Leaving Mormonism - Lynn Wilder Part 1

maybe you're going to struggle every single day of your life with the situation that you have but maybe you wouldn't yell at your kids but you got them Hey okay but it's so true it's like what do people say about so judgmental change and now instead of judging when you believe the Bible and the Bible alone I said that's what we live for is just this one all right good morning to those of you that are in Phoenix we are super glad you're with us today for those of you that are joining us online apps Roku or YouTube we're glad you're with us today also if you don't know if you're brand new to Bible study today we're having a special event what what our goal is for this Bible study is to make sure people can watch and listen and learn Bible anytime anywhere so that's kind of our motto here that's the reason why we have apps for your phone if you have a phone you can download our women's Bible study app we're always the bright pink box you can watch anything we've got hundreds of videos that we've been doing over the last lots and lots of years roku if you have a TV some people have a Roku box you can watch this on there we have a channel online women's Bible study calm or YouTube a lot of people watch on YouTube so we are so happy that you are here today for our truth matters series because I think that this series is probably one of the most important things that we will ever do because we live in this crazy world that everyone has their own truth they're saying well if I believe it then it's true if my church tells it to me then it's true and and when it's all said and done we sit down and say okay is there really a truth and if so what is the truth about God or what's the truth about Jesus or what's the truth about salvation because what is at stake is our eternal destiny where we go after we die our last speaker our first speaker for this was Josh McDowell and he gave this definition of truth and it really like changed the way I thought about everything he said how you know truth is truth has to be the same as the original so if I came up we had a some stuff our computers were fighting this morning and linds won so I have everything up there maybe I want to have but I had a picture of a blue crayon and it was it's like when Crayola made this blue crayon to begin with this is the original so if I came to you with an orange crayon and I said this is blue we'd say well no it's not and it would say but I believe this is the truth so that this is blue and we're like no it's not because you have to go back to the original and see what the original has to say so for our Bible study we say that the Bible is the original you're talking about authors over 40 different authors that wrote 66 books over 1500 years it is the only look that God takes that says this is mine I wrote it the Holy Spirit inspired it so it so anything is if this is our baseline this is like our blue crayon and anything that comes in outside of this with a different message we have to think that that has to be untruth somewhere along the line there has to be a truth and and the Bible has to be it's been here you know for a very long time this is what the Bible says here's a couple verses that won't go up on the screen but you'll know this jesus said this I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me Jesus made it very clear that there's no religion there's no nothing that you can get to God through and less us through Jesus acts 4:12 says there is salvation in no other and when Jesus says that he says I am the truth we have to sit up and start listening anything outside of what this word says we have to be concerned about here's where we're gonna start and I'm just gonna read you just four verses in Galatians and then we'll bring Lynn up Galatians Paul was teaching the gospel he was telling people about Jesus and then there was one church that started hearing things that were untruth and Paul was shocked and this is what he said I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and you're turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ here's the key but if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you let him be a kernel II condemned Paul was so shocked that this was going on that he repeats that same statement twice as we have already said I said if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted which is Jesus loan for salvation not a church not a religion let him be eternally condemned that's the basis for where we're going off today so I would love for you to meet miss little Wilder come on up here I wanted to tell you to Michael where are you is he he's around the back with a jack okay Michael is her husband he's really really smart we're so happy to have you here if you need to talk to Lynne or Michael afterwards they're both kind of brainiacs when it comes to this all right yeah so I'm not so good with fashion but you're much better at that ah do you mind if I just pray for a moment every time God sends me somewhere he's doing something in that place he is an amazing God he's in our circumstances he's in our prayers he's in our lives he's in our homes he loves us and he is on the move thank you Lord for the profound changes you have made in my life and in the lives of all the believers in this room take us back to that fresh place Lord where you first salvation first came to us and we realized we were bound and then we were free Lord to help us to go back there many times help us to articulate how wonderful it is to be on one side and then to be on the other side that as we show up in heaven someday that many many many will come along with us because we were bold enough to speak your word in the name of Jesus amen amen amen when Lisa asked me to do this particular truth matters title truth to me now was Jesus that's all I think about when I think about truth Jesus is the word he put together his word that word is reliable that word is truth they're all kind of tied up together right most of you know that I'm of former Mormon 30 years very very very active the first thing I want to say is that we love our God made these people our people we love the sweet Mormon people they are by and large kind people they're friendly people they're helpful and quite they're fairly politically conservative their moral values are are often really good there are many things that we have in common and many reasons to love these good Mormon people a couple of years ago Micah our son who got saved on his Mormon mission has a relationship with Kirk Cameron now and Mike and I had the opportunity to have dinner with Kirk it was very interesting were sitting at the table right and he puts like a sugar bowl in the middle of the table and he says this is traditional Christianity and then he's got salt and pepper shakers and stuff and he says okay this is Hinduism this is Islam this is Mormonism where do you put that from traditional Christianity so I arranged all the things where I thought they were and I put Mormonism right out here on the edge of the table and he was a little surprised I think he said why would you do that and I said well is it Islam after the elect is Hinduism after the elect or is Mormonism making an effort to operate within the body of Jesus that even the elect might be read um might go astray think about that for a minute it looks a lot like biblical Christianity but is it and does that matter or do you just say either good people leave him alone right that was certainly how people treated me for thirty years that you know our life looks good Mike and I were so active in Mormonism that I eventually was a tenured professor at Brigham Young Mike and I worked in the Chicago temple for 10 years so we're aware of all those temple ordinances I had a regional position at one point he had a regional position at one point he was a high priest all three of our sons served LDS missions we taught early-morning seminary and we were co-chairs of the Redeem the Dead Committee which means we were responsible for taking people to the temple that was one of our very last calling in the Mormon Church I only say this not out of pride but to show you how active we are were how very much we believed this and how amazing our God is you know someone said to me once it's as if God says you see those people over there they are never coming to Jesus you know they've got a good life they they think they know what they believe how many times have you looked at neighbors and friends and thought there's no way they'll accept Jesus right let me tell you no one is outside of the grace if I can come to Jesus there's no one outside of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and and please know that and don't be afraid to be bold about the gospel love love love this verse in second Timothy God saved us and called us to a holy calling now this is not just for me this is for you not because of my works but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave in Christ Jesus before the ages began he knew before the ages began that you would be one of his sheep that you'd hear his voice and he gave you a particular purpose in being here I know sometimes that's hard to absorb but certainly my life is a crazy example of what God had in mind not what I had in mind this is a few years back you like those pants Mike and I'd been married three years and we were looking for church he'd been raised Baptist and I'd been raised Presbyterian Mike had never surrendered his life to Jesus I didn't know I had to in the Presbyterian faith and I never opened the word went to church every week but my parents did not open the word I could not have told you how you got saved I kind of had heard a Prophet's I kind of heard of the Cross you know and that's about all I knew about my faith Mormon missionaries came by told us they were the latter days experts Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints I sconnie interested in Hell Lyndsey's latter days book you know and off we marched into Mormonism there is actually the Wilders getting baptized within a probably a year or so we went to the temple now Mike always says this is a Washington DC temple we in Indiana at the time Mike says now don't get the idea that we went into the temple and came out with three children that's not that's not how it works but the temple was about 13 hours from our house in Indiana and we were asked by the Mormon Church to go twice a year it was a big sacrifice for us financially but we took a babysitter left them all in the hotel and Mike and I would go do long days in the Mormon temple now my life I think began to change in 1990 I did not know that God could speak to a human being I'm a strong Mormon I'm Relief Society president I'm taking care of my husband's parents I have four young children and I have a part-time job and homeless shelter I go to bed one night and 2:00 a.m. I hear someone call my name Lynne bolt upright I did not know the story of Eli and Samuel I just kind of figured this was some kind of freaky dream couldn't go to sleep the rest of the night next night 2:00 a.m. Lynne next night 2:00 a.m. Lynne nextly 2:00 a.m. Lynne this went on for 14 nights in a row now I'm exhausted and as the Mormon I'm supposed to be very polite to Heavenly Father but you know what I was a little angry and so at the end of 14 nights about 6:00 in the morning on my knees I remember saying look if you have something to tell me just tell me because I can't stay up another night I heard I need for you to go back to school now Mormon women are not supposed to work and the Prophet had just told us not to work in fact the fact that I worked a day and a half in a homeless shelter was such a problem for the women under me in Relief Society they've gone above me complained and said they couldn't support me because I wasn't following the Prophet now here's a conundrum my prophets telling me to do one thing and yet I've had this strange experience that might be God but how know if it is right tell me to do the exact opposite I honestly didn't trust that it was God but I did go and take one doctoral class and I absolutely hated it so I didn't go back a couple of years later I was in a horrific automobile accident and I was laid up for about a year and a half and I went to therapy a couple three times a week and I'd lie on that therapy table and that same kind of impression kept saying remember I told you to go back to school now think this through in light of that scripture purpose for a purpose for a purpose would you have had me here today if I didn't have the BYU professor name on the back of that God created that story God sent me back to school God got me hired at BYU and when the time was right he called us out this Skoda's rocked my world rocked my world and it all started because one of my missionary said he's got saved on his Mormon mission when does that ever happen right oh my goodness so here's our family back in oh when back in Utah three sons and a daughter our oldest son served a mission in Russia and Belarus very very tough mission he probably lost 50 pounds on his mission dealt with mafia and skinheads and very very tough mission it's hard on the Mormon missionaries I mean even in the United States people throw bottles at their heads sometimes scream at him they're in a call tell him to get off my doorstep and never come back you know it's it's tough Matt our second son served in Denmark Michael our third son was headed to Mexico City on his mission because that's where the Mormon prophet had decided he was going and instead of going to Mexico he went to the hospital now house Ellis was mica for Mormonism look at his hospital gown look what spin do is he's in the emergency room and he's got he's a little you know missionary thing going on well I was a little worried because what happens now with his bad health he probably can't go to Mexico City what's going to happen to his belief in our prophet right was the Prophet wrong Micah ended up this is a scripture that describes my entire family and Mormonism at the time Paul's talking about the Jews my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God I can tell you I had a zeal for the Mormon God Micah had a zeal for the Mormon we all did but not according to knowledge that's what that Bibles for but not according to knowledge for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own righteousness right thinking that my works made a difference thinking that I could live the commandments thinking that I could be righteous enough to get a temple recommend thinking that I could do enough works that His grace might kick in at the end of life which is exactly what islam teaches same thing as Mormonism right and seeking to establish my own righteousness I did not submit to God's righteousness I had no clue how big God was so Micah ended up in the happiest place on earth in Orlando Florida there he is middle the Bible Belt bumping up against evangelicals who knew their Bible how cool is that well to make a long story short Micah ends up reading the New Testament a dozen times while on his Mormon mission why well he was so zealous for Mormonism that he tried to convert pastors and then sometimes they talk to him like like this particular Baptist pastor when he was about three months out told him that was a wonderful thing he had taught but it wasn't exactly the gospel that Jesus had taught in the Bible nor his apostles and so he opened to Ephesians 2:8 and 9 saved by grace not by works lest any man should boast Micah said he had never seen that verse before and it really got him thinking and then the pastor challenged him to read the Bible as a child with no preconceived notions he had no intention of do that the only reason he was going to read the Bible was to prove the Christians wrong and to have ammunition to do so right oh man he actually says that he was supposed to read study the Book of Mormon in the morning and he did study the Book of Mormon but he got up sometimes in the hour early before his missionary companion Micah the Bible the Holy Ghost look out world right that's all it takes gets to the end of his mission three weeks before the end of his mission realizes that gospel he's been reading in the New Testament is not the gospel of Mormonism believes that he's been profoundly changed by being washed by the water of this word goes to his knees on a monday gives us life to the biblical Jesus men don't ask him questions you don't want the answer to right Lord you've so profoundly changed me who do you want me to tell and how do you want me to come forward about this change you've made in my life phone rings it's his mission president my god you're three weeks from the end of your mission we'd like you to stand in front of your fellow missionaries and bear testimony of what you've learned over the last two years how's that for God right I mean he's he's a kid he's a twenty year old kid who has a courage to stand in front of everyone well here's what happened that day his mission President had a little sense that something was up with Micah because he was only bearing testimony of Jesus and not of Joseph Smith not of the Book of Mormon you know not of the living prophet that kind of stuff so his leader did a two-hour teaching that you don't have a proper testimony if you don't say Joseph Smith you know restored the true church we have a living prophet today the Book of Mormon is true the Mormon Church is true oh and Jesus is the savior and he said all throughout that teaching his brain kept saying it's as if Jesus is some add-on at the end you know so then it's his turn and he gets up and he doesn't say anything why well Mormonism isn't true or I don't believe this anymore all he did was bear this heart felt actually tearful testimony of what Jesus who he was what he'd done on the cross for him how he his eternal life his salvation was assured and my son-in-law was a Mormon missionary in that room he says there was not a dry eye very different testimony than what they're used to but he left out the four Mormon parts two days later he gets called in by his leaders they questioned him on his faith for four hours they take his temple recommend away tell him he's not worthy to be a Mormon missionary they call him an antichrist and tell him he has the spirit of the devil and tell him they're gonna send him home and disgrace and excommunicating from the Mormon Church Mike and I are home phone call that our mozella son for God has a spirit of the devil in it this was horrific at the time right but praise God for what he does in our lives you know one of the ways he works through our lives are of course through circumstances we could not figure out how this amazing kid all of a sudden was an antichrist and we couldn't figure out why they wanted to excommunicate him because see I was taught in Mormonism I had the same God that the Christians did so I didn't see that he was professing a different God so I thought well if he's a little off and his doctrine why don't you just love him back what is this anger thing making him an example I did not leave the Mormon Church because that incident made me angry I left the Mormon Church because that son challenged his parents begged his parents please read the New Testament as a child Jesus is enough that is the motto of his ministry now I actually have some wrist bracelets over there that say Jesus is enough you know I tweeted out one day a couple years ago Jesus is enough because this is our ministry motto the Mormon Church tweeted right back you all in caps are enough and therein lies one of the major differences right either Jesus did it all and then offered it as a gift or you can do it yourself what a burden almost every faith outside of Christianity makes you do something right for salvation Mike would you show that little section of the DVD I want you to just know my son the day he walked away from his Mormon mission he started a Christian ministry and they've been in ministry now almost 12 years Adams Road is their name it's three former Mormon missionaries and one little girl out of polygamy words cannot describe the feeling of you know finally knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that you've always wanted to because I you know I had always wanted to know him and you know that was kind of the whole focus of my life up to my mission was was having a personal relationship with him but never feeling like I could really get there but reading his word for the very first time and and you know being washed clean by that word and understanding what his gospel really was that's you know that's what changed my life and and I finally for the first time in my life had this incredible personal relationship with Jesus Christ you know there was no barrier there's no man between me and him you know I I felt like you know I was with him and he was with me and he loved me and his arms are around me and it was just you know indescribable and so you know for the church to say that that you know my salvation was at stake it didn't mean anything because I I was so secure in Jesus Christ I had this relationship with him that I was so sure that that he had saved me you know from my sin by the work that he did on the cross that that you know I was I was a complete and total peace if you take Micah to lunch today and the subject of Jesus comes up you'll find tears they go out on the road four or five months out of the year and they speak in churches every night probably a hundred churches a year and he God takes him back to that fresh place of salvation and many many Mormons have come to know the Lord this is something else we're going to talk about here today there goes so here's the problem with being challenged by a Sun to read the Bible right I was taught and Mormonism the Bible wasn't reliable makes sense there are four books in Mormonism of Scripture they have the Book of Mormon right which is the most correct book on the face of the earth they'll tell you they have the pearl of great price they have the Doctrine and Covenants they say those all came directly from from Jesus and then they have the Bible but you can't really tell where it's correct and where it isn't correct so I didn't really trust the Bible and I didn't like to read it because I wanted to read the stuff that I could rely on this is called a quad they put all four of their scriptures together often they use the King James Version of the Bible this is Mormon scripture we believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it's translated correctly we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God this is what Joseph Smith said about the Bible are you getting warning flags here anytime somebody's having problem with God's Word were going off in another direction here's his Lomb angel Gabriel comes to Mohammed in a cave he actually has a horrifying scary experience that he thinks in the beginning is probably demonic right goes home tells his wife his wife says oh no that was God pretty soon the Abrahamic faith that he had started out in gets twisted we have to have additional scripture truth goes truth goes a whole different direction is this a problem the book of Galatians that Lisa was talking about a little while ago was written within 20 years of Jesus death why because pure gospel that had been preached by the Apostles was already being corrupt so corrupt that Paul had to keep writing these epistles over and over and over the people that are that we're adding to and taking away and going off in another direction truth matters well this is what Joseph Smith said about the Bible I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers hey I've even heard Christians say that or atheists say that but ignorant translators careless transcribers are designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors is that true what do you know about how they copied the Bible do you know that the Jews were so accurate and copying the Bible that if one jot or tittle was out of place in one year's time they threw out the whole manuscript do you know that when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls which were from before the time of Christ that they were an exact copy of the Jewish manuscripts that we had that were like 1,100 years later do you know that your God is able to keep his word together yeah amen this is what the Book of Mormon says about the Bible after the Bible had gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church that would be the Christian Church there are many plain and precious things taken away from the Bible which is the book of the Lamb of God and because of these things which are taken out of the gospel of the Lamb and exceedingly great many do stumble yeah in so much that Satan has great power over them and that's what I believed about the Christians and I didn't trust the Bible so this challenge from Micah was hard for Mike and myself but we loved him and we knew something had profoundly touched him and so because he challenged us we did begin to read the Bible now you know the Bible says something like thirty-eight hundred times is sort of God it's trustworthy a chopper 90 dorage so you know that it has all this power that the Holy Spirit is there yeah well this is what I started reading in the Bible heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away I'm like whoa we have a God who can put his word together keep it down through the ages like Lisa just said right sixty-six books forty authors over at least 1500 years same message consistent you've got prophecies hundreds of years later than they become fulfilled whoa my means Mormon scripture doesn't have any of that I was kind of used to scripture that didn't always make sense wasn't really Jackel didn't repeat the same message might say the exact opposite things and I began to wow this thing has power he sends it out it does it sing it's living and active you know Christians always say to me so what's the magic bullet like to convert a Mormon it's like what's the magic bullet to convert anyone just to bring them to truth right to bring them to your jesus to open the word with them and let the Holy Spirit do what it does best it's not anything we can do in our own faith in our own strength so biblical Christians need to know the evidence demonstrating the Bible's reliable and accurate when I do workshops I literally pair people up and make you practice doing I'll actually tell you what the evidences are for the Bible you need to practice being articulate telling somebody this I didn't know this in Mormonism I had Christian family I lived in Indiana that was Bible Belt there pretty much everybody I knew was traditional Christian no one told me the revival was reliable nobody told me what Jesus could do for your life we have more than 5,800 manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek alone so when Mormonism says well it might not be translated correctly if you take any one particular passage you probably have 800 copies of that same passage do you think if there's some kind of glitch or somebody made a mistake you might be able to see that if you've got 800 original manuscripts do you know that that's just in Greek alone if you look at Syriac and Aramaic and some of the other languages in the area you have 25,000 original manuscripts my goodness Lord could you make it any more overwhelming yeah 25,000 archaeological digs all kinds of prophecies fulfilled in Jesus you have linguistic evidence you have plant evidence you have animal evidence you have secular history people that weren't even Christians who wrote about Jesus and they said that other people said that he rose from the dead I mean it's just overwhelming now tell me what we have for the Book of Mormon where is the original manuscript the gold plates are gone they supposedly went back to heaven we don't have one original manuscript what about fulfilled prophecies the Doctrine and Covenants has 11 prophecies made by Joseph Smith that didn't come true that won't come true because those people are dead and it's still in the Doctrine and Covenants the Bible doesn't have any of that kind of stuff right how about archeological digs do we have any gnar archaeological dig said tell where the Book of Mormon people the place and events happened they actually have one in Israel now where they say father Lehi died or lived but that would be one to 25,000 are there any maps in the back of the Book of Mormon to show you where those things happened no the Bible has maps we know exactly where those things happened right but do we know this no when no Christian ever told me this when I was Mormon so that's not even a spiritual thing that's just kind of an evidence academic thing right a conversation that we could have how often do you sprinkle into your conversation what Jesus is able to do I developed as I began to read with Matt Micah's challenge just insatiable insatiable desire for the Bible and as it washed me you're washed by the water the word honestly I I know this is weird but I stopped caring what I looked like I stopped wearing makeup I didn't want to go to work at BYU I just want to sit in bed and read the Bible all day Mike used to say that I just sat up eating bonbons and reading a Bible all day and he had mow the yard all by himself it's very sad I love this John 10:16 my sheep hear my voice see the little sheep with the head up Mike took this in Israel that's me whoa wait a minute whoa I didn't know this was in the Bible right now here's the hard part stuff I was reading in the Bible started conflicting with what I'd been taught in Mormonism what the bookworm said what the Doctrine and Covenants said here's one of the first ones I came upon the God who made the world and everything in it is lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands Mormons believe that you were closer to God in the celestial room of a Mormon temple than anywhere else on earth that's where you go to get your prayers answered that's where I went whoa what if they read that verse what do you do with that John 6:44 no one comes to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I got this strange like feeling like I was being drawn like there was some kind of pulling going on that I wasn't responsible for now here's another one that as I'm reading through the Bible was such a conflict with Mormonism this idea that Christians had will have persecutions and trials and weaknesses and that that's actually a good thing and that God can turn it to good right that's very foreign to Mormonism this is what Mormonism teaches this is right out of the Bible or right of the bat right out of the Book of Mormon and I think this is a prosperity gospel those that keep the commandments of God behold they're blessed in all things both temporal and spiritual that means houses cars jobs good health rewards influence government positions right now think of the opposite of that if cancer comes into my life I did something wrong I've sent does that not give you a heart for the people this is such a burden this is not true truth matters this was a horrible thing for me there's this wonderful story in the book where Michael went on a ward trek they actually carried handcarts partway across the West you know like the old Mormon pioneers had done this is something a lot of Mormon youth do well they they slept outside in sheep country and Myka ended up with Rocky Mountain spotted fever and he was between life and death for about 21 days now here's the freaky thing I live in Utah in Alpine it's about 99.9% LDS and I can't get anybody to come and give him an oil anointed blessing that he needed in order to recover I literally one day Mike was out of town and I was so desperate I am pounding on neighbors doors and screaming please come give him a blessing he's gonna die and then it occurred to me they must think I I must have done something wrong or Micah or can't be Micah I must have done something wrong that's a horrendous burden so one thing I say to Christians who live in warm in territory it'd be a safe place for you Mormon neighbors let them come to you and tell you anything encourage them to talk put your arms around them pray with them over things that are weaknesses for them pray with them over things that frustrate them or they're having a hard time with or they can't seem to keep up with because they are not going to tell their Mormon friends about that because if somebody runs to their Bishop and says this lady's having a problem he might call you in you might lose your calling all kinds of things can happen might even lose eventually your temple recommend if he thinks you'd sinned or you're struggling with something your priesthood brethren kind of hold your salvation in their hands so I say if you have neighbors invite them to Bible study right vitam to your house be a safe place for them to come love on them step into those relationships don't act like they're foreign what I see often in Mormon territory is you have two parallel universes you have Christians and they all hang together you have Mormons and they all hang together sometimes they meet kind of in flight surface kind of ways but no real deep relational ways you know if you want somebody to know your God you need to know them you need to ask some questions you need to ask them about their faith you need to ask them who Jesus is to them if they have a relationship with him then you need to tell them who he is to you right this one really bothered me I had to read this over and over and over in the beginning was the word I think that's Jesus and the Word was with God and the Word was God and I went Jesus wasn't God from the beginning he worked his way to godhood so I go to my Mormon King James Version and I look in the footnotes for that verse and it takes me to a place called the Joseph Smith translation Bible I don't know if you know that Joseph Smith fixed everything that was wrong with Bible before he died and it's called the Joseph Smith translation in the Bible this is what it looks like Mormons do not use it and I didn't even know it existed except that in the footnotes of my Mormon scriptures it referred to it sometimes so I thought well I'm going to see what Joseph Smith did with John 1:1 in the beginning was the gospel preached through the son the gospel was the word and the word was with the son and the son was with God and the son was of God I don't know what that means but that's not the same as in the beginning was the word and then I realized Joseph Smith's translation changes the entire first chapter of John do you know what's in the first chapter of John the nature of God who God is do you know who God is can you articulate it it's right there in the first chapter John one of the first things Mormons will teach is a great apostasy right when the Twelve Apostles died the Mormon Church went into a past the true Church went into an apostasy and it remained in apostasy when the Catholic Church rose up that was an apostate church when the Protestants rose up those were apostate when Joseph Smith brought the true Church back that was when Jesus original Church came back now think about that for a minute that means Jesus failed set up his church and it failed do you know that in the Book of Mormon Jesus also visited the people in the Book of Mormon set up a church set up twelve apostles and that church failed when have you ever heard of Native Americans from Central America who were Christian hundreds of years ago apparently that church must have failed to Joseph Smith actually says that he's done more for mankind and that he's able to keep a church together Peter James John even even Jesus didn't do it the Joseph Smith did it and his church will be there till the end of time as I'm reading the Bible I'm learning a bunch of stuff this is right from their website it just says that when the Twelve Apostles died the church went into an apostasy right you know often when I bring up scriptures to Mormons if they're opposite want Mormonism teaches they'll say to me man I don't really trust the Bible this is what I say back do you trust the words of Jesus do you love Jesus do you believe his words and usually they'll say back to me yes and I'll say well let's look at some of the words of Jesus right so because Mormons are so sure that they know what they know I certainly was that way I don't ever say to them the Bible says you know that just goes in one ear and out the other they don't trust you first of all and they don't trust the Bible so they're not gonna listen probably so this is what I do and make them the experts treat them with respect I mean each person knows exactly about his own faith right I can't make a judgment about his faith and I say to him how you say there was a great apostasy of the church that confuses me because of something I read in the Bible that Jesus said do you mind reading that out loud to me and and explaining to me what you think it says and so this there are several verses here but I always go to the words of Jesus if I can these are the words of Jesus on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell won't prevail against it I've never met a Mormon that knew that verse was in the Bible they don't know what to do with it right what you've done is just planted the word and planted a conundrum you don't have to preach Danny buddy you've just gotten them into the word and it's the Holy Spirit that works through the word then I pray pray pray that they'll go home and look it up and see if Jesus really did say that why would he teach something exact opposite that the Mormon Church teaches why is that opposite he says the gates of Hell won't prevail against his church I make the assumption that means it's not going into a great apostasy there will be an apostasy though 2nd Thessalonians if you look that verse up and Mormons use that verse often it says there will come a falling away and the man of lawlessness will be revealed who's man of lawlessness I asked them Satan no Antichrist Antichrist right so if there's apostasy and the Antichrist are revealed at the same time do we know who the Antichrist is yet we might think but no we don't know yet then probably there hasn't been an apostasy yet makes sense I mean all these things are right in our scriptures we just have to know our word you know another thing they often teach is that they are the one true church that their prophet speaks for all men that receives revelation from Jesus for all men on the face of the earth one reason why you need to have a Mormon president the most powerful position on the earth so that Jesus then can return to rule and reign politically makes sense when your God is small and he can't blow his nostrils and his enemies are dead then man uses his organization to arrange things so is the church a body of believers or is it some organization this is something we all have to look at the Book of Mormon says that anyone who belongs not to the Church of the Lamb of God which is Mormon Church belongs to that great church which is the mother of abominations she is the of all the earth so even though I didn't realize you had another God when I was Mormon it's pretty clear in their scriptures that they're putting your God on one side and they're got on another side right and saying that your God has a route that isn't good cross do you know when I got saved my husband gave me this cross I took off the Mormon undergarments that I had worn for 30 years and I was not allowed to have this on BYU campus that's true for faculty and that's true for students and so if you've read the book unveiling grace there's this great story in the book about how I lost this cross on campus and how God gave it back to me kind of in a supernatural way and how I just bald and bald and bald because now the cross is everything to me Mormonism actually teaches that the atonement happened in the garden not on the cross but this first for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God amen what do you do with verses like that when you're Mormon I didn't know they existed and of course we're only allowed to boast in the cross these are just some of the major differences and then I started coming upon one of the teachings we do sometimes in churches is to take you through the entire New Testament look at all the false Christ's false gospel false apostle false teacher scriptures if you've never done that that's an amazing study some amazing warnings many things that point to a false face like Mormonism someone so what you have is another Jesus another spirit another gospel tells us these things of course in Mormonism we did not know oh gosh I'm so sorry I'm over time where are you dear let me close then with what happened to me I just I had to struggle through all of these kind of things until this was one of the scriptures it was really powerful for me ten months of reading the word I'm facedown I find this first these are the very scriptures that testify of me yet you refuse to come to me to have life you can do it intellectually you can know the Scriptures but if you don't know Jesus who's the author and the finisher of your faith you don't have faith I am the way the truth and the life and how do I come to know you Lord and then I hid this verse very truly I tell you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged right you've been judged already at the point of faith has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life and one cold October night after my husband and daughter had already gone to bed I lay facedown on the carpet I dread the Jews prayed face down put my arms out in the shape of a cross and I simply said these words I'm yours save me it was seven years later before I found out from my son-in-law that those words are in psalm 119 that's amazing everything changed for me it was as if the the earth became 3d and Technicolor I actually got into photography for the first time in my life everything everything changed and then God started like answering prayers and freaking me out and showing up and I called him my twilight zone and honestly there were times where I said Lord okay that's enough for now just let me kind of absorb that what kind of stuff did he did - just let me tell you one quick story I knew I was gonna have to lose leave BYU I was underground for about a year after salvation trying to work things out and kind of waiting for my husband to come along he was getting there and I'm standing in my kitchen in June of 2007 knowing I can't go back to view are you in the fall I don't have another job we've got kids in college my phone rings I'm all by myself lady on the other end says I'm the Dean of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University I have your curriculum Vita in front of me and I'd like to offer you job never happens in academia you have to apply your head there has to be a search committee I immediately dropped to my knees and put the phone out here and I remember saying you can even get me a job I never applied for you are much bigger God than I imagined right [Applause] so much so much to do right so much to tell well here are the basic differences between Mormonism and Christian faith really you have to look at who is God and how do you get reconciled to him that's basically it Lord may you multiply a million times the kind of miracle that you did in my life and my family's life I know that you are moving through the Mormon population and the Muslim and the atheist and that you are calling your remnant out for such a time as this Lord give us boldness convict us open our mouths that we might tell other people what Jesus has done in the name of Jesus amen amen let's say God I'm adding you into my equation adding you into this problem and when I got his first jeopardy just like he has a purpose for the offense that you're in he's not gonna let you down when you believe the Bible and the Bible alone I said that's what we suddenly one day you're gonna wake up you're gonna be like I really have animosity towards that person anymore but I promise you that I think today you'll be really really encouraged at the very end because I learned something I never even thought

Channel: Women's Bible Study

Views: 8,333

Rating: 4.5675673 out of 5

Keywords: Women's, Bible, Study, lynn wilder former byu professor testimony of finding jesus, testimony of finding jesus, byu professor testimony, my testimony of finding christ, lynn wilder, lynn wilder 2019, lynn wilder interview, lynn wilder testimony, lynn wilder unveiling grace, michael and lynn wilder, adam's road, born again, unveiling grace

Id: JvSV3rH-KMc

Length: 60min 33sec (3633 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2018