By Edwin Crayton/Opinion
It may be appropriate for me to start this article by putting up one of those disclaimers that you see at the beginning of movies. You know the one. It reads: “Warning: This motion picture may contain content that may not be suitable for younger children”. Except in this case, the disclaimer for this opinion article reads: “Warning: This article contains content which may offend people who don’t believe in God or the Holy Bible, and disagree agree with what science, biology and nature have all revealed in regards to male and female bodies, sexual identity and reproduction.” But this is an opinion article, so here are my opinions.
- If a thing is true, it is true whether or not you believe it is. Since the world began, mankind has correctly believed and proved that whatever sex a person was born is the sex he or she is. Science has explained it. Nature has confirmed that it is the truth. This has been a truth held by both nonbelievers as well as by believers in God. We Christians believe God himself gave us gender when he created the first man and first woman. The Bible says, “He made them male and female (Genesis 1:27). The key words there are “He made them”. That means God himself is the one who created sexuality. That makes him lord of it. He is solely in control because no one really gets to overrule God. But we are now having to deal with those who see things differently. Transgenders seem to believe they know better than God and think they, instead of God, get to control and determine their sexuality. They claim they should be able to do this based on how they feel. They are quite passionate about it too. Disagree with them and you’ll see. Here’s just one example. As I am writing this, according to Politico and other news outlets, Montana’s House of Representatives is debating over a ban on trans gender affirming medical care for children. Politico and others reported “Transgender lawmaker Ms. or is it Mr. Zooey Zephyr told her (or his) fellow colleagues “they’d have blood on their hands for voting to ban gender-affirming medical care for children.” That stubborn “ it’s my way or the highway” attitude is not uncommon among those who believe in transgender rights and I might add, among abortion supporters as well. While certainly they are entitled to their opinions, is it right for them to demonize those who don’t agree that transgender lifestyles or surgeries are right for children—or adults? If a transgender man in a green dress and matching high heels has a right to think he’s a woman, shouldn’t the rest of us have the right to think it’s just a man in a green dress and high heels? The Bible teaches that Christians must oppose all forms of homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22, Ezekiel 33:8-9, Romans Chapter 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). It’s is getting to the point where if you don’t endorse homosexuality/transgender lifestyles, you are likely to be deported or something. It’s a form of bullying. As I was writing this another incident was brought to my attention. I heard a sermon by a pastor who is also a school teacher. The pastor told the congregation that a child of about seven years of age asked him if he (the pastor) supported the LGBT. Here is a school child who barely knows his ABCs, asking about LGBT. Wrong alphabets son. The pastor told him that homosexuality is a sin, but he did not hate anyone. The pastor then made it clear that he did not support trans gender lifestyles. I am guessing that someone put the boy up to asking that. Children are not usually aware of sexual issues when they are six or seven The point is, kids are being coached into buying into LGBT lifestyles. And we should not allow them to make crucial decisions about their sexuality when they are minors. It truly bothers me that the gay/transgender movement is now going after children too. No child should be subjected to any body altering sex surgeries. Why can’t that transgender lawmaker in Montana who is pushing this kind of thing understand that too? What if a child changed his or her mind later? Body parts are not like auto parts. In order for transgender lifestyles to be accepted by all, everyone has to engage in the most elaborate game of “Pretend” the world has ever known. Like the people in the fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, people will have to lie to themselves and to others. The nations who fall for this sexual con game will have to also reject God’s teachings and that will bring down his wrath. Why would God bless a lifestyle that he has already condemned as immoral? This goes for abortion (killing of innocent babies—Exodus 20:13 and sex before marriage as well—called fornication in Scripture (1 Corinthians chapter 6). All are popular sins which our nation is embracing and calling normal and good. Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good.” Yet, this is not hopeless. We who are Christians can also write our lawmakers and tell them to ban transgender surgeries for children. (They are not good for grownups either.) We can also teach our children proper sexuality as God commanded in the Bible.
- A pure and 100% clean being cannot mix with anything dirty and remain pure and 100% clean. In Post Christian America, many people have never heard of Adam and Eve. So, I’ll repeat the Bible account from Chapters 1 through 3 of the Book of Genesis, just for the sake of clarity. The Bible says Adam and Eve were the first man and woman. They were made perfect and placed in a garden paradise. God blessed them there and gave them one commandment: don’t eat a forbidden fruit. He warned that if they did, they would die. But the Devil in the form of a snake, came along and told them otherwise. He said they would not die. So, they believed his lie and disobeyed God and ate the fruit. They were cast out of paradise. This brought sin into the world. But instead of destroying Adam and Eve, God who is actually love, loved mankind so much until he provided a way to redeem mankind. He sent his only Son Jesus to die to pay the penalty for mankind’s sin. This is why anyone who believes Jesus is God’s son, who died for everyone’s sins, will go to heaven, if they will confess that they are sinners, ask forgiveness, believe he died and rose again, and ask him to be their savior and lord (John 3:16). Until Jesus came, God devised a sacrificial system to atone for sins. This did not take away sins. Gracious God just accepted it as atonement. Jesus however, was the last sacrifice and those who believe in him do indeed have their sins washed away, making them acceptable to God even though all mankind has in fact fallen short of God’s glory by sinning one way or another (Romans 3:23). This is all very, very important. Because it means that we, humans, who are morally and spiritually unclean without Jesus, are accounted as being acceptable to God because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Without Jesus, we are not acceptable to God. So, this means that when we reject Jesus, it’s about the same as getting rid of the seat belts and air bags in your car, then driving 100 miles per hour on a windy, slippery road at night until you have an accident. Without Jesus, mankind is without hope of going to heaven. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me (John 14:6). In other words, he is saying that those who reject him will not get into heaven. Well, America may not be listening. There is rejection of Jesus everywhere: in movies, in public life, even some churches, he is being ignored and minimized. The nation is removing the seatbelts and tossing out the air bags, taking out the brakes and hitting the accelerator.
- Some things must only be accepted or received in their complete form or totality. Would you try to buy a single potato chip instead of purchasing the whole bag of chips? Some things must be accepted in their complete form. God is like that. The Bible is too. Yet, many people cherry pick what they believe about both. The problem with that is, it doesn’t show respect for God or his holy word because when we edit God or the Bible, we are not really accepting either. It’s a insult. Imagine being told by a friend or loved one that they only love half of you. This is why some churches end up endorsing moral concepts that God hates. It is why they don’t teach some parts of the Bible. Some churches never teach the Book of Revelations. Others don’t obey certain commands. This does not go over well with God. In fact, Jesus complained to some would be followers, “Why do you call me lord and then, don’t do what I command? But there is another way in which those of us who claim Christ fail to accept the whole “bag of chips”—meaning, we half step in our relationship with God. What I am referring to is a tendency among some of us to not give God our whole heart. We practice a kind of lukewarm faith, that refuses to give all to God. At the same time, we convince ourselves that what we are giving to him or are willing to do for him or sacrifice for him is good enough. Maybe we don’t give the full tithe. Or maybe we obey some commandments, but ignore the others. Maybe we conform to worldly ideas or compromise our Christian principles when it is profitable to do so. Maybe we just commit to only what makes us comfortable. We maintain control. We don’t let God transform us. We haven’t bought the whole bag of chips. Maybe, we don’t really believe. The worst part of being half-way devoted is that when we refuse to follow God’s call, we miss his greatest blessings because God wants to use us to be a blessing to others. The best example I can think of is how many who claim Christ refuse to share Jesus with unbelievers so that they can accept him as savior and lord and one day go to heaven. Yes, I’m talking about witnessing to the same people who are pushing the sins mentioned in this article: transgenders, gays, abortionists, fornicators and every other person who has not accepted Jesus as savior. They mistakenly think that we are telling them about sin because we “are judging them”. Reality is, we are in fact warning them, because we love them. Let me ask you something. If you saw someone who was unaware that they were about to fall into a pit, would you warn them? Of course, you would. That is all we are doing. We believe that the sins that are becoming accepted by society are really a pit that damns them (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ezekiel 33:8-9). We are commanded by God himself to warn them. But so far, they’re not listening. As more and more people in America and the world join the parade by abandoning God’s, the stakes get higher. More souls will be lost to the fires of hell. That is what the Bible teaches: Unbelief ultimately leads to damnation (John 3:17-19, John 14:6). God comes when we call him. But he also leaves when we ask him to depart from us. When that happens, he doesn’t go away empty handed. he takes his blessings with him.
“Jesus said unto them, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” –Matthew 21:42
