Posted on 08/24/2013 11:24:16 PM PDT by reaganaut
A Christian professor and evangelist said that after 30 years in the Mormon Church, she came to a unique realization – the Bible is more accurate than the Book of Mormon, and God is bigger than the transcendent man worshipped by the "Latter day Saints" (LDS).
"I began to feel like somebody was pulling back the curtain in Oz," Lynn K. Wilder, associate professor of special education at Florida Gulf Coast University, former tenured professor at Brigham Young University, and author of Unveiling Grace: The Story of How We Found Our Way Out of The Mormon Church, told The Christian Post in a Monday interview. She contrasted the Mormon and Christian churches, unmasking LDS secrets – polygamy, racism, and a fundamental distrust in the Word and Power of God.
When Wilder and her husband, Mike, searched for a church home following their marriage, they found most churches "boring and out of touch," she said. She had also been reading the Old Testament thoroughly and became convinced that "these must be latter days," since Israel had returned to its homeland.
Mormon missionaries knocked on her door, spoke about the "latter days," and welcomed the Wilders into a close-knit community. "They take you in, they love on you, they began to supplant my biological family," Wilder explained. Joining the church gave her and her husband a higher status in the college and church communities. In 1999, Brigham Young University offered her a job.
Upon moving to Utah, however, the professor recounted new discoveries – the Mormon scriptures still preach racism and polygamy, despite LDS public denials. "The Bible doesn't teach that the mark of Cain was dark skin," she explained, "but the Book of Mormon does." She noted that the mark of Cain is in other Mormon scriptures, too, besides the Book of Mormon.
It wasn't until her son Micah left the Mormon Church, however, that Wilder considered questioning their doctrines, she said. Refusing to present him to the high council for excommunication, she and her husband sent him away, and he encouraged them to read the New Testament.
"Mormons believe that the Bible is often mistranslated and corrupt," the former BYU professor testified. Their scripture tells of a "great apostasy" following the death of the apostles, such that there was no true church until Joseph Smith founded Mormonism in 1830.
But when Wilder read the New Testament, she was mesmerized. "I became consumed with this God of love, the God of grace," she said, noting that Mormons believe in works-based salvation. According to the LDS church, your deeds get you into heaven, she explained, while "in Christianity, Christ did all the work on the cross."
The LDS church also teaches that Jesus failed to hold His church together, the professor noted. She quoted Joseph Smith's History of the Church, where the Mormon founder wrote, "I have more to boast of than any man had. I am the only man who has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam….Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it."
Wilder said she believed that God is strong enough to keep His church together and to preserve the message in the Bible. In Mormonism, however, God is not omniscient or omnipotent, "he is a man, basically, who is continuing to progress and I can be on that same journey," she said.
The former BYU professor explained that, according to LDS doctrine, the best Mormons will proceed to become gods like the creator. Women can only achieve this if they are married, and only apostates – those who reject the LDS church – will go to hell with Satan and his minions. Even Hitler and murderers, by contrast, will reach the bottom level of heaven, she said.
The ex-Mormon recalled that, when she turned to Jesus, she began to see signs of the personal Biblical God (the Mormon God is not personal, she alleged) touching many aspects of her life. Her book tells the story of a picture of Christ that survived a burning building, and of a Billy Graham sermon lodged deep in her memory.
Wilder testified that a buyer showed up at her house the day after she and her husband had decided to withdraw from the Mormon Church, and a college dean offered her a job for which she had never applied. "Christianity is wonderful because of God," she said. "He's created for all of us a new family, a new life, and the most amazing trust in Him because of what we watched Him do."
In addition to teaching, she and her husband run a ministry dedicated to "helping Mormons understand a bigger God, trust the Bible, and give a different Jesus a chance." She said they aim to reach the thousands of Mormons who left the LDS church – often to revert into Atheism or Agnosticism.
Thanks, Reaganaut
They don’t read the New Testament but claim to be Christians.
If you believe the Bible then you know Mormonism is based on a lie. The Bible says when Jesus returns it will be from the east to the west and every knee shall bow. Joseph Smith said he ran across Jesus in the woods in New York. I understand they don’t claim that anymore.
Oh no, they still claim that, it is the basis of their whole faith that God and Jesus appeared in the flesh to Joseph Smith.
And they don’t really believe the bible. They claim they do but they also state that it is corrupt, full of errors and not translated correctly.
Can someone please email this to Glenn Beck?
“I have more to boast of than any man had. I am the only man who has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam….Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it.”
Wow. I did not know he said that. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
I was okay with the Mormon position that no man. May enter heaven without first passing Joseph Smith.
/s
A Christian professor and evangelist said that after 30 years in the Mormon Church,
Then my words to my wife are still good. When we met she was a part time Mormon who read the Bible. I pointed out to her that Christ said when He comes back everyone will know and everyone will kneel and bow. But according to Joseph Smith Jesus talked to him out in the woods and apparently asked Joseph not to tell anyone that he’d slipped in a little early but he was going to let Joseph handle it for him. Bottom line: The LDS church was started based on a lie.
Thanks for posting this.
It also surprised me that an intelligent woman with so many apparent apprehensions, questions and nagging doubts along the way wouldn’t even have been aware for 30 years there were other Bible versions in addition to the standard LDS-authorized King James Version but I suppose it comes down to the need to justify a conversion experience combined with the lack of a foundational knowledge of truth in Christianity with which to recognize falsehood....
“”The Bible doesn’t teach that the mark of Cain was dark skin,” she explained, “but the Book of Mormon does.” She noted that the mark of Cain is in other Mormon scriptures, too, besides the Book of Mormon. “
I’ve always heard some Christians say it was Noah’s son cursed with dark skin. I’ve never heard it was Cain. Anyone else know about this?
Beck knows. The folks over at Living Waters ministry have given him CDs on the matter. It seems he didn’t care.
meh...still I rather live among Mormon cultists than the perfect voter group.
I’m with you. If LDS teaches it’s the “mark of Cain” to have dark skin, that’s news to me. I know a little of Mormonism but not that.
What I heard growing up was that it’s the “curse of Ham’s son, Canaan”, who was cursed because of Ham’s sin in regard to his father Noah, to have dark skin. Not that it was true, but that quite a few people actually believed it.
Both - the Cain mark and the Ham curse causing dark skin - are ridiculous.
This website has videos of former Mormons.
http://sacredgrovesonline.org/video.htm
I especially enjoyed this couple:
>>Rocky & Helen Hulse, Part 1 | Part 2
Runtimes: 57 & 58 minutes || Published: 19 Apr 2010 || Mormon Journeys
Rocky grew up a faithful, believing Mormon; even so, he married Helen, a young woman who was not LDS. In the course of his struggle to bring her to faith in Mormonism, they both came to find true faith in Jesus Christ, and now dedicate their lives to helping others on their journey to freedom in Jesus.
“God is bigger than the transcendent man worshipped by the “Latter day Saints” (LDS).”
Who lives on a planet near star Kolob, and the Mormon Jesus is the brother of Lucifer. And the Book of Mormon has prophets named Lehi, Alma, Ether, and (my fave) “Mosiah”. And`Nephites’ were wiped out by Jewish Indians called `Lamanites’, without a single trace left behind.
Praise the Lord that this woman has discovered His grace and love and Christ’s salvation in the words of the New Testament.
Bump that
How can SO many Smart, Nice people believe that kind of teaching??
The mishies hit me up when I was on my way to Vietnam so I’ve been asking the same question for over forty years.
How does Glenn Beck go from lapsed Catholic to enthusiastic Mormon (LDS doctrine is fiercely anti-Catholic)?
One key is to look at the ex-Mormons, the dropouts. The majority of them turn atheistic. Sad, very sad. They were trapped in an enveloping & stifling culture for so long that upon their escape, these ex-mo’s see ALL forms of Divine worship as worthless superstition.
We should pray that God’s grace may enter their hearts.
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