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"Without natural affection"

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

2 Timothy 3:3, the part that says "without natural affection," is often quoted at gays and lesbians to prove that our relationships are a sign of last days apostasy and rebellion against God.

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P52, the oldest known Greek language
fragment of our New Testament
from John 18


To use 2 Timothy 3:3, "without natural affection," against homosexuals as if that is what Paul had in mind when he wrote it is shockingly ignorant.

If someone has used this verse against you, remember their "way out in left field" comment is only their private interpretation.

Most of the commentaries written over the last 2000 years do NOT link "without natural affection" to homosexuality. 

"Without natural affection"
in the context of 2 Timothy 3 refers to children not loving their parents properly, 3:2 and conversely, parents not loving their children properly, 3:3 - compare Matthew 10:21 for an example Jesus gives of being "without natural affection."

What famous heterosexual Christian commentators understood 2 Tim 3:3 to mean


1. "Without natural affection - To their own children." - John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible

2. "αστοργοι - aspondoi - Without that affection which parents bear to their young, and which the young bear to their parents. An affection which is common to every class of animals; consequently, men without it are worse than brutes." - Adam Clarke Commentary

3. "Without natural affection - (the same Greek word as used in Romans 1:31, there translated, implacable). This expression denotes the want of affectionate regard towards their children. The attachment of parents to children is one of the strongest in nature, and nothing can overcome it but the most confirmed and established wickedness. 

And yet the apostle charges on the heathen generally the want of this affection. He doubtless refers here to the practice so common among heathens of exposing their children, or putting them to death. This crime, so abhorrent to all the feelings of humanity, was common among the heathen, and is still. 

The Canaanites, we are told, Psalms 106:37,38, "sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan." Manasseh, among the Jews, imitated their example, and introduced the horrid custom of sacrificing children to Moloch, and set the example by offering his own, 2 Chronicles 33:6. 

Among the ancient Persians it was a common custom to bury children alive. In most of the Grecian states, infanticide was not merely permitted, but actually enforced by law. The Spartan lawgiver expressly ordained that every child that was born should be examined by the ancient men of the tribe, and that if found weak or deformed, should be thrown into a deep cavern at the foot of Mount Taygetus. 

Aristotle, in his work on government, enjoins the exposure of children that are naturally feeble and deformed, in order to prevent an excess of population. But among all the nations of antiquity, the Romans were the most unrelenting in their treatment of infants, Romulus obliged the citizens to bring up all their male children, and the eldest of the females- proof that the others were to be destroyed. 

The Roman father had an absolute right over the life of his child, and we have abundant proof that that right was often exercised. Romulus expressly authorized the destruction of all children that were deformed, only requiring the parents to exhibit them to their five nearest neighbours, and to obtain their consent to theft death. 

The law of the Twelve Tables, enacted in the 301st year of Rome, sanctioned the same barbarous practice. Minucius Felix thus describes the barbarity of the Romans in this respect: "I see you exposing your infants to wild beasts and birds, or strangling them after the most miserable manner," (chap. xxx.) 

Pliny, the elder, defends the right of parents to destroy their children, upon the ground of its being necessary in order to preserve the population within proper bounds.

Tertullian, in his apology, expresses himself boldly on this subject. "How many of you (addressing himself to the Roman people, and to the governors of cities and provinces) might I deservedly charge with infant murder; and not only so, but among the different kinds of death, for choosing some of the cruellest for their own children, such as drowning, or starving with cold or hunger, or exposing to the mercy of dogs; dying by the sword being too sweet a death for children." 

Nor was this practice arrested in the Roman government until the time of Constantine, the first Christian prince. The Phenicians and Carthagenians were in the habit of sacrificing infants to the gods. 

It may be added, that the crime is no less common among modern pagan nations. No less than 9000 children are exposed in Pekin (Beijing) in China, annually. Persons are employed by the police to go through the city with carts every morning to pick up all the children that may have been thrown out during the night.

The bodies are carried to a common pit without the walls of the city, into which all, whether dead or living, are promiscuously thrown. (Barrow's Travels in China, p. 113, Am. ed.) 

Among the Hindoos the practice is perhaps still more common. In the provinces of Cutch and Guzerat alone the number of infantile murders amounted, according to the lowest calculation in 1807, to 3000 annually; according to another calculation, to 30,000. Females are almost the only victims. (Buchanan's Researches in Asia, Eng. ed., p. 49. Ward's View of the Hindoos.) 

In Otaheite, previously to the conversion of the people to Christianity, it was estimated that at least two-thirds of the children were destroyed. (Turnbull's Voyage round the World in 1800, 2, 3, and 4.) The natives of New South Wales were in the habit of burying the child with its mother, if she should happen to die. (Collins' Account of the Colony of New South Wales, p. 124, 125.) 

Among the Hottentots, infanticide is a common crime. "The altars of the Mexicans were continually drenched. in the blood of infants." In Peru, no less than two hundred infants were sacrificed on occasion of the coronation of the Inca. The authority for these melancholy statements may be seen in Beck's Medical Jurisprudence, vol. i. 184--197, ed. 1823. See also Robertson's History of America, p. 221, ed. 1821. 

This is a specimen of the views and feelings of the heathen world; and the painful narrative might be continued to almost any length.

After this statement, it cannot surely be deemed a groundless charge when the apostle accused them of being destitute of natural affection."

- Barnes Notes on the New Testament

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