I want to start by my background first. I am saying what I say because if I am wrong I would love to know it. I don't want to trigger anyone or bring anyone down. I am not trying to convince you that you are wrong. I'd actually like you to convince me that I am wrong.
I am a transwoman. I have not transitioned and don't plan to unless I absolutely feel compelled to do so to have any quality of life. I was raised as a Christian, attended Christian schools, and have studied the Bible, but I don't have any degrees in theology. I was raised in a VERY trasphobic home, which was probably made extra clear to me because there were signs that I was indeed transgender even as a small child.
I ultimately was unable to reconcile my faith with who I am. I consider myself agnostic, which to me means I do not claim to know there is no God, but I also don't know whether there is a God.
If the God of the Old Testament is as described therein, and if my interpretation of the message of Christ is correct, that I will not go to heaven under any circumstance. It is possible that my interpretation is wrong, and I invite correction. Paul said there will be no perverts in heaven, and I don't think he meant that because there will be no sex in heaven. I think he meant we wouldn't get in. And, I believe when he used that word, he was talking about us. But, Paul is not Christ, and Paul said a lot of things I cannot reconcile with Christ. So, I don't put much trust in what Paul says.
If we go back in time a long way, people experienced life a lot different than today. In warfare in the Bible “God’ said that the people of Israel had to kill everything after their victory, including children, babies and so forth.
Would we hold this as an important doctrine today? After military victory every baby should be killed? No.
So, are you saying that God did not tell them to do that? Is the Bible just wrong when it says He did? Or, are you saying that God told them to do that because at that time it was the thing to do, but now it wouldn't be? If so, what changed? Why was something moral and right then, but not now? Cultures change, times change, but what is and is not sin should not change over time.
The relationships in the Bible, Salomon, David. Did they treat their women like people treat their loved ones today? I don’t think so. Salomon had a lot of wives. David sent a general to his death because he wanted the generals wife. Is this a thing we should do today if we are after one that we love? It maybe happens but do we think it is moral?
That wasn't seen as good or moral when David did it. It is one of the reasons he wasn't allowed to build the temple. So, the fact that a generally good person who God used to accomplish His purpose did something wrong is part of the lesson. In fact, none of the Patriarchs were described as flawless. They all were presented as being very human, with documented failings. But, God is presented as all knowing, all powerful and unchanging.
THe same thing with the creation story, it talks to the people of that time in the way they understood as God inspired the people of that time to write down. It was the really old generations understanding we have to take to account.
The problem today with many who tries to explain what the Bible means for us today is that they pick and choose according to what they want to say. They are using the Bible as a weapon to hit people with.
I would say that many of the stories are colored from that time. The universal things in the Bible that holds through every generation is the message of love and hope.
I would say that the Bible talks about the stupidity of people but points towards a loving God.
It is hard not to pick and choose, because applying the entire concept of the Bible to a particular question is difficult to express. Nonetheless, that approach is what I attempted (perhaps erringly) to do. The OT seems to describe God quite differently from the one Christ describes, but there is little question He is merely offering a different perspective of the same entity. The laws of the OT were generally only for the Jews as part of the covenant. Paul said that we do not have to become Jews to worship Christ. I am unaware of Christ ever saying that. Nonetheless, Christ did say there are basically only two commandments: 1 Love God; and, 2 love your fellow man. That can certainly be done while being transgender. So, I suppose there is hope.
On the other hand, Christ said that to be forgiven for sin, you must repent and turn away from sin. And, if being transgender is a sin, that is a sin from which I have been unable to turn away. I really don't believe I ever chose to be transgender, I believe this is hard wired in me. Why would the potter make a pot in a way that the potter despises? So he can hate it and destroy it? It makes no sense. So, maybe I am wrong about something.
Maybe I can stop being transgender, and I haven't tried hard enough. I have tried really hard, I think I have done my best. There was a lot of internalized transphobia here. Maybe, there is nothing wrong with being transgender. I don't know. If it is wrong for a man to wear that which pertaineth to a woman, and for a woman to wear that which pertaineth to a man, how do you know whether you are a "man" or a "woman"? Am I sinning when I dress as a man? I don't think that question is answerable. We just don't have the text to make it clear.
People and cultures change, but God does not. The question seems to me to be: to what extent did "divine inspiration" in the form of the Bible result in timelessly "correct instruction"? Was the Bible merely for people of that culture and that time? Or, was it describing the way all people should live to please God forever?
Somebody wrote in this forum somewhere that in the Bible there were eunuchs, and to be an eunuch for the faith was seen as a good thing. To become an eunuch, that is body modification from the standard norm.
I don’t know about the eunuchs of that time, how many did it willingly and so on. But there seem to be support for eunuchs that did it willingly. In a way they experienced that being eunuch corresponded with they way the where.
So us on HRT, maybe in some way a bit a like. We experience that we are not like the standard norm, the created bio man and woman. And we want to change ourselves to be what our inner picture of us are. We should also be seen in a good way.
Eunuchs were not allowed to marry or to have life partners. To follow that path, you would basically need to become a nun.
