Transgenderism

Transgenderism 

Text. Matthew 19:4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’

Matthew 19 deals with important ethical issues and opens up a discussion on a modern ethical issue, TRANSGENDERISM. It’s an important issue to address, because nowadays some don’t seem to know the difference between men and women.

1. The Ethical Dilemma.

Am I a man or a woman? Nowadays, there is a political movement, a huge pressure-group of people who are promoting ‘transgenderism.’  It is the notion that there is a difference between your biological sex and your gender.  You can be born as a man, and yet believe that you are a woman, and vice versa.  You can be ‘confused about your gender.’  You can be ‘gender fluid.’  Think of the implications.

• Men using women’s toilets because they ‘identify as women.’  
• Men dressed/identifying as women, competing in women’s sports. 
• Sex-change operations paid for by the national health. 
• Parents who won’t assign any sex to their baby, will dress boys in dresses and girls in boys clothes, in the ridiculous notion that they can decide their preferred gender when they are older.

Madness?  YES, but modern society is buying it all. Christians need to be aware of these matters and ned to know how to react, with firmness, biblical faithfulness,  and loving concern.  So note:- 

2. The Biblical Teaching. Cf Genesis 1-2.  God created man out of the dust of the earth, but he also created that dust!  he made created ex-nihilo, out of nothing.  And the peak of that creation was mankind, made especially to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  So:-

1. He created us in His own image.  Genesis 1:26  Our MALE AND FEMALE gender is part of God’s image.
2. He created us to PROCREATE.  Genesis 1:28  
3. He created us to DOMINATE THE EARTH.  Genesis 1:28  
4. He created us to WORK.  Genesis 2:15  
5. He created us to COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER.  Gen 2:21-23  
6. He created us as SEXUAL beings.  Gen. 2:24-25  

So, what has gone wrong?  Why on earth do people think that they can be whatever THEY decide they want to be,?  Why has God’s design for us broken down?  Paul gives us the answer to this important question in Romans 1:21-26.   

A. T. Walker: No part of our existence in the universe has been left undisturbed by sin’s effects. This means that the brokenness of creation reaches into every corner of our lives — even our minds and hearts.

3 The Christian Response.

Let’s go back to Transgenderism.   Rejecting scripture and denying biological evidence, there are people who believe that you can choose whatever gender you want to be. Author Andrew T Walker gives us five biblical principles to help us respond in a Christian manner.  I’ve paraphrased them:-

1. We don’t deny that gender-dysphoric people are suffering and hurting.  SIN HURTS!   Walker: While we resist the attempt being made at a cultural and legal level to view gender as a matter of choice, we must also recognise that caught up in all this are deeply hurting people. …They need to know that (even while we may not agree with them) Christians love them, are there for them, are ready to listen to them and seek to understand the pain they are facing, and deeply desire what is best for them.  
2. It is IMPOSSIBLE to change one’s biological sex.  Physiologically and psychologically we are different. Our physical makeup is different.  Our brains work differently.  The male body has a greater bone mass, and has a bigger capacity to oxygenate itself.  There are differences in the chromosome and DNA structure.  If a man was to dress as a woman, call himself by a woman’s name, and have hormonal treatment and surgery to adjust his physical appearance to be more like a woman’s – and he died and was buried, and 500 years later an archeologist discovers his bones – he’ll be declared as a man – not as a woman.  
3. The Bible is ALWAYS informs our worldview.  The Bible is the INSPIRED and INFALLIBLE Word of God, and it contains the answer to every moral and ethical issue, not just today, but no matter what sinful minds may throw at us in the future.  Walker:  A Christian worldview informed by the Bible can fully explain why people experience feelings of gender dysphoria. The Christian worldview is one that acknowledges that creation has been disrupted and is not the way it once was, nor how it will eventually be in the New Creation (Genesis 3; Romans 8; Revelation 21).
4. Transgenderism damages society. It removed thousands of years of understanding about make and female.  If what you are is determined by your sinful mind, rather than your physical make-up, nothing will remain stable in society.  Walker:-   Erasing the biological significance of our maleness and femaleness destroys the script that God knit into human existence for how the sexes interact with one another and how children know the difference between a mother and a father.
5. Christians should be passionate about truth, and compassionate toward sinners.  Walker:-   (Jesus) …sought to love people. So must we as his followers. As we ground our convictions in God’s unchanging, perfect, Word, we must speak with compassion in our hearts.

And what did Jesus say about this?  Can you be ‘transgender’ and a Christian?  Jesus makes it very clear in his response to the Pharisees, that God created us in his image, to glorify him, as male and female.  This is the basis of all human relationships, it is God’s plan for man, and anything else is broken-ness and sinfulness – and that is why Jesus died at the cross, so that broken sinful men can be forgiven, and given a new life, where God’s purpose has been restored.  

© BobMcEvoy March 2019

https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/god-and-the-transgender-debate