I’m 43 years old, and I left Mormonism two years prior. My doubts started when I was about 18 or 19 when I heard a youth speaker say in her talk that “we’d all be gods and goddesses one day.” I thought, “What kind of crack are her parents smoking?” I had a big problem with this because I knew and had always known there was only one God and that we could never work to become a god. It was later confirmed that this teaching was “true” according to the LDS Church when I read a Journal of Discourses book that my dad had.
Another time while sitting in Sunday school with my parents, the teacher said something about Joseph Smith having a bunch of wives. I was deeply disturbed by this. I asked my dad if it was true that Joseph Smith was in fact a polygamist. He confirmed it was true. That never sat well with me.
My husband’s heart was out of the LDS church long before we left. But for me, the fear of leaving is what kept me in for so long. Primarily the fear of disappointing my dad. If I stayed in the LDS Church, at least I could give my dad what he wanted, which was to see one of his kids get married in the temple.
I told my husband that if the church ever brought polygamy back, I’d leave the church. One day in 2021, I was talking with a friend who had left the church decades ago. This friend pointed out to me the “scriptures” in D&C 132 that support polygamy. I was not okay. I was sick to my stomach.
A year before we stopped going to our ward, I told my husband that we needed to have a non-Mormon night which consisted of playing cards and enjoying some drinks with friends. Then about eight months later, we stopped wearing our garments. Four months after that, we stopped attending our ward all together. It was a gradual process.
I remember back when I was 20 years old attending Saddleback Church in California with some friends off and on. So traditional Christianity was always on my radar. In October 2021, our family began going to a Christian church. We have never been happier than we are now. My kids actually enjoy going to church now.
Even though we’ve been out of the LDS Church and going to a Christian church for over a year, my dad still sends me LDS stuff. I guess he’s still holding out hope for me. On the bright side, I think the door is starting to crack open for my mom. She came with me to a Ladies Spring Tea at the Christian church I attend. She also went to see the movie “Jesus Revolution” and loved it. Since then, she’s sharing with me of groups who had worship events at the beach and then held beach baptisms. I’m praying my mom will see the truth soon and will be an instrument in helping my dad to see the truth as well.
JLLDS Ministries 
The early Christian fathers certainly believed in theosis – no way around that reality. Reading the Bible, it makes perfect sense… considering all the verses of partaking in this divine nature and becoming joint-heirs with Christ, the sons of God (a title), priests and kings unto God, a royal priesthood. Ruling with Christ in the Millennium, inheriting ALL as joint-heirs and partaking in the divine nature of a resurrected being of the first resurrection (which are the priests of God in Christ who rule and reign with Him during the Millennial Reign of the Messiah. It’s wholly biblical. 😉 1 John 3:2… sons of God, and when He appears, we will be like Him. ❤️ Irenaes said, “We were not made gods at our beginning, but first we were made men, then, in the end, gods.” Clement of Alexandria said, “The word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.” Origen said, “… besides the true God there are many who become gods by participating in God.” Justin the Martyr said, “The Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death provided that they kept His commandments, and deemed deserving of the name of His sons…. they are thus deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the Highest.” Athanasius said, “The word was made flesh in order that we might be enabled to become gods, just as the Lord putting on a body became a man, so also we are deified through His flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life, we are sons and gods by reason of the word in us.”
We find Latter-Day Saints are much more in line with the former day Saints, than modern, western evangelicalism.
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latterdaisysaint – I appreciate the thoughts here. Can I ask: do you take the teachings of the early church fathers as authoritative? If no, wouldn’t this be a simple case of cherry-picking things that some of them taught which appear to support your personal beliefs while discounting other quotes made by the same people?
It confuses me that a Latter Day Saint would quote early church fathers when this is the precise time frame of when the Great Apostasy was occurring and heresies were allegedly creeping into the church. It seems inconsistent for LDS to say, “Here are some quotes from people who lived during the GA and were quite possibly added to the cause as well.” I guess I am confused as to why even mention the early church fathers when neither Evangelical or LDS view them as authoritative.
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