WP 107: Q&A Session

Questions from some listeners:

“Loving the new podcasts. I think it would be super helpful if you gave some ideas on how to discuss these issues with your kids. As a mom of 4 teenagers my kids are co scantly faced with issues related to transgender, sex before marriage, socialism, other religions. I think preparing them to be able to defend their faith while have a rational response to these issues is very important. I have had my older kids listen to the podcasts as well to give us a starting point for conversations. I appreciate your ability to talk about these issues and educate the church.”

 

· How to navigate gender fluidity in the world with truth and love?

· How to live in peace in a world of chaos?

 

Hope and clarity on the midst of confusion:

· The enemy always brings confusion. Jesus brings clarity.

· The enemy always brings chaos. Jesus brings order.

· The enemy always brings lies. Jesus brings truth.

· The enemy brings division. Jesus brings unity.

· The enemy brings hostility. Jesus brings peace.

· The enemy brings hate. Jesus brings love.

 

Our hope is always grounded in the character of God as revealed in Jesus.

 

Jesus is the clearest view of who God is and has always been.

 

· Hebrews 1:1-3a – In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

 

· John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…

14 – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth….

18 – No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

 

· Colossians 1:15-20 – The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

 

So we need to see everything through a Christocentric lens. That is, Jesus is the central lens through which we interpret scripture and the world around us.

If that is our starting point, practically, how do we address the issues we face today?

 

1. An interpretative principle. You don't interpret what is clear by what is unclear. You interpret what is unclear by what is clear.

2. All people are souls made in the image of God, loved by God, and worthy of love, respect and human dignity.

 

Socialism:

There’s a difference between socialized programs (public education, social security) and socialism as an economic philosophy.

 

What is socialism? Summarized as “government owns and operates the means of production.” (Venezuela, previously in Israel, India, Great Britain, etc).

 

Socialism is the stepping stone to communism. Centralizing power, Vladimir Lenin explained, “The goal of socialism is communism.”

 

They attack every principle of existing society. Hence, they are full of the most valuable materials for the enlightenment of the working class. The practical measures proposed in them -- such as the abolition of the distinction between town and country, of the family, of the carrying on of industries for the account of private individuals, and of the wage system, the proclamation of social harmony, the conversion of the functions of the State into a mere superintendence of production, all these proposals point solely to the disappearance of class antagonisms which were, at that time, only just cropping up, and which, in these publications, are recognized in their earliest, indistinct and undefined forms only. These proposals, therefore, are of a purely Utopian character. In short, the communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things. - The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx

 

Communism summarized is “the abolition of private property.”

 

What is its net effect spiritually?

 

· "Communism begins from the outset with atheism…” -Karl Marx

· "A Marxist must be a materialist, i.e., an enemy of religion…” -Vladimir Lenin

· "There are, besides, eternal truths, such as freedom, justice, etc. that are common to all states of society. But communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." -The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx

 

Other religions:

 

· All religions are not just paths to the same destination. They are not all basically saying the same thing.

· All other religions are man reaching out to find God. (Legalism)

· Christianity is God reaching out to find man. (Grace)

 

Transgenderism and gender fluidity:

 

· Regarding gender: Genesis 1:27-28 – So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”

· Genesis 2:24 – That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

· God’s design for human flourishing is a biological binary. Male and female.

 

Trans:

· Gender dysphoria is a real psychological condition which some people suffer from. - Gender dysphoria is a diagnosis listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as the feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics.

· Not all trans people have dysphoria. Some are very comfortable in their bodies.

· Some people are born as intersex. That is, they have sexually ambiguous characteristics at birth to varying degrees. Most are assigned a gender based on medical criteria at that time and some undergo some degree of surgery to physically align with that assignment. About 0.018% births have some ambiguity in genitalia.

· The number of people, especially adolescent girls, who identity as trans has skyrocketed recently.

· Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is what primarily impacts young girls. Just a short time ago, only .002% to .003% of girls in the U.S. identified as transgender. Now it’s up to 2%, so the rate has spiked by thousands of percentage points (in the UK, the number of girls identifying as trans has risen by over 4000%). Most trans-identified youth used to be males—that has reversed. In 2016, for example, girls accounted for 46% of sex reassignment surgeries in the U.S. One year later, that number had spiked to 70%.

· In a 2018 study “Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria,” discovered that a full 70% of trans teens belonged to a peer group in which one had already come out as trans, and according to parents, a third of these had shown no sign of being dysphoric previously. Despite the insistence of trans activists that this is simply “transphobia” on the part of the parents, 85% of the parents surveyed were LGBT-supportive.

· Much of this phenomenon has resulted in many thousands of teens receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and in many instances radical surgery.

· Book - Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze is Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier

 

How do Christ followers respond?

 

1 Corinthians 13:6 – Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

 

· Walk in love, truth and common sense (wisdom).

· We have to separate disagreement from love.

· I can love you and disagree with you. I can respect your dignity as a human without condoning your behavior. Jesus calls us to love people who are different from us. Even as far as to love one’s enemies. So our goal is to be full of grace and truth. Clarity and love.

· Ephesians 4:14-15 – Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

 

1. We can lovingly disagree, pointing to God's plan for human flourishing as his best for everyone when appropriate.

2. We live in a broken world where people are often born with physical circumstances they must navigate.

3. The Christ follower is called to love and serve those God puts in their path, including the trans and gender fluid identifying people.

4. We must constantly ask ourselves, “What does love require of me?”

5. Does this person have ears to hear? In other words, have I earned the right to speak into their life?

6. When confronted with hostility, we respond in the opposite spirit.

7. We are to speak the truth in love with gentleness and respect. Not with condescension, or arrogance from some moral high ground. The posture of one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread.

8. We may not be trans affirming, but we are always people affirming.

 

· 1 Peter 3:15-16 – But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a

clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

 

In other words, live in such a way that though the world disagrees with what you believe to be true, they should want it to be true based on the love of Christ they see in you.

 

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