John F. Butterfield
dedicated to the promotion of good citizenship


 

The Bible's View of Gay Marriage
by
John F. Butterfield

The Bible is very clear. It is against homosexual behavior. The New Testiment and the Old Testiment are in total agreement. 2 Peter 2:4-10 and Jude 5-7 specifically mention Sodom and Gomorrah as examples that heedless, ungodly people will be judged. Genesis 18 and 19 makes it very clear that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the extreme homosexual behavior of their populations.

2 Peter and Jude are not only books of the New Testiment but they were written by Peter, to whom Jesus Christ entrusted the instruction of his flock (See John 21:15-19), and by Jude who was one of the brothers of Jesus. Peter wrote, "by reducing the cities of Sodom and Gemorrah to ashes God condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come." (2 Peter 2:7 [NWT]). "So too Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire" (Jude 7 [New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures]). (The King James Version says, "going after strange flesh" which could have a different meaning.) However, Genisis 19 makes it quite clear that the sin of the people of Sodom was homosexuality. Men surrounded Lot's home to have sex with the men inside. Lot offered his daughters to the men outside his home, but the offer was turned down. Then, even after being blinded, they wore themselves out trying to get to the men inside Lot's home.

Just as is done today, the homosexuals in Sodom felt that Lot should just stand aside and let them do whatever they wanted. "This lone man came here to reside as an alien and yet he would actually play the judge" (part of Genesis 19:9). Lot was an "alien". Today, those who behave homseuually call those who speak against homosexuality "homophobic". Now just to make things clear to those who may not know the story, God saved Lot and his daughters when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.

There is another aspect to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot asked God not to completely destroy the cities. He bargained with God, "Suppose there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city. Will you, then, sweep them away and not pardon the place for the sake of the fifty righteous inside it? . . . Then Jehovah said, "If I shall find in Sodom fifty righteous men in the midst of the city I will pardon the whole place on their account.'" (Genesis 18:24,26 [NWT]). Finally, Jehovah said he would not destroy Sodom if there were only 10 good people in it. The people of Sodom and Gemorrah evidently had virtually no socially redeeming features. But if there had been a number of righteous people, Jehovah would have pardoned the whole place. If the behavior of so many had not been so egregious, the cities might not have been destroyed.

Lot certainly did not call for the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah. Our behavior should probably be modeled after Lot's. After all, God chose to save him. Let there be no mistake though. What is a sin in the Bible should certainly not be turned into a sacrament. Two men cannot marry each other. Two women cannot marry each other.