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April 2018
After 48 years of membership in the church, after being converted at the age of 17 from Catholicism and serving an honorable mission in France and Switzerland . . . after having served in every calling a male can serve in a ward (with the exception of the bishopric . . .) and after having researched the inconsistencies in the historicity of the church and having watched your exquisite interviews with John Dehlin, in this last week I have made the decision to completely disassociate myself from the Mormon church. On April 6, 2018 I stopped reading the Book of Mormon. The next day I disposed of my temple garments. Now, I’m spreading the word to friends that I am out.
May 2018
I just listened to your talk on the Biblical Temple . . . versus the Mormon temple(s).
Thanks so much for the clarification. I already knew the difference, but I so much appreciate you giving the explanation about the differences between them. It is a much need explanation.
June 2018
I don’t expect you to remember me but I spoke to you on the phone a few years ago. Asking forgiveness for being unkind to you when I served a LDS missionary in Salt Lake. I am a Christian and love Jesus. I have enjoyed many videos that you are in on the internet.
June 2018
Greetings from . . . Canada. After 41 years as a member of the LDS church, my shelf broke (splintered is more like it) and I went from fully active, serving as Ward Clerk to inactive in less than 6 weeks.
One of the things that destroyed my faith was realizing that things I had been told were anti-Mormon lies were now being taught as legitimate Mormon history. An example I’ve used with others is that Joseph Smith was a treasure hunter and used a seer stone to search, unsuccessfully, for treasure prior to receiving the plates.
June 2018
I want to let you know how much I appreciate your years of research and care you’ve given to share the truth of the gospel!
God gave me, ______ years ago, a new (and now most precious) friend. I didn’t find out until about four months into our friendship that she was Mormon. I was so unknowledgeable about the LDS at that point. All I knew was that which my parents told me (something like “they’re not real Christians”) My friend and I started having short conversations about the LDS—she suggested I read “How Wide Is the Divide.” That book left me more confused than ever! But it did do me one service, and that was to validify the fact that even though I would say “grace” or “the trinity” it didn’t mean the same thing to my friend. We were speaking two different languages. I came out of that book knowing I needed help understanding truly “how wide was the divide.”
I got online & found your material right away. What a blessing! I have poured over your material—I’ve learned so much! My friend and I have quietly skirted around our differences—she’s not willing to talk much about theology. But I know God’s working in her life. He’s been so gracious to us by keeping our friendship strong—I feel such peace knowing that when the Holy Spirit lefts the veil, if she wants, she’s got a friend to turn to that can answer questions or at least point her to your research. 🙂 !
Thank you for helping me to develop and grow in my faith. I pray that God will continue to draw out His own from the LDS!”
June 2018
Sandra Tanner is a very disrespectful, inconsiderate, argumentative DAMNED LITTLE BABY!
July 2018
My whole world collapsed recently after the passing of my wife three years ago. I am a mormon in exile. I was baptised into the LDS faith on ____, 1969. I am/was a High Priest and went through the usual steps of priesthood progression.
However, after having read the bible through from cover to cover for the first time in my life, my eyes began to be opened and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit I came to realize that I have been terribly deceived for so many years and by those I had fully trusted with my eternal soul.
I feel so lost right now and don’t know where to turn for help, as far as this life is concerned. The one thing I never let go of, however, is my faith and hope in my Saviour, Jesus Christ, my master, my Saviour, my King, my atoning one.
I miss going to church each week and participating in and partaking of the sacrament. I miss my friends and family for they have abandoned me for my decision to leave the LDS faith. However, I do cling to my faith and hope in Christ Jesus, the true and living Saviour, the true messiah of the bible. Not the false Christ of Mormonism. I never realized there was a difference until my eyes were opened through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. . . .
I turned to the internet and started my search for true Christian fellowship and stumbled onto your website and felt that I needed to contact you to see if you would want to help a lost brother find his way back into true fellowship with Christ. I don’t think that Jesus wants me to be alone any longer. I believe He led me to your website and the Holy Spirit is guiding me to seek your help and reach out for your help and support. . . . Thank you for any help you might be able to render to a lost brother in Christ. He said He will never leave us or forsake us and I truly believe that with all my heart, and if it turns out that I must live the rest of my life in loneliness and isolation then so be it. But I do think and believe that He is leading me out of that state of mind and back into a community of true Christian fellowship and believers.
July 2018
I came across this site by accident and I have been struck by the nasty, inane and vitriolic comments made against the Mormon church. I did not expect to see the comments I did from a supposedly Christian mission.
I am a Mormon and I am not uneducated, as one commentator stated, I speak several languages and am educated past degree level. I have always been respectful to other people’s faiths and have attended many services in many different types of buildings.
All I have seen here is disrespect, mocking of things people hold sacred and a general superiority of mood. I see no evidence of Christian love to the sinner. I feel you would have been the first to throw the stone and it saddens me so much.
Life is too short to be nasty to people. It is perfectly alright to disagree.
July 2018
For as long as I live, I will not have enough breath to thank Jerald and Sandra Tanner for the work they’ve done. They have been one of the primary sources for all of my work, and a huge influence in my exodus from Mormonism.
July 2018
[From a Mormon]
They believed that to kill the [LDS] church was to cut off the head, they did and it didn’t. Why? Every other cult has died after cutting off the head, why not LDS?
July 2018
I’m former LDS. Too long of a story short, I was a Baptist up until 2000 and then I got suckered into the Mormon church by a girl. I was baptized into it and stayed in it for 4 or 5 years. I’m currently getting my name removed from their membership rolls and have a solid foundation in the Bible.
July 2018
Thank you so much for your quest for truth and for the materials you have written or made available. Your contributions in terms of sharing, speaking, publishing and encouraging are admirable. Your motivation has been misunderstood by those who vilify you as LDS church haters. Instead your “lighthouse” shines a light. That is so important in assisting people like myself, who are looking for answers—questioning or weighing the evidence for deciding whether to leave or join.
It has become so evident to me over years of reading your material that for whatever reasons the Church in general and the prophets, particularly Joseph, decided that LDS members had to be fed “facts” that hid the truth. How is it a victory to win members when their belief and loyalty can only be held together with numerous distortions and half-truths? I know I felt duped and cheated when I learned the truth regarding so many aspects of Church doctrine and history. This led to my resignation after 50+ years of devout membership. You were supportive of me during that painful process.
Knowing that members including missionary converts all over the world were being fooled as a whole church which was not only our religion/belief system but our entire way of life was and is really heartbreaking. It is still painful and it certainly has split families apart. I wonder what those priesthood holders who orchestrated the fraud and have continued it for over 188 years will say to their Maker at the Judgement bar. Even now with recent supposed “transparency” the Brethren continue to mislead in areas of doctrine and practice.
This has been a long e-mail but I’ve had a lot to be thankful to you for. I am grateful you are in Christianity. I am healing as I have been baptized into Christianity. May your burdens be light as you continue on in your Christian ministry work. God bless you.
July 2018
Thank you for this opportunity to write to you. My parents were tricked into the Mormon faith by them telling them what she believed, not what the Bible says. My daughter was at one time given a blessing and within a short period was to meet a Mormon, get married and have children who are now Mormons. They very rarley go to church though. If they would study the Bible they would see the truth as so many are now finding the truth as you did and stand up for the truth.
August 2018
I along with my wife and one of my daughters, had the privilege of meeting you earlier this summer. We were there on a day when a young woman, who recently resigned from the Mormon church, was there, and she talked to my daughter for quite a while. I was able to buy a few books that day from you.
I wanted you to know that I have greatly benefitted from books you and Jerald have written, especially Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? and The Changing World of Mormonism. I have also benefitted from Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons, and have been in contact with the author and his ministry at tilm.org.
August 2018
I apologize for mocking the death of your husband. It was wrong of me to do that. I’ve since made amends. I’m sorry. I am . . . [a] former member of the church.
September 2018
I recently listened to a Mormon Stories podcast where you discussed Joseph Smith’s First Vision. Your knowledge and interpretations frankly out shown everyone else.
September 2018
This is both a thank you and a letter of encouragement . . . I read The Book of Mormon and realized there was no Mormon doctrine in it. I heard about the Doctrines and Covenants and ordered one from the missionaries but I never got it. Later on I found out the reason. It contains the real teaching which they don’t want you to know. . . .
Then I met a missionary and he told me about your book Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? I read it and was astounded. But I said: “There can’t be that much proof that Mormonism is wrong and yet it is growing.” So I wanted to check out this book. I bought quite a number you mentioned so I could read them in context. To my happy surprise everything you wrote was very accurate and you could use it with assurance. . . .
I know you have had a lot of opposition from Mormons but the Lord has used your ministry to explain the truth to Mormons and I am sure many have left and been saved because of your ministry.
October 2018
The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Translated by the power of the Lord, it is another Testament of Jesus Christ. If you read and pray you will know if is true by power of the Holy Ghost. People say the Bible is just a book. The Lord said by two or three witnesses shall his word be established. So the Lord gave us the Bible and Book of Mormon to let us know he lived, he taught and he died for our sins and was Resurrected the third day. I know Jesus is our Savior, I also know the Bible and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Find out for yourself, you can only know if true if you study & pray.
October 2018
So sad for you. We [LDS] do study the Bible. 2019 is New Testament time again. Where do you get they did for greed? someday they will find architectural evidence until then go by faith. Evidence does not always lead to faith.
October 2018
Thank you for the decades of helpful information you have researched and shared with those of us who have searched for the truth and honesty in what we’ve been taught. You have made a difference and I wish you continued blessings in your work.
Originally appeared in:
“Excerpts from Letters and Emails,” Salt Lake City Messenger, no. 131, November 2018, 13-14.