Did Jesus Help Lazarus Identify as LGBTQI+?

Arguments made by those trying to justify behaviors explicitly forbidden in Scripture by using the Bible are exercising the height of brazen ignorance and disrespect. Some teachings from the religious LGBTQI+ community leap recklessly off the cliff of rationality into the valley of terminal blasphemy.

Reinterpreting biblical teaching on sexuality requires misrepresenting the writer’s intent, a fundamental flaw in any language study. Popular pro-gay theology advocate Brandan Robertson cites John 11:43 as Jesus’ endorsement of the LGBTQI+ community. He concludes that the call to Lazarus, “Come out,” was given to encourage people to express their true selves. He contends that Jesus encourages Lazarus to “step into the light…be who you are…come alive.” Comparably, Robertson maintains Jesus is calling current-day LGBTQI+ persons to “Come out from the tomb of embarrassment, remove the social and psychological chains that have shackled you, step into the glory of the person God made you be…just as you are.”

This interpretation takes stupid to previously unknown heights. There comes a time when dumb on steroids does not justify rank disregard for the incontrovertible teachings of Scripture. Pro-gay theology supporters constantly undermine the traditional Christian education and requirements of sexuality. This fabrication has been occurring for decades. The flaw with their method is the glaring failure to implement thorough interpretive rules that aid in understanding the meaning of any text, not only the Bible.

The phrase “Come out” is a modern idiom for publicizing that you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. The problem with interpreting the expression as a public declaration of personal sexual preference is obvious. This English language idiom has only been understood in that particular way since the end of the 20th century. Homosexual idioms are not capable of time travel. It is unethical to apply English words with an explicit connotation today and apply them to a biblical passage narrating a human resurrection that occurred two millennia ago. Jesus did not speak English, and imposing a contemporary social meaning on a 2,000-year-old text is anachronistic.

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not inferred from individual words. For example, when somebody says, “When pigs fly,” it is automatically assumed that the subject being discussed has an element of impossibility involved. Notice that the phrase’s meaning doesn’t emerge from the words pigs and fly. There are pigs, and flying is a reality. But pigs flying on their own is impossible. Combining these two words has an established meaning that modern English speakers understand to state something is unworkable.

Reinterpreting the words of Jesus and twisting them to mean that the Savior favored LGBTQI+ behavior is patently wrong. Pro-gay theology advocates do this because they recognize the church has a 2,000-year historical precedent of interpreting Scripture to declare that marriage is about one man with one woman becoming one flesh for one lifetime (Matthew 19:4–6). They also know the church has understood the Bible to forbid homosexual sex (Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26–27). That means same-sex sexual activity is a sin punishable by the legal outline provided in the Bible.