My favorite part is when anti-Christians try to prove a point about something using scripture. The most recent one I saw was about how the Bible does not say that homosexuality is a sin…I stared at the comment, then kept reading. Someone later posted that the Hebrew language had no word or phrase for homosexuality…again, more staring.

As someone who has studied a bit about the language used in the Bible (specifically the Old Testament), it is true that the vocabulary was limited compared to modern Hebrew. However, there are phrases which easily indicate homosexual relations. One of the earliest being In Genesis 19, when the angels of the Lord come to bring Lot and his family out of Sodom. When there are cases dealing with wording, since I can’t read Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek, I use Young’s Literal Translation to get a good idea of how the original text was phrased. In Genesis 19:5, the men of the town of Sodom call to Lot:

“Where [are] the men who have come in unto thee to-night? bring them out unto us, and we know them.”

As just about anyone who has read any Bible understand, to “know someone” in biblical terms means to have “sexual relations” with that person. Indeed, Lot’s response indicates this when he says:

“Do not, I pray you, my brethren, do evil; lo, I pray you, I have two daughters, who have not known any one; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do to them as [is] good in your eyes” Genesis 19:7-8 YLT

Again, this is a very literal translation – but Lot offers his daughters “who have not known anyone” to the men to do what they please. Lot also says that to do what the men want to do with the guests would be evil. This was before the 10 Commandments were written, before the New Covenant, before a lot of things (no pun intended). Yet Lot knew that for the men to have sexual relations with another many was evil.

Now, many would argue that the Old Testament is just that – old, not needed anymore after the New Covenant which was established by Christ in the New Testament. However, we know that there are many references in the New Testament to the Old Testament. Christ himself recites passages from and makes references too the Old Testament. At the risk of making a generalization, but without getting into a discussion of the canonization of the Jewish and Christian texts, the “Bible” of the apostles’ day was the Old Testament – it was what the knew and could reference.

This sort of discussion is good, but digg’s non-technology areas have become places where zealots from both sides are duking it out in a forum that has no merit. Digg should have never opened up the floodgates to any story come-what-may. I foresee more of these issues finding their way into the technology sections, and the story filters I have in place not being able to adequately keep the news of interest out of the news of fanatics. That will be a sad day for me….

I don’t have a family of my own now, but I hope that when I do I will make sure that my actions are directed by God. That’s what hit me this morning – the awesome responsibility of being the man of the family. More than just making sure the family is taken care of in this world, but making sure they are taken care of for after this world. As Bro. Strange put it, to make sure we aren’t buried at the edge of our inheritance, but that we see the full inheritance which God has for us. It was a truely amazing morning, which opened my eyes to the great need for this type of ministry in our world.

The other key point I got this morning was about Simon-Peter. Jesus told him that he prayed for him (which, would be an incredible thing to have said to you for one thing), and then told him that after he was converted, he was to strengthen his bretheren. God manifested in flesh told Peter that his duty when he became a Christian was to help out his brother. Too often these days men have no where to go for comfort and solace when things are going bad. But there are many men who have been through situations before. I know when I have a family I will definitely want to talk to my dad, and other men of God about how to handle situations. The Man Alive men’s ministries at church will make sure that support structure is in place for me, and all other men in the church. We have an awesome responsibility in God’s plan – and we can work together to keep each other strong in times of need. It was a great time this morning, and I look forward to where it will go from here!