any former mormons out there?

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My question for you isn’t specifically about apologetics. As a protestant I was schooled by Walter Martin & The Godmakers. As a Catholic, I know the difference between the truth and the warm fuzzies (not that I don’t like warm fuzzies, I do, but I know that those are fleeting consolations, not the foundation for faith) and I’m not adverse to inviting missionaries into my home to discuss doctrine. Anyway, what I was wondering is how did you come into the Catholic Church? Were there Catholics who did/said anything in particular that helped bring you here? My daughter (and her two children) are being wooed by her boyfriend’s mother & all the fun family stuff going on at the Mormon church during the holidays. Not only do I want to protect “my own”, but I’d love to be an effective witness to the truth with this woman (who I’m sure would like to do the same to this wine-drinking, Mass going Catholic) and her son. Thanks for your help.
 
I’m former LDS. I came to the Catholic church through study of scripture, tradition, history and lots of prayer. Catholic school was a huge help for my family. RCIA was good fro my wife and I both. I’d stay away from the Godmakers as Ed Decker twists the truth and sometimes outright lies. Mormonisms problems are easily exposed in their own scriptures and the teachings of their own prophets and apostles. Take some time to browse this forum and you will see plenty of lively discussions on many topics of mormon interest. Eternal progression is a popular one as is DNA evidence against the Book of Mormon. If you have specific questions I am happy to answer.
 
Thanks Majick. The whole Godmakers/Walter Martin was a long time ago. My point was really that I’m not looking for ways to debate about Mormonism (though I guess I’m willing if that’s what it comes to), as I don’t think that it’s doctrine that’s drawing my daughter. What made you start to look into the Catholic church in the first place? Did you not believe that it was the Babylon spoken of in Rev?

Marianne
 
LOL! no I didn’t think it “Babylon” although most of my SoBaptist friends did.

The “historicity” along with the “holiness” of the mass attracted me. The Mormon background had me very much in search of the “one true church” and it’s hard to ignore the fact that Christianity was exclusively Catholic for over a thousand years. Would God come to earth and personally found a church that died out a generation later? I don’t think so. The Bible and the writings of the ECF’s that put context around those scriptures helped me to understand God’s real message. The more I studied the more I saw the consistent teaching and preaching of the doctrine that Christ taught within the Catholic church. I also saw more and more (once I had some historical context of the scriptures) that Mormonism was based on extreme misunderstandings of basic scripture with hastily filled in “revelations” to make up for the gaps. After awhile you see its’ internal contradictions.
 
Hey, I am a current Mormon and quite happy with it and even I would recommend talking to majick275 than that Godmaker stuff! You’ll get a lot less mis-information. And I’m pretty sure he’s not much more sympathetic! Well, maybe a little.
 
Also, I hate to be a witness against my own church but it’s really not right to join any church for the social program. Not in my mind anyway. I know it’s fairly common for someone to be brought in through marriage. Heck my Dad became a Catholic when he married my Mom. But he rarely went to Mass. It’s better to understand and believe. Also you’re making covenants when you are baptised.
 
I’m a former Mormon. I came to the Catholic church by way of a born-again experience in the Assembly of God. After much prayer, study, and a lot of searching, I realized that not only did I not believe in Mormonism, but that what I was being taught as a literal belief in the Bible didn’t gel with a Protestant belief about communion.

I got to the point that I couldn’t just accept everything literally and NOT accept John chapter 6 as being Jesus saying what He really meant. His real presence in the Eucharist called me home.

The best thing you can do for everyone involved is to pray pray pray pray pray. Spend time in Adoration and lay it all out for God to take care of. If He could do it with me, He can do it for anyone!

I’m of the firm belief that to argue against Mormonism to a Mormon is almost a futile exercise. They have an answer, even if they have to make it up as they go along. I’ve heard it expressed as “trying to nail jello to a wall” when trying to pin down any Mormon on what truly is their doctrine.

Live your Faith. Be a true and unapologetic Catholic. Example is truly the best teacher IMHO. 😉

My own husband, a cradle Catholic, was a huge witness to me. He couldn’t define doctrines, but was very faithful. He went through RCIA with me as my sponsor and we both learned so much. We grew together as a couple and as a family through searching the Bible and the Catechism hand in hand.

don’t give up on prayer!! I’ll be praying for you and yours during my own “hour of power” in Adoration this evening. 👍

in Christ
Steph
 
Thanks again Majick. I only asked about Babylon because one of the CA pamplets talks about the Mormons teaching that. When I reverted to Catholocism, my former pastor (Foursquare church) told me that the antichrist was going to be a pope! Believe me, he thought I’d been seduced by the whore of Babylon!

Hi rmcmullan.I agree with you. I’d much rather talk to someone who isn’t antagonistic toward Mormonism, but who left because they’d found the truth.I also agree that social reasons are not good reasons to join a church, but that’s often the inroad into someone’s heart, softening them to the teachings that they’ll hear later. I was once on a street-witnessing team in San Francisco and during the training we were taught “people don’t care how much you know unless they know how much you care”. I’ve seen people drawn into every church for those social reasons (reaching out to the poor single mom with food & babysitting, maybe helping to clean someone’s house, going to church because the girl’s cute, the kids’ program is fun, the music is good, people are friendly, etc), and, of course, they wouldn’t be used as evangelistic tools if they weren’t effective, In fact, I believe that this woman became Morman many years ago because an LDS couple took her and her son in and helped her raise him. She’s now quite devout and a true believer. So it works. I just don’t want it to work on my kid/grandkids.:eek: (no offense to you intended).

Marianne
 
Thank you Steph! I was able to talk to my daughter a little about it today. She says she’s not drawn. But she is serious about this young man, and his mom is serious about Mormonism.I have been praying and enlisting others’ prayers, so I covet yours also. I had decided to pray especially for the mom (my daughter said that it would indeed be a miracle if she came to Christ, but, like you said, if he could do it for me he can do it for anyone). Thanks for sharing your story, and for your prayers.
Marianne
 
well the “official” mormon position is still in their scriptures that all other churches are wrong and they strayed from the truth so long ago that a whole new church had to be established by Joseph Smith.

The specific Catholic bashing was popular back in the 60-70’s and was mostly the result of Mormon Apostle Bruce R. Mconkie. His still popular book “Mormon Doctrine” was originally a lot less “politically correct” and he was told to tone it down. Current editions of his book leave out most of the specific finger pointing. The early LDS church from Joseph Smith to John Taylor was pretty vocal about bashing ALL other churches but left no doubt that the Catholics started everyone down the wrong path. The LDS church today, while still teaching and preaching the “great Apostasy” tries to be a lot kinder and gentler about telling folks that only the Mormon church has the true gospel and the authority to act as representatives of God.

A reading of the Joseph Smith story from the Mormon scriptures on the LDS website is good to know for background info.

scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1

keep in mind that this story has been edited over the years to better show the desired point of view.
 
majick275 said:
Take some time to browse this forum and you will see plenty of lively discussions on many topics of mormon interest. Eternal progression is a popular one as is DNA evidence against the Book of Mormon. If you have specific questions I am happy to answer.
Click to expand...
DNA evidence against the BoM??? :ehh:

I know I missed that one.

Nan
 
I was a Mormon for a short time in the late 1980s after being raised Jehovah’s Witness. I left Mormonism shortly after joining because I never truly believed some of their doctrines (such as that God the Father has a literal wife up there who gives birth to our spirit bodies, etc.).

So I didn’t have to be weaned from Mormon doctrine.
Ironically, my path towards true Christianity was impeded most of all by the continuing Jehovah’s Witness mental patterns that I had. For me, embracing the Trinity doctrine was the hardest of all. Once I saw the truth of THAT, everything else gradually began falling into place.

Jaypeeto3 (aka Jaypeeto4)
 
Wow, that’s a fairly big jump (from JW to LDS) isn’t it? What drew you there to begin with?
 
Well, after renouncing JWs, I still held to the belief that the early church apostasized right after the death of the last apostle. I hadn’t done very much private bible reading on my own yet, either. The Mormons believed in the early apostasy too. And the Mormons did not believe in the Trinity either.
Plus, the Mormons were known to be very morally conservative. Also, when I was very young, before the new Temple was consecrated for Mormon use only, I got to visit and tour inside the huge Washington, DC, Mormon Temple, which was absolutely breathtaking and there was such a feeling of serenity in that place as I recalled.
So, I got involved with the Mormons, but never really could swallow the whole thing. My conscience bothered me about some of their doctrines, so I wrote a letter to headquarters in Salt Lake City and resigned from the LDS church.
I got a very kind reply from headquarters in Salt Lake, asking me to feel free to come back anytime, which I thought was quite kind and quite different from the treatment you receive when you leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As I began reading and praying the Scriptures, I began to see clearly the truth of the Trinity doctrine, and joined the first Christian church near my house that I could find - The First Presbyterian Church of Coral Gables, Florida.
As a new Christian, I continued reading the scriptures and began to notice “Catholic sounding” things in them here and there. So I read some of the early church fathers and was shocked to find that they were Catholic.

Eventually I decided that I had to join the Catholic Church, so I was received into the Catholic Church in 1999. I’m finally in my true Church Home, thank the Lord.

Jaypeeto3 (aka Jaypeeto4)
 
I’m finally in my true Church Home, thank the Lord.

Jaypeeto3 (aka Jaypeeto4)

:amen: to that!
 
majick275 said:
try this as a start:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=100441&highlight=book+mormon
Click to expand...
Ok. I see now. The DNA evidence has to do with the ancestry of the Native American tribes. I’ll admit up front that I have never looked into this one.

It was my impression that all the now-existing Native American tribes, both North and South American, were of Asian descent.

The descendents of the BoM “Lost Tribes” who journeyed to the Americas died out, didn’t they? After they buried the Golden Plates?

Nan
 
rmcmullan said:
Also, I hate to be a witness against my own church but it’s really not right to join any church for the social program. Not in my mind anyway. I know it’s fairly common for someone to be brought in through marriage. Heck my Dad became a Catholic when he married my Mom. But he rarely went to Mass. It’s better to understand and believe. Also you’re making covenants when you are baptised.
Click to expand...
I am very curious about the hows and whys of you becoming a Mormon (which to traditional Christians (99% of us) is NOT a christian based denomination.

What were the pivotal reasons vis-a-vis your stated Catholic background for you to choose Mormonism?

Thanks
 
rmcmullan:

Yoohoo! Anybody home? If you don’t want to answer through the thread, send it to me via message. I am interested in how you came to be LDS

Thanks
 
JonathanKinsman said:
rmcmullan:

Yoohoo! Anybody home? If you don’t want to answer through the thread, send it to me via message. I am interested in how you came to be LDS

Thanks
Click to expand...
How about coming to the conclusion that it is true! 🙂

That would be a good reason, wouldn’t it?

zerinus
 
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