SUNDAY EDITION

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

~ Genesis 1:26-27

In the last several decades, the human race has witnessed remarkable technological leaps that have changed nearly every aspect of living, working, shopping, banking, and more. However, despite our technological advancements, society seems to be decaying morally, ethically, and spiritually at an alarming rate. Even what was once basic common sense has since become blurred lines of understanding. 

Take gender identity, for example, which, according to verywellmind.com, “is the way someone identifies internally and how they choose to express themselves externally. People can use their appearance, clothing style, and behaviors to express the gender they identify with.” In other words, if a male identifies himself internally, meaning psychologically, as a female, then in his mind, he is now she, and society must conform to that person’s chosen gender identity without question. 

The Gender Identity movement asserts that gender is a social construct that doctors assign at birth based on the child’s sexual anatomy. In other words, if you have male reproductive organs, your gender is male, and if you have female reproductive organs, your gender is female. It seems simple enough, right? It was not until the mid to late 20th century that the term gender was redefined to refer to the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits of the male or female sex. 

Therefore, though not surprising, this new gender definition lends itself to the secular progressive drive to force society to accept a man who chooses to express himself as a woman or a woman who chooses to express herself as a man regardless of being physically male or female. How did the defining lines between male and female become so convoluted and obscured? What does God’s word, the supreme authoritative source and blueprint of creation, have to say?

Let’s turn the pages of Scripture back to the beginning to answer that question. In the Genesis 1:26-27, the Bible says:

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Genesis, chapter two, verses 18, 22, and 24 expound on Genesis 1. Moses wrote:

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man and brought her to the man. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

In the context of Scripture, God created both the man and the woman with intent and purpose. He gave them both unique characteristics suited for their distinct ordained roles to love and serve one another and to procreate and raise a family as husband and wife, father and mother, doing so as one in unity with each other and their Creator. So what happened? How did God’s creation become so twisted and perverse? The answer is the fall of man. The time when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and at which time sin entered the world.

When the serpent told Adam and Eve that they would become like gods when they ate the forbidden fruit, he did not lie to them. After they ate, their eyes were opened, they knew about good and evil, and then they became their own god or, in other words, the god of self. That is what we see exploding in society today, people shaking their fists in God’s face, defying the natural order of what He put in place, saying, “You got it wrong, big guy! We’ll decide for ourselves.” That is undoubtedly reminiscent of Adam and Eve’s defiance in the Garden of Eden.

However, God makes no mistake; He is infallible, and the Bible says that before we were even conceived, He knew us (Jer. 1:5). It also teaches that God weaves us together in our mother’s womb and that we are each wonderfully made. (Ps. 139:13-14) Therefore, a child crafted as a male or female by God’s hand is decreed to fulfill that role in life. However, God will not infringe on someone’s free will to choose what is unnatural instead of natural. Apostle Paul, in Romas 1:28, wrote:

“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind to do those things that are not proper.”

This so-called gender-blender ideology has since made its way into schools, confusing impressionable young minds and teaching them to accept the unnatural instead of what is natural and God-ordained. Those who advocate the gender identity movement oddly assert that Jesus never addressed gender or the gender spectrum. The gender spectrum represents the idea of varying dimensions of gender identity, such as transgender, agender, non-binary, and so on.  

Indeed, Jesus never discussed gender identity, and the term gender is not in the Bible. That is because gender is a term invented and defined by the world, and the world can modify or redefine its meaning at will to meet the social agenda of the times, just as it occurred in the mid to late 20th century. Perhaps Jesus did not address the idea of gender identity because, at that time, it was a no-brainer; men were men, and women were women, each with God-given characteristics and purpose according to His perfect design.

However, the Bible does address specific behaviors for males and females, such as, “A woman shall not wear a man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 22:5). Some would argue that that verse was part of the Mosiac Law and only applied to the Jewish people, plus it is part of the old, not the new covenant. That is nonsense because God kept it as part of His inspired written word; therefore, it is just as vital for us to heed today as it was when it was first penned centuries ago. In other words, it is still an abomination to God to do those things.

Then, some assert that love is love and that God accepts everyone because what matters most is on the inside. That statement has some truth; God does focus on the heart. However, love is not love because the Bible says, in John 4:8, that “God is love,” and because God is love, that which is not of God is not genuine love. When it comes to Godly love, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)

It is no secret that we all fall short; the Bible tells us so in Romans 3:23. We all trip and stumble, which is to say we succumb to temptation and sin, and sin creates a separation between a person and God. The difference is God extends forgiveness and acceptance to those who repent of or turn away from their sin; He does not do the same for those who embrace sin and choose to say it is of God.

Another narrative used by the gender identity movement focuses on children born with ambiguous genitalia, which, according to Mayoclinic.org, “is a rare condition in which an infant’s external genitals don’t appear to be clearly either male or female.” In such situations, doctors provide parental counsel to determine the child’s sex or gender, as it were. Often they get it correct, but sometimes they do not, but that fault results from human error, not God’s. Why does God allow children to be born that way? No one can say for sure, but we can refer to Scripture, which teaches that it was so the works of God might be seen in them. (John 9:3). 

So now what? What can we expect next as the world continues its moral, ethical, and spiritual downward spiral toward an inevitable demise? Paul also wrote, in Romans 1:26-27: 

“For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged natural relations for that which is contrary to nature, and likewise the men, too, abandoned natural relations with women and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing shameful acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

In 2 Timothy 3:1-4, Paul wrote to his mentee:

“But realize that in the last days, difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.”

Paul instructs Timothy to avoid such people, which means to turn away from them. However, Paul is not teaching us to be disrespectful, mean, or hateful to such people because that would violate Jesus’s command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matt. 12:31). Instead, it means to avoid letting them into your life and your family circle because their influence would be counterproductive to what God’s word teaches and possibly lead someone astray. While we are to be gracious and respectful, serving as salt and light in the world, we must guard ourselves, our families, and the church.

Indeed, we live in the last days of which Paul spoke, and the widespread depravity we see in the world is just another sign pointing to the day when Jesus said the world would see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The Lord also said that when that time comes, we are to straighten up and lift our heads because our redemption is drawing near! (Luke 21:27-28)

Therefore, while we cannot influence those God has turned over to a depraved mind, we must always proclaim God’s word to the world, people who desperately need to hear the gospel. They need to know how much God loves the world in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and, best of all, He is coming again. In the end, the natural order of God’s creation will be restored to its original design, perfect and complete, as we, too, will be perfect and complete in Christ.

Let our hearts not be troubled, for Christ’s return is drawing so near, and if the Lord’s second coming is near, the rapture of His bride, the church, is even closer. Therefore, rejoice, knowing that today’s world and gender-blender mess has not caught God off guard but that everything is proceeding according to His perfect will and in line with His flawless timing.

In closing, I leave you to ponder the advice Jesus gave some 2000 years ago, guidance that is just as critical today as the day He spoke it. Recorded in Matthew’s gospel, chapter seven, verses 13 and 14, Jesus said:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (New International Version)

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^{Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.}

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