Do These Verses Apply?

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People find ways to get around verses that condemn them. Two groups with different agendas use the same maneuvers to reject passages that are against them. One is the homosexual movement and the other is the feminist movement. Here are some of their arguments .

“I’ll Take Jesus Over Paul.” President Barack Obama was asked about same- sex unions in 2008. He gave his support for homosexuality, saying, “If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.” The “obscure” passage he referenced is Romans I:26-27. These verses say that women with women and men with men is “against nature.” There is nothing unclear about that. Romans is just as inspired as Matthew (John 16:12-13; 1 Cor. 14:37). The word “fornication” which Jesus used in Matthew 5:32 is from “porneia” which includes homosexuality.

The Fourth Avenue church of Christ in Franklin Tennessee recently hired a young lady as an intern preacher. Her name is Lauren King. The preacher there is Patrick Mead. He defended her preaching by arguing, “I don’t read Jesus through Paul. I read Paul through Jesus…We come to Jesus…now everything Paul said, he was a fellow-student with us.” Has he never read 1 Corinthians 14:37? Paul said “the things that I write unto you are commandments of the Lord”!

“That Was Then.” Advocates of same-sex marriage say that passages on homosexuality like Leviticus 20:13 and 1 Corinthians 6:9 only condemn homosexual prostitution or promiscuity, not same-sex committed relationships or marriages. They insist that these and other verses on the topic refer to a temporary cultural problem. However, there is nothing in the words used or the context to indicate this. Besides, Paul said this sin is against nature. He was talking about sodomy period, not the abuse of it.

The preacher at the congregation in Franklin made the same argument about Paul’s prohibition against women in leadership roles in the church in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12. He said, “I think he was addressing a temporary issue in Corinth and Ephesus…He was not trying to make rules for everybody in every time…” This preacher is not listening to Paul. First Corinthians 14:34 is not based on a temporary issue at Corinth; he says the principle of male leadership was in force in “the law” and applies today as well. First Timothy 2:11-12 is not based on culture. Paul said it is rooted in the creation (1 Tim. 2:13-14).

“The Lord Told Me.” If all else fails, homosexuals say God made them as they are and wants them to be happy regardless of what the Scriptures say. Nothing the Bible teaches matters because this feeling they say is from God overrides the written Word. The young lady in Franklin brushes aside what the Bible says in 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12 because she says God told her to preach. “The Lord also made it clear…that I was supposed to pick up a preaching emphasis…and the people of Lipscomb have been so supportive of that.” She said, “If a girl has a calling and a passion and she knows that the Lord is telling her something, do it!” With this kind of thinking, anything goes as long as you feel it in your heart!

Times are changing. May God help us to know and defend the truth!