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This is the Truth Network. 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. We have a great episode. Today we're going to be having a conversation. with my friend Tom. And I believe Tom is on the line.

Paul, please share with our listeners a little about your testimony. How the Lord saved you out of the Mormon Church and to Christ. Sure.

Well, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Tom Earnhardt, and I am sitting here as an ordained pastor and a former Latter day Saint. And so I will be as brief as I can because my testimony is pretty lengthy, but I grew up in the Latter-day Saint household. I was baptized and confirmed a member of the LDS Church when I was eight years old. And I grew up uniquely in a single parent household with my mother, two younger brothers and myself.

And we were a family that attended church every week. And through that, I did pretty much everything that was asked of me and required of me. I was ordained into the Aaronic priesthood. Great, great.

So So continue with your testimony. You were in Utah, Growing out of that, right? Yes, sir. And like myself. Yeah, go ahead, yep.

Yeah, well I grew up in a um a single parent home. In the LDS church, we attend a church every week. and uh did everything that was asked of me essentially. Um I was ordained into the Iranic priesthood, which is essentially the LDS belief that requires younger men. ages twelve to mission age, which is eighteen now, I believe.

You have to hold that to be able to serve in the church. But I answered several callings. I was the Deacon Quorum's president, Teachers Quorum First Counselor. I spoke in sacrament meetings several times. I held leaderships in the Boy Scouts of America troupe that we had.

And I mean, really, I didn't make a lot of waves, but my testimony started pretty early on. I started to notice things in the church that troubled me. and it was not theological or historical in nature it was about outward appearances So we were required to do all these things that ultimately seemed impossible for me to live up to. And there was this inward deep shame and intense guilt. For like for messing up, not meeting the standards set by the church.

And when I did have a question about something that didn't make sense, I often heard this phrase that is it's ours is not to question. And it signified to me that I was not safe to analyze what I was seeing. And there's a problem there. I'm a highly analytical person. I always have been.

So that was like difficult for me to swallow that. And then I was confused by the message. Yeah. And then there's this message that God absolutely loves everyone without question, without exception. except.

There was an exception clause always and it was this this, but you have to do these things. You have to measure up And then to me, he also seemed blind to certain things as well.

So. Were you like me growing up in the LDS church where you had a CTR box and then in that box you had a little kind of a a card that said, do I measure up? Did you ever have that? Or does that does that go back beyond maybe your generation of when you were young in the that for me, that would have been like in the mid seventies.

So that might be back. Sure, if that was back a little farther. And I remember the coveted CTR ring. I always wanted one. And I'm not sure why.

I mean, it might have been a financial issue or something like that. Like, I just never had a CTR ring, but early on, I used to see them and be. pretty intrigued. Like, what do I got to do to get my hands on one of those? But I never did have one.

Right.

Well, you know, a lot of our listeners that are in the Bible Belt right now, maybe in Virginia or in North Carolina, they might be hearing this term CTR box or CTR ring. Would you ex explain that about what is a CTR box or CTR ring. Sure.

So the CTR is a the phrase is a the acronym is choose the right. And so there was even a song we used to sing called Choose the Right. And if the listeners hear that, they can go Google that and hear what I'm talking about. But essentially, anytime you got yourself into a situation as a young man where maybe you shouldn't have been there with someone of the opposite sex, or you're thinking about stealing something, or you're thinking about cussing or arguing with your parents, you know, you were to remind yourself of that song and then that phrase to just choose the right. And it was all about an outward performance, an outward Kind of appearance, this facade that I ultimately started having a real hard time with growing up.

I remember the song. I think it went like choose the right way and be happy, something like that. Did it have those words in it? Yeah. Yeah, and be happy all the day, I think.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, yeah, yeah. Happiness Was a big motif growing up. I remember I remember asking questions too. And I remember the Sunday school teacher saying, Rusty, stop asking so many questions. And that just stuck with me as well.

So, you know, I couldn't understand it. And, of course, I wasn't like the most superb Cub Scout. You know, I got up to the illustrious level of the bobcat, you know, and that was about as far as I went. Yeah. And so.

All my other fr old guys and there were excelling, you know, they had the wolf and the bear and everything like that and So there was a sense of, you know, my parents weren't in the temple, they hadn't gone to the temple ceremonies and things, and so. Where are we going to be so in your case with a single parent family? Did were you kind of like, I want to, I hope this wasn't the case, but did they kind of mistreat you like? Oh, Tom you know, he his parents aren't in the t in sealed in the temple, you know, or did you ever feel a little bit uh uneasy about that? Or did you get into that kind of uh understanding?

No, I have one of the most unique LDS wards that you could imagine growing up. I grew up in low-income housing. And the majority of the mothers were single mothers with young kids. And um it was primary l primarily LDS. And so there were no real father figures, hardly any father figures around to rear children in this ward.

And so there was a lot of single mothers with kids, and they brought in people who had already successfully raised their family. who were financially stable. and um meant to be good role models.

So a lot of older couples And so our ward consisted of young single mothers and these other families meant to kind of help rear us. And they were great people. I mean, I learned a lot about life from them that I wouldn't have learned if they weren't there. And we were one of the first wards that I could think of back in the day that was a two-hour ward.

So I got it. Hey, the music has just started. That just means we have to take a break, but stay with us, Tom, would you? Because we're going to talk about reasons to reach Mormons for Christ in our next segment. And then we'll talk about life in Utah as a former Mormon.

We want to welcome you to the program, to Truth Talk Live. I'm with my friend Tom, just talking about the importance of sharing our faith and the power of the gospel, the true gospel. Because, you know, Galatians chapter 1, the passage that I read right when I became a Christian, I got saved in 1979 and I went upstairs. And I broke out this Bible that my grandmother had given me, and I opened it up to this passage. And it says, It says, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

So at that moment, I knew that something big happened to me when I got saved at Santa Rosa Bible Church. On that summer morning at church.

So we're going getting back to Tom's story. Tom, when did the gospel get presented to you? Was it through a friend? Was it um you know, a family member, something that you read in a book. How did that come about?

Well, years after leaving the LDS Church, I left when I was sixteen and I was raising my family and working hard and didn't realize how lost I was. I was actually scanning the radio station of all things or the radio channels and I stumbled upon the Calvary Satellite Network. And I was ready to change it because I didn't want to hear it. But the pastor that was preaching on the station was actually engaging. and funny And I was almost immediately hooked on listening to him just preach the gospel.

He was sharing from God's word. And I didn't surrender my life to Christ for a minute after that, for at least a year and a half, I would say, but I was hooked on what he had to say. 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. This is Russ East, your host. Serving here in Utah.

So glad you're with us. I'm with my friend Tom. He was saved out of the Mormon church. You're wondering, what is that all about?

Well, Tom's been sharing how the Lord saved him, and we he and I both have experienced this. This great exchange where we receive as a gift Jesus' perfect life, his. Hmm. is being the God-man, he he took our sin on himself. He was the only one who could pay our penalty, our sin penalty.

And what do we bring to him? We don't clean ourselves up. We don't try to earn it. All we do is we receive it. We put our trust and our reliance upon that.

It's a relationship issue here. It's an acceptance. It's trust. It's faith. It's the essence of what faith is all about.

And Tom and I have both done that at a young age. And so here we are, we're just talking about some reasons to reach out to your Mormon friends. And so if you'd like to call us 866-266666666666 348-7884. We'd be glad to encourage you. Or maybe you're a Mormon and you're listening to this and you're like, wait a minute, you guys, you guys are all wrong.

You guys don't understand it.

Well, please call us. We want to try to work this through together in a non-contentious way. I want to talk about something that maybe it's difficult to discuss with Mormons, but it's important for us Christians to be aware of something. And I want to talk about.

Something that's very sacred to Mormons. And so we're not being flippant about this, we're not being disrespectful, but. there is a part of Mormonism that involves A certain type of article of clothing that you put on over a robe or a gown or a kind of a pants and shirt and different things, shawls and stuff. And it's green. And you're wondering, what am I talking about?

Well, this green apron is embroidered with. Fig leaves on it. And you know, the fig leaves that Adam and Eve war were to cover their sin. And so, are you comfortable talking about this topic, Tom, about how Mormons. Really cling to this concept of that the fall of Adam and Eve was a good thing.

This is one reason why we reach Mormons because they have a doctrine that is completely foreign to what. Protestant evangelical Christians teach about the nature of sin. In the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Do you want to just talk about that a little bit?

Well, sure. I mean, it's ultimately, and God bless LDS people who are. Who are in and believing because you're trying, and I know that. But the reality is when you approach Jesus. And you try to add anything to what he did, which is full and complete for you on the cross.

You are entering into a works plus or a Jesus plus salvation, a works-based salvation. And the writer of Hebrews has a lot to say about it, but Galatians 2:23 is also fantastic because it says: if we could attain righteousness by keeping any laws, then Christ died for no purpose. And so, yes, like we look at the Garden of Eden and what happened in Genesis chapter 3 as a curse. And we see the effects of that all around us. We see sickness, we see sin, we see death, we see all kinds of things that are not good.

It was not a blessing. And in fact, that is the very reason that Christ came into the world was to pay the penalty for that curse and all that we add to it. And we've got to be fair to Adam and Eve, too. When they fell, They made a grave error bringing sin into the world, but each and every person beyond that, we contribute. We can't just put the fault on them.

So Christ died for all of our sins so that we don't have to work to please him. Because when is enough enough, right? In any framework, especially an LDS framework, when is enough enough? When have you gone to the temple enough? When have you baptized enough for the dead?

When have you given enough money? When does that ever happen? And it's a relentless. Endless pursuit to leave so many hurt and empty. And Christ came to save you to the uttermost and fill you with His Spirit to save you and to bring meaning to your life.

So I'm telling you, there's freedom in Christ that isn't religious bondage. Right.

You know, growing up, like we were talking about earlier, we both grew up in the Mormon church, and we remember the stickers, it almost looked like a Ten Commandments, you know, and maybe it was on a big thing you would put together and maybe you learn about them once a week or something. The articles of faith, the 13 articles of faith, and one of them is it says that we are not responsible for Adam's transgression, but for our own personal sins. And so from a young age, I was taught that that was something that we just you put out of your mind. I mean, and there might be Mormons listening right now that might be putting this on a kind of a figurative or symbolic shelf. It's a concept that I think Mormons for a number of years have adopted.

And it's the idea of you just take these things that are troubling and you just kind of sweep them under the rug, but you call it a shelf. And I remember it was, I think it was a former Mormon prophet's wife that used the term.

So it's a Mormon term of putting things on a shelf. And just trying to like kind of. Have you ever heard that phrase before, Tom, growing up, or have you heard that in discussion with Mormons? Yes. Sure.

Yeah. In fact, I've spent some time working in the business world as well, and that was something that we used to say all the time. It's just like we're going to take that idea and we're going to put it on the shelf. And the meaning behind that is we're just never going to touch that again. It just stays on the shelf.

So, yes, I'm very familiar with that. Interesting. Yeah. Right.

And so if you're trying to witness to, say, Mormon missionaries that come to your door, these young men and women, and they are as kind and sweet as they can be, and you want to share the gospel with them, Would you share with us, Tom, maybe A little bit about when Mormon missionaries want to come to our front door and they want to talk with us about how we can be together with our families. And they're just you know these very uh bright, you know, you know, very just pleasant people. What would be one or two words of advice that you would give Uh those listening who are born-again Christians. To keep the conversation going and so forth, just share some thoughts that come to your mind. Absolutely.

So, number one, pray. And then, when you're done praying, pray again. Number two, I would say be nice. They have surrendered two years of their lives to do something that they're very passionate about, most of them. And so ask them where they're from.

be inquisitive about them as a person because that's who they are. They're people. Number three, I would say set clear expectations and boundaries because increasingly the message is that we're all Christians. And so that begs the question.

So are all my creeds an abomination still? Number one. And number two, if we're all Christians, does that automatically make me a Latter-day Saint? Because they will say no to that. They want to baptize you to be a Latter-day Saint.

So those two questions actually are very fair to answer up front. I'm firm on, you know, making sure that we're on the. We're on an honest platform before we move on. And then just ask a lot of questions. Ask a lot of questions.

Clarify what they mean. If they say, yeah, we believe we're saved by grace, then ask a million questions about that. Don't let up on that until. you know, until you have a a clear answer from them. But honestly, just be friendly.

I mean, and ask a lot of questions. That's that's kind of uh um the best way that I've I've uh I've been able to interact with LDS missionaries myself.

So Sure. And you never know if it's better to maybe set a time. Maybe they come to your door and you're not quite ready for them.

So they have a they can schedule you in for another day. It might be better for you if you have them come back on Thursday at four o'clock rather than when they rang the doorbell, you know, and then even to have an agreed upon time limit that you're going to discuss things just because you want to be respectful of their time and you want to be respectful of your time and you want to plant some seeds. You want to water some seeds of the gospel. And you don't have to do a four-hour stint with the Mormon missionaries to make it meaningful. I don't want to say that you can't ever do that because there might be a time for that.

But I think over living in Utah for a number of years and interacting with a lot of missionaries, Sometimes that One hour or less, and then having multiple meetings and just using the phrase, I don't have a spirit of contention. Have you ever used that, Tom, when you're trying to convey that you love these people and that you don't want to make them think that, you know, like there's a verse in the Book of Mormon that uses that phrase, and it has to do with like Satan being influencing the environment of a conversation with one another and stuff. Have you ever heard that phrase, a spirit of contention? Do you want to talk about that for a minute? Sure, I have heard that.

But by and large, I don't experience that when I'm speaking with LDS folks. I'm in a unique situation because I am an ordained pastor. And then I'm also disaffected from the LDS church by their standards.

So, missionary conversations with me don't go beyond the first one. Just that they're instructed not to talk to me very long.

So, I definitely approach things different there. And I'm not at liberty to have ongoing conversations, whereas many other evangelical Bible-believing Christians can continue said conversations with them. But the spirit of contention is not something that comes up often in my experience. And so I think that if you approach it, like I said, just relationally. Very friendly, inquisitive, those conversations will go a long way.

I mean, we've heard of a lot of people making a lot of ground with the gospel by just preaching the gospel, sharing the gospel in a friendly, non-confrontational way.

So. Right.

Well, there is something called a bishop's court that people who End up leaving the Mormon Church, you don't have to go through it. But I have heard more than one person, many people, that if they so choose, They can go through a process where you go into a room and these men are pretty intimidating, and they pretty much tell you that you're being stripped of your priesthood blessings. And what a terrible thing this is for you to have put your faith in Jesus alone and to. This Associate yourself with the Mormon church. I mean, that's just not the way it is with true Christianity.

I mean, I mean, there are so many good churches, you know, and they can have some different Flavors to them. There are good Baptist churches and there's good Presbyterian churches and non-denominational churches and EV free and Alliance churches. There's so many good ones out there. But in Mormonism, if you become a Mormon and you decide to leave it, That's really you're really Tinkering with something called outer darkness, I think. If you look at a book called Gospel Principles, about towards the end of the book, and it's like being an apostate, right?

I mean, it's. One could argue whether or not that's going to put you in that place called outer darkness where it's even worse than the lowest degree of heaven. But hey, I I don't know. That that that's something that's not totally spelled out. I don't think in Mormon publications and things.

But but did you ever have you faced that living in Utah where, you know, people would ostracize you a bit or was it hard on a social level? to continue living in Utah, because I know some people have to end up leaving the state because it's it's pretty rough sometimes. Yeah, it's been difficult. There's been challenges. My kids have experienced issues because of it, because of who their father is.

And yeah, I've definitely felt that in Utah.

So. Yeah. Okay.

Well, we'll talk about this some more, and we want to take your questions.

So, call us at 866-348-7884. That's 866-348-648. 7884. One more time, 866. 348-7884.

We want to talk with you. We want to answer your questions. We want to send you some resources. Stay with us here on Truth Talk Live. We'll be right back.

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.