Torch, Fall/Winter 2007

immorality (1:24–25). Nor should we assume that homosexuals are worse in God’s eyes than other sinners. Even if these were successive stages of depravity, homosexuality would only be the second of three stages, and the worst sinners would be those who disobey their parents (1:30)! In Paul’s general description of the downward spiral of human sin, he is simply saying that mankind turned away from God and now human society has fallen apart in many ways; to wit, some are sexually immoral (1:24), some are homosexual (1:26–27), others are uselessly depraved in their thinking (1:29–31), and some probably fit more than one category! Additionally, we should not think that the statements of “giving them over” indicate that God is finished with mankind. God is not giving them over to a separate judgment per se; rather he gives them over to their sin. Paul is describing here the ways of a God who always smites in order to heal (Isaiah 19:22). The intent of God’s actions is redemptive. That is, God allows sinners to experience the fruit of their ways so that they will become aware of the resultant emptiness and return to Him. This strategy is incarnated in the prodigal who came to his senses when feeding the pigs and determined to return to the source of his life. To use colloquial language, God is not “writing these people off” because he is disgusted by them and finished with them, but He is strategically working with them to ultimately win them to Himself. 8 TORCH is a rich passage that deserves detailed explanation. The general subject is Paul’s explanation of why God’s wrath is upon all mankind. As Paul describes it, man first turned from God (1:21–23), then began to experience terrible consequences as three times God “gave them over” to various sins (1:24, 26, 28). He gave them over to sexual immorality (1:24–25), to homosexuality (1:26–27), and to a depraved mind (1:28–32). What must be kept in mind is that Paul describes here a global account of the universal fall of humanity; these are not individual life stories of pagan sinners. In addition, these are not three sequential stages through which one progresses. These two observations have important implications as we attempt to apply them to the topic of homosexuality. For example, we should not assume that each homosexual person has descended first through the stage of heterosexual