Why I Sold Apple Stock

     One of the ways that the Lord Jesus has provided for my life and ministry is through investing in various corporations. Sometime ago I purchased Apple Corp. stock, which has proved to be one of the best investments that I have made. I had no intention to sell. However, last week, the news was trumpeted throughout the media that the CEO of this company was "gay and proud of it." As a disciple of Jesus Christ this presented me with a dilemma. Could I continue to invest in and thus support a company led by an individual who so blatantly opposes God's will? I sold the holding. Below is a brief essay detailing the teaching of the Bible on this subject.
       

Homosexuality- a Biblical perspective

In the first chapter of the book of Genesis, in the very first words said by God to humanity, He gives us the incredible privilege and responsibility of bearing His image. "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gen. 1:26 ESV) No other part of His creation, not animals nor even angels, is accorded this honor. After giving mankind dominion over the earthly creation the text continues, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen 1:27) God could have chosen to create only one gender or multiple genders. His sovereign will was that two genders, male and female, best expressed His image. Men and women share equally in being image bearers.

The more detailed creation account of people in chapter 2 tells us that God brought a woman to the man. (Gen 2:22) No animal was found as a helpmeet for Adam. God could have created another man to be Adam's helpmeet or could have created two women. But they would not have expressed God's image in the glorious way in which a man and a woman are created to do. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Gen. 2:24)

This same verse appears again in Ephesians 5:31 when Paul the apostle is writing about God's primary purpose for the institution of marriage. Immediately following we read "this mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." (Eph 5:32) The entire passage from verse twenty-two to the end of the chapter gives us a fascinating parallel between the husband/wife relationship on the one hand, and the relationship between Christ and the church on the other. Careful reading reveals that God's intent is for a godly man and a godly woman to be a divinely ordained illustration of the marriage relationship between Christ the bridegroom and his bride, the church. The marriage of two men or two women distorts this picture.

One of the blessings of the Bible is that it does not bend and shift with every cultural change. "The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the Word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8 cf. 1 Peter 1: 24b-25a) Jesus says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." (Mk 13:31) The real issue is whether we as Christians will abide in His word (John 8:31-32) and truly be His disciples or whether we will also bend and shift with every cultural change. One of the realities of aging is that one can potentially gain perspective. The phenomenon of "gay rights", tolerance, advocacy, gay marriage etc. has only gained force in the last generation but God has not changed His mind.

In the old covenant He said, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination." (Leviticus 18:22) Homosexual relations was one of many sexual sins for which the penalty was stoning. "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." (Lev. 20:13) This is the primary sin for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. "But before they laid down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they said to Lot. "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them. (sexually)" Lot responded (v.7) I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly."

A similar incident by the Benjaminites of the city of Gibeah precipitated a war in which almost the entire tribe was exterminated. (Judges 19:22ff) Both 1^st and 2^nd Kings tell of male cult prostitutes in the land. The authors' comment in 1 Kings 14:24 is "they did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel." In the 1 Kings 15 example King Asa "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his (fore) father had done" by putting away these people. Josiah, the last righteous king before the Babylonian conquest of Judah, "broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes. (2 Kings 23:7)

Turning to the New Covenant we find "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." (Romans 1:18) As the passage continues we find that those who commit homosexual acts are among this number. "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Romans 1:24-27)

Those who practice homosexuality, in company with a number of other unrighteous people, will not inherit the kingdom of God. "Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality…will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10) Even the "law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane…the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality… and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted." (1 Timothy 1:9-11)

The Lord has not given us the luxury of picking and choosing what parts of His Word we will believe and obey. Either we take the whole package or none of it. The same God who sent His only Son to die for our sins as the supreme expression of His love for us (1 John 4:9-10) and who has promised eternal life to those who follow Christ has also commanded that sexual relations be limited to one man and one woman within the bounds of holy matrimony.(1 Thess 4:3-7) "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." (Hebrews 13:4)

Let us not be conformed to this world (Rom 12:2) but make it our aim to please Him. (2 Cor. 5:9) May we draw courage from the example of Micaiah, son of Imlah, who stood against 400 false prophets. (1 Kings 22) "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)