I grew up within the confines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism). Most of my life, I accepted the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, sent to restore the gospel that was once lost. That the Book of Mormon truly was divinely inspired of God.

While attending the LDS Church, I grew into understanding the scriptures, how they related to our lives and how to apply them personally. I found that the talks some of the General Authorities gave were inspired and applicable to our time here on earth.

I did not realize how much in error I was, how blinded I was until I encountered the reality of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made on the Cross.

When I relate this story to those who are still members of the LDS Faith, I am always asked - have you ever truly prayed over the Book of Mormon? Have you truly believed and followed after the prophets teachings and instructions?

My answer to all this is that I had never really truly received an answer to my prayer over the Book of Mormon.

In fact, it was not until I got a hold of the copy of Book of Mormon and read all the way through it. Marking up passages that talked about "Repent" and "Follow after Christ". I reached the end of the Book of Mormon, sighed heavily and took Moroni Challenge. I knelt in prayer.

What happened next was amazing. I did not receive a burning in the bosom that the Book of Mormon was true, but the confirmation that I was in need of redemption, in need of the Sacrifice Christ had provided and that I had already received a remission for my sins and that I needed to come back to the reality and truthfulness of Christ and the pureness of the simplistic Gospel Message. That experience happened several months ago.

The more I read the Book of Mormon, the more I read the teachings of the Prophets and General authorities, the more I am convinced that there is something the members of the LDS Faith are missing.

I expressed this to my Bishop, and some people I started associating with. This is asked in the following question: Have you ever truly tasted of the redemptive power of Jesus Christ and an honest true conviction that you are sinful before a Holy and Almighty God and that praying about the Book of Mormon is nothing paled into comparison to the reality and revelation of one's need for Jesus Christ and to accept His atoning sacrifice in one's life?

No Latter-day Saint has yet to be able to answer that they have had a real honest true experience of the saving grace of Jesus Christ and how his atonement and sacrifice on the Cross brought to them a redemption of their sinful, carnal nature. I had attended church services with the LDS Church and find that the testimonies being born are not centered around Jesus Christ, but around Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, that there are modern day prophets.

I have not ever heard a member of the LDS Church get up and say: "I prayed the other night and I was so convicted of my sinful nature that I wanted to crawl beneath the earth and hide myself before God and that I suddenly felt like someone washed me clean of all my transgressions and made me new and the realization for the need of the redemption that is only through Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice was what I sought after, and I am proud to say that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and my redeemer."

I hear all the time that the Mormons say: "We believe in Christ, we preach Christ, and we accept His atonement" yet there is no testimony.

That is why I can't accept the Mormon Faith as a Christian religion because they proclaim that they believe in Jesus Christ, but their testimony is centered on Joseph Smith, modern day Prophets and the Book of Mormon.

Until members of the LDS Faith stand and declare that they prayed to a Holy God to ask how Christ's atonement affect their lives, they are led blind and captive into the depths of the bondage of sin and death, no matter how good they are.

We all are spiritually blinded until the Holy Spirit moves and we are brought to the realization that Jesus Christ truly is the only way, truth and Life and it is by and through Him that we receive remission of our sins.

Timothy