The word trinity is not in the Bible as we know it. Neither is the concept directly mentioned. Yet there are countless verses that speak of the mystery of God. The prophets wrote about the suffering servant or the anointed one who would come at an appointed time and redeem God’s people. At other places, it’s written about God being with us. The incidents during the life of Moses, Samson, (King) Saul, David and many of the OT Prophets all illustrate the Holy Spirit.
They are examples of how the writers of the books of the Bible wrote the living Scriptures, being inspired by God and their perception of a picture they could not comprehend (in human terms) but which became clearer as the time came for Jesus’ birth. They painted parts of the same picture and as you read and understand the Bible you find that the whole is in harmony with its various parts, even though some verses of the Bible may appear to contradict other verses.
So while we know God as the Father, or whether it is Jesus saying that the Father is in me and I am in the Father, or the mention of the Holy Spirit which comforts us and fills us making us God’s children because Jesus intercedes for us and on account of the Grace of God, and not because of any good or bad deeds we may have done, then we all know it’s the one and only God - the Lord God Almighty that we are alluding to. To Him be Glory and Praise and Honour for ever and ever.
Now to the second topic: yes, the term homosexuality is not mentioned in the Bible but the description clearly defines what we during present day call homosexuality. Again my brothers and sisters in Christ have painstaking listed verses from the Bible, both from Old Testament and the New Testament that clearly mention that this is a sin according to God as well as basic human morals and laws of society.
Moreover, sexual sin is not just limited to homosexuality. It encompasses fornication, adultery, sexual relationship with animals or using strange devices for pleasure etc. Jesus went so far as to say that if a man looks at a woman with sexual thoughts in his heart (or vice versa), he has committed adultery with her in his heart! Now how many of us men do that every day? Likewise how many women?
Some of you claim that neither God the Father nor Jesus directly condemned homosexuality. Very interesting! Have you read how it all started in Genesis? God made male and female. That is why a man shall leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and they shall be one flesh. Not a physical joining, but a very deeper spiritual bonding together as one person, an emotional union as lifelong companions and friends (husband and wife) and finally a physical tie through sexual relationship between man and wife within marriage.
Then what did Jesus teach? Read the Gospels again: in the beginning God made male and female and that is why a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh.
If we go by the most conservative estimate of the events of Genesis occurring at least five thousand years before Jesus, then Jesus upheld the very same thing that God made the institution of marriage (and sexual relationship only within marriage) between man and woman. God does not change. His law or promises do not vary either. He is strong in commitment. Therefore, according to God’s law in the Bible, we Christians are not even supposed to divorce, let alone indulge in any form of adultery or fornication or sexual relationship outside marriage. As a new year is round the corner do you know what this hymn means, “O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.”
It is one man and one woman in marriage, or holy matrimony... anything else, including homosexuality (even if attempts at calling it a marriage), is a sin.
I once asked God why very few listen to the good news of Jesus. This was the answer (it’s in the Bible, OT Isaiah and NT quoted by Jesus):
For seeing they will not perceive and hearing they will not understand, lest they turn to me and I heal them.
Only remember if you have read so far, that one of us can be wrong: either homosexuality is a sin or not a sin. If I am wrong, then you have lost nothing other than one or more sexual relationships. However, if I am right, you’ll end up in a place where the spirit is destroyed by God (who is able to destroy both body and spirit), yet it takes all of eternity... where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched! Any sane person would not stake that much without first exploring further if it is true or false. After all, there have been many Christians who were/are renowned scientists and other great men and women and they all believed in God as given in the Bible, throughout the ages! Thus, if folks smarter than us believed in something then at least I should put in a little time, at least a few months or weeks of my life to test it out. And whatever the persecution or oppression, no ruler or empire has been able to completely eliminate Christians, though we are hated (perhaps not so much in the west) by all for apparently no reason other than our faith in Jesus Christ. (If you claim Christians are bad, look again around you at all the good work we have been doing and continue till today, and onwards tomorrow; compare with the rest of the evil in this world...).
Now some of you may not believe in God or what is written in the Bible, right? So here are some less Biblical reasons:
Almost all civilized societies have condemned homosexuality in some form or another, even if those communities were predominantly NON Christian. Why? Take the world’s largest democracy for instance. Leaving aside certain larger cities (where immoral behaviour of all kinds abounds), one cannot be openly homosexual or engage in such behaviour. Such persons could easily pay the price with their lives or be thrown out by the community at the minimum. I write of a nation that is not even remotely Christian or Jewish or Muslim.
Continuing with more examples of the same place: if the community / village / town / city is conservative, marriages and families are strong, homes stable, children are taught basic morality, decency and manners (spare the rod and spoil the child), they turn our the best citizens, people who are the backbone of the nation even though the family they may come from may not be very well off (in monetary terms). I have never found in any such home a child who lacks the love of both parents (father and mother) or who is emotionally unstable that he/she takes causes a bloodbath at school etc. They may never have the so called pleasure of physical relationship with multiple partners, not even know that their spouse could be the worst person in the world in bed and yet they live happy contented lives. And the love which binds such families is unique and immeasurable: there is not one example, no not even one, of anyone having a prenuptial agreement. Ha, if any advocate would even dream to bring up such a topic before a marriage, he/she would have their head blown off to say the least!
Let’s flip the coin. Our more open societies (usually cities with plenty of money and the high paying IT jobs) where college boys and girls experiment with different partners till they find love and/or someone who is compatible according to them, have families that break apart, marriages ending in divorce or separation and children going through the torment and pain of all this mess. Whatever happened to the love marriages and all the experimentation, huh? All these so called “live and let live” cities / towns/ villages also turn a blind eye to homosexuality and other immoral activities.
Now isn’t that interesting. If a society has rules for morality and tries to follow them, they grow stronger and have better homes irrespective of less or more money etc. However, take away the rules and let everyone do as they please and that nation slowly but surely falls apart, in spite of the amount of money or wealth or firepower it has!
Another befitting example: I work in IT and we use a lot of equipment which has connectors named male or female. The male connectors normally have pins sticking out and the female ones with matching holes for the pins to fit into. During the past 10 years, I have trained / seen my colleagues train many bright as well as mediocre new joinees / trainees and we usually show them only one or two examples of such devices / connectors. However, even the most dumb of them knows without telling when he/she sees a different type of connector or device and can locate the matching counterpart. They never, never try to fit one male with another male or one female with another female connector!
I know you don’t believe me or want to read what is written. Then find an answer to this question. All major empires throughout history have had a lot of immoral and homosexual activities during the height of their power; then they faded away without much of an external challenge... is there a cause and effect?
We humans need some amount of rules to have stability. Freedom means responsibility and to respect and obey those rules, whether from the Bible for those who call ourselves Christians or moral laws for those who are atheist or of different beliefs. Unfortunately, where as our ancestors have slaved and built a strong and wealthy society for us, we children get drunk in our wealth and assuming we own the world forget how a nation was made in the first place: through love, sacrifice, a strong family, society based on morals and a lot of hard work! Taking things for granted we saw off the very branch we are sitting on, forgetting that one day we’ll fall with it.
Then others have written about love. Do you know what love is when you can barely differentiate between lust and love? Love is kind and gentle. It is pure and honourable. It causes one to sacrifice one’s best, even one’s life for loved ones. True love means to wait, to understand, to be there. Two men can love each other a lot: like father and son, brothers, father and son in law, even friends. Similarly, two women can have the strongest love as among relatives or friends. However, when degraded to sexual love, it turns into something worse than lust, and God rightly calls it an abomination.
I am not judging anyone, for there is someone else who will judge us all one day.
For all of us have sinned!
There is neither Christian nor Jew nor anyone else in this world that is sinless - the only exception being Jesus Christ who was tempted yet without sin! However, our sins are not the same, nor are they equal. Jesus himself described that certain types of sins that will never be forgiven, and also of severe (eternal) punishment for other kinds - like whoever causes the little ones (i.e. children) to sin it will be better if a millstone is tied around their neck and are cast into the sea!
So what example are we giving to our children? Sex before and outside marriage. Lust between man and fellow man, or woman and her kind? Or divorces and separations at the drop of a pin, having broken homes and step parents who don’t care. Or parents or single mothers that work all day and don’t have time for their children, and then spoil them with gifts just to try to make them happy, whereas their children seek only the love and presence of their parents, and not toys or babysitters!
Looks like we have too much to eat and to drink, toss our mind into the drain and have the devil come and take over whatever is left.
My parents and ancestors for many generations have been Christians. Staunch ones! I have been a little different - with a scientific bend of mind, a quest to find the answers, and to know more. It took more than the Bible for me to have faith in God, yet I believed even as a little child and have followed my Lord all the days of this life which God has blessed me with. The Bible is a wonderful manual that tells us about God’s love. It also lists out such laws that if a society would be based on them, it would be perfect! E.g from OT: when we celebrate (festivals or other occasions), remember to invite the widows and orphans and the poor and God will bless us. Complementary e.g. from NT. Jesus said, when you throw a party, invite those who are poor and needy, etc. instead of your relatives and friends. For the poor and needy cannot invite you back and our Heavenly Father who sees all things will reward us. However, when we invite the rich and well-to-do, who invite us back, we have received our reward.
Are we are gong off track? Not really, for the topic we are discussing can be better overcome based on the Bible which illustrates the person of Jesus Christ, the kind of person God would be (and we would expect God to be) if He ever came to us in human form. But Jesus is the word of God and God Himself. And He came to us in human form. Jesus said to discover God (who is a Spirit and cannot be seen or perceived through the ways of flesh - i.e. our material minds and bodies), we need to come to Jesus. So the Bible as a manual leads us to Jesus Christ, as do many true Christians who exemplify the love of God and Jesus Christ in their lives and through their witness and example and bring others to Jesus. Moreover, when we have found Christ and received of the gift of the Holy Spirit freely given to anyone who sincerely repents and truly believes, we come home to God.
And through the grace of the Spirit abiding within us, which we cannot grieve through our sins (it gets harder and harder to even try to sin) our lives get transformed (a faint one, nevertheless a transformation) into a likeness of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
Who demonstrated His great love for us and the world that while we were still sinners, He died for us. In the same Spirit we end up having that same great love in our hearts for everyone, good or bad, poor or rich, friend or enemy - the love which lights up the darkness and the darkness can neither comprehend nor overcome it.
May you come to a true faith in Jesus Christ and find healing and peace,
Andrew