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13, in which Jesus summarized the sequences of end time events before His return. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse represent the four phases or aspects of what Jesus calls “the beginning of sorrows” (labor pains) just before the start of the tribulation (Matthew 24:4-8).
The white horse represents the Antichrist, and the “bow” which he holds is almost certainly the rainbow. Remember that the Antichrist is an imposter who seeks to deceive the world into thinking he is the messiah. The real Christ will return “in the clouds” at His second coming (Matthew 24:30), and on a white horse. Revelation 19:11 states “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.”
Remember also that the rainbow, which God set “in the clouds” after the great flood (Genesis 9:13) is the symbol of God’s authority over the earth and evidence of His presence (Ezekiel 1:28 and Revelation 4:3). The Antichrist will apparently appropriate the symbol of the rainbow for himself as part of his claim to deity.
The crown represents the authority which God allows the Antichrist to briefly wield.
Interestingly, while the crown is “given to him” the rainbow was not, but was something he already “had,” or claimed possession of, suggesting (in the context of this study) an association with the global LGBT movement. Further to that point, the Antichrist goes forth “conquering and to conquer” which is traditionally interpreted to mean military conquest but is more precisely described in Revelation 13:7: “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.”
The LGBT movement is unarguably warring against Christianity across the world today and winning nearly every battle. The few nations which continue to offer strong resistance, such as Uganda and Russia find themselves “coincidentally” the subjects of intense hostility from the “international community,” albeit not always overtly related to the homosexual issue.
Importantly, when the Antichrist takes power he will deceive the world with lies that are already largely embraced by non-believers: “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
One of those lies is the normalcy of sexual perversion, but another is “religious pluralism,” the idea that all religions are equal and equally subservient to secular humanist government. [7]
[Footnote 7: In my view, the “religion” of the Antichrist will not be one of the established religions or some new phenomenon, it will be simply U.S. and U.N.-style Secular Humanism, enforced by an all-powerful dictator who demands worship as a God among men: a modern version of the human-led polytheism that Antiochus Epiphanes, the Pharaohs of Eqypt and the Emperors of Rome imposed on their subjects.]
Revelation 11:7-8 identifies Jerusalem under the reign of the Antichrist as “symbolically… called Sodom and Egypt” meaning that it is known for homosexuality and polytheism.
“’I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth‘….When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”Conclusion: The Church Must be Strengthened Against “Gay Heresy”
Not only is homosexuality NOT just another sin, it serves in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, as the primary symbol of end-stage rebellion against God triggering the outpouring of His wrath. Moreover, the challenge to Biblical orthodoxy represented by an increasingly militant pro-homosexual culture serves as a key litmus test for whether believers will stand with God or the Antichrist in the last days.
It is incumbent upon remnant believers to warn the church against the heresy of “gay theology” and to boldly and forcefully advocate for the Biblical worldview on sexuality and the one-flesh paradigm.
While there are many pro-family resources available on the Internet to refute this dangerous modern heresy, every believer should at minimum be familiar with the following essential points.
- Not a single Biblical passage portrays homosexuality positively (though “Gay” heretics twist a few verses to create a false impression — e.g. David was an enthusiastic heterosexual, notwithstanding his brotherly love for Jonathan — 1 Samuel 18:1, 2 Samuel 11).
- Jesus unequivocally condemned ALL sexual sin including homosexuality by affirming the “one flesh” paradigm of Genesis (Matthew 19:4-6).
- Condemnation of homosexuality predates the Mosaic code and is reaffirmed in the New Testament, so it bears no relation to the ban on “eating oysters” or other supposedly “repealed” laws of the Bible.
- “Eunuch” is not a synonym for “homosexual” in the Bible but means any man who has been castrated or who practices strict celibacy (Deuteronomy 23:1, Matthew 19:12).
We conclude with Jude’s timeless admonition to the church:
“Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” Jude 1:3
