Christmas Eve at Palmyra, NY

I recently had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Mormonism! It reminded me how much my LDS upbringing fostered my love of history, and it was an absolute thrill to finally visit the place which so thoroughly captured my imagination as a child. I grew up hearing the stories about Joseph Smith and his family, their hardships with farming and with illnesses, and most importantly their adventures surrounding those mysterious golden plates. So when I moved from the West to attend graduate studies in Central Canada, I had hoped for an opportunity to pay a visit to the little village in up-state New York where a lot of these events took place. This year my wife and I decided to spend our Christmas in Rochester – merely a half-hour drive away from Palmyra, NY, which became part of our itinerary. This was a chance not to be missed!

There are a number of Mormon history sites in and around Palmyra that have been preserved or restored for tourists’ enjoyment. We visited two sites: the Smith farm (with the Sacred Grove nearby) and the Hill Cumorah. Visiting on Christmas Eve day, we enjoyed the sites mostly to ourselves. We were the only ones in our tour group at the Smith farm, which was led by a pleasant and friendly senior sister missionary. You can learn about the historic sites here: http://www.hillcumorah.org/smithlog.php.

The light snowy weather provided a beautiful backdrop for this picturesque early 19^th-century historic site. After the guided tour we were free to wander through the Sacred Grove on our own, the place where Joseph Smith claimed he was visited by God and told of his role as prophet of the restoration. Walking among the snow-covered trees, I was moved to reflect upon my own spiritual journey. This place would have elicited a much different response from me in my youth – I once played the guitar and sang “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” at an LDS church function. That song may have come to mind, accompanied by deeply-felt admiration for Smith. But in fact a very different song came to mind. It felt important to me to sing quietly to myself and to God “Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)” as I walked through that snowy grove. When once my tongue formed the words “Praise to the Man,” today they offer “the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Hebrews 13:15).

Those who know me know that a few years ago I left the LDS church, for reasons described here. But my outlook toward the church today is not one of bitterness or antagonism; rather, I desire a continued friendly relationship and respectful discussion. As a born again Christian, I share the sentiments expressed by the apostle Paul toward the religion of his upbringing (the Pharisees): “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:1-4)

What a blessing it was to visit this little site, not only to see the place which inspired my imagination as a child but to see how far God has carried me since then. Once basking in the polished exterior of my own life and of my church, now broken in surrender at the cross. Hallelujah! God truly works in mysterious ways.

As always, thank you for reading, and God bless you!

Smith Family Log Home - December 24, 2013

Mormonism: A Jesus-Centred Faith?

The LDS Church recently came out with a new ad campaign called the “Introduction to Mormons” series (link here: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-introduction-videos). Specifically, I'm looking at the video titled "What Mormons Believe." In the series, the people in front of the camera say things very similar to what I said when I was a believing Mormon speaking to non-believers. What interests me about this campaign is that it appears to be a campaign largely targeted at Christians. Some of the wording caused me to raise an eyebrow or two, especially the claim that for Mormons, “Jesus Christ is the centre of our faith.” Having been involved in both Mormonism and born again Christianity, I feel the need to highlight a few differences between what the LDS Church calls a Jesus-centred faith, and what we in the evangelical stream would call a Jesus-centred faith.

“We worship Christ”

I do not remember ever “worshipping” Jesus as an LDS person. I do not remember ever calling our services “worship” services (even though the church markets them as such to non-members) – we called them “sacrament meeting,” “priesthood meeting,” etc. I do not remember a tone of “worship” of Jesus. You will never hear a Mormon say “Praise God!” or “Hallelujah!” However, you will hear LDS hymns like “Praise to the Man” (referring to Joseph Smith). Sure, I have been to many LDS meetings where Jesus is referred to with gratitude and honour, but you will find a near equal measure of gratitude and honour for the church president, other leaders, and for Joseph Smith.

LDS friends and family, next time you’re in a testimony meeting you should try the following exercise. Make a chart kind of like the one below, and keep a tally of how many times someone expresses “worship,” gratitude, etc., for one of these things.

“I am so grateful for…”
Joseph Smith, for restoring the gospel	8
Latter-day prophets	7
The Book of Mormon	3
A particular church program (missionary work, welfare, young men’s, etc.)	4
A church standard (word of wisdom, food storage, etc.)	4
The pioneers	1
JESUS, for saving me from my sins and granting me eternal life by his grace and mercy!	?

The numbers on the side are just for example, but let me know what your results are! Then tell me whether you think that constitutes worshipping Jesus, because let me tell you – it is a completely different story in the evangelical churches I have attended. We cut out all that other stuff and focus completely on our Lord and our God, Jesus Christ. You may not care for contemporary style of evangelical worship services, but you must admit that the focus of our “worship” is completely different from what you find in a typical LDS church meeting.

“He is our Saviour”

Again, this statement begs for contrast with a Bible-believing born again congregation, because it means completely different things to each group.

For the LDS, every mortal person is “saved” by Jesus in that they will be resurrected to one of three kingdoms in the next life. But not everyone will live with God in the next life – in order to reach that degree of glory you must earn it through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the LDS church.

For the born again Christian, saying that Jesus is our saviour is a completely different thing. When I say that Jesus “saved” me, I mean that he paid it all so that I can live eternally with him in the next life. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). He didn’t just save me a little bit so that I could try really hard to do the rest – he saved me all the way. Jesus paid it all.

Closing thoughts

LDS friends, I hope you get the chance to see what a Jesus-centred faith looks like to us Christians. We use many of the same words, but with very different meanings attached. Remember, it’s not the name on the building that matters, nor the whiteness of your button-up shirts, but whether or not you have been born again by the grace of Jesus. God bless you!

A Journey to Jesus (Part One)

It’s not easy to put a “testimony” to writing. But it’s a story that I believe is meant to be shared, because it is the story of what God has done in my life. The biggest challenge is providing sufficient details without making it too long to read! I had to divide it into two parts. 

At about 10 a.m. on July 1, 2012, I became a born again Christian. Here is a brief summary of what led to that event. 

I was raised a Mormon (member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and took my religion very seriously. It was at some point in my youth that I first heard of those “evangelicals” or “born again Christians” who believed so differently from us. For example, they believed that they were “saved by grace”; we believed that was just an excuse to live immorally, and we affirmed that “works” were necessary to earn a place with God in the next life.

In 2007, I attended an evangelical-type church service for the first time – with my then-girlfriend, now-wife. The deal was that she would come to my LDS church one week, and I would go to her church the next week. I had hoped she would convert to Mormonism. But it was around this time that my crisis of faith began…

I never had any reason to question my faith; I believed in it strongly. But three instances in 2007 led me to doubt for the first time:

1) My family happened upon a radio interview in the car one day in which a man claimed to have left the church due to concerns he had with the LDS temple endowment (I will NOT describe it here, but it is a sacred ceremony in Mormonism). I had no idea what he was talking about, not having been through the temple myself. But it made me wonder.

2) An interaction with a born again Christian man at my then-girlfriend’s church. Most of the people at this church were very welcoming and friendly even if they knew I was a Mormon; one man, however, when he found out I was a Mormon, accused Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism) of being a false prophet and a freemason. He said “You can’t be a Mormon and a Christian.” I should stress that his approach was the exception and not the rule in my early interactions with evangelicals. But it left a lasting impression upon me – it was upsetting, and I had nothing but contempt for the man at the time. His mention of freemasonry puzzled me, so I looked it up online to see what on earth he was talking about. There is a lot of sensationalism and misinformation about freemasonry, but from what I could tell from the more reliable accounts, it did not seem consistent with my faith. I wondered if Joseph Smith had been involved with that kind of thing… I hoped not.

3) In November I picked up a copy of the October 2007 issue of the Ensign, an LDS magazine. The theme of the issue was the temple. I read an article by Boyd K. Packer called “Come to the Temple” which included a quote from Brigham Young in it in which he described the purpose of the endowment as receiving “key words, signs, and tokens” which would enable a person to get back to God’s presence after they died (article can be read here: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/10/come-to-the-temple?lang=eng). I had never heard this before, and I suddenly realized how little I knew about my own religion.

I struggled for a long time, but I eventually decided to see what those “anti-Mormon” evangelicals had to say about Mormonism. I didn’t like what I read. It was here that I found a solid link between freemasonry and Mormonism, and none of it seemed to have anything to do with Jesus. My faith was shaken.

In January 2008, I moved away from home to start university. I continued to attend the LDS church for a short time, but inside I was struggling with my faith. I soon encountered a book called “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, an atheist who argued that God likely did not exist, and that the Bible was written by primitive men. It made sense to me, and provided much-needed certainty in a time of turmoil and change. I soon became an atheist. In summer 2008, I asked to have my name removed from the LDS church.

Life went on. I continued at university and I became a husband and father. Life was good; I had no need for God or religion.

I was content, but God wasn't; he reached into my life in ways that I couldn't have imagined. In my next blog post I will recount my conversion to Christianity. Thank you for reading!