“God Is Trans,” declared an art exhibition at a Catholic Church in New York.

“Oh, god of pronouns, we give praise to … the great they, the incarnate he and she, the god of trans being,” prayed a Presbyterian preacher in Iowa.

“You are drag queen and transman and genderfluid, incapable of limiting your vast expression of beauty,” said another, at Duke University.

This is new in human history: Mainstream churches embracing and celebrating transgenderism. It wasn’t long ago that churches accepted homosexuality; the first homosexual Anglican bishop was ordained only two decades ago. Welcoming same-sex “marriage” followed soon after. But suddenly, all that is old news.

This is a complete rejection of the truth of the Bible. It is an attack on the foundational institution of family as revealed in Scripture. The Bible reveals that God created male and female; He created marriage. He created family to have a father in charge, a supportive wife and children in subjection. (You can read about this in our free book Child Rearing With Vision.)

In all this is profound divine wisdom. Strong family life is the foundation of a strong nation. The war on family is one of the greatest dangers to society today. In the United States, 4 in 10 children are born out of marriage. Almost 30 percent of children live with a single parent or no parent at all. Life for children of broken families tends to be poorer, less favorable to academic success, and more conducive to mental and emotional instability. Meanwhile, homosexual “marriages” have become commonplace. Children within these unions are dramatically likelier to be physically or sexually abused and to become suicidal.

The plain facts show that discarding the biblical model of family destabilizes society and harms those who most need our protection: our children. In theory, these children should have legions of defenders, clearly articulating the biblical instructions on family and its warnings on the consequences of trying to do it our own way. In America alone, 450,000 people work in the clergy.

Yet sadly, many of these defenders have joined in with the most extreme parts of the attack.

Queering the Gospel

The United Methodist Church, with 13 million members worldwide in 43,000 congregations, has a drag queen as a traveling minister. The Methodist Church of Great Britain has told its ministers to avoid using outdated and divisive terms like “husband” and “wife.” The Church of England has a transgender priest, Bingo Allison, who dresses as a woman and wants to be referred to as “they.” Last December a Christianity Today article went viral for debating whether Christians should offer their pronouns in an effort to include transgender people.

The Roman Catholic Church has long been considered one of the last bastions of moral conservativism, but even here compromise is rife. Last June, several Catholic churches held “Pride masses” to celebrate pride month. In November, the pope approved an official document allowing transgender people to be baptized, to serve as god parents, and to act as witnesses at a wedding. Then he included 44 “transgender women” (men dressed as women) in a group of 1,000 poor people, including prostitutes, whom he had invited to a lunch. Members of that group have also met with the pope and often sit in vip seats at his masses.

For many conservative Catholics, December brought the last straw: The pope approved a new document that allows priests to bless homosexual couples. The document tried to emphasize its continuity with past Catholic teaching, essentially arguing that a person doesn’t have to be perfect to receive a blessing—so bless the couple, not the union. However, many traditionalists see this for what it is: an unabashed attempt to compromise with the homosexual movement.

Rather than holding high the banner of truth in an effort to stop the tide of immorality sweeping through society, a great many churches have instead picked up the rainbow flag and are joining the pride march.

Compromised Morals

These extreme examples cover a wide range of denominations. But with over 350,000 churches across the United States, many people will feel they are not affected by this trend. Some preacher in another state may have embraced this anti-family agenda, but my congregation is OK, they may think.

Catholic or Protestant, clergy or layperson, many say they draw the line at transgenderism or same-sex “marriage.” But years ago, perhaps decades ago, these same Christians erased their lines against divorce, abortion, premarital sex and female preachers. Around one third of the Church of England’s preachers are now women, in direct contradiction to scriptures such as 1 Timothy 2:9-12. In the U.S., around 70 percent of Catholics want their church to follow suit.

Almost all the church groups that have allowed divorce or women bishops have gone on to compromise on homosexuality. There is a good reason for that. The Bible has black-and-white, crystal-clear scriptures against ordaining women bishops or allowing divorce and remarriage. (There are rare, scriptural grounds for divorce, but not the no-fault divorce so common today.) Churches that have consented to these practices have placed their own ideas of right and wrong above the Bible. Once they have taken that step, it quickly becomes impossible for them to hold the line on other issues.

Many preachers who embrace this trend believe they are being compassionate. And they view the Bible as a text with some good and wise principles—but not as absolute, literal truth. But if they would dig into the text they claim to preach from, they could prove its accuracy—and they would discover that the laws they reject were given for their congregations’ own good.

God’s Verdict

Though these liberal priests and preachers don’t view it as authoritative, the Bible they treat so casually has some specific prophecies about them. In fact, their antics actually confirm the power of the Bible.

“[T]he prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred,” God says in Hosea 9:7. How else can you describe drag queens that claim to be leading the worship of God?

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” God laments in Hosea 4:6. There are even more specific applications of this verse within God’s own true Church. But Herbert W. Armstrong wrote that this verse is directed “to the modern ministers in the churches of Britain and America.”

“… I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame,” God warns (verses 6-7). Think seriously about the devastating consequences of rejecting God’s instructions and thus betraying your own and the nation’s families.

God says that these religious leaders “eat up the sin of my people,” (verse 8): They enrich themselves from people’s wrongdoing. They value earning a living more highly than staying true to God’s Word. Many of these priests probably sincerely believe their tolerance of sin is compassionate. Nevertheless, God disagrees. Beyond that, for how many groups is money also a factor?

For several years, the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender movement has attacked the Salvation Army. “Supporting the Salvation Army this season, whether by tossing your change in their red kettles or donating your used goods to their resale shops, means assisting an aggressively anti-gay church in furthering its goals of discrimination,” wrote the Huffington Post (Dec. 11, 2013). Soon, the charity, which is devoted to helping the homeless, saw its income plummet. One lgbt advocacy group tells churches they need to change their views on homosexuality lest they suffer the same fate. “The perception that the Salvation Army is anti-gay still exists in mainstream society and continues to have an impact,” they wrote. Any church that doesn’t support the lgbt cause could find themselves targeted by the media “immediately” and feel “the impact of a drop in donations.”

This is a major consideration behind the Catholic Church’s recent changes in this issue. The German government collects an extra 9 percent of the income of all citizens who say they are Catholic and passes most of it on to the Catholic Church. This makes the German Catholic Church the richest in Europe. German bishops want to compromise on this issue, but the main Catholic hierarchy fears the loss of this money.

These priests “set their heart on their iniquity”: They teach that these sins are actually good!

God says they are “like people, like priest” (verse 9). The priests should be setting an example and adhering to a higher moral code, regardless of society. Instead, there is no difference between the two; the priests embrace the sins of society around them. And so, God says, they will share the downfall of that society.

In Jeremiah 23:16, God goes even further: He says He personally is against those religious leaders that claim to speak for Him but substitute their own ideas.

“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (verse 29). God’s Word has real power. It’s not to be simply pushed aside because we think we know better, whether we claim to be Christians or not. These ministers will learn that when they experience the fire and destruction prophesied in these words.

But God’s Word is also life. It tells us the only way to happiness and abundance.

Embracing the lgbt movement is hastening the collapse of our societies. God is going to add on further punishment until we finally understand this. We cannot look to our own ideas of right and wrong, good and evil. God so strongly condemns and punishes the perversion of this world because it is so destructive. He wants mankind to avoid the terrible consequences it brings. So He will bring man to the point where they will live the way that causes joy and happiness.

The Bible contains the keys to solving our problems and living a productive, purposeful, joy-filled life. This is the truth necessary to fix the world.

“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself,” says God in Hosea 13:9. We are causing our own destruction—“but in me is thine help.” There is help! There are solutions and hope. But they can only be found by honestly searching the Book that contains them.