Can We Choose or Assign Our Gender?

Can someone choose their gender? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You can also leave us a voicemail at that number, and of course you can post your question on one of our social media sites. And feel free to email us any questions you have at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Jack, who's calling in from Texas. Jack, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello.

Hey, Jack, you there? Yeah. Hi, Pastor, thank you for taking my call, and God bless your ministry. My question is in regards to 1 Chronicles chapter 25. I think in verse 1 and verse 3, again, it talks about prophesying with instruments. I never noticed that before, and I just wanted to hear your take on what that means.

Yeah. Well, let me just read it. 1 Chronicles chapter 25, beginning in verse 1. David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Haman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied with liars, with harps, and with cymbals. So, yeah, I mean, this is what you have going on there, is this sort of prophetic speech that's happening in the context of worship, worship with these musical instruments there in the ministry of Israel.

Yeah, I mean, that happened. The question, I guess, are you wondering, Jack, just to go back to you for a second, are you wondering, is that something that we should be doing today or that we should expect from kind of our worship leaders in church? Well, no, I just knew prophesying as speaking the word of God, but I never heard it in the context of prophesying with instruments.

Yeah. Yeah, prophecy as this sort of maybe broader category, I think, can encompass a number of things. So, yes, it is forth-telling. You think about the proclamation of God's word and the prophets, especially under the old covenant, one of the things that they would do is bring to bear the terms of God's covenant, especially when his people had broken, when God's people had broken God's covenant. And so they would tell forth the word of the Lord. They would warn about the judgments that God had told his people about and say, hey, if you don't shape up Israel, you kings who are practicing idolatry, God is going to bring those covenant curses upon you. And so some people have referred to the prophets as these covenant prosecutors.

You think of them as these lawyers who are coming forward that God called as a part of the theocracy there under the old covenant to keep his people in line. But they also would foretell events in certain instances. You think of all the prophecies related to the coming of the Messiah. In the book of Acts, you see the foretelling.

You think of Agabus, for example, and those who were prophesying with him, foretelling of a famine that was coming. In 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14, you have a discussion about tongues and prophecy. And there, it seems like even tongues are a part of this sort of prophetic gifting. And in the context of the church at that time, there was singing and prophesying and giving of thanks. And so prophecy is actually, I think, oftentimes a broader category than we sometimes give it credit for in the Bible.

And I think that's one of the things that we're seeing there in 1 Chronicles chapter 25. Now, if you know this broadcast, typically one of the things that we'll say is, ordinarily, I don't believe that God is speaking in this same way. I don't think we should expect, for example, our worship leader who gets up on a Sunday morning with a guitar and is playing guitar and leading the church through the songs to give a word of prophecy, to speak authoritatively on God's behalf. No, I think actually that happens through the preaching of the word. And there are some people who have referred to preaching as a kind of prophesying because it's telling forth the word of the Lord. And so I think that's where we need to focus. But it is interesting to see some of these instances throughout the Bible of these spiritual manifestations, miraculous manifestations of God communicating his word and his will to his people.

So, Jack, appreciate your question, brother, and thanks for reaching out to the Corps. You know, my daughter was practicing her clarinet the other day for the high school band, and it did not sound like prophecy to me. Oh, it didn't? Oh, man, maybe like a curse or something, like a prophetic curse.

Kind of, yeah, kind of was that vein of music. Well, don't let her hear this episode of the broadcast, Bill. I will not. OK, this is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, if you have a question for us about the Bible or the Christian life, you can leave us a voicemail. Twenty four hours a day, we try to review our voicemails each day. You can call us at this number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail that came in earlier from one of our listeners.

My name is Gladly. In the school system, they want us to allow the children to choose a gender that they want to be in and allow them, a boy, to use girls' bathroom, girls to use boys' bathroom. What does the Bible say about those things? How should we deal with the children and choosing, you know, their gender identity?

Thank you. Well, Gladly, the Bible says that God created us male and female, that it's something that God has done. It's not something that we choose or decide for ourselves, but that this is something that is given to us by the Lord. And so right there, you have this great contradiction, this great difference between what we're hearing in culture today, which, by the way, is new. I mean, this is just like we're coming up with this, you know, as we go. And this is not how the world has thought for, you know, the history of humanity. And yet here we are. And so I think, frankly, we just need to call it what it is.

This is not true, and it's not helpful. And I think many people are beginning to see, now you don't even have to be a Christian to see. You can just see the absurdity of this whole sort of transgender thing. Now, I'm not saying that there isn't such a thing as real gender dysphoria.

There's serious mental health issues that I think need to be addressed. But the way in which our culture is approaching this, and the way in which our culture is talking about gender and gender identity and gender fluidity, and you can choose to be whatever you want. You might change your mind. You can go from being male to female to back and forth. It's just not true biologically. It's not true scientifically.

It's not true on the basis of how God has created us. And so I think that that's really important for us to say. And I think it's really important for us just because, as I mentioned, we're beginning to see the destructive effects of this ideology on young children.

Young children who are going through, quote unquote, gender reaffirmation surgeries, and are suffering with the consequences for the rest of their lives. And they're now coming and speaking out about that. And so this is just a really serious issue right now. And one, I think that it's important for us as believers to stand firm in what the scriptures teach, but also just to point out the absurdity of the current cultural moment and say, no, this is not right and this is actually not good. We're not actually helping each other. We're not helping our children when we're feeding them with these ideas and really confusing them.

And at times, I think even bringing them a great deal of harm. And so, gladly, I don't know if you work in the school system, and this is something that's being pushed on you, but this is one of the areas where we as believers, I think, are going to be challenged and where we're going to have to remain, I think, faithful to what scripture teaches, not participate in some of the things that we're being asked to do or participate in for the good of our neighbor, ultimately, and for the good of the children who are around us. So there's a lot more, I think, that could be said, but I would just say in terms of what the Bible teaches, because that was your question, the Bible is very clear about the fact that God has made us male and female. It's not something that we decide and determine at some point later in our lives.

I appreciate the question. It's really a tragedy, Adriel, and there are so many confused young people right now, and unfortunately, the messages that they're hearing from the culture, from the media, through social media, and even sometimes from their educators is, in my opinion, it's really lies from the pit of hell. It's Satan. He's the father of lies, and he is deceiving people and deceiving children, and Jesus, what did he speak most harshly about? Better to have a millstone around your neck and thrown into a lake than to deceive these little ones, and it breaks my heart. Yeah, Bill, and I know you've been in the world of therapy and dealing with some of these issues and some of these questions, and even research regarding the transgender movement and whatnot. So for you to say that I think is saying something, in terms of that whole world, Bill, do you feel like there's just a ton of confusion there, that everybody's just sort of embraced this sort of ideology that therapists feel like, well, we have to just affirm whatever this child is saying, or is there pushback even there? Well, it's interesting that you asked that question, because unfortunately, several of the major professional associations, like, for example, the American Psychological Association, even the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in these organizations, there are these small transgender lobbies that often are crafting the policy statements for these organizations, and they're pushing these agendas, even though it completely conflicts with the science, as you mentioned earlier. It conflicts with what we've known for many years. And so, yeah, it's a tragedy.

I think we have to be careful to what voices we listen to and always, always use God's word as our authority. And by the way, there is one organization that I will mention. It's an organization of physicians that have some real issues with this. It's the American College of Pediatrics. They're kind of the, I guess, call them the conservative alternative to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and they have some great research on their website about this issue. So I would steer listeners towards that to really be able to answer some questions that perhaps their kids have about this issue. So anyway, thanks for addressing it.

It's really a serious issue in our culture right now. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez, and I want to mention something that we just feel so thankful about here at the Core, and that is a group of people who support this program on a regular basis. They believe in what we do. They believe in the fact that each day we're helping people to unpack the truths of Scripture and understand more about the Christian faith.

We call those people our inner Core. Yeah, if you've been blessed by the broadcast, if you're encouraged by the work that we're doing as we open up the Scriptures together and seek to provide answers to the difficult questions that people are asking that you're asking today, would you consider joining the inner Core? It's a group of supporters who give a gift of $25 a month and hopefully pray for us as well.

I mean, that's one of the things that we appreciate so much is your prayers. We know at the end of the day that it's the Lord who does the work in building his church and in using his Word together with the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives. We want the Word to go out, and we want you to be encouraged, and we want that Word to change you, to shape you, to encourage you in your faith in Jesus Christ. So partner with us in that by joining the inner Core. As a thank you, we'll send you a copy of the book, Core Christianity, by Dr. Michael Horton, which is just a great introduction to those Core Christian doctrines that we think everyone should know. You can learn more about joining the inner Core by going to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash inner core.

We'd love to have you consider, perfectly consider joining that great group of people in the inner Core. By the way, if you have an email question, you can shoot it to us anytime at questions at corechristianity.com. We're open to questions about doctrine or theology or maybe doubts you have about the Christian faith, comparative religions, you name it. Again, it's questions at corechristianity.com. Here's one that came in from one of our listeners, and they say, in the New Testament, does the Greek word pistis usually mean faith, or does it usually mean faithfulness?

Yeah, it's an excellent question. Yeah, pistis is the Greek word for faith. It's used throughout the New Testament, especially in places like the Gospel of John. And this is actually an important question because when we're talking about salvation, and we oftentimes will say we're saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Well, how do we define faith? Is faith the empty hand that receives the salvation that God freely gives? It's not a work.

It's not something we do. It's an instrument, if you will. It's that hand that receives the grace of God in the Gospel. Or is faith not an empty hand? It's actually faithfulness.

It's living a life of faithfulness and service and doing. In that sense, faith very much becomes a work. We're saved not by our faith in Jesus Christ as this instrument of our justification.

We're saved by our faithfulness, by being faithful to God, by being obedient to his law. Well, there's a huge problem with that because, as Paul says in Galatians, the law is not a faith. There's this distinction, especially when we're thinking about justification, being justified before God.

We can't be justified by the works of law. And so if we're defining faith by faithfulness, then we're posing some serious problems with regard to the doctrine of our salvation. And so it's best to define faith not as faithfulness, although there might be instances in the New Testament where, and the context is what helps to determine how a word is used. It's not ever really helpful to say, well, this one word always has this meaning.

Words in the Bible, Greek words, Hebrew words, have a range of meaning, and the context helps us to determine how a word is being used. But typically the word pistis means faith, especially when we're talking about, in regards to our justification, being saved by faith. We're not talking about faithfulness there, but faith as that empty hand. One helpful definition of faith is there's knowledge. There's a knowledge of what it is that's being believed. There's an assent.

We're giving assent to that. And then trust, relying on the gospel personally for ourselves, what God has given to us in His Son Jesus. It's a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon God, the gospel, the grace that He gives to us in His Son Jesus.

And so appreciate that question. It's so important that we understand what faith is. Otherwise, Bill, we get into this whole idea of, well, we're saved by our faithfulness, and we keep ourselves saved by our faithfulness. And that's salvation by works, and that's a huge issue in the New Testament.

So true. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We do receive voicemails, and you can leave us your voicemail 24 hours a day at this number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's one from Pat in Long Island, New York. I would like to know, does a person have to be saved in order to have the Holy Spirit living in them? Can a person that is not saved ask God for the Holy Spirit to live in them? I'm very interested in finding that out. Thank you very much, and thank you for your program.

I appreciate it very much. That's a really interesting question. While I would say that there are times where certainly the Spirit of God can work upon those who are not saved, even in miraculous ways, and you see this in the Old Testament, I think you also see this in the New Testament, when it comes to having the Holy Spirit live in you, that's the language that you used, that person is someone who is born again, who says, Jesus is Lord. In fact, Paul told the Corinthians that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, and so if the Holy Spirit lives in you, your body is a temple of the true and the living God. You've been claimed by the Lord, saved by faith, justified.

I would say no. A non-Christian cannot have the Holy Spirit living in them. The text of scripture to go to is in Ephesians chapter 1. In verse 13, listen to what Paul said. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. In other words, you see how Paul brings those things together. It's hearing the gospel, the gospel of your salvation, believing in Christ as faith, as the instrument of our justification for our salvation, laying hold of this gospel promise that God has given to us, and being sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God coming and living in us, making us the temple of the true and the living God. Well, if a person doesn't believe, they don't have that.

And again, as I said, that doesn't mean the Spirit can't work and doesn't work in that individual's life, and that there might not even be miraculous manifestations, things that happen, but there's a difference between that and being sealed with the Holy Spirit, which is something that is only true of Christians, of believers. Thank you for that question, Pat. Great explanation. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You can always post your question on one of our social media sites, including Instagram.

And here's one that came in. What are some things that my husband and I can do to begin teaching our young kids about the faith? Ooh, I love this question. And Bill, I'd love to get your insight too, because I know you have kids that are a little bit older than mine, but with our children, just trying to be consistent. One, be consistent in going to church, taking your kids to church and exposing them to the life of the worshipping community. Too often that does not happen anymore. I mean, it really is tragic, and people wonder, well, boy, you know, kids went off to college and just stopped going to church, abandoned church altogether, but a lot of times they see us as their parents not prioritizing worship together with the people of God. It should be a priority in our lives, should be something that they're seeing in us and learning from us as we engage with the community of faith. And so that's just a simple thing on Sunday.

And I shouldn't have to say it, but I bring it up because it is so important. Beyond that, I think making sure that we're in these rhythms as families of praying together, reading scripture together. There are great catechisms that you can use as well. In my family, we sometimes use what's called the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a short Q&A about the faith, trying to help our children have the sort of grammar of who God is and theology so that they can grow into it, but there are also other catechisms that could be helpful, Q&A, things that you can do with your children. But I would just say, man, if you're praying together every day, reading scripture together, that's a wonderful thing.

And you think, well, my kids are pretty young. I don't know how much they'll be able to follow along with Bible reading, but I think even just short portions of scripture, reading a psalm or a brief story can be really good and asking questions, having conversations about the things that you're reading. Just making sure that in your life, as parents, God talk. And talk about God's grace, about the gospel, about what Jesus has done.

That's not foreign. That's not something that they only hear on Sunday, but that you're having those conversations in the home, around the dinner table. You're applying the truth of God's Word to everyday life situations. It's that example that I think is so important for us to set for our children.

And here's the reality, is we don't do that perfectly. And so there are going to be times where you fall short, where you sin, and it's obvious. And going to our children then and saying, hey, Mommy, Daddy, we need Jesus' forgiveness too. We need the grace of the gospel too. Please forgive us. Please just know that we need God's grace. I think that's an important example that we set for them as well. So having that honesty, it's not just here. You need to do these things and believe these things.

Otherwise you're going to get in trouble. We all desperately need the grace of God. And Bill, I want to give you a few moments here too to also chime in, because you have kids. Well, I think everything you said is so true. The importance of meeting as the body of Christ, to worship, and of course going into God's Word and praying together. I would also add, there's some great Christian literature. You think of some of the historic classics, you know, Pilgrim's Progress or The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.

Lewis. I actually read that to my kids when they were three and five. We went through the entire Chronicles of Narnia. Now, granted, they're not going to understand the symbolism of Aslan, but now that they're teenagers, they do get it. And that's so exciting. So I would encourage people to even start with The Chronicles of Narnia with your young kids. And if you're like Bill, you can do the voices of all the characters like Aslan really, really well. And so that's another.

I mean, just like as you're doing these stories, you know, give it some creative. There you go. There you go.

Yeah, Bill. If you do that, your kids are bound to really, you know, chime in and listen. So, hey, thank you again so much for listening to the broadcast. May the Lord bless you guys. And until next time here at The Core. God bless. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.