Finally, a Christian who is not ashamed of Leviticus 20:13

In his sermon last Sunday, Curtis Knapp of New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas had this to say about homosexuals:

They should be put to death. That's what happened in Israel. That's why homosexuality wouldn't have grown in Israel. It tends to limit conversions. It tends to limit people coming out of the closets.

But he says it's not our job to kill them. It's the government's.

Oh, so you're saying we should go out and start killing them? No, I'm saying the government should. 

Then he did what Bible believers are rarely willing to do: he quoted Leviticus 20:13.

If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, then they have committed a detestable act, and they shall surely be put to death.

 He then finished by saying something really puzzling.

I don't think homosexuals have anything to worry about. I don't think the government is going to do that. They don't have anything to worry about from me. I don't believe I should lay a finger against them.

Leviticus 20:13 says nothing about government. And neither does the context. Here, for example, is how Leviticus 20 starts out.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. Leviticus 20:1-2

"He shall be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones."

It was the people's job to throw the stones, not the government's.

God makes this point especially clear in the next few verses. Here's what happens to people like Curtis Knapp who refuse to cast the first stone.

And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off.... Leviticus 20:4-5

God will "cut off" people who refuse to kill those that God says should be killed (like those who "give their seed to Molech", curse their parents, have sex with  animals, etc.).  Then when he's done with that he'll do the same to their families.

No, it's not the governments job to do the killing; it's ours.

The only question is how? In some cases (like the people who give their seed to Molech and wizards) it's clear enough: God wants us to stone them to death.

In other cases (like when a man has sex with his wife and her mother),  we must burn them to death.

But sometimes God just doesn't say how we should do it.

Let's look again at Leviticus 20:13.

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

All we can say for sure is this: God wants us to kill male homosexuals in a bloody way. "Their blood shall be upon them." Stoning would certainly be bloody enough, even for God. And it's one of God's favorite means of execution. So I think Pastor Knapp should go with that.

But if the good pastor "hides his eyes" from homosexuals by refusing to kill them as God commands, God will "set his face against him and his family" and "cut them off."

It's time for Pastor Knapp and other Bible believers to come out of the closet and do what God commands them to do in Leviticus 20:13.

It's their job, not the governments.