There's one word for it.
A few days ago, Libs of TikTok posted another profanity-laced tirade from a gender-confused young person who is nothing if they aren't miserable. For the most part, the shock and astonishment of these kinds of unhinged displays have long since disappeared for me, to the point that I may watch for a second or two before scrolling on in the (usually vain) hopes of finding my way to signs of cultural sanity.
But for some reason I couldn't move past this one so easily. There was so much delusion, so much anger, so much hatred, so much rage, that I watched the whole thing and then - as silly as this may sound to some of you - I put down my phone and prayed for this person. I don't know them, I can't tell if they are really a boy or girl, I really don't know anything about them except that they are seemingly so far from accepting who they really are: a creation of the most high God who loves them in a way that they are as oblivious to as they are desperate for.
If you can get past the language (and it is very bad), take a minute and see for yourself:
VERY BAD LANGUAGE WARNING:
There are seemingly a million different kinds of reactions I might have towards this clip. The entitlement, the confusion, the staggering lack of self-awareness. But there is only one word I could think of as I watched.
Only Christians will fully understand it. The rest can certainly read it, but my primary audience here are those who know the Lord and have been blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Those who have not, those who have chosen not to follow Jesus, may be able to grasp a peripheral understanding of what I'm about to say, but won't fully get it. That isn't said to be rude or exclusive, it's said as a courtesy and in an effort to be transparent.
The word that echoes in my mind over and over as I watch this video is demonic.
But I'm not using that word like most people do. The world understands the word demonic simply as a strong synonym for evil or bad. For instance, there was a recent article that appeared in the Guardian by Allison Pearson. It was entitled, "The evil trans ideology is in retreat, at last." It's a fine piece that I agree with in principle, of course. But the concept of demonic has been severely sanitized by a world that foolishly rejects the existence of Satan and the supernatural. Therefore, articles like Pearson's do a good job documenting the horrific consequences of things like trans ideology, but they fail to diagnose the root cause.
As Christians we should know, the most fundamental lie in Satan's arsenal since time immemorial has been to assure man that by rebelling against God we "will be like gods" ourselves (Gen 3:5). Such is the irresistibly tempting, but very false promise presented by transgender theory. Paul Scalia writes it this way:
God creates; man is created. God brings into being; man receives his being. Gender ideology proposes something else: that we are our own creators.
Of course that's true, but it goes deeper. Satan hates man because man bears the image of the God that Satan hates. The devil's every effort involves attempting to deprive God of the glory that is due Him, a glory that mankind has been created to offer through our physical bodies and spiritual souls. What better way to deny God what belongs to Him than to manipulate His prized creation into mutilating himself physically and corrupting him spiritually?
That demonic effort has taken various forms through the centuries. In our era, it is thoroughly manifested in trans ideology.
With God there exists natural, fundamental, moral truths - body, marriage, and family - each of which are reflected perfectly in the reconciling work of Christ.
- Body: Rather than descend from heaven in spiritual, glorified form, Jesus was the Word that became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14).
- Marriage: Rather than use any of a host of human relationships to describe the mysterious relationship between Christ and the Church, God defined Jesus as a bridegroom laying down His life for His bride (Ephesians 5:25-26).
- Family: Rather than enter the world fully grown, God saw fit to have Jesus born into a human family and be raised, loved, and taught by a mother and father (Matthew 1:18-25).
That's why Christians need to be wise. While it has become increasingly commonplace for most in our culture to regard battles over transgenderism, gay "marriage," and the un-defining of family as mere political fights and culture warring, Christians must understand it is far deeper, and far more significant.
The reason we don't just roll our eyes, discard, and distance ourselves from tortured people like the one in that TikTok video, the reason we don't wash our hands of the spirit of the age and leave the world to its own devices, the reason we don't pretend that these issues are merely matters of personal experience and expression, is because we know who God is, what He has done for us, and what is at stake for those Satan has worked so tirelessly to destroy.
If we love our neighbor, we cannot permit them to be deceived by the enemy of man's souls. That is always our first concern.
