Latayne
Scott was a “good Mormon.” She was obedient to every Mormon
precept. She had Mormon aspirations to meet a returned
missionary, get married in the temple and have as many
babies as humanly possible. She served in the church,
supported its doctrine and was even awarded the coveted
“temple recommend” so she could enter the holy place and
participate in sacrificial ordinances.
Scott was well on her way to goddess status. Then she
committed what Mormons call the “unpardonable sin”: she left
Mormonism. Now she is considered a traitor and an apostate,
despised and rejected by those who once proclaimed to love
her. She has been threatened with eternal unhappiness,
manipulated with fearful prophecies, but accepted in the
Beloved. Scott was born-again 33 years ago after wading
through what she calls the “Mormon mirage,” a labyrinth of
deception that still strangles the eternal life out of
millions of lost souls.
“Once I realized that God had forgiven and forgotten my
sins, I was able to forgive myself and begin trusting Him
for guidance. I am living a new and different life now. I am
no more perfect now than when I was a Mormon. In fact, I
realize now more than ever my faults and weaknesses,” says
Scott, author The Mormon Mirage, Shout of the Bridegroom and
Red Cord of Hope.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) boasts
more than 12 million members, called Mormons, worldwide,
according to the group’s official records. About 1.5 million
Mormons live in Utah. The LDS church, which claims to be the
“only true church” and the only church with the authority to
act in God’s name, reports about 1 million Mormon
conversions every three years.
Apostle Charles Sivley, set-man at Prevailing Word church in
Kanab, Utah, is setting out to reverse that trend.
Prevailing Word is raising up apostolic teams equipped with
Mormon-focused evangelism strategies that have proven
successful over Sivley’s decades of experience ministering
to those ensnared by this false religion.
“I am not a Mormon basher and I don’t debate with them,”
says Sivley, whose church is full of ex-Mormons. “But you
can talk about doctrine with them. They’ll listen to you
talk about the Word, and they’ll tell you about the Book of
Mormon. I agree with them as much as possible, but when I
can’t agree I don’t debate,” he says, explaining that his
strategy is to keep the lines of communication open while
avoiding strife.
What does the Book of Mormon say? Joseph Smith founded the
Mormon church in the state of New York on April 6, 1830. The
LDS church teaches that their heavenly father was once born
as a spirit child of a god and wife who ruled a different
world. After maturing as a spirit being he was sent to
another world where he was born as a human. There he grew to
maturity, married, died, was resurrected, went to heaven,
progressed and eventually became the god of our world. He
and his resurrected wife continue to have spirit children
born to them in their heavenly realm. Mormons work their way
to heaven, in part, by populating the LDS church.
"Mormons, especially Mormon women, are under a tremendous
load of responsibility to do good works. It crushes many of
them," Scott explains. "Imagine feeling that it's your moral
obligation to produce as many children as your body can
tolerate giving birth to, here on Earth. And store food, and
be a great hostess, and a goddess in training. Yes, a
goddess. Mormons believe - as I did when I was a Mormon -
that this life is just preparatory for the status of
godhood. I believed that I would help my husband and his
other wives create new universes and worlds, and then people
them with our children."
Sivley doesn't debate such theologies. Instead, he gets the
attention of Mormons through simple teachings about being
partakers of the divine nature, inheritance, sonship
righteousness, and the love of God. Sivley distributes
flyers and booklets, like "The Law of Christ is Love" that
break through the Mormon "work your way to heaven"
mentality. He doesn't shove Christianity in their faces, he
says, because they generally see Christians as anti-Mormon.
More than anything else, Sivley says, Mormons respond to
demonstrations of the power of God. He remembers the time a
group of Mormon bishops intruded on his Bible study,
demanding to know whom he was affiliated with and what he
was doing. The critical spirits stayed to listen to the
teaching. One of the men's wives was in obvious pain with a
neck injury. Sivley asked the woman if he could pray for her
and she agreed. God healed her right then and there, she
bawled for 15 minutes and said, "I want more!" Twenty-seven
Mormons gave their life to Christ that night.
"Mormons are drawn to the truth, so I explain to them how
most other religions were started by dead prophets and ask
them where is the power of God today?" Sivley says. "In the
Mormon church they just get a lullaby sermon about how
important it is to do good works, like write your lonely
grandmother a letter. So they don't get much indoctrination.
But they watch Christians and see the power in our lives and
they want that."
Of course, when Mormons leave the LDS church it cost them
everything, so they need love, compassion and someone who
understands, Sivley says. Ex-Mormon Katie Thomas, a member
of Sivley's ministry, agrees. Her husband, who is now
deceased, was once a high priest in the organization, but
the duo got discouraged with the legalism and finally made
the decision to leave Mormonism. They found the truth in
Christianity, but Thomas says she still misses the "intimate
fellowship that operates in a Mormon ward."
Scott and Thomas are not bitter about the years they spent
serving in this false religion, rather they long to see
other Mormons come to the knowledge of the truth.
Unfortunately, Scott says most Christians don't understand
how to reach Mormons for Christ. Christians don't have to
know LDS history or doctrine to begin to sow the seeds of
the Kingdom, she says. You sow seeds by demonstrating your
own personal joy in the Lord.
"Mormons believe - I did believe, with all my heart - that
people in other religions are secretly unhappy and can only
be truly fulfilled if they were to become Mormons.
Meanwhile, the Mormon is facing an incredible slate of
responsibilities and duties and ordinances and commandments
and demands on his or her time, energy, and body," Scott
explains.
"If you, as a Christian, are truly content and satisfied in
the Lord, the most important evangelistic tool you have is
the witness of your true, unbounded, solid, bone-deep love
of the Lord and joy in His presence. Your whole life will
say: 'The Lord is enough for me. The Bible is enough for me.
I don't need what Mormonism offers'."
Scott and Thomas both learned that nothing Mormonism has to
offer compares to Jesus' free gift. As we do the work of an
evangelist, they agree that is important to communicate the
unadulterated Gospel: Jesus died on a cross for the
salvation of man. His is the only name under heaven and
earth whereby man must be saved. That applies to Mormons,
Muslims, Buddhists, and those lost souls who claim no
religion, too.
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