A lot of Christians believe that homosexuality is an incredibly offensive sin that is worthy of death, and it is all because of the Bible verse Leviticus 20:13. It reads: "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
However, Desiring God founder Pastor John Piper said people have to be reminded that the Bible was written 1,500 years ago, according to the Gospel Herald. During his podcast "Ask Pastor John," Piper even argued that not everything the Bible has designed for God's people in the past is applicable in today's times.
"Putting to death adulterers, putting to death homosexuals, putting to death the sons who curse their parents, all these penalties belonged to a particular season in the history of God's dealings with his covenant people, and those dealings have changed dramatically with the coming of God's Son Jesus Christ into the world. That is the basic nature of the Bible and of redemptive history that we need to get across to our critics," he said.
Piper said Jesus Christ has already sacrificed Himself to pay for people's sins, and this is why the church today does not function the same way Israel did in the Old Testament.
"So our overall aim in dealing with our critics who don't know their Bibles is to direct them to Jesus who is the goal of everything in the Bible and to try to help them see that God has been moving through history in different ways at different times to bring us into a relationship with Jesus for the salvation of our souls," he said.
