Tzom Kal

Instead of focusing strictly on medieval church doctrine and abstract theology, classical humanists placed human potential, critical thinking, and ethical behavior at the center of learning., critical

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

 (Romans 1:18–2:1, ESV)

Why the connection between Classical Humanism & Is Important

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

  • To testify to the existence, INVISIBLE attributes of God, & to God’s authority. 

Why is God’s wrath revealed from heaven?  

  • Because people have (since the Fall) been deliberately suppressing the truth about God’s existence, INVISIBLE attributes, & authority by way of substituting the VISIBLE attributes of the created order, especially those of people & animals. 

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

  • They looked to the created order & used its VISIBLE attributes as the basis of their theology, philosophy, & ethics.  

What sort of theology, philosophy, & ethics?  

  • According to the text of Romans 1, worship & worship ethics, sexual ethics, & justice in general. 

How so?  

  • Rather than look to God (who has no sex, no gender, & no sexuality) they deliberately & willfully looked to the created order — of which the prelapsarian state of Adam & Eve are a part & of which human anatomy, physiology, & psychology are a part — & reasoned accordingly.  

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

  • According to the grammar & syntax of Romans 1:18 - 32, it can’t.   

How so? 

  • The only way to do that is to suppress the truth about God’s INVISIBLE attributes (which do not include sex, gender, & sexuality) & substitute the VISIBLE attributes of the created order in order to do ethical reasoning in general & sexual ethics in particular. 

If Romans 1:18 - 32 doesn’t describe & condemn homosexual behavior in general, what does it describe?  

  • The text describes sexual activity done in the service of one or more pagan pseudodeities & any sort of theology, philosophy, &/or ethics that suppress(es) the truth about the INVISIBLE attributes of God & instead substitutes the VISIBLE attributes of the created order —like the prelapsarian state of Adam & Eve, &tc — as its basis.

How so? 

  • The text teaches that God’s INVISIBLE attributes alone constitute a non-arbitrary epistemic warrant for theology, philosophy, & ethics.  
  • In addition, the text binds worship/worship ethics & sex/sexual ethics, as well as justice related ethics in general, together—- whereas, in order to avoid concluding God is finite, ephemeral, & mutable, the tradition bound view separates them. 

How, then, does the tradition bound view err? 

  • The traditional view looks to the state of the created order as a sufficient epistemic warrant for sexual ethics.   In so doing, it argues for basing human sexual ethics on the allegedly heteronormative state of the created order in general &/or the prelapsarian state of Adam & Eve in particular -—> a thought process which involves reverse engineering our sexual ethics from the created order. 
  • Thus, if we can reverse engineer our sexual ethics from the human image, then it stands to reason we can do worship ethics from the human image —-> which, taken to its logical conclusion, would mean God is finite, ephemeral, & mutable too, a proposition that the Bible vehemently denies. 
  • The argument against homosexuality by way of the VISIBLE attributes of any image drawn from the created order severs worship ethics from sexual ethics, whereas the Bible binds them together.  

What else does Romans 1:18 - 32 teach us? 

  • The text is telling us something about how prejudice & bigotry operate.  

How so? 

  • When you use the visible attributes of the created order to do ethical reasoning, justice itself is deeply affected.  
  • This has multiple applications. 
    • Natural = Male Dominance/Hegemony 
    • Unnatural = Egalitarianism 

= Misogyny 

    • Natural = White/Caucasian

Unnatural = Anything else 

= Racism

    • Natural = Heteronormative

Unnatural = Homosexual 

= Homophobia 

    • Natural = Conservative 

Unnatural = Liberal 

= Political Idolatry 

    • Natural = Liberal

Unnatural = Conservative 

= Political Idolatry 

    • Natural = Non-Jewish

Unnatural = Jewish 

= Anti-Semitism


As you can see —  by looking to the created order’s attributes instead of God Himself & His attributes, the end result is a perversion of justice in relation to both God & everyone & everything else.   


That’s what the tail end of Romans 1 addresses — unless God intervenes, history teaches us civilization will inevitably collapse repeatedly.  




and ethical behavior at the center of learning.

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