What Does the Bible Say About LGBTQ+ Lifestyles?
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The Catholic Church Pope has approved the baptism of transgender and LGBTQ+ people into the [Catholic] church. What does the Bible say about LGBTQ+ and transgender lifestyles?
While many people in the world hold stock by what the Catholic Church and the Pope does, the Bible teaches that they are not the standard for righteousness. Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel is the standard for righteousness (Romans 1:16-17). In that regard, we should note what Jesus taught. In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ ? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” This teaching answers all the questions that need to be answered about this issue.
First, God made two genders, male and female. There are not hundreds of different genders as is claimed by the transgender advocates today. In Jesus’ statement, he quotes from Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” God made only two genders. The Bible affirms that we must accept the gender that we are physically born with. God considers any effort to change one’s gender as an abomination. Deuteronomy 22:5 says, “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” In the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 teaches that men and woman are to dress different and be distinct from one another.
Second, God created marriage for one male and one female. This is the second part of Jesus’ statement where he quotes from Genesis 2:24. Any other combination of individuals engaging in similar activity is not what God created from the beginning, and it is not what Jesus affirmed as God’s plan for marriage. Neither Jesus nor God must condemn all the various different scenarios that man may envision. God and Jesus only need to say what is right, and everything else is wrong. The word that God and Jesus give to describe all other pretentions to the marriage relationship is fornication. Any sexual activity that occurs outside of the marriage relationship between two persons is fornication. This includes males and females, males and males, females and females, people and animals, or any other interpersonal sexual activity that does not happen under the umbrella of marriage. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Any departure from these standards is sinful. Jesus said that fornications come from the heart and defile a person (Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21). The apostles all taught that fornication was sinful (Acts 15:20, 29). Fornication is a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:19). It is not to be named as becoming Christians (Ephesians 5:3). Paul lists “such like” among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:21. That would certainly include things like homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, and other like sins. Romans 1:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 explicitly mention these sins. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
This is not to say that a person who is practicing such things cannot repent, turn back to God’s standards of behavior and be saved. God does not hate people; He hates sin. He wants the sinner to repent of sin. Some people in the church at Corinth had repented of their sin. However, God is not going to admit anyone into His kingdom who practice such things. One must repent of sin before entering God’s kingdom (Acts 17:30). If the Pope or any other human teaches otherwise, God’s word condemns that teaching (Romans 1:32).