Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality (Selected Scriptures)
Earlier in the service, I read from Romans chapter 1, a very powerful and challenging passage from the Bible. To recap, Romans 1:18-32 describes God’s wrath as it is revealed in the world. This wrath takes on several forms. First, there is eschatological wrath, the judgment that will fall upon the Earth at the end of human history during the Tribulation. Second, there is the sowing and reaping wrath, the consequence of sin where what one sows, they will reap. Third, cataclysmic wrath is the wrath of God that manifests through natural disasters or catastrophic events, such as the Flood, which lead people into eternity.
These forms of wrath—eschatological, consequential, and cataclysmic—are distinct from the wrath described in Romans 1. The wrath mentioned here is the wrath of abandonment. This is when God, as stated in verses 24, 26, and 28, “gives them over” to their sinful ways. It is God’s judgment on a society when He abandons them to the consequences of their actions, leading to increased sin and eventual judgment.
Romans 1:18 says that this wrath is revealed from heaven “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth.” Despite the truth being visible in creation and the law being written in people’s hearts, when humanity rejects God—revealed through creation, conscience, and scripture—God judges that society. Even if that society believes itself to be wise, it is in reality lost. The heart becomes darkened when people abandon God, and as a result, God abandons the darkened heart.
