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I’m going to do something I should have done right from the start, I’m going to tell you a true story.

I was born and raised Mormon - six generations worth. I grew up in the belief that Jesus Christ was my older spirit brother, one of God’s children - just like me. I was raised with the understanding that God sent me to earth as a test so that I could earn my way back to him and thereby “prove” my worthiness to become a wife of a god in eternity.

Years of trying and trying, left me tired, hopeless and lacking peace. As a young girl I remember feeling the love of Christ and knew that my Heavenly Father knew what was in my heart - my heart was wicked! No matter how hard I tried, I knew that I was evil and sinful.

Eventually I quit believing in the Mormon kind of man-god that constantly tests and judges you. I became agnostic. However there was this huge, gaping, empty hole in my being - it yawned dark and wide. My life without God was empty, self-involved, stressful, sordid and ugly. I crossed paths with a few Christians - they seemed like nice people, but I concluded they were as deluded as the Mormons. Eventually I decided I would end my life - I didn’t really believe in God, so what did it matter? No one seemed to really care about me anyway.

Committing suicide is hard. I had a plan, a time and a place, but when it came down to it, I was just scared and alone. Tears streamed down my face and I fell to my knees before the heavens in prayer to a God I didn’t even know. I decided I would try one thing I had never thought of trying. I went to a Christian Church. It didn’t really matter what denomination - it was a “Bible” Church.

Those good people actually took me in their arms and spoke of a God who loved me enough to die for me. I was resistant to their message, but interested enough to keep going back.

#1. God cannot abide sin. He cannot stand it, nor be in its presence.

#2. No matter how hard you try, you WILL sin - yep, even you, urroner.

#3. the constant struggle against sin that pits your own strength against your own weakness will only lead to death (or a life with no joy)

#4. God loves you and as proof, he died for you. Christ died on the cross - a living sacrifice for you - even while you were still sinful (remember sacrifices in the Old Testament? They were a shadow of Christ’s sacrifice)

#5. Do you believe he died for your sin? If you did, would it free you from your own preoccupation with your works at being perfect?

#6. If you believe Christ paid the penalty for your sins, would you love Him? Would you trust Him? Would you live your life in worship of a God that set you free?

The first step in understanding God, is acknowledging how much you offend God every single day. Read the Bible - don’t even go to a Church if your think a certain denomination is the answer. The answer is Christ. Find Him and He will guide you where He wants you to go. I promise.

The mormons need Joey Smith to let them into the mormon afterlife…

...and does sit in judgment on us according to Brigham Young and others who tells us he must “certify” us into glory”

Second President Brigham Young once remarked,
“I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, that this is the Gospel of salvation, and if you do not believe it you will be damned, every one of you”
(Journal of Discourses 4:298, March 29, 1857).

On October 9, 1859, Young said,
“From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are — I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent”
(Journal of Discourses 7:289).

“He (Joseph Smith) is the man through whom God has spoken... yet I would not like to call him a savior, though in a certain capacity he was a god to us, and is to the nations of the earth, and will continue to be.”
- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:321

“You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a god...”
- Herber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:88

“If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by him [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cannot get around him [Joseph Smith]”
- (as quoted in 1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, p. 142)

There is “no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth...no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God”
- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190

“I tell you, Joseph holds the keys, and none of us can get into the celestial kingdom without passing by him. We have not got rid of him, but he stands there as the sentinel, holding the keys of the kingdom of God; and there are many of them beside him. I tell you, if we get past those who have mingled with us, and know us best, and have a right to know us best, probably we can pass all other sentinels as far as it is necessary, or as far as we may desire. But I tell you, the pinch will be with those that have mingled with us, stood next to us, weighed our spirits, tried us, and proven us: there will be a pinch, in my view, to get past them. The others, perhaps, will say, If brother Joseph is satisfied with you, you may pass. If it is all right with him, it is all right with me. Then if Joseph shall say to a man, or if brother Brigham say to a man, I forgive you your sins, “Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them;” if you who have suffered and felt the weight of transgression—if you have generosity enough to forgive the sinner, I will forgive him: you cannot have more generosity than I have. I have given you power to forgive sins, and when the Lord gives a gift, he does not take it back again.”
- Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p.154-155

“It is because the Lord called Joseph Smith that salvation is again available to mortal men.... If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the restoration, there would be no salvation,”
- Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 396, 670

...to get by Joseph Smith...

“They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.
He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.
He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.
As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.
Who has made this so?
Have I?
Have this people?
Have the world?
No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.
If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.
If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.
Can you pass without his inspection?
No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.
In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.
They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?
They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?

“If I ever pass into heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of Prophet Joseph”
—Brigham Young
—JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 8, p. 224

colorcountry said:

#1. God cannot abide sin. He cannot stand it, nor be in its presence.

#2. No matter how hard you try, you WILL sin - yep, even you, urroner.

#3. the constant struggle against sin that pits your own strength against your own weakness will only lead to death (or a life with no joy)

#5. Do you believe he died for your sin? If you did, would it free you from your own preoccupation with your works at being perfect?

#6. If you believe Christ paid the penalty for your sins, would you love Him? Would you trust Him? Would you live your life in worship of a God that set you free?

Me, as an agnostic:
I have read the Bible and God didn’t inspire me to believe it was true. Why wouldn’t God inspire me, doesn’t He love me?

Concerning #1 - #3, why would God even create evil? Why would God make it impossible for me to live and sinless life and then punish me for not doing the impossible?

#4, how can I know that Jesus died on the cross for my sins? Other than the Bible, what writing from his time said he even died on a cross?

#5, I’m agnostic so I don’t even know if there is an afterlife? I don’t truly believe there is one, so why would I worry about what is going to happen to me after this life?

#6, I don’t even know if Christ died for my sins since I don’t know if Christ is what you say he is?

Why would the first step be to recognize that I have offended God if I don’t even know if there is a God or not? The Muslims have told me the same thing about offending God and just accepting Him. Why should I believe you over the Muslims. And then there are the Hindus who say that it really doesn’t matter in the long run because of reincarnation. Then there are the New Agers and several of the Far Eastern religions that say that it really doesn’t matter any way, once we are dead, our spirit goes back to be merged once again with the universe. Why should I believe you over them?