It Began With a Prayer

Leaving the church went rather quickly for me. My husband, then fiance, had been having issues with the church. Raised in a Christian (though not devout) home and having embraced Christianity on his own as a teenager, the Bible was the ultimate source of God's authority for him. He's very logical- and practical-minded. After six months of being a member, he was having major issues with things within the church that conflicted with all of that.

It was late September through mid-October of last year, and I was sure that he would come to see the truth of the religion, or we'd break up. Feeling so strongly about being sealed for eternity, it was hard to have a middle ground. This wasn't easy, because there was no denying that I was sure that he was supposed to be my husband, that I loved him more than enough to share my whole life with him, so those weeks were hardly pleasant. So, I turned to prayer.

I thought the prayer was going to lead things to end with me in the Mormon church still, no matter where Steven ended up, though I hoped it would lead him to stay with me and stay in the church. But I felt like I was missing something, like God was trying to tell me something. So, I started looking out for what He was trying to tell me.

Within days, everything changed.

Steven and I were discussing religion one late night, the 18th of October or so. He said something about angels. I don't know why it hit me so hard, but it struck me that the LDS teaching of angels is different from the rest of Christianity, and I suddenly wanted to know why. Not necessarily about the angels, though I did give that subject a cursory look-over. No, the reason why the LDS church was different than the rest of Christianity, and what made it more correct, was suddenly very important to me. Soon enough, the validity of Joseph Smith as a prophet became important, and I delved into that subject.

I quickly came across lists of false prophecies online, although the site that decided me listed mostly prophecies from Doctrine and Covenants. (http://www.exmormon.org/prophet.htm) I opened my scriptures, and there they were. False prophecies, with no good explanations for far too many of them.

I'm not one to try to explain away or justify things, especially if things seem pretty obvious. I've never liked the idea of blind faith. One false prophecy renders a prophet false. Logic and organization are some of the Lord's hallmarks, and false prophets don't fit into that. And I was looking at far more than just one false prophecy.

Joseph Smith made false prophecies from very early on. How was I supposed to believe he'd ever been a true prophet? Further research merely confirmed those doubts.

In just a few hours of research, I was ready to leave my faith behind. Within only two days, I was completely sure that I was out.