Transgenderism: Undoing God’s Design

The world has witnessed many devastating revolutions, but the sexual revolution may be the most damaging of all. In 2014 the UK witnessed a historic change within their nation when the government legalised gay “marriage.” It should be no surprise that serious challenges flowed from this decision.

Most alarming is the increasing move for people to identify as transgender, whereby men seek to become women and women seek to become men. There is even a push to indoctrinate primary school children in the UK to accept transgender behavior as normal through the book Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity? According to reports, the soon-to-be published book begins

My name is Kit and I’m 12 years old. I live in a house with my mum and dad, and our dog, Pickle. When I was born, the doctors told my mum and dad that they had a baby girl, and so for the first few years of my life that’s how my parents raised me. This is called being assigned female at birth. I wasn’t ever very happy that way.1

The book discusses Kit’s transition to wearing boys clothing, using male pronouns, changing her name, using hormone blockers to stop puberty, and undergoing gender-reassignment surgery.

Even the British medical association recently said that pregnant woman should not be called “expectant mothers” as it may offend transgender people. They are proposing that we call them “pregnant people.” These are just a few examples of how far our culture has drifted from a biblical worldview.

Christians need to think about these issues and respond to them, but how we respond will depend on our view of human origins and our worldview. We also need to understand the competing worldview which governs our culture—i.e. the secular worldview.

Secular Worldview

The secular worldview is based upon human autonomy, the belief that man determines what is right and wrong. The secular narrative goes something like this: we used to believe in male and female as the only gender categories, but we now know better.

The worldview behind secularism is evolutionary naturalism, the belief that nature is all there is and man is just a cosmic accident. In this worldview, reality is what we make it, because there is no God (or even purpose) that created it, maintains it, or declares any absolutes; therefore we can construct the world around us through our thought and language. In the secular worldview, gender is not objective but a social construction that people are free to define as they wish. In other words, “You are what you feel.”

Gender identity reflects a person’s supposedly true identity that allows them to be able to express their identity without fear of discrimination. In the secular worldview people define themselves, make their own laws, and deny that there is a God over us who defines us and tells who we are and how we should live.

Christians need to be aware of how the secular worldview is shaping the discussion over gender, and we need to make sure that we have our framework and foundations right before we can engage with others.

Biblical Worldview

The biblical worldview must start with a correct understanding of human origins, grounded in Genesis 1–3 and acknowledging the order and design of creation and also the disorder and dysfunction that comes from the Fall.

In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God created mankind as both male and female, the only two genders that God blessed and designed for procreation (Genesis 1:28). God knew it was not good for the man to be alone, which is why he formed the woman and instituted marriage (Genesis 2:18–25). Male and female are designed for one another and are also the only two genders as is recognised by Jesus (Matthew 19:4). However, we now experience the consequences of Adam and Eve’s wanting to be something they were not meant to be—gods! (Genesis 3:5). Nothing good can ever come from wanting to live outside of God’s law.

While we affirm the value of every person made in God’s image, we need to recognise that all people are sinful and make choices in rebellion against him and his Word (Romans 3:23). The Fall inclined our minds toward idolatry, futile thoughts, darkened hearts, foolishness, and sexual confusion (Romans 1:18–32). The sexual revolution is a manifestation of God’s judgement, a consequence of mankind’s rebellion against God.

Once mankind starts to believe that gender is something we create based upon how they feel or how they perceive it to be, where does it stop? What about the people who don’t feel human?

Once mankind departs from the fact that God made us male and female, society will turn upside down.

We need to address this issue by speaking the truth in love. In a world where “what I feel” has become synonymous with “who I am,” we should not be asking a person how they feel about themselves but asking them what they know about God and his Word. We need to stop focusing on feelings and start focusing on truth, which will lead to correct emotions. Because the truth of the matter is that we did not determine our parents, DNA, height, or sex. Once mankind departs from the fact that God made us male and female, society will turn upside down. Gender is not a social construct that defines us and can be arbitrarily changed based on our feelings; it is a God-ordained created order that has been present from the beginning but has been marred by sin.

Increasingly, transgenderism is going to be an issue that Christians will have to deal with. The transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for a world confused about its identity (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).