Latter-day Saints revere several books of scripture in addition to the Bible. There are many verses in these books that are consistent with the Bible and that I find stirring and powerful even though I no longer believe they are scripture. But there is one verse in the Doctrine and Covenants that stands out to…

I longed to dwell  In temple walls forever Adorned in white  Kneeling across altars  When father and family forsook me I sought refuge  Seeking his face Finding refuge and solace Now those walls are suffocating  No longer filed with his presence But my heart still tells me: “Seek his face.” And so I will continue…

In Latter-day Saint discussions about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, someone will almost inevitably point to Boyd K. Packer’s parable of the Mediator. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 14 years, I thought or participated in many lessons where we would mention or discuss this parable. I loved…

Since leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for Evangelical Christianity, I have been trying to figure out how to best convey to people the difference that my embrace of salvation by grace alone through faith alone has had on me.  This can be really hard to do. When I would hear Protestants…

When I was an LDS missionary I taught people about the Great Apostasy all the time. Many of the people I taught were Christians who were very upset about the claim that the true Church of Christ fell away from the earth. But I would reassure them that this did not mean that there were…

How realistic is the First Vision? One of the seminal events in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the First Vision of Joseph Smith. Missionaries today around the world in their very  first lesson with those interested in the Church recount the story of Joseph Smith praying in the…

When I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I saw additional commandments such as the Word of Wisdom to be “blessings from above.” (D&C 59:3–4). I thought that it was a pleasure to be asked to give up something like tea or coffee to more fully serve God and…

One of the most common accusations leveled against Paul the Apostle was that he was teaching his followers that it was appropriate to sin and to embrace a kind of cheap grace. This same accusation is leveled by Latter-day Saints against Protestant Christians today. I want to invite you to look carefully at the criticism…

One day, Jesus healed ten lepers who cried out to him in their affliction. Yet only one of the ten came back to Jesus with gratitude “praising God in a loud voice.” That man alone heard Jesus declare: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:12-19). How often are we like those…

On the topic of what we need to do to be saved, the most famous verse in the Book of Mormon is 2 Nephi 25:23: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is…