The Bible and Alternative Agendas
By J.P. Thackway
The place of God’s Word today
There can be no more fundamental question for us than who we are. This belongs to life and living, the relationships we form, and other people whose lives we affect. Putting this question into an AI (Artificial Intelligence) programme typically gives this answer:
The question ‘who am I?’ is a philosophical inquiry about one’s identity, purpose, and place in the world. It’s a deeply personal question that explores your characteristics, values, beliefs, and relationships. Ultimately, the answer is a continuous process of self-discovery.
In other words, to the question “Who am I?” there is no fixed answer. In our present ungodly and secular society, we are reduced to this! It is typical of people’s thinking today. This journey of self-discovery can lead to any discovery and be as valid as anybody else’s. If a man wants to identify as a woman, that’s fine – and the other way around. Even if someone wants to identify as a Lama, that’s fine too.
Question
If we had put this question and answer to an average man 70 years ago, he would have burst out laughing. For him back then, there was no question about who he was: a man. After his education he gets a job. He settles down and marries. He has a “Mrs” at home. They have children to look after and bring up. They hope their children will get good jobs and marry, then maybe they will have grandchildren. True, they might not be rich, but they have each other, and many other blessings in life. Others would describe him as “a decent bloke and a family man.”
In earlier generations, marriages and families were the building-blocks of society. They provided cohesiveness and shared values. Children grew up in a secure environment and could flourish in their personalities and have the best possible start in life. Such families were not perfect and there were many sad exceptions. However, marriage and the family was the norm, and most people respected it and aimed for it. Moreover, the generally accepted morality was that sex is to be between a man and a woman within “the holy estate of matrimony.”
Bible
Under God, we owe this right thinking to the teaching of the Bible. It, and it alone, gives us authoritative, fixed, and unmovable definitions of gender, male and female roles, marriage and the family, and human society. The Bible lay behind the better and assured thinking of the past, even without people realising it. Now, it is all challenged by (often depraved) minority groups, and their activists, who want to overthrow it and impose their views on the rest of us. They have succeeded to an alarming degree.
How is it that such a worldview prevailed in past generations? And how is it that such a vastly different one prevails today? Let us trace the huge shift away from the Bible that has happened. Then see the way back because of the difference the Bible makes.
1. THE SEISMIC CHANGES
Throughout history, fallen man in his enmity against God, has founded movements designed to overthrow biblical norms about our creation and calling in life. From the beginning with the appeal of “ye shall be as gods”and onwards, in this fallen world the default is always rebellion against God and His laws.
1] In modern times the Bloomsbury Group was an example.
This flourished in the early part of the twentieth century. The group consisted of ten core members who were elite individuals from privileged backgrounds, including Vanessa Bell, John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Forster, and Virginia Woolf. They were atheist or agnostic and had very progressive views of sexuality: most of its members were homosexual or bisexual. Virginia Woolf’s conviction was that “you should detect exactly what you felt and should then, having realised what sort of person you were, live up to it.” This chillingly anticipates the thinking of many in our day. Tragically, Woolf’s “conviction” did not prevent her, in despair, from drowning herself in a river in 1941.
2] More recently, the rebellion gathered force in the 1960s.
It was a concerted movement, starting in the United States and spreading to the UK and beyond. Dubbed at the time, “The Permissive Society,” and “The sexual revolution,” it attacked “Victorian” morality and marriage, and advocated “free love”. Couples could live together and not be married under the slogan: “Marriage can wait, but love can’t.”
The new pop and rock music of the day promoted this and made it a cult- following among teenagers. With its glorification of drug-taking, rebellion against authority, and promiscuity, it was an added battering ram for change. The mass-media also spread this revolutionary worldview, the BBC leading the way with its satirical programmes and by pushing the boundaries of decency beyond anything before.
3] Then came the legalising of homosexuality in 1967.
Now, instead of this lifestyle being viewed as morally perverted and destructive, it simply became an alternative lifestyle. Its slogan was, “It’s OK to be Gay.” With this, another boundary was removed – that sex is to be between a man and a woman.
4] In 2014 same sex marriage was legalised.
This was the most profound and far-reaching shift of all. It re-defined marriage (in legal terms, though not in biblical terms). The creation boundary of marriage being between one man and one woman for life was changed, and one of the foundations was destroyed (Psalm 11:3).
Since the Divorce Reform Act in 1956 marriage has been diluted and trivialised – culminating in civil partnerships, same-sex marriage, and no-fault divorce. And now activists in the US and UK are pushing lawmakers to recognise poly-amorous relationships involving multiple partners.
5] In recent times, transgenderism has appeared.
With this, another boundary has been removed: that a man is a man and a woman is a woman. A new distinction has been introduced, that of gender and gender-identity. This drives a wedge between gender assigned at birth, and what people believe their gender should be. So that, if a man is distressed because he feels more like a female, he has “gender dysphoria” – he is a woman trapped in a man’s body. He can therefore transition to what he believes he is, and wants to be: a woman. Our society has accepted the vociferous arguments of a minority who have shifted the argument from the gender we are born with to the gender we feel we have a right to become.
Feminism
At the same time a growing women’s liberation, or feminism, gathered strength, particularly in the 1970s. Such women caricatured their place in relation to men as “patriarchalism” and “sexist,” and demanded equality and freedom. Feminist writers fomented protests and demonstrations. The concept of women as wives, mothers, and home-makers was derided as being slaves to controlling husbands and the kitchen sink. According to many of them, men are toxic and the future is female.
In all of this, the cry is “No absolutes.” Nothing is fixed; everything is fluid. It is significant though, that the same argument is not applied to football, which has strict rules as every referee knows. Moreover, there could be no ship without a rudder, and someone at the helm, navigating it according to international and local maritime laws. A plane without a pilot subject to air traffic control would be disastrous. And yet, these examples pale into insignificance when we remember that, with all these boundaries removed, immortal souls with their everlasting destiny are at stake.
Havoc
The so-called freedoms trumpeted today are causing havoc. They promised much, no longer being bound by the restrictive rules and conventions of the past. However, many people are now cast adrift with nothing and no one to say what is true and right. We are like in the days of the Judges: “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Far from freedoms enjoyed, many no longer know who they are, what they are, or where they are. Moreover, the competing ideologies and “culture wars” are pitting people against each other. This spirit of conflict and animosity leads to insecurity that does not help peoples’ mental health, particularly children and young people who are growing up in this caustic and bewildering atmosphere.
2. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
Thankfully, we can go back to the Bible and remind ourselves of the fundamental and unchangeable truths that keep us right regarding these things.
1. Gender Definition
In Genesis 1:27 we read: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”This is all we need to know. The God who created the heavens and the earth, and all living creatures, has crowned that work in the creation of Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Steve; or Eve and Evelyn. God made two distinct sexes: “male and female,” and both to reflect the image of their Creator. They are, we might say, “hand-crafted by God.” The wonderful words of Psalm 139capture this:“fearfully and wonderfully made” … “curiously wrought” … “fashioned.”
On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling confirming that the word “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers exclusively to biological sex, not a person’s self-defined gender. This was a welcome clarification from the highest court in the land. The wonder is that it was needed in the first place! However, from an infinitely higher authority – God’s word – we can say the following:
1] Our gender is not about us.
It is about the fact that God has created us either male or female to be His image-bearers and to reflect that difference. Our gender is divinely assigned to us. It is not an accident that can be swapped and corrected, but the appointment of our all-wise Creator. What God has made fixed, let not man make fluid. When we fulfil His will and our calling in this, we give Him the glory.
2] Our being either male or female is a matter for thanksgiving.
We remember that God “blessed” the first male and female and pronounced their creation, together with everything else, “very good” (Genesis 1:27,28,31). Only when we believe this and embrace it, are we fulfilled. Martin Luther, commenting on Genesis 1:27 wrote:
From this passage we may be assured that God divided mankind into two classes, namely, male and female, or a he and a she. This was so pleasing to Him that He Himself called it a good creation [Genesis 1:31]. Therefore, each one of us must have the kind of body God has created for us. I cannot make myself a woman, nor can you make yourself a man; we do not have that power. But we are exactly as He created us: I a man and you a woman. Moreover, He wills to have His excellent handiwork honoured as His divine creation, and not despised. The man is not to despise or scoff at the woman or her body, nor the woman the man. But each should honour the other’s image and body as a divine and good creation that is well-pleasing unto God Himself.
3] “Man” is not a bad word, as is often alleged.
We notice the words in Genesis 5:2 “Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” Here, male and female are called “Adam”which means “man.” This is where referring to the human race as “man” or “mankind” comes from. It is a generic term, which includes females of course. What is so wrong with this? The irony is that in modern conversation both men and women are referred to as “guys” – which is the plural for men – with no protest!
4] We can see the rebellious nature of transgenderism.
It refuses to acknowledge that God has chosen us to be born either male or female.Transgenderism is atheistic – it denies God the Creator and that we are His creation. Instead, in self-worshipping fashion, it says: “I will express my life and identity my way.” It is another example of Romans 8:7, “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
This has led to a multiplying of confusing and bizarre identities, including “non-binary”: those who are neither male nor female. They feel like they are both, or neither, or a mix, or a unique gender. According to some “experts” there are seventy-two other genders besides male and female!
5] Even when people accept their gender, without the Bible, problems remain.
Our society is obsessed with looks and image. Social media, broadcasting media, advertising agencies, and celebrities give the impression that outward appearance is what matters most. Rather than character, it is a superficial and vain pursuit of appearance: what people look like, instead of what they are like. Young people are slaves to trying to emulate the looks and bodies of worldlings who are the benchmark. Impressionable teenagers take their cue from all this, and without the Bible, follow it all, and often suffer from their supposed shortcomings. Whereas all the while the liberating message of Scripture is: “the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
2. Marriage roles
The usual way the blessing of being male or female is realised is in marriage. Here is the marvel of two different persons becoming one in a complementary relationship that meets the needs of both. And from this we can see what their God-ordained roles are to be.
1] God made man differently from the woman.
A stand-alone male came into being: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). However, in all God’s creation Adam found no creature who could serve his need of loving companionship and support: “but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him” (2:20).
Only another unique being could serve Adam’s need, and be her fulfilment as well: “the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman” (2:22). The woman, therefore, was made from the man, because in marriage she is for the man (verse 23 “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”). Reflecting this, Martin Luther described his wife, Katie von Bora, as “my rib.”
2] A wife’s role is unique and vital.
The Garden was the place of Adam’s service (2:8,15). God gave him work to do, even in Paradise! He had a calling which would involve setting out the plants in order and patterns, guarding them from straying animals, pruning and keeping everything tidy. There was no battle with weeds or pests, or inclement weather. This was part of exercising his dominion over creation, by serving God.
Eve’s role was to encourage and support Adam in his work. Their unlikeness strangely means that the wife finds her fulfilment in her husband, while he finds his fulfilment in his work and in his wife. This togetherness means the man must no longer reason and behave as though he is still single. His wife is part of himself (Ephesians 5:28,29). It must be said that, in the two becoming one, women often understand marriage better than men.
3] God in providence makes marriage for His people.
Although a Creation ordinance, and therefore happy marriages are found among non-Christians, yet it is something special for God’s people. As in the Garden of Eden, “the LORD God … made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:22). This, in principle, is so today. He still brings His Eves to their Adams when couples providentially meet and eventually marry in the Lord. Under God, Eliezar found this concerning Rebekah being brought to Isaac: “the woman whom the LORD hath appointed out for my master’s son” (Genesis 24:44). Truly, “a prudent wife is from the LORD” (Proverbs 19:14). A W Pink pleaded this verse before the Lord and He brought Vera E Russell to him as the great helpmeet of his life, without whom he could never have sustained the ministry he did.
In all this we are not saying that if someone is not married, they are not fulfilling their calling as male or female. Rather, that marriage is the usual way for most. For those called to marriage, it becomes a profound and life-long union between one man and one woman. And in the mutual love and friendship, care and support, we see male and female identity in beautiful focus.
Historically
Historically, we owe the recovery of this, under God, to the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic church got this wrong in two extremes: the supposed superiority of celibacy and the exalting of marriage into a sacrament. This was for its own perverse and heretical ends.
But the Reformers put the Bible to the forefront of human life in this world and recovered its teaching on these matters. It powerfully defined and empowered who we are, and the various relationships we sustain. The effects are still with us today. As one writer put it,
The Reformation produced an understanding of marriage that resounded throughout the succeeding generations. With the recovery of the gospel came the recovery of marriage according to Genesis 2. For both Luther and Calvin, marriage was a joyful union to be embraced, not a begrudging responsibility. While singleness was still upheld as a good and noble path, marriage was restored to its proper place – a holy and honourable path which produced just as much piety as singleness ever could. In fact, Luther would praise marriage as being a better school for humility, patience, virtue, and all holiness than the monastery. The reformation uncovered the understanding of marriage that God intended for his creation.
We can thank God that we have a sure word on these things that are under such attack today. Therefore, for those of us who are ministers, let us preach these truths with clarity and application from God’s Word. For all of us, let us pray that God will enable us to rejoice in His will, and live out the Christian life for which He has made us and redeemed us.
May God so empower His word to “send out his light and his truth”that “they might lead us” in our day. Let us pray for the overthrow and destruction of contrary, rebellious views, and the re-establishing of biblical definitions of male and female and biblical marriage roles.
And may every Christian man and Christian woman be a shining light for the truth and the right ways of the Lord in our dark and dismal day. Then we will see what a difference the Bible makes – all the difference – and prove nothing but a blessing to the church and society, to the glory and praise of God!