President - Scott Lane 599-7240 Vice President – Al(den) Johnson, O.D.
Secretary – Clarence Johnson Treasurer – Carl Williams, M.D.
[website – www.sabbsa.org ] [P.O. Box 34478, San Antonio, TX 78265]
April 2016
It’s April and that‘s not a joke. Summer is just around the corner, and with that in mind one of our articles will introduce you to a new creation museum in the Branson, Missouri area which can enrich any vacation or visit to this beautiful area. It also will alert you to other creation opportunities available across the country and internationally as you plan your summer vacations.
We also have a very sober article relating how the gay rights and definition of marriage issues are related to our worldview, our belief in the Bible and our belief in the creation account. There is data in this article on homosexuality that you will find in very few other places today and we hope it is informative and clarifies what people are trying to make into a hazy subject. We also have an article from Terry Read commenting on the new idiocy of calling the teaching of Creationism to kids “child abuse.” We hope you find this Communiqué both informative and useful.
______
One Man with One Woman from the Creation
Gay marriage, gay rights and the very definition of marriage are hot button topics today. Some Christians cannot even agree with what is the correct attitude for Christians to have on these topics. This whole controversy is one which can be made clear and simple from a creationist worldview and a view of inerrancy of scripture with a belief in the Bible’s authority from the Creator.
In genesis 2:24 it says “ … a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” The Bible plainly states in Leviticus, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. “(NKJ, Leviticus 18:22) If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. (NKJ, Leviticus 20:13)
Further the Old Testament scriptures of I Kings 14:24, I Kings 15:12 and 2 Kings 23:7 all define male and female prostitution as abominations before the Lord. There are four verses which prohibit bestiality (humans having sex with animals). Which will be the next step along the natural path of these libertarian thoughts of “gay rights”, and which will be fed by our evolutionary philosophy of man being just an evolved animal.
There are multiple scriptures prohibiting both incest and rape. Both of which are still prohibited within our society for very common sense protections of our persons and our society.
These proscriptions against homosexuality are carried forward in the New Testament. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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. “(NIV, 1st Corinthians 6:9-11)
Sodom and Gomorrah were both destroyed for their immoral behavior, which due to their names was primarily for illicit sexual behavior including rape and homosexuality (Genesis 19, Judges 19). It specifically says in Jude 7, “And don't forgetSodom and Gomorrahand their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God's judgment.“(NIV)
The New Testament also reiterates the immorality of lesbianism when it says., “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. “(NIV, Romans 1:25-27)
Paul went on to say in 1 Timothy 1:8-10, “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine ...” (ESV)
It is often said that Jesus was silent on homosexuality in the Bible and this is a misleading lie. Jesus actually defined marriage and natural relations in the Bible. In the book of Matthew Jesus said, “Haven’t you read,”he replied,“that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’5and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?6So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”(NIV)
From this verse, it is clear that Jesus believed in the creation account and stated that God established natural relations and marriage as being between one man and one woman. No other combination. Further, his comment makes clear the idea that this relationship was to be honored for life. Thus, Jesus was not silent on the concept of homosexuality. He clearly defined what marriage was to be and supported that this definition was His and God’s intent from the beginning. As we have seen in the scriptures we have reviewed from both the Old and new Testaments, there is a consistent theme of natural and unnatural relations. Homosexual and lesbian relations are specifically prohibited and defined as unnatural relations.
Research in the animal kingdom coincides with what the Bible and common sense would tell us. While homosexual relations occur in the animal kingdom, they are rare and almost never are in the form of a homosexual orientation, but an aberration which does not benefit the species. (Levay, Simon (1996).Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p.207.) This research underscores the biblical perspective of homosexual relations as not being natural.
Church Doctrine
Here is a sampling of official church positions on homosexuality from the two largest denominations in the United States:
Roman Catholic:
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved…
Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
From Catechism of the Catholic Church, (c) 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc., http://www.nccbuscc.org/catechism/text/index.htm
Southern Baptist:
We affirm God's plan for marriage and sexual intimacy - one man, and one woman, for life. Homosexuality is not a "valid alternative lifestyle." The Bible condemns it as sin. It is not, however, unforgivable sin. The same redemption available to all sinners is available to homosexuals. They, too, may become new creations in Christ.
From Position Statements, Copyright (c) 1999 - 2001, Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, http://sbc.net/default.asp?url=position-statements.html
It is clear from reading these position statements from the two largest Christian groups in the U. S. and representing over one billion Christians worldwide, that homosexuality is defined by them and the Bible as sin. But as with all sin, none is unforgiveable. Homosexuals can repent and be forgiven. They are not to be judged more harshly than other sinners like ourselves. But, neither should their unnatural activities be sponsored, tolerated nor legitimized.
It is not just the Bible which is oft misquoted on this subject, but plain research on homosexual activities are often misquoted, twisted or misunderstood which has muddled the waters. Kinsey reported some 60 years ago that the population of gays in this country was 10%. That figure would make them a large subset of our culture and much larger than anyone had thought. We now know from further research that this study was in error. Kinsey and Masters studied the orientation of prison populations which are around 10% homosexual. However, more recent studies have shown the actual homosexual population in the U. S. to be 2.8% male homosexuals and 1.4% lesbians for an average of 2.1% homosexuals as a part of our total population or something more that 6 million homosexuals in America today (another study puts this number of gays at 3.8% and about 9 million gays). Incidentally, these numbers are twice what is reported from Australia, England and Canada which all report homosexual orientations of just above 1%. (https://carm.org/percent-population-homosexual)
While this is a large number, it is far from the every fourth or fifth person in a group perception that Hollywood and TV have been portraying to us for the past 40 years. Indeed it is this intentional misperception fostered by the movie and TV medias over the past 40 years of gays being everywhere and acceptable which has led to a molded attitude in our culture today where we are ignoring not just biblical statutes, but societal norms, social history and common sense.
Homosexuality has been abhorred and unlawful in western civilizations for 2000 years. The reasons for this are manifold. Part of it refers back to western civilizations dependence on the Bible for its codes of conduct. But, there is far more to these gay prohibitions than that. Kinsey’s and Masters work with prison populations show us that while only about 2% of American s are homosexual, that 10% of our prison populations are homosexual which means these people are five times more likely to be incarcerated than the average American. This tendency of people who ignore societal norms to practice homosexuality is also expressed in terms of other deviant and illegal activities in our societies which we naturally try to eliminate.
The great cultures of the past such as the Greeks and Romans did not start out with open homosexuality as their norm, but their cultures degenerated into such open homosexual behaviors as their cultures lost any sense of right and wrong and stagnated and died or imploded. I am afraid we are playing out that same sad show in our societies today as has happened so many times through history. Our Supreme Court last year in sustaining gay marriage had to ignore 1700 years of common law in western civilizations and ignore the fact that such a right is as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stated, “is a right found nowhere in the constitution.” That decision goes against the very soul of or society and marks a plunge into degradation not before seen in our country.
The Russian culture is by its nature vehemently homophobic as demonstrated by their negative and unwelcome responses to homosexuals coming to the Olympics there. The underpinnings of this anti-homosexual tendency in Russia is a practical one, which we should not miss. Russians have for centuries been faced with the challenge of inhabiting a vast land area. To tame and control so much land, they must have a large population. You do not produce more people through homosexual relations, but less. Thus, their stance against homosexuality is merely a practical one, which may lead us back to the reason God set things up as He did in the first place. Marriage was originally set up between a man and a woman so that we could fill and subdue the earth. Homosexuality subverts that goal.
Further, psychological studies have shown that kids grow up best and with the most normal psyches when they are raised by two loving parents of the opposite sex. (Children from two-parent families are better off emotionally, socially and economically, according to a review of marriage research released in the article “The Future of Children”, a journal published jointly by the non-partisan Brookings Institution and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School). Both sexes it seems bring something different to the table in terms of nurturing and development. This is another characteristic of God’s natural design which we are ignoring in western civilization today when we become accepting of gays as natural.
Many would claim that homosexuality is an orientation “built into” a person by their genetic makeup. Dr. Georgia Purdom and others have debunked this claim as “junk science.” These ideas feed into a mindset we see a lot of today in which humanists espouse that man is essentially good and if we are doing something bad, whether it be theft, rape or homosexuality then we are genetically predisposed to it or have a diseased mind and are not responsible for our actions. We do not accept such “junk science” in the realm of murder, theft, rape, burglary or a host of other sins, but there are those in society who want us to “buy into” this idea for homosexuality in spite of no compelling science for it. The reason for this is clear. This mindset is divorced from the biblical worldview which says we have a “fallen” mind and that sin rules us and they in no way wish to accept that instead of being intrinsically good, that man is intrinsically bad because of our sin nature. This is another form of rebellion from the Creator and the authority of His word. What is so sad is that all you have to do to understand how the Bible is right on this topic is turn on the evening news any night and the mayhem which you will see all around us will convince anyone of the Bible’s truth in telling us that we have a fallen nature.