FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 22, number 44, November 2, 2023
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” – Genesis 1:27
I don’t know much about Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I have a nephew who has competed for many years and has won many awards, but that’s the extent of my knowledge of the sport. Maybe you don’t much about it either. If so, then here’s a definition.
“Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting, and submission holds. BBJ approaches self-defense by emphasizing taking an opponent to the ground, gaining a dominant position, and using a number of techniques to force them into submission through joint locks or chokeholds.” [1] Pretty intense stuff, don’t you think?
On October 21 transgender competitor Corissa Griffith, a man who calls himself a woman, took home four gold medals at a tournament in Georgia in which “she” competed against women who were born women. Earlier in September a 135 pound woman was forced to grapple with a man who outweighed her more than sixty pounds. BJJ women competitors are now beginning to speak out against this growing movement in their sport to allow men who are born men to fight women. On each occurrence thus far the women were not told beforehand that they would have to fight men.
Of course we have also seen this for several years in other sports, perhaps most famously with Riley Gaines, the 12 time NCAA women’s swimming champion from the University of Kentucky, who lost the NCAA 200 meter freestyle race final by one hundredth of a second to University of Pennsylvania transgender Lia Thomas. By the way Will Thomas, his male name, was ranked 462nd as a male in the 200 meter freestyle before winning the event as a “female.”
In 1972 “Title IX” was signed into law which banned sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, thus opening the door for women’s athletics at the high school and college level. This is a very good thing. When I was in high school in Birmingham there were absolutely no sports in which women competed at the high school or college level. The best a high school girl could hope for was to be a cheerleader or majorette in the high school marching band. Since then women’s sports have become ubiquitous. Women like Riley Gaines and tennis legend Martina Navratilova have spoken out against how “transgender men” have a physical advantage over women in their sports and if this move is not stopped, will eventually destroy all the progress Title IX has given women. I remember several years ago when Gino Auriemma, the famed women’s basketball coach at the University of Connecticut whose team was in the midst of a 111 game winning streak, was asked how he thought the UConn men’s team, which was having a bad season, would do against his women’s team. He said to the reporter, “Are you kidding me? They would destroy us.” In April of 2017, as the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team prepared for two “friendlies” against Russia, they scrimmaged a fifteen year old boys team from Dallas and lost 5 to 2.[2]
It should be patently obvious to anyone who has a brain and eyes to see. Women athletes cannot compete with men athletes. Men are bigger, faster, and stronger. There is no crime in this. God made men and women differently. So then, why is there a move toward men declaring themselves to be women, taking puberty suppression hormones to shut down testosterone production in the body, and seeking to compete against women in sports? And why is this supported by so many in our western culture?
The answer should be clear to any person who submits himself to the Bible as God’s final authority on all matters of importance. Transgenderism, in any form, is a denial and rejection of God’s creation ordinance. God, without equivocation, declares His position on gender by stating, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them,” (Genesis 1:27). Boom! There it is. End of story, end of discussion.
But as we know, most people in the western world long ago rejected the Bible as their final authority. “Man knows best,” he thinks. Many parents have lost their minds. When eight year old “Johnny” says he thinks he would like to be called a girl and wants puberty blockers some parents are saying, “Well, we want Johnny to be happy. I guess we need to give him what he wants.” To which Bill Maher says, “I wanted to be a pirate when I was a kid. I am glad my parents did not saw off my leg and put a peg leg in its place.”
This whole issue begs a very important question—why have people rejected the Bible as their final authority? The short answer is that most in the western world are unregenerate and therefore do not have the mind of Christ, that the claims of the Bible are foolishness to them (1 Cor.1:18ff, 2:14). But let’s go further. Why are the Bible’s claims foolishness to men and women? Because the simple, straightforward declaration of Genesis 1, that God created all things in the space of six, twenty-four hour days, seems ridiculous to the well read people of our day. So, many pastors and theologians, in order to “help God out of a tight spot,” in order to help Him remove Himself from the corner in which He has painted Himself, come up with all manner of fanciful and elaborate ways to explain the creation account of Genesis 1. The Gap Theory, the Framework Hypothesis, and the Day Age Theory are some of the more popular ones. See my endnote for details on each of them.[3]
When my former denomination allowed exceptions to the Westminster Confession of Faith’s clear teaching of six day creationism, they opened the door to all manner of folly concerning women church officers, women in the military, and the acceptance of homosexuality in the church. You see, all three of these issues are tied to the creation ordinance in Scripture (1 Cor.11:7, Mt.19:4, 1 Tim.2:11-14, Rom.1:24-27, 1 Cor.6:9). When truth is jettisoned then water rushes in like a flood and sinks the vessel and all is lost.
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1 Brazilian jiu-jitsu <en.m.wikipedia.org>
2 FC Dallas under-15 boys squad beat the U.S. Women’s National Team in a Scrimmage, <cbssports.com> April 4, 2017.
3 <answersingenesis.org> “What’s Wrong with the Framework Hypothesis?”, “Daughters, Wives, and Mothers In the Military?”
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS 
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