Biblical Reasons Ministry
A Testimony Out of
Mormonism & Turned to Christ
by JD Erickson
I was raised old school Lutheran in Wyoming. Baptized as an infant and
Confirmed at age 13. I attended a small Lutheran Church school from 1st
grade to 8th grade. 13 total students from Kindergarten to 8th grade. My
grade had 3 people. As you can imagine I learned a lot about the Bible. I’m
pretty sure I memorized ¾ of the bible and 95% of the Small Catechism.
Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 Thesis on the door of the Castle Church in
Wittenberg is still burned into my memory.
After 8th grade I joined public school and slowly fell away from religion. I
still considered myself a religious person but did not attend any church.
Soon after High School I met my wife to be and after a stint in the Army I
moved to Salt Lake City to be closer to my wife to be. After a few years we
were married and began our life together.
My wife and all of her family were LDS. My wife was born and raised in an
LDS prominent neighborhood and had not even attended any other church.
At this time I started my research into the Mormon religion. After a year or
so of research I determined that the LDS doctrine was wrong. I knew it was
not for me. My wife respected my wishes and attended church on her own.
During this time we had 2 children that also attended with her.
About 7 years into our marriage we were going through some rough times.
Divorce was looming. We both decided we would do whatever it took to keep
the family together. One of the ideas my wife had was that she would take
out her endowments. I was uneasy but let her decide on her own. The day she
took out her endowments while I waited outside the temple was one of the
worst of my life. I knew that we had made a huge error. In fact it actually
turned out to be a good thing in future years.
In the year that followed our marriage deteriorated further. Her having to
keep temple secrets from me and me now being even more of an outsider drove
us to the brink. My last ditch effort to keep the family together was the
old adage “if you can’t beat them then join them” I talked to my wife and
told her I would probably never believe all the Mormon doctrine but I was
willing to join and pretend for the sake of my family. I personally believe
that religion is what is in your heart and not what church you are in so I
thought I could handle it. Another factor in the decision is we were in a
very good ward with lots of good Mormon friends. Our bishop was a great guy.
They welcomed me with open arms.
So I joined the LDS church. I was baptized, confirmed and
received the Aaronic priesthood. A year later I was made an elder and
received the Melchizedek priesthood. A short time later my wife and I went
to the temple to take out my endowments.1
What can I say - WOW what a trip. I had studied about it heavily but you
never know for sure until you experience it. Shortly after this we were
sealed as a family in the temple.
We attended the church for about a year more and I continued to live the
lie. We attended the temple a couple more times and it never got better.
Every time I noticed more and more wacky stuff. After this I refused to
attend the temple again. My wife’s view of the temple ceremony were also
mixed.
A short time after this we moved to a new area in Salt Lake area. We
attended another ward and it was the exact opposite. A bunch of snobby,
clannish, self-righteous Mormons. We were basically ignored. We slowly
stopped going to church.
During this time my wife started asking a few questions about the Mormon
faith. Her first question was on Tithing and how it was handled by the
Mormons. We were a one-income, three-children struggling family and tithing
settlement was humiliating. I immediately began wedging my pry bar of truth
into the cracks in her belief. Wrong answer. Back to square one. She
immediately retreated into her Mormon shell. I changed my tactics and let
her find her own way out. I was always there to discuss anything she wanted
but I did not go further than what she was ready for. Her questions became
more and more damning to the LDS religion. The Temple Ceremony was the thing
that finally started her out of the Mormon religion.
Unfortunately, while she was making her journey our children were left to
drift without any religion. Obviously this was bad and we both finally
agreed we needed to find a religious background for them that the whole
family could live with. We started our search. Out first stop was a Lutheran
church. Wrong answer. My wife really hated the structured services. Next we
found a non-denominational church and liked it from the first time we
attended. The Spirit was there. The modern music was uplifting. People were
genuine and God was there. We had found a home. That was until a huge shake
up occurred and all the church leadership left. Still don’t know for sure
what happened but things went downhill fast. Not a place for us in the
fragile state we were in. Back to our search.
We both knew that we enjoyed the modern non-denominational services.
Unfortunately this is Salt Lake City and there aren’t a lot of these
churches to be found in the area. One day while searching the internet I
came across South Mountain Community Church. It looked like one for us to
check out. We attended a service and as soon as we walked out we knew we
were home. What an incredible experience.
We still struggle daily. My wife’s mother is convinced that I am the devil
and have broken up her eternal family. She does everything she can possibly
think of to sabotage us. She regularly tells my wife what a terrible
decision we have made. She tries to manipulate our children behind our
backs. She invites the kids for sleep-overs on Saturday nights so she can
stop them from going to our church and she can take them to the Mormon
church. Unfortunately she is the only family my wife has and the only
grandparent the kids have. Separating her from our family is not possible.
Along with the family struggles our children also suffer from being outcasts
in school and social circles. Parents have refused to let there children
play with ours because they are not Mormon. My wife and I also have trouble
finding friends as we are outsiders.
Our journey continues. We are trying our best to integrate into our new
church home. We are slowly finding friends that believe as we do. We are
working towards having our middle child baptized in the church. Our children
are doing there best to fit in with the new church and find friends.
I pray to God daily to help us on the correct path.
-JD Erickson
1. "The Endowment" makes reference to a particular and peculiar portion of the LDS temple ceremony where a sacred oath is taken by LDS temple patrons to never reveal the secret "signs and tokens" of the Endowment. The tokens are "secret handshakes" that the LDS Church claims are mandatory and necessary for entrance into eternal life. The Bible knows nothing of these things.
One would be hard pressed to find reference to such things even in the LDS Standard Works (Mormon scriptures). The LDS religion relies on "modern revelation" to support such claims.
One may read more about the LDS Temple Endowment at several Internet sites by searching: "LDS temple endowment" or "LDS temple ceremony." Here are just a few:
- Full text of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony Text (revised 1990) with introduction and info for ordering print transcript.Web owner's note revised 12.28.06
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Secret or Sacred?
What Happens In There?
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That’s my King! (S M Lockridge) – free video
"Jesus' blood on the altar was the ultimate payment. He made us worthy permanently. When Jesus died on the cross the veil covering the Holy of Holies tore in half. The mercy seat lay exposed to mankind. There is no veil, anymore, between God and man. Jesus ripped it down. But Mormonism has hung up a new one." -Kathleen Baldwin
"When I was LDS (not that long
ago) I saw a lot of things that made me question my membership in the LDS
church, but I sure wouldn't admit it for a long time (not even to myself). I
just knew there had to be good explanations for all of those silly criticisms,
if I just looked in the right place...or prayed about it long enough. I was
wrong." - Former Mormon, Marsha Bette
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Editor's note:
If the quote above describes you, please know that God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life. Visit Testimonies Turned to Christ at
the top of this section to understand that you're not alone in your feelings.