What Does the Bible Say about Transgenderism?

anomaly. But we would say with that that did not come from God's creative intention. But after sin, the human race fell, and that's caused a sickness, disease, and any kind of genetic anomaly or any kind of mistaken genetic material is not from God's original plan. And while we can have compassion respect, in those extremely rare cases, we should not use that to overturn basic policy or God's

basic plan. Rather, we should consult medical professionals in what's the best way to handle a truly rare genetic or physical anomaly or illness or disease or some type of brokenness from the fallen creation. But in general, what we have in this has become very prominent in recent years, of course, is some people thinking, "Well, I'm actually a man or woman's body," or vice versa. Now, traditionally, that's been regarded as a mental malfunction or mental disorder.

And so as with any other disorder, you try to treat it. So you would try to help the person understand, this is who you are, this is the way you were born, this is the way you were created. This is your physical, biological identity. This is what science tells you. And so we want to help you conform your mistaken thinking to the reality around you. That's how we treat everybody that has some kind of struggle, not to create a fantasy or to cater to a fantasy, but to help

them understand the reality. And with children, science has shown often, or sometimes little children might in play or an imagination, think of themselves as the opposite. And usually, historically, we haven't treated this as a big deal. But we simply correct them or we say no, you're really a boy, or no, you should be wearing a girl's clothing because you are a girl. And most of them quickly relate

to that or accept that. In rare cases where there seems to be some ongoing struggle, usually with nothing more than talking or counseling, the vast majority of children grow out of that. It's actually very rare for that to persist. And so what's happened in our current culture because of ideology - it's not Bible, of course, and it's not science - but this ideology has grabbed hold of people. And it's only possible because of advances in medical science. I mean, throughout history, you

couldn't change your sex. Now you can sort of - you can't actually change the reproductive system. If you're a man, you can't have surgery so you can have a baby. At most you can physically transform the person so they look like the opposite sex, but they can't function like the opposite sex. You can give them hormones to suppress the biological, scientific expression of that person. And so you can alter it with hormones and surgery, but you can't actually make that person

function as the opposite sex. At best, for example, you can make them sterile. Now isn't this strange because there is no other situation in medical science where the cure doesn't actually give you what you're wanting, but actually destroys what you are without replacing it with what you want to be. So we would never allow any other

kind of surgery locally. For example, there are some people who actually feel like they should be disabled or differently abled, that they should be paralyzed, or they shouldn't have an arm. And we don't have surgery to cut off their arm to conform the reality to their imagination, but rather, we give them cognitive therapy to say, No, you have an arm, you should have an arm, you should function as a whole

person. So there is no other kind of medical treatment, so to speak, that actually destroys a function. So that should be a clue that something really wrong is going on. Now we can have compassion for people who are

caught in this situation. But what we really would look at is experiences in their past or things that they've learned online, or in some cases, it's become almost a social phenomenon where people feel like they want to identify with a minority because there's such an emphasis on how people are being treated. And there's actually kind of reward if you become part of this oppressed minority or this misunderstood

minority. In fact, there's an interesting book - it's not from a Christian perspective, it's from a Jewish perspective, a secular perspective, so we don't agree with everything in it - but it's a very interesting book by Abigail Schreier called "Irreversible Damage." And what it says there is a phenomenon, particularly with preteen and

teen girls. So girls at that age are very vulnerable to their, especially in our culture, to their body image, feeling inadequate, feeling like they're not fully a woman, they're too fat, they're too skinny, they're not pretty enough, there's something wrong with them. And so there's a lot of anxiety, insecurity, depression, even sometimes suicidal thoughts. But to some extent, this transition during puberty and adolescence is normal, but it's been exacerbated by the pressures of

modern society. So what has happened in recent years is young people, particularly girls, they're going through this struggle, normally they would go to their parents would be reassured if they had a real issue, they would go to counseling and be reassured, and they would safely transition from this confused state to being a mature woman that accepts their body accepts who they are, and is valued, love needed and wanted and, and is told they're beautiful and unique. But now they can bypass

all that they can go online. And they can get videos of people that say, I went through this. And guess what the solution was, I found out I was really a boy. So I had hormones, and I became boy, and now I live happily ever after. And so they can get all these convincing, anecdotal

stories. And then the way culture and even laws are set up, they can go to school for counseling, but the schools are forbidden to tell the parents, even those, these are minors, and the schools can enable them actually give them hormones, give them counseling, instead of trying to encourage them to accept who they really are, and work through the normal problems

of life. Or the pressures of society actually takes a child really that's struggling to identify their problems and may have many other problems, hormonal or psychological or social problems, and say, well, your solution is to take some hormones. But these hormones end up destroying puberty, and can permanently damage them so they can never develop as a normal woman, and typically will become sterile and could never have

children. And then maybe in a few years, that child grows out of it, that young adult now realizes that was a mistake, but now there's irreversible damage. So I really honestly think in the Old Testament, God pronounce judgment on people that sacrifice their children to Molech. I'm afraid that especially when you talk about children, teenagers, minors, when we try to make these decisions for them that permanently alter their lives, permanently damaged their bodies and their psychology in

eliminate choices. We're sacrificing that child to an ideology that doesn't come from God's word. But he's actually

contrary. This book that I mentioned irreversible damage highlights that and says, This is a social phenomena where the way things are being taught in schools about the oppression of minorities and so on that in some cases, almost everyone in the class, if they're not already a person of a minority, such as African American, Hispanic, they feel a certain pressure to identify, well, I'm lesbian, or I'm bisexual, or I'm transgender, or I'm this or I'm

that. So they now can become treated favorably, and they are rewarded in their affirmed and they're celebrated. So imagine a child is going through a struggle, and going through psychological feelings of low self esteem, and what's wrong with me, my body is changing, am I going to be accepted, and I'm gonna be loved by beautiful. And then suddenly, well, if you choose this identity, everybody's going to celebrate you, we won't even tell your

parents. And so there's this phenomenon where this is sweeping through schools, and friends, one friend identifies as champ transgender, and then suddenly three or four also? Well, biologically, this is an extremely rare phenomenon and psychologically an extremely rare phenomenon. And historically, it was mostly boys who were struggling, not girls, so that the fact that this is changing, so dramatically tells you this is not about biology.

It's not about science. It's about social pressure, and psychological pressure due to cultural shifts, and actually be very scary. Those of us that believe in the Bible say, wait a minute, we should always structure our family, our personal identity our society according to God's word. But even if you didn't understand or go by God's word, just science should tell you and history should tell you wait a minute, there's a drastic shift that can't be explained by biological

reality. It is a social and cultural phenomenon that's detrimental to people. So let me just read something that I wrote. It's in my book "Th Apostolic Church" in a postmode n world and this probab y summarizes what I think. "As Christians, we should t eat everyone with love, respect and compassion. We should also ear witness that God has cre ted humans as male and fe

ale (Genesis 1:27). Whi e some erroneously suggest that gender is merely a so ial or psychological constr ct, it originates in God's c eative purpose, and is ro ted in genetic and biological r ality. In rare cases of a ypical anatomy, qualified edical personnel can be con ulted. Aside from such rare cases, families and society should strongly affi m each individual's biol

gical, anatomical gender. For th se who experience gender dys horia, that is psychological d stress with their sex or ge der as determined by their p ysical anatomy. We recommend sp ritual and professional counse ing by qualified persons ho are committed to biblical

alues. When children youth exp rience confusion related t their social gender ident ty, we should provide th m with biblically based encoura ement, training and modeling, we should not block or subvert uberty through artificial me ns, as that would sacrifice chil ren to social and political age das in contradiction to both

iology and theology." So that's y basic position I would furt er add, because this comes up ur view is that public r strooms changing rooms and showers should be segregated b sex as determined by anatomy rather than is constructed by ersonal feelings and pref rences. private rooms can be de ignated for those who e pressed difficulty with a tandard arrangement. indiv dual or family restrooms are already available in man

public facilities. The rivacy, modesty, moral values eace of mind, security and safet of the overwhelming majority o people who affirmed tra itional biological gender shoul not be compromised for the sake of political expediency. S fety is an issue, not because o people who identify as transgen er, but because of predators w o could take advantag of the opportunity to harass o molest people of the opposite ex. And I'll just give you an

xample. This is happening more a d more, but one example was E ergreen College in Washingto State. Another one was spa in California, where a ful y grown adult male was fully n de in a facility for women. And because he identified as I'm a w man, so he didn't have a se change operation he was, am

n every way biologically. Acco ding to his anatomy of full male yet he goes into facilit that's reserved for women nd even girls even preaching g rls and displays himself fully ude him in that public arena on the theory that I'm really woman. Well, obviously, that' wrong. And basic princ ples of Christian teaching a mod sty and human sexuality and voiding fornication, lust, and a firming God's plan for marri ge, all that should say, hatever ideology that allows s mething like that to happen is s

riously flawed. And and while w should have compassion and res ect for people who are st uggling psychologically, w cannot restructure our society against the word Thank you for listening to this episode of Apostolic Life in the 21st Century. If you enjoy this podcast, please take a moment to give us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We also appreciate it when you share Apostolic Life in the 21st Century with a friend or family

member. Finally, join us again next time as we look at how the Bible applies to everyday life.