"How I Came To Jesus" Reviewed

 This article is Paul Gee's oldest on the site, originally uploaded to his website, "Daily Christian Devotionals", in mid-January 2016. My review and response series will work through each of his articles about "Mormonism" chronologically (with occasional jumps to his more present articles as needed), offering commentary on his observations, answers to his questions, and corrections to where he misconstrues LDS teaching or thought. Paul's original spelling and grammar will be preserved.

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It was the summer of 2012 that I started having doubts about the LDS (Mormon) Church. That summer, I was away from my family at a remote job in Nebraska. I was there for five months but still went to church for most of it. The LDS Ward I went to never really fellowshipped me, minus the Bishop one Sunday.  The people never said Hi to me during the meetings and I always sat alone. This gave me time to think to myself if the church I had been raised in all my life was true or not. If it was true, then why didn’t anybody show love towards me.

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It's truly tragic that someone attending a ward should feel unwelcome, given that members of the church should always strive to welcome all, despite any differences; to be inclusive and loving; and to show true Christlike love to all people. This experience of Paul's seems all too common among members of the church who are unwilling to put themselves outside of their comfort zone and be welcoming and loving to strangers in their midst. To my estimation, however, this is an issue of culture, not doctrine.

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While feeling alone, I decided to do some research on the church. I found out different things about Joseph Smith, the first prophet, and more about the Church that I never knew before.

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As an aside, there is never an issue with exploring church history and teaching. It is encouraged, and as time moves forward there are increasingly abundant resources for doing so.

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That Joseph Smith had over forty wives and even married kids as young as fourteen. In that relationship, Joseph Smith was thirty seven years of age. This relationship would be considered illegal, and if their were sexual relations it would be called “Statutory rape”.

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While potential estimates can reach as high as Paul describes, the historical evidence can permit a more conservative 29-35 wives. Just as well, and will likely be detailed in later posts, to simply use the term "marriage" is to do a disservice to describing the nature of these unions. The only woman Joseph was ever civilly wedded to was Emma Smith. Plural marriages took place only in a religious context, in which women were sealed to Joseph to be his wives in the hereafter. (A parenthetical note: I am still engaged in studying the history and theology of Joseph Smith's polygamy; forgive me if I've been too brief for your liking, and if you've any correction, please send me a message or an email.)

Regarding Paul's charging Joseph Smith with illegal relations and potentially statutory rape, this is simply inaccurate and terribly dubious. The legal age of consent in American laws at the time of Joseph Smith were based on the much older English Common Law, ranging between the states from 10-12 years of age. Should sexual relations have occurred in Smith's marriage-sealing relationships with those under the age of 18, they would not have been deemed "statutory rape" due to consent laws of the time. Even the youngest of his plural wives, Helen Mar Kimball, met the legal marriageable age in Nauvoo at the time of their sealing. Most of all, there is no evidence that Joseph Smith ever consummated plural marriages with any of his wives that were under the age of 17: an age within even modern consent laws.

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I learned that Joseph Smith had three versions of the first vision.

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Joseph did not have "three versions of the first vision". Rather, there are multiple instances where he told his experience and it was then recorded. The nature of these accounts generally seem dependant on the audience he was addressing, where more intimate details are given to more intimate audiences.

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That the Book of Abraham was found to be a false translation.

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The Book of Abraham has not been "found to be a false translation". What has happened, is that of the minority percentage of the papyrus scrolls rediscovered and returned to the church, the source document for the text of the Book of Abraham has not been a part. Critics take this to say that the Book of Abraham is thus a fabrication, but until all of the papyrus scrolls purchased by the Church in the 1830s are recovered, it cannot be determined for certain that "the Book of Abraham was found to be a false translation."

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After this point, doubts were swirling in my mind.

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To feel this way when encountering unfamiliar information that challenges one's assumptions is completely normal. We think that what we believe we know is the truth; when something challenges what we think we know, we are cognitively shaken up.

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To top it off, for all my life I always felt that I had to be in a super quiet place to be close to the Spirit.

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In my opinion, this is a misconception found among those who hold a childlike understanding of the Holy Ghost's role as revelator through the title "The Still, Small Voice". In efforts to explain the role and function of the Spirit to children, we have a tendency to simplify without expounding as the hearer gets older and develops greater capabilities to understand more complex ideas. This is a deficiency in the people, not the doctrine.  

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That I needed to obey the ordinances and laws of the Mormon Church to be saved.

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The meaning of "saved" or "salvation" is more complicated than Paul explains here. In reference to the "ordinances and laws", these are believed to be given by God through His prophets to the members of His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the purpose of blessing those who obey God's instruction with eternal life, alternatively known as exaltation. It follows that these commandments would be taught alongside knowledge of the promised blessings. Other meanings of the term "salvation" in LDS thought may be explained in a later article.

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That I needed to pray to Heavenly Father and not Jesus for answers.

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Latter-Day Saints believe that Jesus Christ Himself instructed His followers to pray only to the Father, and to do so in the name of Christ. See 3 Nephi 18:18-20

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Because of this, I was never close to Jesus and never had Him in my heart, even though I searched for Him. I was always hoping each Sunday that sermons would be on Jesus, but instead most of the time they were on the Temple or Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was taught more often than Jesus it seemed. If it was one thing that led me out of Mormonism it was the lack of Jesus and the bible in the church. Everything else just topped it off.

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This is simply my observation: I think it is most likely that this statement and reminiscence is biased by Paul's antagonistic attitude towards the Church and its teachings, and demonstrable misunderstanding of LDS doctrine and thought (which may very well have come about by Paul's actions that will be discussed below). Paul's hope would be fulfilled theoretically every Sunday meeting, as all things in the Gospel point to Jesus Christ; the Atonement of Jesus Christ underpins every key doctrine and practice of the LDS faith tradition. Furthermore, the 66 texts of the bible have been and are a major focus of Church scriptural usage, occupying two years of the Church's four-year scripture study curriculum. 

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In 2012, I really started having doubts about the church and went to many websites looking for anti-Mormon literature.

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Paul, from the outset that he has described here, took an immediate route to justify his leaving the church. There really are two paths to take when encountering theological difficulties: you either face the difficulties by searching for resolutions or you flee from the difficulties by abandoning your challenged theology.

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In January 2013, I came to a realization that the church was false.

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I would alter the word "realization", perhaps replacing it with "belief". Alternatively, it could be stated that Paul came to a realization that he believed the church was false. 

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I hated the fact that I went to a church that gives praise to Joseph Smith in song.

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I cannot speak to the legitimacy of Paul's feeling hatred over this aspect of the church, but I can state that he conflates "praise" with "worship" incorrectly.

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So after deciding to no longer attend the Mormon church I decided to share my findings with my Mormon friends and family.  In that time, I felt an urgency to tell everyone I knew about the research I found.  Because of the way I came at them with my findings, my message may not have taken as being loving.  Many family members didn’t want me to come over any longer. Even when there were special family gatherings I was not welcome.

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It's saddening to hear that Paul and his family have had their relationship strained. I hope that in the time since this was written, that familial relationship has been mended some.

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Then in 2014 I discovered Dave Bartosiewicz YouTube Channel, and Calvary Chapel via a Roku App and on live TV. I loved how Dave’s YouTube Channel was geared to bring Mormons to Jesus.

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Dave Bartosiewicz's YouTube channel description is: "This is a site that helps former Mormons to understand their religion better." It would not seem that this is geared toward bringing Mormons to Jesus, but a more careful examination of his video content will be required to determine the accuracy of Paul's interpretation of Bartosiewicz's channel content.

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So I watched it as often as I could. I also watched the Calvary Chapel worship sermons as often as I could. However, I was just scared to go to Calvary Chapel by myself so I never went at that time. In February 2015, I decided to make the first steps of my faith to God and go to a church. That Sunday, I finally went to a Calvary Chapel. The first time I set foot in it my heart began to swell inside of me. The praise music was so amazing and I couldn’t believe how wonderful I felt inside. I had been searching for so long for Jesus and finally found Him. Last year I was still fighting the flesh and getting over bad habits before giving my life to Jesus. Then in November I felt a change in my life from God, so I told the Lord that I wanted to be committed to Him.  I started reading the Bible daily and praying often.  On December 6th 2015 I gave my life to Jesus and got baptized. Since then I’ve devoted my life to Him. I’ve been writing a daily devotional on my website and posting them on Facebook ever since. I want to always have Jesus in my heart. Because of this reason, I want others to draw closer to Jesus like I have. Jesus is my all and His love is amazing.

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Here we find that Paul's catharsis seems to be his motivation for evangelism. While I am glad for his overcoming the negative emotions associated with a faith crisis, I do disagree with his endpoint and the outreach he attempts to the Latter-Day Saints.

(Paul Gee's original article can be found here.)