A recent Google search (don’t waste your time or risk your sanctification by checking this) reveals that New York City now recognizes thirty-one “gender identifications.”  Not to be outdone, Facebook proudly proclaims that it recognizes seventy-one different gender identifications.  One of the more grievous things about living in an apostate age is that such outrageous, irrational foolishness increases at an exponential rate.  There is seemingly no end to license when rebellion against God prevails.  That having been said, the trumpets of popular culture blast so loudly and blare so incessantly that believers may find themselves in danger of giving in to the strictures of government, the pseudo-scientific arguments of pop psychology, and the false authority of liberal intellectuals.  Some may be tempted to succumb to the profound-sounding arguments, others to the pressures of societal demands.

            But believers have an absolute and infallible authority—the Word of God.  The Bible is infinitely authoritative, perfectly true, and eternally relevant.  This latest corruption is neither new nor modern; it is as old as Adam’s fall.  It has not taken God by surprise, nor has it exceeded the purview of the Word.  We must recognize that one of Satan’s devices is to attack many fronts simultaneously, hoping to beat down the righteous with an incessant and insurmountable onslaught.  He would begin by casting doubt.  Can so many authorities be wrong?  Can so many people be deceived?  If they were born this way . . . .  If they can’t help it . . . .  They are good citizens, smart and successful . . . .  The questions pound; doubts pummel.  

            But Isaiah gave this promise:  “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (59:19, KJV).  And the psalmist assures us that “the way of the wicked will perish” (1:6).  Meanwhile, believers should cling to the Word of God, which alone silences the din of rebellion and clarifies the confusion wrought by sin.  One simple statement regarding gender suffices for any Bible-believing Christian:  “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female . . . ?” (Matt. 19:4).

            Note several absolute truths.  God, who is perfect and makes no mistakes, is the author of gender.  In the beginning, this perfect God created two genders—not seventy-one, not thirty-one, not even three, just two—male and female.  Put simply, every other identity is the perverted fruit of sin.  The world may psychologize, socialize, spiritualize, sympathize, even demonize.  But God has spoken the first and final word on the matter.  We must deal charitably, witness faithfully, but stand resolutely on God’s side. 

            And lest there be any doubt, the same passage in Matthew defines not only true gender but also the only holy sexual relationship between genders:  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh . . . .  What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (vv. 5, 6).  Truth is simple.

            Righteousness is never popular, chic, or trendy.  But it is rock solid and good.  It doesn’t shift with every whim of foolish and sinful men.  It is as steady and sure as our God.  The believer’s position?  God calls every alternative but male and female genders and sexual monogamy within marriage a sin.  Christ died to save even great sinners.  And “such were some of you” (I Cor. 6:11a).  And us, I might add.  “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (v. 11b).