06/11/2025
Misinterpreting Jesus’ Silence
Eliot Lugo-Hernández
May 25, 2025
In advocating for same-sex unions or relationships, some Christians, including some liberal theologians, have interpreted Jesus’ silence on homosexuality as an affirmation of it. This is called “The Argument from Silence” (argumentum ex silentio), which, according to Steven Lewis, is “a fallacy of weak induction that treats the absence of evidence as evidence itself.” See https://ses.edu/the-argument-from-silence/) In other words, if Jesus did not say anything against it, why not accept it? But, is that a logical deduction? Just because Jesus did not address this issue is not sufficient justification for affirming or permitting it.
Before I continue, allow me to confess that I find it quite ironic that most of us Christians learn how to take biblical texts out of their immediate, historical, geographical, cultural, and literary contexts in our places of worship, which should be the places in which we learn how to properly handle the Word of Truth.
In a paper I wrote, titled, How to Study the Bible, I stated, “The burden of correctly interpreting Scripture and applying its teaching lies with the interpreters, not the authors. They are the ones who must handle (diligently, consistently, and properly) the Word of Truth.”
At the buildings we call “churches”, we often learn WHAT to believe, not HOW to believe. We often learn man-made doctrines and how to look for verses that support what we have already accepted as biblically sound doctrines. The proof is in the pudding. This is why we have many denominations, each one claiming that its beliefs are sound doctrine.
As Spock would say, “In critical moments, men sometimes see exactly what they wish to see.” Concerning certain doctrines, men sometimes believe exactly what they wish to believe. Again, this is why we have so many denominations; we have embraced certain doctrines without searching out whether these doctrines agree clearly with the consensus of God’s Word.
In his book, How to Study the Bible for All Its Worth, author Gordon Fee states, “All readers of the Bible have a tendency to view what it says through their own culture and life circumstances.” It is common to view the Bible from our religious, educational, social, and emotional backgrounds, to name a few. Some Christians, for example, who believe in the doctrine “Once Saved, Always Saved” and the doctrine that God has predestined some people for salvation and some others for damnation, often seek out the verses that support what they have already accepted as biblically sound doctrine, disregarding verses that contradict such doctrines. Other Christians believe that speaking in unknown tongues is the initial physical evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This they believe by disregarding or explaining away 1st Corinthians 12:30, which states in the NKJV, “Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” Obviously, the answer is a resounding “no”. What is interesting is that these same Christians believe that not all have the gift of healing, but when it comes to speaking in tongues, they change their hermeneutics to prove their doctrine. No matter how theologically advanced we are in Christianity, we are all guilty of doing hermeneutical gymnastics. However, being guilty does not change anything until we repent and become like the people from Berea who “were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (See Acts 17:11).
An interesting thing has also happened, probably in the last 30 years or more; we have chosen and persistently embraced doctrines that go against clear biblical teaching on, in this case, same-sex unions or relationships. We have questioned God’s Word by asking the same old question (“Did God really say…?”) that caused Eve to be deceived by the craftiness of the serpent.
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” In speaking about the Signs of the Times and the End of the Age in Mark 13, Jesus told Peter, James, John, and Andrew, “Take heed that no one deceives you.” The Apostle Paul said in 1st Timothy 4:1 (NLT), “Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.” Paul continues to say in 2nd Thessalonians 2:9-12 (NKJV), “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Did you take notice of the words “deceitful”, “deceives”, “deceptive”, and “deception”? When we reject the truth, we embrace deception. The opposite is also true; when we reject deception, then we embrace the truth.
It is my opinion and strong conviction that a light reading of the Bible supports only the union (or marriage) between a male and a female. The union between these two heterosexual individuals goes beyond mere procreation; it is a complementation of one individual to the other. Concerning procreation, one needed each other since it takes two people to tango. But concerning raising the next generation of individuals, Adam and Eve complemented each other by adding to each other what the other lacked. As I stated elsewhere, this was not Plan A since God did not create Plan B, either; this was, is, and continues to be God’s original plan.
In her book, How to Study Your Bible, author Kay Arthur states, “The Bible was written so that anyone who wants to know who God is and how they are to live in a way that pleases Him can read it and find out.”
Since for some Christians Jesus’ silence on homosexuality means the affirmation of it, then why not also extend His silence on prostitution, in**st, or**es, polygamy, and be******ty?
Looking at Matthew 21:31 & 32, was Jesus really teaching His audience that the prostitutes were going to get into the Kingdome of God by continuing to be prostitutes or was Jesus using both tax collectors and prostitutes as example of the people who believed the message of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”? I think that Paul would have said to these two groups what he said to the Corinthian Church, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (See in 1st Corinthians 6:11).
Since commitment and consent to and love for one another seem to be the deal makers (or breakers if they lack these) in same-sex unions, why not throw in the commitment that a mother could sexually have with her adult son if they consent to such a union and love one another? Let’s also throw in a father's sexual involvement with his adult daughter.
Since Jesus was silent on or**es, I guess Christians could have communal or**es to reach their communities so long each individual commit to a specific group of members that compose a committed o**y. How about or**es between moms, sons, fathers, sisters, and brothers so long as they love each other, are committed sexually to each other and there is consent among themselves?
This all sounds silly, heretical, or blasphemous…or a combination of all three, but this is exactly what happens when we Christians argue based on silence instead of paying attention to what was said or written. We must read what the Bible did say and what it means when it says what it says.
When Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, He did not have to number the endless ways people believe that they can approach God. In the same manner, let us not look beyond the clear teaching that marriage is between a male and a female, and that same-sex unions have no place in God’s Kingdom while at the same time show compassion in word and in deed to those who struggle with same-sex attractions for that could be the cross that they must bear if they are to follow Jesus Christ.
One more thing to consider, could anyone in his/her right mind conclude that the Christian Church has been so wrong for two thousand years believing that marriage is only acceptable before God if it is between a male and female? If that is the case, what else has the Christian Church historically gotten wrong since its birth in the first century? Though it is a 100% chance that we can get some doctrines wrong, the probabilities of having the doctrine of marriage between a male and a female incorrect are very minute or nonexistent.
If we argue doctrines based on Jesus’ silence, we will open a Pandora’s box that no one will be able to shut. If we choose to go that route, we will no longer see sin in the way God sees it and might start calling our sinful acts as just “offenses”, “misdeeds”, “misdemeanors”, “errors”, or “lapses”.
To conclude, Jesus had no reason to address same-sex relationships because He supported God’s plan for Adam and Eve (male and female) by referencing the human creation story back in the Book of Genesis. By endorsing God’s original plan, Jesus excluded any same-sex relationship.
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