Views Supportive Of Homosexuality
Friendship between Jonathan and David
In the 20th century, theologians like Jürgen Moltmann, Hans Küng, John Robinson, Bishop David Jenkins, Don Cupitt, and Bishop Jack Spong challenged traditional theological positions and understandings of the Bible following these developments some have suggested that passages have been mistranslated or that they do not refer to what we understand as “homosexuality.” Clay Witt, a minister in the Metropolitan Community Church, explains how theologians and commentators like John Shelby Spong, George Edwards and Michael England interpret injunctions against certain sexual acts as being originally intended as a means of distinguishing religious worship between Abrahamic and the surrounding pagan faiths, within which homosexual acts featured as part of idolatrous religious practices: “England argues that these prohibitions should be seen as being directed against sexual practices of fertility cult worship. As with the earlier reference from Strongâs, he notes that the word ‘abomination’ used here is directly related to idolatry and idolatrous practices throughout the Hebrew Testament. Edwards makes a similar suggestion, observing that ‘the context of the two prohibitions in Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13 suggest that what is opposed is not same-sex activity outside the cult, as in the modern secular sense, but within the cult identified as Canaanite'”.
The Truth About Sodom And Gomorrah
In fact, some of what I read also indicated the same idea in trying to discredit the Sodom and Gomorrah story so that people will not consider such actions sinful. But scientifically, there is a study that says that a major cataclysmic event happened in Tall El-Hamman that matches a similar cataclysmic event stated in the Bible.
When Did Christians Start To Interpret The Story As Being About Same
- No Jewish literature until the writings of Philo in the first century connected the sin of Sodom to same-sex behavior specifically. Even then, the same-sex reading of the story did not become the mainstream interpretation among Christians until the time of Augustine in the early fifth century.
- The term “sodomy” was not coined until the 11th century, and even then, it was widely used to refer to all non-procreative sexual acts , not same-sex relations specifically.
- The earliest Christians read the Sodom story as a parable about inhospitality, arrogance, and violence, not same-sex behavior.
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Sodom And Gomorrah: How The Classical Interpretation
Jesus didnt come to promote sin, He came to save us from sin. The Bible is very clear. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality. Graham concluded his post by quoting Romans 1:24-27. The Genesis text. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the favorite passages of persons who oppose same-sex behavior.
Evidence Of The Tower Of Babel
In May 2017, a professor at the University of London said he had compelling evidence that the Tower of Babel actually existed. Zelda Caldwell wrote in aleteia.org: A stone tablet from the private collection of a Norwegian businessman Martin Schøyen includes the clearest image ever found of the Great Ziggurat of Babylon, according to Andrew George, Professor of Babylonian history at the University of London. The tablet, which has been captured on film for the first time by Smithsonian Magazine, shows an illustration of a pyramid-like structure, with a depiction of King Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled Babylon from 605-562 BC, standing next to it.
First built around the time of Hammurabi , the ziggurat in Babylon was in a serious state of disrepair by the time Alexander I the Great came along, and was taken down in 331 BC. With no evidence to tell us what it actually looked like, until now we have only had, in the words of the Schøyen Collections catalog, a long series of fanciful paintings to rely on.This tablet, for the first time, gives us a contemporary illustration of the tower along with an inscription giving us an account of Nebuchadnezzar IIs building plans and the restoration process. \=\
ziggurat of Ur
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The Burning Of Sodom And Gomorrah
After Lot is unable to convince his sons-in-law to leave the city, he fled Sodom with his wife and two daughters encouraged by the two angels that the Lord will look after them. The angels first tell Lot to flee to the mountains, but Lot requests that his family go to a nearby city, named Zoar, to ensure their survival.
The Bible describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:23-29, stating:
“By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrahfrom the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the citiesand also the vegetation in the land. But Lots wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.”
According to Bible commentaries like the NIV Zondervan Study Bible, Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt as she looked back, for disobeying the instruction not to look back. Her action suggests that she identified with the people of Sodom. Her failure to flee Gods punishment becomes a vivid warning to others .
I Can Flee Wickedness
Lot entertains holy menThe men of Sodom seek to abuse Lots guests and are smitten with blindnessLot is sent out of SodomThe Lord rains brimstone and fire upon Sodom and GomorrahLots daughters preserve his seed in the land.
When these three messengers arrived in Sodom, they met Lot, Abrahams nephew. For reasons that are not clear, Lot had moved his family from living near Sodom to living in Sodom . In the last lesson, you learned about the great wickedness that existed in Sodom and the Lords decision to destroy the city .
There are two indications in the scriptures that the phrase looked back was an idiomatic way of saying she turned back or returned to Sodom. The implication is that Lots wife started back to Sodom, perhaps to save some possessions, and was caught in the destruction.
Most scholars agree that the most probable site of Sodom is now covered by the southern part of the Dead Sea, a body of water with a high salt content. If Lots wife returned to Sodom, she would have been caught in the destruction. Her becoming a pillar of salt could be a figurative way of expressing this outcome.
- Display a picture of the Savior, and ask the children to take a step toward it as they share one thing they can do to flee wickedness and come closer to Christ.
Avoiding temptation is easier than resisting it.
Song: Keep the Commandments
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History Of Sodom And Gomorrah
The story tells that Lot and his family lived at the gates of the city of Sodom, ever since his uncle Abraham rescued him from the city of Dan.
Initially, Lot had the mission of promoting the conversion of the city, since both Sodom and Gomorrah had a reputation for being cities dominated by sin. According to Genesis, the cries reached the ears of God, who decides to destroy these cities.
Abraham receives an unexpected visit from three men, whom he attends with absolute reverence. These express God’s decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham intercedes for the righteousness of the city and asks for mercy in his name since Lot and his family are there. One of them promises to be pious, as long as he finds at least ten righteous men.
Two of the three visitors depart for Sodom and present themselves as heavenly beings to Lot, who hosts them. As soon as the Sodomites find out, they flock to the door of the house demanding that Lot hand them over for sexual abuse. In order to dissuade them, Lot offers them his daughters instead of the men, but they do not agree.
The two angels understand that there is no righteous man between them and decide to carry out the planned plan, but not before allowing Lot and his family to flee to a nearby town. Finally, a rain of brimstone falls on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning both cities to the ground. On the way, Lot’s wife turns backward and is transformed into a pillar of salt.
Sodom And Gomorrah Destroyed
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.2 My lords, he said, please turn aside to your servants house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.
No, they answered, we will spend the night in the square.
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodomboth young and oldsurrounded the house.5 They called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him7 and said, No, my friends. Dont do this wicked thing.8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But dont do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.
9 Get out of our way, they replied. This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! Well treat you worse than them. They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
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What About Ezekiel 1: 49
Now it must be admitted that homosexual behavior was only the outward manifestation of their true sin. They were a prideful people and delighted in cruelty and neglected any form of social justice. While this latter sin is mentioned in the second half of Ezekiel 16:49, it is not the primary sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even in that passage, inhospitality is ranked behind prideindeed, inhospitality is only a subset of the greater sin of hating our neighbor. Seeing a neighbor in need and having the ability to help with that need and refusing to do so is showing malicious hatred . All of these are manifestations of pride itself. This is alluded to in comparisons with Israel when it was deep in sin.
New Evidence For The Destruction Of Sodom
On September 20, 2021, the open access journal Scientific Reports published a paper by a team of twenty-one scientists led by Ted Bunch of Northern Arizona University. The paper is entitled A Tunguska Sized Airburst Destroyed Tall elHammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. Tunguska in Siberia is where, in 1908, a massive blast flattened some 2000 square kilometers of uninhabited forest. No crater was discovered, so scientists explain the strange phenomenon as the result of a meteor explosion some 5-10 km above land.
Tall al-Hammam, the subject of the above paper, is a large city-mound on the eastern side of the southern Jordan Valley in the modern state of Jordan. Bunch and his coauthors make the case that the ancient town was destroyed in a cosmic airburst above the northern basin of the Dead Sea.
Intriguingly, the paper cites the Bible as possibly containing a written record of the destruction: We consider whether oral traditions about the destruction of this urban city by a cosmic object might be the source of the written version of Sodom in Genesis. This sensational proposal tying cosmic science to biblical history led to the paper being widely featured and discussed across many media outlets.
According to the biblical narrative of Abrahams life-story, God destroyed Sodom and three neighboring towns in a fiery cataclysm because of their godless lifestyle .
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Abraham Obeyed The Lord
Abraham is commanded to sacrifice Isaac, his sonBoth father and son yield to the will of GodAbrahams seed will be as the stars and the sand in numberIn his seed, all nations will be blessedRebekah is born to Bethuel.
Come, Follow MeFor Primary: Old Testament 2022 Genesis 1823 As you teach about Abrahams willingness to sacrifice Isaac, be sensitive to the feelings of the children. Use this story to help the children strengthen their love and appreciation for the Saviors sacrifice.
- Show the video For God So Loved the World , or sing together a song about the Saviors sacrifice, such as He Sent His Son . Invite the children to talk about how Jesuss sacrifice shows Heavenly Fathers love for us. What can we learn about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ from the accounts of Abraham and Isaac and of the Crucifixion? What similarities do you find?
What have we been asked to sacrifice as a family? How have these sacrifices brought us closer to God?
Lot And His Daughters
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us childrenas is the custom all over the earth.32 Lets get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I slept with my father. Lets get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lots daughters became pregnant by their father.37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab he is the father of the Moabites of today.38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
Footnotes
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Biblical Archeology: Sodom And Gomorrah
Does archeological data support the Biblical story?
The Torah tells us the story of the rise and downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah. To the non-believer, the Biblical story seems so incredible that it must be relegated to the realm of myth and fantasy. The 20th-century German Bible critic, Theodor Noldeke asserted that “The whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah is unhistorical and comparatively late in origin.” J. Maxwell Miller of Emory University boldly claims, “These narratives of Sodom and Gomorrah are purely products of the storyteller’s art, which of course raises serious questions about their usefulness for historical reconstruction.” John H. Hayes, a colleague of the aforementioned J. Maxwell Miller, confirms Professor Miller’s belief. Are the assertions of these skeptics based on facts or are they merely the distorted opinions of non-believers? Let us examine the facts of the case and see for ourselves.
In fact, as incredible as it may seem, the two places are one and the same. We call the area Sodom-Gomorrah. The very names of these two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, are associated with sin and debauchery. Sodom has become a synonym for perversion. The first description of the desolate territory is the area once inhabited by the wealthy, aristocratic Sodomites as it appears today. The second description is the way it appeared earlier, at its Patriarchal Era zenith as depicted in the Talmud and the Midrash
The Five Cities of the Plain
Fire and Brimstone
The Lord Keeps His Promises Even When They Seem Impossible
Come, Follow MeFor Primary: Old Testament 2022 Genesis 1823 Even though God had promised that Sarah and Abraham were going to have a son, as they got older it seemed impossibleAbraham was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 . How can you use this story to help the children have faith that God will always keep His promises?
Younger Kids
- Summarize Gods promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child and the fulfillment of this promise . Or invite a couple in the ward to dress up as Abraham and Sarah and tell their story. Help the children understand that Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children. Ask them the question from Genesis 18:14, Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Testify that the Lord can fulfill His promises, even if they seem impossible.
Older kids:
Write on the chalkboard: Is anything too hard for the Lord? Invite the children to discuss this question. Or write each word from the first sentence of Genesis 18:14 on a separate piece of paper, and give one to each child. Then ask the class to put the words in the correct order. Read Genesis 18:914 21:17 with the children to find one example from the lives of Sarah and Abraham when the Lord did something that seemed impossible. What can we learn from the experience of Sarah and Abraham that can encourage us to trust Gods promises?
Abraham and Sarah had a baby boy, just as the Lord promised. They named him Isaac. Genesis 17:9 21:13
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