Conservative Review Of The Free Methodist Analysis of “Homosexuality According to the Bible”
This website is dedicated to deconstructing and reconstructing Christian interpretation based on a deep dive into what the Bible says behind the scenes. The topic of “Homosexuality According to the Bible” is no different. I believe there are no contradictions in the Bible, but there are in our interpretations. Looking through this lens brings harmony to the feel-good story of loving your neighbor with the seemingly harsh rhetoric of legalism.
The Rebuttal to The Free Methodist Position
This is a scripturally based rebuttal to the Free Methodist Church Study: “Homosexuality According to the Bible.”
It is also an offshoot of my larger project, but the timing of this seemed appropriate as it relates to another group of people who are saved but shunned by the church. This is a conservative, biblically-based argument to counter entrenched traditionalist views. Ultimately, it is meant to shed more light into this chasm of darkness between “love your neighbor” and “the Bible is clear.”
Free Methodist Church Study Commission on Doctrine
Homosexuality according to the Bible (Linked at the bottom of the post)
Authors: Bruce N. G. Cromwell, David Bauer, David Kendall, Denny Wayman, Donald and Robbie Joy, Howard A. Snyder, Matthew Thomas.
This interpretation is based on the context of creation, which is crucial to understanding “Homosexuality According to the Bible.” While the author does a good job outlining commonly accepted interpretations, the author does not account for points outside of normally cited passages. Additional context shifts perspective appreciably.
The Creation Account
Generally, the author does a good job bringing the creation account together though important points are missed. First, the author fails to mention the reason the “suitable helper” (Gen 2:18) was required and conflates that with the idea of animals, which the Apostle Paul clarifies (1 Cor 9:9). Notice, however, God creates male and female in Gen 1:27. It is not until Genesis 2:22-23 that woman is created. The mention in Genesis 2:23 has two distinct words for man, which cannot be ignored. They are different kinds of beings as one is mankind and the other is a man, which again cannot be conflated with a male. This is also clarified later in regards to Leviticus 20:13, where there is an additional distinction between man and male.
The same is true for the woman and the female. It’s not the same, but the author assumes it is. The proximal use of the words also indicates the difference similar to Israel and Jacob in the same verse. If they were the same, they would be the same word.
Spiritual Split
The man, as male and female, never ate from the tree (Gen 1:27). Eve was then introduced because there was no suitable helper. The woman, therefore, would later cause the fall (Gen 2:22-23). Eve is more like the spirit being split apart like Eve from Adam (Hebrews 4:12), which is about male and female temporal people (Jn 14:30). The spiritless flesh will then cause someone to do something or not to do something. This is the first point as the author does not distinguish between the created sexes properly, which leads to conflating man and male along with woman and female.
Purpose of Man
Next, the author fails to contemplate why man is created in the first place. Without this greater context, the story itself is near meaningless. The context tells us what the fruit is, why we cannot eat it, and why one would die if he did eat it. It makes sense of why sexual relations are spiritually important.
Marriage
Marriage itself is also confusing as the author considers it a marriage between one man and one woman. Unfortunately, this is perpetuated as though it is a biblical truth. Jesus references leaving one’s mother and father to be married as one flesh as does Genesis 2:24 but Paul clarifies what this means. Ephesians 5:31-32 says this is being married to Christ. Who can do this? Male? Female? The author does not explore this, though Paul knows the importance and even calls it a mystery. Marriage between one man and one woman is simply not Scriptural. This precisely pivots on the concept of a spiritual marriage relative to a temporal marriage.
Entrapment
The author also fails to mention the role of the woman, which is deceit. I don’t know about others, but I love my wife. If she is deceitful, she is deceptively awesome. I’ll take that, but it is not temptation. She is a measured, kind, and wonderful person.
This does not describe the biblical woman who whores around everywhere like a harlot to the point she is drunk like Babylon (Rev 17:5-6). It’s simply not the same concept. It is, therefore, the suitable helper (Gen 2:18) who would cause mankind to fall. Temptation of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore, sounds like anyone who gets wrapped up in his or her own ability to judge another person. That is specifically true if the result is to exclude that person from anything.
The authors use a traditional application of the concept of a woman despite knowing Eve was the cause of the fall. The authors fit the concept of the biblical woman as one who attempts to judge prematurely. How else would the author know who is acceptable and not acceptable according to God, except to eat of the tree him or herself?
The Time Before Women
There are other important points, which are not central to the argument. For example, there was a time between when God created man as male and female. Then God pulled the rib out of the side of Adam to put it on display for male and female mankind to see. That period explains the time between the day Adam ate the fruit and had to die relative to the period prior. Cain had to be marked for protection and if Adam and Eve’s first child is dead and the second is cast out, there must be something else out there from which Cain needs protection.
Therefore, if Adam is the first man and Cain needed protection, then something happened between Adam as male and female man ‘kind’ and the entrance of the woman. Those individuals had to be able to procreate, which means there are males and females in the time before Eve.
Next Up
The next post provides a different view of Sodom and Leviticus.
