July 21, 2025 Show with Laura Perry Smalts on “Transgender to Transformed: A Story of Transition That Will Truly Set You Free”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.

It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 21st day of July 2025.

Before I introduce to you my guest today and our topic, I want to announce the time and the venue through which you can view John MacArthur's live-streamed funeral. Phil Johnson told me when the funeral was going to be held, but he said he was under strict orders from Grace To You and Grace Community Church that we were not to divulge this information to the public until today.

I'm not sure why, and Phil wasn't sure why they were making him wait. But I have the permission now to let you know, because I've been getting people from all over the world asking me this, even as far away as South Africa and Australia.

But on Saturday, August 23rd at 10 .30 a .m. Pacific Time, 12 .30 p .m. Central Time, 1 .30 p .m. Eastern Time, you can view the live-streaming of John MacArthur's funeral at gracechurch .org. That's gracechurch .org.

So I'm delighted to finally have the permission to pass that information on to you, and we are going to be having a memorial program in tribute to John MacArthur on this program, Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, on Friday, the 1st of August, featuring Phil Johnson, the executive director of John MacArthur's media ministry, Grace To You.

And also joining me will be someone who worked with and for John MacArthur, a very good friend of mine, Dr. Doug McMasters, who is currently the pastor of New Hyde Park Baptist Church in New Hyde Park, Long Island, New York.

He at one time was the director of pastoral correspondence for Grace To You. He will be joining Phil Johnson and I, or and me, I should say, for that memorial program in tribute of John MacArthur. That's Friday, August 1st, as always, 4 to 6 p .m. Eastern Time here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Laura Perry Smaltz’s Testimony and Ministry

But today is only the second time I have ever interviewed someone who has lived through and repented of transgenderism. And some of you may recall that, and I can't even believe it's been over a year ago, but on July 1st of last year, I had a program with William Allen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

And the theme of that program was From Transgender to Transformed by Christ. And William Allen gave his personal testimony on how Jesus Christ rescued him from and cleansed him of this past life of his as a transgender person, so-called.

And through William Allen's recommendation, I discovered my guest today, Laura Perry Smaltz. She lived for nearly a decade as a transgender man named Jake before realizing the deception of the transgender lifestyle and leaving it all behind, embracing her true identity as a woman.

She shares her story at churches and conferences, in articles, and on various programs like Iron Sharpens Iron Radio to help others find the same freedom she has. And Laura is on staff with First Stone Ministries in Oklahoma City and has been featured in the AFA documentary, that's the American Family Association documentary, in his image.

And she also operates a website that you should definitely take advantage of, which also features a podcast. Edenredemption .org, Eden's with an S at the end, Redemption .org, Eden'sredemption .org. And we're going to be discussing her book as well, Transgender to Transformed, a story of transition that will truly set you free.

My honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Laura Perry Smaltz.

Hi, thank you so much for having me on. Pleasure to be here.

Oh, it's my pleasure, Laura. And I praise God that you have such a eager willingness to tell such a personal and private story. This is the kind of story that not many people would want to be very public about.

And yet you, for the sake of rescuing lives and, by God's grace, rescuing souls, you are eager to tell your story to anyone who will listen. And I'm going to give our email address right away for anybody who cares to join us on the air.

It's chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least. City and state and country of residence. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

And Laura, if you could start our discussion today by telling us something about your website edensredemption .org, and tell our listeners what is of value for them waiting for them there on that website.

Sure.

And one quick note, I'm actually a former employee at First Stone Ministries. We started this ministry, my husband and I started a new ministry since praying that book. So our ministry is actually called Eden's Redemption.

It's a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization. If anyone would like to support us or check us out, our goal and our focus really is to help train the church how to love, how to reach the LGBT, and how to disciple them, how to minister to them, but then, of course, also reach the LGBT that are struggling.

We also help a lot of parents. And so the website is, I have ideas for so much more content that God has on my heart that I've not had a chance to develop yet, but we're going to be making some Q &A videos, getting back to our podcast.

I've got a lot of articles. So we're really excited about what God is doing in this ministry. And just a quick note on why we call it Eden's Redemption. Actually, months of labor and prayer with the Lord and really seeking the Lord for the vision of this ministry.

And initially, we were going to call it created freedom because we wanted to share with people the glory and the beauty of what God created, that His design of human beings and of male and female is not a bad thing.

We're under the curse of sin, and so sometimes it seems like a flawed design because it's so hard. Relationships are hard. People are hard. We sin against one another, and sometimes that design becomes so broken.

But God's design was absolute perfection and beauty. But we're under the curse of sin, and because of sin, we have distorted ideas of what it means to be male or female. But then we also put it on our hearts to talk about not only the creation of what He intended, but the redemption and the glory of what He brings when He transforms lives, and ultimately the hope one day, the promise that we will be made new, that we will have new bodies for all eternity, and we will never be under the curse of sin again.

And so that's really the story and the heart behind the name in our ministry.

Just out of curiosity, since you are featured in a documentary that was produced by the American Family Association, have you met or become familiar with M .D. Perkins?

I have, yes. He was on the filming team, so we got to know him a little bit.

Yeah, because I've had him on the program several times, and what a wonderful brother in Christ he is. In fact, if anybody listening wants to look up his interviews, just type in Perkins, P-E-R-K-I-N-S, and you will find several interviews I've conducted with M .D. Perkins.

And he also has written a book, Dangerous Affirmation, the Threat of Gay Christianity, and will be on, I believe, two of those interviews focused on that book. But if you could begin your story now, going all the way back to your earliest memories, including the kind of spiritual or religious atmosphere, if any, in which you were raised, and your earliest memories of thinking that there was something not quite right with you being viewed by your parents and everybody else as a little girl.

And I do know that not everybody who has been through what you have been through as a so-called transgender person, we know that nobody could really change their gender, but not everybody has the same story.

I was surprised by William Allen's story, the first person who was a so-called transgendered individual that I interviewed. And he knew that he was not a woman. He knew that he was not a little girl when he was a young person.

He just wanted to be one. And on top of that, he was never attracted sexually to men. He told me he was never even effeminate in the way he behaved. He was involved in employment and activities that are most often associated with men, and very comfortable in those roles.

So he has a different experience than many, I'm sure. But tell us about your story.

Childhood Rejection, Bitterness, and Gender Confusion

Yeah. I grew up in a Christian home, and we were one of those families that were there every time the door was open, involved in lots of little programs. And my mom was the piano player, my dad was a deacon, and they were involved on committees and teaching Sunday school and a lot of other things as well.

Was this an evangelical home?

Yes, it was a Baptist church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, kind of northeast Oklahoma. And for the most part, everything looked really normal. And now that I have an adult perspective, I look back and I realize how good I really had it.

But children often don't know that everybody else has brokenness too. We don't have the perspective that adults do. And a lot of times we think that we're the only ones that have broken lives. So I had a very good childhood for the most part, and I was in a very loving home.

But there were still a lot of problems. I think just because we're all under the curse of sin, we are all sinners raising other sinners. And so now looking back, I have so much grace for my mom. I have cried so many times and repented to her and called her and said, I'm so sorry for everything I've ever thought or said.

Being an adult and being a parent is so much harder than I ever realized. So I've changed my perspective a lot. But from a child's perspective, my mom and I had a lot of problems. I think there were various reasons for that.

One, she had miscarried two boys between my brother and I. So when I was born, I think she was still under a lot of grief from those two babies that she had lost. In fact, the second one was very traumatic.

She had a near-death experience and she just about died. So she was very, very close to my brother as a little child. And I would often hear her talking to other people about how wonderful my brother was, he was a golden child.

He never did anything wrong. He was a perfect child. He never cried. I just would go on and on and on. And then I would hear her talk about me and I was like, Laura is so annoying. She's such a handful.

You know, and all of that was true. And in fact, this was funny. My husband has a nap for asking or maybe a gift for asking people tough questions. And all my life, I grieved and grieved and grieved and grieved over the fact that my mom called me annoying.

And I was called annoying a lot. My brother, sister, the people. And, you know, he asked me one day, he said, well, were you annoying? And the truth was I pestered people and I was always trying to get attention.

I talked way too much. I would butt in, you know, and I would just pester the daylight out of my brother and sister. And so, you know, I just never faced the fact that even though I had been sinned against in some ways, that I had responded in sin.

I had so much sin in my own heart. And instead of recognizing my mom was under an enormous amount of stress, she was trying so hard to be the perfect mom, the perfect wife, the perfect Christian. And when she was taking on too much, not only three kids, but a job and all the duties of the house.

And she was under so much stress. She started having severe health problems. And if I picture my mom from childhood, all I see is the stress on her face. And so a lot of times her interactions with me were like, go away, get off of me, leave me alone, which now I kind of understand.

But as a child, I felt so rejected by my mom. And my dad was very opposite. He was very, very affectionate and loving. And he spent an enormous amount of time with me, which I didn't realize how much sacrifice that took.

My dad would sit down and play games with me every night. And my mom never would because she had to do laundry and cooking and cleaning and all these other things. But I just began to interpret. It's just amazing how the enemy twists those things.

I began to believe as a little child, this lie that my mom didn't love me. And it wasn't true. But I was interpreting these circumstances. I felt so much rejection from my mom. And I had a sister that was very involved in her music.

She was a professional horn player. In fact, she became one of the best in the world. She really was extremely talented. And but she never had time for me and never wanted to play with me. And so I just there was this division in my house.

OK, girls don't like me. Girls don't accept me. I'm not one of them. So from like five years old, I'm beginning to feel like I shouldn't have been a girl. I fit in more with the boys. But then as I went to school, you know, I I was uncomfortable around girls.

I didn't trust girls. I didn't know how to interact with them. And so I would just go play with the boys. And I was athletic and I fit in with them well because they were always just playing sports. So that worked well when I was a child.

But I begin to believe this lie that I was rejected by the girls. And all my life I've said that I was rejected by girls growing up. And I look back. I think the truth is that I was the one who was uncomfortable around them.

I remember them trying to include me, but I just never felt like I was one of them. And so I think I just begin to believe early on that I was rejected, that I didn't fit in. And I had a lot of bitterness and anger toward my mom.

And this is one thing the Lord showed me about the how huge of a problem bitterness and like emotional walls are. There's a verse in Proverbs, I think it's 17, 19, that says he who builds a high gate invites destruction.

And I remember building these emotional walls toward my mom and the Lord reminded me of these ancient cities that had these huge impenetrable walls. And if an enemy was coming against them, all they had to do was lock the people inside and the people were safe.

But if the enemy wanted to take the city bad enough, all they had to do was wait outside for the people to starve. You know, and this happened to Judah, for example, and they were under siege for so long that they were eating their own children.

And that's what happens sometimes when we build emotional walls and we think we're protecting ourselves, but we're actually starving ourselves in the love that we need. So then when my mom was making efforts to love me, I just wouldn't receive it.

And I just, it began to reinforce this lie. And there were little things that would happen that would reinforce this lie, like layers, any interaction that didn't go well. Um, I remember, uh, one time in particular, I was getting out of the, um, uh, I was getting out of our minivan and it was before they had the button that would like make it close slowly and safely.

So my brother reached around behind him and slammed it. Well, he didn't realize it was right there and it hit me on the neck and I was screaming and terrified. I died and picturing myself about getting decapitated.

I'm not a little child and I'm screaming to my mom and she didn't even listen to me and grabbed my hand and said, come on, we're late for church. And it was like one of those moments where I just went, it's true.

My mom really doesn't care about me. And, uh, she just like my brother can never do anything wrong. And so those deep seeds of bitterness and anger grew throughout my life. And no matter what my mom was doing, all I could see was that she didn't love me.

And I began to build a deep bitterness towards God for making me a girl. I felt like it wasn't fair. I didn't like myself. I didn't feel like I fit in. And I struggled for most of my childhood feeling like I never fit in.

And I would write stories about being a boy. I was always a writer and I would sometimes on paper, I wrote a lot of it down, but also just in my head at night, I would rehearse this over and over and over until I almost became this character that I'd created for myself, this boy character that had all these amazing adventures.

And I would just live in this character vicariously. And so I think there was this internal war and this internal conflict in me growing up that shaded being a girl.

And became bitter at God for making me a girl. And we are going to pick up on your fascinating story when we come back from our first commercial break. Once again, if anybody has a question that you'd like to submit to Laura Perry Smoltz, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

Chrisarnsen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away.

We're going to be right back.

James White here of Alpha Omega Ministries announcing that this September, I'm heading out to Pennsylvania to speak at two events that my longtime friend Chris Arnzen has lined up for me. On Thursday, September 18th at 11 a .m., I'm speaking to men in ministry leadership at Chris's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville.

Then on Sunday, September 21st at 1 .30 p .m., I'm speaking at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle on the theme, Can We Trust the Bible is the Authentic and Inerrant Word of God? I hope you can join Chris and me for both events.

For more details on the Free Pastors Luncheon, visit ironsharpensironradio .com. That's ironsharpensironradio .com. For more details on Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, visit trbccarlisle .org.

That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, I'll see you in September in Pennsylvania for these exciting events.

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This program is sponsored by Hope PR Ministry. Hope PR Ministry is a podcast produced by Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. We are dedicated to sharing reformed biblical content every Wednesday and Friday.

Same-Sex Attraction, Sexual Sin, and the Search for Identity

Tune in for sermons, lectures, and interviews exploring distinctive reformed doctrines. If you are looking for Christ-centered content, simply search Hope PR Ministry on your favorite podcast platform to begin listening today.

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I'm Simon O'Mahony, pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally from Cork, Ireland, the Lord in his sovereign providence has called me to shepherd this new and growing congregation here in Cumberland County.

At TRBC, we joyfully uphold the Second London Baptist Confession. We embrace congregational church government and we are committed to preaching the full counsel of God's word for the edification of believers, the salvation of the lost, and the glory of our triune God.

We are also devoted to living out the one another commands of scripture, loving, encouraging, and serving each other as the body of Christ. In our worship, we sing psalms and the great hymns of the faith and we gather around the Lord's table every Sunday.

We would love for you to visit and worship with us. You can find our details at trbccarlisle .org. That's trbccarlisle .org. God willing, we'll see you soon.

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That's royaldiadem .com, mention Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Laura Perry Smoltz, the author of Transgender to Transformed, a story of transition that will truly set you free. And we have been in the middle of Laura's childhood memories of not feeling comfortable around girls, feeling much more comfortable around boys, wishing that she was a boy, writing stories that depicted herself as a boy.

Just out of curiosity, just as I asked William Allen, did you ever experience same-sex.

Attraction to girls? You know, there were times in my life where I had sexual experiences with girls. There was a part of me that I always wanted to be a man that had a girlfriend and ultimately a wife, but I really wasn't attracted to girls.

I was naturally much more attracted to men, but I just didn't like the idea of being in a gay relationship. I just saw myself as a man, and I think I was honestly just very, very jealous of my brother.

So it was like, if I could reverse the roles, then I would be the man, and then I would find a woman, even though I really didn't have attraction to women. And I used to say, actually, when I lived as trans, that I cared a whole lot more about who I was than who I did, not as a person, but just as whether they were male or female.

I wanted to be seen as a man, and that was a lot more important to me. Now, when you say you.

Were jealous of your brother just because of his being biologically male, or were there other specific reasons you were jealous of him? That was part of it. A lot of it was the way my mom always.

Talked about him, that he was like the perfect child, you know, those kind of things. But also, he was very athletic. We were both athletic, but he was even more so than me. But he was also older. He was six years older, so he had a much more mature and stronger body.

But also, because he was really popular, and it was weird because he was actually very introverted, but the girls always liked him. And I was hurt a lot when I was, oh, I don't know what age is, he was six years older, so when he was in high school, whatever age I was.

But girls would befriend me, and I would think, wow, these girls like me. And then I would realize, oh, it's because they're trying to date my brother. And they thought, you know, if they would be really nice to me, then I would put in a good word.

And this happened a lot. And so that was just another layer of me not trusting girls, but also because he was able, he just had, girls were just attracted to him, and they just wanted to be with him and wanted to be around him.

And he fit in well with the guys, you know. And so I think that was a lot of the reason I was jealous.

Now, what were the influences, the external influences, that may have been encouraging you in your mind to believe that this was a completely acceptable way to think? The leftist agenda has saturated everything that we see in television, movies, literature, music, art, even religion, and even denominations and congregations that profess to be Christian.

Are all the way from being either soft or silent against the sin of anything within the LGBTQ acronym, or full-fledged, loud and vocal and excited to promote these things, that would be certainly from the leftist apostate end of the spectrum.

But what were the influences on you? I know that you must have had some kind of knowledge, being raised in an evangelical home and a Baptist home, that this was wicked things to think about or to pursue.

But was there anything counteracting that that was giving you more support in the sinful way you were thinking?

The Pull of Same-Sex Desire and a Reprobate Mind

It's weird, because I grew up in the late 80s, early 90s. I was born in 1982. This was really not in culture anywhere. I mean, it was very much in the shadows. There's been this transgender and LGBT culture since the ancient days.

I mean, you can find this in ancient pagan lifestyles and ceremonies. But in modern culture, I had never even heard the word transgender. I really didn't know anybody that was gay. I really didn't know much of that culture, except I'd had a few encounters with girls.

I was molested at eight years old by a boy. But that opened up a door of sexual curiosity. And so I had a few encounters with girls here and there. But I don't know that at the time that I really even recognized that it was any more sinful than doing sexual things with boys.

I had a guilty conscience, and I didn't know why. But I don't really ever remember being taught about sex at that age. It was just a guilt that I had within. But I really had no concept of living as the opposite sex other than when I was in middle school to high school age.

I remember seeing Rory Povich had a show where these guys were coming out in drag, and you had to guess which ones were actually women and which ones were men dressed as women. And I remember being amazed that you couldn't tell.

But other than that, I really had not even heard the word transgender. So it's a very different culture. In fact, that was actually strange. I remember when I embraced this lifestyle when I was 25 years old in 2007, I'd never heard the word transgender.

I looked it up on Google and just like girl becoming a boy just to see like, has anyone ever thought this? I thought it was like, I must be going crazy. This is like, who thinks like this? But then I was shocked when there were like thousands of results.

And at that time, it was such a taboo thing. It was so secretive. I didn't tell anybody at first other than my trans support group. And it wasn't until like 2015, really, when it started to become very mainstream culture.

And a lot of that started, I think, with Bruce Jenner coming out. I remember feeling like there was a shift in culture, like just this wave of girls transitioning.

After that. And believe it or not, I know I'm much older than you. In fact, I think I'm 20 years older than you from what you said. You said 82, you were born, right? Yeah, I was born in 62. But believe it or not, even I remember a television show that was, you know, for the time, a very mainstream show.

There was nothing that I can recall, very scandalous. I don't think my parents or my mother especially would have let me watch anything that was scandalous. And it was called Medical Center. And believe it or not, the lead character, Dr. Joe Gannon, performed by Chad Everett.

And he had a friend either from high school or college that was portrayed by Robert Reed, who played Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch. And Dr. Gannon was very distressed and upset because his friend from school had revealed to him that he wanted to get a sex change operation.

But keep in mind that this show went off the air in 1976 when I was only 14. And at first, Dr. Gannon was trying to talk him out of it, I believe, as much as my memory can recall. And the character played by Robert Reed had a son who was just totally upset by it.

And then the character played by Robert Reed goes through with the full-blown surgery and everything. And Dr. Gannon comes to accept it. And he said to the son, who was very angry, the son of Robert Reed's character, who, this is long before they use the term transgender, he said to him, and I'm just going by memory now, he said to the young boy, Dr. Joe Gannon said, your dad's a woman now, a very real and a very beautiful woman.

Now, if you could just imagine Robert Reed, the actor, in drag, that was a very ridiculous statement for Dr. Gannon to make. But so the left was even infiltrating TV then because they were trying to make this appear like it's just an acceptable thing.

We shouldn't shun this. We were supporting this kind of mindset. And I don't even know how public you were going with it at first, but did you seek a sabbed conscience by visiting any left-wing churches or watching left-wing.

Religious programming, etc.? No, and a lot of that was because I had just totally rejected God. So to back up just briefly, by the time I was, when I was 14, I was diagnosed with a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome.

So I had cysts all over my ovaries. They were telling me that I was likely never going to get pregnant. I was in excruciating pain every single day. Absolutely unbearable to the point, like I would fall out of my chair, writhing on the floor.

I was in incredible pain every single day because of my ovaries. And I began to hate my female system. I began to be so angry with God for making me a girl. I didn't want to be a girl. I didn't feel like I fit in with the girls.

I didn't like being a girl, you know, and just so many things. But then to have that kind of pain and then telling me that I was likely never going to get pregnant anyway. And not that I really wanted to be, you know, a girl at that time, but I still wanted to have kids and I still didn't have any concept of living as the opposite sex at that time.