Peter Witkowski Parenting

Getting Back Up After Sin

stairs-blogSin stinks. And I think that the stench is even worse when we sin against our kids. Every time I sin against my toddler son or baby girl, I feel the weight of it twice over. So how do we find relief? What do we do when we mess up and dishonor God with our thoughts, words, and actions? We take a look at a very familiar Bible story found in Luke 1.

The Setting

In Luke chapter 1, we meet Zachariah and Elizabeth. They are both describes as being, “righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” (Luke 1:6).  But as with all good stories, Zacharias and Elizabeth face a large crisis. They have no children. And though many Americans view children as an imposition to their rightful exaltation of their selfish desires, the ancient Jews viewed kids as a blessing. They understood the Word of God. You were to want children. Because Zachariah and Elizabeth had no children, their lives were undoubtedly a conundrum to themselves and to those around them (Luke 1:25). They all had to be asking, “why would someone so godly not have kids?”

The Sin 

The answer, God even greater plans for them. Plans they could not even imagine. So God sent an angel to tell Zachariah that he was going to send the couple a son. And not just any son, he was going to send them a child with the spirit of Elijah who would turn many to the Lord (Luke 1:16-17).  And now we get to good part of the story. Zachariah says no. He tells an angel that he is too old to have a baby. He tells a supernatural being with a supernatural message that the supernatural cannot happen. He blows it; he sins. After a lifetime of following God, he doubts God’s goodness. He sins and becomes mute.

When we sin, we follow Zachariah’s pattern. We stop believing the promises of God. Sure we aren’t contradicting the word of an angel. Talk about an insane moment. But we can still relate.

If the truth be told, we are doing something far worse. We are doubting the love and wisdom of our risen savior. We are ignoring a lifetime with the savior, and once again trust in our flesh. And when we snap at our kid for interrupting our football game, for not doing the dishes, and for lying about her homework, we fail to trust God. We assume that God cannot work. We assume that happiness comes from us getting what when we want it. When it doesn’t  happen, we doubt God’s goodness and power. We sin. And as Zachariah, we suffer the consequences of our sin. We experience broken relationships. Momentary lapses come with real loss.

The Solution

So how do we get back on our feet? How do we recover? We do what Zachariah did. We start trusting in the Lord. We repent and remember that God is good. We remember that our obedience to God is not driven by others. It is driven by our love for God who first loved us. The solution for doubt is trust. And as we begin to renew our trust in God, obedience and joy will follow. When it came time to name John, Zachariah obeyed God. He named John, John even though all his friends wanted John to be Z. Jr. Zachariah obeyed (Luke 1:63).

The solution for all of us who have doubted God and made a mess of things is to trust and obey. Even if we have sinned against our kids who are too little to speak, we can find restoration through Christ if we will repent.

Have you sinned recently against your family? Repent, set your mind on Christ, and begin obeying!

Are you ready for joy to return to your home?

Peter Witkowski Apologetics

Is The Transgender Movement Twisting Back Towards Biblical Ideals?

Ctransgender bloglose to two weeks ago, a monumental story broke with little fanfare. The Multnomah County Circuit Court of Oregon declared that Jame Shupe could legally change his sex to “non-binary.” The ruling is a historic win for the transgender movement. For the first time in the United States, a person has been officially declared to be a gender other than male or female. In the future, Jame Ship maybe able to write non-binary on his driver’s license.

Though the full ramifications of the ruling are yet unknown, Jame naturally considers the ruling a personal victory and a win from the transgender movement. As he said in a recent interview:  “I was assigned male at birth due to biology…I’m stuck with that for life. My gender identity is definitely feminine. My gender identity has never been male, but I feel like I have to own up to my male biology. Being non-binary allows me to do that. I’m a mixture of both. I consider myself as a third sex.” The ruling finally allows Jame to be truly himself.

And while the declaration is clearly a win for transgender movement, it also comes with a silver lining for Bible believing Christians By asking to be recognized as a third sex, Jame is discovering what Christains already know. Jame is admitting that hormone therapies, surgeries, and emotional perferences do not make a person a woman or a man. People are born we an inherent sexual identity that affects every cell of their body. Regardless of how hard they try, they cannot transform themselves into the other sex. By getting a judge to declare him to be non-binary, Jame is admitting that the natural and biblical reality is true and to some degree impermeable. As he said, “I have to own up to my male biology.”

At this point, I and those in the transgender movement disagree. Jame and those on the left are eager to create new genders. But as Christians I do not think the solution is to create additional genders. The way forward is to encourage Jame and all of humanity to embrace their God given biological gender. Instead of seeking to be non-binary, the scriptures encourage Jame to embrace the humanity of his masculinity. Freedom in found in the redemption of the created order and not in it violent manipulation.

Regardless, I think Christians should be excited that people in the transgender movement are starting to realize once again that gender is bigger than a mental disposition. They are starting to twist back to reality. Biology matters. I encourage all who read this post to join me in embracing God’s creative design. Join me in affirming the biological order. Join me in recognizing that all people are either man or woman.

Peter Witkowski Apologetics

How To Answer 3 Pro-Transgender Arguments

pastor-response-to-transgender-blogThe past week, the news cycle and social media have been abuzz with Transgender discussions. Because of President Obama’s new bathroom guidelines, we all may have to live with the reality of men being allowed to use female restrooms, locker-rooms, and dressing rooms. Quite naturally, many conservative Christians (self included) are greatly troubled by the transgender movement.

In attempt to help people like me embrace the pending changes, many on the cultural left are appealing to religious themes. So how do we respond to the claim that God is pro-transgender? Let’s take a look at how to refute three popular pro-transgender arguments.

Jesus Was Transgender

According to this argument based on a ‘literal’ meaning of scripture, Jesus was born with a set of XX chromosomes. Because Jesus did not have a biological father, God had to transform hm into a man. And he was not the first transgender person. Eve, the first woman, went through a similar experience. She was taken from Adam. She had XY DNA but was transformed into a woman. As Suzanne DeWitt Hall concludes, “If Jesus and Eve were walking around today…they’d have to swap restrooms.”

Response:

No. Jesus was born as a man. He was fully human down to his chromosomes (Heb. 2:17). If he was not a biological man, he could not save us from our sins (Rom 8:3).

Moreover, the lack of a human father does not necessity that Jesus lacked a Y chromosome. Jesus’s humanity was ultimately based on God’s plan and not on his mother’s biology (Luke 1:35).  And, Jesus clearly taught that God created the two genders (Matt. 19:4). Because God created the XX and the XY chromosome packages, we can be certain that Jesus had XY chromosomes. God never goes against himself.  Neither Jesus nor Eve evolved according to some half-hearted, miraculous process governed by the modern view of sexuality. Eve was created as a woman with XX chromosomes and declared good (Gen 1:26:31). And, Jesus is the perfect son of God and is beloved by his heavenly father (Matt 3:17). God did not have to transform anything.

Intersex

But not all people are created male and female. Every year, thousands of people are born with both male and female genitalia. The presence of these intersex humans challenges the very concept of our binary understanding of sex. And when intersex children are born, the child or the child’s parents get to pick the child’s gender. To be consistent with nature and our loving God, Christians must admit that they don’t fully grasp the diversity of found in God’s creation. We must be willing to expand our views of sex and gender. Or so the argument goes.

Response:

It is true that intersex persons do exist. And it is true that people have assigned intersex children a gender. But intersex persons do not represent a new gender. And, they do not disprove the existence of two genders.

Intersex is rather a perversion of gender caused by the fall. When genetic testing is done, intersex persons have either and XX or and XY chromosome set. In short, their genitals are different and may not correspond perfectly to their gender. But those deemed to be intersex are still biologically either male of female. Gender expands beyong genatilial but never exceeds the realm of nature.  Instead of assigning intersex children a gender or categorizing them as another gender, we should work with doctors and scientist to determine their God given identity.

Once we discover their idenity, we should use medicine to help them live out their God given gender. When a child is born with a cleft palate the loving response is to use modern medicine to help them return to health. The same principle should apply to intersex children. We should seek to help them overcome the effects of the fall as best as possible.

The existence of intersex people does not disprove the biblical view of gender.

It Feels Right

But what about feelings? Christians are encouraged to let men use the girl’s bathrooms and to let women shower in the men’s locker-room because we should want everyone to feel loved and validated. As Bruce Jenner famously said, “My brain is much more female than it is male. That’s what my soul is.” For Bruce to be fully himself, he needs the freedom to be a woman. And he needs culture to treat him as a woman. If people deny him access to women’s restrooms, people are attacking his very humanity and happiness. Surely Christians do not want to stand opposed to love?

Response:

I do not deny Bruce Jenner’s or any other transgender person’s feelings. I’m sure they are very real. And, I don’t deny that their expression of gender brings them happiness.

But for the Christian, one’s true humanity and happiness are found in Jesus. Happiness is never found in following one’s mental inclinations (Prov. 12:15). True happiness in found obeying Jesus. To be fully human, we believe one must be like Jesus. And to be like Jesus, we have stop listening to what our hearts say. We have to follow God as Jesus did.  Notice what Jesus says in Matthew 16:24. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” To love people, we must encourage them to escape from the recesses of their minds and embrace Jesus. We must encourage them to deny their transgender identity that leads them away from their creator.