Matthew Vines is the founder of The Reformation Project, which has nothing to do with the protestant reformation. It’s an attempt to “reform church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity.” Vines authored a book entitled God and the Gay Christian in which he attempts to argue that God is actually for homosexuality.
In his reinvention of the text, he says that Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed because of same-sex fornication. The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with the two angels who came to rescue Lot from the wrath of God upon the city. But this was a threatened gang-rape.
“God sends two angels disguised as men into the City of Sodom where the men of Sodom threatened to rape them. The angels blind the men, and God destroys the city. For centuries, this story was interpreted as God’s judgment on same-sex relations, but the only form of same-sex behavior described is a threatened gang rape.” Matthew Vines, from the video God and the Gay Christian: the Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Marriage
Vines says the real reason Sodom was destroyed is given in Ezekiel 16:49, which reads, “Now, this was the sin of your sister, Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, they did not help the poor and needy.” So even though Vines acknowledges the Sodomites wanted to rape visitors, he still insists Sodom was destroyed because they didn’t invite the angels to dinner.
Ezekiel 16 is one of the most shocking chapters of Scripture with its use of sexually explicit language. Jerusalem was unfaithful to God who labeled the city a promiscuous whore. In addition to being prideful and uncharitable, God said Jerusalem was guilty of all Sodom’s abominations, having at one point employed male prostitutes (1 Kings 14:24).
“And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.” Ezekiel 16:45-50
So that passage really doesn’t work in Vines’ favor. He also ignores other passages like in Jeremiah and Jude that mention the sexual and unnatural desire of the infamous Sodomites.
“…Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” Jude 1:7
“But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.” Jeremiah 23:14
According to the Bible, homosexuality is a serious sin worthy of the wrath of God. But it’s not an unforgivable sin. Those who repent will be washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God, when we understand the text.
