that was really clear for me to understand
now i'm waiting for the other two theologians to chime in and see if they have dissenting views

but this here was goddammned beautiful






>Us Christians have done an unfair job of treating
>homosexuality as some sort of "special sin." I'll be the
>first to admit that. Most Christians tread it differently
>than any other sin. And truthfully that's night right.
>
>While I do believe homosexuality is a sin, it needs to be
>communicated that any sex outside of God's design for sex
>(marriage) is a sin. That's boyfriend/ girlfriend, one night
>stand, porn, homosexuality, sex with animals or anything else
>outside of marriage. The reality is most people (self
>included) have been guilty of this.
>
>Homosexuality is not this special sin that makes you the worst
>person in the world because of it. Us Christians need to stop
>putting that energy out there and singling Gay people out.
>
>In my opinion, any conversation about sexuality must start
>with God's intended purpose for it.
>
>Genesis 1:26-28 (English Standard Version)
>26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
>likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea
>and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and
>over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
>on the earth.”
>27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
>created him; male and female he created them.
>28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful
>and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have
>dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
>heavens and over every living thing that moves on the
>earth.”
>
>Genesis 2:20-25 (English Standard Version)
>20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the
>heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there
>was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused
>a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one
>of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib
>that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a
>woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
>“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she
>shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
>24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and
>hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And
>the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
>
>So let's put this in perspective. God created man in His
>image. And gave him Eve because he didn't want man to be
>alone. He then instructed man to be fruitful and multiply as
>well as to have dominion over the earth. This is also sets a
>tone for God's design for marriage. A man leaving his parents
>and having a wife and the husband and wife becoming a unit.
>That's God's design for sex and never does he OK sex in any
>context: gay, straight or otherwise, any other place in
>scripture.
>
>You mentioned the Leviticus passages below. Let's look at
>those in context. Here are the scriptures around that passage
>in Chapter 18
>
>Leviticus 18:20-30 (English Standard Version
>20 And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife
>and so make yourself unclean with her. 21 You shall not give
>any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so
>profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 22 You shall not
>lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 And
>you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean
>with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to
>lie with it: it is perversion.
>
>24 “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things,
>for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have
>become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I
>punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its
>inhabitants. 26 But you shall keep my statutes and my rules
>and do none of these abominations, either the native or the
>stranger who sojourns among you 27 (for the people of the
>land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so
>that the land became unclean), 28 lest the land vomit you out
>when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that
>was before you. 29 For everyone who does any of these
>abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from
>among their people. 30 So keep my charge never to practice any
>of these abominable customs that were practiced before you,
>and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord
>your God.”
>
>First we need to note that this was written to God to Jews and
>was a part of Jewish law. Christians are no longer under the
>law, but there are lessons to be learned from it. As you can
>see, God doesn't just discuss homosexuality, but he also
>touches on fornication (sex with your neighbor's wife) and sex
>with animals at the same time. He then states the reason why:
>all the offenses in this chapter are abominations that defile
>not just the person doing them but the land as well. This
>meant the country itself would be in trouble, likely because
>its an acceptable lifestyle there. The sexual lifestyle God
>planned for us is within the context of marriage between a man
>and woman. Any sexual situations outside of that, He isn't
>please with.
>
>Now in the other passage you posted, we see God's punishment
>for the Jews who commited these sins. Again, we are no longer
>under this code, but its worth noting God isn't pleased with
>these things:
>
>Leviticus 20:10-21 (English Standard Version (ESV)
>10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his
>neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely
>be put to death. 11 If a man lies with his father's wife, he
>has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall
>surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12 If a man
>lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be
>put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is
>upon them. 13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both
>of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be
>put to death; their blood is upon them. 14 If a man takes a
>woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall
>be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you.
>15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to
>death, and you shall kill the animal. 16 If a woman approaches
>any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the
>animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon
>them.
>17 “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a
>daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees
>his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in
>the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered
>his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. 18 If
>a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and
>uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and
>she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them
>shall be cut off from among their people. 19 You shall not
>uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your
>father's sister, for that is to make naked one's relative;
>they shall bear their iniquity. 20 If a man lies with his
>uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they
>shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 If a man
>takes his brother's wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered
>his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
>
>Now let's fast forward to the new Testament. Near the end of
>Paul's life, he wrote a letter to the Church at Rome about
>what it means to really live for God. Today, that is the book
>of Romans in our Bible's. In the first chapter, he touched on
>God's punishment for not living according to His (God's)
>plan:
>
>Romans 1:16-32 (English Standard Version)
>16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of
>God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first
>and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God
>is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The
>righteous shall live by faith.”
>
>God's Wrath on Unrighteousness
>18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
>ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
>unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known
>about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
>20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and
>divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the
>creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
>So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God,
>they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they
>became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
>darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
>exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling
>mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
>
>24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to
>impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
>25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and
>worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who
>is blessed forever! Amen.
>
>26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
>For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are
>contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural
>relations with women and were consumed with passion for one
>another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving
>in themselves the due penalty for their error.
>28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
>them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29
>They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil,
>covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife,
>deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters
>of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
>disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless,
>ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that
>those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only
>do them but give approval to those who practice them.
>
>Many points can be made in this passage. But in the essence
>of time, I'll say this. Its worth noting that at a certain
>point, even when we know the Word of God, but don't want to
>live according to it, God will allow us to just live any kind
>of way we want. We may thing this is fine, but in basically
>has symbolized that God has taken his hand and hedge of
>protection all of us. v. 17 says He lets his wrath out on us
>when we live like that.
>
>Ephesians 5:1-5 (English Standard Version)
>Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk
>in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a
>fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
>3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must
>not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let
>there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking,
>which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
>5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually
>immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater),
>has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
>
>The same guy Paul wrote the passage above. Sexual immorality
>is again, any sex outside of marriage. If sex of any kind
>outside of marriage is your normal lifestyle and you never
>repent from that, you don't go to Heaven. Now keep this in
>mind...he wrote this to Christians. Meaning even those of us
>who are in them pews every sunday getting happy when the
>preacher preaches, may not make it, if we live a consistent
>lifestyle that includes sex outside of marriage with no signs
>of repentance.
>
>I could write much more on this and this response is already
>mad long. Hopefully this gave you some context and filled in
>some gaps though.
>
>
>Download my new mixtape featuring Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Christon
>Gray and more. Positive Hip Hop:
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****
pink toes: http://i.imgur.com/WN7DPL1