Pornography stores and movie theaters hawk explicit sex. Sexual intercourse "live" on stage. "Gay-in" happenings and "Gay Power" parades in New York and Los Angeles. Sex change operations in Copenhagen. College yearbooks with nude pictures. Homosexual churches in California. English prelate sanctions homosexual marriages. Sodom and Gomorrah live again. It's like a ghastly resurrection of an old TV series — but it's REAL LIFE — AND IT IS SICK!
GOD said it would be this way today! The Scriptures show social conditions at Christ's return to be "as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30).
Ancient Sodom was notorious for vice and corruption. The very word sodomy as applied to perverted sex comes from the homosexual way of life of Sodom's inhabitants (Gen. 19:5).
The entire city gathered at Lot's door to perform violent perversion on two strangers — two men.
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them are mentioned specifically as "giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh" (Jude 7).
This article must of necessity be blunt — just to describe the social sickness that is a modern fulfillment of prophecy! Christ commanded us to watch world conditions — to be aware of His imminent return. But this article — in all its bluntness — will only begin to tell the full story of the raw hideousness of modern Sodom's sins!
We have been careful in our selection of vocabulary and phraseology. And we sincerely hope our warning of today concerning fulfillment of Biblical prophecy will offend in no way — but fully inform serious-minded people of the state of degeneracy in today's society.
Homosexuality Now Epidemic
Today's society? "Dr. Charles W. Socarides, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, warned that homosexuality has reached epidemic proportions in the United States.
"He said its frequency of incidence — 2.5 million to 4 million — surpasses that of the nation's four major illnesses . . ." (International Herald Tribune, May 19, 1970). The 2.5 to 4 million homosexuals, by Dr. Socarides' definition, are those who consistently and from inner necessity engage in homosexual acts. He does not include in this category any person who commits an isolated act, or the much greater multitude who are latent homosexuals, effeminate (or not masculine) in personality!
Influence of Affluence
Rising homosexuality is only indicative of society's moral sickness as a whole which in its broad impact affects many more millions than that! In fact, the technological miracles of mass communication — of TV, the printing press, motion pictures, etc. — arising out of our abundance are ready to insure that no one is safe from the pollutions of modern Sodom! "When I had fed them to the full [blessed them with material things], they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses" (Jer. 5:7).
Just like what happened in Sodom — 'Behold, this was the iniquity of thy 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" (Ezek. 16:49-50).
Easy abundance preceded adultery, God states. A cornucopia of physical riches misused has led to a perverted "pornocopia." Pornography is, as Time magazine stated last year, "wallowing in pay dirt. The market for erotic books, films and paraphernalia, which are sold mostly to the middle class and middle aged, has increased by an estimated 300% in the past five years. Police experts figure that annual sales of pornography are about $500 million, and some put the total as high as $2 billion" (Nov. 16, 1970).
Bookstands are replete with hundreds of current novels whose pages are filled with sex exploits in myriad variety, and described in execrable prose. A plethora of pornographic picture magazines feature color photos of nude men and women — some illustrating the act of sex itself — and some catering to homosexual tastes. Some porno shops feature "peep show" booths and offer a variety of sexual devices — mainly artificial male and female organs!
It's Sodom and Gomorrah all over again — but it's called freedom, broad-mindedness, liberated, modern, progressive.
Take movies, for example. Statements like this are typical: "We are fighting for your rights! See Freedom to Love and Kama Sutra '71 — together! The exhibition of these films was interfered with by authorities. We firmly believe in the constitutional rights of the American citizen. For freedom of speech! Against censorship!" So goes the pseudo-noble, self-righteously indignant materialistically motivated defense of abject filth.
More of the same hides behind the catch-all term art. Even the recent Secretary of the British Board of Film Censors expressed the opinion — in an interview with two of our staff members — "I personally don't mind the most explicit sex in the context which justifies it and done by someone who has been making films of artistic quality. Look at the sex scenes in Women in Love by Ken Russell. All right, you can't get more explicit than that. But they were justified in the story and the characterizations arising out of it."
And the traditional bastion of morals, the church, many times goes along with the tide, and sometimes leads the way. One case in point, the report of a UPI release: "[A religious figure] said today two school girls and a boy will appear naked in a film he made about Adam and Eve which will be shown in church with a scene suggesting lovemaking . . . 'There is nothing wrong with the film,' [the religious figure] said. 'Even the scene suggesting lovemaking is very, very tame. We have been very careful of what shots we show and what is out of focus.' "
The girl appearing in the film said that her minister "is very artistic. He is planning to do a full-length sculpture of me in the nude. In the play I am raped and murdered" (Jan. 9, 1971).
The Spirit of Sodom
The spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah is the spirit of this age — influencing people everywhere! Said one prominent person in the movie industry, "They'll stop making these films when the public stops buying them . . . It's a vicious cycle, [he] asserted, because movie goers are flocking to these films, complaining about the lack of decent entertainment and yet 'fine attractions are falling by the wayside' because these same people won't go to them" (Vancouver Sun, Jan. 27, 1970).
When the play "Oh, Calcutta" hit the London stage, "the audience [gave] the cast of 10 a standing ovation after a two-hour orgy of make-believe sex, spankings and incest" (Reuters, July 18, 1970).
Now some porno-movie house films show humans in sex acts with various animals.
God foretold our time 2500 years ago, "They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not" (Isa. 3:9). The New York Times reported last year "a new mood now taking hold among the nation's homosexuals. In growing numbers they are publicly identifying themselves as homosexuals, taking a measure of pride in that identity and seeking militantly to end what they see as society's persecution of them" (Aug. 24, 1970).
Written in the law of God is the commandment, "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel" (Deut. 23:17).
Sodomites are many times mentioned in the Bible in conjunction with religion — with the infiltration of (Continued from page 11) paganism and Baal worship into the true religion of ancient Israel. It's recorded that King Josiah "brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove" (II Kings 23:7).
These were "holy sodomites" who sold themselves as an "act of worship."
And today? Last year — 1970 — saw the creation of the first homosexual church denomination in the United States, with congregations in Hollywood, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago and small "mission" churches in Dallas, Miami and Phoenix. The pastor of the headquarters Hollywood congregation became convinced that "the lord" wanted him to found a "gay church."
The question is, which "lord"? It wasn't Jesus Christ, who — as God of the Old Testament — destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in a furious foretaste of hellfire! (Jude 7) It wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ who said the time at His return would be as rank in manners and morals as in the time of Sodom and Gomorrah!
States the Hollywood pastor, "As far as Christ is concerned, love in any form is permissible."
What is "love"? Homosexuality cannot be — and never will be — love. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (I John 5:3). The Bible warns, "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind . . . shall inherit the kingdom of God"! (I Cor. 6:9-10)
A recent paperback on homosexuality by a Cambridge theologian urges the following, in the words of a newspaper columnist, "Homosexuals should never be shunned, certainly not by the churches. They ought to be welcomed and made to feel that they belong . . . [the theologian's] opinion is that a permanent, stable loving relationship between two people of the same sex . . . should be accepted and not condemned by the community . . .[as] these acts are good if they really contribute to a mutual fulfillment in love" (Watford Observer, May 15, 1970).
A leader of the Lavender Menace, a lesbian organization in New York, said that "homosexuality is not an illness, it's a way of expressing love for someone of the same sex, and any form of love is beautiful and valid."
The Apostle Paul declares in answer, "There is . . . no possible defense for their conduct . . . God has given them up to shameful passions. Their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and their men in turn, giving up natural relations with women, burn with lust for one another, males behave indecently with males, and are paid in their own persons the fitting wage of such perversion. . . They know well enough the just decree of God, that those who behave like, this deserve to die, and yet they do it, not only so, they actually applaud such practices" (Rom. 1:21-32, New English Bible).
More and more, as present society approaches the apex of Sodom's sins, society condones sodomy. Recently the National Association for Mental Health "called for an end to criminal punishment for homosexual acts committed in private between consenting adults. . . . In a statement entitled 'Homosexuality and Mental Illness,' the association said, 'There is no evidence either in empirical research or in the experience of other countries that homosexual behavior in itself endangers the health of the individual or of society' " (Reuters, Feb. 16, 1971).
Just this year, a man calling himself the "first publicly declared homosexual ever to run for Congress" filed nominating papers as an independent candidate.
The total and openly flagrant abandonment of all moral norms is rapidly nearing that point where God will say, "As I live . . . Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters" (Ezek. 16:48).
Unless our society repents, and turns to God, the moral corruption of modern society will surpass that of Sodom! Unless our nations give heed to God's warning message, they will go beyond the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah! And if they refuse to take advantage of the prolonged period of God's mercy as He awaits to see whether our peoples will repent — then prophecy will irrevocably come to pass: "For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater [because our sins were greater] than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her" (Lam. 4:6).
The Alternative
Everyone needs to love, and to be loved, without fear, guilt, and shame — to feel wanted, and not rejected.
But REAL love is impossible without God, and APART FROM God's Law. Genuine love is unselfish — outgoing concern — away from self. Sure, you can call lust "love" — but it's still lust. Lust is selfish and inward. It is inconsiderate of another's feelings or needs.
Sex CAN BE beautiful, between man and woman, WITHIN A MARRIAGE relationship. But you can take sex and smear it all over the movie screen, and put it in the porno-books, and call it "love." But it's not. And in the end, it only leaves a gnawing void.
The relationship of man and woman in marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:22-28) — the true Christ, and the true Church. Why befoul, pollute, and pervert that relationship? Why not enjoy the full, rich, and happy life — just as God gave it?
The way of Sodom and Gomorrah can be repented of. Homosexuality and sodomy can be forgiven. Christ's sacrifice is big enough to wash away all of that — if a person is willing to give up his sin, and live the life God wants him to live.
God ". . . turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. . . [But] the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations . . ." (II Peter 2:6, 9).
God will do the same, today.
For the ungodly.
For the godly.
Choose.