My first exposure to serious anti-Mormon materials and attitudes happened while I was serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was offered an exchange; you read this pamphlet about your Church, I'll read The Book of Mormon passages you leave for me.
It seemed like a fair trade to me. I was asking a stranger to do something. It seemed fair that I should be willing to do the same. I'd been taught my whole life to seek out knowledge and understanding. This seemed like a logical trade.
The pamphlet contained a lot of information I hadn't seen before; Joseph Smith and Polygamy, various theories on how The Book of Mormon was translated (or plagiarized), various quotes from Brigham Young, ceremonies that may or may not happen in the Temple.
As a 19 year old young man, with a high school diploma and 3 weeks of missionary training, this new information was shocking. And in 2004 there wasn't ready access to the internet or materials to research the claims I was reading and compare them to what I believed. After a week of study and prayer, I didn't have any answers, other than a stubborn insistence to hold onto my faith in Jesus Christ. It bothered me, and led to weeks of uncertainty and doubt that I had t work through.
When I returned to this individual for our follow-up meeting, they had not read The Book of Mormon passages we had left, and were surprised that I had read the pamphlet and not immediately abandoned my missionary efforts. This scene would play out time after time; critics of the Church offering an information exchange, only to fail to keep their end of the bargain.
It's been more than 20 years since this experience, and my testimony of Jesus Christ and His Restored Gospel has only grown stronger. I learned that I don't have to have all the answers, but I do need to place my trust in Jesus Christ, continue to study and pray, and to seek answers from God, who is the objective source for all truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment