Sexual Perversions—Past and PresentAs Bible students, we know what happened in ancient Sodom—how the sex-mad men and young boys of the city demanded to have relations with those whom they viewed merely as Lot’s male house guests. (Genesis 19:4-11):4 Before they could lie down, the men of the city, the men of Sod′om, surrounded the house, from boy to old man, all the people in one mob. 5 And they kept calling out to Lot and saying to him: “Where are the men who came in to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intercourse with them.”6 Finally Lot went out to them to the entrance, but he shut the door behind him. 7 Then he said: “Please, my brothers, do not act badly. 8 Please, here I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with a man. Please, let me bring them out to YOU. Then do to them as is good in YOUR eyes. Only to these men do not do a thing, because that is why they have come under the shadow of my roof.” 9 At this they said: “Stand back there!” And they added: “This lone man came here to reside as an alien and yet he would actually play the judge. Now we are going to do worse to you than to them.” And they came pressing heavily in on the man, on Lot, and were getting near to break in the door. 10 So the men thrust out their hands and brought Lot in to them, into the house, and they shut the door. 11 But they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, from the least to the greatest, so that they were wearing themselves out trying to find the entrance.------------------------This event took place only about 450 years after the Flood. In those early times it also became common for humans to have sexual relations with animals. Thus, some 400 years later, in four different places, God’s Law to the nation of Israel condemned this practice, with death being the penalty for violators. (Exodus 22:19:Anyone lying down with a beast is positively to be put to death.Leviticus 18:23; 20:15, 16:“‘And you must not give your emission to any beast to become unclean by it, and a woman should not stand before a beast to have connection with it. It is a violation of what is natural. “‘And where a man gives his seminal emission to a beast, he should be put to death without fail, and YOU should kill the beast. 16 And where a woman approaches any beast to have a connection with it, you must kill the woman and the beast. They should be put to death without fail. Their own blood is upon them.---------------------------Deuteronomy 27:21:“‘Cursed is the one who lies down with any beast.’ (And all the people must say, ‘Amen!’Leviticus 18:22:“‘And you must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable thing."Leviticus 20:13:“‘And when a man lies down with a male the same as one lies down with a woman, both of them have done a detestable thing. They should be put to death without fail. Their own blood is upon them."In addition, God’s Law to Israel made sexual relations with persons of one’s own sex a capital offense—violators being sentenced to death.Nevertheless, in the centuries that followed, the peoples living round about the Israelites were so deeply involved in homosexual practices that the Israelites themselves time and again became involved in homosexuality. (1 Kings 14:24:And even the male temple prostitute proved to be in the land. They acted according to all the detestable things of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out from before the sons of Israel.Kings 15:12:Accordingly he had the male temple prostitutes pass out of the land and removed all the dungy idols that his forefathers had made. Kings 22:46: And the rest of the male temple prostitutes that had been left over in the days of A′sa his father he cleared out from the land.On one occasion a Levite was a houseguest in the Benjamite city of Gibeah, and the men of the city surrounded the house shouting: “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may have intercourse with him.” Judges 19:22: While they were making their hearts feel good, look! the men of the city, mere good-for-nothing men, surrounded the house, shoving one another against the door; and they kept saying to the old man, the owner of the house: “Bring out the man that came into your house, that we may have intercourse with him.Practically the whole tribe of Benjamin was wiped out at Jehovah’s direction because of this matter.1 Corinthians 6: 9 - 11:What! Do YOU not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. It is not clean by God, homosexuality, and always leads to negative results [in anything].