Are Sex Change Operations Biblical? Should Christians Consider Doing This?

Last updated on: September 1, 2015 at 5:09 pm by Jack Wellman

Are Sex Change Operations Biblical? Should Christians Consider Doing This? 2015-09-01T17:09:32-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Is the Bible silent on sex change operations? Should a Christian ever do this?

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Many of us are not very happy with our bodies. We might be overweight, skinny, too tall or too short but the Bible declares that you and I are “fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:14). The Hebrew word for “made” is the verb “pala’” and means “to be marvelous, be wonderful, be surpassing,” and “be extraordinary.” You might not feel extraordinary but the human body is a marvelous thing to be sure. The psalmist wrote that God “formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). You might not like you but God does as again the psalmist declared “Your hands made me and formed me” (Psalm 119:73a).

Created in God’s Image

In Genesis 1:26 it says “God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” so we are created in God’s image and that is why things like murder and abortion (same as murdering as it’s an innocent victim) are so despicable in God’s sight. Every human ever conceived was made in the image of the Creator as it says in Genesis 1:27 “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” meaning that we know good and evil and are free to do what we desire to do but that doesn’t include sinning. The other part of this verse says that God created us either male or female, not a male trapped in a woman’s body or the other way around. There is no biblical precedent for having a sex change and since we know that God expressly purposed to create you either as a man or a woman, why would you want to change what God has done? God doesn’t make mistakes or say “Oops, I got him/her in the wrong body.” There is no way that we should change what God has made with the exception of when our lives are at stake. For example, many veterans need a prostatic arm, hand, or leg while others need an artificial lung but these are medical purposes, not one of feelings.

Exactly as God Wanted You

Solomon wrote “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things” (Eccl 11:5) so even if we don’t understand why God made us the way He did, we should accept the fact that He made no mistake when He made you. Since you were created in God’s image as either male or female, why not rest in that fact? Why desire to change what God has purposed to make you as? Isn’t it enough to be content with the state in which we are in? Paul wrote “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Phil 4:11) and we know that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1st Tim 6:6) so we should “be content with that” (1st Tim 6:80b).

Men as Men and Women as Women

The author of Hebrews says that the marriage bed is undefiled (Heb 13:4) when it is between a man and a woman. Those who practice sexual immorality outside of the bonds of a man and a woman’s marriage or when men are with men and women with women, they are not destined to inherit the kingdom of God according to the Bible (1st Cor 6:9; Rom 1:26-27). Even in Paul’s day “women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Rom 1:26-27). Long ago God commanded that “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, or whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Duet 22:5). Those who ask for a sex change surgery may have a condition known by phycologists as Gender Dysphoria even though statistics show that only 0.2% percent have this condition but may actually be as low as 0.003%. The number of people having sex changes today far exceeds this 0.2 to 0.003% range so something’s obviously wrong. Many who desire to have or have actually had a sex change might be confused about their sexuality which could come from cultural influences, a famous celebrity or even a traumatic childhood experience.

Conclusion

For those who believe in the theory of evolution, a sex change would seem contrary to the evolutionary process, if that were even true, but the fact is that God made us all in His image and He created us either male or female. He created you exactly as He wanted to. He didn’t create us to be changed into the opposite sex. The Bible leaves no “grey area” concerning this. You were fearfully and wonderfully made so you shouldn’t want to remake yourself into what God never intended. There are certainly things about my body that I don’t like but my sex is not one of them. I am content as ii is.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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