Having warned Christians not to let the false teachers lead them back into a life of sin, and into sexual perversion in particular, Jude now identifies the perversion in question as homosexuality.

As his third warning to errant Christians, Jude cites the destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around about -- a group whose sin was similar, but not identical, to that of the fallen angels.

Gross Immorality

The sin of the Sodomites was similar to that of the fallen angels in that both groups gave themselves over to gross immorality, a phrase translated from the Greek word ekporneno, meaning to engage in unlawful sexual lust.

Going After Other Flesh

The sin of the Sodomites differed, however, in the mode of expression of that lust -- in going after other flesh, a rather delicate phrase for the practice of homosexuality, a vice for which the Greek language apparently had no precise term.

A Homosexual Assault by Sodomites

When Lot greeted the angels who had been sent to destroy Sodom and invited them to stay at his house, he clearly had no idea who or what they were (Genesis 19). The news of the arrival of these two guests, who probably appeared as young and no doubt handsome young men (Mark 16:5), soon spread and before nightfall a mob of men surrounded Lot’s house, shouting in to him, saying: "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out so that we may know them "(verses 4-5). In their desperate attempt to distort the simple facts presented here, the false teachers claim that the demand to know Lot’s guests simply meant that they wanted to be introduced to them, find out more about them. Although the verb to know usually does have that meaning in the Bible, it is quite commonly used also as a euphemism for sex, as in the case of Adam and Eve, for example (Genesis 4:1, 25).

The Sin of Sodom was Sexual

The fact that Lot offered them his virgin daughters in place of his guests makes it crystal clear that the motives of the mob were sexual – but homo-sexual on this occasion, which is why his offer was immediately dismissed.Notice that the mob thought that the guests were men – a point that matters because some of the false teachers claim that the sin of the men of Sodom was not homosexuality itself, but seeking sex with angels.Notice anyway that the angels had not been sent to destroy Sodom and the surrounding cities because of this final homosexual episode, but because of earlier, accumulated wickedness. Even those few false teachers who do admit the homosexual nature of the incident, still insist that it was the rape element that was sinful – and that consensual homosexuality is quite acceptable to God. In fact, even the plainest scriptural condemnation of their vile practice is cleverly deflected -- with one learned American bishop now suggesting that homosexuality is no more a perversion than being left-handed.

Homosexuality in Canaan and Egypt

As we saw earlier, Jude began his warning by citing the sins of the ancient Israelites, a rough and tough group of freed slaves to whom sexual expression was of great importance – a fact that explains why one whole chapter of the book of Leviticus was devoted to warnings against a variety of sexual deviations that were widespread in the land of Canaan, the land they were about to enter, as well as in the land of Egypt from which they had been delivered (Leviticus 18:1-3).Following a list of forbidden incestual relationships, in the same chapter, we then find the following plain and simple prohibition of homosexuality : "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable" (verse 22). It is followed by a prohibition of an equally vile perversion that is still extant today, namely bestiality, sex with animals. Although nobody to my knowledge defends the latter perversion, the false teachers are desperate to claim that the former is really referring to homosexuality as part of a pagan religious ritual.A couple of chapters later in Leviticus we find that homosexuality, even if consensual, was so detestable in the eyes of God that under the administration of Moses it attracted the death penalty, Quote: "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" (Leviticus 20:13).

The Ministration of Death

Although the ministration of death is no longer in force for such perversions as homosexuality, as Paul explains (2 Corinthians 3:7), the practice clearly remains a foul abomination in the eyes of God, who created man and woman, male and female. Once again, however, the false teachers claim that the problem was not the homosexual act itself, but that of one of the two men involved was accepting the submissive sexual role of a woman – and that, in a society that they claim was fiercely anti-woman, this was seen as an unspeakable thing for a man to do. Apparently, this verse may also be rendered in the plural – "as men lie with a woman" -- thereby affording the false leaders the flimsy claim that what God is forbidding is homosexual prostitution!

The Filthy Lives of the Sodomites

The apostle Peter, however, saw sexual contact between two men, consensual or otherwise, as not only immoral but also physically disgusting -- which is why he concludes that the people of Sodom were destroyed because of their "filthy lives" (2 Peter 2:7). Notice that Peter’s exhortation to Christians to lead holy lives is drawn directly from these very same sections of Leviticus which are dealing with sexual deviation – from the summarizing verse, in fact, which says, Quote: "Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2).Nevertheless, even today, the false Christian teachers continue to bring the Church of God into disrepute around the world by condoning and promoting the vile homosexual practices for which the Sodomites were destroyed – practices that even the vast majority of those who profess no religion at all regard as disgusting and depraved, practices that no sane parent would want their children to become involved in.

What was the Sin of Sodom?

In writing the comment that we read earlier regarding people entertaining angels unawares, Paul no doubt had in mind the visit of the angels to Abraham on their way to destroy the city of Sodom. Clearly, Sodom was a debauched society, and had been that way for some years -- which is why we are told that years before Lot went to live there: "The men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord" (Genesis 13:13). Notice that Sodom and Gomorrah and sister cities around them were set in a beautiful and fertile area, whose beauty compared with that of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 13:10) -- a land so productive and fruitful that it afforded the people who lived there an abundance of leisure time, unlike many people even today in backward countries that have to labour from dawn to dusk to eke out a living.

The Abomination of the Sodomites

It was this abundant leisure that apparently led to their moral downfall – as God himself explains through the prophet Ezekiel, when he says: "Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom -- pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away" (Ezekiel 16:49-50). Sodom was clearly a prosperous city, and its inhabitants enjoyed an abundance of leisure time because of the rich fertility of the land. Obviously, there is nothing wrong there, but notice, however, that despite those blessings, they failed to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. In other words they did not use of their abundant leisure time constructively in order to develop a law-abiding society that would protect the rights of the weak against exploitation by the strong -- or a moral one that would help protect those same people from enslavement to their own baser instincts. What they did instead, in their haughty amoral manner, was to wallow in a cesspool society of abominable sexual depravity, as we read in the last line of the verse – depravity that the Genesis account specifically identifies.The false teachers are in fact fond of quoting these words of Ezekiel, but taking care to omit the last line of the verse. They claim instead that the particular sin of Sodom was failing to honour Lot’s visitors with proper hospitality – and then further of attempting to demean them instead by treating them as women, by making them the passive partners in an otherwise perfectly respectable sexual act. Perhaps the key stumbling block to these promoters of perversion, however, is found in the epistle of Paul to the Christians at Rome.

Un-natural Sexual Relations

Referring back to the Fall in the Garden of Eden, Paul describes mankind’s general descent into depravity and religious and moral confusion – and, in particular, sexual perversion, saying: "Even their women exchanged natural relations for un-natural ones. In the same way, men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men" (Romans 1:26-27).

The Natural Order – Male and Female

The natural relationship intended by God at creation is noted by Jesus when he says: "Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to this wife, and the two will become one flesh?" (Matthew 19:4)Although Paul makes it crystal clear that homosexuality, including lesbianism, is a perversion and contrary to the natural order of sexual relationships intended by God at creation, the false teachers are still not ready to surrender.

Paul’s Personal Opinions?

Their first defense is to claim, as mentioned earlier, that Paul’s epistles are simply expressing his personal and often biased opinions on such matters. Perhaps it was because similar arguments were extant in New Testament times that Peter, in his parallel attack on the false teachers, was moved to refer to Paul’s epistles as examples of inspired Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16). However, the world could not care less what the scriptures condone or condemn, or whether or not Paul was inspired by God -- a fact which only serves to reinforce the fact that Peter’s comments are addressed to men who claim to be Christian, men who want to appear Christian in order to appropriate positions of respect and authority in the Church of God.

Can Homosexuality be Natural?

Their final, desperate last-ditch defense of the false teachers, which clearly illustrates Peter’s warning about the way Paul’s writings can be twisted, is to claim that homosexuality is natural for some people because that is their natural, congenital sexual orientation -- that is how they were born and they have no choice in the matter, so that Paul’s prohibition on un-natural sexual acts, that we read a moment ago, simply does not apply to them!

The Transgender Tragedy

Some even claim that a new kind of homosexuality now exists, one totally unknown to Paul and the other apostles -- resulting from the existence of trans-gender people, individuals whose bodily biochemistry makes them neither truly man nor woman. As a result, they claim, there are people who appear to be men but whose natural sexual orientation is that of women, and vice versa.Although the transgender or transsexual tragedy may be a terrible reality and a veritable curse on the lives of many people in our modern world, Paul’s comments clearly apply to the nature of the physical act itself, not the individuals involved – so that sexual contact between two "men", two people with male physiology, remains, and always will be, an un-natural perversion and crude parody of the sexual relationship that God created for men and women to enjoy within marriage.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The fearful warning to those who insist on wallowing in the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah comes in the last line of Verse 7 of Jude’s letter, where he says that they were set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. In his parallel description of their fate Peter warns: "He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly" ( 2 Peter 2:6). Unrepentant individuals, who continue to pursue and promote such perversions and refuse to repent, will, in the end, be destroyed in like manner – which is why Peter then goes on to warn Christians in general and false teachers in particular that on the final Day of Judgment: "The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare" (3:10)."Since everything will be destroyed in this way", Peter then asks, "what kind of people ought you to be?" (verse 11). His immediate answer to his own question is: "You ought to live holy and godly lives ".