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Which church is true? Which of all
the churches should I join?
Have you ever asked either of these questions? I did.
My search led to something unexpected... The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.. I am
not the only person to have asked these questions, and
I am not the only person whose search led to this
same answer. There are many of us.
Here's the words of one young man who tells of his
experience searching for the answer to these very
questions when he was 14 years old...
5 Some time in the second year after our
removal to Manchester, there was in the
place where we lived an unusual excitement
on the subject of religion. It commenced
with the Methodists, but soon became general
among all the sects in that region of
country. Indeed, the whole district of
country seemed affected by it, and great
multitudes united themselves to the
different religious parties, which created
no small stir and division amongst the
people, some crying, “ aLo,
here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were
contending for the Methodist faith, some for
the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.
6 For, notwithstanding the great alove
which the converts to these different faiths
expressed at the time of their conversion,
and the great zeal manifested by the
respective clergy, who were active in
getting up and promoting this extraordinary
scene of religious feeling, in order to have
everybody converted, as they were pleased to
call it, let them join what sect they
pleased; yet when the converts began to file
off, some to one party and some to another,
it was seen that the seemingly good feelings
of both the priests and the converts were
more bpretended
than real; for a scene of great confusion
and bad feeling ensued—priest contending
against priest, and convert against convert;
so that all their good feelings one for
another, if they ever had any, were entirely
lost in a strife of words and a contest
about opinions.
7 I was at this time in my fifteenth year.
My father’s family was proselyted to the
Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined
that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my
brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my
sister Sophronia.
8 During this time of great excitement my
mind was called up to serious reflection and
great uneasiness; but though my feelings
were deep and often poignant, still I kept
myself aloof from all these parties, though
I attended their several meetings as often
as occasion would permit. In process of time
my mind became somewhat partial to the
Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be
united with them; but so great were the
confusion and astrife
among the different denominations, that it
was impossible for a person young as I was,
and so unacquainted with men and things, to
come to any certain conclusion who was
bright
and who was wrong.
9 My mind at times was greatly excited,
the cry and tumult were so great and
incessant. The Presbyterians were most
decided against the Baptists and Methodists,
and used all the powers of both reason and
sophistry to prove their errors, or, at
least, to make the people think they were in
error. On the other hand, the Baptists and
Methodists in their turn were equally
zealous in endeavoring to establish their
own tenets and disprove all others.
10 In the midst of this war of words and
tumult of opinions, I often said to myself:
What is to be done? Who of all these parties
are right; or, are they all wrong together?
If any one of them be aright,
which is it, and how shall I know it?
11 While I was laboring under the extreme
difficulties caused by the contests of these
parties of religionists, I was one day
reading the Epistle of aJames,
first chapter and fifth verse, which reads:
If any of you lack bwisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall
be given him.
12 Never did any passage of ascripture
come with more power to the heart of man
than this did at this time to mine. It
seemed to enter with great force into every
feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again
and again, knowing that if any person needed
bwisdom
from God, I did; for how to act I did not
know, and unless I could get more wisdom
than I then had, I would never know; for the
teachers of religion of the different sects
cunderstood
the same passages of scripture so
differently as to destroy all confidence in
settling the question by an appeal to the
Bible.
13 At length I came to the conclusion that
I must either remain in adarkness
and confusion, or else I must do as James
directs, that is, ask of God. I at length
came to the determination to “ask of God,”
concluding that if he gave wisdom to them
that lacked wisdom, and would bgive
liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.
14 So, in accordance with this, my
determination to ask of God, I retired to
the awoods
to make the attempt. It was on the morning
of a bbeautiful,
clear day, early in the spring of eighteen
hundred and twenty. It was the first time in
my life that I had made such an attempt, for
amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet
made the attempt to cpray
dvocally.
15 After I had retired to the place where
I had previously designed to go, having
looked around me, and finding myself alone,
I kneeled down and began to offer up the
desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely
done so, when immediately I was aseized
upon by some power which entirely overcame
me, and had such an astonishing influence
over me as to bind my tongue so that I could
not speak. Thick bdarkness
gathered around me, and it seemed to me for
a time as if I were doomed to sudden
destruction.
16 But, exerting all my powers to acall
upon God to deliver me out of the power of
this enemy which had seized upon me, and at
the very moment when I was ready to sink
into bdespair
and abandon myself to destruction—not to an
imaginary ruin, but to the power of some
actual being from the unseen world, who had
such marvelous power as I had never before
felt in any being—just at this moment of
great alarm, I saw a pillar of clight
exactly over my head, above the brightness
of the dsun,,
which descended gradually until it fell upon
me.
17 It no sooner appeared than I found
myself adelivered
from the enemy which held me bound. When the
light rested upon me I bsaw
two cPersonages,
whose brightness and dglory
defy all description, estanding
above me in the air. One of them spake unto
me, calling me by name and said, pointing to
the other— This is My fBeloved
gSon.
Hear Him!
Joseph Smith History -
Read the whole story...
What you have just read is the experience of Joseph
Smith, and through this experience and others he
had, young Joseph Smith was called as a Prophet of
God in our day to restore to the earth the fullness
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to establish
The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Members of this Church which is often referred to as
"the LDS Church", are known as "Latter-day Saints"
and are sometimes also referred to as "Mormons".
Honest seekers of truth owe it to themselves to
learn about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. The best source of information about
The LDS Church is from the Church itself.
Resources are easy for internet readers to access:
To the testimonies of those you will find at
Mormon.org, I will also share my own personal testimony and
experience of searching and finding this marvelous
Church...
If you will review the information I have
provided, it should become readily apparent to you
that Modern Day Miracles happen, Revelation exists
today as it did in the early Church of the New
Testament, and there is a Church upon the earth with
the same Priesthood Authority that Jesus Christ
ordained his Apostles with in Galilee.
I testify to you that it is TRUE.
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