What's new
By:
Filters
Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Bible Study Sodom and Gomorrah

H

Homeskillet

Guest
I offer the following Scripture passages for you to ponder.

Isaiah 1:1-17; 13:1-22
Jeremiah 23:9-15
Ezekiel 16:46-56
Amos 4
Matthew 11:20-24
Luke 10:13-14
Matt. 10:14-15
Luke 10:10-12

This leaves me with two questions.

1. Why is sexual immorality (and more specifically homosexuality) so grossly associated with Sodom and Gomorrah when it's Biblically clear to me that they were destroyed for many reasons?

2. Why do people refer to homosexuals as sodomites?


Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some insight into this. This is not a thread to debate whether or not homosexual acts are a sin! This is purely a discussion on Sodom and Gomorrah and a lot of misconceptions thereof.

I only recently learned that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed for reasons other than sexual immorality. (Recently, as in the past year or so)

Discuss :-D
 
1.Why is sexual immorality associated with Sodom and Gomorrah?

I think it's not so much what the city was known for, but there was one sin that we know penetraited even Lot's Family after the destruction, sexual immorality. The discendants from that incest wound up being quite the snares to the Israelites. Does that make sense?

2.Why is that associated with homosexuality?

One of the last sins we see confronted in the city was when the men of the town wanted to ravash the angels God had sent. Angels from what we know also take on a masculine Identity. Therefore, the term may also be a result of the last days.

I'm no scholar, so I could be wrong. However, I think that since the last days of the city are what were placed as part of recorded history in the Torah, if they were to draw terms from this town, it would be based on reasoning like that I tried to use above.
 
Homeskillet said:
I offer the following Scripture passages for you to ponder.

Isaiah 1:1-17; 13:1-22
Jeremiah 23:9-15
Ezekiel 16:46-56
Amos 4
Matthew 11:20-24
Luke 10:13-14
Matt. 10:14-15
Luke 10:10-12

This leaves me with two questions.

1. Why is sexual immorality (and more specifically homosexuality) so grossly associated with Sodom and Gomorrah when it's Biblically clear to me that they were destroyed for many reasons?

Sputnik: I briefly responded to this same issue just 24 hours ago on the 'Homosexuality-The Sin of Lot's Day' thread. This is yet another glaring example of how misinformed people can get a hold of some traditional but erroneous belief and run with it as though it were the truth. Tradition has long held, it would seem, that S&G are associated with sexual depravity. And, these cities may well have been involved in sexual depravity, but it doesn't take a theological scholar to reason out from the scriptures that they were into SIN period! Sodom and Gomorrah were just plain WICKED! God does NOT have a special ax to grind with those having homosexual tendencies.

Homeskillet: 2. Why do people refer to homosexuals as sodomites?

Sputnik: It's purely a derogatory term that people (particularly Christians) use as 'ammunition' to fire at homosexuals. Again, many Christians are similar to chickens. They pick away at whatever pellets are tossed to them by their minister. I would guess that the average Christian hasn't got a CLUE what the Bible has to say on most major issues. They hear it from their minister and assume by virtue of his position that he's accurately defining the scriptures. Then they take the information on board and claim it as 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth', even if it isn't. And, once a belief takes root, whether it be right or wrong, even a stick of gelignite won't remove it.

Anyway, a sodomite COULD be either a homosexual OR a heterosexual. A sodomite is, according to my dictionary, a person who practices sodomy. Sodomy, according to my dictionary, is anal intercourse committed by a man with either another man or a woman. Sorry about that but I'm assuming that we're all adults and can handle 'grown-up' language.

Homeskillet: Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some insight into this. This is not a thread to debate whether or not homosexual acts are a sin! This is purely a discussion on Sodom and Gomorrah and a lot of misconceptions thereof.

Sputnik: Misconceptions believed to be facts abound in Christianity. It's because too few read and understand the scriptures for themselves and instead take someone else's word for it. The traditional belief by Christians concerning the cause for destruction of S&G is a misconception with a capitol 'M'. It's especially destructive because it's used so 'ad hoc' to target a specific group of fellow human beings.

Homeskillet: I only recently learned that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed for reasons other than sexual immorality. (Recently, as in the past year or so)

Sputnik: I was involved in a group discussion about ten years ago concerning this very matter. I would urge other Christians to do the same thing ...WHATEVER the issue.
Click to expand...
 
Hey I can post a link too :P
http://www.burgy.50megs.com/sodom.htm
I am not implying that sexual immorality wasn't ONE of the reasons they were destroyed. I absolutely believe that it was a cause...one of many. The Bible also teaches that social injustice, inhospitality, not helping the poor, etc. were ALSO major factors. So, that's where my question derives from. Why is so much focus always placed on the sexual immorality reason and not the others?

Brutus said:
Why is sexual immorality associated with Sodom and Gomorrah?
I think it's not so much what the city was known for, but there was one sin that we know penetraited even Lot's Family after the destruction, sexual immorality. The discendants from that incest wound up being quite the snares to the Israelites. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...

Of course that makes sense! But, that's not what I asked. I know why it's associated with Sodom and Gomorrah...just not why it's grossly associated with it while the other sins Sodom was equally as guilty of are rarely associated with it.

Brutus said:
2.Why is that associated with homosexuality?

One of the last sins we see confronted in the city was when the men of the town wanted to ravash the angels God had sent. Angels from what we know also take on a masculine Identity. Therefore, the term may also be a result of the last days.

I'm no scholar, so I could be wrong. However, I think that since the last days of the city are what were placed as part of recorded history in the Torah, if they were to draw terms from this town, it would be based on reasoning like that I tried to use above.
Click to expand...

Again, not sure why you reworded my question because I do think it changes the intent of what I was asking...but thank you very much for your reasoning.

Sputnik---seems we're on the same page with how we view Sodom and Gomorrah. You gave a definition of Sodomite and provided your own as well. It's my understanding that sodomy is not a Biblical term at all. A sodomite in the Bible was simply anyone from Sodom....right? Please correct if wrong...I've researched and as far as I can tell, the only instance it was used was when describing descendents from Sodom. Again, correct if wrong.

Thanks for not turning this into a homosexuality debate.
 
^killet, Just because I shortened the questions, doesn't mean I didn't answer according to the ones proposed. I just didn't see the need to post a six page explaination, when the paragraph answer seemed to suffice. Allow me to try again.

1. Why is sexual immorality (and more specifically homosexuality) so grossly associated with Sodom and Gomorrah when it's Biblically clear to me that they were destroyed for many reasons?

All the other sins of Sodom didn't come back to haunt Israel after Sodom was destroyed. While the Israelites still commited similar sins, the Sexual immorality of Sodom was still effecting Israel years after the tribes left Egypt. The Moabites were their enemies, but they were discendants of the Immorality of Lot's daughters. So While there were other sins they were just as guilty of did matter, they did not have an overbearing result on the Israelites.

2. Why do people refer to homosexuals as sodomites?

I told you I was no expert. The Dictionary definition is better than mine and makes sense. However, I'd like to know what caused the word sodomy to mean anal intercourse.
 
Thought I'd get on this link: Some of it was quoted, but I suggest you read Gen, 19:1-26 again. While Sodom and Gomorrah are alluded to in all those verses you listed, Homeskillet, very little is said about the sins of those cities and the others in the plain. But we do have an account in Genesis which says the men of the city, both young and old, all to the last man, surrounded Lot's house and demanded the two men (angels) come out that they may know them. Well, you can draw your own conclusion.
But it certainly sounds as if the men of Sodom wanted to have homosexual relations with them.

This is why I believe "Sodomy" means a homosexual act, today.

But even though the Lord calls the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah grave, in 18:20, my understanding is, God considers idolatry the worst of sins. And rejection of Jesus during His earthly ministry is just as bad, for look how He castigates the cities who rejected him. Even the people of Sodom and Gomorrah at the judgement will condemn them.

Bick
 
How come this thread is in wide screen? Is there a way to view the posts in their entirety without having to click the mouse from left to right?

Doesn't this entire Genesis story about the angels and the residents of Sodom strike you (whoever) as being a little odd? Just how many men, young and old, actually resided in the city of Sodom ...thousands, millions? Are we to infer from this particular story that tens of thousands or millions of men were beating down Lot's door to get at the strangers? Just how depraved could the entire male population have been? I mean ...really? Does, perhaps, 'all' mean 'some' used in a hyperbolic or an exaggerated general sense?

It's been said after an incident such as the assassination of JFK, or the Littleton, Colorado school massacre, that 'ALL Americans are gun crazy'. They may be but they probably aren't. We tend to generalize all the time. So, too, do the Bible writers. We don't actually mean ALL when we strive to make a pertinent point. I can't quite come to 'literal' grips with some biblical narratives and this is one of them. Sorry if I might offend some but that's the way it is.
 
My understanding about why anal intercourse is called sodomy is because the sodom and gomorah account is the first reference to this act. Make sense?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top