Christ is King!

If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:12–28)

Today is Easter, the holiest Sunday of the year, celebrating the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In dying on the cross, Jesus acted as our infallible high priest: unlike mere human priests, who had to offer sacrifices over and over, for their own sins as well as the people's, he had no sins of his own, and hence his atoning death was able to appease his Father's wrath against sinners once and for all and to "save to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25–;27). And when he rose from the dead, he showed that the Father was satisfied with his sacrifice. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we too can have hope that there is life beyond the grave.

On that first Easter weekend, Christ conquered our two greatest enemies: sin on Good Friday, and death on Easter Sunday.

Everything has been put into subjection to him. Christ is King!

But there is another commemoration that falls today. Every year, the International Transgender Day of Visibility falls on March 31. I don't share the affected outrage that it happens to fall on Easter this year; that's bound to happen now and again.

Last year, I made a note on my Google calendar of every LGBTQ-related commemoration that came to my attention. (Some of these dates are movable, so their exact date may vary in 2024.)

• Feb. 14: Pink Triangle Day
• Feb. 19–25: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week
• Mar. 31: International Transgender Day of Visibility (you are here)
• Apr. 6: International Asexuality Day
• Apr. 12: International Day of Pink
• Apr. 14: Day of Silence
• Apr. 24–30: Lesbian Visibility Week
• May 5: Red Dress Day
• May 17: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia & Transphobia
• May 19: Agender Pride Day
• May 24: Pansexual and Panromantic Visibility Day
• June 1–30: Pride Month
• June 15: LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day
• July 10–14: Nonbinary Awareness Week
• July 14: International Nonbinary People's Day
• July 16: International Drag Day
• Sept. 16–23: Bisexual Awareness Week
• Oct. 1–31: 2SLGBTQI+ History Month
• Oct. 11: National Coming Out Day
• Oct. 17–24: Genderfluid Visibility Week
• Oct. 18: International Pronouns Day
• Oct. 19: Spirit Day
• Oct. 22–28 Ace Week
• Oct. 26: Intersex Awareness Day
• Nov. 13–20: Transgender Awareness Week
• Nov. 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance

By my count, this list comprises 128 Days of Remembrance, Visibility, Awareness, or Otherwise. These are just the ones I was aware of. There may be others I missed. I also didn't note days observed in a specific region but not necessarily elsewhere, apart from Canadian or American ones. (And yes, I counted days that double-dipped as two—or sometimes three—;distinct observances.)

That, far more than the mere coincidence of Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility, ought to be a cause for righteous anger. Fully one-third of the year has been handed over to celebrating weird sex. These are the feast days on the liturgical calendar of the 21st century's pagans.

The Bible almost begins with "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). As I have written previously, God's design for sexuality is for men and women to come together, be married, and have children. All of the categories that fall under the rubric of what we call "2SLGBTQI+"¹ in Canada reject this divine plan. Some transgress the boundaries of lawful sexual relations, others confuse the distinction between male and female, and all of them demean the image of God present in every person and insult the God who made them "male and female."

If Christ is King over all things, then he has the right to rule over all things. That includes even those things that we consider the most private and personal, such as our sex lives. Everything from gay rights to trans visibility is open rebellion against the King and his just laws. He calls all men and women everywhere to repent: to abandon the fantasy that the sexes are mutable or "non-binary," to give up their rebellion against his good plans for human sexuality, and to believe the promises in the Bible concerning his ability to give salvation from the dire penalty for sins. There is no hope in LGBTQ ideology. But there is hope in Jesus Christ. The fact of the Resurrection proves that.

Footnote

¹This absurdly cumbersome initialism stands for "2-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex." The plus sign covers any sexual expression not explicitly stated in the initials, presumably including any not yet invented. I should also point out that intersexuality is not a sexuality, a "gender," or some kind of third sex neither male nor female. It refers to chromosomal disorders that render a person's physical sexual characteristics ambiguous, though that person is still objectively male or female.