When Christians say that one of the reasons why God destroyed the city of Sodom is because its inhabitants were homosexuals, watered down Christians and atheists say "It's false, God destroyed them because they wanted to gang rape the angels God sent to Sodom, not because they were homosexuals." But the reality is that homosexuality was one of the reasons why Sodom was destroyed. Let's see why.
Genesis 18:20 (KJV) says "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;" So, before the angels went to Sodom, its inhabitants were already very sinful. Verse 23 says "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" So Abraham knew what God wanted to do. He knew God wanted to destroy Sodom.
In Genesis 19:13 (KJV) the angels which were in Sodom said "For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." So we can see that the Lord sent the angels because He already decided to destroy Sodom. The destruction was coming before the Sodomites tried to gang rape the angels.
Now, I'm sure that God added the intention to rape to the list of the sins of Sodom, but that wasn't why God sent the angels in the first place. But was homosexuality one of the reasons why Sodom was destroyed ? Absolutely. Because the Bible says in Leviticus 18:22 (KJV) "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." And Leviticus 20:13 (KJV) says "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
These two passages clearly say that homosexuality is a sin. And Romans chapter 1 (in the New Testament) shows the same thing. Lets put some of this in a list...
- Genesis 19:11 (KJV) says the rapists were men.
- Genesis 19:10 (KJV) says that the angels were men.
- This clearly shows Sodomites were homosexuals.
- The story about Sodom happened in the Old Testament.
- The Old Testament says that homosexuality is an abomination punishable by death.
- The destruction of Sodom was planned before the angels were sent there.
So, the Sodomites weren't destroyed for trying to rape angels. But the fact that all the men of Sodom (young and old) wanted to have sex with men shows that homosexuality was rampant. Rampant. Now, I'm not saying homosexuality was the only reason, because Ezekiel 16:49-50 (KJV) shows that Sodomites committed multiple sins, but it's very clear homosexuality was one of them.
Genesis 19:4 (KJV): But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter