Barb Luff

Warrensburg, Missouri

My Journey Out of Darkness

I was not born into Mormonism but when I was about seven years old, my motherand father were divorced and some Mormon friends helped my mother when she was very vulnerable.She had been raised Pentecostal and these friends presented a very pretty picture of Mormonism to her.I always enjoyed going to church so I attended a Baptist church in our town and came to the Lord during a Bible School one summer.Wanting to be baptized, I talked to my mother about it and she told her friends that I wanted to be baptized in the Baptist Church.They were very adamant that I should not be baptized in the Baptist Church because they said that Mormonism was the “only true Church,” and my mother decided that I should be baptized in the Mormon faith.So,along with her and my brother and sister, I was baptized into the Utah Mormon faith.Thank God, there wasn’t a Mormon church in our town, so I continued to attend the Baptist Church where I received very good Bible teaching.From time to time someone would pick us up and take us to the Mormon church, but I never understood the teachings.

I would visit my father every summer in Salt Lake City and the Mormon Elders would come by to ask us if we would go to the temple and be baptized for our dead relatives.I was told that I would have to take secret oaths to go into the temple, and I believe to this day that God gave me a fear of the temple because of the secrecy involved there, and I never would agree to go to the temple.My father was raised Nazarene and never joined Mormonism even though he lived in Salt Lake City.

When I was seventeen, I met my husband, who was a member of the RLDS(Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) church, which I refer to as Reorganized Mormon.They have since changed their name to the Community of Christ. My husband was a fourth generation RLDS and most of the men were involved in the priesthood through the generations on both his mother and father’s side of the family. My husband convinced me that RLDS was “the true church” and that there was no secret works in their temple. When we had been married nearly two years, we moved to Independence, Missouri which is the World Headquarters of Reorganized Mormonism.

I believe that I felt intimidated because of the close connection all of my in-laws had to the Mormon religion and even though I know that I had been saved early in my life, I was not a mature Christian and was easily persuaded to join the RLDS religion.Through the years I attended church and tried to raise my children in the proper Mormonism manner, but there were always questions about the doctrine which I did not understand, and did not think agreed with my beliefs as a Christian. Nonetheless, I taught my children that the Book of Mormon and other books were true. I never read the Book of Mormon completely and read very little of the D & C and Church History because they always confused me. I tried to teach my children from the Bible and met with much opposition with my husband over especially the Book of Mormon because he really believed it to be the word of God…. even though he had doubts about the other books.

Our youngest son Ron became involved with Jeffrey Lundgren in 1987. Lundgren convinced his followers that he was the mighty “Seer” that is spoken about in the Book of Mormon that would come in the “last days”….to build Zion. They thought he was the spokesman for God and that they had to follow his every word. Eventually, Lundgren murdered a family of five of his followers. The reason is not clear why he murdered them. It is thought that they were planning to leave the group, and their murder would agree with the way Joseph Smith dealt with errant followers in the 1830’s. Ron and the others were convicted as accessories to these murders and is serving multiple life sentences in prison in Ohio at this time.

Because of Ron’s experience, he began to search the Mormon scriptures to find out where he went wrong and God provided a wonderful Chaplain in the jail to help him. Ron became convinced that the Bible was the only Word of God and that the other books of Mormonism were false doctrine. Much of the Bible had been changed by Joseph Smith so that it was very confusing. Because of Ron’s quest, my husband and I also began to search for answers. In Ron’s heart, he thought he was serving God….while following Lundgren. I believe his heart was right with God, but he was trying to serve in the wrong religion. Sometimes it takes a terrible tragedy to get us turned in the right direction.

Through our study and Ron’s study, we have come to see the wonderful Light of the True Gospel and have come out of the darkness of Mormonism. Ron has been an instrument in God’s hands to help many people see the evil in Mormonism. It is our prayer that we too can continue to help in the spreading of God’s Marvelous Light.

When Light shines in darkness…the darkness will flee!

You can send Barb an email by clicking dbluff@iland.net.