My response to Mark Achtemeier’s eisḗgesis about Anti gay scriptures from his book ‘The Bibles yes to same sex marriage’
Started: September 2014
Finished: Feb 2015
After reading Mr. Achtemeiers book ‘the bibles yes to same sex marriage’ during Sept 2014, I found the following subjects that I wanted to dig deeper into in order to provide some type of helpful answers to any fellow Christians who are confused on why God would support gay rights / same sex marriage?
As most Christians know Mr. Achtemeiers book and articles are heavily liberalized eisḗgesis on why he thinks / claims gay Christians should be allowed to get married and continue within the confines of the Christian church.
But such claims are not based on the teachings of Jesus or the Disciples but are merely the teachings of flawed men.
There are two groups of subjects I want to discuss from his book.
1 ‘5 Principles: Pages 29-41’ how he interpreted the Scriptures turning them into gay friendly nonsense.
2 7 ‘fragment Scriptures’ of anti gay texts…
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Subject #1:
Mr. Achtemier uses the following ‘5 Principles’ as a way to explain his eisḗgesis
“Principle 1: Coherent, good sense”
“Principle 2: Christ centered Interpretation Pages 37-41”
“Principle 3:Interpreting Scripture by Scripture Pages38-39”
“Principle 4: Interpreting passages in context Pages 39-40”
“Principle 5: Understanding the purpose of the lawgiver”
Here is where he goes wrong. God left behind specific moral codes for his followers to use as a guide on what He, God wants. To simply make up your own rules in order to follow a modern movement is not only irresponsible, immoral and UnGodly.
Fortunately Fellow Christians look at the Bible and recognize that Achtemeier’s philosophy doesn’t match up with ancient or modern teaching about Biblical study…
Online Examples of Biblical study and exegesis, eisegesis:
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“Why is it important to study the Bible in context?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/context-Bible.html
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“Can / Should we interpret the Bible as literal?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-literal.html
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“Why is it important to study the Bible in context?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/context-Bible.html
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“What is the difference between exegesis and eisegesis?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html
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“What is the proper way to study the Bible?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/study-the-Bible.html
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“What is good Biblical exegesis?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/Biblical-exegesis.html
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Subject #2:
As promised here is my response to his so called ‘fragment’ Scriptures he discusses in his book ‘ The Bibles yes to same sex marriage’.
He lists the following Scriptures from both the Torah and New Testament:
Torah:
Genesis 19:1-29
Judges 19:1-30
Leviticus 18:22 / 20:3
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New Testament:
Jude 5-7
Romans 1:18-27
1 Corinthians 6:9-17
1 Timothy 1:10
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Are these lists of Scriptures ‘anti-gay’? After all shouldn’t such a claim be backed up with Scriptures and other evidence that gay men, lesbians and others are a separate gender group or some type of ethnic group?
In reality there is no word or group that is called ‘gay’ in the Bible. Gays are not mentioned as a gender, race or ethnic group separate from anyone else.
But such trivial matters are ignored by the author of that book.
Interestingly enough he neglected to mention the many finds that are against sodomites & sodom in the many study Bibles and Strong’s exhaustive concordance of the Bible.
Within Strong’s itself are lists under the words.
sodom
sodoma
sodomites
Of Scriptures in which are all negative references to those types of sexual sins, places or persons.
Let’s start with:
Genesis.
Sodom is described as a city of individuals who like to sodomize each other. The entire ugly story is found in Genesis 18:16-33 and ends in Chapter 19:1-29 where Angels from God destroy that area and those inhabitance.
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Judges 19:1-30, 20:1-48, 21:1-25
The Horrific story of the ‘Levite’ and his ‘legal partner’ who under modern language would be his mistress or ‘girlfriend’. Within the story is the idea that the men of the village would forcibly remove the Levite to gang rape him for whatever perverted reason. Instead of that happening the Levite cowardly tosses out his lover to the gang of thugs who rape her till morning. Due to the abuse she dies. As revenge he cuts up her body and sends it off to the 11 Israeli tribes and war erupts almost destroying the tribe the criminals were associated with. In order to bring peace into their lawless lands the other Israeli tribes bring their daughters to the remaining men of the tribe of Benjamin as wives.
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Leviticus 18:22-30, 20:13, (20:15-16) Jewish Theocratic Laws dealing with multiple sexual fornications.
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Jude 4-8
A short letter written by Jude a brother of Jesus who was addressing gnosticism during the early church along with addressing the various sexual fornications
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Romans 1:18-32
Christian Doctrine authored by Paul. Romans 1:18 is a listing of sins and activities that existed during his life but also a listing of sins and activities happening right now in this modern world.
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1 Corinthians 6:9-20 Pauls lists of sins that exclude people from Gods kingdom. Instructions to flee sexual fornication for all Christians.
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1 Timothy 1:10
Pauls letter to Timothy with instructions on dealing with false teachers, sins and more. The entire subject is revealed in 1 Timothy 1:3-11.
Other Scriptures which are ‘anti-gay’ that he neglected to mention.
Deuteronomy 23:1-18
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Revelations 21:8-27
In my studies in the Gospels Jesus never mentioned gay men or lesbian women because such persons were either secret sinners within the Jewish tribes or simply Roman, Greek or other types of pagans.
Also there is no real archeological or historical reference that gay men, lesbian women and other lgbt cultists were EVER a separate gender, civilization and so to include or exclude such individuals within civilization, society, religion and other systems of life remains unnecessary.
What is my point to all this?
Both Jesus and the Disciples never had to deal with modern gays and their supporters as we do now. So the idea of gay men & lesbians and other fetishists as a third gender or whatever would not have existed during their lives.
More importantly the many sins described in all of these Scriptures paint a ugly picture of the civilizations and sexual activities that existed long before the 21st Century.
I find the necessity to make gays, lesbians and other fetishists a protected class unneeded and unwanted. IF they want to be Christian than it is they the individual that has to stop their fornications and adhere to Jesus teaching instead of participating in those sins and claiming that God somehow blesses their choices, decisions and sins.
To conclude.
God DOES want gay men, lesbians and others to be with him. But only those who repent of their fornications and sins and to place their trust in HIS Teaching rejecting the progay propaganda that oozes out of the internet not because of Christian doctrine but because of men’s folly.
Galatians 1:1-12
Colossians 2:8
Notes:
“What does the Bible say about being a lesbian? Does the Bible mention lesbianism?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-lesbian.html
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“What does the Bible say about Sodomy?”
http://www.biblestudy.org/question/is-sodomy-permitted-in-bible.html
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“Is homosexuality a sin?”
http://www.blogos.org/gotquestions/homosexuality-sin.html
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“What’s wrong with being gay? Homosexual behavior versus the Bible”
The_Skeptical_Christian 