“I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.” A prominent example of this assertion is Bruce [Kaitlyn] Jenner who is a frequent guest on Fox’s most popular late night show, “Gutfeld,” and other popular Fox News programs. And Greg Gutfeld, the Breitbart-libertarian king of randy comedic critique of everyone and everything, doesn’t dare contradict or mock Bruce’s [Kaitlyn’s] claim that “she” was always a woman trapped in a man’s body. It’s just a given. Bow the knee. Obey the assertion. Or else! Greg Gutfeld knows the “or else,” so even he toes the line!
What has led to this? Why are we at the point that transgenderism, LBGTQ+, and this sexual revolution are so infallibly prominent and protected by federal law such as the Respect For Marriage Act? In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman correctly shows that this didn’t just happen by chance. Instead, it is the result of centuries of intentional efforts, literary works, and philosophizing by many who despise and reject the biblical worldview. Trueman states: “At the heart of the book lies a basic conviction: the so-called sexual revolution of the last sixty years, culminating in its latest triumph—the normalization of transgenderism—cannot be properly understood until it is set in the context of a much broader transformation in how society understands the nature of human selfhood. The sexual revolution is as much a symptom as it is a cause of the culture that now surrounds us everywhere we look, from sitcoms to Congress” (pg. 20).
In order to put the sexual revolution in which we now live in a historical and a philosophical context, Trueman makes note of and draws upon three academics/ethicists—Charles Taylor (expressive individualism), Phillip Reiff (first, second, and third world cultures) and Alasdair MacIntyre (emotivism)—and then provides a historical survey of why most everyone in Western civilization in the 21st century accepts without reservation the LBGTQ+ agenda.
The philosophical flyby ranges from Jean Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Charles Darwin to Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and the Frankfurt School, besides men of letters, such as Wordsworth, Shelley, and Blake. Trueman notes the significance of Rousseau in the following way, and it provides the matrix for understanding all that follow in his train: “Our access to the true order of the world and our place in it is thus primarily inward” (pg. 124). The inward turn, the inner voice, free from anything external (chromosomes, the physicality of a body, the binarity of male/female, God Himself, His Word in Scripture, etc.), provides true, salvific authenticity and dignity. Crassly put: do whatever floats your boat! Whatever makes you happy! That is morality. That is truth. Inversely, whatever prevents a person from being happy is not only immoral but is capitally criminal (insurrectionist-domestic-terrorist-like), as Mr. Gutfeld instinctively knows while he sits across from Bruce [Kaitlyn] Jenner.
As you read Trueman’s book, which I highly recommend, keep your Lutheran and biblical wits about you. This will better help you to understand the hard data that Trueman provides, diagnose it, and then offer the God-pleasing solution. Bottom line, the historical and philosophical history that Trueman details and what we suffer now is the continuation of the satanic lie offered to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3: “You will be like God knowing good and evil.” In Genesis 3 the satanic temptation went like this: “God is a liar. He’s holding out on you. Don’t be content to be creatures that live by faith in Him and His Word and sacrificial love for each other and the creation. Take matters into your own hands. You have better words! You can infallibly say what is good. You can inerrantly say what is evil! Be authentic by finding your inner self. Transcend your existence as a creature so that you shall be as God.”
Rousseau, Nietzsche, Marx, Hegel, Freud, et al. all follow this tragic and hellish “you will be like God” lie! The retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy brazenly propounded the devilish Genesis 3 propaganda in the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey majority opinion in which he wrote as Satan’s mouthpiece: “at the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of life” (emphasis mine). What hellacious hubris!
What to do? Well, quite simply the church does what the Lord Jesus, who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, has given her to do. This includes baptizing in the divine and saving triune name and teaching everything he has commanded (Mt 28:19-20), as well as preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Lk 24:47) and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance (Mt 3:8). This applies to us! Each of us needs to repent of believing the Genesis 3 satanic lie, trust Jesus and His Word, and lead holy and God-pleasing lives according to His Word, not ours. In such redeemed and restored lives, the Lord will have incredible use of us, His creatures, in our vocational tasks (male/female; husband/wife; father/mother) in order that we be salt and light, that others may observe our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. Jesus is Lord! Lord with us (Mt. 1:23; 28:20) as Lord for us!
Non desperamus! We do not despair!
