AboutElder Greg Madden Expertise I am available to answer questions concerning most Biblical doctrines, Catholic beliefs, the gifts and fruit of the Spirit, and the history of the Pentecostal movement. Please understand that I will answer any questions you may have from a Biblical perspective, not a Catholic one.
Experience I have studied the Catholic religion for many years, and I have discussed questions and issues conserning this faith with those who are followers of the Catholic religion. I attend an independent Pentecostal church for twenty five years, and have served there as an Elder for fourteen years. I am also the new member’s class coordinator. I have had the privilege of ministering God's Word to churches in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. In those meetings we have seen the Lord save, heal, deliver, and fill people will His Spirit.
Organizations I am ordained through Harvest Church, and with the World Harvest Church Ministerial Fellowship. I also am a licensed minister with the State of Oklahoma.
Education/Credentials I am currantly enrolled with the Ames Bible College.
Question Hi there,
Im 18, being raised Catholic, and have always had incredible disagreements with homosexuality, but Im trying to really define my position as I become an adult. Ive read Leviticus etc, and know St Paul defined marriage as between man and wife. Is there any other biblical content that I could look at regarding homosexuality. Catholicism teaches the practise is wrong, but then you have more liberal branches of Christianity that condone it, which is somewhat confusing. Any thoughts you have would be welcome.
God bless!
Answer James,
Thank you for the opportunity to help. I hope you don't mind, but I would like to quote for you our churches stated position on this very subject...
Harvest Church believes strongly that God has declared great displeasure and opposition toward homosexual conduct. However, He yearns to restore and forgive all who come to Him, including homosexuals. Unfortunately, many today mislabel those who speak out against the sin of homosexuality as hate-mongers and prejudiced people seeking to oppress and take away the rights of homosexuals. But these persons view homosexuality from a skewed social perspective devoid of true biblical morality. The Church, however, is called to be faithful to God’s Word in all things. For this reason the Harvest Church opposes homosexuality and the gay lifestyle recognizing such as sin. But we encourage all members to reach out in love to homosexuals extending to them the grace that leads us all to Christ’s forgiveness.
Homosexuality is both a sin against God and mankind. It runs contrary to the divine plan, purpose, and will of God who created us in His image (Genesis 1:27) and redeemed us so that this image, marred because of sin, might be renewed (Colossians 3:10). Most fundamentally, homosexuality is sin because it perverts the created order of human sexuality, the heterosexual fulfillment of both man and woman (1 Corinthians 7:2-5). In creating the first man and woman, God ultimately established the family consisting of a father, a mother, and eventually children. Society is founded on this social unit which propagates the human race. In total contrast, the lifestyle and practice of homosexual couples establish a social unit that thwarts that process and the creative purposes of God for humanity.
Clearly the Bible states homosexual practice is sin. Scriptures which denounce homosexuality are found in both the Old and New Testaments. Advocates of homosexuality often attempt to rationalize, reinterpret, and explain away key biblical truths to justify their acts. Such abuse of inspired Scripture is wrong. Along with the passages that clearly describe homosexual conduct as sin (see below), the Bible speaks repeatedly about God’s divinely ordained plan of heterosexual relationships and marriage.
Genesis 19. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the "men" of Sodom demand to "know" the angelic visitors of Lot (v.5, KJV). Attempts to describe the request as merely a desire to get acquainted with the strangers does not fit the context. Other biblical passages link Sodom with sexual immorality and perversion (2 Peter 2:6-7; Jude 7).
Leviticus 18:22. The specific command that a man is not to "lie with a man as one lies with a woman; [for] that is detestable" is sometimes attacked by pro-homosexual scholars who argue that Christians are no longer under the Mosaic Law. But there is a sharp distinction between the dietary or ceremonial laws abolished in the New Testament (Mark 7:19; Hebrews 10:8-10) and the moral laws reinforced in the New Testament. They are still applicable today. Breaking the ceremonial laws resulted in temporary uncleanness; breaking the moral laws meant severe punishment or even death (Leviticus 11 and 24).
Romans 1:26, 27. This New Testament passage is the most pointed and clear condemnation of homosexuality (among men or women) in the Bible. "Women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. . . . Men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." Some pro-homosexual scholars claim that Paul’s statements were addressed to first-century believers and thus are not applicable today. But God’s moral laws do not change.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10. God’s inclusion of homosexual conduct with other specific sexual and social sins is clear from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church: "Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Some defenders of the homosexual lifestyle have tried to explain away the terms "male prostitutes" and "homosexual offenders" by claiming that they refer to general immoral behavior rather than homosexual practice. But such a meaning of the Greek cannot be found in first-century literature and the translation would result in needless redundancy, for Paul began his list with "the sexually immoral." The two words refer to the sins of passive and active homosexual behavior.
Some pro-homosexual advocates try to refute the biblical injunctions against homosexuality by saying the Bible speaks against promiscuity and prostitution, not against loving, committed gay relationships. Some unfaithful spouses of heterosexual marriages have tried to justify adultery on the same grounds, but nowhere does Scripture suggest that loving, committed relationships of any kind can turn sin into righteousness. God does not permit mankind to reinterpret the clear teaching of Scripture to justify personal sinful desires.
Gay Marriage
Because of recent political and legislative actions, Harvest Church affirms the Biblical teaching of one man to one woman, and is in opposition to same sex marriages. Historically, American society has recognized the sanctity of marriage between man and woman as central to the stability of our nation and its moral posture. Harvest Church, from its beginning has understood the Biblical model of marriage to be a sacred union between man and woman.
God’s original intention for marriage is His final decision (Gen.1:27, 2:18-25). When God created a partner for Adam He created Eve - not another Adam. This means that perfect partnership requires some level of difference as well as a level of similarity so great that Adam could cry out loudly, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh". Sexual intimacy between a man and a woman is the normal method of male/female bonding (emotionally and physically) because it corresponds to the design of our bodies and because it is the normal means by which offspring are created.
If God had intended the human race to be fulfilled through both heterosexual and homosexual marriage, He would have designed our bodies to allow reproduction through both means and made both means of sexual intercourse healthy and natural.
When Jesus was asked questions about marriage he went straight back to the defining passages in Genesis that say that marriage is between male and female and is meant to be life long. He saw the creation accounts in Genesis as authoritative in His day. And what is authoritative for Jesus is authoritative for Christians also. While Jesus did not specifically teach on homosexuality, His establishment of the Genesis passages as the fundamental passages on marriage (even more fundamental than the Law) leaves no doubt as to the outcome.
Romans 1:26-27 , 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10 are references indicate that homosexual passions and acts are unnatural, shameful, contrary to sound doctrine and deny entrance to the Kingdom of God. This being so they cannot be the basis of a Christian marriage sanctioned by God's Church. No marriage can be sanctioned by the Church if the very basis of the marriage involves acts that put the couple outside of eternal salvation.
