Ex-transgender testimony: the power of deepest sin, terminal disease and wasting corruption is no match for Christ’s power of resurrection
David Arthur’s radical re-assignment and de-transition – from a dying transgender given up as hopeless by the medical profession, to a man of God, redeemed by Christ’s blood, healed and risen from the death-bed of sin and corruption by the power of God’s effectual operation
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, David Arthur grew up fatherless because his father committed suicide shortly before David was born. He thus grew up constantly longing for and seeking after male affirmation and male intimacy which ultimately led him to a homosexual lifestyle. Now in 2020, as a man redeemed by Christ, he says that “there is no such thing as a same-sex attraction. It is a misidentified natural God-given desire for intimacy.” It is, in fact, a part of God’s design for humanity that we deeply desire intimacy with one another, and where proper and natural nurturing relationships are lacking, the void is often filled with ones that are improper, unnatural and harmful. It is therefore not surprising to find that a large proportion of homosexual individuals come out of a background of dysfunctional family relationships. Two factors in particular seem to have a great influence in propelling a person towards a homosexual lifestyle:
1) a lack of a strong nurturing same-sex parent figure (i.e., gay men often do not have a father, or they do not have a good and healthy relationship with the father they have, and conversely lesbian women often lack a nurturing mother figure); and
2) sexual molestation at a young age.
In David’s case, both of these played a role in shaping his lifestyle choices, for other than coming into this world fatherless, he was also sexually molested when he was only 5 years of age. From then on, things progressed to a point where he mistook sexual molestation for love and affection. And in his continual longing for male affirmation he became an easy prey for male homosexual predators. And thus, when he was about 8 years of age, he was regularly cutting school and hanging out in public bathrooms waiting for some man to come along to satisfy his misdirected longings, and, some always did come along. At that time he also started adopting female mannerisms because he noted that females were getting all the male attention that he wanted, and moreover, he further found out that the more feminine he acted the more attention he received. And gradually he convinced himself that he was a girl trapped in a man’s body.
By 14 years of age, and as a runaway from home, David was hanging out with prostitutes, pimps, and was trading his body for alcohol, drugs and female hormones, or simply a place to sleep. And in consequence of digging even deeper into the homosexual lifestyle, he contracted HIV.
David was first challenged with a genuine Christian message in a prison facility by a correction officer named Bishop who encouraged him to abandon his destructive lifestyle. At this point in time David already had a 20 year-long history of living as a transgender woman. Bishop told him – “David, do you know that God did not create you to be this way?” Contrary then to the dogmas of contemporary pseudoscientific medical trends, Bishop did not engage in “affirmative care” – i.e., affirming a person’s gender identity when the same is contrary to their biological sex. And although at that time David found Bishop’s challenging words very offensive, and was angry and his feelings were hurt, yet now, looking in hindsight he says that they were the truest, purest form of love that anybody had ever showed him in his entire life. For unlike other men that David was interacting with on a regular basis, the correctional officer had genuine concern for him, and neither wanted to use him nor abuse him. He was a type of a father that David never had, and he planted a seed of God’s Word in David’s heart, and from then on, they established a genuine friendship and David sought him out on prison grounds for the sake of his pure company, and the natural healthy male relationship that he was able to have with him.
As soon however as he was released from prison, he went straight back to his old destructive way of life – in his own words – as a dog who returns to his own vomit. His sinful lifestyle hit him with a vengeance in 2008 when he developed full-blown osteoporosis in consequence of his long term chronic usage of female hormones. He could no longer stand up straight and couldn’t walk without a cane. And as his condition continue to worsen, he became so hunchbacked that he had to use a walker just to get around. And even though he suffered from excruciating pain, yet not even all of these afflictions combined could stop him from pursing the illicit sexual lusts of the fallen human flesh. God literally used deathly affliction as a means to bring David to repentance and saving faith. And so in 2009 David was struck down with full-blown AIDS as – he says – a just recompense for all his sinful choices. The doctors told him there was no hope and that he had about 3 months to live, and they further advised his mother to make arrangement for his presumably inevitably soon departure. However, contrary to medical prognosis, hope did find David, as at this point he picked up the Word of God because he was afraid of dying, knowing that he was on his way to hell, for that is what he deserved (as all those born of Adam and Eve, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God – Romans 3:23). And when David opened up the Word of God, It spoke to him and became alive – “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Now, the very first verse that David read when he opened up the Bible could only have been hand-picked by God Himself in order to convict just the kind of man David was: “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet” (Romans 1:27).
At this point David understood that he was not only living sinfully, but on top of that, he was also living unnaturally, in direct opposition to God’s very intention of creating him as a man, and that hurt him to his heart. And as he continued to dig deeper into the Bible, he became more convicted and came to true repentance.
David never asked God to heal him but he asked that He would not allow him to go to hell, and that through his death somebody might come to know Him as Saviour so that He could be glorified. And the sovereign Lord Who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), did hear David’s prayer, and not only delivered his soul from the power of sin and moral corruption, but He also delivered his body from the deathly grip of end-stage AIDS, and the decaying effects of osteoporosis.
{A Psalm of David.} Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. – Psalm 103:1-5.
David Arthur could therefore well relate to David the Psalmist because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8), and He is therefore now as ever in the business of saving and healing sinners. And so you know now why, 11 years later in 2020, David is here to tell us his story. The old David indeed died in 2009 so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that he would no longer serve sin but Christ in the power of a new regenerated life (Romans 6:3-6).
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses – Colossians 2:10-13.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10.
The new David is therefore here to serve and glorify His Maker and Redeemer by striving to reach with the Gospel message and the hope of salvation many of those individuals who are still stuck in his former sinful, soul and body-destroying lifestyle.
Dear reader, do you know the power of Christ’s resurrection? (John 5:21; John 11:25; John 17:2; Romans 6:3-11; Romans 8:2; Colossians 2:12-13). If not, and if you are finding yourself today in a situation similar to that in which David found himself in 2009 (i.e., you are a hopeless sinner in need of a Saviour), know that is it not too late, as long as there is breath in you, to seek mercy and healing at the hand of the Great Physician.
They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. – Luke 5:31-32.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. – Matthew 11:28-30.