Posted on 07/25/2018 8:27:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has taken issue with a recent New York Times column claiming that Leviticus does not condemn homosexual activity.
Harvard scholar Idan Dershowitz argued in an opinion piece published Sunday that Leviticus 18:22, which prohibits gay sex, was added in the Old Testament long after it was first written.
"Like many ancient texts, Leviticus was created gradually over a long period and includes the words of more than one writer," wrote Dershowitz.
"Many scholars believe that the section in which Leviticus 18 appears was added by a comparatively late editor, perhaps one that worked more than a century after the oldest material in the book was composed. An earlier version of Leviticus, then, may have been silent on the matter of sex between men."
Dershowitz went on to argue that "there is good evidence that an earlier version of the laws in Leviticus 18 permitted sex between men."
"In addition to having the prohibition against same-sex relations added to it, the earlier text, I believe, was revised in an attempt to obscure any implication that same-sex relations had once been permissible," continued Dershowitz.
In a rebuttal posted to his website on Monday, Mohler argued that "Dershowitz's entire argument is imagination disguised as scholarship."
"Every single text in the Bible that speaks of same-sex sexual desire and same-sex sexual behaviors condemns them," wrote Mohler.
"For Christians, the most significant realization is that the crucial moral teachings of the Old Testament Holiness Code that are binding upon us are repeated, and often amplified, in the New Testament. Christians may eat shrimp without sin, for example, but are fully bound by laws against any sexual activity outside of marriage, the covenant union of one man and one woman."
Mohler also observed that "moral revolutionaries" who reject Leviticus' teaching on homosexuality "still insist that they want to retain some of the prohibitions of Leviticus 18 — prohibitions against incest and bestiality, for example."
"But, for how long? The modern secular reduction of moral concern to 'consent' would indicate that these prohibitions cannot last for long," continued Mohler.
Michael Brown, author of Saving a Sick America: A Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation, similarly argued that "every reference to homosexual practice in the Bible is categorically negative."
He added, "There is no textual evidence – not the slightest linguistic clue of any kind – that Leviticus 18:22 was added later to this chapter."
In recent years, some theologians have argued that the Bible's condemnations of homosexual behavior are misinterpreted and only apply to same-sex rape as opposed to consensual sexual activity.
However, many maintain that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, condemns all same-sex sexual activity and not just rape or male prostitution.
In 2011, the Committee on Bible Translation released the latest New International Version of the Bible. Among the changes made to the translation, verses denouncing homosexuality were made clearer.
For example, Leviticus 18:22, which reads "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman," was changed to, "Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman."
Interesting that secularists are now experts on the Bible.
This is how false gods are created by man. You take the real one, and make a few changes more suitable to your proclivities. You become a less sinful person because there are less sins that the new god recognizes. Eventually, you end up worshipping something more like Beelzebub.
My theology teacher making the news. Good deal.
He is correct.
As for those who purport Leviticus was originally PRO-sodomy, 2 Timothy 4:3-4 applies. Bigly.
Wonder how they reconcile Sodom with Sodomy.
Satan’s first tactic in the garden was to misrepresent God’s word. (”Did God really say.....”). As we see here, the tactics don’t change.
James White also spoke on this yesterday:
RHE & Brian Zahnd on Inerrancy, Matt Chandler’s Pirates, the “Secret” Leviticus, & a Little Revoice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_-qVhdQy4g
“
Alpha & Omega Ministries
Streamed live 19 hours ago
“Started off looking at an exchange between Rachel Held Evans and Brian Zahnd on inerrancy, and then moved to a further review of Matt Chandler’s “prophecy” definition in his recent sermon. Then we reviewed the article in the NYT about the “Secret History of Leviticus,” going over the subjective, “let’s just treat the text like Play-Dough” form criticism of modern liberalism. Right at the end we read through some of the titles of the sessions at the upcoming Revoice Conference in St. Louis at a PCA church. 90 minutes.”
“Like many ancient texts, Leviticus was created gradually over a long period and includes the words of more than one writer,”
That’s called “confirmation”.
So the author would prefer a document dictated by a demon to an insane thief hidden in a dark cave? Oh wait...
Why would the NYT even care what Leviticus says about homosexuality. They don’t believe in God and think the Bible is just a bunch of made up stories. If I actually thought and believed as they do, I wouldn’t care what this god-persin said.
God said in Genesis that He created everything in 6 days and if we can't accept that in faith, then why would we believe Jesus came from a virgin, lived a perfect life, and rose from the grave? In Exodus, God Himself repeated that He created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. That's pretty definitive. Yet we have even "Christians" today that claim evolution is the right answer. Now we have "Christians" that claim sodomy is OK. Did God apologize for Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other 3 cities He destroyed in the valley of Sodom? Modernists say that the people were rude to the angels is why Sodom was destroyed. The only problem with that was they came to destroy Sodom in the first place. God already knew there were not 10 righteous men in Sodom. The angels fully expected the behavior they got in Sodom. There is not ONE PLACE in Scripture I can find where sodomy will be acceptable to God. There is hope shown in the Corinthian church when Paul names several sins, including sodomy, that they church had been delivered from. He said, "and such were some of you". So at least someone in the church was a homosexual that was no longer a homosexual.
Leviticus 18:22-30 tells a story that Moses could take the land because the land was "vomiting out" the inhabitants BECAUSE they allowed sodomy and bestiality there, but God also said if Moses allowed the same, THEY would be vomited out also.
God wants a Bride for His Son Jesus. That is the whole purpose of the Bible. Adam and Eve is the model. Adam was created and Eve was taken from Adam. She was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. Jesus wants to become one flesh with His Church. Sodomy is an abomination to God. Sodomy is not in His plan. Satan perverts everything God has made in His image. This corruption was removed in the Great Flood and again in Sodom and Gomorrah. It will be removed again before the Second Coming.
Trying to make evil good and good evil will get you expunged. Why would someone supposedly trained in God's Word hang their eternal soul on the presumption everyone for thousands of years is reading it wrong? Our sins have been forgiven on the cross. It's unbelief that gets you Hell now. You can't please God without faith. Telling God and others that sodomy is OK is unbelief and the blood of their listeners will be on his head. Teachers will be judged more harshly that others.
It is interesting, fun, and exciting, to explore the Word of God for it's meaning. But at some point, we all will be held responsible for what we believe. If it differs from what is written, we will be held responsible for the light we have been given. There is NOT ONE verse that explains that killing an unborn gift from God is permitted, just as no one can find a verse that sodomy is acceptable to God. Just as a child is ALWAYS portrayed as a blessing from God, no matter what the circumstances, sodomy is always portrayed as an abomination to God. The women that killed their babies in the Bible we called Baal worshipers or Molech worshipers. Anyone reading the Bible know what sodomy is and what God thinks about it. Someone trying to change that is speaking demonic voices to others. Just as the White House stole the Covenant sign of the rainbow was a satanic manifestation, saying Sodomy is acceptable is no different than Satan telling Eve "Didn't God say?" Satan even used this tactic against Jesus in the wilderness. Using His weakness from fasting, Satan tempted Jesus with words misused from Scripture. Jesus was able to overcome Satan by knowing the Word. If we don't know and understand the Word of God, we could be fooled, yes, even the elect.
If you tear verses, chapters or pages out of the Bible, you do two things:
1. you render the Book meaningless (so why talk about it?); and
2. you run afoul of very serious warnings, in both the Old and New Testaments, about adding to or deleting from the Word.
If he says (regarding #2) that he is the one who is correcting parts where someone ELSE had added to it, I would say two things:
1. he is putting himself at odds with thousands of years of scholarship; and
2. he must be feeling lucky.
bkmk
Apparently the Bible is a “living document”, just like our Constitution. /SARC
Indeed.....it's one thing to be cursed by the people around you but it's another to be 'accursed by God'.
Galatians 1:6-9
6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed
Revelation 22:18-19
18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
They claim that the sin of Sodom wasn't buggery and anal rape, it was refusing hospitality.
No kidding.
Sodomites are delusional.
Weren’t the homosexuals lusting after the angels? Weren’t they banging on Lotts door?
Don’t ask me to defend that crap. I’m just telling you what the fags claim.
A lot of this “crap” on places like Facebook.
Insane! The people who haven’t read the Bible in years are suddenly the experts.
It is unavoidable - for those looking at this objectively - that homosexual sexual intercourse has ALWAYS been declared a grave wrong and an abomination to the Creator even before Leviticus was written. But as prophesied, there will come a time when mankind will give heed to seducing spirits, they will call evil good and good evil. That mankind will heap to themselves teachers that will tickle their itchy ears with doctrines of demons. That time is already here!
I didn't need a Biblical admonition to convince me homosexual acts are against nature and inherently wrong. Christians don't condemn homosexuality because they are bigots but because it is something God condemns.
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