Revisited

Glenn posted a comment on an earlier post of mine ... an update to his link. It brought the post back to mind and I thought it was worth repeating, not necessarily the post, but the position. So ... we're revisiting this post from May, 2011. The question is this: Is Scripture unclear on the topic of homosexual behavior?

When you look at Scripture itself—setting aside cultural debates, modern reinterpretations, and theological innovations—the biblical witness on homosexual sex is strikingly consistent. It is not vague, it is not scattered, and it is not ambivalent. Every time homosexual behavior is mentioned, it is prohibited. And every time Scripture affirms sexual expression, it is within the covenant of one man and one woman. There is no third category, no alternative pattern, and no exception.

The Old Testament is explicit. Leviticus describes male–male intercourse as a violation of God’s design (Lev 18:22; 20:13). These passages are not isolated purity laws; they appear in the middle of a moral code that includes prohibitions against adultery, incest, bestiality, and child sacrifice. The structure of the chapter makes it clear that the issue is moral, not ceremonial. Israel was not to imitate the sexual practices of the surrounding nations because those practices violated the created order God established in Genesis 2:24.

The narrative portions of Scripture reinforce the same pattern. When homosexual behavior appears in Genesis 19, it is presented as part of the moral collapse of Sodom. While the sin of Sodom is broader than sexual immorality, the text does not treat homosexual acts as neutral or permissible. They are part of the city’s rebellion against God’s design.

The New Testament continues this trajectory without softening it. Paul’s argument in Romans 1 is especially important because he ties homosexual behavior to a rejection of God’s created order. He describes same sex relations as “contrary to nature,” meaning contrary to the way God structured humanity from the beginning (Rom 1:26–27). This is not a cultural argument; it is a creational one. Paul is not appealing to Jewish custom or Roman law. He is appealing to Genesis.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, Paul includes homosexual behavior in a list of sins that exclude people from the kingdom of God. The point is not that these sins are uniquely damning, but that they are incompatible with the new life Christ gives. The same pattern appears in 1 Timothy 1:10, where Paul again includes homosexual acts in a list of behaviors contrary to sound doctrine. In none of these passages does Paul treat homosexual sex as a morally neutral alternative. It is consistently placed in the category of sexual immorality.

And when Scripture affirms sexual expression, it does so exclusively within the covenant of one man and one woman. Jesus grounds marriage in creation—“male and female,” “the two shall become one flesh” (Matt 19:4–6). Paul echoes the same pattern in Ephesians 5:31–33, tying marriage to the mystery of Christ and the church. The biblical sexual ethic is not built on cultural norms but on creation itself. That is why it remains consistent across both Testaments.

So if you ask whether the Bible is unclear on this subject, the answer is straightforward: it is not unclear. The biblical material is uniform. Homosexual sex is always prohibited, never condoned, and never presented as an acceptable expression of sexuality. Scripture’s sexual ethic is rooted in creation, affirmed by Jesus, taught by Paul, and woven throughout the entire canon. Prior to the last half of the 20th century, neither Jewish nor Christian believers have questioned it. This new resistance is just that ... new. Whatever culture may say—and culture says many contradictory things—the biblical witness is coherent and consistent.