Leviticus 18, 20: Holy Sex

Introduction: Play Jed Bartlett’s Slapdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXJzybEeJM

Well, that is what we face, friends. We fundamentalist bible believers are the ignorant, immoral ones now. Jed Bartlett’s famous slap down was cheered, and even copied, by our world. Life imitates art. And the liberal minded left-wing think, ‘Let’s beat these ignorant fundamentalist bible bashers at their own game’. Let’s quote the bible back at them better than them. Let’s leave them looking as stupid as they really are.

Jed Bartlett’s argument is a reductio ad absurdum.[1] Such an argument reveals an unstated premise, and shows it is absurd.

Premise 1 is: The Old Testament Law says a man having sex with a man is detestable (Leviticus 18:22).

Premise 2 is a hidden premise. It is unstated, but essential to the argument. The Old Testament Law is authoritative and the word of God and should be applied today. It is an unstated premise, but it is a premise none the less. Therefore, the conclusion is that Dr Jacobs draws is that homosexuality is an abomination.

The reductio ad absurdum attacks the unspoken premise. That is, if you believe that the Old Testament is authoritative and the word of God, you should be consistent. You should not pick and choose which bit you like and which bit you don’t like. So if you want to apply that Old Testament law, about homosexuals, you should also kill Leo McGarry for Sabbath breaking, and sell Jed Bartlett’s daughter, stone his brother, and burn his mother, as well as call homosexuality an abomination.

And the inference Bartlett wants us to draw is all of those laws are unjust. They are ignorant, and we are either thoughtless or bigoted to apply them. And if they were all unjust, they are not from God, for God only does justice. Therefore we need not believe or apply the Old Testament Law or quote it in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Now the last two arguments President Bartlett used misrepresented Leviticus: President Bartlett said: ‘Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side. Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing a garment made of two different threads’.

Now, just to clarify, Leviticus or Exodus doesn’t actually say you should burn or stone someone who breaks those commands. So Bartlett misrepresented those laws, because the Old Testament had lots of punishments besides those two. Remember, it’s only rich countries that can have expensive prisons, but they are a bit too expensive for subsistence agriculture economies So the Old Testament law stipulated, for different sins, fines, restitution, sacrifices, banishment, flogging, in one case, amputation, eye for an eye, and for several sins, the death penalty. So Bartlett was poisoning the well about the Old Testament there. Here is what Leviticus chapter 19 verse 19 actually says.

"'Keep my decrees. "'Do not mate different kinds of animals. "'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. "'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material."' (NIV)

It doesn’t stipulate any punishment. It just says don’t do it.

But President Bartlett’s argument proves too much. And an argument that proves too much doesn’t prove anything. His argument, if it’s valid, actually should be applied to all of the Old Testament law. So turn with me to Leviticus 19:9 through to 19, and we will read those laws.

⁹ "'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. ¹¹ "'Do not steal. "'Do not lie. "'Do not deceive one another. ¹² "'Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. ¹³ "'Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. "'Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight. ¹⁴ "'Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD. ¹⁵ "'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ "'Do not go about spreading slander among your people. "'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD. ¹⁷ "'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. ¹⁸ "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. ¹⁹ "'Keep my decrees. "'Do not mate different kinds of animals. "'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. "'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. (Leviticus 19:9-19 NIV)

If President Bartlett is right, none of these commands are the word of God. None of them ever were. Loving your neighbor as yourself is a ‘Levitical Law’. Jesus merely highlighted it, and brought it to the surface as the second most important commandment. But it is from Leviticus. So should we ditch that, on the basis of President Bartlett’s withering critique?

A Christian must have Jesus’ view of the Old Testament law. When Jesus looked at the law, he said, ‘I came not to abolish the law, but fufill it’. And not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.’ But many Christians would rightly believe every verse in verses 9 to 18 has wisdom for the Christian. We sense that the law given to Israel contains something abiding, that it reflects God’s eternal will. The trouble is, what do we do with mating two different kinds of animal and planting your field with two different kinds of seed?

How do we distinguish the moral parts of the law from other parts of the law, that we might call the ceremonial, and the civil?

Unfortunately, the Old Testament Law doesn’t come to us with little footnotes saying, ‘this bit is ceremonial, this bit is civil, and this bit is moral.’

To work out how to apply the Old Testament Law, we need to do what has become known as a ‘biblical theology’ of each issue the law raises. You want to find out about work and slavery, you need to do a biblical theology of slavery and work. You want to find out about marriage, you need to do a biblical theology of marriage. On every issue in the law, you need to do a biblical theology.

And to do a biblical theology of a topic, you need to look at 5 things in the bible. First, you need to look at the nature of the thing as God created it. How did God make it? What qualities did God endue the thing with? You can use a screwdriver to open a tin of paint, but that’s not the purpose for which it was made. What purpose did God have in mind when he made it? That’s the first question.

Then we need to look at the effect of the fall. Adam and Eve sinned, and we all now live in a sinful and broken world. How has this affected the good things God originally made? How do we therefore have to make allowances to redeem the good in God’s now broken creation.

Third, we have to look at how God expressed his will in his commands to Israel. God established a Kingdom on earth, in the nation Israel. That Kingdom failed, of course, because of human sin. And God knew that, and at one level indeed intended that. But in his laws and commands to Israel, he does reveal his unchanging will, expressed in commands made to a particular people in a particular time. Jesus said, ‘Salvation is from the Jews’. Jesus said that the law to Israel would not disappear until everything was accomplished. So as Christians, believers in Jesus, we need to attend to the Old Testament Law.

Fourth, Jesus reconstituted the people of God. That’s why he chose 12 apostles, matching the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent them into all the world to teach the nations. Jesus is the Servant promised in Isaiah, who will not only return and restore Jews, but also the nations and distant Islands of the Gentiles will put their hope in him. Christ just did not come for the Jews, but ‘God so loved the World’. What difference does Christ’s coming make to Jew and Gentile?

And last, fifth, where is the world heading? Because of sin, our world is broken. But God, in both Old and New Testament, has promised to make a new heaven and a new earth. He has promised to restore the created order. So how does the purpose of God for the new creation, where we are going, affect the way we look at a particular topic? What difference will the new heaven and new earth bring?

Nature in creation, Purpose for New Creation, Effect of the fall, God’s will for Israel, Jesus teaching through the Apostles for the world.

For anything to be called ‘Biblical’, we need to have looked at all of those things and taken them into account. And when you do that, your outcome pretty much ends up being this. You end up with three piles. Things that still apply directly. That’s one pile. We can call them ‘moral’. They reflect God’s eternal and unchanging moral will.

And in the other two piles are things that don’t directly apply, but indirectly teach us. The first of these piles are the things that were valid for Israel as a nation as a subsistence agriculture economy. These are Israel’s civil and criminal laws. We can learn much from them, but the New Testament makes it clear these don’t continue to apply.

And there are the ritual or ceremonial aspects of the law. And they teach us too. But they were the shadow, and Jesus is the reality. But with Jesus coming, we have the reality. So we don’t need to keep doing the shadowy figures. Just like at College of Law, we had a pretend bank and pretend trust accounts and pretend clients, and pretend money. But when you graduate, and become a solicitor, you have a real trust account and real clients and real money. And you don’t keep maintaining your pretend accounts anymore.

So once you do a biblical theology of any given issue, you find a three-fold division of the Old Testament law. You find the civil, the ceremonial, and the moral.

Here is how the Anglican church historically has summarized the matter.

Article VII, that is, Article 7. On page 88 of our White Prayer Books. Of the Old Testament. Look at the last sentence. Back to Article VII. Last sentence.

‘Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral.’

You see here a threefold division, the Ceremonial, the Civil, and the Moral.

And at the end of that ‘biblical theological’ process I’ve described, once you’ve looked at the whole bible, from creation to new creation, you are ready to say what the bible teaches and how to apply it today on a particular topic. And as you run the Old Testament laws through the New Testament, you will find that you will lay your conclusions into three piles. You will say, these parts of the Old Testament law were ceremonial, these parts were civil, and these parts were moral. All of it points to Christ, but some of it, the civil and ceremonial, we do not directly apply as Christians, although they have an indirect teaching purpose and validity for all time.

The Ceremonial doesn’t apply anymore, because it pointed to Christ, and Christ fulfilled it’s types and patterns. We no longer have animal sacrifice, because Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We no longer have a temple and a mountain to worship on, because Christ is the true temple, we are being built on Christ into a temple, and the Spirit goes every where he wants, so we worship in Spirit and Truth. So mountains don’t matter anymore. We no longer need priests, because Christ is our High Priest who is seated at the right hand of God, and each of us are priests, declaring God’s praise, and offering God the acceptable living sacrifices of our bodies and our praises. We no longer observe food laws, because Jesus said all food is clean, and these laws were given to keep Israel separate from the nations. Now the gospel is gone to all the world, and the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, have become one in Christ. We no longer observe Israel’s calendar anymore, because Christ is for all nations. And Christians become all things to all men, so that by all means we might save some. So the ceremonial doesn’t apply. It still is God’s word and teaches us many things, just like when I go to a Museum I learn many things about where I have come from. I see a typewriter and know where my computer keyboard came from. I see an old dial telephone with copper wires and analog radio and know where my mobile phone and broadband came from. I see a horse and cart and FJ Holden, and see where my Toyota Prado came from. And I look at the Old Testament Priests, and Sacrifices and Temple and Food laws and Calendar, and see what Christ came to do, and what he achieved. And I don’t seek to do what they did, because it was fulfilled by Christ.

The civil law doesn’t apply, either, because we are not ancient Israel. We no longer live in an agrarian, subsistence agriculture economy. We are a wealthy post-industrialisation economy. So we don’t have to impose the death penalty, though Israel was commanded to. We don’t have next of kin avenging blood, or the cities of refuge, because we have courts and police and prisons and the rule of law. We don’t have commandments about first fruits and tithes and not reaping to the very edges of your fields because we have taxes imposed by the nation state and a welfare safety net, albeit a shrinking one.

Mind you, the civil law has wisdom to tell us about how to run a society. Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy are God breathed and God’s word, even when we don’t apply them. They reveal God’s mind and God’s character, and can teach us important things about God’s world and God’s will. But God’s eternal character has a particular expression in the Old Testament as God’s will for an agrarian pre-industrial society.

What I do is I look at all of the bible. You do a biblical theology. And I will now show you how to do it using the example of sex. I look at God’s intention in creation. And I find that sex is about binding male and female together and ruling the earth. Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 to 28:

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. (NIV)

I go back to the beginning. And I see that God made male and female and told them to go forth and multiply. That is part of God’s blessing. That involves sex. And sex is good. Sex is about family, about children, about ruling the earth. You rule the earth through your kids.

Then I go to Genesis 2 and I find out that sex is about companionship, and not being alone. Genesis chapter 2 verses 18 to chapter 3 verse 1:

Verse 18:

¹⁸ The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (NIV)

And we discover that animals can’t meet that need. I’m glad you love your pets. But pets are no substitute for a spouse. So bestiality is out. Genesis 2:20:

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam {20 Or the man} no suitable helper was found. (NIV)

So Adam goes under general anesthetic, loses a rib, but gains a wife. And God brings her to the man and he says, chapter 2 verses 23 to 25:

²³ The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man." ²⁴ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. ²⁵ The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (NIV)

So why the woman? She is taken from him. So she is one with him. They are naked. Read between the lines, people. They are having sex. Verse 24, the man is glued to his wife. They become one flesh. That indicates sexual intercourse (see 1 Corinthians 5).

So sex is good, before the fall, it makes the man and the woman one flesh, it binds the two together, and it is for filling the earth. It is very good.

And then sin happens, Genesis chapter 3. And they pathetically clothe themselves with fig leaves. Not only is the man and woman’s relationship with God damaged. Their relationship with each other is damaged. Genesis 3:16 says the woman’s desire will be for her husband, and he will rule over her. We are promised marital disharmony and problems. That is why Paul warns those who marry that they will face many problems. Of course they will. Now, we have two sinners that we lock into marriage. Of course there will be pain, and sorrow, and death. But it is still not good for the man to be alone. And children are still a blessing. These things remain. But there are dangers.

And as the fall spreads, we see sin working it’s way into God’s world, wrecking God’s good creation. So the evil line of Cain introduces polygamy, through Lamech. Kings build harems. So the two become one becomes three, and six, and 25 become one flesh. And God’s will for sex is forgotten, so all kinds of wickedness enters in. Abraham then engages in concubinage. Sodom seeks to engage in homosexual rape of newcomers. And death comes in, so Abraham marries again. Judah engages in prostitution, in sex outside marriage. Dinah is raped. Jacob marries two sisters, whose sisterly relationship is then spoiled by competition and jealousy. Esau marries those who don’t worship God. And God’s people are in Egypt are surrounded by those who practice all kinds of things.

So then we turn to God’s revelation in the Old Testament law. And we see that God is attempting is to re-establish the creation pattern of sex, a man and a woman for life ot the exclusion of all others, on Israel, who has been influenced by all the sin that has crept into God’s world. Israel saw all sorts of perversions in Egypt, and they will see worse in Canaan. And Israel must live differently. So Leviticus chapter 18 verses 1 to 6:

The LORD said to Moses, ² "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. ³ You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. ⁴ You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. ⁵ Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD. ⁶ "'No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. (NIV)

Sex is the basis of family life. But sex can ruin family life. So incest is prohibited. Sex is not to be used to ruin relationships in extended families. Leviticus 18 verses 7 to 8:

"'Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. ⁸ "'Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father. (NIV)

And of course, that was the problem in the New Testament reading, 1 Corinthians 5. A man has his father’s wife. He is not to be killed, as Leviticus 20 says. Paul does not apply the letter of the Old Testament law. Rather, he is to be excommunicated, so that he might repent. And it is quite possible that the man did repent and was restored to the church. Leviticus 18 verses 9 to 11:

⁹ "'Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. ¹⁰ "'Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you. ¹¹ "'Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister. (NIV)

Now, Abraham actually married his half sister. But presumably that was acceptable, because it happened in an earlier period. The fact is, if we came from Adam, early on brothers and sisters must have married. Otherwise, we could not be a united human race. However, by the time Israel was a nation, God instituted a rule against marrying close relatives. This again was to protect family life, to de-sexualise sibling relationships. And we think that is quite normal. If Jed Bartlett is right, of course, we should ditch this. There should be no problem marrying a sister, or a father or a mother, an aunt or an uncle. Indeed, when Quentin Bryce gets up in her Boyer Lecture for the ABC and says she wants an Australia where boys and girls can love and marry whoever they choose, then Mrs Bryce shouldn’t mind a father marrying an adult daughter. After all, if they love and care for each other, who are you and I to say that they shouldn’t marry? Or so what if a brother or a sister marry? Who are we to say what is right and wrong? If they are adults and all you need is love, let them get married. So according to Governor General Bryce’s proposition, our laws about incest are wrong. They should be changed.

Now Mrs Bryce probably didn’t mean to speak about incest. She probably only meant to speak about Gay Marriage. But what’s good for the gander is good for the goose. Closing off sexual relationships with close relatives desexualized family life, but in the brave new world of sexual relations, there is no logical reason why these relationships shouldn’t be sexualized. After all, the God who de-sexualised sibling and parent relationships also allowed slavery and commanded death to Sabbath breakers. So our criminal laws about incest need to be changed, according to Jed Bartlett and Quentin Bryce. Leviticus chapter 18 verses 17 and 18:

¹⁷ "'Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness. ¹⁸ "'Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living. (NIV)

All Bible readers know that the reason for this law is exemplified by the painful relationship between Rachel and Leah, and their constant fighting, bickering, competition and jealousy. So God put a sensible rule in to allow sisterly relations to rule over sibling rivalry for a husband.

Again, there’s no reason to keep this law, if all you need is love and consent. The current ethic foisted on our society by the social revolutionaries is that, if you are over 18, and love, then you should be able to marry who you like, according to our former Governor General. So the famous Australian actor Jack Thompson entered a 15-year polyamorous relationship in the 1970s and 1980s with both Leona King and her sister Bunkie. Now Jack found, like Jacob did, that it doesn’t work. And one sister left. But who are you and I to impose our morality on them? http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1379785.htm

What’s wrong with them marrying each other, if they love each other and are over 18? Quentin Bryce should preside over their marriage. Leviticus 18 verse 19:

Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period. (NIV)

Now this appears to have been a law of mercy for a wife or concubine. She was given 7 days when she was protected from sexual advances for her monthy period. Now, Leviticus chapter 15 verse 24 acknowledges that accidents happen in marriage. And Leviticus 15 verse 24 provides that:

"'If a man lies with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean. So then the husband shares her uncleanness. But after 7 days he becomes clean again. (NIV)

Blood flows needed to be protected, so the law has a ritual aspect. Mercy and kindness need to be provided to wives and women during menstruation, so there is a moral aspect on men. Men must be self-controlled and not force themselves or pressure menstruating wives. And I think that kindness and protection for our wives is wisdom for us to listen to. I do not say it is a law. I have no New Testament text that says that. I do say it is wisdom that we ignore to our loss.

And there are harsh penalties in the law imposed on men who ignored this. Leviticus 20 verse 18:

If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people. (NIV)

This is probably a willful breach. And what is imposed is not the death penalty, but being cut off. It is not the death penalty, but he is to be cut off from the people. This seems to be a direct judgment whereby God directly kills the person, or perhaps is banished. Moving on, chapter 18 verse 20.

Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her. (NIV)

This is the seventh commandment of the decalog. The heart of the matter is the tenth commandment of the decalog. And adultery is still sin. Adultery is still adultery. When Jesus met the woman caught in adultery, he didn’t say, ‘Does he make you happy? Is it consensual? Do you love him? ‘Yeah, his wife must be a real pain in the neck to live with! You both deserve a little bit of happiness. You’re not hurting anyone else. Oh, I guess it’s OK, then, off you go.’

No Jesus says to those who want to condemn her, ‘Whichever of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone’. And then, when they all left, the oldest ones first, Jesus then said. ‘What! no one is left to condemn you. Neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin’. Jesus still calls the sin ‘sin’. He doesn’t overthrow God’s moral law. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, it was still sin. When the Corinthians had committed all manner of sexual sin, it was still sin. But it was forgiven sin. I believe in the forgiveness of sins. But that doesn’t mean we tolerate the sin and say it is not sin anymore. No, it is still sin, and the remedy is still repentance and forgiveness.

So then we come to the verse that caused President Bartlett so many problems. Leviticus chapter 18 verse 22:

Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. (NIV)

And when we get to Jesus this is what we see that he teaches about marriage. Matthew chapter 19 verses 4 to 6:

⁴ “Haven't you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the creator 'made them male and female' ⁵and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (NIV)

And so also Paul, the Apostle who Jesus handpicked and sent to the nations, says this about homosexuality.

Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV)

This is not the Old Testament. This is the New Testament. This is what Jesus’ chosen instrument to preach to the Gentiles says. Paul uses two words to describe male homosexual behaviour. The first word, ‘male prostitutes’, describes the one receiving the homosexual advance, literally, it means soft. the second word, ‘homosexual offenders’, refers to the more male-like partner, literally one who beds men.

And what God says to the homosexual sinner, he also says to the adulterer, the thief, the greedy, and the swindler. That is the way to go to hell. Dear friend, if you are caught in any of these sins, whether you are Christian or not. please come out from it. This is the one 'coming out' that Christ approves. There is a judgment to come. So come out of this lifestyle. And come to Christ

For there is also an encouragement. Now is the opportunity for forgiveness and change. Some of the Corinthians had lived out these things and worse: greed, sexual sin, idolatry, theft, slander, drunkardness, and their dodgy business practices.

But Jesus and the Spirit washed away their sins, including their homosexual sins. Jesus and the Spirit sanctified them. God took them as his own special people, despite what they had done. And worked in them to clean up their lives. And Jesus and the Spirit justified them. Jesus covered their sins with his death. The Spirit gave them faith to trust Christ.

Friends, God saves us. God is the one who saves us from all our sin, even our homosexual sin. This is what some of you were.

He who covers his sin does not prosper but the one that confesses and forsakes them finds mercy. Agree with God. Say that sin is sin, and enjoy the forgiveness that God gives to all who repent. Leviticus chapter 18 verse 23:

Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. (NIV)

Peter Singer, well known ethicist and atheist, has written in defence of bestiality. http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/heavy-petting-the-ethics-of-zoophilia-4852.html. Bestiality should not have the taboo that we say it does. And of course he is right, if there is no God. But if there is a God, we must obey God’s purpose in creation that ‘none of the animals were suitable for the man’. So God made a helper suitable for him. Leviticus 18 verse 24 to 30

²⁴ "'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. ²⁵ Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, ²⁷ for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ "'Everyone who does any of these detestable things-- such persons must be cut off from their people. ³⁰ Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.'" (NIV)

Jesus says we are the salt of the earth. Salt preserves things. We Christians are the preservative of our society. If we weren’t here, saying what we we’re saying, imagine where our society would be. Continue being the salt of the earth friends. Because God still judges nations for their sins. The time comes when God cannot bear a society’s sins, and so he judges it. Look at history. The once great Roman Empire became degenerate and was sacked. Look at the decline of the United States. Nations rise, nations fall. But God and his kingdom reigns forever. I will play one more clip for you, and I will get you to comment on it. I will ask you to see if you can answer the challenge posed to the Christian view of sex in this clip.

Conclusion: Play Kevin Rudd Slapdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es6kuCdhfTk

[1] The general proposition of a reductio ad absurdum is that if an assumption leads to a contradiction, that assumption is false: Poythress, Logic, 307