Recently, I preached a series about the “queen of heaven,” with part one specifically addressing the ancient queen of heaven referred to in the book of Jeremiah. If you know anything about this ancient figure, you will know that she is neither a queen nor is she in heaven. In short, the queen of heaven is a false goddess and most likely refers to Ishtar, the goddess of war and love. What you will find throughout ancient history is that this false goddess appears in many different forms, under many different names, throughout many different regions, across many different time periods.
As you trace the worship of Ishtar regionally, what you will see is that she was the counterpart of Isis (the Egyptian goddess) and also became the model for Aphrodite (Grecian), Venus (Roman), Nina (Assyrian), Cybele (Phrygian and Roman) and Astarte (Phoenician).
The recognised forerunner to Ishtar was an ancient Sumerian false goddess of love, sensuality, fertility, procreation, and war known as Inanna. But Inanna was famously credited with possessing a unique power. She was believed to have had the ability to change a person’s gender. This is supposedly attested to by her High Priestess, Enheduanna, in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC. Enheduanna wrote many famous works of literature, which sought to elevate Inanna above all others, and she made specific reference to Inanna’s priests. Her clergy (called “gala”) were male, female, and transgender, with the men and women frequently cross-dressing to embody Inanna’s transformative powers. This is referenced in one of Enheduanna’s poems, where she claims Inanna had the power “to turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man.”
Gender transition also became an important part of the worship of the false goddess Cybele, whose priests were known as “galli.” In Rome, Cybele was given the Latin title “Magna Mater” or “Great Mother,” and she became an accepted part of the state religion in 204BC when she was made an official Roman goddess. On initiation to the cult the galli castrated themselves and afterwards dressed exclusively in women’s clothing. Prudentius (348-413 AD), who mentioned the galli in his “Crown of Martyrs,” referred to them as “a gender between the two.” Therefore, they occupy an ambiguous space in Roman notions of gender that many modern transgender and nonbinary people have identified with.
Other authors were not as diplomatic as Prudentius. For example, Firmicus Maternus, an author in the 4th century, was more direct when, in his works, “The Error of the Pagan Religions,” said: “What sort of monstrous and unnatural thing is all this? They say they are not men, and indeed they aren’t; they want to pass as women, but whatever the nature of their bodies is, it tells a different story. Ponder too what sort of divinity it is which finds it such a delight to sojourn in an impure body, which clings to unchaste members, which is appeased by the contamination of a polluted body. Blush for Her Highness, you poor wretches; God created you other than this. When the troop of you draws near the judgment seat of God, you will bring with you nothing that the God who created you can recognize. Reject this great and calamitous error, and abandon at last the inclinations of a heathen heart. Do not take your body which God created and condemn it by the wicked law of the devil. While time still permits, go to the rescue of your disastrous situation.”
Many people who advocate for the acceptance of gender fluidity will point to the historical practices associated with Cybele, Inanna, and others in order to prove it has been a socially acceptable movement for thousands of years. Yet our answer to this issue remains simple and predates all other arguments—God created two genders: male and female (Genesis 1:27).
All the modern-day speculation about numerous genders or gender fluidity is foreign to the Bible. What is not foreign to the Bible is the existence of demonic forces, many of whom are the powers behind idols and false gods. In Deuteronomy 32:16-17 we read: “They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear.”
The word “demons” is the Hebrew word “shedhim.” This word is used only one other time, in Psalm 106:37: “They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.”
There is evidence to suggest that “shedhim” is not even a native Hebrew word but is borrowed from ancient Mesopotamia (the same region Inanna originated), where people sought the security of protective spirits called “shedu.” So, the suggestion that the gender fluidity movement is able to rely on historical practices to support the acceptability and authenticity of its movement is built upon a faulty premise because they are drawing upon doctrines of demons.
You see, demons work to influence mankind to turn away from God and worship idols instead. When it came to Israel, the results are clearly summed up in Deuteronomy 32:18: “Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.”
Though the context of Deuteronomy 32 clearly deals with Israel, we are able to see parallels in the modern-day gender movement. Many have turned to the worship of false gods (demons) and have not only forsaken the God who created them but have willfully erased Him from their mind. Despite this, it is important for us to emphasise that all people may have a restored relationship with God through a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Let us pray that more will be saved.
