Hi!
Im Catholic and I have some doubts.
I read this form Clayton Christensen website:
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The second topic I want to address is why I believe in the doctrines of the church. I was born into
a wonderful Mormon family, and as I grew up I found few reasons to disbelieve the teachings of the
church. My parents had deep faith in its precepts, and their example and encouragement were powerful –
I believed in my parents, and I knew that they believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was not until I was
24, however, that I came to know these things for myself.
I had been given a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England. After I had
lived there for a few weeks, far away from the supportive environment in which I had been raised, it
became clear that adhering to Mormonism in that environment was going to be very inconvenient. In
fact, doing the sorts of things I described in the first part of this essay within the Mormon congregation in
Oxford would preclude my participation in many of the things that had made Oxford such a rich
experience for prior recipients of my scholarship. I decided, as a result, that the time had come for me to
learn for certain and for myself whether Mormonism was true.
I had read the Book of Mormon before – seven times, to be exact. But in each of those instances
I had read it by assignment – from my parents or a teacher – and my objective in reading it was to finish
the book. This time, however, my objective was to find out if it was a true book or a fabrication.
Accordingly, I reserved the time from 11:00 until midnight, every night, to read the Book of Mormon
next to the fireplace in my chilly room at the Queen’s College. I began each of those sessions by kneeling
in verbal prayer. I told God, every night, that I was reading this to know if it was His truth. I told Him
that I needed an answer to this question – because if it was not true I did not want to waste my time with
this church and would search for something else. But if it was true, then I promised that I would devote
my life to following its teachings, and to helping others do the same.
I then would sit in the chair and read a page in the Book of Mormon. I would stop at the bottom
of the page and think about it. I would ask myself what the material on that page meant for the way I
needed to conduct my life. I would then get on my knees and pray aloud again, asking the Lord to tell me
if the book was true. I would then get back in the chair, turn the page, and repeat the process, for the
remainder of the hour. I did this every evening.
After I had done this for several weeks, one evening in October, 1975, as I sat in the chair and
opened the book following my prayer, I felt a marvelous spirit come into the room and envelop my body.
I had never before felt such an intense feeling of peace and love. I started to cry, and did not want to stop.
I knew then, from a source of understanding more powerful than anything I had ever felt in my life, that
the book I was holding in my hands was true. It was hard to see through the tears. But as I opened it and
began again to read, I saw in the words of the book a clarity and magnitude of God’s plan for us that I had
never conceived before. The spirit stayed with me for that entire hour. And each night thereafter, as I
prayed and then sat in that chair with the Book of Mormon, that same spirit returned. It changed my heart
and my life forever.
It was as if I had been looking out as far as I could see toward the horizon, and had been quite
satisfied that I could see everything that there was to see. When I undertook to read the Book of Mormon
in that manner, however, I discovered that so much more beauty and truth about who we are and what
God has in store for us, lies beyond that old horizon. I did not know what I did not know.
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So… was the devil?
Why did God permitted the Devil to do such thing? Christensen is an honest man who was looking for truth.
Should I write him a polite e-mail telling him that miracles are not such a big deal, and can occur outside truth?
Thanks
…and they would be right; Calvin, Luther, et. all DID pave the way the SDA’s took.
Peace 