There’s a story in today’s news about the “Lord of the Rings” star, Sir Ian McKellen, who has started a fad of ripping Leviticus 18:22 from Gideon Bibles, or from whatever Bible one has. That verse says, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.”
“I’m not proudly defacing the book,” he explained to an interviewer, “but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible.” McKellen, an openly avowed homosexual, is encouraging others to do the same, and the fad is catching on.
It seems to me that what McKellen is really saying is this: “God may be right most of the time, but He’s mistaken here; He’s got this wrong. Since I’m better informed on this, I’m going to override God’s judgment, correct His mistake, and amend His law to my liking.”
In Jeremiah 36, King Jehoiakim didn’t like the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, so he ripped them out one page at a time and burned them in the firepot. It didn’t do him any good. He learned that the Word of God is as indestructible as God Himself.
Even if Leviticus 18:22 is missing from the Gideon Bible, there are six other pages in the Bible that condemn homosexuality.
Plus there are countless pages in the Bible about holiness, about morality and immorality, and about the propriety of sex within a one-man-one woman marriage.
McKellen would have to tear out all those pages. Plus he would have to rip out all the passages about the holiness of God, all the passages about purity, all the passages about obedience, and all the passages about morality.
I’m in a hotel room right now, and Leviticus 18:22 is still safely in place in the Gideon Bible. But I noticed there are 1291 pages in all from Genesis to Revelation. It’d take McKellen awhile to rip out all those pages. And even after he done so, nothing would be changed about the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the sanctity of marriage, the reality of the Law, the morality of the universe, the death of Christ, the need for salvation, and the mercy of the Lord.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but His Word is established forever. Not a “jot or a tittle” will pass away.
But before we jump all over Sir Ian, we might pause to see if there are any truths of Scripture that we ourselves are disregarding.