The public announcement by Jennifer Knapp that she is a homosexual has resulted in the usual freak-outs, most of which I am not terribly interested in. One detail of the commotion though provides an opportunity to examine something a lot of Christians in the conversation are sure to miss.
Miss Knapp points out that those who are using the Scriptures' commandments against homosexuality to call her to repentance are not keeping the Biblical laws against eating shellfish, mixing fibers, and other "holiness" laws.
This is a really common tactic, which I addressed to an extent in the last Theonomy Primer post. In this usage, however, it's being done to make the lady's critics out to be hypocritical.
There's an obvious response which I doubt many will make, because of of the tacit antinomianism in the Evangelical circles.
The response is this: God has by subsequent revelation told us we are not to keep the holiness laws in that fashion, Christ having come. The issue of diet specifically is addressed with a divine commandment: "Kill and eat." Further instruction in how to handle the ceremonies is given in the Epistles. Yet no where is the issue of proper sexual relations modified in the slightest from that originally given in God's Law. Rather, it is specifically reinforced.
This highlights what our proper understanding is to be: God's commandments stand as they are given unless and until He alters them by subsequent revelation. Any other understanding leads to confusion, as in the case of this poor woman.
1 comment:
I must remember that response to "I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, let's call the whole thing off."
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