tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591518369598505341.post7546434833653231737..comments2023-10-18T09:38:27.290-05:00Comments on Time 2 Change Churches!: something to think about...pastorbrianculverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07325788116682801754noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591518369598505341.post-10562617654089440862008-09-19T09:26:00.000-05:002008-09-19T09:26:00.000-05:00i would love to Wayne! give me some time though a...i would love to Wayne! give me some time though as I am at work right now. I will get back to it later today! God blesspastorbrianculverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07325788116682801754noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591518369598505341.post-61369026134849881752008-09-19T09:21:00.000-05:002008-09-19T09:21:00.000-05:00Brian - There has been an on-going debate/point-co...Brian - <BR/><BR/>There has been an on-going debate/point-counter point on my blog with DP over the issue of homosexuality.<BR/><BR/>Finally - I asked him to give me an exegesis on the following verses.....<BR/><BR/>DP – Please give me an exegesis of the following verses…….. <BR/><BR/>1 Cor 9:6-11 - Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Here was his response:<BR/><BR/>Of course, we are back inevitably, to the authority of scripture; a principal I espouse but the misuse of what the Bible has to say about homosexuality deserves attention. There are five groups of passages.<BR/><BR/>* First of all there are the stories of Sodom and Gibeah in Genesis 19:1-25 and Judges 19:13-28. The actions described here so graphically are homosexual and heterosexual rape.<BR/><BR/>* Secondly, there are the references in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, regarded as key texts in this matter by conservative evangelicals. These passages relate primarily to idolatry, as 18:21 suggests. The Hebrew here rendered in English as ‘commit an abomination’, an offence which carries the death penalty, is a term often employed in the Old Testament of idolatrous practices.<BR/><BR/>* Thirdly, there are the accounts in 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12, and 22:46 of male prostitution at idolatrous shrines.<BR/><BR/>* Fourthly, there are quite explicit references in -Romans 1: 18 - 27 to homosexuality. These verses, too, are central to the conservative evangelical case. The context is pagan idolatry. Paul argues that male and female homosexual orgies are the consequence of idolatry, the nature of which he describes in some detail. Men and women, having known God’s clear revelation, ‘have refused to honour him as God, or to render thanks’. Therefore, Paul says. God has ‘given them up to their own vile desires, and the consequent degradation of their bodies’. To be abandoned to orgiastic homosexual passion is, Paul argues, God’s punishment for rejecting him for man-made idols. We find the same ideas in Wisdom 14 and 15 on which Romans l:18ff is virtually a commentary.<BR/><BR/>* Finally, there are the lists in two of Paul’s letters of ‘the lawless and disobedient’ who will not possess the Kingdom of God’. They include ‘sexual perverts’ or ‘sodomites’ (depending on the English translation) (1 Cor. 6: 9; 1 Tim. 1:10). Given the many cults in Corinth and other cosmopolitan cities, and as Paul’s lists of virtues and vices are taken almost unmodified from conventional pagan lists, there seems little doubt that these references, too, relate to male prostitution and possibly also to child sexual abuse.<BR/><BR/>Therefore, strictly in their contexts, these biblical passages refer not to the homosexual condition but to homosexual rape and prostitution and to homosexual activity in the course of idolatrous practices. This is the evidence. This is what the biblical writers unequivocally condemn. To equate these gross immoralities with adult, loving, long-term, committed consensual gay and lesbian relationships is a gross misuse of scripture. To use these passages in a homophobic polemic is disgraceful.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Of course he basically attacks the authority of Scripture to start with, but could you now give me an exegesis on the same Scripture?<BR/><BR/>Thanks for you time.Dawghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06667201139980869656noreply@blogger.com