Last week, the Southern Baptist Convention took an official stand against gender reassignment, affirming the creation of “two distinct and complementary sexes.” That stand flies in the face of Time magazine’s move to feature transgender Laverne Cox on a recent cover, marking the tipping point of perversion that’s taking place in our society even now.
With the United Methodist Church nearing a split over issues of human sexuality, I was glad to see the Southern Baptists stand firm on the issue. Of course, the transgender community—and those who support it—was not so happy. Some claimed the Baptists threw transgenders under the bus as those who are rejecting God’s will and plan. Others suggested the Baptists were wrong to conclude transgenders don’t exist—and even suggested that Joan of Arc was a transgender toting military armor.
“Trans people exist; they experience their gender as different from their sex,” writes Jay Michaelson from the Daily Beast. “It has always been this way (cf. Queen Christine of Sweden, Joan of Arc), and no amount of persecution, past or present, can change that fact.”
A Long List of Gay Saints?
It’s true that history books record Queen Christine of Sweden’s aversion to marriage and discomfort with her own femininity but tell me: How does that translate to transgenderism? That seems like a long leap off a slippery slope, indeed. The LGBT community also argues that Joan of Arc was not executed for practicing witchcraft but for dressing like a man and offers a long list of other “gay saints” that emerged through the ages without any real proof of their claims.
The nefarious strategy here is to demonstrate how many notable Christians have embraced the LGBT lifestyle—even centuries before it was defined in those terms.
But let’s set the record straight on Joan of Arc—and David and Jonathan while we’re at it.
Widely considered a heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint, Joan of Arc was not a transgender. As she tells it, she received prophetic visions that called her to support Charles VII and deliver France from English domination in the Hundred Years’ War. After astounding victories, she was captured by enemies, tried by the English for witchcraft and heresy and burned at the stake at age 19. Pope Callixtus III later examined the trial, proclaimed her innocence and classified her as a martyr. There’s no definitive proof she was a transgender, but the LGBT community has been playing this card for years.
It’s a similar play to insisting Jonathan and David were gay lovers. As Lee Grady pointed out in a column last year entitled, “How I Know David and Jonathan Weren’t Gay“: Gay-affirming theologians also have pounced on the story of David and Jonathan. They point to David’s words in 2 Samuel 1:26 when he eulogized Jonathan and Saul: “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women” (NASB).
“It’s laughable to suggest that David, the author of many of the psalms—and the biblical figure who best represents a true worshipper of the one true God—would be recast as being in a gay relationship,” Grady wrote. “It is incredibly perverse—not to mention blasphemous—to suggest that anything sexual was going on between David and Jonathan. Yet I suspect that leaders in the gay-affirming church movement will continue to come up with more bizarre examples of Scripture-twisting in order to promote their agenda. We can’t allow them to hijack the purity of the gospel.”
Praying for Truth to Break Through
Although Joan of Arc is not a Bible character and deeming her a transgender doesn’t exactly hijack the purity of the gospel, transgender claims about other Bible figures do this and more. TransChristians.org claims Deborah, a mighty woman of God who led Israel’s army into battle, claims Deborah was gender variant. In fact, TransChristians.org also claims Adam was an androgyne and Jesus was possibly intersex.
Shocking? Yes and no. I’m glad that the LGBT community is reading the Bible but using the Word of God to suggest, as Matthew Vines did, that 7 Bible quotes support romantic same-sex relationships or that David and Jonathan were gay lovers or that Deborah was a gender variant and Jesus could have been intersex are beyond the pale of reason. It’s essentially no different than various religions creating false doctrine around requirements for salvation, but anyone who adds to or takes away from the Word of God is putting themselves in a perilous position (see Rev. 22:18).
There is a strong delusion working in the minds of many who are picking up the Word of God (2 Thess. 2:11). Nevertheless, I am thrilled they are picking up God’s Word and reading it because He is able to break in with the light of His truth (see Psalm 119:130). Would you join with me in praying that God would remove the blinders off the eyes of anyone and everyone who is not rightly dividing the Word of truth? (See 2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Tim. 2:15) Would you agree with me for an outpouring of Holy Spirit conviction on any of us who are misinterpreting Scripture knowingly or unknowingly? (See John 16:18) Will you stand for truth with me—no matter the cost—in this hour? (See Eph. 6:14.)
Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also the author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet. You can email Jennifer at jennifer.leclaire@
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