I don’t want men in the women’s bathroom either …

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I don’t want men in the women’s bathroom either …

… but as always, the devil’s in the details … and in the definitions.

So this is the new rallying cry, is it?  “No men in women’s bathrooms.”

Well I happen to agree.  A man has no right in a public women’s bathroom.  What I disagree on is their definition of man and woman, male and female.

It continues to sadden me that certain segments of the Christian population are spearheading this attack on the safety of transgender people.  But what saddens me particularly today is the blatant disregard for truth by these Christians.  Love of the truth should be one of the hallmarks of a Christian.

The word “truth” occurs 117 times in the Old Testament and 118 times in the considerably shorter New Testament.  It is a major theme in the Gospel of John and John’s epistles.

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. – John 1:17

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. – John 4:24

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. – John 8:32

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. – John 14:6

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. – John 14:17

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. – John 16:13

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. – John 17:17

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. – 1^st John 2:21

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.  And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. – 1^st John 3:18-19

John was not the only New Testament writer to deal with truth.  Here are some verses from Paul’s epistles.

[Charity] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; – 1^st Corinthians 13:6

But [we] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. – 2^nd Corinthians 4:2

For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. – 2^nd Corinthians 13:8

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. – Ephesians 4:25

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) – Ephesians 5:9

And still more verses from the New Testament:

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. – James 1:18

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. – James 3:14

Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: – 1^st Peter 1:22

Now what truth does this segment of Christianity ignore, deny and dispute?

• They dispute our personal testimony. Even with conservative estimates of the frequency of transgenderism, hundreds of thousands of people in the United States and millions around the world claim that this is our story, our experience, our reality.  It is the testimony of little children whose lives are improved when they are allowed to live in their true gender identity.  It is the testimony of people of my generation, baby boomers, who tried to repress and deny the truth about ourselves even more than our opponents do.  But our identities persisted despite everything we did.  It is the testimony of many fine, upstanding citizens and many whose potential is untapped because of discrimination.  It is the testimony of Christians like me who have and continue to proclaim Christ, tenaciously holding onto our faith in the face of every attack we have received from those who claim to speak for the church and for Christ.
• The ignore the danger that transgender people face every day because of bigotry and hatred against us. They ignore the horrific murder rate against transgender people, a rate that is most likely even higher than reported in a world where many murders are reported with the transgender identity of the victim hidden behind rejected name and gender; where there are many countries (e.g. Russia and China) where our very existence is denied.  They ignore the even greater danger we would face if forced to use spaces based on our gender assigned at birth rather than our true gender.
• They outright lie about transgender people being a danger. Earlier this month, a sheriff with 41 years of law enforcement experience unequivocally gave testimony to the legislature of his state that he has “never heard of a transgender person attacking or otherwise bothering someone in a restroom. This is a non-issue.”  This is not a sheriff in the liberal Northeast or California.  This is Leon Lott, Richland County (SC) Sheriff since 1996.  His county includes the state capital, Columbia, so he serves in a populated area.  In addition, any law enforcement official at his level is going to keep up-to-date on crime trends and issues outside of his own area, especially once the issue rises to the be on the front burner in his state and around the country.  The plain truth is that of the jurisdictions that have passed laws protecting the right of transgender people to use bathrooms consistent with their innate gender, laws that have been in place for many years in some cases, there have been ZERO problems.  In addition, when transgender people are in public, we have to use restrooms.  So even in locales where such protections don’t exist, we fearfully use the restroom that corresponds to our identity.  Again there have been ZERO problems.
• They dispute the preponderance of learned opinion of the medical community, in the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. They were very willing to accept their findings decades ago when these groups had little to go on in the way of research and real life experience.  But with nearly three full generations of evidence at hand (and more being gathered), these respected organizations have updated their opinions and protocols based on the enlightenment gathered from their findings.  Somehow in our opponents mind, without evidence, this is all a plot.  Instead, they lean on discredited studies, discredited psychiatrists, rogue organizations and misrepresentation of valid studies.  (I’m old enough to have lived through this before.  I can remember when rock ‘n roll was supposedly a communist plot.)
• They often lie and hide their true motive for waging this battle. But not always.  With a debate version of three-card monte, they deftly shift from reason to reason behind their legislation and umbrage.  When the moral/Biblical argument is rejected, they shift to the need to protect women as the purpose.  When that argument is countered, then it becomes a matter of a right to privacy: balancing the rights of transgender people against that of cisgender women.
  • As far as the moral/Biblical argument, I will touch upon that in the next bullet point. As far as the protection argument, I have already shown that to be a canard.  But I will take it one step further.  There is a group known to be a danger primarily to women and children.  They are the people on the sex offender list.  Where is their hue and cry about such people being allowed to use public bathrooms?  And as far as transgender protection laws opening the door for perverts to take advantage of it (recently parroted by Curt Schilling, among others), not only doesn’t it happen, they (many of whom are staunch 2^nd Amendment defenders) would never apply the same rationale to strict gun control measures just because a small minority of people in our society actually do carry out horrific violence using firearms.
  • As far as the privacy argument, the only bathrooms I have ever seen where the stalls had no doors was in men’s locker rooms. (I hated them.  I avoided using them whenever I could.)  A naked cisgender woman in a public women’s bathroom would likely receive a negative response unless it was a clear case of a medical problem.  I have never seen someone in a public bathroom whose genitals were in plain sight unless they were on the changing table.  In spaces where nudity is more likely to be involved, the topic is more sensitive.  (I never totally disrobe when I go to my gym, and there are private changing stalls if I ever would need to.) But even here, social custom is changing for reasons other than transgender.  When I went to my 40^th college reunion two years ago (Cornell), the dorm where my class was housed is a coed dorm.  Most of the student rooms do not have private bathrooms.  The common bathrooms (including showers) are also coed.  This is a growing trend according to what I have read.
• They distort or err on what the Bible says on the topic of transgender. I have written many blog posts countering their arguments (in conjunction with all the medical evidence that has been gathered on the nature of transgenderism).  The short version is that very little can be found in the Bible on the topic and the term is not found in the Holy Scriptures.  Of course, there are many modern terms (e.g. democracy and republic) that are not found there, either.  The closest we can come is when Jesus describes three types of eunuchs in Matthew 19:12.  The person who is born a eunuch could describe a number of situations, including someone who is transgender.  Most importantly, Jesus does not condemn any of the three examples, consistent with many instances in which the new and better covenant is more inclusive than the old.  And as to whether God defines us by our mind/spirit or our body parts, I have shown by many verses the preponderance of evidence that He identifies us by our mind/spirit.

Please understand that this is not a transgender vs Christianity issue, nor should it be.  I and a number of friends are evidence that a person can be both.  And I have many devout conservative Christians in my life who are accepting and supportive.

I know full well that there are a number of topics on which Christians are in disagreement.  And there is always room for honest disagreement.  But what hurts the most is the vitriol directed by this segment of the Christian population at the transgender community.  And even if Christianity has come under attack from some segments of the transgender community (and I will not descend into a “who started it” black hole), Christians are not supposed to return evil for evil.  We are called to a higher purpose.

Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. – 1^st Corinthians 10:32-33

When you read the many verses earlier in my post, you may have noticed a connection between truth and a loving attitude.  (If not, look again.)  Even if the segment of Christians who I have called out in this post earnestly believe what they are preaching about transgender people, all Christians are admonished to be “… speaking the truth in love …” (Ephesians 4:15).

God bless,

Lois

Christian Mom Encounters Transgender Woman In Bathroom: These ‘Ghastly Things’ Happened Next

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Letter to my previous church – Part 2

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A continuation of and conclusion to my post of 3/25/2016:

Now this might sound all well and good.  Yet some might ask, “What about theological issues?  What does God have to say about this?  What does the Bible say?”

The detailed answer is another book, not a letter.  But I am not dodging the question.  I deal with these sorts of questions on this blog (started in November 2013).  I would always welcome a discussion on these topics, whether one on one or with a group, Bibles open.  Based on growing evidence that I and many others like me were born this way (this is not a choice), combined with the many verses that show how God identifies people and how we were formed before we were born, I feel more strongly about this now than I did in November 2012.  I still uncover other verses from time to time that support this viewpoint.  Since you found this letter on my blog, you will find other blog posts where I expound on this topic.  Look for the page “Key Bible Verses”, or blog posts under the category “The Bible on Transsexualism”.

I said that I would get back to Pastor, and this is the appropriate point in the letter.  I will not mislead you by letting you think that he endorses my opinion in these matters.  We have not discussed this topic recently, so he should be the one to weigh in on where he stands at this time.  But one of his best qualities (and why you are so blessed to have him as your pastor) is his transparency.  My understanding is that his willingness to continue to fellowship with me is based on the following: that Christians are called to love one another; that he considers the totality of what he knows about me and my Christian walk, not just one item, albeit a significant one; his awareness that just as I am not perfect, he is not perfect; his awareness that while he believes his position to be right, that he is not inerrant.  And if I have misspoken on any of these or omitted anything, I trust that Pastor will make the necessary corrections.

When I met with Pastor and his wife in January 2012 to inform them of this development in my life and to ask for counseling (which eventually was handled solely by Pastor), he admitted that he did not have a theological knowledge of the topic.  He did what he needed to do to get up to speed and I talked to someone he recommended that I talk to.  Most importantly, our prayer of agreement was that God’s will for my life be revealed.

With the guidance of the Holy Spirit and affirmation from many (but not all) people: strangers, family members, friends, clients and best of all, solid, conservative Christians, I believe that His will for my life is being revealed.  And I believe that I am living that will as best I can, especially in this matter.

New people in my life who I have not told accept me as female and most of the people who I have told accept me as female.  Some people who have known me for a long time tell me that “if they didn’t know, they wouldn’t know”.  People who have met me recently tell me that they find it hard to believe that I was ever anything except female.  Even a number of people who met me for the first time during my last year at CBC are now telling me that they have only thought of me as female.  And I was wearing male clothes when I met them.

There are two minor areas of disagreement that I had with Pastor.  I am sharing them with you to show how my understanding continues to progress.

One was when I made a statement that there was no verse or combination of verses in the Bible to back a certain point of view (I am pretty sure it was on whether we are born with gender identity and genitalia that always match).  Pastor’s reply was to the effect that there are some things that are so universally accepted that they do not need to be included.  I let his point stand at the time.  Later on, I realized that such a belief does not agree with the evangelical Christian position that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God.  If anyone should go to the Bible with any question, and if an answer cannot be found whether by direct statement, induction or deduction from the entire word of God, then the Bible has failed on that point.  But it cannot fail and be infallible at the same time.

The other was when we exchanging positions and points of view based on scripture.  I would say something from the Bible.  Then Pastor would answer it from the Bible.  Then I would answer it with something else from the Bible.  It was a lively, respectful and friendly discussion, sometimes continuing for a couple of counseling sessions.  Finally Pastor threw in the towel (still in good humor) and said that I was smart enough that no matter what he told me, I would always find a way to counter it with something else from the Bible.  I also let that stand.  But later on, in correspondence with another Christian, a similar remark was made.  However, it was not in good humor.  And that got me to thinking about the implication of that statement.  And it wasn’t long before I rejected it.  No matter how smart I am, God is a whole lot smarter than me.  There’s no comparison.  Now if God finds me in error on this topic, wouldn’t He be able to come up with verses and an explanation that I wouldn’t be able to counter?  And wouldn’t a God who has spoken through a donkey and heathen kings be able to speak through a godly Christian pastor or another dedicated servant of the Lord?

More important, Pastor’s continued and steadfast friendship has been highly prized by me.  He has always treated me appropriately, in accord with my presentation.  He is genuine.  He values me as a person and as a Christian.  He takes time for my concerns when he derives no tangible benefit from doing so.  It is hard enough to find those qualities in anyone, let alone someone who disagrees on such a significant issue.

Now that I know that my transition is no longer secret, I would recommend CBC to anyone in the area.  Of course, I would recommend my own church as well!

I will close this by leaving you with two sayings that I have lived by since I started to come out and then a final wrap up.

• If I want to be understood, I need to be understanding.
• If it took me fifty years to deal with this, I can’t expect you to understand this in fifty minutes.

Yes, my presentation (my clothing, voice and mannerisms) has changed somewhat.  I am somewhat freer with my emotions and in worship.  I cherish the more open friendships that I have with some women now that a glass wall has been removed.  I enjoy the private smiles that I receive from other women when we pass by each other with that quiet acknowledgement of our shared sisterhood.  But for the most part, I haven’t changed that much.  I can still do math, I can still parallel park, I still have a great sense of direction, I still have the same crazy sense of humor, I still like sports and I still love the Lord.

If anyone would like to contact me or meet with me, I would be delighted.  If I was ever invited to speak or attend a function at CBC, I would be honored.

Please know that you are prayed for often, loved always and missed very much.

That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.  Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. – Romans 15:32-33

God bless,

Lois Simmons

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From the 1950’s through the 1980’s, Dick Young was considered one of the best writers for his ability to cover a baseball game.  Breaking new ground, Young looked for inside angles to each game so he could describe why things happened instead of settling for how they happened.  As more and more fans first listened to and then watched the games, Young’s style of reporting the game became the standard for engaging the fan’s interest beyond what they had seen and heard.  Disdaining the flowery prose and poetic stylings of an earlier generation of writers, his clean, crisp style led to many a discussion by baseball fans as soon as the early edition of the NY Daily News (for whom Young worked for 45 years of his 50 year career) hit the streets.

Young’s column, titled “Young Ideas”, was more controversial, especially as he got older and more conservative while the country became more liberal.  From time to time, he would answer letters sent to him through his column.  He subtitled those columns with the title of this blog post.

I had a brief flurry of interesting letters sent to me electronically recently.  One was sent by my brother.  That one is personal at the moment.  Perhaps I will be able to share something positive about it in the near future.

Another was a comment about one of my blog posts back in June, my rebuttal to Dr. McHugh’s op ed in the Wall Street Journal.  I debated whether to post the comment or trash it.  I decided to do neither.  I am going to post it and discuss it here very briefly.

I_I_B_@hotmail.com writes: GENEDER INCONGRUENCY DOES NOT EXIST It is all an ilution, transexuals are not women in men bodies.

As a tax preparer, I deal with scams on a regular basis, as more and more of my clients are targeted by them.  One of the first suggestions of the IRS and experts on protecting yourself on the Internet is to look for typos, misspellings and grammatical errors.  I can overlook the misspelling of “transsexuals” as I have seen it both ways.  But to misspell the first word and a primary topic of the post as well as a complete mangling of “illusion” is an indication of a poster with lack of merit.

Knowing there are spelling challenged people out there (even with spell check), let’s move on to the content of the post.  Note the bold caps but lack of substantive backing for the position.  Back in my days at Cornell’s College of Engineering, we called this a hand-waving argument: long on conclusion, little to zero proof.  In general, such responses do not promote discussion.  That is the reason that usually they will not be posted, not because they disagree with me.  I have already posted comments that have taken positions different than mine.

Better crafted answers are no guarantee of a meaningful response or a willingness to dialog honestly.  I also recently received a reply from a former friend and ministry partner who has rejected me because of my transition.  He had written a letter to me when I first came out.  I worked long and hard on a reply, doing my best to stick to facts, relevant Biblical texts and my personal testimony.  Most of all, I painstakingly made sure I avoided responding with any sort of personal attack against him.  I know the voice of the accuser.  It does not come from the Lord.

Much of what I wrote to him, other than calling upon incidents from our own pasts, has been included in previous posts.  I will not, therefore, print our entire exchange.  What I will do is quote a relevant section from my letter to him and his response to it.  Note that he either ignores what I wrote or makes it seem like I had told him something different, perhaps even opposite what I wrote.  In some cases, he (who happens to have a PhD in hard science and worked in the pharmaceutical field prior to his recent retirement), he totally trashes scientific findings.

My statements will be italicized.  His statements will be in regular type.

Me (statements I made that indicate that the only justification that matters to me is from God): First of all, the only opinion that truly matters to me is God’s.  It is vastly more important to me than that of people, whether they are positive or negative. 

God, the righteous judge, is the only arbiter of truth.  Out of my respect for you as a friend for many years, I have provided this lengthy explanation to you.  But even though I called it a defense at the beginning of this document, the Lord is really the only one before whom I present my case and make my appeal.  The only verdict that matters is His.

Him: This is solely a formal and short reply to your latest attempt to justify yourself.

Me (statements I made about the relative unimportance of happiness): In particular, they see that I am much more at peace and have more joy now.  What they don’t see, but I know because it relates to what I do when alone, there has also been a manifold increase in my temperance.  Peace and temperance are also fruits of the Spirit, are they not?  A person might be able to feign happiness.  They might be able to appear more spiritually minded.  I know of no way to fake fruits of the Spirit and I certainly don’t try to.  Nor is Satan able to counterfeit them.

With legitimacy and an end to self-denial, comes authenticity instead of pretense (totally opposite of your erroneous opinion), more complete peace instead of conflict, more inner joy in place of a veneer of happiness (which more people saw through than I ever imagined until they met the real me and shared that knowledge with me).

Him: I received the document you E-mailed to me on September 6th and have read it through 3 times praying that God would “enlighten me” regarding your pursuit of happiness … [sentence continued in the next point made by him]

Me (statements I made based on the Bible regarding the location of gender identity and that God created it that way): And isn’t it interesting that when Paul gives the list of all his identities that he counts as loss compared to his identity in Christ, he omits his gender identity?  That identity is too basic, too deep seated to deny.  But where does gender identity lie?  If it is that basic, is it unreasonable that it would lie anywhere different from where our spiritual identity lies, in the mind?

God is not the author of confusion, but if you assign gender identity on the physical, it becomes confusion for [Intersex] people.  This is another compelling reason why the only thing which can make Genesis 1:27 true for every person on the planet (which it must be if God’s word is inerrant) is for gender identity, male and female, to be based on the core gender identity in the mind, not physical characteristics that are sometimes misleading.

If we can deduce that God’s gender identity resides in the mind of God, and if mankind has been created in the image of God, then does it not follow that our gender identity, our maleness or femaleness, resides in our mind, not in our body or any particular body part?

But to counter my Scriptural arguments you are able to come up with only one verse?  And that verse has no application at all unless you can come up with Scripture that contradicts my Scriptural references regarding how God defines male and female: what criteria does He look to and use.

Second, I have come up with verse after verse of Scripture that harmonize together.  These are verses that give Biblical explanations of why birth defects occur; that show that God is responsible for putting our spirit inside us; that show multiple times that God judges us by what is on the inside, not the outside; that God is not a respecter of persons, so He judges us by our actions, not our identity; plus many other verses relating to the topic.  And what have you come up with?  One verse that it is easy to show has nothing to do with transsexuals once you understand that being transsexual is medical, not a choice, and that it need not lead to sinful behavior any more than being born with white skin or blue eyes or red hair.  [Note: in addition to Genesis 1:27, I quoted eight additional passages relevant to these points: Jeremiah 1:5, Isaiah 44:2, Psalm 139:13-16, Zechariah 12:1, Ecclesiastes 11:5, John 9:2, 1^st Samuel 16:7, John 6:63]

Him: … by rejecting the gender God created you to be until you die, i.e., a man, and not a woman.

Me (statements I made based on the type of scientific evidence being presented and how it relates to the Bible): I believe in the 100% accuracy of God’s Word. That means it must not be contradicted by proven fact. If a scientific theory or hypothesis conflicts with God’s Word, I have no reason to change my opinion about soundness of God’s Word on that point and will reject the theory or hypothesis. But if proven fact appears to conflict with God’s Word, and I know that both the fact and God’s Word are correct, then I must conclude that it is man’s understanding of the Scripture that heretofore was flawed, and I trust that a more accurate interpretation of God’s Word can be found to make God’s Word and fact in accord once again.

I will begin by laying a foundation of factual evidence.  On that foundation, I will look at what can be discerned about the situation from Scripture, the very Word of God itself.  What applies and what does not apply?

I will be providing links to various web sites.  They present information on a scientific basis. I have endeavored to find the most up to date scientific findings that are available.  I will not be sending you to any “pro-transsexual” propaganda web sites. Nor will I be relying on theories or conjecture.

Let me also make it clear that while psychology is categorized among the sciences, it is one whose findings are highly subject to opinions, presuppositions and so on.  Therefore, I am not including anything from a psychology point of view among the science links.  I am limiting my references to the science of anatomy, things that can be observed, measured, calculated, correlated and compared.  They will cover such topics as chromosomes, internal organs, the brain and receptors.

As best as I can tell, all the links to published papers I am giving you are peer reviewed research.

[Note: see my links page for the links I sent to him.]

Him: If you thought I would be more supportive of your decision to become a woman based on the “pseudoscientific” dribble in your document, you are deceived.

You have obviously tied yourself to science, falsely so called, and [if you] think that God changes His Mind about sin in the light of man’s “scientific” discoveries, you are very seriously deceived.

[My interjection here: he quotes from Timothy 6:20-21 where Paul warns against false science.  A reading of that verse clearly indicates that Paul does not claim that all science is false, nor does he warn against all use of science.  However, my respondent does not give contrary evidence to the scientific proof I offered.  He resorts to a weak and tired tactic of name calling to try to disparage what was sent to him.  Note also that I clearly stated that it is not God who changes; rather that it is man’s understanding of Scripture that changes as we learn more about the world God has given to us.]

Me (in addition to repeatedly referring to myself as transsexual, I gave him a number of examples of people who some Christians claim to be cured transsexuals; here is one of those examples): Danny Blackwell (counseled by Jerry Leach) admits to being a transvestite, not a transsexual.  It is not the same thing.  If a transvestite is being honest, he does not see himself as female.  There is an attraction to women’s clothing and perhaps other parts of a woman’s lifestyle, but not an association with a female identity.

Him: I do not want to dialogue again with you unless you tell me that you have come to your senses and repented of transvestism.

Me (statements I made regarding knowing that I am saved.  Any evangelical Christian would know that means I have assurance of where I will spend eternity): … I am in Christ and Christ lives in me, that He is not the God of the dead.  He is the God of the living.

It wasn’t long after my salvation that I heard a preaching that convicted me of my need to read the Bible all the way through from cover to cover, not just the familiar parts and favorite stories.  When the last verse in Revelation has been read, I return to Genesis to start reading the entire Bible once again.

First of all, let me quickly dismiss the question about my salvation.  While heeding the admonition to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, I know that I trust Christ and Him alone for my salvation. As I type this to you, I am not far from the spot where I was sitting when I knew that Jesus was the only way to the Father and I surrendered my life to the Lord, repenting of my sins.  I recall a key verse in your salvation: Romans 10:14.  I have also called upon the Lord and been saved.

Since I was seven years old, I was aware of my female gender identity.  Despite all the challenges and hindrances to that awareness, even my own attempts to cure it, remove it or pray it away, it never went away.  Receiving Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior in June 1989 did not take it away.

When Jesus Christ paid the full price for our sins as reflected in His statement on the cross, “It is finished,” then no longer can Satan successfully bring railing accusation against those who have whole heartedly received the free gift of salvation, and when we are saved by grace we are saved from the endless lake of fire.

Ultimately you and I both have to follow God as we are able and someday present what we have done with our lives before God to see whether He will find it precious metals and jewels on the one hand, or wood, hay and stubble on the other hand.  Either way, if we are in Christ, then we shall be saved, even if by fire.

I have assurance that when Satan accuses me before the Lord on that day, Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, will declare that my sins have been paid for and my pardon has already been secured.  In this regard, I know the pronouncement from the Lord will be “not guilty”.

Him: I absolutely know where I will spend eternity, do you?

[end of the comparison between my statements and his responses]

Unfortunately if minds are closed to the truth, learned people can also be guilty of using hand-waving arguments.  They also can ignore facts, ignore what the other person is saying, and even ignore the Word of God which they claim to defend.  In my former friend’s initial response to my coming out, he only quoted 1^st Corinthians 6:9 to show what I was doing was wrong.  In response, I explained that only a male can be effeminate and he hasn’t proven that I am not female; further, I pointed out that if this is the only verse that can be cited, then you have arrived at an intriguing theological point of view that male to female is sinful, but female to male is not.  (It is also true that the translation of the Greek word that the KJV translates as “effeminate” is the subject of great debate by scholars.   It would be a very slender reed on which to base an entire theology.  But I had enough material that I didn’t need to go down the rabbit trail of controversial scholarship.)

So I challenged him to come up with more than that.  He came up with Deuteronomy 22:5.  However, if you have not come up with Scripture that shows that God identifies our gender identity by what is between our legs rather than what is between our ears, nor have you refuted the many verses I present that show otherwise, then verses about cross-dressing do not apply to a transsexual.  In fact because of my transition, I am now in compliance with this verse.

While it hurt for a time to be rejected by someone I counted as I friend for many years, his words do not anger me and the hurt is past.  It has been turned over to the Lord.  And fortunately I am secure in my faith so that his opinions do not turn me away from Christ, regardless of how many others have the same viewpoint.  I know there are many Christians who do not agree with him.  Sadly, he and others like him have put forth a stumbling block that keeps people from the Lord.  And that is one of the main reasons I have this blog.  Even so, my writings are but a faint shadow of one 2000 years ago who asked hard questions of the religious leaders of his time:

And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. – Matthew 22:46

Love,

Lois

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1st Corinthians 15, Apostle John, Apostle Paul, ascension of Jesus, baptism of Jesus, beloved Son, book of Acts, Christ, Christianity, Christians, empty tomb, evidence, eyewitness, followers, Gospels, hostile witness, Jerusalem, Jesus, Jews, John the Baptist, Josh McDowell, martyr, Messiah, persecution, Peter, resurrection, road to Damascus, Roman Empire, Roman guard, statement against interest, transfiguration

In a future post, I will be describing some of my favorite sports moments. But I am going to include one of them in this post because it fits the topic.  It was actually an accomplishment that I did.  It happened in basketball, which is ironic because it is probably my worst sport.  I am short (about 5’4½”), don’t handle the ball particularly well, and I don’t have a sense of the field of play the way I do in football or soccer.  But there is one very important fact about this event: I didn’t see it happen.

My friends must have been desperate for an extra player when they asked me to join them for a half court pickup game in the Teagle gym.  During the game, one of my teammates was the last person to touch the ball as it was heading out of bounds in the corner to the left of the basket.  I was the closest to the ball and unchallenged for it.

I have the quick reflexes of a hockey goalie, and they kicked in as I closed in on the ball.  At the last possible second before it or I would be out of bounds, I dove and got my hands under the ball.  The only way I could save it was to fling it upwards in the general direction of the court, hoping one of my taller and stronger teammates could get to it first.  Then I hit the floor and skidded, coming to rest out of bounds against the curtain that separated our court from the next one.

As I shook off the impact of hitting the floor and got to my feet, it was strangely quiet.  The first thing I saw was that everyone was standing around.  I assumed the ball went out of bounds again, and they were waiting for me to get back onto the court before the inbounds play.  They stood there with dumbfounded expressions.  One of my teammates told me, “You swished it.”

I accused them of kidding me, but they all insisted it was true.  Even the guys on the other team agreed that it went in.  And the game resumed with us having one more basket than before.

I eventually believed them for three reasons.  First, they didn’t have enough time to get their stories straight.  Second, a group of guys that age are not good enough actors to keep a straight face under those circumstances.  But the most important was that the guys on the other team were hostile witnesses.  And they were making statements against interest.  Confirming that it went in hurt their chances of winning.  So I am firmly convinced it happened, even if I didn’t see it.

Now we will go to a different kind of court, one where witnesses are examined and evidence is weighed.

Here is a summary of the story of Jesus’s resurrection and the empty tomb He left behind.  First, Joseph of Arimathaea persuades Pilate to release His body to him.  He wraps His body in linen cloth and puts it in a new tomb he had recently created by hollowing out a cave into rock.  Nicodemus put certain spices on the linen cloths according to their burial customs.  They are followed to the tomb by some of the women who had been ministering to Jesus and His disciples.

The disciples of Jesus are disheartened, fearful and in hiding.  They are supposed to stay in Jerusalem for the Passover.  But they expect the authorities to find them and arrest them at any time.

Meanwhile, the Jewish authorities remember (far better than His disciples did) that Jesus had said He would rise from the dead.  They go to Pilate and ask him to give them a Roman guard.  A Roman military guard was made up of 4 to 16 men, deployed in a square formation, and were known for their ability to hold off a far larger force.  Pilate grants their request.  The guard goes to the tomb, puts a Roman seal on it and position themselves in front of it.

The day after the Sabbath, some of the women go to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus with more spices.  As they walk there they wonder who will be able to roll the large stone away from the tomb so they can do this work.  When they arrive, they find that the stone has been moved away and they encounter an angel who tells them that Jesus is risen and is not there.  Eventually Peter and John arrive and find that there is no body in the cave, but the linen burial cloths have been left there.

Then Jesus appears to many people during this time.  The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the church in Corinth, gives an excellent summary of these events.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.  After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. – 1^st Corinthians 15:3-8  [Note: Cephas is the Greek name for the Apostle Peter.]

At this point a number of questions might come to mind.  For instance, what revived the spirits of a disheartened group of disciples who had good reason to believe their cause was defeated with the death of their leader?  When He was arrested and crucified, they were still struggling to understand much of His teaching, especially His purpose and objective.  What enabled them to turn a movement in a small area of a conquered region, into a force that swept through the whole world, despite its initial leaders being a small group of men with relatively little education (except for Paul), influence, power or funds?  Furthermore, how do we know that Paul’s statements are true?

If we recall the evidence regarding my amazing basketball shot, some of it applies here as well.  The followers of Christ, in spreading their witness about Jesus, were speaking statements against their own personal interest.  While many Jews became added to the number of followers in the early years after the ascension of Jesus, the Jewish leadership never accepted that Jesus was the Messiah.  They vigorously persecuted their Jewish brothers and sisters who followed Jesus.  Indeed, it was as part of that mission that Paul (at that time called Saul of Tarsus) was heading to Damascus.  Until the vision and message from Christ on that road to Damascus led him to convert, Paul’s actions against the followers of Christ included imprisonment, voting for their death at trials, subjecting them to whatever punishments were allowed under the Law in synagogues throughout the region, even in areas distant from Jerusalem, and forcing some to recant their beliefs.

And while the Romans at first may have seen this situation as an internal dispute between the Jews which did not concern them unless it threatened the peace, that changed as the number of followers continued to grow, especially when non-Jews, even Romans, began to convert in significant numbers.  Teaching and witnessing about a king named Jesus who is the son of the one true God, threatened the religious customs of the Roman Empire and the authority of Caesar.

Thus the persecution of Christ’s followers multiplied greatly.  The book of Acts records the martyrdom of Stephan and the Apostle James.  The historical record shows that all of the Apostles except John (who died of old age in exile) died a martyr’s death.  That record further shows that Christians were routinely sent to death in the Coliseum and that Nero blamed the Christians for the fire he set that burned Rome.  It took three centuries before Christianity was officially accepted by Roman authorities.  Until then, it wasn’t very safe to be found proclaiming the Gospel.

The following is a link to an article by Josh McDowell that gives an extensive list of evidence, facts, proofs, counter-arguments to the claims of skeptics, and evaluations by historians on the validity of the testimony which supports the existence of Jesus and His historical resurrection after His crucifixion.  Historical accounts by Jews and Romans who opposed Christianity (i.e., hostile witnesses) are included in the article with explanation why it is strong evidence.  There is also archeological evidence that shows that Paul’s letter quoted above was circulated at a time when it can be expected that many of the people who saw Christ after His resurrection were indeed alive.  And many other points are made, and made better than I could hope to do.  And yes, at the end of his article, a challenge is made as to what you believe.

http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html

Why is all of this so important?  A little further in 1^st Corinthians, Paul explains it: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  (1^st Corinthians 15:14)

Jews and Christians agree that God has promised a Messiah for His people.  The disagreement that divides is over the identity of the Messiah.  Paul, a most learned Pharisee before following Christ, has stated it clearly: if Jesus is not risen from the dead, then He is not the Messiah; He is not the Christ.  He is just another false claimant to the title.  There would be no need to continue to follow His teachings. Instead, all should pray that the Messiah would come soon.

Confronted by such an important spiritual question, I must conclude based on all that has been set forth in this series of posts, that we have reliable eyewitness accounts of people who have seen God.  In times of His choosing, God reveals Himself in physical form to people.  At other times, the effects of God’s presence in the world are evident.

I have left the most important witness for last: God Himself on two occasions.  In three of the four Gospels, Jesus takes only Peter, James and John with Him to a hilltop where His appearance is transfigured and He converses with Moses and Elijah.  At the end of that event, a voice comes out of a cloud and calls Jesus His “beloved Son”.  Also, those same three Gospels testify that when Jesus is baptized, a voice comes out of heaven with that same description of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit also comes upon Jesus at that time.  (In John’s Gospel, it is also mentioned that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus when He was baptized.  This Gospel quotes John the Baptist bearing witness at this time that Jesus is the Son of God.)

On the first occasion, three people witnessed.  On the second occasion, an untold number of witnesses were there, whoever had come to be baptized at that time.  And many people from all around were coming to be baptized.  They heard a disembodied voice that could not be manufactured with the technology of that time.

Will you follow God?  If so, then understand that to truly follow, it matters little that God is on your side; it is far more important that you endeavor to be on God’s side.  What other way is there to follow?

God bless,

Lois

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