There’s Nothing New Under the Sun

In early April, the Colorado House of Representatives passed a reprehensible bill, HB 25-1312, also known as the “Kelly Loving Act.” The bill not only violates parents’ constitutional rights but is a full-on attack against the natural law that God instituted—namely, that parents have the authority to train up children in the way they should go, in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Prov. 22:6 and Eph. 6:4).

Among other things, the bill would threaten parental rights to obtain or retain custody if they are accused of “deadnaming” or “misgendering” their children. It defines “misgender” as referring to someone using a different pronoun with the intent to disregard their gender identity. “Deadname,” according to the bill, means purposefully using someone’s birth name rather than their chosen name with the intent to disregard their gender identity.

Sometimes it looks like Satan never sleeps and is continually coming up with new ungodly schemes, but I want to encourage you that the Bible tells us there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9), and God even gives us a biblical precedent for how He handled this kind of hard-heartedness.

In Ruth 1:19-22, it’s recorded that Naomi returned to Bethlehem after she’d been living in Moab with her husband Elimelech and their two sons. Elimelech died, and her sons married, but then her sons died ten years later. When Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, Scripture tells us that:

^“all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.” (emphasis added)

I want you to see something here. Naomi decided she wanted to re-name herself Mara, something that no doubt seemed more in line with who she felt she was in that moment. Yet there is no evidence that anyone went along with her request. In fact, the writer of the Book of Ruth kept right on calling her Naomi in the very next verse! To call her Mara—which means bitter—would have been coming in agreement with her limited perspective concerning her circumstances and actually cursing her.

Naomi attributed to God the evil that had happened, not understanding that Satan is the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Because of that, she allowed bitterness to influence her thinking.

But God still had a wonderful plan to bless Naomi, and had people chosen to “affirm” her by going along with the decision she made in emotional distress, she would have missed out big time! In the end, God completely redeemed her circumstances and blessed her beyond measure (Ruth 4:14-15).

As you can see, this “deadnaming” thing isn’t anything new. It’s just another way for Satan to attack the identity of people and cause them to miss out on the good things God has for them. Psalm 84:11 says, “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”  In other words, God always has our best interests at heart, and following His standards prevents Satan from getting an inroad into our lives and the lives of our families.

At the time of the writing of this article, HB 25-1312 still needs to be approved by the Colorado Senate before it makes its way to the desk of our governor, who lives openly as a homosexual. But I believe that what Satan meant for evil, God will work for good!

Last year, Truth & Liberty released a powerful documentary called Hope for the Future. It talks about prophetic words that the Lord shared with me beginning in 2021 to encourage people about the direction our country is going in and that we’re in the beginning of the Third Great Awakening in America. One of the things the Lord told me is that “there will be battles. There will be losses. But we win!” So, I want to encourage you to keep standing for truth, even when it seems like we’re losing. God says, “Be encouraged!”

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