Biblical Evidence that 50% of Homosexuals Will Be Raptured

Here’s another example of how a literal reading of the English Bible is relevant to the question of homosexuality and salvation, considered from a conservative Christian viewpoint. The King James Version of Luke 17:34-35 reads:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Pretty clear, isn’t it? Roughly one out of every two homosexuals will be raptured!

For many readers, this is probably an old joke they had heard before. But it does illustrate an important and serious point. Words change in their meaning, the connotation of English words in their contemporary usage provides a dubious ground for determining “what the Bible says,” and cultural context is relevant. There are cultures today in which two men sleeping in the same bed has none of the sexual connotations it does for American readers of the King James Bible.

But perhaps we should set aside such concerns, and encourage so-called Biblical literalists to take these verses at face value and believe them literally…