Book Review

As It Was in the Beginning

Unchanging Witness: The Consistent Christian Teaching on Homosexuality in Scripture and Tradition
by S. Donald Fortson III and Rollin G. Grams

B&H Academic, 2016
(448 pages, $34.99, paperback)

reviewed by Michael Philliber

Based on reports from news broadcasts, tabloids, cultured journals, enlightened bureaucrats, sitcoms, singers, and social media, it looks like an open-and-shut case of social justice. It's only the troglodytes and cliché-ridden sticklers lingering at the margins of our brave new world who still protest against the view that homosexuality is normal and commendable. But fear not, we're assured, the moral high ground is now held by the liberated and learned, enthusiastically joined by the more astute churches—or so the tale is told. In Unchanging Witness, however, S. Donald Fortson III and Rollin G. Grams nail well-reasoned and strongly stated counter-theses to the church door.

In the first part of the volume, Fortson gives historical background to the present condition of the Christian Church on this matter. He then walks the reader through source documents from the Patristic era, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance and Reformation, while examining the erroneous allegations of John Boswell and others. Finally, he surveys the various official and stated proclamations from Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox sources, along with those of Evangelicals and the mainline Protestant denominations. Each chapter cites the original documents in full context. By the end of the first part, it is clear that Christianity has stood firm on the immorality of homosexuality in all of its manifestations.

The second part of Unchanging Witness turns to the Bible, where Grams addresses and lays bare the claims of Luke Timothy Johnson, Walter Wink, Jack Rogers, and a host of others regarding homosexuality. The author shows that the Bible, from the Hebrew Scriptures through the New Testament, testifies to an unflinchingly consistent sexual ethic, of which homosexuality was one violation, and that the Scripture's moral position on this subject stood in opposition to that of the surrounding cultures. Grams points out that although the totality of Scripture may only specifically mention homosexuality a handful of times, nevertheless, once it is understood that "there is a biblical sexual ethic—sex is for a man and a woman in marriage—then one grasps that all general statements forbidding sexual sin cover every act between two people other than that which is allowed" (199).

Challenging the Challengers

There is good news: that while homosexuality in its various expressions is sin in God's eyes, there is hope in the eternal Son, who became like us in every possible way, with the exception of sin; who humbled himself and was obedient to the Father; who died for the sins of his people, was raised from the dead on the third day, and ascended to the Father's right hand; and who has poured out on his people the heart-transforming, life-
changing Holy Spirit. The remedy to this and every other sin is found in Jesus Christ, as one relies on and submits
to him.

Unchanging Witness is an engrossing book that leaves its readers with important decisions to make. It is meant to help faithful Christians stand with resilient confidence in the storm of the current controversy, and it confronts professing Christians who hold a pro-homosexual position with the wholly un-Christian character of that conviction. "The challenge of the pro-homosexual advocates, in parts of Western Christianity," the authors note,

extends beyond their view of homosexuality. These advocates not only challenge the orthodox teaching of the church through the centuries; they also challenge scriptural authority, the Bible's teaching on human sinfulness, the work of Christ on the cross, and the transformative power at work in believers' lives through Christ and the Holy Spirit. In a word, these advocates challenge the essence of the gospel. (376)