Post by Julia on Feb 17, 2009 18:08:16 GMT -5
Well, I almost hope that not everybody will agree with me on this. I like a good debate I originally typed this all up when explaining to a friend why I am opposed to homosexuality. This is a bit lengthy, please read, though!
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it=2 0was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26-31
So to explain that a bit...
God made humans in His image to fill the earth, and He knew that His creation was good.
18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam 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 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."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Genesis 2:18-24
When God created Adam, the man, first, He knew that Adam needed someone to be with him. No animals were good enough, so God made Adam the best companion he could've. Eve. When it says "They will become one flesh" that's talking about sex. (:
So God made man and woman the ideal couple, they compliment each other and are perfect for each other in all ways.
This next part is kind of confusing. The next book of the Bible I'll be quoting is Romans. Romans is in the Old Testament, which, in case you don't know, is the earlier part of the Bible, before the birth of Jesus. Usually when people think of God, they see Him as one who loves unconditionally and would never do anything to punish anyone, He only forgives. That's correct, but God did punish people. He punished Adam and Eve when they disobeyed Him, for example. But much of that was to set up for His son's coming. These next verses are one of those punishing times.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
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 of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural 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 indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to d o what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
30 They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:21-32
This part is a bit confusing. Basically, people were trying to seem very wise, but in doing that, they forgot who they should love most, God. They knew He was there, but they didn't praise Him. They started worshiping false idols (verse 23). They wanted homosexuality, and as punishment, since they were breaking the first commandment ("I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange Gods before me" which basically means that you should only worship God, not other things), God let them fall into that sin. In verse 24, it says that acting that way is degrading. In verse 25, it says that by doing this, they were exchanging God's truth for lies. Verse 27 says that homosexual acts are "unnatural" and "indecent". And because of their living in sin, they became bad people. Now, I'm not sayin g that homosexuals today are bad people. The people back then were. I know some really nice gay people. But today, Satan is using this sin, this lust, against people. When people give in, they're sinning. The only way out is to stop, which they can, because homosexuality is a choice, as those verses said. The people in Romans chose this sin instead of God.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it=2 0was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26-31
So to explain that a bit...
God made humans in His image to fill the earth, and He knew that His creation was good.
18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam 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 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."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Genesis 2:18-24
When God created Adam, the man, first, He knew that Adam needed someone to be with him. No animals were good enough, so God made Adam the best companion he could've. Eve. When it says "They will become one flesh" that's talking about sex. (:
So God made man and woman the ideal couple, they compliment each other and are perfect for each other in all ways.
This next part is kind of confusing. The next book of the Bible I'll be quoting is Romans. Romans is in the Old Testament, which, in case you don't know, is the earlier part of the Bible, before the birth of Jesus. Usually when people think of God, they see Him as one who loves unconditionally and would never do anything to punish anyone, He only forgives. That's correct, but God did punish people. He punished Adam and Eve when they disobeyed Him, for example. But much of that was to set up for His son's coming. These next verses are one of those punishing times.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
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 of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural 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 indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to d o what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
30 They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:21-32
This part is a bit confusing. Basically, people were trying to seem very wise, but in doing that, they forgot who they should love most, God. They knew He was there, but they didn't praise Him. They started worshiping false idols (verse 23). They wanted homosexuality, and as punishment, since they were breaking the first commandment ("I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange Gods before me" which basically means that you should only worship God, not other things), God let them fall into that sin. In verse 24, it says that acting that way is degrading. In verse 25, it says that by doing this, they were exchanging God's truth for lies. Verse 27 says that homosexual acts are "unnatural" and "indecent". And because of their living in sin, they became bad people. Now, I'm not sayin g that homosexuals today are bad people. The people back then were. I know some really nice gay people. But today, Satan is using this sin, this lust, against people. When people give in, they're sinning. The only way out is to stop, which they can, because homosexuality is a choice, as those verses said. The people in Romans chose this sin instead of God.