Study Of Romans 1 & 2 Exposing The Lie That It Deals With Homosexuality

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Note: Liberated Christians is a primarily about heterosexual relationships. While we are supportive of all sexual orientations, the leaders do not have the resources to assist them in their special issues. Thus, our Fellowship groups are not appropriate for gays/lesbians. However, individually Dave (an extreme heterosexual - Kinsey Scale= 0) has done extensive biblical research and has been active supporting biblical homosexuality for many years. However, there is no "official" stand as an organization on homosexuality other than general support.

Study Of Romans 1 & 2
Exposing The Lie That It Deals With Homosexuality
Paul is warning that many were guilty of worshipping man instead of God and therefore was becoming an idol. The love for that idol is an unnatural love called lust. Some men and women allowed sex to become their god (vile affections) and the result is turning the natural love for sex into something unnatural (verse 26). Paul does not specify what that unnatural sexual conduct is, but it is something not natural for those that have made sex their God. He could have been talking about both the male and female sex goddess prostitutes in the Temple like he was clearly discussing in 1 Cor. For homosexuals this part of the passage should not apply. To a Christian, God is first in their lives and not sex so they would not fall under this condemnation.

Unnatural Does Not Mean Its Wrong To Be Homsexual!
The issue is that Paul describes men as naturally preferring women. For men whose natural preference is for women, to have sex with a man would violate this, as in the case of Pederasty. It is also interesting to note that these men must "katergazomai" the act of sex with other man. In Greek this means extreme energy is required to accomplish the deed referred to. This would also support the view that it was heterosexual males having anal intercourse with heterosexual males such as to degrade those captured in battle which was a common practice under pederasty. For a gay male, clearly this extreme energy is not required so it does not appear to have that meaning. Many heterosexual couples also enjoy anal sex, which is naturally enjoyable to them, not just to homosexuls.

From this same understanding of Paul's use of the term "natural" there are many churches who would condemn a man whose hair is too long, based on 1 Cor 11:14. Or "natural" can mean what is customarily observed (cp. Romans 11:24). Certainly in Paul's day the usual preference of people was for the opposite sex. It appears more and more that homosexuality is a redundant characteristic of birth just as is being left-handed. If heterosexuality is the norm, that doesn't mean those naturally born homosexual are any less blessed by God.

BUT READ FURTHER : The Importance Of Romans 2 To read Romans 1 without Romans 2 is a great error, for Paul goes on to say that we are not to judge each other! He points out the self-righteousness of those who have judged the pagans just described in Romans 1. Then he reiterates Jesus' command of the Golden Rule in his own words: "to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life (2:6)".

So what's happened between Romans 1 and 2? Paul is using an "attention grabbing" technique like any good writer or speaker. In this letter, he is concerned with trying to bridge the gaps between Jewish Christians and Greek Christians who were judging each other and putting each other down.

Paul starts by talking about those "awful pagans" -- a group which both jew and greek Christians felt superior to. He gives a laundry list of "sins" and the Christians are probably going "yeh, yeh, those bad people, we are better". Then, after having caught them in their judgementalism, he says "by judging, you pass judgement on yourself." By using a pagan example of sins, he could then go on to say, in effect- GOTCHA! Do not judge! He said, "God shows no partiality" (2:11).

Romans 1 is being misused today to bash homosexuality much as the Jewish and Greek Christians were bashing each other in his day. He did not write Chapter 1 to be used apart from Chapter 2. His point was not to reinforce judgementalism but to say stop judging.

In Romans 1 Paul was not saying anything about homosexuality as practiced today. In Romans 2 he is saying even if he was, don't judge for you are equal in your sins. Yet Church dogma completely misuses Romans as it does other verses to condemn homosexual behavior, which is no where condemned in the Bible.

I think many gays and lesbians lead a much more Christ like life than many falsely judging Christians that act more like pharisees.

The idea of "against nature" had anything to do with homosexuality only occurred with the increasing emphasis of Hellenistic Jewish and Christian moralists on sexual purity gave rise in late Jewish apocrypha and early Christian writings.

In the intellectual environment vehemently opposed to the casual hedonism of the Hellenistic world, many issues which had not been specifically sexual became so; this was the case with marital questions such as adultery, onanism and homosexuality. This was done by just slightly altering the greek words!

The Judaeo-Platonist schools such is in Alexandria, greatly influenced some early Christians, since they combined the authority of classical learning with a tradition of Old Testament scholarship (responsible for the Septuagint translation which most Christians used).

For Christians, The Alexandrian rule had great influence in what was considered "natural". In the third century Clement of Alexandria asserted that "to have sex for any purpose other than to produce children is to violate nature."

This concept was also taught by Philo to Platonist Jews. Any use of human sexuality, potential or actual, which did not produce legitimate offspring violated "nature": all moral issues were subordinate to the primary duty of males to procreate. Celibacy was as :unnatural as homosexuality, failure to divorce a barren wife was "unnatural" as was masturbation.

Unfortunately Church tradition of today has bought into these twistings of scripture and ignores true biblical research to find the truths of scripture. But many Christians and ministers just think they know it all and many are totally unaware of the background of some of their false teachings. That is why some of today's Christianity is such a travesty. But it need not be, if it taught more of Christs teachings of love and acceptance rather than legalisms that have had their meanings twisted and were redefined by no other than Christ himself!

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