One netfriend wrote (re the issue of same-sex marriages): I wonder which syllable of the word 'abomination' we find hardest to understand. God's word, not mine.

Nathan replied:

If it is so simple, please explain to us the principles which enable you to decide which Levitical abominations and prohibitions are still and which aren't. If you go to Leviticus 11:13-16 you will find that eating ostrich meat is also an abomination - same word. Now there are plenty of trendy restaurants in town serving ostrich meat, and I haven't seen any placard waving evangelicals picketing them. I'm an unrepentant ostrich meat eater - perhaps you think I should have my ordination revoked for this?

Now of course, you could point to the New Testament overturning of the food laws (with the explicit exception of blood - so where are the picket lines outside the delicatessens that sell black pudding?), but you've still got a problem surely? If God used to say that something was an abomination, but doesn't anymore, then doesn't that rather call into question the significance of things being described as abominations. A quick scan through the Mosaic law will reveal that everything described as an abomination is either sexual (including being close to your naked wife while she is menstruating if the summary in Lev 18:24-30 refers to the whole preceding list) or to do with what you eat, when you eat it, or who you eat it with. So are you willing to conclude, on the basis of God's word not mine, that God's abhorrence of homosexuality is about as strong, and possibly as changeable, as God's abhorrence of eating ostrich meat? Even if you want to cling to the NT revision of food laws, surely you have to concede that the presence of the word "abomination" is of no help in distinguishing between laws which are eternal and laws which are specific to particular eras or cultures.

And what do we do with all those other levitical laws which the New Testament never overturns? Trimming your beard, wearing clothes made of two different textiles, sowing two types of seed in the same paddock, going to bed with your menstruating wife, eating black pudding? Is there a biblical teaching which enables us to make these distinctions, or are we left, like too many sold-out evangelicals, just concluding that the ones which still hold are whichever ones the "traditional family values movement" says still hold?

Peace and hope,

Nathan

______________________________________ Nathan Nettleton Pastor, South Yarra Community Baptist Church Melbourne, Australia