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Division, Separation and
Judgment:
Abomination Requires Separation
(Pt. 2 of 3)
What is the meaning of the word “abomination?”
Generally, the word “abomination” connotes anything that is
detestable. The Hebrew equivalent “shiqquwts” translates
to English as “that which is disgusting or filthy” and the
Greek equivalent “bdeluktos’” translates as “that
which is detestable”
The English word’s more specific meaning is given by its etymology:
ab+homine. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the prefix
“ab” as meaning “position away from.” Homine means
“men”. The word “abominate” is also thought to be
derived from ab+omen, meaning “something to be shunned.”
The English word
“abomination” therefore means “that which is (or should be)
positioned away from or shunned by men.”
Inherent to this
word “abomination” is the idea of separation, i.e.,
something that is so detestable that men should set it apart from
themselves.
According to Scripture, what practices are
“abominations”, and what are their consequences?
Sodomy is an abomination
For example, in Leviticus 18,
the Lord through Moses condemns various sexual practices as
“wickedness.” But one particular sexual practice is called an
“abomination.”
”You shall not lie with
a male as with a woman, it is an abomination”
Lev 18:22
The consequence of the abomination of sodomy is
that its practitioners shall be separated, or “cut off” from
their people
“For whosoever shall commit any of
these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from
among their people”
Lev 18:29
Another example dates from the time of the Divided Kingdom:
“And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord
[...]
and there were sodomites in the land. They did according to all
the abominations of the nations which the Lord drove out before the people
of Israel”
1 Kings 14:22
Again, sodomy is classified as an abomination, which requires that its
practitioners be driven out, or separated from God’s people.
And while the Book of Genesis does not explicitly refer to sodomy as
an “abomination”, it does describe how God’s angels warned
Lot and his family to separate themselves from the city where it was
practiced:
“Have you anyone else here?
Son-in-law, sons, daughters of any one you have in the city, bring them
out of this place; for we are about to destroy this place”
Gen 19:12-13
Infanticide is an abomination
Scripture tells us that killing babies is an abomination.
The Canaanite people practiced child sacrifice, but the Lord told Moses
this was an abomination:
“When you come into the
land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the
abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you
one who burns his son or daughter as an offering [...] For whoever does
these things is an abomination before the Lord; and because of these
abominable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before
you”
Deuteronomy 18:6
Once again, Scripture describes abomination as something that requires its
practitioners to be driven out, or separated, from God’s people.
Consequences of abomination in the New Testament
The
consequences of abomination in the New Testament are the same as in the
Old Testament - the requirement that God’s people be separated from
the practitioners of abomination.
In the New Testament, Jesus
spoke of the “abomination that causes desolation” and its
consequences:
“So when you see standing in the
holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the
prophet Daniel--let the reader understand-- then let those who are in
Judea flee to the mountains”
Matthew 24:15 (NIV)
The meaning of the “abomination that causes desolation” is the
topic of much debate among scholars; many associate it with the practice
of idolatry at the Second Temple, before the Romans destroyed it in 70
A.D. Others subscribe to a futurist interpretation.
But whatever
may be the “abomination that causes desolation”, our Lord Jesus
Christ tells us that the consequence of this abomination must be
separation, in this case, God’s people taking flight to the
mountains.
This is the same advice that God’s angels gave
Lot before they destroyed Sodom for that city’s eponymous
abomination:
“Flee for your life; do not look back or stop
anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed.”
Gen 19:17
Finally, the Book of Revelation imparts an understanding of
“abomination” and its eternal consequence that is entirely
consistent with its temporal consequences in the rest of Scripture:
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is
the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb [...] and its gates shall never be
shut by day-and there shall be no night there [...] But nothing unclean
shall enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but
only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of Life”
Rev 21:22-27
So just as the temporal consequences of abomination are that its
practitioners be separated from God’s people, its eternal
consequences require their separation from God.
Conclusion
Not all sins are of equal harm. Some are more
harmful than others. The term “abomination” is not merely a
denunciation; it is a theological term of art. It is a classification of
a sin so wicked and harmful that it threatens not only its practitioners,
but those who live among them.
The Bible tells us that sodomy and
infanticide, of which abortion is a species, are two such
abominations.
Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible
indicate that God’s people should separate themselves from the
practitioners of abomination. This separation may take place in various
ways. The practitioners of abomination may be “driven out” or
“cut off” from God’s people. Or God’s people may
depart in order to separate themselves from the practitioners of
abomination.
In either case, Scripture tells us that Christians
should not blithely tolerate the practice of certain depraved evils in
their midst.
Next: Pt. 3 of 3, Judgment
X - In Hoc Signo Vinces
Luke Exilarch
June 16, 2004