By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
Over thirty years ago we found it necessary to ask Mormon officials to strike our names from the roles of the Mormon Church. Our research revealed that there have been many serious changes made in Joseph Smith’s revelations and other material printed by the church. In addition, we found many other serious problems. Below is a condensed version of our statements as they appear in our book, The Changing World of Mormonism.
Statement by Sandra Tanner
Since I was born and raised in the Mormon Church, and am a great-great-grandchild of Brigham Young, I had very strong ties to the Mormon faith. . . . As a teenager my life centered around the Mormon church. Because I was active and paying my tithing I thought I was in pretty good standing with God. I knew I sinned but I felt my activity in church would somehow outweigh what I did wrong. I believed (as the Mormons teach) that I was inherently good. I had no fear of God’s judgment. Besides the things that were wrong in my own life, I began to have doubts about my church. . . .
Shortly after this, I met Jerald, and we began studying the Bible and Mormonism together. As we studied, I began to see the contradictions between the Bible and the teachings of the Mormon church.
When I started college, I enrolled in the Mormon Institute of Religion class. I started asking questions in class, trying to find answers to my doubts. But one day, my institute teacher took me aside and told me to please stop asking questions in class. There was a girl attending the class who was thinking of joining the church, and I was disturbing her with my questions. What a surprise! I had hoped to find answers to the many things that were bothering me, and now I had been silenced.
I had grown up thinking that Brigham Young was one of the greatest men that ever lived. . . . Then Jerald had me read some of Brigham Young’s sermons in the Journal of Discourses on blood atonement. I was shocked! I knew what Brigham Young was saying was wrong, but I couldn’t reconcile these sermons with the things I had always been taught concerning him. . . .
Jerald also showed me the changes that had been made in Joseph Smith’s revelations. The thought kept coming to me that if God had actually given those revelations to Joseph Smith why would they need rewriting? Surely the Creator of the universe could say it right the first time!
As I studied, I not only found errors in Mormonism, I also began to comprehend there was something wrong in my own life. As I studied God’s Word, I realized I was a sinful hypocrite. In spite of my sins, I had thought I was right with God. Yet the Bible says:
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Romans 6:23).
God reaches out to man, not because he deserves it, but because God loves him. John wrote:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins
(1 John 4:10).
Paul wrote:
But God, who is rich in mercy. . . . even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ . . .
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast
(Ephesians 2:4, 5, 8, 9).
I now want to share with you the particular events of the day I surrendered my heart and life to Jesus Christ:
Early one morning (October 24, 1959) 1 decided to listen to the radio for a while. I turned to the Christian radio station and listened to a sermon. The minister was preaching on the great love of God and the mercy offered to us through Jesus Christ. Nothing ever struck me with such force. I opened my heart to God and accepted Christ as my own personal Saviour. The Holy Spirit flooded my soul with such joy that I wept for over an hour. . . . How glorious to know Christ died for my sins so I could have a new life in Him.
Our lives testify to all we meet whether or not we are truly Christians. Paul wrote:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law
(Galatians 5:22-23).
Statement by Jerald Tanner
I was born and raised in the Mormon church, and before I was eight years old I felt that it was the only true church. . . . My conviction was so strong that I was shocked to hear a boy in Sunday school say that he didn’t know for certain that the church was true. I felt that it was strange indeed for a person to be a member of the Mormon church and yet not know it was the only true church.
I believed very strongly that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that I belonged to the only true church. When I was about eighteen years old I had to face reality. I can remember that the first time I saw David Whitmer’s pamphlet, An Address to All Believers in Christ, I threw it down in disgust. After throwing it down, however, I began to think that perhaps this was not the right way to face the problem. If David Whitmer was wrong in his criticism of Joseph Smith, surely I could prove him wrong. So I picked up the pamphlet and read it through. I found that I could not prove David Whitmer wrong, and that the revelations Joseph Smith gave had been changed. . . .
Since that time I have found more and more proof that the church in which I was raised is in error. The most important thing that I found, however, was not that the church was in error, but that I myself was in error. I found that I was a sinner in need of a Saviour. The Mormon church had taught me good morals, but they had not taught me much concerning the power of Christ that could change my life. There was much talk about Joseph Smith, but very little talk about Christ. Consequently, I began to think I had the power within myself to overcome sin. I didn’t see how much I needed the help of God to overcome it. So I turned from one sin to another until I was deeply in bondage to sin. I found no help in the Mormon church; they were too busy preaching about the glory of the church, Joseph Smith, etc. They were too busy singing “praise to the man who communed with Jehovah” and “We thank thee O God for a prophet” to tell me about the Saviour I needed so badly. . . . there was almost nothing in the services that could give life and peace to my dying soul. . . . if Christ had been preached instead of Joseph Smith, I would, perhaps, have received Christ into my life in the Mormon Church. As it was, however, I was nineteen years old before I heard the true message of Christ preached, and that was in another church. A short time later I received Christ into my life and found peace, joy, and deliverance from sin. As the Apostle Paul expressed it:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new
(2 Corinthians 5:17)
After we left the LDS Church, we published a great deal of material concerning Mormonism and eventually set up the Utah Lighthouse Ministry. Many Mormons have come to know the Lord in a personal way through this material.
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