Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Gay Idioms Don’t Time Travel

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

Alan addresses a progressive Christian who claims that Jesus wants LGBT people to “come out,” by explaining how he misuses a common literary device.

Jesus told the person to, quote unquote, come out. Does that mean that Jesus encourages modern day gays and lesbians to also sort of come out of the closet and be who they really are? Well, although that's what one popular pro-gay theology advocate recently suggested, is that what we can reasonably conclude is Jesus's message? Well, that's what I want to think about in the latest episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Schliemann. A Progate Theology advocate recently started his TikTok video with this question,

quote, did you know that Jesus helped his friend come out? End quote. And then this TikTok video guy shares a New Testament passage in which Jesus tells this person to, quote unquote, come out. And he basically implies that Jesus would affirm living a life satisfying LGBT desires. implies that Jesus would affirm living a life satisfying LGBT desires. And so before we get into this particular passage, what I want to do is sort of unpack how to interpret a very important literary device known as the idiom. Now, an idiom is simply a phrase whose meaning can't be figured out just from the individual words. So for example, if I say it's raining cats and dogs. Now, if I say that, if you heard me say it, you'd know that what I mean by that is that it's raining very hard, okay? Not that felines and canines are sort of falling from the sky, right? And so notice the meaning of the phrase

doesn't emerge from the words cats and dogs. Rather, the combination of the words that I use has this sort of established usage that's understood by modern English speakers. Now, idioms, however, lose their meaning when they're translated into another language or if you were to sort of use them in a different culture or transport them into a sort of another time period. For example, if I translate It's Raining Cats and Dogs into Russian, well, the phrase will probably lose its meaning, right? And so what you'd have to do is use a different group of words that carries the same meaning in Russian. And it's also possible that in 2000 years, assuming, by the way, that the English language is still around in 2000 years, that in 2000 years, the phrase it's raining cats and dogs will no longer be understood

to mean that it's raining hard. I mean, that's certainly a possibility. That's why it's important to remember I mean, that's certainly a possibility. That's why it's important to remember that the Bible was not written in English. It wasn't written in our culture or even in a remotely similar time period, right? Biblical languages have their own figures of speech. And I think what's more relevant to the point, idioms don't time travel. Okay. So words used to create idioms back in the first century don't mean the same thing today and vice versa. Sometimes though, a reader today will see a group of words in scripture and interpret them through the lens of modern English when the biblical author neither used

English words nor meant to communicate the idiom that they have in mind. And so this is what happened with popular pro-gay theology advocate Brandon Robertson. He basically made this mistake with a passage from the Bible. Now, I'll admit, given his position, it's understandable sort of why he did this, right? In other words, if you identify as lesbian or gay or bisexual and you want to follow Jesus, you're kind of left with two options. The first option is that you have to obey Jesus, which would mean you got to pick up your cross daily and follow him. And I believe that's a command that requires you to no longer satisfy same-sex sexual desires. And there's actually a lot of men and women in church, in the church that is,

like my friends Christopher Yuan or Beckett Cook, who have done just that. They mortify their same-sex sexual desires and they abide by Scripture's sexual ethics. Now, your second option is to reinterpret Jesus and twist the meaning of his word. And that's what pro-gay theology advocates typically do, right? They recognize that church has this 2,000-year historical precedent of interpreting scripture to teach that, for example, when it

comes to sex and marriage, it's about one man with one woman becoming one flesh for one lifetime, right? That's Matthew 19 verses four through six. And so they also recognize that the church has interpreted the Bible to prohibit homosexual sex. And there's lots of passages, both in the Old and New Testaments that teach that. And so what this ultimately means is that same-sex sexual activity is sin. Now, since this pro-gay theology advocate doesn't accept the first option of rejecting to satisfy

his own same-sex desires, he's basically forced to then reinterpret biblical teaching on sexuality and put words in Jesus's mouth. And so Robertson cites John chapter 11, verse 43, where Jesus brings Lazarus back to life and calls on him to, quote unquote, come out. And he argues that Jesus is encouraging Lazarus to, quote, step into the light or be who you are or come alive, end quote, you know. And so in similar fashion, this is also what he claims Jesus is calling current day LGBT persons to do. Robertson says, quote, come out of the tomb of shame, take off your chains that have bound you up and step into the glory of God who made you And so notice the problem here. The words come out are an idiom for publicly announcing that you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

gender. It is, however, an English language idiom, which has only been around and understood this way since about the 20th century or the end of the 20th century, right? And so this is why I say gay idioms don't time travel. You can't take English words that have a specific meaning today and then map them onto a biblical passage. Not only did Jesus not speak English, but it's anachronistic to impose a modern cultural meaning on a 2,000-year-old text. Now, if that were really a legitimate way to interpret scripture, then one could also argue that Jesus considered homosexuality a demonic disability. Now, how so, you might ask? Well, notice what happened after Jesus healed a demon-oppressed woman in Luke 13. Listen to what the biblical text says.

Quote, When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, Woman, you are freed from your disability. Now, did Jesus heal a woman from being gay and made her straight? Well, of course not, right? That's because being straight is also a modern idiom that can't time travel to the first century. And so because we recognize this interpretation is mistaken, we can also dismiss the whole, you know, Lazarus come out interpretation because it uses the same faulty interpretive method.

Pro-gay theology advocates have tried to undermine the historic Christian teaching on sexuality for decades. And the problem with their approach has often been their inability to follow common sense interpretive rules that help determine the meaning of a text, not just the Bible, but any text. And so when they violate these rules, they can make, of course, scripture say anything they want

as evidenced by their unsubstantiated claim that Jesus would encourage LGBT people to come out of the closet. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you enjoyed these short podcast episodes where I think and talk out loud about apologetics and theology and other kinds of cultural issues, be sure to rate or review my podcast on iTunes or on Spotify. We're now on

Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts on. And thank you for listening. And I look forward to thinking out loud with you next time.