Pro-Gay Revisionist Theology: Did God Really Say...?

Kermit Rainman

A false doctrine concerning homosexual behavior has been launched at biblically orthodox believers.

No matter where one turns in the culture today, the issue of homosexuality and “gender identity” is being hotly debated. The “homosexual rights” ideology continues to seek legitimization—not just tolerance—of homosexual behavior, resulting in rapidly changing societal mores and values that deeply impact us in our day-to-day relationships with family and fellow church members, neighbors and co-workers.

A key strategy in ushering in this uncritical acceptance of homosexuality into the wider culture has centered on churches and synagogues. Specifically, homosexual activists and their allies know that the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic found in the Bible is the last bastion of defense holding back the widespread embrace of homosexuality throughout culture. They understand that if Bible-believing Christians and Jews can be convinced that homosexual behavior is no longer sinful in God’s eyes, then the battle to fully implement their political and social goals will be won.

For example, gay strategists Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen, in their landmark homosexual public relations manual published in 1989, boldly encouraged gays “to muddy the moral waters, that is, to undercut the rationalizations that ‘justify’ religious bigotry and to jam some of its psychic rewards.” They go on to specify that this entails “raising serious theological objections to conservative biblical teachings.” Further, gays are called to “undermine the moral authority of homohating churches…by portraying such institutions as antiquated backwaters, badly out of step with the times and with the latest findings of psychology.”[1]

It is in this context that a propaganda campaign aimed at biblically orthodox believers has been launched with the goal of sowing seeds of doubt about God’s commands concerning homosexual behavior.

In its theological application, this campaign of misinformation is known as pro-gay revisionist theology, and it’s presently playing out in denomination after denomination with increasing discord. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, a systematic questioning of clear scriptural teaching on homosexual behavior began to take place within the church – recalling the serpent’s question to Eve in Genesis 3 – “Did God really say…?” [2]

Indeed, the Apostle Paul warns about this situation when he writes to Timothy and says:

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.[3]

While St. Paul was referring to certain false doctrines that Timothy would undoubtedly face in his ministry, this warning similarly applies to the Body of Christ today as we face a revisionist theology that – in this case – questions God’s clear command to not engage in homosexual behavior.[4]

Specifically, the intended effect of pro-gay revisionist theology is to disengage the church from the wider cultural debate about homosexuality by redefining it as God-ordained and morally permissible. And just like the serpent’s temptation to Eve in the Garden, leaders in the “gay-Christian” movement are tempting us with the question: “Did God really say…that homosexuality is a sin?”

In general, there are several broad categories of arguments that pro-gay revisionists are employing to cast doubt on God’s Word concerning homosexual behavior:

1)      Christians’ prejudice against homosexuals leads them to misread biblical texts about homosexuality;

2)      Scriptures that supposedly condemn homosexual behavior have actually been mistranslated;

3)      Scriptures that supposedly condemn homosexual behavior have been taken out of context and do not apply to our present society.[5] 

While it is not possible to offer an in-depth rebuttal to each of these sets of arguments in the scope of this article, a few general observations about revisionist theology can be made:

• The Bible is wholly reliable, trustworthy and true in all that it affirms. It clearly teaches the honor, dignity and value of the two sexes as created in God’s image – intentionally male and female – each bringing unique and complementary qualities to sexuality and relationships.

• Sexuality is a glorious gift from God – meant to be offered back to Him either in marriage for procreation, union and mutual delight or in celibacy for undivided devotion to Christ.

• Pro-gay revisionist theology violates God’s intentional design for gender and sexuality.

• Attempts to subjugate objective biblical truths to subjective human experiences lead men and women to accept lies. Often those having a personal interest in the promulgation of pro-gay revisionist theology twist the plain teaching of Scripture to support and justify their behavior.

• Scripture begins and ends with the picture of marriage as an institution ordained by God – designed for the union of a man and a woman in a life-long, faithful, covenantal relationship. This view is affirmed by Moses, Christ, and Paul, and has been upheld through thousands of years of Judeo Christian history and tradition. Pro-gay revisionists usually do not even attempt to address God’s created intent for human sexuality, but instead twist Scripture and argue against those texts which condemn same-sex behavior.

• It remains highly unlikely that Bible translators mistranslated five references to sexual ethics in two different testaments of Scripture. Even more unlikely is the possibility that they only mistranslated Scriptures regarding homosexual behavior.

• Scriptures that testify against homosexual behavior—including Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10—are so clear and specific that they defy reinterpretation. It is intellectually dishonest to say that conservative individuals and leaders “interpret” such clear verses as “Thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman” out of prejudice against homosexuals.

• Homosexuality in Leviticus, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy is mentioned in the wider context of sexual, immoral, and prohibited behaviors, casting doubt on the argument that Scriptures condemning homosexuality have been taken out of context.

• References condemning homosexual behavior were addressed to highly different Ancient Near East cultures (from Hebrew to Greco-Roman) – nullifying the argument that scriptural passages against homosexuality are culturally bound and inapplicable to today’s society.

• The argument that Jesus said nothing about homosexuality in the gospels is misleading and illogical for at least five reasons:

1) The gospels are not more authoritative than those books of the Bible that condemn homosexual behavior. All authors of Scripture were inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.[6]

2) The gospels are not comprehensive. Some of the Bible’s most important teachings—the explanation of spiritual gifts, the Priesthood of Christ, the doctrine of man’s old and new nature—appear in other books of the Bible.

3) The gospels do not claim to be a complete account of Jesus’ life or teachings.  Sections of Jesus’ life are not discussed in the gospels and we cannot be certain that Jesus never spoke about homosexual behavior.

4) Scripture teaches that Jesus kept all the Law and affirmed all that the Law and the Prophets taught.[7] Undoubtedly, this would have included the affirmation of committed, monogamous male-female marriage and an unwavering condemnation of homosexual behavior. Given that all first century orthodox Jews would have held to this standard, the question of affirming homosexuality would not have been open to discussion in Jesus’ day.

5) Jesus clearly referred to heterosexuality as a standard. He specifically described God's created intent for human sexuality: “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."[8]

In sum, the pro-gay revisionist theology threatens to substantially alter the Christian church and biblical doctrine. When God is said to sanction what He plainly forbids, then a serious heresy is unfolding before us in bold fashion. Confronting this false doctrine lovingly – but firmly – is necessary because it demands that we confirm professing Christians in their sin, when we are biblically commanded to do just the opposite.

References for Further Study

• Focus on the Family's Homosexuality and Gender Homepage.

• Joe Dallas, The Gay Gospel? How Pro-Gay Advocates Misread the Bible, 2007 (Harvest House).

• James B. DeYoung, Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and other Ancient Literature and Law, 2000 (Kregel Publications).

• Robert A.J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice:  Texts and Hermeneutics, 2001 (Abingdon Press).

Kermit Rainman is a Social Research Analyst for Focus on the Family. He is indebted to Joe Dallas for content in this article.

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