by Rev. Rich Braaksma
Statement Against Heterosexual Marriages Only
Statement
In keeping with his position in the other video that the Bible is not a rule book Rev. Braaksma chooses a couple passages which he claims the Human Sexuality Report misuses. He claims that we cannot just extract rules from Paul and apply them to ourselves in the 21st century.
Romans 1 is one of the passages he brings up. Braaksma says that in the first chapter Paul builds up how certain people are so wicked, so evil. Then in chapter 2 Paul springs the trap on his audience by pointing out that they are just as bad.
Braaksma also references slavery in this video. This is not referenced in the sense that the Human Sexuality Report misuses verses about slavery, but rather, it is believed, in the sense that it is not easy to take the New Testament written 2,000 years ago and pull out rules from it for the 21st century.
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Response
Many commentators agree with Braaksma in that Paul builds up a major case in chapter 1 of Romans and then turns back on his audience in chapter 2 when he declares that they, too, are guilty of the same things. But how does that show that the Human Sexuality Report misuses Romans 1? He doesn’t give any evidence at all that the Report does that. Would Braaksma argue that idol worship is alright (Romans 1:23, 25)? Are the impure lusts of one’s heart good (verse 24)? Are unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughtiness, boastful acts, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless (verses 29-31) likewise good? Are these things somehow all good because Paul’s readers (chapter 2) were guilty of these things as well as the people Paul speaks of in chapter 1? Braaksma does not show how the Report misuses Romans 1.
On Braaksma’s second point it may not be so complicated to ascertain rules for 21st century living from the pages of Scripture. I Timothy 1:10 says that the law is against those who enslave people. The Greek word for “enslave” refers to those who capture people in order to sell them into slavery. Exodus 21:16 makes a similar statement when it says, “16 Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” Paul was referring more to indentured servants in Ephesians 6:5 “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling . . .” Therefore, both the Old and the New Testaments condemn the form of slavery as was practiced here in the United States. Braaksma says Paul could have condemned slavery, but he didn’t. That is incorrect. In Ephesians Paul did condemn the forms of slavery other than when a person would sell himself into servanthood for his own financial reasons.
Braaksma states his position, his opinion, that the report misuses Scripture passages, but he doesn’t really present evidence showing that is in fact the case. Braaksma is correct that properly interpreting the Bible is not easy. It is time consuming. For him to make his case that the Report misuses the relevant Scripture passages he would have to show something such as Romans 1 only prohibits violent or exploitive sexual acts. He does not do that.
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