God’s Definition of Marriage

and

God’s Teaching on Same Gender Sexual Relations ¹
Compilation and Commentary by Rev. William E. Zimmer C.P.A., M.B.A., S.T.L., D.Min. ²

GOD’S DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE ³

Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament – the Bible of the Jewish people and the first major part of the Bible for Christians

Gn 2:18, 21-22, 24  “… God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a … partner’.  …  the rib that the Lord had taken from the man God made into a woman … Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

Gn 12:5, 11, 17, 18, 20  “Abraham took his wife Sarai …” (Note 1)

Christian Scriptures/New Testament – the principal part of the Bible for Christians

Mt 19:4-5  “Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’, and said, ‘for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Note 2)

Mt 1:20 “… an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, … do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, …”  (Note 3)

Mk 10:5a,6-8a  “… Jesus said … But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Lk 2:48  The Boy Jesus in the Temple  “… Jesus’ mother said to him, … your father and I have been searching for you …”

1 Cor 7:2,12  Advice to the Married  “… each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband … the wife does not have authority of her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.”

 Eph 5:31  “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

GOD’S TEACHING ON SAME GENDER SEXUAL RELATIONS

Hebrew Scriptures

Lv 18:22  The Sanctity of Sex; Laws Concerning Sexual Behavior  “You (a man) shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”  (Note 4)

Lv 20:13  Penalties for Various Sins  “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Note 5)

Gn 19:4-7, 12-13, 24-25  The Depravity of Sodom; Its Destruction  “… the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called … ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us, so that we may know them (have sexual relations with them, notes 6 & 7).’  Lot went out … to the men, … and said, ‘I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. …

Then the men (God’s messengers) said … we are about to destroy this place (Sodom), because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. … the Lord rained down sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from the Lord out of heaven.  The Lord overthrew (Note 8) those cities … together with the inhabitants of the cities …”

Qur’an/Koran

The Qur’an likewise explicitly and repeatedly prohibits same gender sexual relations:

Shura/Chapter 26:165  “Of all the creatures in the world, will you approach males and abandon those whom God created for you as mates?” (Note 9)

Shura 15: Al-Hijra Section 5:61-79; Shura 11: Hud Section 7:69-83 repeats the story from the Book of Genesis of the depravity of Sodom and its destruction (Note 10)

Christian Scriptures

Rm 1:26-27 Punishment of Idolaters  “For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions.  Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another.  Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”

 1 Cor 6:9-10 “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived!  Fornicators, idolaters, male prostitutes, sodomites, (Note 11) … – none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 Tm 1:9-10  Warning against False Doctrine  “… this means understanding that the law is laid down … for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for fornicators, sodomites, … and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, …”

 Biblical teaching regarding transvestites

Dt 22:5  “A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.”  (Note 12)

 Conclusion

There are numerous references to marriage in the Bible – the above verses are just a few.  In all of them the Scriptures – with regard to gender – present marriage as between one man and one woman.  It never portrays marriage as being between people of the same gender.  On the contrary, it consistently presents this type of relationship as gravely sinful.

Notes

1. Abraham – “Father of Believers” – is the principal patriarch of the Jewish people and an ancestor of Jesus. As such, he and the principal aspects of his life can be considered a model for both Jews and Christians.
2. For Christians, God (specifically, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity) became a human being – Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore Jesus was both fully God and fully human.  God became a human being without any loss of or change in divinity.  Therefore any statement by Jesus is definitive as it comes from the mouth of God.  This includes the definition of marriage in this quote.  It is significant that this definition of marriage of Gn 2:24 is repeated word for word three times in the Christian Bible/New Testament (citations above).

In Eph 5:31 Paul holds, along with Gn 2:18, that marriage is a divine institution.  Therefore its constituent elements such as the gender and number of marriage partners is not subject to change – particularly redefinition – by human beings.

3. Jesus of Nazareth lived in a family – the Holy Family.  Since this family included God’s very self in the fullness of divinity it has always been considered the model for Christians and all human families and another definitive expression of God’s will for marriage.  The example of the Holy Family presents marriage as consisting of one man and one woman. Also, for Mary and Joseph, faithfully obeying God’s law was essential to parenthood and family life.

4. Chapter 18 of the Book of Leviticus begins with the Lord saying to Moses, “… I, the Lord, am your God.”  This declaration emphasizes the importance of the laws concerning sexual behavior presented in this chapter.

5. Capital punishment is specified for this offense, revealing that God considers sexual activity between people of the same gender to be a mortal sin – the most serious of sins as it deprives the human who dies guilty of that sin the gift of eternal life. Instead they have by their own decisions and actions condemned themselves to eternal punishment. One of the most important revelations of the Bible is that God considers human sexual activity sacred because it is the way humans cooperate with God in creating a new human being, the most sacred and precious form of life on earth.

6. Here “know” is a biblical idiom for “sexual intercourse” or “intimate sexual relations”.

7. The term sodomy derives from the biblical city Sodom. Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language Second Edition defines “sodomy” as “Carnal copulation in any of certain unnatural ways”.  Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language Second College Edition defines it as “any sexual intercourse held to be abnormal, … specif., anal intercourse between two male persons”.

8. “Overthrew”, literally “turned upside down”, is consistently used to describe the destruction of the cities of the Plain including Sodom.

9. “By analogy, the above verse applies equally to females. While Muslims may condemn acts of homosexuality, Islam requires that the basic rights of life and safety of all human beings must be protected.  Thus, Muslims may not treat proclaimed homosexuals unjustly.”  (Uncovering Islam: Questions and Answers About Islamic Beliefs and Teachings  Saban Ali DUZGUN, PhD and Esref SAGLIK, MA  Publications of Presidency of Religious Affairs / 595  Public Books / 150, Yenigun Mat.Sant.Tic.Ltd.Sti. ANKARA 2004 p. 125.)  See Additional Considerations Regarding the Biblical Teaching on Homosexuality below, first paragraph.

10. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic faith and a “religion of the book.” Consequently a significant amount of material from the Old and New Testaments is incorporated in the Qur’an.

11. 1 Cor 6:9-10 is a catalogue of typical vices that exclude those who commit them from the kingdom of Heaven and God’s Church.  The fact that Paul specifies homosexual prostitution as a mortal sin without mentioning heterosexual prostitution indicates a particular condemnation of same gender sexual behavior.

12. If the Bible prohibits even wearing the clothes of the opposite gender and considers it abhorrent to the Lord, it follows that it would likewise prohibit and consider abhorrent the more profound acts regarding gender confusion such as changing one’s gender to the opposite sex and then having sexual relations with and “marrying” someone of the “opposite” gender (the original gender of the person, i.e., the gender the person changed from); for example, a biological male “transgendering” to a woman and then having sexual relations with men.

Observation 

Much of the Bible is literary and so requires interpretation of symbolism, figurative language, parables, analogies etc. to determine the author’s intent/God’s message.  This is not the case with the teachings on marriage and sexual relations between people of the same gender.  The above prohibitions against such activity in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and the Qur’an are explicit, clear, direct, consistent, and repeated a number of times to ensure humanity will have no misunderstanding of God’s will regarding the fundamental aspects of human marriage and sexuality.

Additional Considerations Regarding the Biblical Teaching on Homosexuality

First, the essential distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual acts must be made.  People with a homosexual orientation are made, like all human beings, “in the image and likeness of God.” (Gn 1:26) Thus they enjoy the same dignity and rights – and duties and obligations – as all people.  They are to be loved and respected accordingly.  God loves them this way and the virtue of charity calls us to do the same.

However homosexual activity (sexual activity between two people of the same gender), both female and male, was abhorred by the Jews of the Greco-Roman world.  Jewish teaching saw homosexual behavior as a corruption of God’s law.  Paul, in his teaching to Christians on the matter, continues this prohibition, viewing it as an example of idolatry (see Rm 1:26-27 above) and one of the many distortions of the Gentile world that needed to be reformed by God’s grace.  These biblical teachings are not a condemnation of homosexual orientation per se but of sexual activity between people of the same gender.

Second, all people are called to live the virtue of chastity, not just homosexual persons.  All heterosexual persons are called to refrain from sexual activity until marriage in the Church (in the case of  Catholics, until they have been united by the Sacrament of Matrimony).  When a man and woman are married they are called to be chaste after marriage – engaging in sexual activity only with each other and not another woman or man (the mortal sin of adultery).  Catholic diocesan priests, men and women religious and certain lay third orders and prelatures (such as Opus Dei) freely refrain from all sexual activity in imitation of Christ who was celibate for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Thus homosexual persons are not being discriminated against by the Bible when they are taught to refrain from sexual activity until marriage with one person of the opposite gender.  They are being called to observe the same standards of moral sexual conduct as all other human beings.  They can also utilize conversion therapy with the goal of transforming their orientation to heterosexual, enabling them to have the kind of marriage and sexual life that God wills.

Third, many homosexual persons are actually leading a chaste life as taught by the Bible.  The Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach (AGLO) is the Archdioceses of Chicago’s ministry to the gay and lesbian persons.  Contact info: 711 W Belmont #110 Chicago IL 60657 (773) 525-3872 email: aglo@aglochicago.org  web site: www.AGLOChicago.org  This ministry hosts a 7:00 PM mass every Sunday at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church 708 W Belmont Ave. Chicago IL 60657 for people who have same sex orientation.  There are many other gay and lesbian persons – lay people, members of religious orders and diocesan priests – who live a life in accordance with God’s teaching on human sexuality.  Many of these are not aware of AGLO. Therefore there is good reason to think that those who obey God on the questions of marriage and same gender sexual relations are in the majority within the gay/lesbian community. 

Fourth, should humans disagree with, ignore or disobey God’s clear teaching on any matter?  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:8-9).  “O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are God’s judgements and how inscrutable God’s ways!  ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been the Lord’s counselor?’” (Rm 11:33-34);  “… this is the one whom to whom I will look, to the humble one … who trembles at my word” (Is 66:2)

Fifth, will there be consequences for disobeying God’s teaching on marriage, human sexual conduct or any other matter?  The Bible teaches repeatedly that each person’s eternal judgement will depend on their deeds or works, that is, their decisions and actions and how they lived their life.  Four examples of this biblical teaching: “… the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (Jn 5:28-29);  “For all of us must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10); “…  O Lord.  For you repay to all according to their work.” (Ps 62:13; “Work” here is a biblical idiom for works or deeds);  “… [God] judges people, each according to their deeds” (Sir 16:12). 

Sixth, there is good reason to think the activists of the gay/lesbian marriage movements in the United States wield influence far beyond their numbers (which are actually relatively small). This reasonable assertion is suggested by the following facts:

• the activists within the gay/lesbian marriage movement in the United States are supported by certain well organized and funded organizations such as EqualMark

• the marriage “equality” movement is strongly supported by the mainstream media (including – and especially – National Public Radio, the United State’s version of the BBC.  NPR was founded by and receives millions of dollars a year from the U.S. federal government).  Consider the following email circulated in 2015 (note the gay/lesbian marriage movement strongly supported Barak Hussein Obama in both his presidential campaigns):

News Media Ownership – How was this allowed to happen (see below regarding the major news networks*)?

No wonder we don’t hear the truth.  Maybe they should just call it all “The Government News”.

And we think the citizens of North Korea are brainwashed.

We actually are led to believe we hear the real facts.

* IF YOU HAD A HUNCH THE NEWS SYSTEM WAS SOMEWHAT RIGGED AND YOU COULDN’T PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT, THIS MIGHT HELP YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLE:

ABC News Executive Producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, National Security Adviser.
CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications.
ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman is married to former Whitehouse Press Secretary Jay Carney.
ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary.
ABC President Ben Sherwood is the brother of Obama’s Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood.
CNN President Virginia Moseley is married to former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides.

And now you know why it is no surprise the media usually goes very easy on this ADMINISTRATION’S many errors.

Ya think there might be a little bias in the news?

Seventh, God distinguishes between ordered and disordered love.  A common justification for same sex unions and marriages: But they (the two men or two women) love each other, so doesn’t that make their marriage right?

God calls us to practice the virtue of charity, which is the love of God and neighbor. What did Jesus Himself say about this love? … you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself”. (Mark 12:30).  The holy books of Western Civilization – Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible and Qur’an – are very clear that the feelings that lead to sexual activity between two people of the same gender are disordered attraction not love in the true sense of the word.  This is particularly true of those who have suffered adverse childhood experience(s) or been sexually abused.

Eighth, human legal decisions do not negate or override the divine will.  But the Supreme Court of the United States has attempted to do so in its ruling in favor of the legality of same sex “marriages” and unions.

Information regarding the effects of same-sex “marriage” legislation

“What same-sex “marriage” has done to Massachusetts: It’s far worse than most people realize” by Brian Camenker.  To download a printable copy, for more information or to get involved visit www.MassResistance.org

Traditional Marriage Movement

www.AmericaNeedsFatima.org  >  Search: Traditional Marriage