An Air India plane with more than two hundred people on board has crashed near the airport in India’s western city of Ahmedabad, officials said this morning. The flight was scheduled to depart at 3:40 a.m. ET. The plane was taking off and was headed to London’s Gatwick airport when it crashed in a densely populated civilian area, causing a massive fire with billowing black smoke.

At the time of writing, officials have not yet confirmed whether there are fatalities. However, the company that owns Air India has activated an emergency center, stating, “Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event.”

When we hear or see news like this, we are immediately shocked by the tragedy and grieve for all those affected. And we are forced to admit the reality of our mortality. Humans are brilliant enough to create machines that can fly at incredible speeds and heights, but not brilliant enough to ensure our safety when we travel on them. It is the same with every other dimension of our lives—our cars can crash, our homes can collapse in a storm. Medical science is more advanced than ever, but our bodies still grow sick and die.

None of this is what you wanted to read this morning, or what I wanted to write when I woke up and started to work. But the Christian faith offers a hope in the face of mortality found nowhere else, a way of seeing death and life that redeems the former and embraces the latter.

This hope was expressed long ago in a surprising way that is still powerfully relevant today.

“I shall have become a human being”

St. Ignatius of Antioch was, according to early tradition, a disciple of the Apostle John. In the year 107, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan, he was arrested and ordered to renounce his faith. He refused, so he was bound in chains and sent to Rome for execution, where he was fed to the lions in the Circus Maximus.

On his journey to Rome, he wrote seven letters to various Christian congregations. The last was to the church in Rome, asking them not to try to stop his martyrdom. In it, he wrote:

The pains of birth are upon me. Be understanding, my brethren: do not hinder me from coming to life, do not wish me to die. I desire to belong to God: do not give me to the world, do not try to deceive me with material things. Allow me to receive the pure light: when I have reached it, I shall become a man.

In this sense, he continued, “Allow me to follow the example of the Passion of my God.” He added that when he died, he would “succeed in reaching God” and in that moment “shall have received true mercy, and I shall have become a human being.”

His letter frames physical death in a way I find enormously encouraging.

“This mortal body must put on immortality”

God created us for eternity, not for this finite time and fallen world. This earthly life is therefore our “gestation period,” that time during which we are being formed for the life to come. Then, when we “die,” we are “born” into the life for which we were always intended.

However, those who are still in the “womb” of this world cannot see those in heaven any more than a baby still in its mother’s womb could see a sibling who left her body to be born. Like a baby in its mother’s womb, this world is all they know. When we were in the womb, if we had been given the choice to remain where it seemed safe and familiar rather than being expelled through a painful physical process into a world we had no proof even existed, we might well have sought to stay where we were and feared what came next.

But imagine that someone who had been born into the world outside the womb could somehow reduce themselves down to become a fetus again and speak to us in ways we could understand. Their “resurrection” from what we would call death would be proof that the same could happen one day for us (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20).

In this case, what we knew as death would be the essential precursor to life that far transcends the life we had known. This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (v. 50). To the contrary, “this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (v. 53, my emphasis).

“The ringing testimony of the Christian faith”

Knowing that death is but the gateway to true life can change the way Christians approach every moment of every day until that time.

First, we are emboldened to serve Jesus at all personal costs, knowing that the worst that can happen to us in this world leads to the best that can happen to us. We already “have eternal life” (John 3:16), so we can face persecution with joy and adversity with hope. Singing hymns at midnight can be our witness to our fellow “prisoners” until the prison doors are opened and we are set free (Acts 16:25–26).

Second, we are encouraged to use this world for the world to come, knowing that all we see is fleeting but that present faithfulness echoes in eternity. Br. Lucas Hall of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston is right: “Our daily tasks, even very good and important ones, are not themselves eternal, and so derive their worth from how much they facilitate [our] encounter with Jesus, the eternal living God.” Living for the next world turned this world “upside down” (Acts 17:6) and will do so again.

Please take a moment to pray for all those affected by the Air India crash. Then take another moment to reflect on the fact of your mortality. If Jesus is your Lord, embrace his promise that “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26). And ask the Spirit who empowered the first Christians at Pentecost to empower your faith and witness today.

When early believers faced growing opposition and persecution, they prayed for the Lord to “grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). As a result, “the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (v. 31).

Now it’s our turn.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr believed,

“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”

Do you agree?

Quote for the day:

“Death is the chariot our heavenly Father sends to bring us to himself.” —Erwin Lutzer

Our latest website resources:

• Who was David Ben-Gurion?
• What does the Bible say about politics?
• LA riots, NCAA’s new era, Musk vs Trump & Simone Biles controversy
• Can understanding God as Father transform your life?
• California cracks down on child sex buyers

Denison Forum

Cross-dressing is a growing phenomenon today. Often called “drag queens” or “female impersonators,” men who dress as women are becoming more normalized than ever in our sexually broken culture. Some who do so are gay, but people of other genders and sexual identities sometimes also perform as drag queens.

Some “drag queens” have social media audiences exceeding two million. “Drag Queen Story Hours” are events hosted by drag queens who read children’s books in public libraries and otherwise engage with children aged three to eleven.

RuPaul Andre Charles is the best-known drag queen in American culture; he has appeared in numerous movies and documentaries, won several Emmy Awards for his show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and became the first drag queen to become a spokesman for a major cosmetics company.

What should Christians think about this phenomenon? How should we respond biblically and redemptively?

Is cross-dressing a sin? What does the Bible say about cross-dressing?

The Bible forbids men and women from dressing as the opposite gender: “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lᴏʀᴅ your God” (Deuteronomy 22:5).

This text does not forbid women from wearing slacks or men from wearing something a woman might also wear (such as sunglasses or a jacket). Rather, the context points to the intent to deceive, to present oneself as something he or she is not.

In other words, men are not to change their clothing and appearance to attempt to look like women; women are not to do the same to appear to look like men. Anything else is a rebellion against God’s created order of men and women, both made in his image and likeness but bearing appearances and traits unique to their genders (Genesis 1:27).

A New Testament parallel is the biblical call for men and women to wear their hair at a length appropriate for their gender (1 Corinthians 11:14–15).

Further, we are taught in Scripture that our bodies must be used for God’s glory: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

We are not to dress in ways that draw undue attention to ourselves (cf. 1 Timothy 2:9–10; James 2:1–4). Instead, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Why do some people cross-dress?

I am not a professional counselor, but in my online research I have discovered the following:

According to psychologists, cross-dressing often involves “recurrent, intense sexual arousal.” It is a form of “fetishism,” with the clothing as the fetish, and is also considered a type of paraphilia (“atypical sexual behavior”).

Cross-dressing can also constitute a defense mechanism to suppress one’s feelings against loss. It can be done to subvert gender norms, as an act of sexual liberation, or to explore one’s gender identity.

By contrast, God’s intention for our sexual lives is clear. We are created as male and female and intended to live in alignment with our gender (Genesis 1:27; 2:18–24). Sex is therefore intended only within the monogamous, covenant marriage between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Corinthians 7:3, 39).

Any activity that violates this intended order, such as cross-dressing, adultery, prostitution, or pornography, is sinful and harms those who engage in it.

Powered by RedCircle

How should Christians respond to cross-dressing?

If you know someone engaged in cross-dressing (or whose spouse is doing so), how should you respond redemptively to them?

1. Pray for the Spirit to bring this person to repentance and restoration to God’s design for their lives.
2. Be willing to share biblical truth with them as you have opportunity under the Spirit’s guidance, doing so “with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
3. Seek to live with personal biblical morality. We are all broken, fallen people (Romans 3:23). You may not be engaged in cross-dressing, but there may be other areas of your life where Christ is not Lord. Submit your life fully to the Spirit each day (Ephesians 5:18), presenting your “body” as a “living sacrifice” to your Lord (Romans 12:1).

Charles Spurgeon testified, “I would sooner be holy than happy if the two things could be divorced. Were it possible for a man always to sorrow and yet to be pure, I would choose the sorrow if I might win the purity, for to be free from the power of sin, to be made to love holiness, is true happiness.”

Will you experience “true happiness” today?

Related articles

• What does the Bible say about transgenderism?
• What does the Bible say about pornography? Can you break free from sexual temptation?
• What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

If you want to know more about God’s design for sexuality, check out our book, Sacred Sexuality: Reclaiming God’s Design. The book arms believers with the knowledge and wisdom needed to confront the challenges of a post-Christian culture with the unchanging truth of the Bible.

Denison Forum

Israel has confirmed that a body extracted by their forces in a southern Gaza tunnel is that of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. The brother of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, he was killed in a May 13 airstrike as he hid under the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

“We found a military base under a hospital,” said the company commander who discovered the body. His statement forms a descriptive metaphor for my article this morning.

According to a new report profiled by journalist Simone Rodan-Benzaquen in the Free Press, the Muslim Brotherhood is building an extensive infrastructure in Europe. This radical movement seeks to impose Islamic law through schools, charities, and religious networks, creating “ideological bases under hospitals,” as it were. It claims to reject violence, but it has extremist offshoots such as Hamas and often blurs the line between nonviolence and radicalization.

Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood views Islam as a total system. And, as Rodan-Benzaquen warns, “It is coming for all of the West.”

 “Reaching far beyond the mosque”

Rodan-Benzaquen’s article tells us how:

The Brotherhood has methodically expanded its presence across [Europe]—embedding itself in local communities through a network of mosques, charities, educational institutions, and civic associations, all designed to promote its vision of political Islam under the cover of religious outreach.

In France alone, the Brotherhood’s network comprises 280 mosques. Every Friday, some ninety-one thousand people worship in these spaces. The movement also controls or influences twenty-one private schools and 815 Quranic schools. According to Rodan-Benzaquen, over sixty-six thousand minors in these schools are “taught to see themselves as part of a global Muslim community in moral and cultural opposition to Western secularism.”

For example, they have distributed texts that praise Sharia law as superior to man-made law (such as democracy), denounce interfaith marriage, and vilify Jews. The Brotherhood has also established stores, youth centers, job training programs, matchmaking services, Islamic microfinance initiatives, and charities that collectively form parallel structures of authority for Muslims to utilize. Their larger purpose is to elevate religious law over that of the country and impose social pressure on Muslims to comply.

Their new frontier is digital, with waves of online influencers trained in Brotherhood institutions and fluent in grievance politics who are focusing on younger audiences. Rodan-Benzaquen warns that they are “reaching far beyond the mosque, preaching on screens in palms and in sitting rooms all across the globe.”

Qatar and Turkey have been funding and supporting the movement and its affiliated networks. Its larger purpose is global cultural and political domination for Islam.

Fertile soil for immorality

One reason the Brotherhood’s ideological strategy is so effective is that it encounters so little cultural resistance. Not only has public discourse been accommodating under the banner of multiculturalism, but the West has long abandoned any cohesive worldview to oppose it.

When secularized society has no way to separate truth from falsehood, labeling both as subjective fictions, how are we to counter the truth claims of the Muslim Brotherhood or any other worldview? Our ideological “soil” is fertile ground for any agenda organized and incentivized enough to take advantage of the opportunity.

The “sexual revolution” that has normalized pornography and premarital and extramarital sex while redefining and trivializing marriage has been possible only in a world where biblical morality was first marginalized. Continued public support for abortion and the growing embrace of euthanasia across the country are possible only because the sanctity of all life is ignored or rejected.

In each case, what seems attractive at first to a post-Christian culture is destructive to our souls and our collective future. “Military bases under hospitals” is an apt metaphor for our day.

Imparting “the very life of God”

The good news is that we’ve been here before. The first-century Roman Empire was at least as hedonistic as American society today. Unwanted children were abandoned; unwanted elderly people were euthanized; every kind of sexual immorality was normalized and practiced. Like the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating Europe and the West, foreign powers and movements threatened the Empire from within.

Then came Pentecost, and the God who created the universe began living inside humans by his indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16).

He not only forgave fallen people for their sins, he set them “free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2) and made them his “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). They became a new and different kind of people (1 Peter 2:5), demonstrating a character so different from the fallen culture (Galatians 5:22–23) that others could tell “they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). And over time they built the mightiest spiritual movement in history and transformed the Western world.

Billy Graham wrote:

When we give our lives to Jesus and trust him as our Savior and Lord, the Spirit renews our souls and brings the life of God into us. We have joy and peace, and we have a new direction to our lives because the Spirit of God has imparted to us the very life of God (my emphasis).

When “we have all that is needed”

Now it falls to us, as with our first-century sisters and brothers, to live out “the very life of God” in every way we can. First, by submitting every day to the Spirit and giving our lives to his leading and purpose (Ephesians 5:18). Second, by leading everyone we influence to join us in the abundant life found only in Christ (John 10:10). And third, by declaring and defending biblical truth and morality in a culture desperate for light in its darkness (1 Peter 3:15–16).

I remember touring Carlsbad Caverns years ago. After our group descended into the heart of the cave system, our guide had us sit on a rock ledge and then extinguish our flashlights. The darkness was so absolute as to be tangible. I could not see the hand in front of my face. Then he turned on his flashlight, and my eyes were drawn instinctively to its light.

So it is with the light of the Spirit—the darker the room, the more powerful, tangible, and attractive he becomes. A. W. Tozer reminded us:

“When we have the Holy Spirit, we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.”

If Jesus is your Savior, you have all of the Spirit.

Does he have all of you?

Quote for the day:

“The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission.” —Pope Francis

Our latest website resources:

• California cracks down on child sex buyers
• What is Pentecost and how can we experience it today? A guide to experiencing God’s power for God’s purpose
• Preparing for Sunday with resilient faith
• What does the Bible say about homosexuality?
• Is cross-dressing a sin?

Denison Forum