Homosexuality
This article is written by Hans Neser and is used with his permission.

If you have any articles you would like to see on HyperBible please let us know.

It has been said: "Nowhere in the Gospels did Jesus mention homosexuality. The actual word did not evolve until the late 19th century. The Greek word did was not used in the New Testament until Paul spoke of it." Here is my response:

The Fulfillment of the Law
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-20

There was no need for Jesus to speak of it - Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and God's moral Law as spelled out in the Old Testament which is as living and active today as it was 3,000 years ago. (Hebrews 4:12-13)

Many people will try to get around the issue by saying that homosexuality is a cultural thing and the 'hardline' biblical stance is not necessary today. This is not so because God's standards have not changed in any way, shape or form.

Here is God's view of homosexuality and homosexual shrine prostitutes:

Jesus' stance was that the OT Law still stands today - in fact his goal was to try and get us to understand the original intent of the Law so we would stop being legalists and take the law to heart.

Jesus was Clear About What is Sin
"After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean") He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'" (Mark 7:17-23)

Sexual immoratility is defined as any act of sex outside the bond of marriage - nowhere in either the new or old covenants is marriage between same sex partners accepted. It is universally condemned.

Also even if it was Paul who clarified the Christian stance on Homosexuality you would have to throw away all of Paul's letters - I assume this is not what you are advocating.

There are terms in the Greek for Homsexual as seen in 1st Corinithians 6:9-10: "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 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

Here are the translations of those two words in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:

*3120 malakos {mal-ak-os'} of uncertain affinity; adj. AV - soft 3, effeminate 1; 4. GK - 3434 {malakov"}.
1) soft, soft to the touch
2) metaph. in a bad sense
2a) effeminate
2a1) of a catamite
2a2) of a boy kept for homosexual relations with a man
2a3) of a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness
2a4) of a male prostitute

**733 arsenokoites {ar-sen-ok-oy'-tace} from 730 and 2845; n m AV - abuser of (one's) self with mankind 1, defile (one's) self with mankind 1; 2. GK - 780 {ajrsenokoivth"}
1) one who lies with a male as with a female, sodomite, homosexual

Related Article
You may also be interested to read what Don Walker has to say on the topic of homophobia.