Tackling Tradition 88 - Leviticus 18

Question:  Given what you and PAPC believe about Romans 1:18 - 32 & Leviticus 18 would you throw out.  

Answer: I am not throwing out any commands.   How so?  By reasoning that God allows us to ground our sexual ethics in the created order,  the tradition bound view’s proponents are the guilty party in that regard.    THE BIBLE EXPLICITLY FORBIDS USING THE VISIBLE ATTRIBUTES OF THE CREATED ORDER AS THE BASIS FOR THEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, & ETHICS.

Romans 1:18 - 32 is inerrant, infallible, & clear as a bell on this.   

One more time:  Romans 1:18 - 32 is a verbal, plenary commentary on Leviticus 18.  To understand the case law in Leviticus 18 correctly, understand Romans 1:18 - 32.  It covers the same exact material & follows the same exact outline.  

Leviticus 18

Shema/Prologue (Lev. 18:1 - 5)

General & Specific Prohibitions (Lev.18: 6 -23) 

Document Clause, Witnesses, & Victory (Lev. 18: 24 - 30), which refers to statutes & rules & charges the people as witnesses & proclaims victory over the nations (& Israel should they behave like the nations).

Romans 1:18 - 32

Paul is following the outline of Leviticus 18, following the form of a Hebraic lawsuit/Suzerain Covenant.  

Shema and Decalogue (1:18 - 21) God’s Image testifies to His attributes & authority. 

God created people. His temple bears His Image & runs according to His Law & Gospel.

Historical Prologue (1:22 - 23)
They suppressed God’s image & authority substituting their own, & made idols that looked & behaved like themselves. 

Stipulations/Prohibitions (1:24 - 28)  In Canaan & Rome, people did heterosexual & homosexual sex for their gods.  At times they deployed animals too.  (Lev. 18: 6 - 23).  

Document Clause, Covenant Sanctions/Renewal & Witnesses, Victory (1: 29 - 32)

Kitchen sink immorality will lead to Rome’s burning, just as it did to Sodom, Egypt, Israel, Babylon, &tc.
The text is about how we are supposed to think/reason.   

God’s created order testifies to His image & authority.   God indicts us for suppressing His image & authority & supplanting it with our own & other created images & reasoning accordingly.   

Thus, when someone teaches that human anatomy, physiology, &/or psychology is a proper warrant for sexual ethics, they are teaching the opposite of what the Bible teaches.  

Using your Bible answer these questions:

1. What is the purpose of the created order according to Romans 1:20?   

2. Why is God’s wrath revealed from heaven?  

3. How did people in the ancient world wind up with idols that looked like people & animals?

4. What textual clues are there in Romans 1:18 - 25 that indicate that “natural” in 1:26 - 27 means “heteronormative” & “natural” means “homosexual?” 

5. How then can it be that “natural” means “heterosexual/heteronormative” & “unnatural” means “homosexual,” in Romans 1:26 - 27?

6. If you believe natural” means “heterosexual/heteronormative” & “unnatural” means “homosexual,” in Romans 1:26 - 27, then please describe your reasoning process? 

7. Based on Romans 1:18 - 32 in relation to Leviticus 18, do you think that Koukl is correct when he writes that Paul is arguing that human anatomy & physiology is heteronormative, therefore the text condemns homosexuality? If so, please explain. 

8. Do you agree with Robert Gagnon who has written, “By “against nature” Paul meant that the evidence from the material structures of creation—here the complementary embodied character of maleness and femaleness—gives clear evidence of God’s will for human sexual pairing.”   
If so, please explain. 

9. Apropos 7 & 8, how can these men be correct when the preceding text explicitly indicts all humanity for suppressing the truth about God’s INVISIBLE attributes (which do not include sex, gender, & sexuality) & then doing worship, worship ethics, sexual ethics, & justice by way of substituting the VISIBLE attributes of the created order (people, animals creeping things) as a proper & sufficient epistemic warrant?    

It is abundantly clear that proponents of the tradition bound view are not doing theology, philosophy, & ethics from the INVISIBLE attributes of God in this matter.  They are looking to the VISIBLE attributes of the created order to warrant their beliefs — the very reasoning process that the text FORBIDS.  
There is no way around that fact, & since the words Paul deploys in 1 Corinthians 6 & 1 Timothy 1 are drawn from Leviticus, they too refer to cultic sexual activity done in the service of one or more pagan pseudodeities, which is most certainly the topic of the text of 1 Corinthians 6:12 - 20.

In Corinth, Aphrodite’s prostitutes were offered all year.   In Ephesus (1 Timothy), Artemis worship also included male & female prostitution.   

Let the grammar & syntax of the Bible speak for itself & you find that Ecclesiastical Tradition that surrounds this issue doesn’t add up.

As to the issue of incest, its worth noting that Abraham was married to Sarah, his half-sister.   The Bible always portrays its heroes in truth, yet no author of the Bible ever draws attention to this fact by potraying it in a negative light.   Other sexual relationships like that of Judah & Tamar & Lot and his daughters receives a very different treatment.   
Why?  Notice how the LORD seems either present by way of his wrath (Sodom & Gomorrah) or silent in response to the neglect of Judah & Tamar & the unfolding drama in Jacob’s family at the time.  What is going on in 1 Corinthians 6 in relation to the man caught in adultery?  He seems to be involved with one of his in-laws or his step-mother. 

There is enough information in the Bible to deduce that Leviticus 18 only addresses cultic sexual relationships.   They are forbidden as an extraordinary sort of sexual immorality that goes beyond ordinary. 

As to ordinary relations between people who biologically &/or otherwise related by marriage, the Bible condemns all sexual behavior that involves lustful intent & depicts sexual relationships between close relatives in a mostly — but not completely — unfavorable light, & it condemns all exploitative sexual relationships in 1 Corinthians 13 by way defining love itself.   

As to homosexuality, the rules for both heterosexuals & homosexuals are the same as to both ordinary & extraordinary.

O LORD, Hear Our Prayers!