Hi beautiful people of God!

I've had a recent revelation on Romans 1:26-27. I've no one else to bounce this off, so thought to post this here, and see if anyone else shares my views. So far from the literature that I've read, my perspective on Romans 1:26,27, has not been mentioned.

Taking a broader perspective on this passage,my recent revelation is that if you start reading from verse 18, the key word I think to unlocking this text is the word “ALL”. It states that ‘the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness…”. If this is so, Paul can’t be addressing just the homosexual population of 5%. Here is Paul and the very small Christian church surrounded by a very outwardly pagan, idol worshipping society, who do not know the true God. Surely the wrath of God as described in this passage is falling on all of them that do not know God. Surely Paul here is addressing a larger crowd of people of the day, hey maybe in fact the general populous of that day? How can it be, that the only idol worshipping group of people that do not know God were the small homosexual population? It doesn’t make sense. The majority of people in Paul’s day and even today do not know God and worship idols rather than the true God, whatever form of idolatry that may take – worship of animals or worship of TV. Therefore if we apply verse 18 to this context of factual reality the wrath of God that is falling on those that do not know God, is on the majority of people and not just 5% of society. Unless I’ve missed something?

Also this fits with the wording of "..their women.."in Rms 1:26b. This suggests that the women belonged to a particular group of people. In alignment with my thoughts above, Paul seems to be talking about the gentiles. So then whose women? – The gentile women.

Any thoughts oh this?

I've been having similar conversations about reading those verses in context, and not just plucking them out of midair. It makes no sense, as a matter of language, to start at verse 26 with a "because" or "for this reason" (depending on your precise translation). At the very least you have to go back to verse 24… and if you go there, you really have to go back to verse 21… and if you do that you arguably should go back to verse 18.

And then you start realising that it's a massive arc of material that doesn't reach it's destination until Chapter 3!

Quote from orfeo on June 4, 2012, 1:05 pm

I've been having similar conversations about reading those verses in context, and not just plucking them out of midair. It makes no sense, as a matter of language, to start at verse 26 with a "because" or "for this reason" (depending on your precise translation). At the very least you have to go back to verse 24… and if you go there, you really have to go back to verse 21… and if you do that you arguably should go back to verse 18.

And then you start realising that it's a massive arc of material that doesn't reach it's destination until Chapter 3!

You are exactly right in saying that is doesn't reach it's destination until chapter 3!… I've studied all of Romans and it's such a good book. My favourite actually. The first three and abit chapters of Romans is about life under the law -prechrist,and hence the need for a saviour. In the broader context again of the entire book of Romans, Romans 1 doesn't even apply to Christians, who are saved by grace and are righteous despite our behaviour.

Quote from orfeo on June 5, 2012, 12:35 pm

Quote from hailey on June 4, 2012, 11:08 pm

Hey guys, just to add to my post,

Yes there is a strong argument that Romans 1 is referring to Temple sex, but we need to prove this either within the text itself, or somehow through historical facts. I'm in the middle of doing the historical research, but it's hard to prove historically, there are differing opinions between historians.

I think, my textual argument using the word "ALL" in verse 18 to unlock the passage is the strongest proof that the passage is infact not talking about homosexuals, but in fact heterosexuals having same sex relations connected to idolatry. Has anyone heard of my textual understanding of this passage? So far no one author I've read has brought attention to this. So I'm not sure if I'm missing something in my reasoning process.

I'm not sure whether I've heard this explicitly linked to the word 'all', but it is very, very similar to the conversations I've been having on another board. It seems clear to me and to many others there that verse 23 and 25 are explicitly referring to idolatry. It then also looks very much as if verses 26-27 are part of a list of things associated with idolaters (ie Gentiles) that continues on in verses 28-32.

Chapter 1 is all about saying "look at those horrible Gentiles" before Chapter 2 turns around and says "you Jews aren't any better". It's a catalogue of the worst excesses of idolaters.

lol ..I've posted this on the gay christian network forum as well. I'm new to both boards so didn't know if I would get any response.I should have footnoted that in my post, so you didn't have to double up on the same question.