The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-18, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 46."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2000 by John MacArthur, All Rights Reserved.

Question

Does God consider the sin of homosexuality to be worse than the sin of fornication among heterosexuals?

Answer

Categorically, no, and I will tell you why.  Because when you have any listing of sins in the Scripture, for example, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, he says, in verse 9, "Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" [1 Corinthians 6:9-10].  Categorically, you have got everything in the same list.  Probably when you compare sodomites to homosexuals, some would say that homosexuals could refer to what were called Catomites, those who submitted to homosexuals, maybe the younger boy who submits to the pedophile--that kind of thing, so you have two different terms used for homosexual activity.  Some would even use those words to refer to people like transvestites or what they are called today "transgender" people. But when you look at a list like that you see that they are all outside the kingdom.  So categorically they are all in the same situation--they are defined by their sin.  Verse 11, then says, "and such were some of you," so, the point being, that those are all sins that are characteristic of people outside the kingdom, but they are all forgivable--right?--because, "such were some of you."  He's saying to the Corinthian church, "you know, that list is a list of what you used to be and some of you were here, and some of you were here, and some of you were here, and so forth."  So, if it is true that that sin along with many others defines life outside the kingdom, but that that sin is forgivable, then in that sense it is no worse a sin than any other.

Having said that, I would say, however, that when you look at Romans, chapter one, and you have to look at Romans, chapter one to understand this: When "the wrath of God (in verse 18) is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness..." The "wrath of God" follows a sequence.  In Romans, chapter one, you look first of all at verse 24, and here is the defining of God's wrath--let me kind of sum this up for you.  You read Romans 1:18 about "the wrath of God" and we say, "Ok, 'the wrath of God,' what are you talking about?  Well, there are five kinds of wrath:

1. There is Eternal Wrath - That's Hell.

2. There is, I guess what we could call, Eschatological Wrath, or the wrath of the last days.  The wrath described in Revelation 6-19, all the Seal Judgments, Trumpet Judgments, Bowl Judgments--the final wrath. So there is Eternal Wrath, there is Eschatological Wrath.

3. There is also, what I could call, Cataclysmic Wrath: the flood; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; the destruction of the cities of the plain; the destruction of Capernaum; the judgment of God on Korazin, Bethsaida--and in history God has judged whole civilizations through cataclysms that took unbelieving people and catapulted them into eternity, such as Pompeii, which was a city literally notorious for its vice. So you have Eternal Wrath, you have Eschatological Wrath, you have Cataclysmic Wrath.

4. Then you have, what I would call, Natural Wrath.  That is the wrath of God that comes in a sowing and reaping fashion.  If you are a drunkard all your life, you may die of cirrhosis of the liver; if you live in sexual sin all your life you may shorten your life and die of some venereal disease including AIDS. So there are certain things built-in, "Whatever a man sows he reaps," that's another kind of wrath.  But the wrath being spoken of here is the fifth kind.

5. It is the Wrath of Abandonment.  It is that judicial act of God whereby He lets the sinner go.  In other words, He stops convicting, He stops calling, it's Genesis six, where God says, "My Spirit will not always strive with man."  There comes a point when God says, "That's it--I'm letting you go."  And when God lets a society go, verse 24 says, "He gives them over to uncleanness"--that's sexual sin.  Then verse 26, "He gives them up to vile passions, and women exchange the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful."  So you have lesbianism and homosexuality.  When God gives a society up they plunge into sexual sin and then they sink deeper into homosexual sin. 

So while homosexuality is a forgivable sin, and categorically no worse than others, when it happens on a societal level, it is evidence that when a society affirms it, when it becomes normal in a society, that is evidence that God has turned that society over.  If you look at America you can look back to the sexual revolution of the 60's, which has now become a homosexual revolution of the 90's in which the homosexuals have redefined themselves as a minority, like a racial group of people demanding rights.  So I think as far as individual sin goes no more damning than the other sin and as forgivable as any other sin.  When it becomes the pattern of a society it is evidence that God has turned that society over to that sin, it may be at that point an evidence that many in that society are not redeemable because they have gone past the "age of grace."

In response to that, we hate the sin of homosexuality because of its baseness and because of its perverseness, but at the same time we understand that it is a sin like any other sin and we have to call that sinner to repentance and offer that individual sinner the grace and the forgiveness of God.  We can't play God and while God may be turning our society over--God may be no longer striving with us; He may have abandoned us as a society, still He is saving individuals who respond to the gospel.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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