Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgender in the Bible
PAGE 2

Remember, Jesus was God on Earth.
John 20:28; "And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

1Timothy 3:16; "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

Titus 2:11-13; "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldy lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."

Phil. 2:6; "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped .... "

Col. 1:19; "for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him ..."

Col. 2:9; "For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form ..."

1 John 5:20b; "And we are in him who is true - even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."

He existed before the world was created.

John 1:1-4. 14; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ... 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Col. 1:15-19a; "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ..."

Jesus surely knew all about Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jesus surely knew of homosexuality in his own day.

It is very noteworthy, then, that he made no mention of the subject even when he did talk about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Surely if homosexuality was the glaring historical reason for the destruction of the cities He would have taken the opportunity to teach on the evils of the "sin of Sodom"!
Jesus clearly taught on social ills such as murder, prostitution, divorce, lying, thievery, charging interest on loans, and multiple marriages...... but homosexuality (which we know was present in his day) called for no such correction from the Son of God.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO RAPE ANGELS.... IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH MISTREATING GOD'S WORD, GOD'S GOOD NEWS AND THOSE WHO ARE SENT TO DELIVER THAT GOOD NEWS OF SALVATION. (See Boswell, page 94F and McNeill, page 44)

Most people consider the Story of Sodom and Gomorrah to be the most important proof for Biblically based condemnation of Homosexual practices; however, when we apply correct linguistics and correct translation of text (producing the LITERAL METHOD) to the story, we find there is absolutely no basis for this conclusion. (See Mc Neill, page 49)

If this interpretation is correct we have a horrific paradox connected to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Western Christian history records thousands of years of cruel persecution, excommunication, torture, and even death of Gay Christians all carried out by the Church and State in the name of God. In fact, the Church and State have themselves been perpetuating the true sin of Sodom when Gay persons have been or are still treated as strangers to be excluded, even eliminated. Will it be worse on the day of Judgement for the Christian West than for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah??? (See McNeill, page 50)

THE STORY OF JUDGES 19

There is in Judges 19:3-20:10 a story that remarkably parallels the Genesis 19 story.
In Judges, a Levite of Ephriam and his concubine find hospitality in Gibeah with an old man after considerable effort to find lodging. Their host is a "foreigner" just like the situation with Lot; (JUDGES 19:16 Just then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening, who also was from the mountains of Ephraim; he was sojourning in Gibeah, whereas the men of the place were Benjamites.) The men of Gibeah are outraged in the same way as the men of Sodom. Again, the demand: "Bring the man out that we may know him." (Judges 19:22). The old man even offers his virgin daughter and his guest's concubine. Biblical interpretive history has NEVER pointed to the Judges 19 story as a condemnation of homosexuality. Have you ever heard of Gibeahomy??

No one accuses the Benjamite men of Gibeah of being homosexuals. In fact the interpretation is always correct in saying it is a story of inhospitality to the travelling stranger.

The Bible is best interpreted by the Bible.

The Bible gives the correct interpretation of the story in Judges 20:1-10.

The Levite himself recounts the story without charging the men of Gibeah as having any sexual interest in him.

Judges 20:3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the children of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this wicked deed happen?" So the Levite, the husband of thewoman who was murdered, answered and said, "My concubine and I went into Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to spend the night. "And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house at night because of me. They intended to kill me, but instead they ravished my concubine so that she died. "So I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel, because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel. "Look! All of you are children of Israel; give your advice and counsel here and now!" Then all the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will go to his tent, nor will any of us turn back to his house; "but now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: We will go up against it by lot. "We will take ten men out of every hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to make provisions for the people, that when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay all the vileness that they have done in Israel." (See Boswell, page 96)

THE WORD SODOMITE IN THE BIBLE

Statement: My King James Bible has the word "Sodomite" right in it. How could this not mean homosexuals?

Response: The word "SODOMITE" appears two times in the KING JAMES translation of the Old Testament and both times only in a context which simply imply sexual sins. The New King James does not use the word Sodomite when translating the same verses.

King James- Deut 23:17 "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel"
The New King James Version translates the same word as a perverted one.

King James- 1Kings 14:24: "And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. The New King James Version translates the same word as perverted persons .

Apply the Literal Method and again we prove these are mistranslations of the Hebrew word KADASH, plural KADESHIM #6945 in the Strong's Concordance.

The word literally means "hallowed" or "sacred" and refers to the demi-god sacred prostitutes in pagan temples. The literal translation of this word does not imply that these prostitutes serviced persons of their own gender. Boswell asserts there is little historical evidence to support such a conclusion. (See Boswell, page 99)

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol 4, pg 2821. (This is very significant because this is a very Evangelical and ultra-Conservative source. It was published in 1939. Yet, it supports our argument.)

"SODOMITE, (..kadhesh, fem., Kedheshah) Kadhesh denotes properly a male temple prostitute, one of the class attached to certain sanctuaries of heathen deities, and "consecrated" to the impure rites of their worship. Such a gross and degrading practices in Jeh's land could only be construed as a flagrant outrage; and any association of these with His pure worship was abhorrent (Dt 23:17). "

Note: Here are cited other references in the Bible for sacred cult prostitutes according to word usage. FROM The New Brown - Driver - Briggs - Gesenius Hebrew - English Lexicon 6945 qadesh (kaw-dashe)- TEMPLE PROSTITUTE (MAN) cf. Dt 23:18; IKgs 14:24; 22:47; plural form IKgs 15:12; 2Kinsgs 23:7, Job36:14 6948 qedushah (Ked-ay-shaw)-TEMPLE PROSTITUTE (FEMALE) cf. Dt 23:18; plural Hos 4:14; = harlot

The KJV uses "sodomite" to translate a Hebrew word that LITERALLY MEANS 'HOLY ONE" but in practice meant "MALE CULT PROSTITUTE" (RSV) (DEUT 23:17; 1KGS 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2KGS 23:7) See the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible - volume 5, page 446)

Boswell asserts this word was mistranslated as early as the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. by Jewish scholars who effected the Septuagint translation of the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. When translators attempted to render KADASH in Greek they employed at least six different Greek words. None of these selected words in the Septuagint even suggests homosexuality in the Greek language. Therefore, our modern translations rendering "Sodomite" are totally inaccurate, culturally and theologically manipulated translations of the Word of God. (See Boswell, pg 99)

THE CULT PROSTITUES

The problem of Pagan Cult Temple Prostitution was a real challenge for the Hebrew people and early Christians.

The subject is so vast that anything said here about it would be grossly insufficient. This is the context of the prohibition of Leviticus 18:22 and Romans Chpt 1. It was very important to the Hebrew people that they did not appear similar in any way to their neighbors the Canaanites.

Leviticus 18:3 "According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances."

In Canaan there were many orgiastic, fertility cult religions. These sects had their own priests, and male and female 'holy' prostitutes. It was believed (variously according to the cult) that a devotee (worshipper) was somehow in communion with the sacred by participating in sexual acts with the cult prostitutes. Needless to say, the Hebrew people could not tolerate such behavior on at least two accounts.

CONTINUE ON WITH THIS STUDY BY CLICKING ON THE INTERNET LINK TO OUR NEXT PAGE:
|PAGE THREE CLICK HERE!|

Email:

Brother Shawn F. Benedict
Rainbow line

[ Sign our Guestbook ] - [ Read our Guestbook ]
[ GuestBook by TheGuestBook.com ]

Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgender in the BiblePAGE 2

Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgender in the Bible
PAGE 2