Editor’s Note: The following article was submitted by a reader and is shared here in its entirety, exactly as it was received. It is a deeply personal testimony that engages candidly and biblically with a topic often clouded by confusion. While the views expressed are those of the author, I chose to publish this piece without edits because it speaks with clarity, conviction, and fidelity to Scripture.

by Amy J

Author’s Note: While this contains a portion of my personal testimony, my story is just a jumping off point to show the biblical basis for same-sex attraction as a sin. This article also goes heavily into the history of where the current push for acceptance of same-sex attractions and relations came from. I believe that explaining the biblical basis for rejection of these attractions, personal testimonies, and the history of the current lie being propagated is vital if we want to bring the truth and stop this sin from taking over the visible church.

All sin begins with the lie of the serpent in the garden in Genesis 3, “Did God really say?…” If Satan can get us to question the very basis of what God Himself said, then anything is up for grabs. Lusts and sins of all kinds then don’t seem so bad; adultery, any kind of sex outside of marriage, theft, cheating, adultery, blaspheming God’s name, and/or lying, it’s all on the table. Homosexuality, sodomy, lesbianism, queerness, being gay, same sex attraction, whatever you call it, is absolutely a sin according to the Bible. If what Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-30 is to be believed, that lusting after someone is the same as adultery, and anger towards your brother is akin to murder, then yes, actively lusting over the same-sex or entertaining thoughts/temptations about the same sex in a sexual manner is a sin. There are a lot of different reasons why someone may have same-sex attraction, just like there can be many reasons someone cheats on their wife or has sex outside of marriage, but the reason doesn’t make it less sinful. Being upset and feeling uncomfortable about those attractions is not Internalized Homophobia as proponents of homosexuality would call it, it is the conviction of sin. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says:

“18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin[a] a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

My hope with this article is that anyone caught in the sin of actively entertaining their same-sex attractions, or engaging in same-sex relations, by God’s grace and mercy, will recognize their sins and turn away from them. This issue feels so personal to those who are affected by it, because it is tied, oftentimes to someone’s identity and it can be hard to separate the two. The end of this article will cover the gospel in greater detail. However, if you claim to be a Christian especially, you must turn from this sin, and this article will lay out why it is a sin according to the Bible. If you are not a Christian, I hope you read this article and understand there is hope in the shed blood of Christ for forgiveness of your sins. You are not beyond redemption. Romans 3:21-26 says

“21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

The sinfulness of same-sex attraction is an important topic to me, because I was greatly tempted by it, from being a teenager, until about 6 years ago(meaning I struggled heavily with it for at least 20yrs) when I was completely delivered from that pervasive temptation towards this sin. At times, this temptation still crops up, but it is a rare occurrence, not a daily one, since I was delivered by God from it in 2019 after many years of prayer and running from this temptation. This topic is very painful for me, and anyone who has struggled with this temptation or sin knows the deep shame that it entails, even if it is purely mental and not physical.

When I grew up, there was virtually no discussion of the sin of same-sex relations/attractions within the churches I attended. I never heard it in a sermon at any church I went to growing up(although I grew up Pentecostal, mostly 4 Square and Assemblies of God, I also attended Baptist churches as well at times with my mother, and later left Pentecostalism behind in 2018). By the time I was a teenager, although I was saved at the age of 8, I became very confused due to lack of clarity on this topic in the institutional church itself as I grew older. I wanted to hear sermons on this topic as a teenager, but I did not until I was much older in my 20s. Even though, thanks to my mom, I knew same-sex attractions and relations were sinful, but I did not understand why churches(when I grew up) would rarely mention it. I cannot describe how grateful I am for this clarity because I never received it in a church sermon, even though

I grew up in a time and culture that was becoming progressively permissive to same-sex relations and same-sex attraction and Pride parades and calls for legalization of gay marriage was becoming common place. My mom, thankfully, taught me, that having sexual relations or being attracted to the same sex is sinful, she never minced words on this. My mother also made sure(from the Bible, see Genesis 5) I understood the sinfulness of “sex changes” . I will always be grateful to her for this. We had a trans-sexual neighbor who was on hormones, and I remember, from the age of 5, my mother telling me something along the lines of, “See this man? It is not a man, it is a woman, and she is in sin because God created her female.” She also explicitly taught me to pray for that woman, that she needed Jesus, and to love them eve though they were in sin, and this is a valuable lesson I have carried throughout my life.

I sat in the main church service with my mother age 12 onward. I rarely went to “youth group”, and despite the lack of clarity on topics such as same-sex attraction and relations, I matured spiritually much faster because I sat in the main service with my mother. Before I ever had same-sex attraction as a temptation, I hated being a girl and wanted to be a boy, for reasons I will not touch upon in this article, and this too also was an issue for me until about 3 years ago. My mom definitely saved me from going down the path of rejecting the sex God created me as, and kept me from engaging in sinful activities with the same-sex with her blunt Biblical teaching on those topics, I will forever be grateful for her strong Biblical guidance. I hope this will encourage parents to understand why it is so important to teach the Bible to your children, you cannot rely on the church as the primary source, if my mom did, I would have turned out very different.

Thankfully, my family made sure I read the Bible everyday and we prayed together everyday, and I was given clear-cut Biblical morals. Even despite this, I was tempted for many years with same-sex attractions, and repeatedly had people try to convince me it was biblically permissible.Even going as far as to say, maybe I’d marry a woman instead of a man(this was before it was even legal in most states). I remember being so confused and upset by this, it caused tons of turmoil, needless turmoil, greater Biblical clarity on this topic as I read the Bible more, would clear up my confusion over the next few years. While I had yet to really know what the scriptures said about it, beyond what my mom told me, I knew it was wrong and I refused to believe otherwise. Spoiler, I’ve been married to a man for 16 years.

God thankfully eventually delivered me from these same-sex attractions, as I said, 6 years ago, but it did not happen immediately. I wish God delivered me from these temptations sooner, but he was faithful to deliver me from them in his time. It took many years of resisting temptation and praying before God would take them away. So, I have great compassion on those who struggle, as I did, or those who didn’t struggle and have dove headlong into these sinful passions. I truly want to see them come to the knowledge of truth. I know my story is fairly unique, but I hope the Lord uses it to help others who are stuck in temptation or a pattern of this sin, or helps those who know others who are.

A thought itself coming in is not a sin, but entertaining it and allowing it to become lust is. Because of my own experience, I am passionate about helping others who may be confused as I was, about why these attractions themselves, not just the physical acts, when entertained, are a sin.

The Bible is clear about what is sin and what is not, and it is clear that the law is written upon our hearts in Romans 2:12-16, and thus can know what is sin from that intrinsic knowledge, as we shall see. We see in the Bible, very explicitly, that same-sex relations are wrong. Especially in Romans 1:24-32(emphasis mine):

“24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Those who claim to be Christians have absolutely no excuse to believe sodomy/homosexuality and lesbianism are anything but a sin. Verses 24-25 explicitly state God gave them up to these desires because of their rejection of Godly knowledge and misplaced worship. Those practicing same-sex relations know it is a sin, at least at first, and same-sex attraction, while more subtle, usually comes with a conviction that it is wrong, hence why Gay Rights Activist will push the idea of Internalized Homophobia, it is a concept that abnegates those who are in a gay lifestyle or considering it, from personal responsibility, and puts it on external forces. However, in Romans 2:12-16, we get a very explicit picture that Gentiles(non-Jews, an important distinction at that time), while not having the law, have the law written on hearts, since the law is on our hearts even as unbelievers, it will, at least at first, cause conflict in our minds if we engage in a sinful activity(emphasis is mine):

“12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

While it is true that in the context of Romans 2, Paul is specifically addressing the Jews hypocrisy, in regards to circumcision and their not keeping the rest of the law. Paul states that God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of them. This is a very strong condemnation. In a broader sense, as Christians we are responsible to bring the truth to the world. If we claim to be Christians, but then commit sins openly against God’s word or advocate things which the Bible calls sin, we are no different than the Jews who were misleading the Gentiles in Paul’s time. There is quite a difference between the fact we are all sinners, and deliberately sinning and outright denial of what God says about a sin. 1 John 1:5-10, makes it abundantly clear we all sin, and to deny this is a lie and it makes God a liar. In Romans 7, Paul goes into great depth about this issue of sin and the law and not wanting to sin, but doing it anyway. We all sin at times, but sinning deliberately, habitually, and validating any sin in the name of “compassion”, “love”, or “inclusion, is evil. Affirming any sin including same-sex attraction and same-sex relations, is the opposite of what these passages and the Bible says as a whole about sin.

Internalized Homophobia as a concept is a fairly old term used by the LGBT community to describe the feelings of self hatred that one can feel towards their same-sex desires or themselves for having them. As a Christian, we would define this sense of shame about our actions as a conviction of sin. Going back to Romans 2, we can see that all people have an internal conviction of sin, but of course we can choose to ignore it. The world, as Christians we know, is not broadly interested in the truth and God’s ways. For a definition of Internalized Homophobia, we will turn to the website Choose Therapy:

““Signs of internalized homophobia include:

• Lying to oneself or denying one’s same-sex sexual desire
• Maintaining same-sex sexual relationships and keeping them secret out of shame
• Believing that same-sex sexual relationships are bad
• Judging, hating, or bullying LGBTQ+ people
• Feeling a pervasive sense of shame about one’s sexuality, sexual attraction, and sexual behavior”

“Another version of this might be an LGBTQ+ person who says “I am gay and I accept my same-sex sexual desire” but simultaneously feels a pervasive sense of anxiety and shame about themselves when at family or friend gatherings with mostly heterosexual people. In such circumstances, such an individual may try to rationalize that they must feel this because they are somehow a bad person, not seeing that these feelings at least in part come from the invalidating oppression of being in a heteronormative environment where their same-sex sexual desire is a deviant from the norm””

The article above, promotes the idea of Internalized Homophobia and frames “deviating from the norm”, as a good thing. The Bible defines same-sex relations as sinful, as we saw in Romans 1. In a Biblical context, same-sex relations are never seen as good. So framing it as “deviancy is good” is a subversion of the truth, and this, again ties back into Genesis 3, “Did God really say?” Yes, he really does say it is unnatural to exchange relations with the same sex in Romans 1 and many other parts of the Bible, and same-sex relations are not “holy” in any context, even if you call it marriage, these acts are not somehow “sanctified”. The Bible is explicit in Genesis 2 and Jesus references it in Matthew 19:4-6, marriage is supposed to be between one man and one women. Sometimes we hear arguments that because there are other perversions such as polygamy in the Bible among Biblical characters, such as Jacob, David, or Solomon, that could mean mean gay marriage is somehow okay. Neither of those line up with the Biblical plan for marriage God gave in Genesis and Matthew.

Still this has not stopped people over the last 70 years from pushing the idea that same-sex relations are not actually sinful according to the Bible. One of the more prominent figures over the last 15 years to subvert the Biblical view of marriage and sexuality in support of gay marriage for Christians, is Matthew Vines. Vines, of course, wrote the book God HYPERLINK “https://www.amazon.com/God-Gay-Christian-Biblical-Relationships/dp/160142518X/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1″& HYPERLINK “https://www.amazon.com/God-Gay-Christian-Biblical-Relationships/dp/160142518X/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1” the Gay Christian – The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships. He has done countless lectures on this topic, and makes it his personal mission to reframe key Bible verses, such as Romans 1 and Genesis 19, as not being against same-sex relations. Jude 7 would say otherwise, it goes directly against the hospitality argument. Vines, without saying Internalized Homophobia, blames Christians for the feelings gay people feel, reframing it from the Biblical meaning, as conviction of sin, to something Christians hoist upon him and other “Gay Christians”(emphasis mine):

“The arguments and debates that we have, both in the church and in civil society, about gay marriage tend to get lost in abstractions. Is it right for a man to marry another man? Or for a woman to marry another woman? Well, it doesn’t seem right. That isn’t how God designed us. He made men for women, and women for men. That is His design—His definition of marriage—and it’s not for us to tamper with or change. But these arguments are always made by people who are themselves heterosexual, who have always fit in, who haven’t endured years of internal torment and agony because they have a different sexual orientation than their friends, than their parents, than seemingly everyone else in the world. But those people, gay people, are just as much children of God and just as much a part of His creation as everyone else. And there’s something terribly unseemly about straight Christians insisting that gay Christians are somehow inferior to them, or broken, or that gay people only exist because of the fall, and that God really intended to make everyone straight like them……..“

It is worth going to the link here, and reading this whole transcript of this speech. This speech, on Vines’ website, has been translated into 10 different languages. It is a masterclass in “Did God really say?” Vines, as other same-sex attracted people have done for years, frames Christians with a Biblical view of sexual relations, as the villains. If only we just stopped saying being gay is a sin, they could live peaceful lives! Yes, it is easier to commit a sin when you never have to hear it is a sin. As someone who was confused by people who thought like Vines, I would flip it and say, my life would have been far more peaceful if people didn’t try to force me into being gay as a Christian when I tried to get clarity on this issue, but there were some who did, and it hurt me a lot.

Vines makes the same argument people always make when they are in unrepentant sin; you only say it’s wrong, because you’re not doing it yourself, and you fit into the norm. “But these arguments are always made by people who are themselves heterosexual, who have always fit in, who haven’t endured years of internal torment and agony because they have a different sexual orientation than their friends, than their parents, than seemingly everyone else in the world. “ Well, yes, you are different, and while being different is not always a sin, in this case, it absolutely is a sin.

Vines leans heavily on the idea that the residents of Sodom wanting to violate the strangers were not gay necessarily. Their sin, according to him, was primarily inhospitality which led to a desire to rape these strangers, and it is rape, not same-sex relations that are the issue. Problem is Jude 7 says:

“7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire,[d] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”

Vines is not the first to perpetuate the idea that the real sin of the Sodomites was not same-sex relations, but inhospitality leading to the desire to rape, and follows continues a long line of LGBT activist who springboard off of scholars in the mid-20th century. Another who used similar logic to Vines, but 20 years earlier is a lesbian named Candace Chellew used 20 years ago as well:

“To see if such righteous people can be found, God conducts a little experiment by sending two angels into the town to investigate. The angels meet up with Lot, a relative of Abraham, who invites the men to stay at his house for the night. This is an important part of the story – and a place that becomes a source of irony in this story – but we’ll come to that in a few minutes. Showing hospitality to strangers in ancient times was not just a courtesy; it was a requirement.”

The author of this is “pastor” Candace Chellewof Columbia, SC. Chellew, in this article, continues on to talk about how these men of Sodom were not gay just because they wanted to rape two male strangers, and this is the exact argument Vines himself makes in the transcripts here, simply “Control F” hospitality on those transcripts, and you will see it is identical. Chellew is the founder of “Whosoever” magazine, the first “gay Christian magazine”, that was started in print in 1996.That article about Sodom and Gomorrah was published in 2004. However, these ideas did not originate with either Vines or Chellew.

Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition published by Derrick Sherwin Bailey in 1955, was one of the first in modern written form to argue that “traditional” readings of Sodom and Gomorrah’s primary sin being homosexuality(ie Sodomy), was not actually biblical. Here is an excerpt from the book thanks to this review here:

“He points out, ‘it is plain that the traditional conception of Sodom receives little support from Scripture… it is significant that none of the Biblical condemnations of homosexual practices makes any mention of the Sodom story—a remarkable and inexplicable omission, if in fact … the destruction of the city was a Divine judgment upon the unnatural proclivities of its in habitants.’ (Pg. 10-11) He concludes, ‘it is no longer possible to maintain the belief that homosexual practices were once punished by a Divine judgment upon their perpetrators so terrible and conclusive as to preclude any subsequent discussion of the question.’ (Pg. 28)”

This is the same idea that Vines and Chellew present, and in 1978, Tom Horner who is purported to have been an Episcopalian minister and biblical scholar, published the book Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times. This book from the 1970s onward, helped to popularize the ideas Vines & Chellew later promote, about homosexuality/same sex attraction not actually being sinful. Little information can be found on Horner, this article references his contributions in the post-Kinsey biblical analysis of homosexuality:

“Philadelphia: Westminster Press. — A comprehensive study by an Episcopal priest with a Ph.D. in religion received jointly from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. His many insights here on the ‘clobber passages,’ as well as on Jonathan and David, Ruth and Naomi, eunuchs, and Jesus and Paul and sexuality, lay the groundwork for many later studies.”

These ideas are not new, and all of these re-interpretations have one thing in common, getting the Believer or non-Believer to “re-think” clear passages of scripture, so-called “clobber passages”, such as the ones mentioned earlier in this article. If we re-interpret Gensis 19 and say it is generally about inhospitality not same-sex relations as the primary sin of Sodom, or that maybe those in Sodom were going to rape the stranger, but it was only bad because it is rape and he was an angle(not human). It becomes easy to reinterpret the Bible as being silent on same-sex relations. Iif we interpret Romans 1 as only being specific to something that happened in that time, and that the principle is not applicable, it is easy to think same-sex attraction/being gay is okay as a Christian. We can then say “Did God really say…” And justify to ourselves that when someone is feeling bad about their sin, it is not conviction, it is internalized homophobia, the projection of someone else’”unloving and judgemental” beliefs upon you. Gabrielle Kassel on the website Healthline(not a Christian website), expounds upon this idea:

““If you’re taught in nearly every avenue in your life that queer people are inferior, it makes sense that those teachings will make their way into your brain. Sigh.”

“‘It’s essential to remember that any mental illness arising from internalized homophobia is not due to one’s queerness, but rather because of discrimination against queer people,” says Tanner.’”

If Romans 2:12-16 is to be trusted:

“12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

Then those feelings of shame that those with same-sex attraction have is telling us something is wrong, it’s not internalized homophobia, it is conviction of sin. While we can choose to ignore that conviction and change the name of it to something that makes us feel better about our sin, pretending it is not sin does not change the truth that same-sex attractions and/or same-sex relations are sinful.

We must let people know, if anyone brings up Internalized Homophobia, it is their conscience and on a broader scale, God convicting them of their sin through the Holy Spirit, as Jesus refers to in Matthew 16:7-8. There is a God who created them, and he is a Holy God. He wants them to repent, call on Jesus to be saved. To turn from their wicked ways and be sanctified and washed by the blood of Jesus. I typically don’t like the term inclusive, because it has been inverted by the devil, but the gospel is completely inclusive in the sense that anyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. HYPERLINK “https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%203&version=NIV”Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and Romans 10:10-11 HYPERLINK “https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%203%3A10-12%2CPsalm%2014%3A1-3%2CPsalm%2053%3A1-3&version=ESV”& HYPERLINK “https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%203%3A10-12%2CPsalm%2014%3A1-3%2CPsalm%2053%3A1-3&version=ESV” Psalms 14:1-3 “10 None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands no one seeks for God.

While the offer of salvation through the shed blood of Christ is for all in the sense that anyone can have it, it is exclusive, in that salvation only comes through what Christ did on the cross. Heaven is exclusive, and you cannot go to Heaven without asking Christ for forgiveness of your sins. On the flip side, hell is also exclusive, you cannot go there without denying Christ and the need for a savior. The invitation for grace and forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice is for all, but not all will accept that invitation. All sin separates us from God not just unhindered same-sex attraction or same-sex relations, all sin by it’s nature condemns us and puts us at odds with God. Same-sex relations is not a special sin, it doesn’t make you impervious to God’s judgement because you have strong feelings about it, and it doesn’t make your friends or family who are gay impervious to the judgement of God either just because you love them, but the good news is, that you or/and them don’t have to be doomed to hell. Their “Internalized Homophobia” is God convicting them of their sin. Anyone can call on the name of Jesus and be saved. Romans 10:8-13 says:

“8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””