Is a person damned to hell fire if their sexual preferences differ from those dictated by the Bible and other religious beliefs? And if so, why should our society then protect these individuals rights to be unclean?
I was at a spiritual gathering a few weeks back, and after the event a woman asked a question related to the very specific perspective Christians have on sexual preference and what this really means to those who are homosexual or transgender. Are they living in perpetual sin? Are they sentenced to eternal damnation? These are heavy questions that can cut to the core of a persons ability to be at peace within themselves, so I wanted to take some time to express how I believe God or ‘Source’ sees these practices and the individuals involved.
To make sure we are taking in the bigger picture, let’s first look at the sources or reasons of why sexual preference has been a tainted or taboo subject for thousands of years as illustrated through the Bible, the predominant reference used for Christianity.
There are many places in the Bible where it clearly defines boundaries between male and female sexual activities and also indicates the repercussions of not adhering to those guidelines. I am going to include them in detail below so that you clearly understand the source for the beliefs a Christian or any religious individual may embrace as unchangeable and a valid reason for gods punishment.
All scriptures below are from the King James Version (KJV) since it is still the base version used by many Christian beliefs.
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.“
– Genesis 2:24 , repeated in Mark 10:6-8 and Matthew 19:4-6 KJV
Genesis 19 – The whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah – “For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.“
– Genesis 19:13 KJV
“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”
– Leviticus 20:13 KJV
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
– Romans 1:27-32 KJV
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
– 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 KJV
“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”
– 1 Timothy 1:9-10 KJV
Although the actual words “homosexual“, “lesbian” or “transgender” do not appear in these passages, the references to our modern vocabulary can be clearly seen where the verses focus on “natural use“, “men on men“, “effeminate” and similar references.
OK, from a Biblical perspective, there seems to be some clear implications that sexual behavior between men and sexual behavior between women is unclean, forbidden and therefore punishable. Is this really valid? Do we blindly embrace it or can it be questioned? Do we ignorantly look away from it or confront it? Do we fear it and hide? Do we get angry about it and fight our accusers? Let’s get all the other facts into place first.
Since many of the major implications come from the Old Testament, it could be argued that they should not count since there are so many other references within the Old Testament that make many other things equally forbidden, such as:
“For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. 10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
– Leviticus 20:9-10 KJV
According to this, anyone who curses at their parents or cheats on their spouse would come under the same heavy foot of doom and gloom the church has singularly focused on sexual preference. To get past this, the Christian belief is that the New Testament releases you from the laws of the Old Testament, unless, the same or similar law is indicated in the New Testament as well.
There seems to be some connection there since the New Testament, as indicated in the versus above, does indicate similar viewpoints with respect to same sex relationships. However, the New Testament also says this:
“He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.“
– Matthew 19:8-9
So, if you cheat on your spouse, this is still adultery, which according to Leviticus 20:10 “…the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death“. So the question then is this, why isn’t there the same cry of outrage over adultery as there is against same sex relationships? I can’t say for sure, but I think it has to do with the reality that there are just too many people that are directly or indirectly guilty of adultery, and very often, those in the highest places.
So, since adultery is a somewhat common activity in society, the church justifies it to some degree within their doctrine. It is still generally frowned upon, but is not something that is set in the forefront as a wicked and detestable act before God, worthy of death and torment, even though the Bible clearly shows it still is.
OK, but why this big push against sexual preferences? Why should it matter to Christians what I do with my life if it has nothing at all to do with them? On one end, some feel they are on a mission from God to eliminate evil from the world, while some others are simply upset that they have rules to follow that others do not. Either way, if a Christian or any person sees themselves as superior, selected, chosen, etc, and you are not, this places their ego in a place where they feel they have the right to dictate to others how things should be and point out who is being bad and what should or should not be allowed.
Of course, this can only happen if they completely ignore the scripture:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you;
– Matthew 5:44
OK, enough of that. Having provided the Christian perspective of same sex relationships, and having shown where this choice is simply a bias they have chosen to make pivotal, let’s step back and look at the broader picture of how God truly sees anyone in a same sex relationship.
To get started, I do believe some of the Bible was written by inspired people, but I don’t believe that everything they wrote was the actual verbatim word from God. Most of it is a result of the individuals mind warping the channeled information into what they believed was true or necessary, or in many cases, outright writing of their own to emphasize a personal belief of what they believed an angry and unforgiving god would require of his subjects.
I have a previous article, ‘Contradictions of Spirit‘, that shows so many of the contrasts between the spirit of what the god in the Bible dictates we do and how we behave and spirit in which he then does and behaves, but I’m not looking to repeat that all here. However, the base of the article is this: There are undeniable truths in the Bible that show our God as a god who loves unconditionally. So when you encounter anything that indicates otherwise, in the Bible or any other place, just set it aside.
The definition of unconditional love is simply what it says. There are no conditions, no requirements, no qualifications, no errors, no judgments, no threats, no pre-qualifications, no magic words to say, no specific thing to believe, no specific person to believe in, no belief or knowledge that God even exists is necessary.
The only condition to qualify for God’s unconditional love is to have been created by him because he unconditionally loves everything he creates. The reason for this is that God creates through extending his thoughts into whatever it is he would like to experience. One extension of his thoughts became us. We are a part of God because we are a thought in his mind, and this manifests itself through us to be creators as well, being created in the image of the creator.
Being a thought within the mind of God, he cannot judge us without judging himself. He cannot condemn us without condemning himself. He cannot punish us without punishing himself. He cannot destroy us without destroying himself. Whatever applies to our creator must also apply to us and it simply has to be this way since we are all truly one. Jesus teaches :
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
– Luke 6:37
Read the scripture above again and know that it is not referencing a retribution from God, but only from yourself if you do not forgive, or if you condemn or if you judge. God knows this as well and this is a universal law that applies to all things.
The true God is not petty or demanding since he does not see things the way we do. He does not fear what we do as the god written into the Old Testament did. He is not threatened by our actions as the god in the Bible is. With a few exceptions, he is not the god portrayed in the Bible.
Consider this … Jesus had a much clearer perception of God than anyone at the time he was here. He saw God as the unconditionally forgiving God he was. When the religious leaders of his day rose up to kill him, it wasn’t because they had a few differences in doctrine. No, it ran far deeper than depicted in the Bible. The reason for their swift resolve to eliminate his influence was because he revealed that they were worshiping a false god, Yahweh, the god of war, not the true unconditionally loving God.
The god of war gave great opportunity for religious leaders to control through fear, whereas the unconditionally loving God works with each person individually along their journey to rediscover him and rejoin the union they had at the original point of creation.
This same influence of the god of war warped the teachings of Jesus as depicted in the Bible by undoing the idea of unconditional love. For example, here is what Jesus probably really said when asked about forgiveness:
“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.“
– Matthew 18: 21-22
Basically Jesus is saying you should simply be forgiving. Jesus is teaching here about the spirit of his God and creator and is reflected in the words in which forgiveness should simply exist as a natural reaction, without the person even requesting it, because that is how the true God is.
However, that teaching would undermine the spirit of a controlling god if it weren’t followed shortly thereafter by something that undoes the spirit of forgiveness that Jesus just taught as illustrated here:
“Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. “
– Matthew 18:33-35
So, after having indicated you should stay in a perpetual state of forgiveness, it says that unless you do this, god will not forgive you and will go even further and inflict torment on you. So it is saying you must forgive unconditionally, but that god himself will not unless you meet his condition. This is a direct contradiction to the spirit of Jesus’s true teachings and clear evidence of the interference that the entity, Yahweh god of war, still had on those who put together the New Testament and initiated Christianity. This same entity and his influence is still there to this day.
The good news is that we are moving into a new age of enlightenment and discovery. You could say this is an actual second coming of Christ as we witness the restoration of the true teachings of Jesus, other ascended masters, and of our unconditionally loving Creator. This second coming is not the fabrication of any physical kingdom, but an awakening of spirit and the acceptance of love and forgiveness for all, because this is the true nature of our creator, and therefore, it is the true nature of his creations … the true nature of us.
So pulling this all back around with respect to how God views the sexual preferences of his creations … it doesn’t matter to him in any way, shape or form what you do. There is no judgement from him, only from yourself, so let go of any guilt you are carrying that was planted there by ages old controlling scripture, stories, society, etc., and see that it was never the true expression of God, so just let it go.
Whether society decides to embrace a persons right to choose or not, your right is already given to you by your creator to be the person you desire to be. This applies to us all because regardless of your sexual preference, there are so many unnecessary taboos associated with sex in general that we are all messed up to some degree. It’s time to purge this, so sit back for a moment, take in a deep breath as you imagine yourself breathing in the life force of your creator. This awareness of life force will energize your being and clear your spirit and mind of what is not being helpful. Knowing that, exhale all the baggage, unhelpful ideas and the limitations you accepted over time, and just let them go.
Namaste
“Love will find a way…”
– Healing Touch Shoppe
“God is a God of unconditional love, and He does not teach through fear or use fear in any way.”
– Being Willing
“I am here only to be truly helpful”
– Healing Touch Shoppe on Etsy
