How Should Christians Handle the Transgender Movement?

How should Christians handle the transgender movement? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is 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. You can call us right now with your question. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-HELP. You can also watch us live on Instagram or YouTube right now, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Well, first up, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners. This is Angela. I have a question about anointing oil. My daughter has recently become addicted to drugs, and I've been speaking with some of my sisters in the church, and they have suggested that I put anointing oil and pray over her for deliverance from the addiction.

I've been praying every day for months, and I just wondered if anointing oil is something that would work. Angela, well, I think we definitely want to take a moment first to pray for you and to pray for your daughter, because prayer does work. Really, the power is in the prayer of faith, and so going to the Lord, trusting in Him, and lifting the situation up to Him, let's pray for our sister Angela and for her daughter.

Father, we come before You right now, and we lift Angela up to You. We ask for her, Lord, that You would fill her with Your wisdom, especially as she seeks to care for her daughter and to help her daughter to get out of this addiction. Would You give her wisdom, Lord, and bring the proper resources to her that will be able to help her in supporting her daughter?

But we pray for her daughter, who is caught in this addiction. Lord, would You pour Your Spirit out upon her? Would You give her a sense of conviction? Would You help her to see, Lord, how this destructive behavior is displeasing to You and how it ruins relationships, how it's harming her, Lord? And would You deliver her?

Would You break the chains of this addiction? And I pray, Lord God, that she would find the freedom that is found in Christ. Give her, Lord, enable her to have the will to turn from these drugs, whatever they are, Lord, and save her, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

I can tell, as any parent would be, Angela, that you are desperate. You want an answer, and I think continuing to pray is good. You do have, in the Scriptures, people anointed with oil, oftentimes in the Old Testament, anointing with oil was a symbol of setting an individual apart for a particular task or office. Think of the prophets or the kings or the priests in Israel. You have anointing with oil. Jesus is the anointed one, the Mashiach, the one who was anointed of the Lord for our redemption. In the New Testament, you also have anointing with oil at times for setting people apart, the laying on of hands. You also have it in the context of healing in James 5, where James says in verse 13, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. In other words, it's not right there.

It's not the oil that has some sort of magical power or property. It's the prayer, praying in faith, coming before the Lord and bringing this need before God. The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Now, we know that with addiction, you have all the stuff that's going on in the body and in the brain, and you also have the reality of sin. So, Angela, I guess the question that I would have for your daughter is, does she recognize that this is sin, that this is wrong? Is she confessing this to the Lord?

This could be something where you call for the leadership of the church, and she wants to come forward and say, Look, I need God's help. I need God's forgiveness. Pray for me.

Would you guys lay hands on me and pray that God would deliver me? I think that that's appropriate, but again, I would say don't think of anointing oil as the answer here. I think your daughter needs a lot of support. She does need a lot of prayer. She needs the community of faith to come around her, and then the other practical things that are out there, rehab and so forth.

Wouldn't you say, Bill? Oh, for sure, and I think one of the things that Angela would benefit from is getting into some type of group for parents, for relatives that have loved ones who are addicted, and there are several out there. You and I often talk about this, that typically when there's addiction to drugs or alcohol, there's something behind that addiction, some kind of pain that has led that person to look to a substance, and we don't know what that is in her life, but that's something that is going to have to be dealt with. Otherwise, there's a really good chance she's going to go back to it. Yeah.

I'm glad that you brought that up, Bill. I know just in pastoral ministry having conversations with many people, you have the outward sin. Maybe it's abusing alcohol.

Maybe it's abusing drugs. Maybe it's pornography, whatever it is, but oftentimes, those are things that people run to in order to numb themselves from a deeper pain. Again, that's not to excuse the sin, the behavior. It's just to say that oftentimes, what we really need to do is get to the root of whatever that sin is. Sometimes, there's a deeper idol in our hearts, we might say, or a deep pain that instead of bringing it to the Lord and saying, God, I know I need to bring this to you.

I need your help, we try to cover up. We put these Band-Aids on it, and those Band-Aids can look like drugs or alcohol or any number of things, and so recognizing that is key when it comes to getting true healing. We've often mentioned there's a wonderful ministry called Celebrate Recovery where those who have accepted Christ, who are trusting in Christ, can go with other like-minded people and recover from their drug or alcohol addictions.

That's something to consider as well. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, something in your own life that's been troubling you, or maybe something going on at your church that you're wondering about.

We'd love to hear from you. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Have a YouTube question from Jim, and by the way, you can watch us on YouTube every weekday at 1130 a.m. Pacific time. That's when you can just click on the Core Christianity YouTube channel and check out what's going on here in the studio. Jim says this, and this kind of ties in with our previous question.

He says, Thank you, gentlemen, for your ministry. I have a question. Is vaping nicotine considered idolatry since it's an addictive substance?

The same with caffeine. Jim, thanks for that question. Look, I don't know a lot about vaping per se. I know that it's becoming really popular right now, and I know that people vape other things besides nicotine, but you're talking about just vaping nicotine. No, I don't think that that's an idolatry. It could be. There are people who their lives are devastated by nicotine use, by tobacco. There's the wisdom question here. That's something you need to consider, but if you're asking me is tobacco just generally a sin, I don't think that the answer is yes to that.

No, I don't think so. I think here we have to exercise wisdom as Christians, and certainly wisdom says it's not good to be bound by anything. All things are lawful for me, Paul says, but I'm not going to be brought in under the dominion of anything. There is freedom that we have as Christians, but you have to exercise that freedom with wisdom, and in all things, seek to honor the Lord. Whether you eat or drink, Paul says, do everything for the glory of God. That's how we should seek to live our lives with whatever we do, whatever we put into our bodies. We should seek to honor the Lord and to glorify him. God bless you, Jim.

This is Core Christianity. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about doctrine, theology, a Bible passage that's confusing to you, give us a call at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Dorothy calling in from Missouri. Dorothy, what's your question for Adriel? Hello, Pastor Adriel. Hi, Dorothy. How are you? Good. Thank you for taking my call.

I love listening to you every day. My question is about tithing. I have three different parts to it. For instance, our paychecks. Say you earn $100, but by the time they take taxes and all-out, you only end up with $80.

Do you tithe on that total $100 that you earned, or on the actual $80 that you would receive? Okay. Do you want me to tackle that one first? Yes. Great question. I'm assuming that different believers do.

I think that there's some freedom here. The first thing I would say, Dorothy, is the tithe was a part of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament. It was something that the people of God brought to the temple to worship.

It was more probably than just 10% when you consider all of the things that were brought together. There are a number of books on money, possessions, the kingdom of God, that highlight some of these things. The tithe in the Old Testament, oftentimes we don't realize everything that it entailed for the worshiper. You also have other instances, even prior to the giving of the Mosaic law, where you have examples of the tithe. You think of Melchizedek and Abraham, for example, giving of 10% there. I would just say we don't have to view it as, this is a binding law upon me. Now, people are going to think, whoa, I guess you're telling Christians not to tithe.

No, not at all. I would say we ought to give. I think 10% is a really good benchmark. I know a lot of believers who give more than that, right? Believers under the New Covenant, as those who have received so much from the Lord, should give, not out of a sense of obligation or compulsion, but out of a sense of joy. I would say, Dorothy, prayerfully ask yourself, and as you're considering giving the tithe, say, Lord, help me to do this with joy, and help me to be a generous and cheerful giver. That's precisely what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. In other words, he's encouraging generosity here, you know, so bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

And so that's, there's your answer. You pray about this. You give not reluctantly or under compulsion, but as you've decided in your heart. And so maybe for you, that's, you know what, I'm going to do the pre-tax number. Before they take that stuff out, I'm going to give 10% of the whole thing. Or maybe I'm going to give more than that, or maybe not.

But whatever you do, doing so with joy and with a longing to be generous to the Lord and to his people. So there's my answer to the first part of your question, Dorothy. You said you had a couple other things.

Well, I had another question. We recently had an insurance loss. And now the insurance company is paying what it was insured for. I don't know if it's going to be, cost more to rebuild than what I've gotten. But on that money I'm getting from the insurance company, am I, do I tithe on that or is that just, you know, I've paid for that insurance for many years and now we've had the loss. I just, I don't know if, it's money I'm receiving, but it's money that's going to have to replace the item that was lost.

Yeah. Well, another very great practical question. And Bill, I'd be happy to hear some of your thoughts here too. I don't think, Dorothy, that you're obligated to say, well, I have to give from this too. But again, here's where there's freedom. And if the Lord has opened the doors and it's like, okay, now we have these resources, it's not going to cost that much to rebuild, what are we going to do with the rest? Or how can I use these resources to benefit the kingdom of God?

There's freedom here. And so I would just encourage you, sister, I can tell that you want to honor the Lord. And that's pleasing to the Lord. God bless you for that. I would just encourage you to pray and say, Lord, everything that I have is a gift from you. Thank you for your provision in my life.

Help me to grow in generosity and to be happy to do so. And I don't think you need to feel obligated to say, okay, I got to give this, what we got back from this insurance. But you're free to. And you know what?

You're blessed as you do. That's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9. And so not viewing it as a do I have to, am I going to get in trouble if I don't, but just that freedom that you have in Christ motivated above all else by God's goodness and generosity to you, the Gospel, ultimately the forgiveness of our sins, that should lead us to say, okay, Lord, here you go. Bill, do you have anything to add? I think we often talk about Christian liberty on this program. And there are so many of us, I think, that we want a hard and fast number. When we look at the Old Testament, we see the 10 percent tithe and we say, again, I think our question was great. Do I tithe on the pretax, the gross amount?

Do I give 10 percent of this insurance settlement? I think those are all legitimate questions. And I appreciate Dorothy's heart as well. She wants to give. She wants to make sure she's doing the right thing. But I think, as you said, she has that freedom.

Just as we have freedom in a lot of things where oftentimes we want a hard, fast answer, God, through his grace, gives us that liberty. Yeah, amen. Dorothy, you said you had one more thing. I just want to go back to you one more time because I don't want to miss if you wanted to follow up. But you mentioned you might have one other question. I want to change that third thing I was going to ask, because it's also about tithing.

Okay. We're supposed to tithe to our local church. And then over and above that, we can give to others. Like the Lord has said, we're to take his word to all the world, and there's so much of the world now that needs it so badly. And I have been donating to other pastors, such as you, and ones on the radio that I listen to, that are getting the word out to countries that don't have the Bible and all. And so I should give at least the 10% to my local church, and then above that I can give to these other churches that have the access to send it all out through the world. Is that okay?

Yeah. God bless you again, Dorothy. Yeah, I would encourage, just as a minister of the Gospel, focus on giving to the work of your local church and supporting the ministry there, your pastor who's feeding you with the word of God week in and week out, hopefully watching over your soul together with the elders there.

You want to be invested in that, but you're also free to go above and beyond. And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, that bountiful sowing, that generous heart, there's a huge blessing there. And as the Lord Jesus himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. And so I just want to say thank you for your support, for our ministry and the other things that you support. May God continue to bless you and be with you and encourage you as he cultivates in your heart that spirit of generosity. Thanks for reaching out to us. Dorothy, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity for your support.

We really do appreciate you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. I want to mention we have some great Bible studies available on both Old Testament and New Testament books.

They'll really help you to dive into those books and apply them to your life. Yeah, great 10-week Bible studies going deeper into the word of God. That's what we want to help you to do here at Core Christianity.

And so get ahold of one of these resources. We have Bible studies and books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. And you can find them over at corechristianity.com. By the way, a great Bible study on the book of John, which is one of our most popular Bible studies here. You can find all our Bible studies by going to corechristianity.com forward slash radio.

That's corechristianity.com forward slash radio. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the Core. You can call us 24 hours a day, leave your voicemail question.

The number is 833-THE-CORE. Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Lily. I just started a new high school and met a girl named Elizabeth who asked to be called Damien and go by he him when her parents aren't around. And my question for you is, how am I supposed to refer to this girl biblically speaking? Currently, I've just been not really mentioning her name and calling her they when other people are around as kind of a middle ground. But my goal is to be a missionary to this school where there's a lot of people like Elizabeth. So going forward, how should I refer to these people's names and things when they are like this? Thank you.

Wow. Brothers and sisters, let's pray for Lily who is serving the Lord in her high school and wants to be a light for Jesus. Lily, thank you for reaching out to us. Father, we lift Lily up to you and ask that you would pour your spirit out upon her, granting her wisdom in all of these interactions, giving her courage, Lord, to be bold with the Gospel, giving her compassion for those who are sinning and being sinned against in various ways, Lord, giving her charity, Lord, as she looks at her classmates, knowing how much we all need the Gospel, how much they need the Gospel too. And so be with her, grant her wisdom and boldness. In Jesus' name, amen.

Lily, God bless you. So with regard to answering your question, I don't think it's appropriate just to go along with this. It sounds to me like there's even some, you know, my parents don't want this. Would you help me do what they don't want as well?

You know, refer to me in this way when my parents aren't around. There's some deception here, but the deception isn't just that. The deception is that here you have a woman who wants to be referred to as a man. And so I think that this is a violation of, you know, what the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments say. It says don't bear false witness against another person. Now, of course, there it's in the context of, you know, specifically in the court of law. I mean, you can branch it out, certainly, but in the court of law, the importance of truthful testimony.

Why? Because if you don't have the truth, if you don't have true testimony, society unravels. And don't we see that happening all around us today? People just embracing lies. You don't want to embrace lies as a follower of Jesus. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not compassionate. Many times, people wrestling with these things, terrorists, we were just talking about the deep pain that people have, a longing for affirmation, a longing for attention, a longing for friendship. And I hope that you can be a friend, Lily, that you'll continue to pursue, you know, your classmates, even those who identify as transgender, without compromising your beliefs as a Christian. And so I think I would just be upfront with them and say, look, I'm a follower of Jesus, and it goes against my own conscience and what I believe God calls me to in order to do these things, to talk in this way, but I'm curious about you. I want to know you.

I would love to be your friend. Is it possible for us to have conversations about these things and look for opportunities, Lily, to share the love and the light of Christ? That's what people need.

They need the truth of Christ to be set free from these lies. And so may God be with you and enable you by the power of His Holy Spirit with all grace, with all charity, with all courage and boldness to interact with fellow students there to His glory. Thanks for reaching out to us. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Josh calling in from New York. Josh, what's your question for Adriel?

Hey, that's Adriel. Hey, Dr. Bill, how are you? Good. Doing well. Great.

I had a question. So I live in New York City, and oftentimes I think about the possibility of maybe moving to a different city or different state and just sort of wanted to get a sense from you. Is that considered sort of running away from the fight in a place where there are plenty of ministry opportunities in hopes of maybe a better life or just a place that's sort of easier to be a Christian in some ways, given my biblical stances, or is that totally fine, seek a better life for your family if needed, find a healthy church to be connected to, et cetera?

Yeah. Josh, this question, man, I wish I had 10 minutes to answer this question because I'm in Southern California. I'm in San Diego, so I get this question a lot, and I think about this, and I know people here where I live and where you live think about this.

There's nothing wrong with saying, man, look, I can make the same amount of money living in another state, and that would allow me and my family the opportunity to purchase a home. There's nothing wrong with that. I do have a problem when people try to sort of sanctify that decision and they view it as this is the right Christian thing to do.

I think that's wrong. I think the gospel enables us to go all places and engage with all peoples, recognizing that it's the power of the gospel that changes lives. Whether you're in a blue state or a red state, it's the work of the Holy Spirit. And so if you're able to be there and God has blessed you, man, we need solid believers in places like New York City and San Diego and all over the world, all over the world.

May God bless you in that. Thanks for calling us. 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.