By Clete Hux –
“The Unnatural Worldview of Homosexuality”
Introduction: It has been said that, “In the beginning God created man in His image and ever since man has attempted to return the favor!” Although this saying is used often in the sense of man making himself out to be God, it also speaks of man’s rejection of God and His order in creation. All people have a worldview. It is the lens through which they interpret life’s issues. Life is practiced because of worldview. That is, people live life according to how they see things. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul speaks of two very different worldviews that are diametrically opposed to one another. One is true and one is false. One is biblical and the other is unbiblical. There is one that is true to God’s designed intention. The other one is not.
Monotheism
A biblical cosmology is not just theistic, but specifically one which is clearly monotheistic (belief in one God). “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). This worldview has a clear Creator/ creation distinction. He is separate from His creation. This separation of God from creation is important to our understanding as it should be quite clear that God is not creation and creation is not God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Scripture says that the heavens declare the handiwork of God. (Ps. 19:1) Also, it says, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. (Ps. 8:1)
Human beings innately or naturally know there is a Creator God which scriptures declare. Paul speaks of this – that people know there is a God through conscience, “…evidence in them because He showed it to them…”(Rom.1:19). Anthropology has yet to discover a people group that has not exhibited a sense of moral law. For example, a head hunter hunts heads, but resents his own head being hunted or a pick pocket picks pockets, but resents his own pocket being picked. Each suppresses the truth in his unrighteousness in that he recognizes God’s moral law when he is wronged but excuses his own immoral behavior.1
Also, we know that God exists through creation. His divine attributes are seen in what has been made (Rom 1:20). Cosmological evidence shows that every created thing was caused by God. Teleologically, every created thing has a purposeful order.
Mankind derives personal identity from this personal God. “In Him we live and move and have our very existence” (Acts 17:28). We are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26). In this image, Adam and Eve were made male and female, respectively, as two distinct persons each having different yet complementary genders, i.e. “…male and female, made He them” (Gen. 1:27) This is God’s intended design. His order for human sexuality is such that the opposite sex is naturally attracted to the other. Our Lord affirmed this order when he said, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let not man separate.” (Matt. 19:4-6).
Monism
Against the biblical cosmology Paul presents another worldview. It rejects the idea that God has made Himself known in Creation, being a reaction to and rejection of Him and His order in creation. Also, evident is the rejection of God giving an order to proper sexual behavior.
This worldview is essentially monistic (the idea that all is one). It denies the Creator/creature distinction. When a relationship to the Creator is denied, all that is left is a relationship to creation.
One would think this rejection to be atheistic. It is not true atheism, however, because from a biblical perspective, there are no true atheists. Someone has written a book about this called Does God believe in Atheists?2 The truth is people are created in the image of God for worship and they will worship.
Paul says they “…exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man…”(Rom. 1:23). Exchanging the truth of God for a lie results in worshipping the creation rather than the Creator. (Rom. 1:25).
This monistic worldview is also a pagan one that does not necessarily deny that there is divinity. It simply turns the creative order upside down. Not only is the one personal Creator denied rightful worship, He is stripped of His divinity. That divinity is applied to creation itself. This is Pantheism (all is God) and characterizes the Eastern Mystical worldview. Many Neo-pagan groups, such as Wicca, emphasize this oneness with the divine.3
The influence of paganistic oneness or a distinctionless worldview in post-modern culture is evident. Remember when the Beatles said, “I am thee, thee is me, and I am the Walrus!” John Lennon sang, “Imagine . . . and the world will live as one!”
We see this monistic reaction to distinction in a number of ways. Some of these would include moral relativism (no moral absolutes), political correctness, religious pluralism (all, not just one, religions lead to God), eastern mysticism (Hinduism & Taoism), Yin/Yang, Yoga, and of course homosexuality and gender confusion.
Having abandoned God and His created order, God then abandons them to homosexuality as an evidence of His judgment. Homosexuality and gender distortion is a reversal of the natural created order of the binary distinction of male and female.
Paul appealed to the natural order in creation as a basis for condemning homosexual behavior. His argument from Romans 1 is that just as people naturally know God, as creation demonstrates His existence; people naturally know appropriate sexual practice because of how the physical body is made. That which is natural is observable in creation.
Also, the monistic pagan worldview not only distorts gender distinctions, it confuses them as well. It has been said that the goal of paganism is the conjunction of opposites.4 This makes homosexuality appear to be natural within that worldview.
Typical of pagan sexuality, the concept of Yin/Yang is often used to represent such synthesis and conjunction of opposites. It was chosen by SIECUS (Sex Information and Education Council of the United States) as its official symbol to promote comprehensive sex education. 5 Speaking of Yin/Yang, one pagan website article, Putting Yin in your Yang says, “This alternating pattern of male/female lives ensures that the soul gains sufficient experience in both forms in order to accumulate the wisdom from each experience. In this way the most raging chauvinist would reincarnate as the most radical feminist until finally the masculine and feminine energies begin to balance out.”
“So we should be careful not to pigeonhole these energetic states because that’s what gets us into trouble in the first place. These energies (including the classifications of gay, straight, male, female, lesbian, bisexual, masculine, feminine) all exist on their own continuum. So when we refer to these states we are pointing to a position on that continuum. Very rarely is anyone 100% masculine or feminine or gay or straight, despite claims otherwise. We all hold a particular percentage of these energies unique to our particular incarnation, so you could be 63 % feminine and 37% masculine, or vice versa.”6
Conclusion
Proponents of the Yin/Yang sexuality as the creative life principle argue that we are really androgynous beings. “Every person is at his or her core androgyny predisposed, because we all must learn how to perfectly express male and female. . . Thus we see that we are permeated, to our deepest essence, with Yin and Yang so that we will eventually learn to master both aspects . . . so we change the sex of our physical body throughout our various earthly existences. . . This is natural homosexuality . . .”7
Natural as it may seem to those who hold a naturalistic worldview, the Yin/Yang principle, expressive of homosexuality, is antithetical to God and is His created order of sexuality as laid out in scripture. As Christians, we can only reverse this upside down worldview as we model and practice life as God intended. Anything less is destructive to human dignity as human beings made in His image.
Footnotes
1. Hux, Clete. “What about those who have never heard?” Areopagus Journal Volume 1, Number 3 July 2001.
2. Blanchard, John. Does God Believe in Atheists? EP Books USA ISBN 9780852347157
3. https://www.Wiccan.com/celtic/wicca/wicca.htm
4. Jones, Peter. “Forms of Paganism” (Escandido, CA: Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, think-tank,2007)
5. Chambers, Claire. The SIECUS CIRCLE. Western Island Publishers. Belmont, Massachusetts, 1977.
6. https://www.insightfulinnovations.com/zykrblog/put-some-yin-in-your-yang
7. https://www.facts-are-facts.com/magazin/5_natural_law_of_yin_yang.ihtml
Recommended Reading
Schumacher, Robin. Does Romans 1 Condemn Homosexuality? https://carm.org/does-romans-1-condemn-homosexuality
Apologetics Resource Center, Worldviews Newsletter, Fall 2013 and Spring 2014
Kjos, Bert. Sex Ed and Global Values. https://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/sexed9-98.html
Jones, Dr. Peter. Evangelicalism in Crisis? https://theaquilareport.com/evangelicalism-in-crisis/
Wegter, Jay. Biblical Cosmology and the Christian Response to Neo-Paganism.
https://gospelforlife.org/articles/2012/4/23/biblical-cosmology-and-the-christian-response-to-neo-paganis.html
Allen, Jeff. The Apostle Paul and Homosexuality – Answering Homosexual Objections (Part 1) https://barbwire.com/2014/05/22/unfinished-apostle-paul-homosexuality-answering-homosexual-objections/
Allen, Jeff. The Apostle Paul and Homosexuality – Answering Homosexual Objections (Part 2) https://barbwire.com/2014/06/02/apostle-paul-homosexuality-answering-homosexual-objections-part-2/
Penna, Romano. Christian Anthropology and Homosexuality. https://www.ewtn.com/library/HUMANITY/homo4.htm
Jones, Peter. “Framing the Issues; Finding our Voices” (Escondido, CA. Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, think-tech, 2007)
Cowan, Steven and Craig Branch. Abandoning Nature. Areopagus Journal: Volume 5 Number 5 September – October 2005
Cowan, Steven and Craig Branch. Calling Evil Good. Areopagus Journal: Volume 1 Number 4 October-November 2001
Cowan, Steven and Craig Branch. Stewardship of the Earth. Areopagus Journal: Volume 7 Number 1 January-February 2007
Cowan, Steven and Craig Branch. Engaging the New Age. Areopagus Journal: Volume 6 Number 4 July-August 2006
Cowan, Steven and Craig Branch. Eastern Religions. Areopagus Journal : Volume 9 Number 3 May-June 2009