Rob Smith joins us one more time. Rob is a theologian who lectures in systematic theology and ethics at Sydney Missionary and Bible College in Australia. He also serves as honorary assistant minister at St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral in Sydney. He approaches the topic of transgender revolution as a biblical theologian, a historian of the movement and as a pastor whose own family has been touched by the realities and the tensions of gender dysphoria.

We close out the week talking about transgenderism, which is somewhat of a misleading term. I mean, biologically for a transition of a male to a female or of a female to a male, Rob, what cannot happen physically? I mean, what will simply not be able to happen to the body in a transition?

I'm thinking of a male to female transition, which would not bring with it monthly cycles or a womb or a biological clock. So what biological functions are simply not transferable between the genders? Yes, now here you're stretching my knowledge of current medical possibilities and even what's being attempted as we speak.

Obviously, I think one of the key words in what you just said is the word natural. It's certainly not possible to create a natural biological clock in a man or for a womb to naturally develop. However, there is, well, I believe there are attempts going on to work out how to transplant wombs.

In fact, I think even this year it happened in the case of a woman who couldn't conceive from one. I can't remember the details, but basically her mother's womb, the uterus was transplanted into the daughter so the daughter could carry the child. So there are those who are trying to work out how can we transplant a womb into a man.

And it's easy for us at this point to think how ridiculous that's impossible, but of course there are all kinds of things happening now that 10 years, 100 years ago we would have thought were ridiculous and impossible. So it's hard to know where this will or might stop. But as you say, there are all kinds of things that just cannot be true of someone who transitions.

And I guess at the base level, the level of their chromosomes, you can't. So I don't know if you ever will be able to change a person's chromosomes. So what we're really doing is simply creating an illusion. And it's one of the ways in which people in the transgender community talk.

Their goal is to, and the word they use is pass, that is pass off as the, to convincingly pass off as the other, which sadly reveals the fact that they know they're not actually the other. But it's a deception. It's an illusion. They're trying to look on the outside in such a way that they can convince others that they are what they seem.

And look, there are some convincing transitions in that way. A tragic story I read of recently of a man who was married to a trans woman and didn't know until, well, they wanted, he wanted at least to conceive a child. And when that wasn't happening, suggested, you know, sort of medical exploration at that point.

And, well, the wife revealed that she was a trans woman, not an actual woman and that destroyed the marriage. So he was obviously fooled for many years. So it is remarkable what can seem to be done. But, but as you say, there are all kinds of things that are not possible.

And even if they are made possible, it'll be highly questionable as to whether they're remotely responsible. So look, I'm really speculating as I guess anyone would at this point. But I suppose this one, one of the other thing to add here is this where Germaine Greer got into trouble in the UK when she was challenged that a trans woman was not a real woman and got held down, of course, by the particular university where she was meant to be speaking.

But she was right. A trans woman hasn't gone through all the experiences of a natural woman and in one sense, therefore can't speak to those and can't really say I've had, you know, I guess a properly female experience of life. Wow. A man wanting to pass as a woman, but getting offended at not being affirmed as an ontological woman.

I mean, that seems like terribly unresolvable tension. That's right. Massive tension. And it's running all through this. Transgender ideology is full of conflicts and contradictions, as is, I suppose, as we just revealed, this massive tension between feminist ideology and transgender ideology. One at the heart of some ways of feminism is the idea that only bodies are male or female.

There's no such thing as a male brain or a female brain. And therefore, you know, it's part of the wish of women to be able to do anything a man can do in that sense. Whereas in the transgender scene, you've got people saying, no, no, I have a male brain in a female body.

And well, is that really the case? So yeah, look, there are conflicts and contradictions and tensions and complexities running through all of this. And it fascinates me that the sort of there's a well, the whole LGBT IQ, a umbrella of of agendas is not as unified as you might think.

When you sort of put the microscope on them, you have all of these clashes and ideological tensions there. The one the one thing I think is worth adding on top of all the things we've discussed is that for any and every human being, whatever our particular set of life struggles, and because we all have some particular set of life struggles, we've been made by Jesus Christ for Jesus Christ, and we'll only truly know ourselves and be ourselves in Christ.

And so finding our identity in him is really the only place for any of us to begin. Now, this, of course, may be highlighted in a special way for those who are battling unwanted same sex attraction as it is for those battling unwanted gender dysphoria. But it's actually true of all of us.

Until we find our rest in Christ, we will be trying to invent ourselves in some way or another in a way that in the end, we'll learn the end in tears. Amen. That is true of all of us. We are all in this boat needy of Christ. None of us are freaks.

All of us are broken sinners. Thank you, Rob. And thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast this week with our special guest, Rob Smith from Sydney, Australia. As we have talked about, the transgender movement is something we need to know about and understand as Christians. For more details about this podcast, to catch up on past episodes from the week, or to subscribe to the audio feed, or even to send us a question of your own, go online to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Well Monday, Pastor John returns and we will discuss how over the years he handled little children in big church and what age children participate in our corporate gatherings on Sunday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see you on Monday. 1 Page 2 of 7 Page 3 of 8 Page 4 of 8 Page 5 of 8 Page 6 of 8 Page 7 of 8 Page 8 of 8