A commentary by Melvin
Rhodes
Posted July 9, 2003
Sodomy is now legal all over America, following a decision of the
U.S. Supreme Court that struck down anti-sodomy laws in 13 states. Other states
had already changed laws that went back centuries...
Sodomy is defined in Webster’s
New Collegiate Dictionary as "carnal copulation in any of certain
unnatural ways." Clarke’s Standard Reference Dictionary (UK, 1982)
defines it as "any sexual intercourse held to be abnormal, as between a
person and an animal or between two persons of the same sex."
When most people think of
sodomy, they think of sexual acts between people of the same sex, but the legal
definition is clearly broader than that. The Bible also shows us that the sins
of Sodom were many. The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel described them as
"pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she
strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed
abomination before Me . . ." (Ezekiel:16:49-50 [49] Behold,
this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and
abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she
strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
[50] And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
). Certainly, sexual sins were included among these.
[50] And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
). Certainly, sexual sins were included among these.
The word sodomy
comes from the biblical city of Sodom, notorious for its vice and corruption.
Sodom, along with its sister city Gomorrah, were destroyed by God because of
the sinfulness of its people.
You can read an account of
the circumstances that led up to this destruction in Genesis 18 and 19.
When Abraham realized that
God had determined to destroy the twin cities "because their sin [was]
very grave" (Genesis:18:20And the LORD
said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is
very grievous;), he appealed on their behalf, bargaining with God's
messengers. He asked: "Would You also destroy the righteous with the
wicked?" (verse 23). "Suppose there were fifty righteous within the
city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous
that were in it?" Abraham was assured that if there were 50 righteous left
in the city, the city would be spared.
On second thoughts, Abraham
realized that there might not be 50 righteous inhabitants left, so he asked
again, this time wondering if the city would be spared if only 45 God-fearing
citizens remained. He was assured the city would be spared. Eventually Abraham
got down to 10. And the Lord said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of
ten" (verse 32).
In the next chapter we see
the cities destroyed. Clearly, there were not even 10 righteous people left.
The incident that preceded
the final destruction of Sodom involved homosexual rape. When the two
messengers from God were staying with Lot, "the men of the city, the men
of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the
house. And they called to [Abraham's nephew] Lot and said to him, 'Where are
the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them
carnally [sexually]". Rebutted, the men "pressed hard against the man
Lot, and came near to break down the door" (verses 4-9).
Immediately
after this incident, God took action to destroy the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah (read the rest of the chapter). After witnessing their sin for a very
long time, His patience had run out and He chose to remove them from the face
of the earth.
Could
the same fate befall the United States of America?
Since
the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s, America and other Western
nations have progressively moved further and further away from God and His
standards of morality as defined in His Word, the Bible.
The
sexual reforms of the '60s and subsequent decades have contributed greatly to
the breakdown of the family, the increased spread of sexually transmitted
diseases, millions of HIV/AIDS infections, an epidemic of drug-taking and
increased crime and violence. Despite this fact, the greatest legal authorities
in the land have reacted with yet another "reform" that takes the
country further away from God’s laws for mankind.
As with Sodom and
Gomorrah, when will God pull the plug on our immoral society?
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