GLOBAL CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
Preaching the Gospel to All Creation
Mark 16:15
COMING CLEAN
A Convert to Mormonism Reveals Why She Joined, Why She Left, and all the Pain in Between
Interview Conducted by Loren Franck
A NEW CREATION
Officially leaving the LDS church broke my heart—just as it has been heartbreaking for many others who’ve discovered the biblical Jesus Christ. His body of saving truths is not found in Mormonism.
So, despite hardships it could cause in my job, among my friends and with my LDS family members, I had to be true to myself—and true to the Lord. I resigned my LDS church membership.
When you come to the Christ of the Bible, you become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Self-righteousness and other demonstrations of piety mean nothing. The new creation is all that matters (Galatians 6:15).
Since leaving Mormonism and fellowshipping with a New Testament–based Christian church, I’ve never looked back because I was too busy looking forward—and upward. Jesus said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). Sure, I remember being a Latter-day Saint—the endless meetings, duties, tithes, Sunday school and Relief Society lessons (which were merely LDS indoctrination sessions). In those days, I wondered if I could ever be good enough to merit eternal life according to my works. Now I know better. I don’t need to rely on what I do to be saved.
The Savior offers a better way. John wrote, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12, 13).
I know I’m a new creation through Christ’s work in me, and I know I have eternal life. It’s not a reward that awaits me. The Bible says believers have it now. When we believe in the biblical Jesus, we pass out of death into life (John 5:24).
Mormonism offers nothing of the kind. And I thank God he led me out of Mormonism and brought me to the biblical Jesus.
—Janine Pratt
WANT TO KNOW?
1. What are the seven best biblical reasons to leave Mormonism? Click here to find out.
2. Does God require Christians to tithe? Read what the Bible says.
3. Did Mormon “prophet” Brigham Young teach false doctrine? Find out here.
4. Will Mormons be saviors on Mt. Zion? Discover why the Bible says no.
5. Are Mormons Christians? GCO reveals the truth here.
Thousands of well-meaning people join and voluntarily leave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) annually. Founded in 1830, the bizarre organization has always sought converts. Currently with some 14 million members worldwide and approximately 45,000 full-time missionaries, the Salt Lake City-based church seeks to persuade people into Mormonism. Having served two years in the LDS church’s South Dakota-Rapid City Mission, I remember that emphasis well.
But leaving the Mormon church, especially on your own volition, can be emotionally excruciating. It was for me. I resigned my membership in 1984. The uncomfortable exit can also destroy you socially as well as financially, especially if you live in Utah and Idaho, which house large numbers of Mormons.
So what’s it really like to resign your membership from the LDS church? What happens in one’s mind, heart and surrounding community? In this provocative interview, Loren Franck interviews Erica*, a former active Mormon. Erica reveals why she stopped believing the teachings of the LDS church and why she left it. What are Franck’s ten hard-hitting questions and Erica’s heartrending answers?
1. First, Erica, thanks for letting me interview you. I know Mormonism is a painful subject for you, but your answers will help other people through some very difficult times in their lives. Tell us why you joined the Mormon church.
I grew up in a Protestant home, but our family rarely attended church. Most of the times we went were on Easter and Christmas. Nobody in my family really believed in God. Shortly after graduating from high school, I met two LDS girls my age. One was a recent convert. They told me about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but our little “talks” didn’t lead me into the church. Instead, what hooked me were all the activities—family home evening, ward dinners, singles dances, and all kinds of other recreation. My conversion to Mormonism was a social thing, not the result of gaining what Mormons call a testimony.
2. While LDS, did you ever gain a testimony?
Oh, sure. But during my four and a half years in the church, I didn’t actually know the [LDS] gospel was true—not like knowing whether it’s day or night, or knowing where you live. It was merely a good feeling about the church’s teachings, people and programs. But in terms of knowing Mormonism was true, or knowing I had eternal life as John explains in 1 John 5:13, the answer is no, I didn’t know Mormonism was true.
3. Many ex-Mormons experience a “crack in the armor.” This experience breaks the unquestioning hold the church has on them and opens the door to the complete truth about Christ. Did you experience a crack in the armor? If so, what was it?
Yes, I had a pronounced crack in my Mormon armor. It started small and quickly grew irreparably large. If it hadn’t occurred, I probably would have stayed in the church, floating along with other Mormons who can’t see their religion’s unbiblical aspects. My crack in the armor took place one night when the ward clerk phoned me. He said flatly, “The bishop wants to see you.”
“Why?” I asked innocently.
“He wants to see you,” the ward clerk repeated. “When can you meet at his office?”
This irritated me. I didn’t know if I was in trouble with the church. I hadn’t done anything requiring a bishop’s court, but you never know if someone will accuse you of some supposed offense. I didn’t know if the bishop wanted to offer me a calling or what. So I again asked the clerk, “Why does he want to see me?”
“The bishop wants to see you, Erica,” the clerk repeated. “Now . . . when can you come in?”
And that’s when my armor cracked. At that moment, I began to understand the LDS church’s paternalistic authoritarian nature. I had held numerous callings while a member of the church, so I knew all about obedience to church leaders and not “speaking evil of the Lord’s anointed.” But to demand that I see the bishop and not tell me why, even when I repeatedly asked, that was too much for me to take.
4. What one event moved you to leave the church? In other words, what brought you over the line? Was it a strange doctrine? Did someone offend you? And how did you finally come to the Christ of the Bible?
It was a combination of events. As mentioned in my previous answer, when realizing how authoritarian the church is, especially with women, the unique doctrines of the church weren’t appealing to me; for example, the doctrine that men can become gods and that women can become goddesses. When setting aside the Bible and Christianity’s essential teachings, the notion of plural gods seemed plausible. But when you consider everything the Bible teaches about there being only one God, the false notion of plural gods shatters.
The Bible says there’s only one God. One of my favorite verses to establish this point is Isaiah 43:10, which teaches, “ . . . Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.” Paul said that “there is no other God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4). Which Bible verses teach Joseph Smith’s concept of plural gods? None. Members of the LDS church cite Revelation 1:6, but when that verse is translated faithfully to the original Greek, it reads, “[Christ has] made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (ESV). Global Christian Outreach helped me understand the Bible doctrine that there’s only one true God.
Inadvertently, Mormonism laid the foundation for my conversion to biblical Christianity. I learned good Bible study habits in the LDS church, and I discovered the basics of prayer there. So, when I began to see all the historical and doctrinal contradictions in Mormonism, I prayerfully studied the Bible and attended a Bible-based church on Sundays. It didn’t take the Lord long to bring me around. He helped me see that the true gospel of Jesus Christ is simply wonderful and wonderfully simple, but the Mormon gospel is ever-changing and convoluted.
5. When you left the LDS church and fellowshipped within biblical Christianity, how did Mormons treat you?
Like dirt. Actually, I experienced two reactions from people in my ward and from Latter-day Saints generally. The first was their fear. Mormons whom I thought were my friends wouldn’t look me in the eyes, wouldn’t socialize with me, and dared not discuss the biblical reasons for my disaffection with Mormonism. I witnessed an amazing overnight change in them. Anger was the second reaction I noticed among my soon-to-be former LDS friends. They rejected my friendship simply because I didn’t buy into Mormonism any longer, and they were upset about it.
6. Your opinion of Joseph Smith?
Faithful Mormons can’t understand that Joseph Smith was a fraud, an opportunist and a false prophet. I’m not sure of his motives for writing the Book of Mormon and establishing the LDS church. Perhaps he sought power or money. When he instituted polygamy, maybe he wanted to justify his adultery and the adultery of high-level Mormon church leaders—at least in the eyes of the public. I don’t know. But by the time he died in a gunfight on June 27, 1844, he had taught some outrageously anti-biblical doctrines about God, Jesus Christ, heaven, hell, salvation, scripture and the nature of man. He claimed to see God when he actually didn’t . He uttered prophecies that didn’t come true.
7. Any kind words about the Book of Mormon?
No. When you read and pray about the book objectively, the truth does come out: the Book of Mormon is fiction. It quotes the Bible frequently, and many of its stories parallel the Old and New Testaments, but it plagiarizes the Bible. The Book of Mormon allegedly contains the fullness of the gospel, as Mormons teach it, but it contains none of the beliefs that make the LDS church unique. For example, the Book of Mormon is silent about temple marriage, three kingdoms of glory in the hereafter, baptism and salvation for the dead, and that men can become gods. The Bible provides all we need for salvation, so the Book of Mormon is unnecessary.
8. When you attended LDS church meetings, what bothered you most?
Three aspects of church attendance bothered me equally. I couldn’t see how any of them fit within the biblical model of worship. First, there was a huge overemphasis on Joseph Smith and his successors, the LDS church presidents, and too little emphasis on Jesus Christ, especially his role as the one mediator who saves by his grace and not by our works. During weekly sacrament meetings, you’d hear “Joseph Smith this” or “President Hinckley that”; “the bishop this” or “the stake president that.” But take a simple Bible verse like John 3:16, which says all who believe on the true Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life, and LDS people throw their own spin on it. For instance, they insist, “Oh, that means we must believe and obey,” or “Faith is only the first principle of the gospel; we must obey all the others too.”
The second objectionable aspect of LDS church attendance was the unending insistence on obedience to church leaders. The notion that your church leaders will never lead you astray is alive and well in Mormonism. But truth and salvation are in Christ, not in LDS church leaders. There’s no benefit in following teachings that aren’t Christian. The emphasis of Sunday worship should be on Christ and how he reconciles his followers to the Father. The emphasis shouldn’t be on obeying leaders. There’s an overemphasis of leadership within the LDS church, and it’s annoying.
The third aspect of Mormon church attendance that bothers me is the cultlike curriculum of the Relief Society, Sunday School and sacrament meeting material. Teachers and speakers base their remarks on church-published “study guides,” which are really lesson manuals that feature what the brethren in Salt Lake City want taught. However, Spirit-filled Christians who rely on the Bible for the word of God don’t need lesson manuals. Moved by the Holy Spirit, they can teach lessons on any biblical topic. This would apply especially to our relationship with Jesus Christ and how to receive his gift of eternal life. That should be the meat of all church services.
9. Why did it hurt to remain in the LDS church, even when you stopped believing in it, and why did it hurt to leave?
It hurt to stay in the church, attend meetings and socialize with other members of my ward because I felt like a hypocrite. I didn’t believe the Joseph Smith story or the Book of Mormon any longer, but I appeared to be a faithful Latter-day Saint. I’m sure many Mormons are like that. They attend church, smile and shake hands with their “brothers and sisters,” but they believe Mormonism is a facade.
However, it also pained me to resign my membership in the church. I knew biblical Christianity is the right path to pursue, but most of my friends were LDS, as were the great majority of my coworkers. Faithful Latter-day Saints try to bring family and friends into the church, and I succeeded in doing that several times. But after resigning my membership, I needed to explain my actions and updated beliefs to them. I was eager to relate my new “testimony” of the biblical Jesus and what the Bible says about a reconciled relationship to God. At first, though, it made the people I’d converted to Mormonism confused and uncomfortable.
10. What’s the most important advice you’d offer Mormons, especially those active in the church who don’t question their leaders?
To seek and follow the real Jesus. The complete truth about him is found only in the Bible. You could call a mythical character, or even an inanimate object, Jesus Christ. But your faith in that false Christ would damn you, not save you. So I urge Latter-day Saints everywhere, from common members at the ward level to the General Authorities in Salt Lake City, to study the New Testament carefully. The gospels particularly testify about who Christ is. Of course, he’s the Son of God and the promised Messiah. The epistles do that too, but they also focus on how to receive eternal life and how to live in godly ways after you receive Christ. Yes, pray about what you read. Pray the Holy Spirit will teach you the truth about what’s recorded in scripture.
Other excellent sources besides the Bible will also help LDS people come to the knowledge of the truth. Study the articles on the Global Christian Outreach Web site, most notably your “Seven Reasons to Leave the Mormon Church” and “Why I Left the Mormon Church.” I also recommend The Changing World of Mormonism by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Their larger work, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? is excellent too, but it’s large and extremely detailed. Numerous Web sites expose the errors of Mormonism and lead readers to the Christ of the Bible. Besides www.gco4lds.org, I recommend www.concernedchristians.com, www.mrm.org and http://upfc.org.
Jesus doesn’t want you to jump through legalistic hoops in order to be saved. The Bible is clear about that. Instead, he wants you to trust him as Lord and Savior. Again, we’re not talking about a false Christ, but the real Jesus revealed in the Bible. I love how the apostle John put it: “He who believes in [Christ] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already; because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
*Erica feared possible recrimination from her employer, an LDS high priest and former stake high councilor, so she asked that we use her first name only.
Loren Franck is president and executive director of Global Christian Outreach, an IRS-approved Christian ministry that defends and proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need your financial support to carry out our important mission. Click here to make a donation.
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SAMPLE RESIGNATION LETTER
Dear Bishop:
Effective immediately, I hereby resign my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Throughout all relevant LDS church records, you are to designate that this action is at my own request. I simply want my name removed from the records of the church.
I will not attend or participate in church courts, hearings or other disciplinary action. Neither will I speak with home teachers, members of bishoprics, members of stake presidencies or with other church officials unless I initiate contact.
Please notify me in writing when my name has been removed from church records.
Yours truly,
[your name and address]
Loren Franck, received his endowments and was married in the Los Angeles Mormon temple (above). During his 11 years in Mormonism, he was appalled
at the LDS church’s many doctrinal contradictions and cultic temple rituals on behalf of dead people.
Loren Franck, a BYU graduate and former Mormon missionary, was as-tounded that Mormon prophets dis-agreed on the nature of God, the way to eternal life and on many other fundamental doctrines. Loren resigned his Mormon church membership in 1984 and turned to the biblical Jesus in 2001.
WANT TO BE A
GOOD SAMARITAN?
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IS GOD LEARNING?
“God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end” (Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses 6:120).
The Bible affirms that God “is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16), and that “his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5). Even the Book of Mormon says that “God . . . knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it” (2 Nephi 9:20).
