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Barb Luff Warrensburg, Missouri My Journey Out of Darkness I was not born into Mormonism but when I was about seven years old, my mother
and 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. When Light shines in darkness…the darkness will flee! You can send Barb an email by clicking dbluff@iland.net. |