Exposing the Trojan Horse in the Church

The poem The Aeneid by Virgil tells the story of the Greek victory over Troy by trickery.

It seems the Greeks built a large wooden horse and hid several military men inside the structure. The remaining Greek army loaded into boats and sailed away. That evening the forces of Troy opened the gates and pulled the wooden structure inside the city. While the people of Troy were sleeping, the military forces inside the wooden horse slipped out and opened the gates of the city to the Greek military that had sailed back to shore out of sight of the city. The Greeks finally conquered Troy that night, after ten years of an unsuccessful siege.

The Trojan Horse now means a trick or a strategy that will cause someone to invite a foe into a securely protected place.

I have been in Christian ministry long enough (46 years) to watch the church respond to various supposed cultural needs. Sometimes these needs were genuine and the church was successful in meetings those needs. Other times it was a Trojan Horse from the enemy and the compromise cost the church dearly.

A new Trojan Horse has appeared at the gate of the church under the psychological concept of “gender dysphoria.” It is the humanistic concept that some women were born in male bodies and some males were born in female bodies. Professor Dr. Mark Yarhouse of Regent University is the leading voice calling the church to embrace this new Trojan Horse of humanism through the “disability” lens or the “diversity” lens.

The acceptance of gender dysphoria is a denial of God’s creation and His ability to manage and to maintain all of creation – Genesis 1:26-27; Colossians 1:16, 17.

It is a denial of the inerrancy of Scripture that proclaims God forms each of us in our mother’s womb, including our “inward parts” – Psalm 139:13.

Embracing gender dysphoria as a disability is shoe-horning the medical model, yet again; as alcoholism is called a disease; drug addiction is called a disease; and pornography is a disease.

When the medical model is accepted the spiritual component is removed. It no longer is a stronghold of darkness or a distortion and lie of the enemy. The possibility of demonic deception and influence is denied and removed.

Individual responsibility for believing a lie; giving room to the stronghold of darkness; and entering into sinful behavior is removed. After all, it is not a sin to be confessed and repented of by the individual. This philosophy is a denial of the truth in Holy Scripture – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; 1 Corinthians 6:16-17.

The call to accept the lens of “disability” and “diversity” is the next logical step toward embracing the call for accepting there are LGBT Christians. Indeed, in his writings Dr. Yarhouse refers several times to “gender dysphoria Christians.”

It is a clear denial of God’s standard of holiness. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22-23, NKJV). “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination” (Leviticus 20:13, NKJV).

Are we ready to accept the belief that a holy God, who demands human sexuality be revered as sacred and kept holy, will allow some men to be born in a female body and some women to be born in a male body? Almighty God is incapable of preventing such a distortion of His truth.

Could it be, the church is again allowing humanistic philosophy to creep under the door and into the publications, classrooms and pulpits, through junk science and well-meaning believers who have suppressed the truth and who are believing the lie?

Will we also accept the “new scientific truth” that it is not the chromosomes that determine the gender but how one feels inside?

This is a denial of the assurance given mankind in Holy Scripture. This behavior is sin, not a disability. It certainly is not something for the church to “celebrate” as Dr. Yarhouse calls the believers to do. The individual practicing such sinful behavior can be forgiven, washed, and delivered from this behavior, as assured by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:11. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (NKJV).

The apostle specifically included this very behavior.

This is not a time for the church to be embracing such distortion but to “earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”

Dr. F. Dean Hackett has served in full-time Christian ministry since October 1971. He has ministered throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, serving as pastor, conference speaker and mentor. He has planted four churches, assisted in planting 15 others, and currently serves as lead pastor of Living Faith Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Dr. Hackett founded Spirit Life Ministries International in 2001 to facilitate ministries in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and to open a training center for workers in those nations. You can find him at F. Dean Hackett – Foundational, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.