The Search for Truth and Religious Understanding

My parents were Christians and good people in every way that I can remember.  They valued the important things in life.  My great-grandfather on Dad's side and one of his sons were Assembly of God preachers. My mother's family were Methodists and church going people. While we attended church my brothers and I weren't raised with a focused education regarding a Christian belief system.  

I was curious and desirous to know about eternal things and did believe, but I didn't know who or what God was. Our family attended Methodist and non-denominational churches on a sporadic basis when I was growing up. My mother died when I was eight. This caused me to wonder about God, family relationships and eventually about what the truth was.  

My earliest recollection of God was from the front page of the church program at the Methodist church in Caldwell, Idaho.  It showed a picture of a Christlike figure without a body but a trail of light and stardust.

I learned to prayer saying memorized prayers that many have heard.  "Now I lay me down to sleep" and another one for the food and the Lord's Prayer from the Bible. I didn't have a personal understanding as to how we might be connected to God. 

When I was 6 we moved to Grandview Idaho. One of our babysitters was a Latter-day Saint and talked a lot about her church. She told us how it was different from other churches, even that it was the true church. I remember asking my dad about it and he said that all churches were the really the same. 

Over the next 5 or so years I would meet other Latter-Day Saints in this small farming community in Southwest Idaho but I was young and not much interested. Just going to our church when we did was a chore. My brother attended their Primary class with some friends but I never did. Her words about a true church lingered with me though.

When we moved to Boise, I met more members of the church and became aware of some of their teachings. I went to church with some friends when I was about 16.  I learned about how they were not supposed to use tobacco or drink alcohol. I heard about their doctrines of living prophets like in the Bible and the principle of eternal marriage, families, and temples. 

I had never heard such teachings from orthodox Christian ministers about eternal marriage. I quickly realized that many things I had been told about the Latter-day Saints were not true and that those that had tried to dissuade me were seriously misinformed.  

The Christian churches that I attended taught that marriage was until death do you part as fundamental orthodox theology. Over the years I have asked many people what they thought about family relationships and most claim some hope that their family relationships continue after death. This is not however what orthodox Christianity teaches.  

I made a discovery in the process of learning these things. Every doctrinal teaching and practice in mainstream Christianity is based on opinions of Bible scholars, not revelation or affirmation from God. It is their conclusions as to what they think the Bible teaches.

Christian sectarianism is based on the philosophies and opinions of individuals that study the Bible. There are many divisions because some don't agree with other Bible-based teachers. The Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are founded in direct revelation from God to prophets, the same as the pattern found in the Bible.

Most Christians are not familiar with the basic tenets of their own fundamental mainstream Christian theology. The church doctrines give the strongest assurance that I know of that marriage and family relationships can indeed continue with the bonds of family love increasing in the eternities.  

As I learned basic beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, living prophets and the doctrine of eternal families, I found answers to questions that the sectarian ministers could not answer with any logical sensibility. Where did we come from, why are we here on earth and what happens after we die?  

Trinitarian ministers say life and God are a mystery and God left it to us to figure out. They say that the Bible is perfect but that no person, minister or scholar understands it perfectly. This is one reason there are so many churches.  My personal view was that if there was one God over us all, why would he have more than one church? 

When I was 17 years old I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many of my questions were answered and God confirmed the truth of it to me through the power Holy Ghost. This is a pattern explained in the Bible.  It is part of the process of being born again spiritually. Before that time I had no idea as to how God would communicate truth to me. 

I have observed convincingly that he loves us and will reveal the truth to us. I have seen prayers answered in my life and in others in many ways hundreds of times. Truth, help, and guidance can be communicated to us that is consistent with truth already revealed and authority that exists to receive it.  Such is the Lord's church regarding theological teachings and authority to administer the Church. 

The churches of men have no such authority. Mainstream Christianity, Protestantism is essentially a rejection of the Catholic church and continuing disagreement among Bible Scholars as to how they should teach and preach.

Some tried to tell me I was not informed enough about religion, that Mormons were not Christians, but a cult and other misleading things as well to dissuade me.  Now after 45 years I have been well assured and know with absolute certainty their suppositions were not correct and they were misinformed.  

These long-standing myths about the church still persist in the modern era. Everything in the church, Sunday attendance and worship, the temple, tithing and any participation in any respect is voluntary. There is no paid clergy and there have been 16 prophet-leaders in the history of the church.  There is no personality other than Jesus Christ at the center of our beliefs.  

This video explains how the church began.  It is a principle we can all use to discover the truth.

I have watched how our membership in the church has blessed our lives with happiness through understanding our purpose. I served a two-year mission to Argentina when I was 19. I have married in the temple 39 years ago. My children have chosen to be married in the temple as well. Six have served missions, my five sons-in-law have served missions. 

I have also known hundreds of members and observed thousands of people in the church. Millions of others have had experiences similar to mine as we witness the effects of the gospel teachings and living them. 

I have served in many callings and currently from primary and Nursery teacher with my wife, serving a local service mission and a temple ordinance worker in the Mesa Arizona Temple. As I look back over my experience with the church, the temple and the doctrines of Christ and eternal families that are associated with it, I feel an extreme amount of gratitude.