Color Coded Sins: What is An Abomination???

[SDG]

Recently an interesting exchange took place.

Poster A asked :

So what about the apparel distinguishing men from women, do you consider salvational too?

Poster B responed:

I do not salvational is the term I would use on either subject. Salvation is obtained through faith in the shed blood of Christ by obeying the gospel preached by the Apostles in Acts 2:38. However there are edicts and commands enjoined on a child of God that one would obey to please God. Unisex clothing is an abomination to God and one cannot commit abominations and be saved.

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In our theology we often differentiate between sin and abominations. Some believe an abomination is somehow much worse than your garden variety sin.

Yet a study of this word in the KJV brings some interesting questions and insights ...

Abomination is an English term used to translate the Biblical term תֹּועֵבָה tōʻēḇā or to'ba (noun) or ta'ab (verb).


The term in English signifies that which is exceptionally loathsome, hateful, wicked, or vile.



In Biblical terms to'ba does not carry the same sense of exceptionalism as the English term.


It simply signifies that which is forbidden or unclean according to the religion.

How is it used in scripture?
Abomination in the Biblical sense of the word refers to:

1. Every shepherd was "an abomination" unto the Egyptians (Genesis 46:34). This aversion to shepherds, such as the Hebrews, arose probably from the fact that Upper and Lower Egypt had formerly been held in oppressive subjection by the Hyksos (a tribe of nomad shepherds), who had only recently been expelled, and partly also perhaps from this other fact that the people of Egypt detested the nomadic habits of these wandering shepherds.
2. Pharaoh was so moved by the fourth plague, that while he refused the demand of Moses, he offered a compromise, granting to the Israelites permission to hold their festival and offer their sacrifices in Egypt. This permission could not be accepted, because Moses said they would have to sacrifice "the abomination of the Egyptians" (Exodus 8:26); i.e., the cow or ox, which all the Egyptians held as sacred, and which they regarded it as sacrilegious to kill.
3. In Daniel's prophecies in Daniel 11:31, it is generally interpreted as referring to the fearful calamities that were to fall on the Jews in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, says, "And they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate."
4. In his campaign of Hellenization, Antiochus caused an altar to be erected on the altar of burnt-offering of the Second Temple, on which sacrifices were offered to Jupiter Olympus. Following the wording of Daniel 9:27, this was the abomination of desolation of Jerusalem. In Matthew 24:15, the reference is probably to the image-crowned standards which the Romans set up at the east gate of the temple (A.D. 70), and to which they paid idolatrous honours. "Almost the entire religion of the Roman camp consisted in worshipping the ensign, swearing by the ensign, and in preferring the ensign before all other gods." These ensigns were an "abomination" to the Jews, the "abomination of desolation."
5. This word is also used symbolically of sin in general (Isaiah 66:3); also an idol (Isaiah 44:19); of adultery (Ezekiel 22:11).
6. Proverbs 6:16 - 18 lists six things which are also abominations: "haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief."
7. The word "abomination" is also used in Jewish (and Christian Old Testament) scriptures to refer to homosexual activity (Leviticus 18:22), Leviticus 20:13), idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:25, Deuteronomy 13), cross-dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5), cheating in the market by using rigged weights (Deuteronomy 25:13-19, Proverbs 11:1), and dishonesty (Proverbs 12:22).
8. it is also used for eating seafood that lacks fins and scales (Levitius 11:11), eating certain birds of prey (Leviticus 11:12) and all insects (Leviticus 11:23 and 11:41) and other biblically unclean animals (Leviticus 20:25), remarrying the person one previously divorced (Deutoronomy 24:4), telling lies (Proverbs 12:22), being proud in heart (Proverbs 16:5) or justifying the wicked (Proverbs 17:15), cheating in business (Proverbs 20:10 and Proverbs 20:23).

Some questions for y'all:

1. Do we level sins? Why do we do so? Is it fair to do so?

2. Does the bible differentiate between sin and abominations?

3. Does God have a color coded chart for sins with abominations being the worst?

4. Will we be rapture ready if there is any sin or struggle in our life?

[SDG]

I guess the cowardly are on God's #1 abomination list ... they'll fry first.

Revelation 21:8

NASB: "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (NASB ©1995)

[Steve Epley]

An abomination is something that is loathsome and disgusting to God he hates it. Like unisex clothing or homosexuality.

[SDG]

Originally Posted by Steve Epley

An abomination is something that is loathsome and disgusting to God he hates it. Like unisex clothing or homosexuality.

Yet it is also used for eating seafood that lacks fins and scales (Levitius 11:11), eating certain birds of prey (Leviticus 11:12) and all insects (Leviticus 11:23 and 11:41) and other biblically unclean animals (Leviticus 20:25), remarrying the person one previously divorced (Deutoronomy 24:4), telling lies (Proverbs 12:22), being proud in heart (Proverbs 16:5) or justifying the wicked (Proverbs 17:15), cheating in business (Proverbs 20:10 and Proverbs 20:23).

Why aren't there more ministries centered around these obvious abominations? Where are the websites and newsletters calling for fire and brimstone for these abominations???

[Felicity]

Sin is disgusting and loathsome to God overall. He hates sin in general. You find Him expressing His contempt and disgust at more than homosexuality or the eating of shellfish.

[Steve Epley]

Originally Posted by Daniel Alicea

Yet it is also used for eating seafood that lacks fins and scales (Levitius 11:11), eating certain birds of prey (Leviticus 11:12) and all insects (Leviticus 11:23 and 11:41) and other biblically unclean animals (Leviticus 20:25), remarrying the person one previously divorced (Deutoronomy 24:4), telling lies (Proverbs 12:22), being proud in heart (Proverbs 16:5) or justifying the wicked (Proverbs 17:15), cheating in business (Proverbs 20:10 and Proverbs 20:23).

Why aren't there more ministries centered around these obvious abominations? Where are the websites and newsletters calling for fire and brimstone for these abominations???

Dan some abominations were abominations UNTO THEM NOT God however ALL the abominations to God are yet abominations to day. I have taught on each of these many times.

[SDG]

Originally Posted by Felicity

Sin is disgusting and loathsome to God overall. He hates sin in general. You find Him expressing His contempt and disgust at more than homosexuality or the eating of shellfish.

Can you think of any glaring examples, Sister Felicity???

[RevDWW]

Prov 6:16 - 19 (KJV)

16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Is there any of these that can be seen here at AFF?

[SDG]

Originally Posted by Steve Epley

Dan some abominations were abominations UNTO THEM NOT God however ALL the abominations to God are yet abominations to day. I have taught on each of these many times.

Sir ... but the reference you make to the abomination in Deut. 22:5 is sandwiched in between other ceremonial laws .... furthermore this scripture is particularly addressing an abomination UNTO THEM ...

Source:

BEWARE ... Text without Context is PRETEXT

For those with a religious background Deuteronomy 22:5 tells us that a woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment (RSV). First, this edict was written in a period when there were many wars. There were men who didn't want to be part of the war and would dress as women to avoid being sent, and there were women who wanted to, and, to get around the ban on women fighting, made themselves out to be men.

At the time there was little difference between the outer garments worn by men and those worn by women, except for colour and decoration. To the Hebrews of the time this passage was meant to make them think more than twice before trying to pass themselves off as a member of the opposite sex to avoid, or be involved in, conflicts. Given that men already wore skirts/dresses it could hardly be an indictment against them doing so. Cross-dressing (ie making out you're of the opposite sex, not just wearing something usually worn by them) was banned in the Hebrew camp as one way in which the people could retain their distinctiveness from the surrounding tribes.

Deuteronomy 22:5 also speaks of cross-dressers as an abomination before the Lord your God, a phrase which was used on several occasions by the writers/editors of that part of the Bible to reflect a theological stance against a particular action.

What's more in this case, the Hebrew of Deuteronomy 22:30 refers to a man discovering his father's skirt and has no reference to abomination. If we are to take Deuteronomy 22:5 literally then it can also be claimed that, according to that verse, every woman who has ever worn trousers/slacks is an abomination before God. I think there would be very few uncondemned women! Whereas there isn't a single man in the whole of the bible who didn't wear skirts every day, trousers were invented for men, and were exclusively menswear throughout the world until about 60 years ago. For those who want to exclude the women and slacks issue from this passage by claiming slacks are womenswear it's sobering to remember that that wasn't the case until quite recently.

The early pioneering women had to wear trousers designed, made, and sold for men, and were subject to the same passage of scripture being thrown at them. I wonder if anyone has apologised for calling them abominations before God in the same way as I wonder if anyone will, in a few years, apologise to the increasingly large number of men who wear skirts as menswear for taking this passage out of context and trying to label us abominations. The rationale for a great number of the 613 mitzvot (commandments or "essential behaviours") extracted from the Torah (of which this is but one) was based on practical, political considerations. There is no absolute prohibition on the wearing of dresses or skirts, because everybody wore them. When people talk about prohibiting specific articles of clothing, they too often forget that the centre of gravity here is constantly shifting. In the time of Henry VIII it was the MEN who showed off their legs, not the women.

Requiring passages such as Deuteronomy 22:5 to be taken literally, and binding on all of us for all time because it's in the bible also requires that unmarried women who have been raped have to marry their rapist with no opportunity for divorce (Deut 22:28-29). This was part of ceremonial law.

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[SDG]

Originally Posted by Steve Epley

An abomination is something that is loathsome and disgusting to God he hates it. Like unisex clothing or homosexuality.

The Hebrew doesn't make this type of connotation, Elder.