Defining Terms
As our culture has delved deeper and deeper into sexual depravity disguised as sexual liberation, many “new” heresies have arisen as a result. I put quotation marks around new because, while these specific claims have never been made before, they manage to fall under ancient heresies that have been around for over a thousand years.
For the uninitiated, the term “nonbinary“ describes someone who feels that they don’t fall into one of these two categories [male or female]. When describing the many ways someone who claims to be nonbinary might identify, Advocates for Trans Equality states, “Some people have a gender that blends elements of being a man or a woman, or a gender that is different from either male or female. Some people don’t identify with any gender. Some people’s gender changes over time.” The key to remember with this definition is that those who believe they are nonbinary identify that way. It is not rooted in anything other than subjective personal feelings. As we consider this definition, a few issues begin to arise related to the claim that God is nonbinary.
God Speaks for Himself
The first is that God consistently identifies himself as male in Scripture. All three persons of the Trinity use male names, titles, and pronouns such as Father, Son, king, husband, bridegroom, he, him, himself, etc. Titles such as Yahweh, Elohim, and Adonai are either masculine words in Hebrew or paired with masculine verbs. The usage of these sex-specific identifiers is also consistent across the Old and New Testaments. In fact, it is so consistent that, while there are times God may use feminine imagery to describe himself (Matt. 23:37), there is not a single instance of God using feminine titles or pronouns to identify himself.
Ironically, those who insist most loudly on respecting self-identified pronouns have no answer for why God’s own chosen self-identification should be dismissed.
That Ancient Heresy
Second, Christ doesn’t only refer to himself as the Son, but even condescended, taking on human flesh as a male. Not in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal, fleshly sense (Jn 1:14). This male form he assumed has even persisted in Christ’s ascension, meaning he is both God and literal Man while he reigns at the right hand of the Father. To claim that God is nonbinary is to deny Christ’s male human nature.
Several implications stem from this claim, but each one is heretical. When one claims God is nonbinary, they must either deny that Christ had a true human body, which is a form of Docetism, or deny his true and full human nature, which is a direct violation of the Chalcedonian Creed that the Church has affirmed since 451 AD. To agree with either of these heresies would render Christ’s work of salvation effectively useless. This means that claiming God is nonbinary undermines the very Gospel itself.
Bringing God Down
Third, to claim God is nonbinary is to confine Him within the terms of his creation. While it is true that he demonstrates both male and female characteristics, the reality is that God, in his deific nature, transcends such biological terms (Deut. 4:15-16). God is not literally a male, as a human might be male, but that is because He is not beholden to the roles of His creation. Of course, some might object that this directly contradicts the last section on Christ being a literal male man. The answer lies in Christ’s two natures. One is a human nature, which has manifested as male, but the other nature is his deity. While his human nature is male down to a biological level, his deity is beyond gender, as is true of all three persons of the Trinity. In his divine essence, God transcends creaturely categories, but his consistent masculine self-revelation across Scripture is a deliberate covenantal choice that communicates his authority, not a biological revelation. That is categorically different from a creaturely claim of being nonbinary.
Those who claim to be nonbinary are not transcending male and female categories. They are claiming they fall on a spectrum, somewhere between male and female. The reason some claim God is nonbinary is because they mistakenly believe that since God demonstrates masculine and feminine traits, similar to a person who thinks they are nonbinary, that means He must also be somewhere between male and female. This line of thinking inevitably shrinks God down to created terms, as opposed to the orthodox position that recognizes God’s nature is neither male nor female.
Instead, God has created humankind to be a reflection of their creator, as seen in Genesis 1. While men and women each bear the full image of God, they are created to reflect distinct aspects of His nature in complementary ways. To claim that God must be on a gender spectrum simply because He perfectly demonstrates all the attributes that men and women are designed to reflect is putting the cart before the horse. Instead of recognizing that God transcends both categories, those who make this claim end up trying to force God into bearing our image rather than acknowledging we bear His. No. He is God, and men and women come together to be an imperfect reflection of Him.
Why Does It Matter?
On the surface, it may seem a relatively minor issue for someone to claim that God is nonbinary, but this could not be further from the truth. When one makes this claim, they are not honoring the Lord by calling Him the names He assigns to Himself. How can God be called Lord if one claims that He is nonbinary? To claim God is nonbinary would also result in a denial of Christ’s human nature. To deny Christ’s human nature renders the Gospel useless. If Christ was not a man when he died upon the Cross, then there is no blood to be shed for sinners. If there is no blood to be shed for sinners, then there is no forgiveness, no reconciliation for sinners. To affirm this erroneous claim that God is nonbinary actually likens God to a created being. He can no longer be the uncreated one with no beginning and no end because He has been lowered to the confines of creation.
These are all significant errors that undermine foundational Christian doctrines, and frankly, are an insult to God, Who is deserving of all praise, glory, honor, dominion, and authority (Jd. 1:25). But the real reason this is done is so that nefarious false teachers can legitimize a spectrum of genders instead of the binary God created all the way back in Genesis. If a false teacher can convince the world that even God is nonbinary, it would provide an inarguable legitimacy to their position and allow many who are convinced they are neither male nor female to continue in their rejection of who God made them to be. It would allow them to continue to reject the specific roles assigned to them by God based on their gender. It is a rebellion that only leads to more rebellion.
That is why we must defend against such nonsense. We cannot let this teaching gain popularity unhindered, because it leads to such a sweeping denial of basic Scriptural truths and casts much dishonor on God. So reject these claims, and call out those who would make them. Force them to take this position to its logical conclusion, because if you do, they will be forced to accept ancient heresies that have long been defeated.
