On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that redefined the meaning of “sex.” The court has now decreed that “sex” (in discrimination law) means more than biology and genes and DNA. Sex is now interpreted to mean one’s personal preference and identity—i.e., men can now claim to be women and women can claim to be men, and everyone is legally obligated to accept such obvious falsehoods as true and normal.

This sweeping ruling will impact every part of U.S. culture— from schools and businesses to churches and restrooms. The Supreme Court has again, as it did in the same-sex marriage decision of 2015, crossed a line into the realm of God and interfered with the biblically established divine order of life itself.

God made human beings in His image, declaring them “male and female” with distinctive biological and spiritual roles. Without a hint of God’s will or purpose mentioned in the ruling, the court has rendered a debasing and unrighteous decision on sexual morality that will further erode America’s moral and spiritual culture.

This decision, like earlier Supreme Court decisions, invites divine judgment on a people who do not wish to keep God in their knowledge.

What does this mean going forward?

The Supreme Court’s ruling essentially rewrites the 1964 Civil Rights Act barring discrimination in employment on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, [and] national origin.” The court redefined “sex” to mean more than man or woman, male or female.

In the process the six-justice majority bypassed Congress as the nation’s constitutionally delegated lawmaking branch of government. It set a precedent of reinterpreting the clear meaning of a law written by an earlier generation.

The 1964 Civil Rights law was landmark legislation aimed at righting historic injustice. The meaning of the word “sex” in context referred only to whether a person is biologically male or female. Now, 56 years later, public views have changed and the court has reinterpreted this word with a never-intended meaning.

In a powerful dissent, Justice Samuel Alito condemned the ruling as “preposterous” and showing “breathtaking” arrogance. Alito warned that the decision will have wide-ranging destructive impacts on key freedoms Americans hold dear, and that “the entire Federal Judiciary will be mired for years in disputes about the reach of the Court’s reasoning.”

His dissent lays out seven different realms of American life that will be affected by this ruling. Those seven areas are:

• Bathrooms and changing rooms. The ramifications here are far-reaching and involve the safety of women and underage children, as this ruling means that biological men can now use women’s restrooms and other women-only facilities. It opens the door for tragic cases of abuse.

• Women’s sports. As Justice Alito notes, “The effect of the Court’s reasoning may be to force young women to compete against students who have a very significant biological advantage, including students who have the size and strength of a male but identify as female and students who are taking male hormones in order to transition from female to male.”

Alito also warned that this ruling may affect professional sports as well. Court challenges are already well underway on this point.

• Housing. Housing on college campuses that maintain separate dorms, rooms and bathrooms for men and women would be challenged.

• Religious employment. Again Justice Alito noted in the dissent: “Briefs filed by a wide range of religious groups—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—express deep concern that the position now adopted by the Court ‘will trigger open conflict with faith-based employment practices of numerous churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious institutions.’” In other words, those who hold to biblical definitions of male and female may be forced to hire or keep as employees individuals who deny and defy these biblical definitions.

• Health care. There are multiple issues here. Alito warns, “Transgender employees have brought suit . . . to challenge employer-provided health insurance plans that do not cover costly sex reassignment surgery.” So we would see the cost of health plans increase as employers, employees and taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for such surgeries that are understood by many to be morally wrong.

• Freedom of speech. Alito warns: “The Court’s decision may even affect the way employers address their employees and the way teachers and school officials address students.” As has already happened in a number of cases, people can and will be punished for speaking the truth about such madness.

• Constitutional claims. The issues here are wide-ranging and go beyond what we have space to discuss now. But the majority ruling has the abrupt effect of broad legislation that will impact many other areas of public life without the moderating and settling effect of debate, discussion and deliberate legislation over time. The real effect is that six unelected officials have determined that an entire nation of more than 330 million people must accept and pretend that an obvious lie is in fact true.

Those who are cheering the current decision strongly feel the court is merely catching up with where the rest of the country is. But frankly, the culture is moving so rapidly on these issues that it’s difficult to stay informed about what is happening and the meaning and ramifications for all of society.

America still has a strong traditional religious stream flowing through its culture. This decision, and the social fallout, will widen the cultural and political divide in America. Those who hold to a form of biblical morality will feel further alienated. We are watching a nation distance itself from God-ordained morality based not only on the revelation of Scripture but the scientific facts of biology established by God as Creator.

Four blasphemous Supreme Court decisions

In the last 60 years the U.S. Supreme Court has issued four landmark decisions impacting faith and God in the public realm. Each decision has violated godly principles, laws and the divine order of creation put in place by our Creator.

In the early 1960s the Supreme Court issued two rulings regarding prayer and Bible readings in public schools. In the first, the justices ruled that prayer had no place in public education. A year later, the court declared school-sponsored Bible reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer unconstitutional.

While the decisions didn’t rule for or against personal expressions of faith, they were part of a period of cultural change that continues to this day. The court ruled on a matter of great spiritual importance for a nation blessed with a unique place in the world—a place made possible by the God of heaven.

In biblical terms, this act “planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7, New Living Translation). By planting these evil seeds—officially removing God from education and public life—the court set the nation on a course of moral degradation that we are seeing the full results of today in violence, perversion, epidemics of sexually transmissible diseases, substance abuse and breakdown of families and law and order.

In 1973 the Supreme Court decided another significant landmark case, Roe v. Wade. This case labeled murder of the unborn a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution—even though the Constitution states that it is meant “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” which includes the unborn.

Since 1973 more than 60 million abortions have been legally performed in the United States alone. When a nation does not protect its unborn life, it deserves the judgment of the God who created and gives life (Numbers 35:33-34; Proverbs 24:11-12). That judgment is coming, and sooner than we might think!

The fourth of these rulings by the Supreme Court came in June 2015 with the legalization of same-sex marriage. In this ruling the court again made up a sweeping right that same-sex marriage is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Decisions that deny God and reality

Let’s be plain about this highly charged issue: The U.S. Supreme Court has stepped beyond its temporal earthly bounds into the spiritual realm in defying the God who created man, woman and marriage. The court decreed that the divine institution of marriage, defined in the Bible as a sacred union between a man and woman—the only biblical definition of marriage—is superseded by the human reasoning and judgment of five unelected officials. Human jurisprudence now sanctions as marriage relationships God never intended—in fact, ones He specifically forbids!

With these rulings America has crossed several major lines. We have gone from a ruling against prayer and Bible reading in public schools to sanctioning the killing of the unborn to ruling against the biblical definition of marriage. Now the court has denied the scientific and biological reality that “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27; compare Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6).

Within 60 years these decisions have taken us down a path of open public defiance of God in the most elemental aspects of human life and society. As Justice Alito warned in his dissent on the court’s legalizing of homosexual marriage:

“Today’s decision . . . will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy . . . [It] will be exploited by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent . . . Those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools . . . By imposing its own views on the entire country, the [court] majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional ideas.”

A time of judgment is coming

Justice Alito’s words have proven prophetic. Those who stand up for biblical values—as we do in Beyond Today magazine—have been repeatedly branded as bigots, haters, homophobes and worse. Many voices have been shut down. It will grow worse. At some point we too will be silenced (see Amos 8:11-12).

America gropes its way forward in a blind stupor. Each wave of moral change brings further spiritual blindness. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans about the corrupt and degenerate society of his day: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

This latest ruling represents another momentous step in the nation turning away from the knowledge of God. It shows confused and irrational thinking. For those who hold the Bible as the standard of truth and who believe that America is a nation “under God,” it raises serious questions for the future.

Now is a time for each of us to understand the serious times in which we live and to see with God’s eyes where America and the world at large are headed. We will reap what we sow. God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7). The righteous Judge of all the earth will act, and we will reap the whirlwind as never before.