In these wicked days, the spirit of antichrist is at work among the nations, as it was foretold by the Apostle: “Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18). Chief among the abominations of this era is the assault upon God’s sacred creation of male and female, and the perverse forcing of children to deny the gender that God has ordained for them. Such evil is not simply error; it is rebellion against the Creator, an attempt to undo His handiwork.
From the beginning, Scripture is clear. We read: “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). There is no ambiguity here. The division of humanity into male and female is not an accident, not a mistake, not a prison, but a holy decree of God Himself. Those who tamper with this decree are setting themselves against the Most High. They mimic the rebellion of Lucifer, who said, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13).
Forcing a child to deny the gender given by God is an act of violence against the soul. It breeds confusion, despair, and madness. “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). When parents, entrusted by God to nurture and protect their children, become the very instruments of their destruction, they bring down upon themselves the curse of heaven. It is written, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were fastened around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
The fathers of our Church, guardians of the pure Faith, teach us that every rebellion against God’s order leads to disintegration and death. The modern attempt to obliterate the distinction between male and female is an open invitation to mental illness, despair, and even suicide. “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12). To lie to a child about the nature of his body is to lead him onto the path of destruction. The Holy Apostle Paul speaks plainly about those who reject the natural order: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools… Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves” (Romans 1:22,24). Those who today preach that boys may become girls and girls may become boys are under the very judgment foretold in Holy Scripture. This heresy, this abomination, is not a matter of misguided compassion or misguided tolerance; it is a full-scale rebellion against the natural order that God Himself established from the beginning. They are not enlightened, as they falsely claim; rather, they are degraded, for they have chosen the path of spiritual and intellectual degradation. St. Paul’s warning is not some distant prophecy, applicable only to ancient idolaters. It is as relevant today as it was when it was first written. Those who attempt to redefine human nature are engaging in the same folly as the pagans who worshipped idols made by human hands. They are not honouring the Creator but are instead dishonouring His creation, substituting His immutable truths for the vain imaginations of men. Their minds, darkened by sin, cannot perceive the beauty and sanctity of God’s design.
These individuals are deceived into believing that they possess the wisdom to overrule God’s clear plan for creation, and in doing so, they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. The truth is clear and unambiguous: God created mankind in His image, “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). To tamper with this truth is to exchange the glory of God for the grotesque, self-destructive lie that gender is fluid and can be altered at will. The Lord Himself, in His grand wisdom, determined the role and nature of each individual, male and female, and He declared it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). When men and women attempt to reject this divine design, they are not acting with wisdom or enlightenment but with the same arrogance and foolishness that led Lucifer to fall from grace.
Parents who compel their children to “transition” desecrate the sacred trust given to them by God. They are no different from the pagans who “sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons” (Psalm 106:37). Their children are mutilated not upon stone altars but upon surgical tables and in psychiatric clinics. The priests of this new idolatry wear white coats instead of pagan vestments, but the result is the same—the destruction of the image of God in the child. The Holy Law commands: “A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 22:5). How much greater the abomination when a child’s entire body and mind are subjected to such perversion? The Orthodox Christian cannot be silent. Silence is complicity. It is written, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
In the days of the Old Believers, we suffered exile, imprisonment, and death rather than accept innovations in the Faith. Shall we now keep silent while the very nature of humanity is blasphemed? Shall we submit to the tyranny of the world, which demands that we call male what is female, and female what is male? God forbid! “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29).
We must call the sin by its name. It is apostasy, rebellion, and blasphemy. It is a sign of a nation under judgement. As it is written: “The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest of the sons of men are exalted” (Psalm 12:8). When rulers, teachers, and doctors tell children they can “choose” their gender, they become agents of the devil.
We exhort all faithful Orthodox Christians—Protect your children! Teach them the truth of Genesis, the truth of the Incarnation, for Christ took flesh not as some neutral being but as a true man. He sanctified human nature, male and female, not confusion and madness. As the Apostle affirms: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). There is no blessing for those who mutilate their own children, only curses. “Cursed is anyone who misleads a blind person on the road” (Deuteronomy 27:18). Children who are taught lies are led into blindness and despair. Their blood will be required at the hands of those who betrayed them.
Therefore, let the faithful Old Believers, and all who still fear the Lord, rise up in steadfast witness. Let us not be cowards, who flee from battle. Let us remember the words of the Apostle: “Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). This current madness will pass away. Those who promote it will answer before the dread judgement seat of Christ, “from whose face earth and heaven fled away” (Revelation 20:11). They will have no defence, for they knew the truth and rejected it. “Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself” (Romans 2:1).
Hold fast, then, to the Holy Tradition, to the clear teaching of Scripture, and to the natural order created by God. Raise your children in the fear of the Lord, not in the delusions of this passing age. “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray” (Proverbs 22:6).
Thus speaks the Church of the Old Believers, the persecuted but undefeated guardians of the pure Faith.
May God grant repentance to those who have sinned, before it is too late.
May Christ our true God have mercy on us.
— Fr. Charles