Does the Bible Teach Gays Must be Executed?

Someone asked:

"Leviticus 20:13: 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.'

Now the bible clearly says to kill gay people. Make no mistake about it. We know how fundies love to bag out on gay people. We see how the WBC loves to blame gay people for all of society's ills.

What I want to know is why do you fundies pay lip service to what god supposedly says? Why aren't you doing what god commands? Why aren't you killing gay people? What is your excuse?"

My answer:

Let me answer the broader question which I think you are asking first, and then the case-specific question about gays next.

Christians don't enact Moses' Law to the letter, because the Bible itself explains that we are not meant to do so.

It needs to be understood that some of the early books in the Bible were written by Moses for the purpose of giving a civil law specifically to the nation of Israel and specifically for that time - his law was not intended for all people of all time. Later books in the Bible explain that Christians are not required to keep Moses' law to the letter. The Bible therefore is to be taken as a whole. It explains itself.

For example, in the book of Leviticus, Moses wrote for Israel a method of dealing with sin - they were to bring an offering and offer it on the altar. Moses intended this instruction for the citizens of Israel for that time - not for all people of all time. The New Testament, in the writings of Paul, explains that Moses' law of sin-offerings was only ever intended to be a temporary system, a system that was to be superseded once the true sacrifice for sin was made - which was the once-for-all sacrifice of God's own Son, for all of our sins, upon the cross. Christ's once-for-all offering for the sin of the whole world superseded the regular sin-offerings brought repeatedly by individuals under Moses' law.

The temporary system of law which Moses wrote for Israel was good. We can still learn a lot from its principles. And Christians will never break any of the underlying principles which it sought to convey. We fulfill the whole of Moses' law in principle, but we are not to express all of those principles using exactly the same outward forms that they used.

Comparing Moses' law with Jesus Himself and the lifestyle He creates in us, is like comparing a shadow of a person with the person Himself; like comparing a reflection of a person with the person Himself; like comparing a photo of a loved-one with the loved-one Himself. The reflection or the photo contains all the basics of what the person looks like - but when the loved-one Himself arrives, you don't keep admiring the reflection or the photo - you turn from it and turn to Him and embrace him. Similarly, Moses' law had the purpose of temporarily explaining certain important moral principles - but Jesus embodied it. Once He came, Israel was meant to turn from the outward rituals of Moses' law (rituals which illustrated Christ). By embracing Him, we embrace all that is good. Our lifestyle will then fulfill the same principles which Moses' law sought to teach - but we won't express those principles with precisely the same outward forms.

The basic rule, Jesus said, is love. If we always act in a loving way towards everyone, and embrace Jesus Christ as our Saviour, then our lifestyle will automatically fulfill the same underlying principles that were inherent in every point of Moses' law.

The New Testament explains this approach to Moses' law. If we don't take all of the books of the Bible into account, in regard to your question, it would be like reading a novel and after reading only two or three chapters, jumping to a conclusion about the plot. We have to read the whole novel to understand the novel. That's why Christians don't seek to enact Moses' law to the letter - because the overall teaching of the Bible explains otherwise. In principle, yes we do keep Moses' principles - but to the letter - in all of its outward forms - no we don't.

Now to the specific case of gays. Moses did stipulate the death penalty for sodomy. Why doesn't a Christian kill homosexuals, you ask. The reason is because while Christians believe homosexuality is unnatural, unfulfilling, morally wrong and not beneficial to the individual, to children, to families or to society, Christians believe (and Moses' law itself also taught this) that it is not an individual civilian's prerogative to take it into his own hands to punish wrong-doing. That role is vested exclusively with the civial authorities - with the society's judicial procedure - not with an individual. Vengeance belongs to God alone and to His appointed agents - it's not our place as individuals to punish wrongdoing. There must be a rule of law, not a system where individuals can go about taking vengeance according to their own whims and fancies.

So from a Christian, New Testament point of view, it would be out of place for me personally as an unelected, unappointed individual civilian to take it into my own hands to punish wrongdoing - wrongdoing such as murder, theft, adultery or sodomy.

But there is nothing wrong with Christians arguing for appropriate legislation to be put in place. And there is nothing wrong when the appropriate authorities punish wrongdoing appropriately.

Christians are united in their belief that wrong is wrong and that wrong should be legislated against and should be punishable by law. But some seem undecided concerning whether they see the death penalty as appropriate. My personal feeling is twofold: one, it can be argued that the death penalty is certainly deserved in some cases; and two, it is also a Biblical truth to say that mercy triumphs over judgment. So in regard to the question of capital punishment, I think there are a number of criteria which can be considered case-by-case without compromising both Mosaic law and Gospel truth. In other words, I think the death penalty needn't be considered inappropriate in some cases, and I also think there may be some cases where, if mercy is allowed to triumph over judgment, that also needn't be considered a breech of Biblical principle. I think it is possible to be consistent with the principles of Moses' law, and yet refrain from applying the death penalty in every case in which Moses' law stipulated it. There are cases where Moses' law stipulated the death penalty in which I think it would now be inappropriate to apply the death penalty and inconsistent with overall Biblical teaching. Then there are also cases where I think that to apply the death penalty needn't be considered inappropriate - but even in such cases, it sometimes mightn't be inappropriate to allow mercy to triumph over judgment. Perhaps we can discuss some of the criteria to be considered further some time. But I trust this suffices to answer your underlying question about how the Bible overall and different parts of it in particular were intended to be approached and applied.