Chapter Eleven: “It’s Not Fair!”

“It’s not fair that God would give me these desires and then forbid me to act upon them. God wouldn't want me to be miserable.”

That’s the argument, at least. Author Kevin DeYoung is pastoral in dealing with it – he acknowledges the real anguish of people within his ministry who struggle with same-sex attraction. And he discusses the biological and behavioral roots of sexual orientation.

Chapter Ten: "You're on the Wrong Side of History"

In case you're a new reader, this is an ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung's What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? I'm trying to summarize his arguments chapter by chapter. Click the title to order the book.

Supporters of same-sex marriage claim the traditional view of traditional marriage is “on the wrong side of history.” That phrase is, as Kevin DeYoung says, an “attempt to win an argument by not having one” (p. 103).

Chapter Nine: "The Church is Supposed to Be a Place for Broken People"

Revisionists insist that the church’s traditional condemnation of homosexual behavior is wrong because it doesn’t emphasize the grace of Christ that we all need. We’re all sinners, we all need unconditional love, we’re all broken people.

Chapter Eight: "What About Gluttony and Divorce?"

In chapter 8, Kevin DeYoung lays out another argument of the revisionists: "You’re being selective about what sins you emphasize! How come you don’t condemn other sins – like gluttony or divorce?"

This is the “you’re a hypocrite!” argument. Supporters of same-sex marriage argue that the traditional view ignores other sins – like gluttony and divorce – and unfairly singles out homosexual behavior.

Chapter Seven: "Not That Kind of Homosexuality"

The last chapters of Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? answer the most common objections to the traditional understanding of marriage and sexuality. (Click the title to order)

Chapter seven is focused on a favorite argument of the “revisionists” who try to reinterpret the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality. Their contention is: “The Bible isn’t really condemning the loving, committed, same-sex relationships we have in our world today. What Scripture is denouncing is exploitation and violence which expressed itself in the ancient world in homosexual activity. It’s only a bad kind of homosexuality that the Bible is against.”

Chapter Six: “The Bible Hardly Ever Mentions Homosexuality”

The first five chapters of Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? are devoted to the key biblical texts on the subject. The last seven chapters focus on the most common objections to the traditional understanding of marriage and sexuality. (Click the title to order)

The objection of chapter six is that the Bible has very little to say about homosexuality, so why make a big deal of it? DeYoung responds with six points. He says that “the reason the Bible says comparatively little about homosexuality is because it was a comparatively uncontroversial sin among ancient Jews and Christians." (p. 72) Scripture may devote more time to others sins (like idolatry) because these were more common. God’s word says even less about bestiality or incest, but nobody (so far) would argue that those behaviors are unimportant or ambiguous.

Chapter Five: A New Word from an Old Place

My ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

This may be the most technical chapter in the book, but DeYoung writes so clearly that it’s easy to follow his logic and to see his conclusions borne out in the Scriptures. He focuses on two New Testament passages which seem clearly to condemn homosexual behavior.

Chapter Four: The Romans Road in the Wrong Direction

My ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

In chapter four, DeYoung explains Paul’s argument in Romans 1, and shows how same-sex activity is an affront to God’s design. Paul's description of humanity's downward spiral into sin includes three “exchanges”: 1) Ungodly men exchange the glory of God for the foolishness of idolatry; 2) ungodly men exchange the truth about God for a lie; and 3) they exchange natural relations with members of the opposite sex for relations with those of the same sex.

DeYoung answers the arguments of “revisionists” who try to explain away the Scripture’s opposition to same-sex relations. Romans chapter one is about homosexual activity in general, and not just (as revisionists claim) sexual abuse of adults with youth or masters with slaves.

Chapter 3: Taking a Strange Book Seriously

Ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

Chapter 3: Taking a Strange Book Seriously

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination (Leviticus 18:22).

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both to them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them (Leviticus 20:13).

In chapter 3, DeYoung looks at the prohibitions about homosexuality in Leviticus. Critics of the traditional view of sexuality and marriage try to undermine the clear condemnation of homosexuality in Leviticus as if it, and indeed the Old Testament itself, were no longer applicable to New Testament Christians. DeYoung offers six reasons why the prohibitions of Leviticus cannot be set aside. For example he shows how Jesus referred to a verse from Leviticus (19:18) more than any other verse, and how both Peter and Paul quote the book to teach on holiness.

Obviously Jesus, Paul, and Peter found the moral obligations of Leviticus still binding upon Christians today.

A Quote: The reason for the prohibitions against homosexual behavior in the Mosaic law, and the reason the prohibitions are stated so absolutely, is because men were designed to have sex with women, not a man with another male. (p. 41)

Chapter 2: Those Infamous Cities

Just to remind: I'm reviewing Kevin DeYoung’s book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality which you can purchase by clicking on the title. 

Chapter 2: Those Infamous Cities

Genesis 19 records God’s judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (We get the term sodomy from the type of sin most associated with them.) DeYoung answers the revisionists who suggest that what led to the cities’ destruction by God was not homosexuality, but violence and social injustice.  He documents how Scripture itself (in Ezekiel 16 and Jude) and second century Jewish literature support
the traditional understanding of Genesis 19. God's wrath may have fallen upon Sodom and Gomorrah for many sins, but certainly homosexual practice was at the rotten center of it all.    

A quote: Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of a great many sins; we don’t have to prove that homosexual practices was the only sin to show that it was one of them. (p. 38)

Chapter One: One Man, One Woman, One Flesh

This is another post in a series I plan to do about Kevin DeYoung’s excellent book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. My plan is that for each of his twelve chapters, I’ll provide a short summary and a quote or two. (I’ll use his chapter titles for my blog post titles, too.)

My hope is that you’ll both be informed, and also that you’ll buy and read the book. Here.

Chapter 1. One Man, One Woman, One Flesh.

DeYoung proposes that God’s original design for marriage is one man, one woman, in a covenant relationship that is sealed by their physical union and which is capable of bearing children. He shows how traditional marriage is a symbol of God’s divine design in ways that other unions cannot be.

Now for a quote:

 “... monogamy makes sense only within this Genesis understanding of marriage. Apart from the complementarity of the two sexes there is no moral logic which demands that marriage should be restricted to a twosome… If marriage is simply the formation of a kinship bond between those who are committed wholly to one another, there is no reason why multiple persons or groups of people cannot commit themselves wholly to one another. There is no internal coherence to the notions of monogamy and exclusivity if marriage is something other than the reunion of two complementary and differentiated sexes…It’s because God made the woman from the man that she is also for the man (1 Cor. 11:8-9, 11-12). And it’s because the two – male and female – are divinely designed complements each for the other that monogamy makes sense and same-sex marriage does not."  (p. 31)

What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?

I’ve not been blogging much lately, but I’m returning to some new posts because of an extraordinary book I’ve just read: Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? This is an extremely timely topic because of the unique political climate in our country, and the pressure on evangelical Christians to change our views on subject that seemed settled and clear for thousands of years.

I hope you’ll consider reading this book. At 150 pages, the author speaks with wisdom, grace, and especially with biblical clarity. You can find the book on Amazon, though to be honest with you, even with Amazon Prime, it took two weeks to deliver. I wonder if the book’s title had something to do with the shipping delay. Still, please consider buying it. Here’s the link.

Russel Moore, President of The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, says “This is the best book on this subject I have read. Every Christian…should read this book.”