When I was in first grade it was “see spot run.” In 2022, a different message is being given to students.
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:27
It wasn’t my intention to write on Pride Month again this week. But sometimes the need to speak out on an issue is such that to remain silent is impossible.
Homosexuality is a sin, both the acts and the desires. In the not-too-distant past, this was understood by nearly everyone. Even those who weren’t Christians by and large understood that sodomy was unnatural and not something to be proud of.
As recently as 1973, homosexuality was considered a psychiatric disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, an organization that could hardly be considered Christian.
Yet here we are, forty-nine years later, being told by corporations, government officials of all levels, teachers, schools, healthcare professionals, churches, colleges and universities, athletes, and entertainers that one must not only tolerate sodomy but actually celebrate it.
I personally know someone in the medical field, a Christian, who told me that the organization he works for, a large healthcare provider specializing in children, was actively soliciting doctors to lobby the Ohio legislature in opposition to a bill that would ban puberty blockers, hormone treatments and gender-change surgery for minors in the state.
Representation of the Netherlands destroyed by water and fire, while allegories of Truth and Virtue uncover a group of sodomites, 1730.
And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abomination of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
1 Kings 14:24
If you pressed me asking which parts of Scripture I find most interesting, I would include in that list the books of 1 and 2 Kings. That may seem like an odd choice to some. But as someone who’s always had a fascination with history and political philosophy, I can’t help but be drawn to these books, for they provide a wealth of insight on these subjects. They are God’s official commentary on these matters.
These books also are remarkably applicable to our own time, for in many ways America of the 21st century is wrestling with many of the same sins that plagued Judah and Israel.
One such sin that we share with ancient Israel is sodomy.
Under the leadership of David and his son Solomon, Israel hit its peak of wealth, power, and influence. David the warrior king conquered all Israel’s foes and Solomon consolidated these gains. It was under Solomon’s reign that the first temple was dedicated, which one could argue marked the high point of the Israelite kingdom.
But while Solomon’s reign began impressively, over time Solomon’s heart was turned away from God to idolatry by his many foreign wives. “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father (1 Kings 11:4).
Although the writer of 1 Kings does not make explicit the connection between Solomon’s turning to idolatry with the presence of sodomites in the land, that seems to be his intent. 1 Kings 11:5 tells us that Solomon, “went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.” And while the presence of sodomites in Judah is not reported until the reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, the close connection between pagan worship of the sort brought in by Solomon and sexual perversion raises the possibility that the origin of such persons in Israel can be traced to Solomon’s reign.
I mentioned above that 1 and 2 Kings provide a wealth of information about history and the mind of God applicable to our time. One of the takeaways from this portion of 1 Kings is that God hates sodomy and will punish those nations that practice it. In the books of the Law, sodomy, or what is more commonly today called homosexuality, is referred to as an “abomination.”
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is abomination (Leviticus 18:22).
If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them (Leviticus 20:13).
Not only is sodomy referred to as an “abomination,” but strikingly it is also considered a capital crime in the Law of Moses. This is likely the origin of sodomy laws in the United States. According to one article from a pro-sodomy website, there are still 16 US states that have sodomy laws on the books, although it seems that they are no longer enforced.
But it wasn’t just homosexual acts that were prohibited in the law. Cross dressing, although there were no civil penalties attached to it, likewise also was banned. We read, “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 22:5).
John Gill comments on this prohibition of cross-dressing:
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man…It being very unseemly and impudent, and contrary to the modesty of her sex; or there shall not be upon her any “instrument of a man” (f), any utensil of his which he makes use of in his trade and business; as if she was employed in it, when her business was not to do the work of men, but to take care of her house and family….
Neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment; which would betray effeminacy and softness unbecoming men, and would lead the way to many impurities, by giving an opportunity of mixing with women, and so to commit fornication and adultery with them….
Gill’s commentary on this passage is a strong condemnation of both feminism and transgenderism. His remarks on the prohibition of women wearing men’s apparel extends to their wearing items that would be associated with male professions. By implication, women were not to do the work of men, an idea completely foreign and offensive to our time which holds, contrary to God’s design for the human race, that one’s sex ought to have no bearing on what one does. The feminists’ denial of sex roles implies, whether the feminists want to accept it or not, homosexuality as well as transgenderism. Suppose one’s sex has no bearing on one’s behavior. In that case, there is no reason why this concept should not be extended from one’s professional behavior- why shouldn’t a woman have a right to a career as much as a man – to one’s sexuality – gay or straight – and even to one’s sexual identification – of course, a man can identify as a woman.
Currently, there is a great deal of controversy among feminists as to whether trans-women – by “trans-woman” is meant a person who is biologically male but identifies as a woman – are, in fact, women. So-called TERFs – Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists – reject the concept of trans-women while feminist transgender activists support the concept. In the opinion of this author, the transgender activists are the more consistent of the two groups. As feminism is a philosophical attempt to erase the distinctions between men and women, the feminist transgender activists have simply taken the concept to its absurd and logical conclusion by declaring that anatomical men can in fact be women. TERFs, on the other hand, inconsistently cling to the notion that, although men and women are essentially interchangeable and that sex ought to have no impact on one’s behavior, while at the same time they deny biological males who identify as women are truly women. If one’s sex doesn’t matter, as the TERFs claim, then it doesn’t matter. Therefore, there is no reason why trans-women should not be considered real women.
There has been a great deal of howling from feminists about the increasing participation of trans-women in women’s sports, but the feminists have only themselves to blame as they are the ones who set this process in motion by denying the distinctions God made between male and female. One could argue that Lia Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania trans-woman swimmer who dominated the world of college woman’s swimming this past year, is a feminist “own goal.” Rather than seeking to pass legislation banning trans-women from participating in women’s sports, Christians ought to focus on rooting out the feminist philosophical poison that is killing our civilization and that led to absurd outcomes such as Lia Thomas dominating college women’s swimming.
Gill shows himself prescient when he remarked on the results of men wearing woman’s attire, one of which was that it would, “lead to many impurities, by giving an opportunity of mixing with women, and so to commit fornication and adultery with them.” The many news stories of women being sexually assaulted in restrooms and locker rooms by cross-dressing, so-called trans-women attest to Gill’s insightfulness.
Sodomy Invites God’s Judgment
Given the Lord’s strong condemnation of sodomy, it should come as no surprise that this sin invites God’s judgment. The account of God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 stands as a dramatic illustration of how offensive this sin is in his sight.
Another example of God’s pouring out his wrath on civilizations that practice this sin is found in a passage already mentioned, 1 Kings chapter 14. Verse 24 of this chapter notes that, “there were also sodomites in the land” during the rule of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. Immediately following this observation, verses 25 and 26 note that, “And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.”
Although the author of 1 Kings does not explicitly make a connection between there being Sodomites in the land and the military defeat of Judah and the plundering of Jerusalem, the fact that the plundering of Jerusalem by Shishak followed immediately upon the note that there were sodomites in the land implied a connection between them.
This should be a concern to all Americans and citizens of other Western nations. If God did not spare Israel from humiliating and destructive military defeat, why would he spare us from similar treatment?
Worth noting in this regard is a tweet sent out by Richard Moore, Chief of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service in which he wrote, “With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard-won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights.” Not exactly Churchillian level rhetoric, is it? The British, and the West generally, have devolved from, “We shall fight them on the beaches,” to “we’re better than the Russians because we think LGBTQ+ rights are awesome but that bad man Vladimir Putin denies same-sex marriage.” Inspired yet?
Whatever one may think of Putin, he is objectively closer to Biblical teaching on the issue of sodomy than is the apostate and degenerate West. Could it be that the West’s support of sexual perversion is a reason why the war in Ukraine is going badly for Western forces? There are reports of the Biden Regime seeking an “off-ramp in Ukraine.” If the war were going so well, why is Biden looking for a way out?
Turning Back the Clock
It is sometimes assumed that once homosexuals have gained control of an institution, there is no going back. But another lesson we can take from Israel’s experience with sodomites is that their gains can be reversed.
Although Solomon brought in pagan worship that likely led to the flourishing of sodomites during Rehoboam’s reign, they were eventually removed from Israel by the godly kings Asa and Jehoshaphat.
In 1 Kings 15:11-12, we read, “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.” Here we see Asa moving decisively against both sodomy and the false religious system that supported sodomy in Judah. Worth noting is that Asa was, unlike his predecessor Rehoboam, successful in defending Judah from foreign enemies.
Likewise, Asa’s son Jehoshaphat is commended by the writer of 1 Kings, who said of Jehoshaphat that he did, “that which was right in the eyes of the LORD.” Among Jehoshaphat’s righteous acts was his removal of, “the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father, Asa.”
The reformations effected by Asa and Jehoshaphat in Judah show that it is possible for righteous magistrates to reverse prior gains by sodomites and, so to speak, put them back in the closet.
Christians should take heart from this. Although things are going very badly for us and the sodomites seem to be going from strength to strength, they can be defeated.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has led the way in this by dealing a decisive blow to uber-woke Disney Corporation after it opposed a bill prohibiting the teaching of sexualized material to young children in Florida schools and later, after the bill passed, threatened to campaign for its overturn.
The decisive actions in punishing Disney seem to have had an effect on other “woke capital” as several large firms recently have backed off their woke initiatives in the wake of the smackdown given to Disney by the DeSantis administration.
The actions of Governor DeSantis and the Florida legislature are commendable and indicative of the good that can come when magistrates follow the Lord by punishing those who practice evil and pass laws that uphold the good.
As Christians, let us take heart from this victory and the success of Asa and Jehoshaphat and pray and work that the Lord would strike more such blows against Satan’s kingdom of darkness and that those who are caught in the clutches of the sin of sodomy would repent of their evil and come to saving faith in Christ Jesus.
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Detail from The Tower of Babel by Peter Brugel, 1563.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
In the famous opening sentence of his Treatise on the Social Company, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, “Man is born free, but he is everywhere in change.”
While Rousseau’s social compact theory of government is not Christian, his observation that man is everywhere in chains certainly rings true. We can see this in the history recorded for us in the Bible as well as from secular sources. For that matter, we can see it simply reading the news of the day.
Jesus himself noted the authoritarian nature of civil government in his response to the disciples’ arguing about who among them was the greatest. Jesus responded to them,
The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves (Luke 22:25-26).
Note that the kings of the Gentiles do two things. First, they exercise lordship. The Greek verb translated “exercise lordship” can also mean “be the lord or master of.” Perhaps another way of expressing the meaning of the Greek is to use the English expression “lord it over.” We talk that way. We say so and so is lording it over someone. Certainly, that was true of the kings and emperors who governed during Jesus ministry. They lorded it over their people. What the kings of the earth wanted, they took, and there was little to stop them.
The second thing these kings did was be called “benefactor.” On one hand they oppressed their people, but on the other, they wanted to be known as men of generosity. A modern example of this is Joseph Stalin, who, while being one of the most ruthless of the 20th century dictators used the title “Dear Father” among others.
From Jesus response to his disciples, we clearly see that there is a large gap between the Biblical teaching about how government should operate – the idea that government is a servant to the people – and how it actually does operate.
But even more basic than the questions what should government do and how should it go about doing it is the question, why should one man obey another man?
To answer these questions, we must turn to the Scriptures where we find the origin of civil government.
Is feudalism in our future? Medieval illustration, circa 1310.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15.5
My heart is greatly troubled. I hate, hate, hate what is happening to my nation and yet am powerless to do anything to stop it.
Mocking arrogant and hateful sinners are exalted. And truth? It’s cast to the ground.
Just this past week, Pete Buttigieg was named as Joe Biden’s nominee for Transportation Secretary. During his press conference, Buttigieg explained his love of transportation, describing how he proposed to his husband (sic) in an airport terminal. Said Buttigieg, “Don’t let anybody tell you that O’Hare isn’t romantic.”
I doubt that even 5 years ago it would have been possible for someone to give a speech like this and remain politically viable. But that’s just a measure of how fast the deluge of evil has been in so short a time.
Mayor Pete – Buttigieg went by this title during presidential campaign season when he was running to be the Democratic presidential nominee – is a child of Satan. Not only does he practice what is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, but he boasts about it. Further, he encourages other to follow him in his sin. And it this weren’t bad enough, while he’s doing all this he has the audacity to claim to be a Christian.
In many ways, he’s the very embodiment of the antichristian line of thinking that is set to dominate the incoming Biden administration. Buttigieg is smart, eloquent and highly educated, with the prestige of a Harvard degree to his credit. He holds all the fashionable ideas beloved by the elite of our day. The press loves him. He has, as it were, gained the world.
But he is losing his soul.
Unless he repents, he will face a Christless an eternity in hell for his many, egregious sins.
And yet for all that, in the here and now he is winning. And not just him, but many others of his ilk as well, chief among them Joe Biden himself.
Joe Biden is an obvious crook and the head of the Biden crime family. In addition to his own private crimes and those of son Hunter, he’s the beneficiary of an election stolen by the Democratic party machine. For all his evil, he is set to be rewarded by being inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States a month from today.
And while Joe Biden goes from strength to strength, Donald Trump and his supports go from failure to failure.
Bill Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, said there was no evidence of election fraud sufficient to have made a difference in the outcome of the election.
All the court cases have been a bust. The Supreme Court, the strong tower in which conservatives put their trust, dismissed the suit brought by the Texas Attorney General with a backhanded slap.
Last week, Republican Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader in the Senate, congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the Electoral College vote.
In short, all the governmental machinery of the establishment has declared that Biden will be the next president, and there seems to be nothing to stop it at this point.
I have prayed that it would not come to this, but, at least as of this writing, a Biden presidency seems inevitable.
This does not mean that Christians ought not continue to pray. Perhaps by some means a Biden or Harris inauguration can be prevented. January 6th is the final step in the Constitutional electoral process, where Congress finalizes the vote of the Electoral College. What happens if Trump supporters show up in force in Washington D.C. that day? I don’t know.
But given the failures of the Trump legal team so far and the momentum behind Biden, a Biden presidency appears inevitable as well as all the evils that will come with it.
How did it come to this?
Why do the bad guys win?
Some Christian commentators I heard seem to be of the opinion that evil can’t triumph. They rightly see Joe Biden as evil and, at least if I’m hearing them correctly, seem to think for that reason he can’t carry the day.
But in this fallen world, sometimes evil does win temporary victories. This isn’t speculation. You can see this right in the pages of Scripture.
God used the Philistines and other heathen nations to subject Israel from time to time as punishment for their sins. Things eventually got so bad that the Lord used the wicked nations of Assyria and Babylon to take the Jews into captivity for their rebellion against him.
In the New Testament, Satan won what he thought was a victory with the death of Christ on the cross. His victory proved short lived.
If evil can triumph in the Scriptures, it should come as no surprise that evil can score victories in our own day. Even a brief review of recent history should show anyone just how far from the paths of righteousness governments can stray. The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China are but of few of the evil regimes in recent times.
All this leads to the question, so why do the bad guys win?
We know that all of history is in the hands of God, and that nothing happens apart from his willing it to happen. God did not merely allow Joseph Stalin to carry out his reign of terror, he caused it to happen as part of his eternal decree.
But while appealing to the decrees of God is appropriate, usually when people wonder why it is that evil sometimes wins the day, they’re looking for something more specific.
In the Old Testament, God often used prophets to explain the reason such and such a disaster had befallen his people.
Today, we don’t have prophets, but we do have the Word of God which gives us example after example of how God deals with nations and their rulers and how he uses them for his own purposes.
While I don’t pretend to have the exact answer why Joe Biden stands at the precipice of the presidency, but we can look at the Scriptures for some clues why this may be the case.
The Pride flag is raised for the first time at Cincinnati City Hall, June 21, 2019. Photo by: Dwayne Slavey.
“Today is about saying that we are in this fight for civil rights and social justice and that love is love is love is love.”
– Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard
When I was growing up, way back in the day, the sixth month of the year was known as June. It was a without a doubt one of my favorite months. School ended for the summer – yes, we had to go to school into June – the weather was beautiful and I had three glorious months do pretty much whatever I wanted.
But all that has changed over the years. June has largely been wiped off the calendar and replaced by something called Pride Month. Now when considering just the name itself, Pride Month, this ought to give any Christian reason to be skeptical of it. Pride is not a thing commended in the Scriptures. In speaking of the wicked men of his day, the psalmist wrote, “Therefore pride serves as their necklace.” In Proverbs we read, “Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate,” and, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Luke records for us Mary’s words, “He [the Lord] has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” Writes the Apostle John, “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.”
Clearly, pride is a concept at odds with the Word of God. But these passages do not exhaust what the Bible has to say about pride and its related concepts.
Writing to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul said of the enemies of Christ that their, “glory is in their shame.” These enemies of Christ were guilty of doing what the Prophet Isaiah had warned of, calling good evil and evil good, putting darkness for light and light for darkness. In the things of which they should have taken shame, in these they instead found honor, praise and enjoyed an excellent reputation among men.
When thinking about contemporary applications of this principle, that is, taking pride in that which should bring shame, it is hard to find a better example than in the many assertions of pride in the homosexual lifestyle made both by homosexuals themselves as well as by their supporters.
Now it doesn’t exactly take a theologian of the caliber of Martin Luther or John Calvin to understand what the Bible has to say about homosexuality. The Scriptures condemn homosexuality and homosexuals in the strongest terms. There’s really no debating this point, although some have tried.
But despite the clarity of the Bible on the issue of homosexuality, American society’s view of it has undergone such a profound change in just my lifetime that it constitutes a most extraordinary revolution.
To give you just one example of what I mean, consider the quote at the time of this post by Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard. The occasion for her remark was an event held outside Cincinnati City Hall where, for the first time ever, the Pride flag was raised. The event received a good deal of coverage in both the local and national press.
According to this report from a local television station, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, echoing the remarks of Tamaya Dennard, said that life is too short to prevent people from loving each other, the decision to fly the flag by Cincinnati City Council was unanimous, and Pride flags also were flown over six Hamilton County buildings as well as Cincinnati City Hall.
Escape of Lot from Sodom by Mattheus Merian (1593-1650)
From time to time I’ve written in this space about the collapse of Western Civilization that we so going on around us all on a daily basis. And in this author’s opinion, there is perhaps no better illustration of this collapse than the rise of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT) movement over the last several decades.
I make this observation as a Christian, and those who do not believe the Bible may be tempted to dismiss my view as personal bias. But interestingly enough, at least one prominent lesbian scholar is in agreement with this view. As this 2015 article from cnsnews.com notes, “Best-selling feminist author, social critic and self-described “transgender being” Camille Paglia said in an interview last month that the rise of transgenderism in the West is a symptom of decadence and cultural collapse.”
Paglia is quoted in the article saying, “Nothing…better defines the decadence of the West to the jihadists than our toleration of open homosexuality and this transgender mania now.”
The article continues, “Paglia went on to talk about her book Sexual Personae and how the emergence of transgenderism signifies the end of Western culture. ‘Now I am concerned about this…In fact, my study of history in Sexual Personae, I’m always talking about the late phases of culture.’
‘I was always drawn to late or decadent phases of culture. Oscar Wile is one of the great exponents of that in the late 19th century. He’s one of my strongest influences from my earliest years. An I found in my study that history is cyclic, and everywhere in the world you find this pattern in ancient times: that as a culture begins to decline, you have an efflorescence of transgender phenomena. That is a symptom of cultural collapse.’
‘So rather than people singing the praises of humanitarian liberalism that allows all of these transgender possibilities to appear and to be encouraged, I would be concerned about how Western culture is defining itself to the world.’ ”
These are good comments by Paglia. In fact, what this feminist lesbian has to say about homosexuality and transgender mania is, quite remarkably, much closer to the mind of Christ, and far more interesting, than what falls from the lips of many supposed ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when they speak on these subjects.
The wide-spread acceptance of homosexuality and other deviant behaviors in the West is a flashing red warning signal that our civilization is in deep trouble. It’s so obvious that even a feminist lesbian scholar is able to see the problem. But for all that, there are many who name the name of Christ who are either unable or unwilling to grasp this simple and obvious truth.
Lux Lucet 