At the recent Wilberforce Weekend, Dr. Ryan Anderson offered a succinct but sound statement about the Christian view of the body:
“No one is born in the wrong body, because you are not ‘in’ a body. You are a body.”
Interestingly, when a colleague tweeted out this line, it was met with astonishment and opposition in the Twitterverse. Here’s why:
In place of a Christian understanding of creation, many have instead embraced a new form of an ancient heresy. Gnosticism is the faith that just won’t die. It both rejects the inherent goodness of the physical world and elevates inner knowledge as being special and spiritual and true.
Christianity has always held that the physical aspect of our creation is not optional. In fact, God called it “good.”
In a world where so many are taught that their bodies get in the way of their true selves, the news that they were created good is good news indeed.
Publication date: May 28, 2021
Photo courtesy: Ryan Clark/Unsplash
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.