What Does The Term “Abomination” Mean?
The term “abomination” means anything that offends the spiritual, religious, or moral sense of a person and causes extreme disgust, hatred, loathing, and that which is deserving to be abhorred. There are five different words translated abomination in the Bible. The predominant meaning is, “to stink, to be loathsome, uncleanness” (Old Testament Word Studies by Wilson, pg. 3). The original words are expressive of the greatest disdain on the part of God.
When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you. –Deuteronomy 18:9-14 NKJV
Many of the practices of some of the Eastern Religions and of New Agers come under these headings. “Abominations” is also applied to adultery in Leviticus 18:17-27. Homosexuality is also included in the list. “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination” (vs. 22).
Dishonest business practices are named as an “abomination” in Deuteronomy 25:13-16, Proverbs 11:1 and Proverbs 20:10. Honest business practices are required of any professing to be the Lord’s people.
Oppressive treatment of others and a haughty attitude are considered as “abomination” in Proverbs 3: 31-32, and a “perverse heart” (one who is obstinate in that which is wrong) is mentioned in Proverbs 11:20.
A list of six “abominations” is also given in Proverbs 6: 16-19:
These six things doth the LORD hate:
yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies,
and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Prayer is even added to the list of “abominations,” if it comes from one who turns his ear from hearing the law in Proverbs 28:9.
He who turns away his ear from listening to the law,
Even his prayer is an abomination. NASB
An “abomination” refers to something the Lord “hates” — something totally out of harmony with His character of purity and love. If we take the biblical record as a whole, we find that pride and self-sufficiency are mentioned more often than any other qualities as being distasteful to God. And no wonder. Pride feels no need, therefore, there’s nothing even God can do for a self-sufficient sinner. That’s why Jesus said that He came to save sinners and not the “righteous.” Given that the Bible is clear that there is “none righteous,” (Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:23) Christ’s statement indicates as clearly as any other that a self-righteous spirit excludes its bearer from the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus actually used the key word “abomination” in describing such a spirit. Luke gives this account in Luke 16: 15-16:
And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
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justin Said,
May 8, 2010 @ 4:47 pm
What does the lord mean, when he says homosexuality is a abomination?