The heading in this blog entry is a quotation from Russell D. Moore, President of The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He is referring to the just released book by Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? I have been teaching and preaching the Bible for about forty years. In most of those years I never preached on the subject of homosexuality, and indeed rarely mentioned the subject unless it turned up in passing as I read a passage of scripture. But all that has changed now. With major denominations drifting over to cultural conformity, with professing Christians advocating not just the tolerance of homosexual behavior, but the celebration of homosexual coupling, we who love the word of God and are committed to faithful witness in the world can no longer keep silent. Kevin DeYoung has done the churches who belong to Jesus the Christ a great service by writing this book. It is a clear and concise (150 pages) statement in defense of the traditional Christian understanding of sexuality and marriage, well documented and compassionately stated.

The Christian reader of this book will not only become well informed about the biblical teachings concerning homosexuality, but also learn a great deal by example about how to faithfully approach the interpretation of texts in the Bible. They will see a fine example of biblical study in the best historic tradition of hermeneutics (the science of interpretation). They will also see why the biblical call to holiness as well as love is indispensable. DeYoung first surveys the five major statements about sexuality from Genesis forward, and then offers responses to the standard objections and alternative claims coming from those who wish to overthrow the biblical standards. All of this is done with care, compassion and intellectual honesty. I highly recommend this book to all who are willing to honestly listen to biblical teaching and who care about the future of the churches of Christ!

DeYoung, Kevin. What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015.

Current Hollywood trends exhibit for us the state of sexuality in America today. We have arrived at the place where the only sexual appetite generally condemned by the public is the appetite of the pedophile. All else is excused and even celebrated. This poses a crisis for Christianity because, as C. S. Lewis long ago observed, either Christianity is wrong or current sexual mores are wrong. We cannot have it both ways.

These social-moral changes have been in the works for decades with respect to heterosexual behavior, but are now expanded to include all that the LGBT communities are fighting for. If this trajectory continues the time will come when so-called “open marriages” involving any kind of mixture of partners will be celebrated. Already it is clear that the larger culture gives no consideration to the historic Judeo-Christian view of marriage as that which was created and defined by God. Even many who profess to be Christians show little to no evidence that they are seriously guided by biblical teachings.