Sodom and Gomorrah

THE MODERN THEOLOGICAL ERROR

of

SODOM AND GOMORRAH

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(The Westboro Baptist Church Manual of Christianity)



Gen.18: 20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.
23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
26 And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.
30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.
33 And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

We do not know for sure what the grievous sin was in Sodom and Gomorrah was, but orthodox Christian thought has ascribed to it the sin of homosexuality. By piecing together the narrative in Genesis 19, it would seem that this is accurate. But let us be fair, that was not the only sin in the city. In fact Lot himself offered his two virgin daughters to the men of the city so they would leave the two strangers alone that were in his house. Not exactly an insignificant sin. And Lot’s wife was eventually destroyed because it seems she looked back with some level of fondness to that city.

But many like to use Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of how God feels about homosexual behavior in particular. As sinful as that may be, I would suggest that allowing evil men to ravage your virgin daughters ranks right up there as well. But let us look at how Jesus felt.

Matt.10: 5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
12 And when ye come into an house, salute it.
13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Wow. Look at that. Jesus sends forth His disciples to preach and do good works and he says that anyone who does not receive them or their words will receive a greater judgment than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now let that sink in.

Matt.11: 23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
24 But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.

Look at that! Jesus says that if He had done miracles in Sodom they might have repented. No mention of which sins were actually sticking in our Lord’s craw, except the sin of unbelief. He reiterates how Sodom would stand in a lesser judgment. But yet today the sin of homosexual behavior has been awarded the blue ribbon of all sins. Now we can clearly see that Jesus was not consumed with the sin of homosexual behavior but rebuked many other cities and people for their unbelief and even made it a point to label their sin as greater than those of Sodom.

But in Genesis chapter eleven we see something very different than what is revealed today. The Lord is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. But instead of Abraham reveling is such a judgment, or instead of Abraham going on television to let everyone know that he knows why fire and brimstone will be raining down, Abraham begs God to spare the city. Abraham entreats the Lord not to destroy the righteous with the unrighteous. He bargains with God until God says He will not destroy Sodom if there are just ten righteous souls there.

Obviously there were not ten. Even Mrs. Lot was unrighteous. But notice what Abraham did. He took no pleasure in Sodom’s destruction especially because of the righteous living there. But when hurricanes ravage New Orleans including poor people and believers, the self righteous evangelical community steps forward to proclaim their insight that God directed those hurricanes to judge the gay community there. What they have done is to juxtapose the Old Testament revelation of God and force it into the age of grace. And instead of adultery or hedonism or even unbelief, they erect the straw man of the gay community.

OK, we recognize the idiocy and even insanity of the Westboro Baptist Church and their immeasurable hatred of gay people, but just because Pat Robertson or thousands of other preachers do not carry signs that say “God hates fags” does that mean they are off the hook? Read the papers and listen to the television and read the posts and comments on the internet. You will find that many people have indeed picked up a level of hatred for the gay people. They do not see them as candidates for the gospel, they see them as candidates for a natural disaster. They are the training ground for a graduation into the Westboro school of hatred.

But stay with me. They not only exhibit a visceral hatred for a select group of sinners from which they are insulated, but they openly exhibit a breathtaking level of self righteousness. They claim not only to know God, but they claim that God has revealed to them the particulars of His workings. You see, Hugh Hefner has lived a long life of hedonism and debauchery and has accumulated great wealth as well. But God has chosen to demolish the poor people of New Orleans because coincidentally they happen to be in the natural path of hurricanes. But these self righteous Pharisees drape themselves with their heterosexual phylacteries and play a religious game of Clue. God did it with a hurricane in the city of new Orleans. I win!!!

How unchristian and how foreign to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, that representation of God is a self righteous caricature that soothes the conscience of the sinful heterosexual class as well as deceiving people into thinking they know the divine motive for certain hurricanes because self proclaimed sages say they know. And yet these same “orthodox” exegetical whizzes loudly reject the special revelations from our Charismatic friends while claiming special revelation about hurricanes. These are not messengers of God. They are clouds without gospel water who feed themselves with God’s money and use pictures of starving children to elevate their own way of living. They do not represent Christ at all. They revel in the calamity of sinners and cull out Old Testament verses in order to prove that their volatile language and their religious Schadenfreude comes from Jesus. And they not only enjoy their self serving Schadenfreude, but they expand its definition by adding a divine intent. How dastardly.

But even that kind of spiritual treachery falls short of another kind of sin that they so cleverly commit even while their lips speak great and swelling words. What was the sin that Jesus said would garner the greatest judgment on that day? Unbelief. And these self anointed prophets of doom refuse to believe the words of Jesus but instead run to Moses and claim they come from Jesus. Jesus said “You have heard…but I say” in an attempt to open darkened eyes and elevate His words above those that they have heard. But these modern disciples of Moses who carry Bibles of stone have closed their ears and eyes to the very essence of the gospel. They want to form some sort of living alliance between the law and grace, but in so doing they eviscerate the gospel. While they themselves fare sumptuously at the table of grace they prepare meals of condemnation for others. They teach grace but live law.

So they condemn the lost, they revel in their misfortune, they claim special revelation, and they refuse to believe the overarching teachings of Christ and the New Testament. But if you sift through all this religious fog you will see something that is almost never spoken of in orthodox company. Jesus loved Sodom and Gomorrah. He was even willing to spare them if there were only ten righteous, Do you believe that there were ten believers in New Orleans? How about ten believers in Haiti? Can you not see that in these last days God has spoken by His Son? And can you not see how different and unique the gospel is from all other former revelations of the Triune God. The same, yes, but much different. A mystery, oh yes. But in this age of gospel grace, God extends the olive branch to whosever will believe. There will come a reckoning of all things, and like Sodom all who stand in unbelief will meet an unspeakable judgment.

But until that day we have been called to spread the good news. As the church we must discern sin and error, and by the power of His Spirit we can overcome. But judgment and condemnation lies within God’s prophetic incubation. Until then, we are to proclaim AND be Jesus to a world which lies in the wicked one and desperately needs the redemption that only comes through Christ. From that task we must not be diverted.