modern society like Sodom and Gomorrah were sinning and how God judged
Perhaps you agreed 100% with post #841...
And while it's fine to try to warn a society generally about sin, such will
not at all seem to single out just 1 sin chosen as if (even by appearance even) just a prejudice, because it's not just 1 thing. As if the person has an ax to grind about something, like gambling, or sabbath keeping, or some political thing. Right? Well, that's true!.... But. There is a but. Because something else is happening here instead of that I think.
But if a person believes in God,
instead of only using God....
then they should...-- perhaps not 'should', but...
will -- they will
want to know what He said, more He said -- not just a list of doctrines they got from random chance, not just their
own preferences or those of their (chance) pastor they happen to have (or far worse would be if that pastor was picked for political views, but let's hope not! Let's assume it's far less error than that)....
So, wanting to know what God said, then a person
would read more.
More.
They would read more. If they really believe. Unless they have an unusual fear of just reading, or instance. Or maybe some odd fear that they have to go to a bible study (which we might help them learn is merely optional, and usually best 2nd,
not 1rst; first one should just read more of the Bible, with pure reading to hear the big lessons).
So, then, in time, a person could learn
"how God judged" Sodom and Gomorrah, or
"Sodom and her daughters" as the Bible words it (I suppose many never have read that even....)... and then, instead of being just
our notions (errors, prejudice, wrongness), we'd instead have the real thing about how God judged.
The Word, instead of our random doctrinal idea.
Since I'm older and have read, and found the direct answer, I'm going to bring it here just to illustrate this bigger principle.
First, people usually think, reasonably, that they already know.
For instance, something like: Sodom was destroyed because the Lord sent the two angels, and then "all the men of the city young and old" came and wanted to rape them (and possibly worse).
That was
certainly a major and serious level of sin itself, already, and also showed, more importantly, that the evils, whatever all they were, were very complete in the city, since it was "all" the men, both young and old. It was a total cultural takeover by evil.
Already, it feels justified to intervene and wipe out the city. Just from the very partial information, the famous know passage, in Genesis.
But what were those evils? What all caused the "outcry" mentioned in Genesis?
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
Kinda what many already know. (some may not even know this famous passage, but many would.)
But it's not were we learn what all the evils in
"Sodom and her daughters" were.
And, that's why it's so bad to hear Sodom mentioned in such a way that people are just left with a vague impression of mere bigotry/prejudice!!
Regardless of precisely what was said, somehow "Sodom" got mentioned, and now it looks like mere 'bigotry', which is about the same level of wrong, itself, as racism.
It's as if 'Christians' are merely like racists. Evil people.
But, if one had learned why Sodom and her sister cities were destroyed, then that error of bringing up Sodom would not have happened to begin with!!
!
And the huge damage to Christianity's name among the lost by making Christianity appear merely about like racism would not have happened.
So, one learns the actual, real reason for why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in Ezekiel chapter 16, which is best, like any thing in the bible, read in at minimum as a full passage, and here that's simply the chapter as a whole.
It's actually one of the most...gripping and surprising chapters in the Old Testament, in a way, and invaluable to know about, to understand why God punished Judah so severely -- they had done worse than Sodom.
And Sodom had done worse than most people have read and learned. By far.
Ezekiel 16 NIV
Because some people (among the many that will read this post) just can't bring themselves to read anything, I'll offer a summary of a kind --
Zero charity (!)
Arrogance
Haughtiness even (an aggravated form that is more than only arrogance alone).
Detestable acts -- here one could put the attempt to rape the 2 visitors, but that would only be one instance of detestable acts, of which we can guess there are many, and Jewish sources also list things like burning one young woman in fire for trying to feed a hungry visitor. (* see footnote)
"49“ ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me."
Evil had taken over in a very total way.
Australia isn't really like this...is it?
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footnote
More about Sodom from other Jewish sources:
"The Sodomites were notorious for their wickedness. They had no consideration for the poor, nor for the passing stranger to whom they offered no hospitality; nor would they even sell him any food or water. Once they had found out that Plitith, Lot’s daughter, had secretly given food to a stranger who was near starvation, and they burned her in public. Another time, when they discovered that a young girl had fed a starving beggar, they smeared honey all over her and placed her upon the city wall, so that she died from the stings of the bees attracted by the honey."
The Destruction of Sodom
