Mktavish wrote:@ ldsfaqs ... I'm curious of your evolution from being in the church to being anti church , then back in the church again.
I grew up in several religions and no religion. The last religion I actively attended was the LDS Church. Because I had experienced multiple others, and read the Bible for myself, I saw easily how the various religions didn't fit what the Bible actually said, accurately or fully. But when I came upon Mormonism the Church fully fit in every way, and had the evidences for it's establishment including matching the Biblical narratives.
But, being young, still had some growing and learning, and I was big in eastern philosophy's, and then being young and growing and a modern young man, I saw some problems with the Church, what I call the big three, Priesthood ban, Women & Priesthood, and Polygamy. I ignorantly thought that no "true church" could be such unfair and bad things, and I already knew other religions couldn't possibly be true, so I went inactive and critical of religion and the church.
I was a learner though who wanted truth and right in life, and I understood that you can't learn and understand a thing if your cup is already full and with contempt toward it, especially things that only make the world and people better, such as religion. So, I put away my judgments. Eventually, I came interested in studying religion again, to see if there really was a true religion, path, etc. Ultimately I ended up with Mormonism again, after eliminating everything else as being a reasonable candidate. I then spent a lot of time in the Library and Church meetings and activities to really know the religion. I compared anti-mormon claims/books with LDS books on the same subjects and very quickly started seeing a pattern. I started seeing anti-mormon claims as being half truths of a subject, lies, misrepresentations, bigotry, etc. By comparing all the available data on a subject, I was able to see who was actually telling the whole and actual truth. I then spent considerable time studying everything on my big three subjects, and came to discover that my judgment of those issues were flawed and ignorant. I had judged the Church on the surface appearance of those issues, rather than what the actual truth was. I also even more so delved into the scholarship related to Mormonism itself, in relation to evidences and support of it's claims. I was amazed on the amount of material I found, the amount of evidences from all fields of study, learning and sciences that supported Restoration claims, history, and materials. I saw so much information, that I realized that anyone that was truly objective in their study of Mormonism could only come away with realizing that it was literally true, and that was 20 years ago. The evidences have at least doubled since then, and even then there were a couple of thousand evidences for the Church.
Ultimately with all the evidences, with all the full facts of the various issues in question, the Church was/is literally true, and not another man-made religion. A few comments in history, most misrepresented, and some simply wrong, or a few other mistakes, do not a false religion make when put up against the 1,000's of evidences and more accurate facts.
Could we say that you were on the spiritual elevator to heaven ... then for some reason you jumped off or was pushed off ... And after a period , you then decided you were wrong and climbed back upon the elevator?
I suppose I jumped off. Yep, realized I was wrong, that there was MORE to the story, and jumped back on.
I used this analogy because of your wording here >>> "learning quickly that it was wrong to attack and degrade things that only lifted people and brought light in the world."
Is there no room that some facet of the Mormon gospel was responsible for pushing you off the elevator , or atleast inducing you to jump off? Or was it merely the work of the devil that came along and swatted you down? Or possibly the devil inducing others within the religion to push you off?
Yep, there were things I had a problem with, so I left. I would also say that the devil was involved, because he after all is the father of lies. If I had been wise, patient, and not foolish in youth, then I would have kept learning and would have still discovered what I later finally discovered after a couple of years in apostasy. No, I didn't have others in the Church pushing me off. I already knew people in the Church were imperfect, intimately in fact. But I also knew that the Church made better and more rounded and normal people than anything else.
I've got a few more questions , but they would be better framed after you atleast respond to these.
Not tapping my toe err nuthing though ... so no pressure.
Bring it on..... Happy to share.