Mormonism caused me to begin my journey and research of all religions. If it had not been for fact that I first trusted Gods word as historically and empirically defendable, that there had to be a God, and that the God of the Hebrews was the most believable and suited to agree with what kind of God Creation itself would have to have, to have come into existence. Then I may have fallen for something else like Mormonism.
To explain, and since I am new to this forum, I will post part of my testimony, which tells of my joining the LDS church, being baptized LDS, and being a member for 3 years, before ever joining another Church:
'I have always had an interest in ancient civilizations (world history and also American Indian history). And, so I was reading a book on ancient world history while I rode the bus to work each day. This was at the same time that I was going through a rough relationship in my life. I had never read the Bible before, but one day I noticed the bible on my shelf, and thought “I need to know what God thinks of love and marriage”. So I started reading the Bible, and since I was reading the Bible and my ancient history book at the same time, I began to realize that everything in my Bible was actually historical. The Hebrews, Philistines, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Medes, Italy, Greece, kings, kingdoms, etc. etc.I began checking some of these people and places out with my History books, not only was the Bible becoming real to me - but what was becoming more real to me was ‘God’...
... around this time my good friend Sam, encouraged me to go to his church, and not knowing one from another, I thought this sounded like a good idea. The missionaries there started to give me lessons on their church, once or twice a week, and were intending to baptize me, and from reading the New Testament, this was something I wanted to do. I 'tried' to listen and believe what the Mormons were teaching, yet although the Latter Day Saints 'say' they follow the Bible, many things they say do 'not' agree with the bible. Even with the first missionary teachings which they gave me, some things sounded really odd. The Mormon Church teaches that 'all' other Christian denominations are wrong, corrupt and that only the Mormon Church had the 'restored' truth. I hadn’t read the Bible much by then, but I did know there was only 'one' God, certainly not ‘many’, maybe even millions of Gods as Mormons teach. Mormons teach that God was once a man, and that we also can become God just as God became a God (!). The Mormons also teach that American Indians are Jewish in origin, and that Indians can remove the loathsome and dirty darkness of their skin, and be made white and wholesome again 'if' they live godly lives. God lives on a planet named 'Kolob' and lives there with his many wives, one of whom is 'Mary' (of Joseph and Mary, Jesus mother). Joseph Smith kept his own polygamous affairs a secret while at the same time condemning others for practicing plural marriage. Mormons teach that all 'Mormons' were valiant warriors in a pre-existent heaven and fought a war against Satan and his angels, except for negro’s who sided with Satan and lost, therefore losing their right to hold the 'priesthood'. All humans are the 'literal' offspring of 'father' God and his many wives in a pre-existence place prior to this world. The reason given for why we do not remember our pre-existence is that we all passed through a ‘veil of forgetfulness’, now this was 'really' a stretch for me. The Mormons claim that this is what the early Christian Church really taught, so this drove me to start researching the early history of the Church of the mid-east and mediterranean. You will find no other church has 'ever' taught these things. No early or ancient Christianity ever mentioned anything even close to these outrageous teachings of Joseph Smith, and none of these ideas come from the Bible, they are all in effect anti-biblical. I really enjoyed the Mormon people, the missionaries, going to church, the morals and friendliness of the church, I 'really' liked them. I even quit drinking coffee (and I quit a lot of things also) as the church taught, I started reading the book of Mormon a lot. But It quickly became apparent that the book of Mormon was crammed full of verses and passages from the Bible that had been shuffled throughout. Page after page of biblical phrases and words from Peter, James, Paul, Matthew all stirred together in a King James vernacular that sounds even a little too pious even for a nineteenth century Quaker. It’s hard to believe that 'God' would translate ancient Indian writings into already outdated King James English. I started wondering why all the focus was on ‘Joseph Smith’ certainly he was not as important as Jesus, John, Peter, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Daniel, and Abraham. I even expressed my distraught with this unfair balance only to get blank stares and raised eyebrows, in fact that was the response I got to most of my questions. Listening to Warriors basketball on KNBR, I came across a radio station KFAX, what I heard was many people actually teaching from and about the bible. Soon, a man that I had heard teaching on the Christian radio station was coming to Calvary church in San Jose, a pastor Chuck Smith, so I went to hear him. I liked that they stuck to the Bible and taught from the bible and not just quoted the bible here and there, as do many churches and cults. And they did not use other books or supplements as Mormons do (The Jehovah Witness' use the ‘Watchtower’, Christian Scientists use Mary Bakers 'Keys to the scriptures’, etc.). I attended an evening bible study at Calvary and found many people who loved God and scripture, as well as another person who had been a Mormon. This person showed me places in Joseph Smiths ‘Civil war prophecy’ that were unfulfilled, and that the turmoil over the southern states and slavery was already published before Joseph wrote the ‘prophecy’.
I read my bible a lot, in fact I went to a second hand bookstore and bought a copy of all the major translations, a concordance a biblical dictionary, Greek and Hebrew study tools. I knew what the Mormon church was teaching wrong, there is only one God, just by definition the God I believe in created the whole universe, if you had 'two' gods then there would sure be some friction, where do they draw boundries, where does ones kingdom start and another begin? Does one god create with electrons and another god create with something other, like antimatter? This doesn't 'make sense in a world there creation and nature are so well organized. The God of scripture fills the entire universe, how could there be room for an other god? In fact the God of scripture declares over and over that He is the only God. He warns, even condemns the practice of making up and fashioning other gods. He ridicules and challenges the belief in other gods. Most all of the Old Testament is an admonishment to hold trust and accept no gods other than Him, because they are all false gods. Even if a nice young man in a clean white shirt with a tie tells you there are other gods and you may become one, you shall not follow them. I still went to LDS church on Sundays, I had made a lot of friends there, the Church was incredibly friendly, happy and well organized. I had even got a job working for a Mormon employer, a roofing company. Some of the other roofers were Mormons too, in fact the owner was the grandson of the son to be leader prophet of the LDS Church Howard W. Hunter.
I was separated from my wife at this time, in fact I think she had already moved to Arizona, so I lived in my shop at the end of the tracks near the roofing company, it was very peaceful at night, so I had plenty of time to read and pray after work, in fact I would stay up to early in the morning reading and praying. I had a big room and tables where I could lay out all my bibles and my concordances, I had a copy machine so I could xerox pages of the bible and highlight verses so I could compare scriptures with scripture.
I also was very interested in the LDS church, for this reason; How could such a group of such nice loving people be so led astray as to not see what was so clearly deceiving (Is clearly deceiving a oxymoron?). I wondered how was it that such good honest people could not be christian, and while at the same time I felt like a big sinner?
I wondered about the verse where Jesus said; "If they are not against me they are for me?
Because of these questions, and more questions about God and the Bible, I have continued to research and study these questions. I have spent literally thousands of hours over the past 20 years studying these topics. The topic is amazing because it involves everyone I meet, all the people around me, and it involves my closest and dearest relationships. There is not a person I know that does not have some thoughts or need of God, and a need to know Him more. I want to thank Mormonism for sparking my desire to research all religions and find out the 'why and what' of all of them, and to; find out if truth can give evidence of itself'
