Vile Affections
Albert E. Farley
The Associated Press reported on May 16 that on Thursday, May 15, “California’s Supreme Court declared gay couples in the nation’s biggest state can marry …” The news was greeted with great joy in San Francisco with hugs, kisses, and tears. One man in the center of the gay community was quoted as saying, “I’ve been waiting for this all my life …” Massachusetts, the only other state to legalize gay marriage, did so in 2004. California, however, is a much larger state – with 38 million people. San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, was quoted by Newsweek as saying, “As California goes, so goes the nation. Whether you like it or not.” (May 26, 2008) God does not like it and has registered His opposition to it.
All peoples who have a knowledge and a love of the Bible, the Holy Word of God, do not like it because it is in total and absolute opposition to all that is pure and true. David said, more than one thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way,” and, “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.” Psalm 119:104, 128.
When the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, revealed the downward spiral of the human race into the depths of ungodliness and unrighteousness. Romans 1:15-32. In the beginning, God created man in His own image – after His own likeness – and He saw it was very good. Genesis 1:26-31. Because it was not good for the man to be alone, the Lord made a helper for man who was perfectly suitable for him in every way. With a bone from Adam’s side, God made woman. Adam said she was called woman because she was taken out of man. 2:18-25. Later, Jesus said, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave (be joined) to his wife: and they twain (two) shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Matthew 19:1-6.
God made mankind upright, but they sought many inventions. Ecclesiastes 7:29. The wickedness of man became so great in the days of Noah – every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually – that God destroyed all but eight souls. Genesis 6:5-7. After the flood, and as the population of the world began to increase, wickedness increased. The Lord rained brimstone and fire upon the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all of the cities of the plain because of the unnatural, homosexual sin of sodomy. Genesis 19. The Law of Moses strongly condemned homosexual acts. Leviticus 18:22. The penalty was death. 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, 15:12, 22:46, 2 Kings 23:7.
One of the plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court case was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “Essentially, this boils down to love. We love each other …” I do not doubt they love each other, but not all love is pure. 1 John 2:15-17. In Romans, chapter 1, Paul described vile affections. He wrote, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools … Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves … For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly (committing what is shameful), and receiving in themselves that recompense (the penalty) of their error which was meet (due) … Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” 22-32.
Will the United States of America follow the lead of California or of God? –Editor.