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The American Episcopal church has been in the news lately for a controversy currently raging within its ranks over homosexual clergy. Although I wish it could be said that this was an isolated occurrence or an unheardof and quickly-quashed anomaly, it has rather become a firmly established and ever creeping menace to "Christian" churches in our time. Currently among protestant/evangelical Christendom, whether in whole or part, have Anglican/Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and probably others, instated or become engaged in debate over teachings legitimizing homosexuality. There is apparently a growing contingent of so-called Christians who have no problem reconciling homosexual practice with Christian doctrine.

The New Testament both warns and assures of apostasy:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Tim 4:3-4)

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, (2 Pet 3:17)

And we know the end will not come without a falling away:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, (1 Tim 4:1-2)

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, (2 Thes 2:3)

So while the inevitable "hypocrisy of liars" should come as no surprise, it is no less revolting to behold such a blatant and unabashed perversion of the very Truth these people and institutions claim to uphold! Indeed we must find that such people's claim to truth is only that, a claim (1 John 1:8). Were there the slightest respect for the Word of God, or the most basic knowledge of It, such issues would be summarily dismissed. Instead, "they teach as doctrines the precepts of men" (Mat 15:9), and look to ecclesiastical leaders and councils, confessions and creeds, and tradition (the "wisdom of men" - 1 Cor 2:5).

But let us follow Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, "brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature"(1 Cor 14:20), and the example of the Bereans, who "examined the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so"(Acts 17:11). We must look to scripture as the sole and final authority on doctrine (1 Tim 2:16-17), and if any teaching conflicts with the Word, it must be demolished (1 Thes 5:21, Gal 1:8)!

One needn't try hard to find the Bible's teaching on the matter -- it's clear: homosexuality is SIN. It has no place in the Church except as an object of reproach and spiritual battle.

We find the first mention of homosexuality in Genesis. Here Sodom (from which we get the word "sodomy") and Gomorrah are judged for their wickedness, of which we are given an horrific example:

Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, " Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them." But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, "Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly." (Gen 19:4-7)

The concept is then stated imperatively in Leviticus:

You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable. (Lev 18:22)

If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood is on their own hands. (Lev 20:13)

The house owner in Judges echoed Lot and obviously knew what scripture says about homosexuality:

While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden, perverted men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They said to the old man who was the owner of the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him!" The owner of the house went out and said to them, "No, don't do [this] evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don't do this horrible thing. (Judges 19:22-23)

It's important to note the teaching on homosexuality is not some archaic novelty of the Mosaic law. The New Testament affirms it repeatedly. Paul lays it out in Romans:

Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for what is unnatural. The males in the same way also left natural sexual intercourse with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty for their perversion. (Romans 1:24,26,27)

Paul paints a picture of the diametric opposition of lifestyle or habitual sin to life in Christ:

Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived: no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee from sexual immorality! "Every sin a person can commit is outside the body," but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.(1 Cor 6:9-11,18-20)

We are not under the law, but under grace (Rom 3:20-24, 5:20), but the law is still important and relevant! The law shows us what sin is (Rom 7:7). And so the law and the New Testament teachings stand together in condemnation of the sin of homosexuality:

We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching based on the glorious gospel of the blessed God that was entrusted to me.(1 Tim 1:9-11)

Sin is man's big problem (Rom 3:23, 6:23). Jesus came to solve that problem (Rom 5:8, 1 Tim 1:15), and established His Church to that end (Eph 3:10). Any church (lowercase "c") that condones sin has no relationship with Christ's Church (1 Cor 5:9-13)! To this tragic delusion we can only cry "Maranatha!" and pray that true Christians will evacuate these sinking ships of relativism, social governance, and untruth.