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 another edition of Passion for Christ. You might be hearing this on our podcast or maybe on the radio, on the Truth Network in Ohio or North Carolina or Utah or elsewhere. You might be listening to Truth Talk Live right now. I just want to thank you for your continued prayers for the people in Utah and around the world that are a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is the Mormon church, of course. And so you've heard me before how I've shared how the Lord has saved me out of the Mormon church when I was 14 years old. What you're about to hear is an interview from our friends at Truth in Love Ministries. And this is an interview, and it's an amazing story. It's just part one of five.
So you'll have to go to the Truth in Love Ministry website to hear all of it. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to air all of these segments of this man's story of how he came to Christ from being a member of the Mormon church, but it's a. Very powerful story, and it's put together by some friends of ours. This program, by the way, is a part of the Ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ.
So, therefore, partnerships involve other ministries.
So, we want you to know about what the Lord is doing all around the world as to good ministries that are happening, and specifically to reach Mormons for Christ, to get the gospel out to anyone who will listen. This is what we're all about.
So, Without any further ado, let's begin this interview. With our friends. From Truth and Love Ministry. And also, let me say thank you to Kevin McGehey for the instrumentals on the Passion for Grice program. program.
Here comes the interview. Stay tuned. As Mormons, we don't really have a good grasp of The grace. Oh God. But grace is a big issue.
My mom taught me you need help. You don't have what somebody else has. It's not a paycheck. It's a gift. It's a free gift.
God gives it because He loves us. That's grace. My mom taught me that is grace. We as Mormons need to understand grace better. like really understand it in its proper context.
This may sound like the start of a three guys walk into a bar joke. But it's anything but. What you're about to hear is the remarkable story. of how God used a diverse cast of characters. A devout Mormon mother?
Antagonistic Southern Californian Christians? A thoughtful Jewish rabbi? A Methodist BYU instructor? and even a group of angry men. to reveal his grace.
To one. his lost sheep. My name's Eric. I am an ethnic Mormon. I identify as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
This is my story of how I came to faith through the Bible. In Jesus Christ. Welcome to Jesus is Enough. A series where we dive deep into the transformational faith stories of ex-Mormon Christians. These are true stories of real souls whom God has rescued out of the darkness by revealing to them the biblical gospel message through his word, the message that Jesus is enough.
This week on the show, we have part one of Eric's story. Raised by devout Mormon parents, Eric's faith is grounded in strict practice and structure. And it's not until a challenge at school, which his mom helps fix with some questionable creativity, that he learns there might be something more to consider. Grace.
Now, here's part one of Eric's story: of discovering that Jesus is enough. Thanks for listening. Paid in for all sufficient I grew up in American Fork, Utah. I was seven of eight children. My parents were fantastic parents.
They were. They were very. A stoic? I would call them almost um Almost pilgrim, very serious, very somber about their faith. And that's how we were raised.
We were raised to know Mormonism, we were raised to know our faith, defend it, explain it. I didn't see my dad much. He taught school in the Salt Lake Valley, so he had to commute. every day. My dad was old school, like scary, and like you didn't cross him.
I took him very seriously. He was a patriarch of the home. And that's just kind of how I thought it was supposed to work.
So, I had the privilege of being raised in a traditional household where my dad went. Paid the bills. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. It was magical. It was a blessing to me.
I absolutely loved it. And I was just enamored with her. I was an absolute mama's boy. I loved my mother. The best way to describe my mother is she was like Mary Poppins.
She was just magical. Growing up, I didn't know anyone who wasn't Mormon. Everything revolved around the church. We lived just a couple houses away from the church, so we could easily walk to the church and there was always something going on. We were always invited to speak in church, to participate in church.
Lots of um opportunities to talk in sacrament meeting. Everything in my childhood was grooming me for missionary work. To not be afraid to get in front of people, not be afraid to talk to people, and to be bold. We went to a lot of extended family activities, reunions. When you went to a family reunion, you had I'd better know your stuff.
So I would listen and I would pay attention to the chatter going back and forth and the arguments. And I got really excited about. What I'd later find out is called apologetics, defending the faith. Like, what are all of the points of doctrine? How can I make a good case?
How can I argue skillfully to defend Mormonism? You needed to know your stuff. And so I took it seriously. We were always told that we were safe for the latter days to usher in the second coming. We were the vanguard, so we had to be the best, the smartest, the brightest.
Despite their faithfulness to the church. Eric's family faced ongoing financial struggles. Creating a deep conflict between their devotion and their expectations of blessings. I remember a scout activity where we went around collecting canned goods. for the needy.
And then I go home and a few minutes later, somebody's knocking on the door and we answer it. No one's there. And it's the box of the canned goods that I had collected. And I was like, oh, we're the needy. And my mother looked at that as like, well, Somebody needs to fill that role.
Let's do it humbly. Let's be grateful because they need the blessings and we can help them with that. And that was my mother's unique twist on it. I just had an immense amount of pride. Like, I did not want to be the charity case of the ward.
I just didn't, and I hated it. I believe that if you are righteous, you'll prosper in the land. That was the promise of the Book of Mormon. Everything should be prosperous, everything should be good. And it wasn't.
Later, Eric realized that his mother was imparting a subtle lesson about what it means for the needy. to receive gifts from a benevolent source. one that doesn't require effort on behalf of the recipient. But his mother's spiritual lessons weren't limited to teachable moments. she intentionalized reading and studying the Bible with her children.
My mom loved the Bible. Every day I woke up for school, my mom was at the dinner table with the Bible. She was all in on all of it. And my mother would read to us all kinds of things: The Hobbit. All kinds of good literature from back then, but she would also read Bible stories.
And I remember the story of David shouting down Goliath. after he had been taunting Israel. 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.upfc.org. That's UPFC.org. 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 remember. observing that when somebody was called By God. To act on his behalf. The response was some form of, here I am.
Or I'm here, Lord.
So I just loved the Bible, but I loved the stories and the way my mother would read it. My mother taught me that God is real. I can trust him. Eric isn't sure where his Mormon mother's deep trust in the Bible and God came from. But the way she shared Bible stories and spoke about God.
profoundly influenced how he viewed and approached life. This foundation. also prepared him for difficult days ahead. when precious moments with his mother, became harder to come by. Probably when I was 10, the family had a big serious meeting, and there's you could feel this, this, this, um, sombre tone.
there there was some bad news. And I remember that my dad, his voice was a little shaky, and he was saying that he had to quit his job. My Dad's health declined. He had diabetes. He had some heart troubles.
We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do. And my older brothers and sisters were crying. And it was just, it was weird because this is the man who I was so afraid of. He was so strong and so powerful. And to kind of see him decline, that left an impact.
My mother sat me down. And she said, look, I have to work now. I can't be what I used to be to you. She now had to be burdened with to care of the family. That was rough.
Even with his mom's responsibilities vastly changing, She didn't stop teaching Eric about God and how he works. When I was in junior high. I was failing miserably in my classes, but again, I didn't want to stress out my mom, I didn't want to stress out my dad. take care of my responsibilities and try to not ruffle any feathers, right? Although Eric tried not to ruffle any feathers, A creative high school teacher ruffled them for him.
And he decided to implement this kind of mini society where we're going to have an economy and we're going to have a money. He introduced: okay, here's some money that I have printed, and I've designed it so it can't be forged, it can't be counterfeited. Here's what's going to happen. When you get an assignment turned in, you get the cash. When you show up late, you have to pay a fee.
We're going to teach you some real world experience. Eric's teacher also explained that part of the class grade. was based on how much money each student ended the semester with. Eric was devastated. I was already like failing and I was already in the hole.
And I remember he's saying, I'm worried about you that you are going to just fail in life. And I'm like, okay, okay. And that was kind of a call to action. What can I do to salvage this? And I remember going home, and I was just.
Beaten. How do I not fail this class? How? Because at the rate I was going, I was going to be in debt. And my mother said, How's it going?
What's going on? I filled her in on the situation, and she said, Oh, that's easy. I'm like, what do you mean? She said, come with me. And she takes me in the car, and we drive over to this obscure shop to a paper.
Factory. And she says, show me some of the money. I'm like, okay. And she finds the exact cardstock that that paper was from. And then when we we went to the grocery store, we got a cake pan and we got some gelatin.
and she mixed up this weird gelatin concoction. And she poured it in the pan. And she says, Okay, what I want you to do is try to trace this the best you can onto this other paper. I traced out the the money and the Dead. design of it.
And then she took Uh the ink that I had traced And in this jello-like concoction in the cake pan, We laid down the one I had copied with the ink and peeled it back and there was a perfect image on the gelatin. And then she took the blank cardstock. and rolled it down and it It was a perfect print. She takes the cardstock and she starts printing a bunch of these off. And I'm like, mom, where did you learn to do this?
And she goes, No oh, you know BYU So here's my mother helping me. She's breaking bad by counterfeiting all these bills. And I remember turning to her and saying, Mom, isn't this cheating? And she stops and she turns to me, she says, Yeah. That's kinda the point.
Isn't it? That's kind of the point. And I thought about it. What she was saying to me is... This was a gospel lesson.
I could tell when my mother was teaching the gospel. We are in debt. We need someone to come in and Pay the price. Isn't that cheating? Yeah.
That's kind of the point. That was my first lesson on grace that really sank in. I need someone. Who Has skill and capability that I just don't have to come in. and help me with my debt.
I don't think she called it Grace. But it was self-evident what it was. It's like, you need help. You don't have What somebody else has. You need salvation.
Wouldn't it be great if someone could come in and save you? That was the lesson. Later, I would be able to assign that term grace. That's grace. My mom taught me that is grace.
So I take all this money to school the next day. And I insert it into the system. And nothing is said of it. And at the end, I get an A. Although his mother's actions were clearly questionable, They reveal to Eric a deeper truth.
Grace.
Is someone stepping in to pay a debt? We could never repay. Her actions sharply contrasted the teachings of grace and forgiveness. Eric heard from his church and its leaders. In the broadest and most eternal perspective that there is, No one ever gets anything for nothing.
offering him a more robust and radical understanding of grace. I remember as a teenager reading The Miracle of Forgiveness. And I don't know how, but I had the good sense as a teenager, a faithful Mormon, to read that and go. This is a bunch of garbage and I remember folding it up and throwing it in the trash.
Now that's not to say that I didn't believe that Spencer W. Kimball. Was a prophet. I did. I thought he was a leader.
I just thought. He's wrong. And I had cognitive dissonance to make that connection that this is. This is garbage. This is not.
Accurate. And I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna subscribe to this. Eric realized that Spencer W. Kimball's rules of repentance in the Miracle Forgiveness.
set impossible standards and expectations. leading people to become self-righteous pretenders. Modern day Pharisees. The perfectionism complex of Mormonism. It's born out of the miracle of forgiveness.
And you can't be perfect, so you do the next best thing, you pretend. And then it creates this culture of competitive righteousness. It creates a culture of. Feigned righteousness. You're pretending.
You're putting on a show.
Now we become the Pharisees.
Now we become. religious zealots who police each other.
so that we appear as if we are righteous. And I hated it. Not only am I so bad at being perfect, I don't even like pretending to be perfect. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Jesus is Enough. To watch the video version of this episode or to support this project, please visit.
T I L M dot org slash radio.
Next time on Jesus is enough. A tragic event at home prompts Eric to reaffirm his Mormon faith just before he begins his Mormon mission. But when things don't go as planned, Eric finds himself on a deep dive into religion, causing more questions to come to the surface. That's next time on Jesus is enough. Jesus is Enough is presented by Truth and Love Ministry.
Truth and Love Ministry. based in Nampa, Idaho. is a Christian ministry devoted to proclaiming Christ to Mormons and empowering Christians to witness. In addition to offering time-tested training, it provides ongoing support. This includes person-to-person mentoring as well as websites with pages of practical tips, strategies, and witnessing stories.
In addition to Jesus is Enough, it also produces the Witnessing Christ podcast. To learn more and lend your support, Please visit. T-I-L-M dot org. Jesus Is Enough is produced and written by Mark Parsons with writing assistance from Molly Parsons. You can learn more about Jesus is enough.
At JesusISENOF.org. Until next week, remember. Keep planting those gospel seeds. Trusting in the power of God's Word.
Well, I want to thank you for being. with us here on another edition of Passion for Christ and Truth Talk Live or our podcast, the Passion for Christ podcast. It's a privilege to be able to be a resource for you as you try to Share the gospel with our Mormon friends.
So, with that, We'll see you again next week right here on this good station. 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.
