Yeah. Welcome to Passion for Christ, a ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ. In Acts 26, 18, Jesus said, Paul's purpose was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. and from the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
We hope you'll join us for today's testimony of lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let's begin today's episode. Welcome to Passion for Christ. This is Russ East, your host, and I want to thank Kevin McGahey for the instrumentals that he provides for our program each time you hear it. Thank you, Kevin. On today's episode, we're going to be hearing about a testimony of a gentleman named Michael Webb.
And this is a testimony that was put together by our friends from Witnesses for Jesus. Christy Darlington and her team have a great ministry. You can find that on YouTube. You can find their website, Witnesses for the number 4 Jesus. Just find all kinds of great resources to better reach your Mormon friends for Christ.
And at this time now, I just want to. invite you to Sit back and listen to this testimony. of a man named Michael Webb. It will be an encouragement to you. And let me just also say that if you have an interest in getting some materials, I would be glad to help you to reach Mormons for Christ.
Go to our website, upfc.org. That's Utah Partnerships for Christ. You can find out about our little glossary of Mormon terms, and you can understand how Mormons think and how they define things. And you'll just be encouraged, I know, even by way of maybe like a coaching session, a Zoom call. I'd love to do that for you if you have Mormon friends or neighbors or.
You want to talk to the Mormon missionaries and you just need a little bit of coaching ahead of time, please feel free to get in contact with us.
So with that, we'll start the interview. Yeah. As a Mormon, I listened to Michael W. Smith, Stephen Curtis Chapman. A lot of names a lot of people may not know, Fernando Ortega, things like that, that for years as a Mormon I loved and.
It filled me up and didn't know that at that time God was putting in my heart. The very gospel of Jesus Christ through music that I thought agreed with Mormonism. And I believe that's the way God started the whole process in me without me even knowing it. These men like Michael W. Smith and especially Stephen Curtis Chapman were preaching the gospel through their music.
And that's where my story really begins. It took years for. The culmination of that, but that's kind of where it began.
So, Michael Lodi Smith is very important in my life. I did twelve albums about in Christian Muck. In fact, if you ever heard of a girls' camp theme like a lighthouse or the song Like a Lighthouse, Very well known Mormon thug. That was me that wrote that. It's probably my best known song.
And so girls danced across the country. In Canada we just would use that as a theme and Yeah, anyway, just I was in the music industry for a long time, not making a lot of money, but it was just a really great experience. And I started writing for EFY. They decided to start doing records for the kids to take home as a memory of the week they'd had. along the theme of the week.
And so That's how then I'll start it, but I I'll never forget I was I'm beginning to be very troubled by Grace and works and the cross being such a taboo, and all these things that were just welling up in me. And I've written a song. I've been listening to John Piper, who's a really great preacher, a Baptist preacher, who has been. He's the man who has taught me the full counsel of God. I've never met him, but I've listened to hundreds of his sermons.
While LBS, and it really helped me, and especially after leaving the church. Taught me the truth that I would already been learning. But long story short, he taught me the very precious truth, but one of our chief ends is to praise our great God. that's just not a Mormon concept really. And I wrote my first praise song.
I hadn't written a bunch of songs, but I wrote a song called I Was Made to Praise Him, submitted it to EFY for the committee to approve. and it made the final list of songs But one of the committee members said right in that meeting at BYU, I was made to praise him, and that just doesn't resonate with me. And so while you're back. I knew right then and there, if I never knew before. I was on a completely different planet than my LGS brothers and sisters, and I went to the floor in prayer for a good year.
I was hearing things across the pulpit or not hearing things that were starting to really trouble me and I just had to have the truth. People leave the church because they got an issue or they can't whatever. No, I was seeking truth, not rebelling. I wanted the truth about grace and works. I wanted the truth about the nature of God.
And I was literally on my face for a year saying, God, whatever it takes, I want the truth. And then in 2006, or five or six. I read the Bible again. You know, as Mormons, we don't read the Bible, we read certain parts of the Bible. And we kind of gloss over other parts that don't fit in our whatever we've been told.
So this time I took off the glasses. piece up with this shows. I read like a child, and I'm telling you the truth. I finished that reading and realized that after 42 years of being every week in church, I had never once Perfect. Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everything has changed since then because of the Word of God. I mean, I'm going through reading things like. You know, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Now the one who works, whose wages are not candid as a kid, but it's a deep, but the one who does not work. but believe in him being justified as young army, his faith is counted as righteousness. Or he who knew no sin became sin. Or if you're going to go by works, then you're severed from Christ. All these amazing scriptures.
But somehow I missed. That are now bedrock of my faith. is because God opened my eyes and boom There it was, and I had uh two choices. I had a very Morland wife. And he's still my wife, and now a Christian, praise God.
Yeah, I knew it was going to cause some trouble. But I just have to say I I I can't do this anymore. Yeah, that's the only thing that's going to be a very good thing. There's no other option for me. Nobody else I know died for my sins on a cross.
Nobody else I know. And so my wife, who is just the most amazing person, what a spectacular heart she has. Though it was very difficult for her to I mean she She could tell of my search. was one of truth and not just trying to be weird. And so she said, Okay, I'll I'll let you have your journey, but just No, I am never leaving and the kids are going to the Mormon church.
Period, end of story. And I thought I was going to be looking at the life of a kind of division, but in a loving marriage, but still tense all the time.
Okay. over this issue. but God is so great and He is so able and I just continue. Yeah. Yeah.
I've gotten the way several times. and tried to say, you know, I didn't even know Joseph. Smith has 35. For 40 wives. I didn't know that he practiced polyandry.
I didn't know about the book of Abraham. I didn't None of that effect. I came out because I learned it was not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah. Of Joseph Smith, period.
And that is why I came out and that I'm so grateful for because. I didn't get mad at history. I'm mad at it now. I find out later I'm going home and So I would tell my wife these things I was learning after the fact. And You would just put a wall up.
Finally, I revisit that out. Away and God moved in, and she became a Christian about three. years ago Unbelievably on fire for God. unbelievably amazed that we believed all the stuff we believed Well, you know, it sometimes takes a while for people to remove their name from the records because they don't think about it or whatever. She finally did that out here and she was contacted by the bishop.
Who would ask you all sorts of personal questions like, I don't understand you guys were active for all these years. Is there an unresolved sin in your life? Is there you know, all these none of this business, right? But her response was just beautiful to him. Said in a couple, I'll paraphrase.
No, no, there's no email. There's no unresolved sin in my life that was taken care of two thousand years ago. And Bishop, I thought how, yeah, a losing in religion and getting Christ was the greatest trade I ever made. And I love that. My kids went to a Nick Boyachette um He's a guy with no arms or legs.
He spoke at UVU. My kids gave their life to him shortly after that. uh add one of those things to Christ and so Most of all my My family, but my two older daughters are very Christian. We'll be right back for the rest of today's testimony. Please know we at Utah Partnerships for Christ Have been planting seeds of the gospel in Utah for over 24 years.
We welcome any questions you may have and invite you to visit our website to obtain a list of words and definitions that would help you understand how Mormons think and how to be able to better witness to your friends who belong to the Mormon Church. That website is www.upc.org. That's upfc. We'll be right back. Welcome to Passion for Christ, a ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ.
In Acts 26, 18, Jesus said, Paul's purpose was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. and from the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. We hope you'll join us for today's testimony of lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let's begin today's episode. I'm now the worship leader at Great Church in Elk Harbor, Washington, where I was hired. about a year ago. My son's the worship leader of the youth team. My other son was sort of that worship leader before he finished high school.
has been an amazing journey and there's so much I could tell you to go into it. God moved us all all over and As I like to say, he he took us out but brought us in. That's an AW toes are quote, who, by the way, I had nowhere to go to church, and here I was suddenly realizing I can't go back to the Mormon church and So I'm sitting on my porch every day Listening to A.W. Tulzer's sermons that he passed away in early 60s. Or actually yeah, Aerie sixties.
But every day, and that was my Sunday, and that was my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I mean, I couldn't get enough of the gospel. I couldn't get enough of the word of God. The whole thing has just been very amazing. I learned that while I was a Mormon, I knew who Christ was.
I believed He was my example, my helper, my leader. But he wasn't my Savior. I was my savior. I mean, that that is really the truth. that if any Mormon will be honest, Because you can't add to what he's done.
That's called subtraction. And that's the only time it's called subtraction. When you do that, you know, add something to something, because you are. You're taking away from it, you're not adding to it, you're actually. Yeah.
And the end result's not going to be good. Shepherd in price. It just made all the difference. I mean, I can't even. There's not there's there's there's no words to say it.
How grateful I am, and all I can do is pray. For my loved ones, that God will do the same thing. And I don't mean that in kind of any kind of exclusive, arrogant way. There There it's it's a dead tree. I totally felt alone except that I have a loving wife But my brother is the bishop of award we grew up as kid brothers together, eighteen months apart.
My family and her family all very LDS, except God is Bringing so many of her family out. It's amazing. I wish you would do the same in mine. They're hoping they're not listening. No, I hope they are listening.
But no, it was very lonely, but I had A.W. Kozer. My my spiritual graph. Porch and that got me through. God got me through that.
And other sermons that end the Bible The only anthropologist book I've ever read. That's what came alongside me. And then Jesus brought my dear wife and family in along. It took about six or seven years. But yeah, I felt alone, but I also felt so covered.
and so protected and And so supported by the Holy Spirit. It's been an amazing journey. I wish we had five hours.
So just in in wrapping it up, you know. I'm a worn Things that I never knew as a Mormon that I will cherish for the rest of my life and everyday praise God for. you know, the beautiful doctrine of justification as a part from working law Through faith alone, that He imputes His righteousness to us, that we'll never have a righteousness. good enough to qualify a word they love to use every six months and they you know Corporate. You can't merit mercy, you can't qualify for it.
But rather, I'm clothed in his righteousness. That everything I do, even the good things, are filthy rags to him. That it's just such a And truthful grace is the only list. Listen, all you obvious people up there, I love you. Grace is the only thing that works.
Nothing else works. It's the only thing that trans transforms. Here's the difference. Instead of being conformed to a pattern of religion and morality and behavior, I am now being transformed. by the Holy Spirit.
And there is no comparison. And that is the only way anything will ever change. And so Just stop trying really hard really hard. and put your eyes instead on Christ. and quit adding to what he did, quit screaming up at the cross Well, thank you for what you did, but it's not enough.
You're separating yourself from Christ by doing that. You're not helping anything, he doesn't need help.
Okay, he's the God of the universe. And he wants you to receive. See you that Perfect, wonderful guest. Where we are complete in Him by believing in the doing of what He did, not doing. things ourselves.
That unites you to him. That's the way it works. There's no other way. I don't know how to. And until God opens people's eyes, they won't see it.
And again, I don't mean, oh, my eyes are opened. I see, and you don't. I'm just telling you, that is what happened in my heart. And my life. You can know things in your head, but I believe with my heart now.
That's called faith, and that is the only thing that saves. The the final thing I say is I had a good LGBT friends. Say to me. too obsessed with Jesus and because Christ has become my Really? Yeah.
A good LDS friend of mine said, you are too Obsessed with Jesus. And that remark just served to remind me once again that I must know an entirely different. for Jesus and for that I will be eternal. Yeah. I am in a reform.
Church. I mean, there are great. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, they're a little more conservative, but all evangelical and all the It is through Christ of all true. Thanks a lot. For the glory of Babylon.
Yeah. On that same thing. You know, Mormons like to say, all these split, all these churches believe different things. No, they don't. All those Christians across the There's no longer really Profess truly Christ, we all believe the same thing.
There might be some other. But we don't believe differently. things. We all believe Peter is saved, that there's no other way that he made us finish, he did it once and for all. We don't add anything to that.
So they try to talk about how we're all these churches. No, we're not. We're one. Universal church fought by the blood of the Lamb, every tribe, tongue, and nation. I get so tired of hearing that they're the ones that splinter.
God bless you guys. Thanks a lot. Can you just hear the joy in Michael's voice? Seeing that he has come to a True. Relationship with Christ.
I hope that that encourages you to know that when you plant seeds, when you water seeds of the gospel to your Mormon friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members, missionaries that come to your door, just know that we have to trust the Lord with his timing and we have to just ask God for patience. But I just want to encourage you again to not give up on the Mormon people. The Lord saved me out of the Mormon church when I was 14 years old. We have to remember that the They are not the enemy. We have to remember that they have been sadly deceived.
And I want to show you an example of that. I'm reading from a book here now. It's called Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. And this is on page 357. If you've ever wondered, well, this church, it's called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so it should be.
Christian.
Well, just listen to some of these teachings of Joseph Smith. I'm not making this up, I'm reading it right out of the book here on page three fifty seven. It says I will go back to the beginning before the world was to show what kind of being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears, and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man.
God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man. And sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power was to make himself visible, I say if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form, like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man. For Adam was created in the very fashion, image, and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked, and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another.
In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God, and how he came to be.
So I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us, yea, that God Himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did, and I will show it from the Bible.
So, this is an example of true Mormon teaching. And so, I want to encourage you to not. Uh think that that Mormon teaching is Christian, but In actuality, it comes from a almost like a Greek mytholog Greek myth mythological kind of a concept or two or three or four or maybe more. And and it's and it's just so contrasting to what we find in, say, Isaiah forty-three, ten. and the verses that talk about the fact that God The Sun Who was always in spirit form, he took on flesh.
He became a man. It's not the other way around, it's not that. There was this man on some planet like Earth, and then became a god. Because if that were the case, this regular man would have sinned. Who would have paid for his sin?
There's so many questions, and there's so many. uh foreign concepts here that that just smack right in the face of everything we read about in the Bible as to uh the the the the tr the truth of his nature.
So we touched on that a little bit. We hope that you might be praying for us, excuse me, and just be. Praying about supporting our ministry if possible. We could use your prayerful support at this point in time right now. Our website is upfc.org.
We do have this trip planned. It's a footsteps of Paul trip to Greece next year. And so how it works is if we get 20 people to go, my wife and I get to go for free because we're doing the logistics of the trip and we're going to take care of you on the trip. We're going to look after you to help make sure you got everything in order for your passports and make sure if you lose any luggage, we're going to be there to help you. And so on and so forth.
And I've been on a trip to Greece before about two years ago. Footsteps of Paul. We're going to be going to places like Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth. It's going to be an amazing trip. And so if you'll just go to our website and just send me an email, you can send it to Russ at up F C dot org.
Uh it's going to be with pilgrim. Christian tours, and it's just going to be an amazing time for us to walk the Via Ignacia. That's going to be from Thessalonica to Philippi. We're going to just give you a chance if you wanted to walk. Maybe a mile of that on our trek there.
Well, the bus will pick you up, but you can tell your friends and grandchildren that you walked on most likely the very steps that Paul would have walked along that was a Roman road at that time.
So. We're going to see some amazing things. We're going to have in-depth time for Bible study on this trip. We're not going to be racing through these places. It's September 22nd to October 2nd.
So it's going to be flying out of most likely Washington, D.C. Or JFK. And uh the price is right about forty five hundred dollars plus a few more expenses if you need to get to those airports and cover some lunches. But please please uh Give me a call, 801-645-7433. I'd love to talk with you more about this trip.
God bless you and thank you for listening to Passion for Christ. We appreciate your prayers and your support. God bless. Before we sign off for today, please know that all of us here at Utah Partnerships for Christ appreciate your prayers and support. We are also available to do Zoom call workshops or personal coaching on reaching Mormons for Christ.
Contact us today at upfc.org. That's upfc.org. Thanks so much for joining us on another edition of Passion for Christ.
