What Was the Sin of Sodom?

Micah, I’m so glad you brought this point up, as it is little understood these days, and in desperate need of correction. If you don’t mind, I’m going to address your second point first, and then move to your first in a second comment.

You are essentially making a plea for precision as we identify what the Bible says. This presupposes the Bible as an authority, a position we are in agreement on. So…let’s be precise.

I would like to state out of the gate that I agree, the sin of Sodom included arrogance, abundance without gratitude, and a failure to help the needy. We are rightfully indicted by the destruction of Sodom when we see these same sins in our hearts and lives.

The more salient point here, however, is that the failure to confront these sins led to a state of sinfulness in Sodom so great that, “the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man” wanted to rape the angelic visitors. This is simply a fact, plainly stated by Scripture. That fact is included in the Ezekiel passage, but listed at the end of the list of what God has against Sodom as “They were haughty and did an abomination before me.” (You may note in a few moments, how this language corresponds with language from 2 Peter.)

What concerns me is that our knowledge of the Bible and of God’s perspective is so deficient that we are being deceived by antichrist activists into believing that it was for inhospitality and not sexual deviance that God judged Sodom.

The Bible consistently portrays some sins as so egregious as to provoke God to judgement; as so beyond the pale that God actually permits the natural order to be overturned that people might receive the penalty of their sins in themselves and in their society. Wilson speaks to this below from another article,

When Ezekiel mentions the sin of Sodom in an aside, many conservative Christians might be surprised at where he starts. Sodom was a degraded city, and they had gotten to the point where the rape of visitors was something that a number of people thought should be allowed in the public square. But how did they get there?

This was the sin of Sodom—pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, neglect of the poor, haughtiness, and abominations. At the end of that list we find what caused Sodom to become a household word. But consider what went before, and ask yourself how America got to the place where the folly from our federal courts is taken even halfway seriously.

But does the Bible explicitly indicate that the sin of Sodom was of a sexual nature? It does. St. Peter writes that Lot was greatly distressed by the “sensual conduct of the wicked,” and that those will be judged “especially” who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” (2 Peter 2:7-10 ESV)

I draw your attention to the connection between despising authority and engaging in defiling passion as that point deserves an article of its own. However, I also want to point out that this verse does not contradict Ezekiel 16:49-50. The primary point here is that when men cast off God’s instruction they lose clarity of sight (Prov 29:18), when men despise authority they end up defiling themselves, when men fail to give God their gratitude they become idolators (Deut 8:10-14, 17-19). When men fail to confront being arrogant, overfed and unconcerned, they end up committing penultimately despicable behaviors. Behaviors so obviously against God, against nature, and against reason that it should be obvious to all, whether believer or not, but both in Sodom and now, we live in a time where even Christians don’t recognize that the horrific wickedness we read about in Scripture is happening in our midst and we are cooperating in excusing it!

I am sickened to my soul, not in disgust but in despair, when I see that many priests and pastors do not even understand these things. We have claimed Israel’s blessings as our own, and are now re-committing their errors, and are now receiving the same judgements as did they. Isaiah 1:1-23 describes where we are heading in America. And so, for that matter, does Ezekiel 16…read that chapter from the beginning.

Wilson correctly points out,

Why are men sexually attracted to other men? It is the judgment of God upon our culture because we would not honor God as God and would not give Him thanks. Therefore God has given men over to the downward spiral of their renegade lusts fueled by father hunger.