Earl Erskine's Story

with no further ado I in want to introduce to you my friend Earl Erskine [Applause] [Applause] good afternoon is the mic okay and everything we okay we're good I really appreciate this opportunity and you must know that I am totally blown away with with what's happened in my life and I hope as I share this story that you'll be you'll feel my sincerity my love for the LDS people and also for you as as Christians a couple of things just to get out of the way I I do think Pastor Rick and his wife Tammy and Caleb wherever he's at and all those I know that they're listening to these this story now probably for the third time appreciate that of people in the back or listening I know the musicians have heard it now so and I don't know how many of you attended any of the others but I do appreciate your indulgence and I hope it hope what I have to say will will be meaningful I also wish I had some attention getter like I was born in Idaho which I wasn't or that I went to BYU Idaho which I didn't or that I got married in the Idaho Falls temple which I didn't I have been to beautiful Stanley Basin and I've also visited my son at mountain at the not so beautiful Mountain Home Air Force Base and I did come up back in 1976 and clean mud out of an elementary school after the Teton dam disaster Pastor Rick mentioned Sean McCraney and I guess by a show of hands how many you know about him or his ministry and he mentioned Rick mentioned that there that he hosts a television show it's a call-in show the first half of the show is him sharing some either something out of the Book of Mormon or apostles prophets um topic and he covers that and then the second half of the show is a call-in show where people usually invites LDS people to call in and discuss either what he's talked about or anything they want to bring up anyway I will mention Sean's name a few times because he's integral into my story I will also mention one other person quite regularly and that's my dear wife Carla please Carla stand [Applause] and you'll see how she fits into this whole story as I as I proceed anyway as as Pastor Rick mentions that Shaun has written this book and and it's an A to Z book and I think it's a good reference even for Christians actually because it kind of reinforces what we believe and what we're supposed to believe in it it kind of arms us against or in addition to what the Mormons believe on a particular topic and sometimes if you don't know what they're saying well when you use words like being saved or Jesus you're saying those words they're saying and thinking something different and sometimes that helps one other thing I'd like to announce what I mention before I get started and that was in at the end of 2011 Sean asked me to host a television show this journey is so unbelievable like I can't even believe where it's been and going but he asked me to interview or would I be interested in interviewing former LDS people who now have a strong Christian walk people who have been in the church much like I have and are now Christian we've already interviewed 40 people and so we and it's going to be archived eventually and you'll be able to look at it and we'll pass that information along to you when that happens I've already interviewed a sherry Walker from your midst and a Ron Condon from your midst and so I appreciate them coming down on being interviewed those stories are so heartfelt it is a very tough proposition to leave or even consider leaving the Mormon Church and they're always family members and others as you well know probably that are in your wake of leaving and it can be very difficult well I'd like to begin first with a prayer if I could dear Lord pray that your spirit will be with me as I share my story and that these good people here will be patient and understanding in my efforts and that you will have me say what you want me to and those things that I shouldn't say you'll allow me to forget we love you God were grateful for your sacrifice for us and that you did work for us what we couldn't do for ourselves pray for your spirit now in Jesus name Amen well the one thing I do enjoy most about our Christian walk is that it is all about Jesus but I have been asked to share my story and it is it will eventually get back to Jesus so trust me on that but I'm not sure why God has moved in me the way he has he's touched my taking me by the hand and the heart and sometimes by the ear and kicked me in the rear sometimes has brought me through darkness into light and I praise God that my Karla my wife of 43 years has also joined me by my side as a Christian and has such a passion for the for God's work now I will probably say the word we LDS or we in the church or something please forgive me for that I'm still a newbie plus I'm also trying to relate to my first 65 years as a Mormon and I probably slipped those in so forgive me for that anyway just a little history here I was born in Gunnison Utah I have a strong pair pioneer heritage I was raised in Salt Lake went to South High School and the University of Utah I have four younger sisters my dad died when I was 11 of a kidney disease and my mother was in a wheelchair for muscular dystrophy and she died in a car accident when I was 16 I ended up with an aunt and an uncle who helped me go on a 30-month mission to Denmark in 1965 368 I came home fell in love with Karla and we got married in the Salt Lake Temple we have four children and we've lived most of our lives in Salt Lake now I was totally loyal and devoted to the LDS Church I almost never missed a church meeting I was a deacon and teachers president a priest first assistant was made an elder when on my got married in the temple served as a Scoutmaster and a deacons quorum advisor I was a ward executive secretary was ordained the high priest served in the High Council I was in two bishopric served as a service man's branch president in Germany was the state missionary with Carla served as a gospel doctrine teacher several times and served as a bishop for five years in Sandy Utah what a lot of good works I did we moved to our current home about 11 years ago Carla and I taught family relations several times I served four years in that bishop brick and then four years as a gospel doctrine teacher and was in the high priest group leadership just last year we always held a current temple recommend I've never tasted alcohol cigarette coffee tea I've trained and run 11 marathons and I would never run on Sunday and I would never golf on Sunday in other words I lived a very proud prideful Mormon life I never realized just how proud it was until I became a Christian I had a strong testimony of Joseph Smith as the prophet of the restoration I knew the Book of Mormon was true I read it more than 25 times I knew our prophets were called of God and I even suspected that they had regular PPIs with Jesus a PPI stands for personal priesthood interview in the Mormon Church we do have a prophet but we really call Jesus the head of the church I sense that these brethren met regularly with Jesus from time to time I think a little differently about that now I thought the temple ceremony was a little different but at Fir at first but I accepted it for what it was I was definitely headed for the celestial kingdom with Carla as my first wife if you catch that you didn't catch that as my first wife I was looking forward to many others but of course Karla Karla always believes she had the right of first refusal and so that there was always she figured well I'll understand it later and I will get into when we get there anyway so you can imagine my distress and my angst when something quite unexpected and rather innocently happened president Hinckley challenged us in the summer of 2005 to read the book of Mormon by the end of the year and I took that challenge as I would any other challenge by a prophet and I read it through and got through like in October November so I decided to read it again this time I read it from a little brown copy of the original Book of Mormon and it's it's a novel form it's kind of a no chapters and verses and I think you can get it a desert at book these days anyway I got into first Nephi chapters 11 and 13 and I noticed these changes and if we'll have a start with the graphics at a graphic one I'm sorry what I've done is shown so maybe this isn't the same person that's been doing it three times huh is this a new person back there I should have visited with you I'm sorry anyway so I took this these comparisons because you'll see the differences immediately the first one of course is the 1830 the little novel book I read behold the virgin who now seus tis the mother of God after the manner of the flesh and our current Book of Mormon reads behold the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God after the manner of the flesh the next one and the angel said unto me behold the lamb of God yay even the Eternal Father and it was changed to read and the angel said unto me behold the lamb of god yay even the son of the Eternal Father verse 32 I looked and beheld the Lamb of God he was taken by the people yea the everlasting God was judged of the world and now it reads the son of the everlasting God and the last verse for the lamb 13:40 but the Lamb of God is the eternal father and the savior of the world and it was changed in our current Book of Mormon to read that the Lamb of God is the son of the Eternal Father and the savior of the world well I was confused with that because it didn't make sense first of all you Joseph Smith when he translated the Book of Mormon at least we believe that he translated it word-for-word by the power of God he could not move from one word to the next without that word being correct that is taught regularly in the church and so for me to see changes in the Book of Mormon was very unsettling and again 2005 I spent the next year or two kind of mulling over this and figuring why why the change what would it what would why would that be then I surprisingly ran across these scriptures that are in our current Book of Mormon right now and this is again current Book of Mormon AB in a tie and these are all paraphrased I would that you should understand that God Himself shall come down among the children of men and shall redeem his people and because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the son of God and they are one God yeah the very eternal father of heaven on earth that really sounds Christian doesn't it I know about modalism and so it's not quite exact but this is very interesting and then in Alma again paraphrasing and zis room said unto Him thou say us there is a true and living God yeah there is a true and living God is there more than one God know how knowest thou these things an angel hath made them known to me and now zis room said again unto Him is the son of God the very eternal father yay he is the very eternal father of heaven and earth now I know I dread that many times but in context with the other changes that I'd read it didn't make sense at all and it's not what I believed as a Mormon we always in our Mormon mentality and definition of things we always kind of read into things more than there is when it says there is one God we always say one in purpose but it never says one in purpose it just says there one God and when you look at it honestly and objectively it becomes I think more clear well again I went on this for a while trying to figure out what in the world I was to think of this and I was reluctant to bring these problems up you can't bring up questions in the church in the Mormon Church you've got little antennas that are built-in to Mormons I think when they get baptized and anybody that says anything a little off that antenna comes up and kind of and does something I don't know but it tells the person you know what you don't want to listen to this anymore don't pay attention to what you what is it and the Wizard of Oz pay no attention to the man behind the curtain anyway you don't ask questions in Sunday school or priesthood and I I know one person that we interviewed for the x-files he said that he had been called into the bishops office for asking such questions I don't know what really happened with all that I worked for the government for thirty years as an accountant and an auditor I examine credit unions for those many years and so things have to make sense to me I'm just that analytical or whatever you want to call that but I am that way so I'm interested in dates they mean something to me things that are said words mean something to me you have to remember now and I'll use a few different dates here but Joseph Smith said he saw the father and the son in 1820 had a first vision he didn't write about it officially until 1838 that's what we have now in what we call the pearl of great price but I I learned that there are actually several versions of the first vision and not one of those versions of the first vision agree with with each other the earliest one is written in 1832 again about this 1830 time frame and it's believe it or not in Joseph's own handwriting the church acknowledges this it says that he only saw one person and if you know the story he says he in that version he didn't see or experience the Satan experience where something dark happened to him well this added to my confusion I thought the first vision there would be something there to help me understand why Joseph would make these changes to the Book of Mormon because I think that if I saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees each and every time I told that story I think I would remember saying that I wouldn't write it down differently certainly than what I thought I had experienced well I also checked into some other things that were written about this 80 1832 timeframe and I found this Joseph organized a school of prophets in about 1832 so our next graphic this is what he wrote and taught in the lectures of faith the father being a personage of spirit that by the way is very anti Mormon and the son who was in the bosom of the Father a personage of tabernacle and possessing the same mind with the father which mind is the Holy Spirit and these three are one well I kind of blew me away here again I'm starting to wonder what is it that Joseph Smith actually believed about God he did write and teach then there that God was a spirit but later he says he has a body of flesh and bones and that he's separate from from Jesus well this is all very confusing this next one is a little backwards oh he's already got it up thank you you have to think of this one backwards Joseph Smith actually undertook a translation of the Bible we call it the Joseph Smith translation so what you're what you've got to think here is backwards our current King James Version says that no man knoweth who the son is but the father and who the father is but the son Joseph Smith changed this in 1832 1833 he changed it to read and no man knoweth that the son is the father and the father is the son no man knoweth the son is the father and the father is the son well all of this is beginning to make me more and more convinced that Joseph Smith believed in one God I don't think you can deny that those things are those things are factual they're part of church history and they're not what you'd call anti-mormon material and there are also no journals Diaries minutes or letters anywhere supporting anything else no one ever wrote that Joseph gave a talk today and told us about his vision in 1820 so these discrepancies kind of became my anchor they kind of became what I could trust I could believe in and it started making question to me question the church I started wondering if the Book of Mormon and the first vision were action had actually occurred the way they did many of our prophets and apostles in the church declare quite boldly that the church stands or falls on the first vision and the Book of Mormon and so this was starting to bother me greatly but I did begin to look at some other issues that came up we'll go through these real quickly I'd like to spend more time on them but there isn't time but the next lists are just various different things that just kind of don't fit in with what I what is in the Bible and what good sense makes of things first of all Masonic rituals are in the temple Kirtland was built in 1836 and there was not really any ceremony any rituals marriage for the time and all eternity but in Nabu in the lavvo temple in 1843 after Joseph became a master mason things got changed you ought to look up masonry and on the internet they were changed in 1990 changes in temple ceremony no mention anywhere of the ironic Melchizedek Priesthood before about 1834 the 1829 dates were added later look up book of Commandments the Dead Sea Scrolls support the accuracy of the Old Testament and do not support the revisions Joseph made to his Joseph Smith translation God had a physical intimate relationship with Mary no regard for the cross no archaeological metal DNA or linguistic support for the Book of Mormon the Joseph Smith senior had a tree of life dream about 1811 what why this is significant to me and the church's answer the Mormon answer to that is that of course Joseph Smith senior would have as much right if you know the characters in the Book of Mormon is Lehi and Nephi would to have their dream but there was no radio or television back in 1811 and I think Joseph Smith senior had this dream and told that story over and over and over again so about 15-20 years later when Joseph Smith Jr writes his book of mormon he includes that in in the story and then Joseph's practical practice polygamy before the 1843 revelation and the reason I popped this up is because Joseph's in practicing polygamy he did it without anyone's knowledge presumably and also the Book of Mormon actually denounces polygamy if you read in Jacob 2:24 in the Book of Mormon it says behold David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines which thing was abominable before me saith the Lord well Joseph Smith bless his heart in section 132 about 13 years later decides he's going to practice polygamy or has been practicing polygamy so he justifies my servants David and Solomon as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines that was a convenient revelation I'm proud of Joseph for being so insightful anyway those things individually these things may not seem like much and the church does have its explanations but when you really put them all together it does raise questions and if you pray about it turn it over to God it I think he enlightens us and I praise God that that's what he's done for me but there was one more biggie that came along that really tipped me over the edge I learned that in 1967 the church acquired the papyri in fact similes the Joseph used to translate the Book of Abraham in the church we have four standard works we got excuse me we call them one of them is called the pearl of great price and the book of Abraham is one those books well we thought those we thought those papyri were burned in the Chicago Fire in 1871 that's kind of the story but they were found in a museum in New York 1967 and in the desert news in February of 68 said this quote it said there is an unprecedented interest generated throughout the church by the recovery of 11 pieces of papyri that were once the property of the Prophet Joseph Smith end quote well of course this would there would be great anticipation it would prove beyond any doubt that Joseph was a true prophet and a translator I've asked many individuals about these papyri and about the Book of Abraham and nobody seems to know anything the church doesn't really talk about it why because it has nothing to do with Abraham absolutely nothing they're just burial texts so we're in a mummy and which you'd expect to find in a mummy actually BYU professor John ghee said this about the this situation he said that the Book of Abraham is not central to the restored gospel of Christ and he further said that how the Book of Abraham was translated is unimportant and he also said that the church does not stand or fall on the Book of Abraham which may or may not be true but that's beside the point the point is is that with Scripture and we believe that Joseph Smith translated that he said that in his journals I translated the Book of Abraham today so it almost seemed like calling black/white to me and my whole belief system was being shattered it's remarkable that people will spend many hours picking out hotels or going on vacation out spots for vacations buying a car buying a house but they won't investigate something as important as their religion now he started watching this Shawn McRaney show endorsed Hansen's polygamy what love is this I was really irritated that their challenges about more and what I didn't know about Christianity and so on I didn't like what they were saying but I kept watching I originally wanted to prove them wrong which is of course your natural reaction but eventually I came to see things more clearly and is tied in with what I'd already been thinking but this these people and the their their ministries helped me bridge again my trip from Mormonism to Christianity because there are Mormons who once they find out these truths about Joseph Smith become atheist or agnostic they actually fall away and that's one of the purposes of the x-files interview program is that we want to give Mormons hope that there is life after Mormonism that they actually can believe in Christ and trust the Bible you may or may not know this depending on your relationship with Mormons but they do not trust the Bible and if you bring anything like I've shown you here some of these scriptures they their first reaction is as well it isn't translated correctly we can't trust it and that's very sad and I think that's one of the greatest disservice as Joseph Smith did well I was serving as a gospel doctrine teacher a couple of years ago when our Bishop of just two years had to move and I felt like I might be on a short list to be called as the next bishop began because I have been in there Bishop brick and it had been a few years since I'd served as a bishop so I made an appointment with the state president who's a friend and lives in our Ward I didn't share with him my concerns about the church but I did tell him that I didn't think this was a good time for me to take a major calling like being a bishop he was surprised and I'm sure disappointed Carter was really upset that I would do such a thing and she also noticed that I wasn't burying my testimony in church at fast and testimony meeting we call that and I just told her that I I could bear my testimony at the end of my gospel doctrine lessons I think she bought that we've talked about that since I've been saying this and I'm not sure she does but this has gone on now for a couple of years and the Christmas 2010 the kids are asking Carla what's the matter with that he seems miserable he doesn't seem himself she told him that she or she told me or them I'm sorry that she had been noticing the same thing for some time and then she started asking me if anything was wrong and at first of course I said no nothing's wrong but eventually I started saying well there is something but I don't want to talk about it I was really afraid to bring it out to bring it out in the open I kept it all to myself I never talked to anybody about it but if you know Carla and I do she's persistent and she started saying well are you gonna tell me next week how are you gonna tell me tomorrow how about today finally about after about six weeks she finally got me cornered and I told her that it was a big thing and it was even perhaps life-altering for us I didn't know what to expect I told her I wasn't sure anymore that the church was true that Joseph Smith was a prophet and it was the first time I'd ever verbalized you know and once you verbalize something it kind of becomes yours now they've brought it out in the open and but I she was willing to listen and the first thing those she did was took her book of Mormon and held it to her chest and bordered testimony about the Book of Mormon Joseph Smith and the church and I kind of expected her to do that that was just fine but she was willing to listen and I shared with her some of these scriptures and some other documentation that I had and I praise God that she has now had her own born-again experience and that she is on a great journey with me in Christ so I appreciate that [Applause] we did have to consider our temple marriage however and we just have hope in Christ that whatever he has planned for us as a man and a woman will be greater than we can possibly imagine and I hope you have that same faith too that it will be something for you well I called an old friend I didn't want to leave any stone unturned I called an old friend who is an institute director again I didn't really want to make I want to make sure I covered there all my bases and I asked him if he could help us maybe with some of these doctrinal problems and he came to the house for three weeks in a row but he didn't really have any answers I covered the changes in the Book of Mormon the first vision and this Book of Abraham thing and his council was is that we just shouldn't read about it that was his best suggestion well we were disappointed in that and I also met with a church historian you're gonna love this he said that he knows about these things but he puts him on a shelf and I said to him well I know people look up to you and respect you you're a church historian when you say something they figure you've studied maybe they haven't but you they figure you have when they when you share your testimony and your story they trust you well he said this to me I know what I need to say when I bear my testimony and I know what they expect to hear and he advised me not to leave the church because of all the good fruit it does now I can't judge this man I don't know what God has in store for him but I do know how God feels about hypocrites and I was afraid for him and I'm afraid I was afraid for myself anyway I began sharing with my family and friends and I kind of expected everybody to react the same way Carla did I thought they were going to be shocked at first and then they were gonna say well Jiro we know you you're a good guy you've been active in the church so tell us what you learned well you might not be surprised but that's generally not what's happened they think we've been we've lost the Spirit the gleam is out of our eye Satan's deceived us and I've led Karla astray we have four children to her Christian now and to her active LDS I have four sisters who were in the church and to her out and Karla has one sister who is active in the church but praise God she's been listening to us the last week or two and we've been patient this last year and she's starting to see things just a little clearly more clearly and I we appreciate that and are grateful but in my ignorance and my pride I didn't know that I didn't know Jesus because again when you talk to a Mormon they know Jesus they believe in him but it's not the same Jesus and I have lots of scriptures to explain that to a latter-day saint but somewhere in 2010 even before I told Carla I got a red letter Bible I felt that was important I wanted to read just the words of Jesus and see what he said and of course he doesn't mention anything about temple ordinances or Melchizedek Priesthood or baptism for the dead no marriage for time and all eternity his message was love and I've got them with these scriptures and and this was an important one for me again the LDS will look at this and will I don't know how we interpret it so poorly but it says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God this scripture was so impactful for me mainly because we in the Mormon Church do not believe we in the Mormon Church tea with the Mormons don't believe that they're going to see God or that we'll get to see God unless you're baptized into the church and if you really want to get somewhere you have to go to the temple and be married for time and all eternity so this scripture is anti-mormon because they don't get to see God the next one it's a long one you know it it's Moses lifted up the servant serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and the last one and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent again when sometimes when you talk to a Mormon and you talk about being saved or you have salvation they're talking about resurrection but eternal life and everlasting life that's something else that is what they believe is living with God and those scriptures indicate that the Bible believes that we if we believe we will return to God and that's what I believe now but I didn't understand these scriptures as a latter-day Saint well it was conference about a year ago Carl and I decided to go to Shawn's Bible study it seemed harmless enough because it wasn't really a church and it was on the U of U campus so we felt like we could do it we really never thought that we'd ever enter a Christian Church with a cross on it we met Shawn after the service and he put his arms around us and if you know him he's kind of a big guy put his arms around us and prayed right in front of everybody and we were shocked we'd never done that before and I must say blessed pastor Rick he and his group over here in the Bible our prayer area prayed with with me last night and this morning and put their hands on me and we just don't do that in the Mormon Church and prayed for me that I would be able to deliver this message and and have the spirit with me and and they take turns or many of them that feel prompted as you know in the Christian world we just don't pray like that as Mormons it's it's really wonderful I appreciated it well for a while then we attended both our home ward and our Bible study we started reading John our eyes opened we couldn't get enough of the scriptures I'm sure you've gone through this too we cried when we read new scriptures well we thought they were new I think somebody plugged new scriptures into my Bible somewhere I I I really believe that I had somebody came in and put in new scriptures because they weren't there before and I think I look but I sure never read them but we began looking at a different way Jesus in a different way I'm fast Sunday in May we sat there listening to testimonies and we knew that these good honest loving latter-day saints didn't know their own history or even their own gospel and certainly didn't know the true gospel of Jesus Christ and it was hard to listen to I so I think the next week was Mother's Day and that was our last Sunday we learned a couple of months later that everybody wondered what happened to Roland Carla in fact the bishop told us that he had a few people come up and think that thought that we had missed there are that they had missed the Earth scans missionary farewell that we'd gone on a mission and they'd missed the missed the meeting but we had lots to learn we didn't know or understand the nature of God who Jesus is and what he truly did for us we didn't understand grace works the law we didn't appreciate the Bible we had little regard for Paul and his missionary work we didn't understand or appreciate the cross and I can't believe how blind we've been all these years well the November last year our state president decided to hold a court and primarily because of a 17 minute presentation I made on Sean McRaney show and he met with us in the foyer told us not to say anything about what we believed and we were a little taken aback by that because I had a whole presentation prepared I was ready to go but he sat there he defined apostasy with the reason that I was surprised is because nothing in that video is truly anti-mormon I mean conclusions might be but all the scriptures and all the you know everything you've seen tonight but today is straight out of church stuff so I was interested in what he was going to do with us but he defined apostasy and then asked us individually if we believed in Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon and President Monson we told him no and then we were excommunicated later not too many days later we began to think that we had been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and no one ever asked us about our relationship with Jesus Christ I thought that was so telling it was all about the church in fact we heard a little thing the other day that said if you take Christ out of Christianity I'm sorry Christ out of Mormonism what have you got you still got Mormonism but if you take Christ out of Christianity you don't have anything you have nothing I thought that was very telling and we were baptized as Christians on March 10th 2012 [Applause] and without too much disrespect for my dear LDS friends I truly believe that Joseph Smith added another gospel either by his genius or some other influence he changed the gospel of grace into one of works and he did other things too numerous to mention now but subtly turn our heads away from Jesus instead of the Bible he gave us the Book of Mormon instead of the cross he gave us Moroni to look up to anyway this is the last graphic in Galatians Paul warns us warns the Galatians print some would pervert the gospel of Christ but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that we which we have preached unto you let him be accursed and he repeats it as we said before so say I now again if any man preach any got other gospel unto you that that ye have received let him be accursed I had never considered that scripture very important I figured I don't know why in fact that may have been one that got plugged into my new Bible I'm not sure because Jesus and Paul and Peter they never talked about some of this stuff anyway it was just kind of shocking and it kind of added to I guess what what I'm trying to say too is that I I lived a good life as a Mormon and I thought that was what God wanted me to do but I didn't know Jesus I didn't know his gospel and when I started having questions about the church and came to the conclusion that it that it wasn't true I still didn't have any consideration that I needed to be a Christian I wanted but I what my heart was open and I allow God to show me to guide me and he allowed me to turn turn my life to him and to open the Bible and so I love the cross it represents Jesus's shed blood and his sacrifice I love the Bible as God's words to us I love Jesus as my Lord and Savior you know the Mormons just can't get out of the garden and come to the cross perhaps you've heard that before but I reverence that God would be willing to come to the earth and be sacrificed to to be buried and be resurrected and do for me again what I could not do for myself I don't know why God moved in me the way he did I can see looking back little things that he did I started oil painting about nine years ago I don't know how many of you paint or have painted but you actually have to have your eyes opened to see that and I think as I'm looking back now god help me you have to see color and veils of atmosphere and shadows and light you may not realize this but the sky is not always one color of blue and clouds and snow are usually not white and grass is not always just green and I think God allowed me to learn that my eyes could be opened and yet they wouldn't see and I believe that this experience helped me as a Mormon because I was looking at things as a Mormon but my eyes weren't opened and I praise God so much that he's been willing to allow me to have the courage and whatever it's been I give him credit that he's allowed me to have my eyes open and that I can see I don't know if I mentioned this at the beginning and I meant to this is the third Christian talk I've given the earlier the further the second one was two hours ago and the first one was last night so and I thank you for coming on this day and this Sunday and spending your time with me and being willing to share my story I know again the joy we have is to serve to worship Jesus and that's what it's all about and I hope that you've received that partly in my message I know that there are some negatives to this but it also I hope gives those of you that may have left the church and become Christian that there's another brother here who believes as you do and if you're still LDS or questioning the church I just ask you to be patient to turn it over to God open the Bible and allow Him to work a miracle in your life I love you all and I appreciate your participation today and thank you [Applause] [Applause]

Channel: Ex-Mormon Files

Views: 24,342

Rating: 4.5819211 out of 5

Keywords: lds, bishop, earl erskine, mormon, testimony, born again, calvary chapel, idaho falls

Id: HXx2Nb09RCo

Length: 44min 56sec (2696 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2012