Looking for a place where you can explore a new and rational faith after leaving the LDS church?   Live in the Boise, Idaho area?  Be sure to check out a new non-denominational church plant at…

http://www.BoiseChristianFellowship.org

One of the things that is most striking to people when I share my story of leaving the LDS church is that nobody was witnessing to me at all at the time.  It was kind of like God just reached in and plucked us out.  What was really cool, though, were the Christians who told me after that fact that they had been praying for me and my family for years!  The power of prayer at work!

Another experience I had with prayer came at a prayer seminar I attended a while back.  The presenter asked those of us in attendance if we felt it was easier to pray for people or to evangelize them.  The unanimous answer of the group was that it was easier to pray.  He then asked if we thought it would be more effective to evangelize a people before or after they had been prayed for.  Again, the obvious and unanimous answer was that it was far more effective to evangelize a prayed-for people.  With that thought in mind, I immediately thought about the many outreach ministries that Christians have for Mormons, but how few of these are really dedicated to consistent and focused intercessory prayer on their behalf.

After spending some time in prayer myself to see if this was where God was leading me, we are now launching “The HOSANNA! Prayer Project: A Community of Christians United in Intercessory Prayer for Mormons.”  You can check it out at http://www.HosannaPrayerProject.org.  I hope you’ll consider getting involved in one of a few ways.  If you feel like praying along with us, join our email prayer team or find one of our local prayer groups to pray with.  If you are needing prayer, please let us pray for you, for your family, for your challenges.  We know how terrible the process of coming out of Mormonism can be, and we would love to be lifting you up in prayer.

http://www.HosannaPrayerProject.org

What a difference a few letters can make!  It seems the Daily Universe, Brigham Young University’s newspaper, had to call back 18,000 copies of their newspaper after an unfortunate typo made it through unnoticed.  While this is surprising in and of itself, what’s even more surprising is that the LDS community doesn’t seem to be enjoying the obvious humor of the simple mistake.  Instead, apparently some are actually putting forth the idea that somebody sabotaged the newspaper intentionally to damage the church.  Really?  I mean, read it for yourself.  It’s obviously just a typo…. and really funny!

The twelve apostles? Or the twelve... apostates!

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know about some new resources I just added to the main website;

AUDIO RESOURCE: In October of 2006 at Calvary Chapel Ontario, just months after leaving the LDS church and accepting the Jesus Christ of the Bible as my Savior, I was asked to give an impromptu testimony about my experience. The mp3 file just added to the Audio Center is a recording of the message I shared that night.
The link for the Audio Center is: http://www.lifeafterjoseph.org/streaming_audio.shtml

BOOK RESOURCES: I’ve just added a full free PDF version of the book “Life After Joseph: My Journey from Mormonism to Biblical Christianity” for download.  The link for the Books page is: http://www.lifeafterjoseph.org/books.shtml

I’ve also just added a fully interactive PDF file of the book, “The Changing World of Mormonism” by Jerald and Sandra Tanner.  If you know of the Tanners from an active LDS perspective, you may have heard that they are “anti-Mormon”.   In truth, nobody has done more research and committed more effort to revealing the accurate truth about Mormonism than this former LDS couple.  They have literally devoted their lives to trying to reach out to the LDS people with truth and information.  This e-book has been updated with active links that will take you to mostly LDS sources to verify and backup the well-researched and well-laid out information.  This is a must-read for anyone who is really ready to take a hard look at the changes and inconsistencies of the LDS religion.  Again, the link for the Books page is: http://www.lifeafterjoseph.org/books.shtml

- Brad

Hey all,

I’ve been blogging recently in a new blog space over on WordPress.  I wanted a space where I could address a little wider audience about things that really aren’t specifically related to the LDS church.  If you’re interested, you can find it at…

http://bradreedthompson.wordpress.com

I’ll still post here as topics come up and events unfold related to my life as a Post-Mormon Christian, so stay tuned.

- Brad

I learned something new the other day that I thought was really interesting… something I never knew as a member of the LDS church.  I had always known that Joseph Smith retranslated portions of the Bible, claiming to restore ‘plain and precious’ things that had been removed over the centuries.  What I didn’t know is that he actually retranslated the entire Bible.  This immediately made me wonder why the LDS church doesn’t use the Joseph Smith version of the Bible as their Bible, but instead uses only limited selections from it.  Even more interesting is that the Community of Christ (the new name for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) does use the Joseph Smith version as their Bible.  They call it the Inspired Version of the Bible.

This begs the obvious question, why does the mainstream LDS church only accept pieces of Joseph Smith’s retranslation as canonical, while rejecting other portions?  Was he only operating as a true prophet of God at limited times while retranslating the Bible, but got things wrong at other times?  It seems to me that there really is no other explanation.  Apparently the LDS church must feel that sometimes he was right but sometimes he was wrong.  And who is to say which parts he got wrong?  Well, other prophets… who could also have been equally right or wrong on their judgments.

I looked for an LDS apologist response to this dilemma, but have not found anyone really speaking directly to this issue.  There are a few that sidestep the issue and claim that the original Inspired Version was tampered with and is no longer reliable, but cannot seem to show any basis for that assumption.  In fact, LDS scholars have worked alongside Community of Christ scholars and have come to the conclusion that it is in fact remarkably intact.

Either Joseph Smith was the true prophet of God, making his complete translation the most correct on the earth and the LDS church has just chosen to ignore it, or the LDS church realizes that Joseph Smith was not inspired in every piece of claimed scripture but chooses not to share that knowledge with its membership.

To me, this amounts to the admission by the mainstream LDS church that Joseph Smith mistranslated portions of the Bible while claiming to be directly inspired by God.

To me, this is yet another piece of evidence pointing to Joseph Smith as a gifted and imaginative religious thinker rather than an inspired transcriptionist of God, and evidence that the leadership of the LDS church knows this to be the case.

Interested in knowing more?  Here is a good jumping-off point to get you started…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith_Translation_of_the_Bible

Every once in awhile I check out lds.org just to see what the LDS church is up to. It’s usually pretty telling to see where the focus is at a given time. It is currently running a lot of promotion for a new website they’ve developed dedicated to Jesus. I won’t venture to speak on why they waited until now to launch such a site, but will let that fact speak for itself. What I do want to comment on is one of the featured articles on the site talking about faith in Jesus Christ being essential to our salvation. To the untrained ear, this likely sounds very mainstream Christian. And Latter-day Saints certainly do believe that faith in Jesus Christ is essential to salvation, as do mainstream Christians. But that’s only half the story.

There is a dramatic difference in something being essential for salvation, and something being sufficient for salvation.

Let’s take, for example, a fishing analogy. Is a fishing pole essential to catching a fish? Yes, absolutely. You can’t very well catch a fish without one. But is it sufficient for catching a fish? Not by a long shot. Think of everything else you have to have in order to catch a fish, in addition to the essential pole. You’ve got to have fishing line, a hook, and some bait… and that’s only concerning the actual fishing rig. Unless you have a body of water and actual fish in the water, you have no hope of catching a fish. In this way, a fishing pole is essential to catching a fish, but not sufficient.

This is the same way that LDS doctrine teaches having an essential faith in Jesus Christ. It is essential, but not sufficient. Not only do you need faith in Christ for salvation, but you also need many, many other things. Just to name a few… baptism by immersion by the proper authorities, membership in the LDS church, temple ceremonies, and full repentance of all sin. Even marriage to a person who has also completed the essential requirements is a requirement for Celestial glory. In LDS doctrine, a faith in Jesus Christ is essential, but it is far from sufficient.

In order for something to be sufficient, it must provide all that is needed, all that is required, within itself. It must not depend on any other essential item.

This is a dramatic difference between Mormonism and traditional Christianity. Traditional Christianity proclaims faith in Jesus as sufficient for salvation. At least in part, this is why there is such a resistance from Christians to consider Mormonism a Christian religion. It takes the focus off of Jesus, at least partially, and places it on the individual’s essential merits.

John 20:31; But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Belief in Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. But there is something more to that word “belief” that is also too often misunderstood. It is the greek word pisteuo, which implies a reliance on, rather than a simple belief in. I can believe that a rickety old rope bridge would support me as I cross over a death-defying gorge. But a pisteuo belief implies actually believing to the point that you put your life on the line for your belief in that bridge… meaning you actually cross it. A pisteuo belief is relying on that bridge alone, with no other means of safety – no safety lines, no riggings, no parachute, no catch net below you. It is a belief – a faith – of reliance on nothing else.

That is really the difference. Traditional Christianity says that a pisteuo belief in Jesus as your savior is sufficient. LDS doctrine teaches that a belief in Jesus is just one of many essential things, but is not sufficient and, by definition, such a belief cannot be a pisteuo belief.

Well, it’s officially over. Today was the last day of the School of Ministry and I’m kind of in shock. I’m not sure I’ve ever spent time doing anything more fulfilling, rewarding, and meaningful than I have for these last 9 months of my life. I thought I’d be sad but excited. Tonight I’m just sad. I had the incredibly unique opportunity to spend four hours every day in focused study of God’s word, followed by three to four hours a day of additional reading, study and service. There will likely never be a time in my life again that will allow that kind of experience, and that’s hard to come to terms with.

It occurred to me today how backwards our lives really are. There really should be nothing more important for us to do in our day than meet our Lord in prayer and search His word. That really should be the thing that occupies the majority of our time and attention. Well, that and spreading the knowledge of the gospel to others. And yet we live lives focused more around how to pay the next power bill than we do in communion with God.

I can only hope and pray that God will allow me to spend my life in His service… teaching His word… serving His flock. And that He will not delay too long in bringing that to pass. It will be that hope that will get me through the hum-drum days of paying bills and punching timeclocks that lay ahead.

I actually did okay leaving school for the last time today. I was honestly afraid I was going to embarrass myself and cry. But the things that are moving me to tears tonight are the things I didn’t expect would be a problem. Things like putting all of my books into the bookshelf after months of having them stacked close to the couch for instant reading. Things like completely emptying and storing away the backpack that I got specifically to take my books back and forth to school. Things like putting my gloves away that I’ve used every morning biking to school in the brisk morning air. I will miss these little things. I will miss the people I’ve learned and served alongside. I will miss this time in my life. And I will always thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have experienced it.

Wow. I can’t believe it. School of Ministry is over tomorrow. In some ways it feels like just a few short months have gone by and yet, in other ways, like it’s been years. I can’t even begin to express what this year in school has meant to me. It has been the most fulfilling year of my life, hands down. It’s something I wish everybody could experience at least once in their lives.

If I could sum up the two greatest lessons I’ve learned this year, it would be these:

First and foremost, the Bible IS the word of God. After having studied the Bible through in its entirety this year, I am astounded at the way our God is revealed in its pages. It is so much more than some ancient history or a collection of prophet’s writings. It is God’s word to us… it is how we get to know Him… how He speaks to us so often… and the explanation behind all of the “why’s” that trouble us in this life. I have already immersed myself in studying it through a second time on my own and it is speaking even more loudly to me now. I am convinced that anyone who claims the Bible is not God’s word preserved intact for us today has never studied it in it’s entirety with an open mind and a heart to know God.

And secondly, God is almost never what we expect Him to be. As soon as we think we have Him figured out, He either reveals something new about Himself to us or takes us through a situation in our lives that causes us to search Him out even more deeply. He reminds me time and time again that this world is not my home and that my focus and my desires should not be here. Like purging dross from silver, he has allowed us (and continues to allow us) to be in the refiner’s fire — not to destroy us, but to make us better. It is hot. It is miserable. And many times we think we won’t survive. But He pulls us through it.

These next few weeks are shaping up to be some of the “hottest” weeks we’ve experienced in this refiner’s fire. The transition back into the role of provider for my family is looking pretty bleak, but I know He is in control. Many of the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea lost their faith as they watched Pharoah’s armies coming at them. I pray that I’m not like one of those Israelites. I feel very much like God has worked a miracle in our lives to see us through this time of schooling but now, in the form of a tough job market and seemingly overwhelming financial obligations, I see Pharaoh’s army closing in.

If you are so inclined, please be in prayer for us in the following ways during this time of transition…

• That God will keep intact within me the desire to continue my study of the Bible
• That God will continue to keep me prayerful and seeking Him daily
• That God will have His hand in providing an internship opportunity for me that will equip me for the work He has for me to do
• That God will provide a source of income in order for us to again be able to meet our financial obligations
• That God will provide a solution for immediately pressing financial difficulties
• That God will arrange my life to allow for continued service in His kingdom

I thank those of you who have offered us your support over these past nine months… spiritually, emotionally, prayerfully, and even financially. Many of you remained anonymous, so I will never be able to thank you personally. That would bother me if I didn’t have confidence in the reward awaiting all of us in heaven. Truly you have ‘done it unto the least of these my brethren’.

Tomorrow will be an exciting, and yet very sad, day for me. I’m not sure how I’ll feel by this time tomorrow, but I’ll try to find time to post and share it with you.

2 Nephi 25:23 …for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

This may be one of the most well-known passages of LDS scripture, and one that speaks volumes about LDS doctrine and the LDS plan of salvation.  Unfortunately, it is also one of the doctrines that serves to bring overwhelming feelings of condemnation upon Mormons.

Consider this.  When have you ever felt like you have done all that you can do?  As I look at every aspect of my life, I realize that I never reach that place of feeling like I’ve done all that I can do.

I consider myself to be a fairly good parent.  I discipline my kids, encourage them, and love them as best I can.   But have I done all I could do?  No, I can always look back and see where I could have done more.

How about at the end of a workday?   Have I ever left the office and thought, “Wow… I did everything I could possibly do today!”   Nope, never.  I could always look back and see where I could have improved.

How about in my relationship with my wife?  I am blessed with a truly great marriage.  But do I do all that I can do within that marriage?  Certainly not.

What about serving God?  As a Mormon… or even now as  Biblical Christian… have I ever gotten through serving the Lord in some capacity and thought to myself, “Wow… I did everything I could possibly have done, and did it to my highest ability.”?  Again, the answer has to be ‘no’.  I can always find some way that I could have done more.

We are just not wired to ever feel like we’ve actually done all that we could have done.  There might even be times in our lives where we HAVE actually done all we could do, but we don’t have the capacity to realize it.

I have had the opportunity to speak to so many people who feel completely condemned by the LDS church because they can’t do “all they can do”.  The Bible tells us so clearly that it is for exactly that reason that Jesus Christ sacrificed His life for our sins… because we couldn’t do it on our own… we aren’t good enough.   Jesus was the only one who could actually do all He could do.  And He did.

The whole story of the Old Testament is God showing us that we cannot be good enough for heaven.  The whole story of the New Testament is God resolving that by giving us His Son, who was good enough, to stand in our place.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

To a Latter-day Saint, this seems foolish.  It doesn’t make sense that God would save us, apart from anything we did or didn’t do.  It must be about temples, ordinances, obedience, priesthood, eternal marriages, baptism, missions, callings, repentance, and endowments. They think it must be so much more than just Jesus dying on a cross.  Apparently the Apostle Paul was dealing with the same issue in the Corinthian church…

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.