The Shift in Authority: How Theology is Compromised

Every theological error begins with a shift in authority. The question is never simply "What does the text say?" It is always also "Who gets to decide what the text means, and on what basis?" When the answer to that second question changes, the first question is effectively answered in advance.

The contemporary revision of Christian teaching on gender and sexuality follows a recognizable pattern. It begins not with exegesis but with experience. A person — or a community — has an experience that conflicts with traditional teaching. The experience is described as profound, persistent, and identity-constituting. The traditional teaching is then re-examined, not to understand it more deeply, but to find a way around it. Texts are reinterpreted. Hermeneutical frameworks are revised. The tradition is declared to have been mistaken.

The Role of Experience

Experience is not irrelevant to theology. The lived experience of suffering, of grace, of the Spirit's work — these are real, and they inform the way we read Scripture. But experience is not the final authority. It is data to be interpreted, not the lens through which all other data is filtered.

The problem arises when experience is elevated to the position of judge over Scripture rather than being judged by it. When a person says, "I know who I am, and Scripture must be interpreted in light of that knowledge," they have reversed the proper order of authority. They have placed the self above the text.

This is not a new error. It is the oldest error. In Genesis 3, the serpent's strategy was precisely to invite Eve to evaluate God's word in light of her own perception of what was good: "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it" (Genesis 3:6). The fall was not simply an act of disobedience. It was an act of epistemological rebellion — a decision to make the self the measure of reality.

Pastoral Implications

None of this is to say that people who experience gender dysphoria are simply rebels against God. They are, like all of us, people made in God's image who are experiencing the profound disorder that the fall has introduced into every dimension of human life. Their suffering is real. Their need for pastoral care is real.

But pastoral care that is not grounded in truth is not care. It is flattery. The most loving thing a pastor or a friend can do for someone who is suffering is to tell them the truth — the whole truth, including the truth that the body is not the enemy, that the self is not the final authority, and that there is a better story than the one our culture is telling.