Thank you for the morality question, “Why is LGBT a sin in the Bible?”
The reason why LGBT is a sin in the Bible because it distorts the design of God for men and women who are made in the image and likeness of God. Having said that, if a person is not a Christian, the viewpoint expressed by me is not pertinent to that person. In other words, the thoughts shared by me applies to Christians.
For any Christian to venture into physical orientation and sexual behavior is a minefield. The responses may be mild to horrific. Since the question asks the reason why ‘LGBT” is viewed as a sin from a biblical viewpoint, I will share my understanding of the Scriptures.
As writer or respondents, we are given the right to express one’s viewpoint. One may agree or disagree with a writer or respondent’s viewpoint, but that person should not be “cancel”, if I may use that word. One can agree to disagree and yet be respectful of the other person. I trust the readers will grant that to me and to those who respondents to me. May I also show that respect to those who may agree or disagree with the explanation given of why the Bible sees the physical orientation and sexual conduct of the LGBT is not in accordance with the Bible. Again, if one is not a Christian, the Bible is not relevant to that person.
A. The orientation of humans.
Ther are two views about the origin of humans: evolution and creation. The Bible presents that humans are a creation of God. In his creation of man, God created man and woman in his own image and likeness. God designated their physical appearance as man and woman, male and female. In Genesis 2, God created the woman with a distinct physical appearance from the man.
Thus, from the Biblical narrative point of view, every human being is a male or female, a man or a woman. Each person has worth and value for she or he is made in the image and likeness of God.
Genesis 1 says this. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” (NIV). Citations are from the NIV.
Genesis 2 says this, “But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
Thus, the physical appearance of man and of a woman is a designed from God. That appearance of the man and woman is called male and female by God. That is the Creator’s designation of man and woman.
If a person decides to call him or herself other than a man or woman, a male or female, one is free to do so. In our nation, we have the freedom of speech. This freedom allows any person to call him or herself by whatever name or how one views oneself whether as a LGBTQ or any other designation for oneself.
From the Scriptural viewpoint, there are only male and female, man and woman. To call oneself other than the Creator God is to demean the Creator. It infers that the Creator God doesn’t know what he was creating or that his design was faulty. If a person gives himself a different designation, then he is implying that she or he knows than the Creator God. Can an finite being know more than an Infinite Being? God who is omnipotent and omniscience knows more than the created being.
For the Christian, the physical appearance of humans is male and female, man and woman. The Christian accepts that physical designation from God. For example, for a Christian to call him or herself an evolve animal is to lessen his or her worth as being in the image of God and denies that God created him or her. That belief or attitude insults God. It is taking the name of the Lord in vain and ascribing his or her existence to something or someone. It is denying the creative act of God and ascribing it to something else. To uphold the evolutionary belief would be considered idolatry since Christians are not to have any other gods or beliefs that transcends the Creator God. The description that one is a LGBT ignores or denies that the Creator God made humans as male and female, man and woman as being in the image and likeness of God.
B. The orientation of sexual being and sexual behavior.
The sexual orientation and the sexual behavior of men and women are based on the Creator God’s design of male and female.
When God created man and woman, the purpose of God was for them to populate the earth. He didn’t create “man” and “woman” as asexual being who can reproduce off springs of oneself by oneself. He created that man and woman in their sexual union to produce a child that is themself, a male or female child.
Genesis 1 says this, “28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 2 says this, “24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
The plan of God was that the man and woman were to be sexually intimate with each other and in their intimacy to have a child. The relationship is between a man and a woman. When a male or female child was born and became an adult, the marriage was between a man and a woman for companionship, sexual intimacy, and having a child or children.
This same command was given to Noah and his children (Gen. 9:7) to be fruitful and fill the earth. At thls point on the earth’s population, there were four couples, each with a man and a woman.
As one reads Genesis, the degeneration of humans led to the distortion of God’s plan for the earth. One of the Biblical account is Sodom and Gomorrah which the reader is most likely familiar with. In Gensis 19 one reads that the people of Sodom wanted to have sex with them.
The people who came to do was not interested in a friendly conversation or have a welcome party for the strangers. The text says this, “But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
The relationship was not consensual by any means. Travelers became victims of sexual abuse who entered their city. In fairness, during this time period each society determined their own moral codes and conduct. There was no biblical “written” law during this time as men were ruled by their conscience. It was a time period when everyone did what was right in his own eyes or whatever that city permitted.
C. The restriction of moral conduct for God’s people.
When God delivered his people from the bondage of Egypt, God gave the Israelites a moral code to live by to be his holy people and being a priesthood before the nations (Exodus 19). Within the moral code, God restricts for the Israelites what is permissible and what is prohibited.
In Leviticus 20, the sexual conduct of the Israelites is clearly stated and prohibited. The context is quite clear about the moral conduct between men and women as well as with animals. I quote the larger context.
The text says this, “10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. 11 “‘If a man has sexual relations with his father’s wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. 12 “‘If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both of them are to be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads.13 “‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. 14 “‘If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you. 15 “‘If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 16 “‘If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. 17 “‘If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They are to be publicly removed from their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible. 18 “‘If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them are to be cut off from their people. 19 “‘Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, for that would dishonor a close relative; both of you would be held responsible. 20 “‘If a man has sexual relations with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless. 21 “‘If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.”
22 “‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24 But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations”
The text states that a consensual relationship is not condone even if both parties agree to it. The very act of sexual intimacy is prohibited in Leviticus 20.
The Hebrew word, “yis.kab” means to lie. It is used 9 times in this passage. Context must determine the word, “to lie.” As one reads the text, the word, doesn’t just mean “laying down” or “sitting next” to a family member is prohibited nor does it mean that if one was to lay down on the grass with a near relative is prohibited. The word, to lie, infers a sexual contact with that person or animal.
Among the restrictions for the Israelites is a man have a sexual contact with another man is prohibited. The phrase, as with a woman, clarifies that it is a sexual interaction. The modern term in our language is engaging in a homosexual conduct. This is also stated in Leviticus 18:22–23. The death penalty is the death penalty of an Israelite who commits the sins in Leviticus 20.
Romans 2 states that immoral sexual behavior is disdained by God. “24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.””
Paul describes the actions of certain men and or women to be shameful acts for the degrading of their bodies with one another. The condemnation is more than temple prostitution. Those individuals have abandoned the design of God between a married man and woman, engaging in sexual conduct between the same gender or with animals.
In I Corinthians 5, Paul exhorts the Corinthians believers to avoid believers who engaged in immoral conduct which not befitting of a person being a new creation in Christ Jesus. He says this, “9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”
If Paul condemned immoral behavior of slanderer or swindler, it is difficult to interpret that he condones sexually immoral behavior among Christians.
Summary: Immoral conduct regardless of its behavior distorts the plan and purpose of God for men and women who are made in the image and likeness of God and made for each other.
-Kingston