EX MORMON JOHN HARDY WAS ADAMENT THE CHURCH WAS TRUE

I Bear You My Testimony

by John Hardy

"I know the Mormon Church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God..."

I was born and raised in the Mormon Church and have given this testimony many times in my life. From the time I was a very young boy, I never questioned that the Mormon Church was the one true church that God had reestablished in the earth in the latter days. After all, my great, great grandfather Alexander McRae had been in Liberty Jail with the Prophet Joseph Smith and my great grandfather led the first party of Mormons to settle in Arizona. My father was a High Priest, and my mother was the Relief Society President in our ward.

Like most Mormon boys, I approached my Bishop just prior to my nineteenth birthday to make arrangements to go on a mission for the Church. I remember telling him at that time that before I could spend two years of my life persuading strangers to join the Church, I had to know in my heart the truthfulness of the testimony I had given from the earliest years of my life. He assured me that to question my beliefs was a very natural thing for a young man my age to do, and that to really know in my heart the truthfulness of the gospel was a worthy aspiration which God would honor. He encouraged me that the Mormon Church could withstand the closest scrutiny and that there was no harm in my pursuing this quest for truth.

I remember going to a Bible study one night where a number of people from several different churches were in attendance. The speaker that night talked of discovering God's purpose and plan for your life and finding peace and fulfillment by entering into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though all my life I had known about Jesus, that He had died on the cross and risen from the dead, He was only a Bible story to me. But these people were each experiencing a living, vibrant day-to-day relationship with Jesus. He was not just a Bible story to them, He was their best friend, and the One who planned and directed their lives.

My life was empty, and I had no idea what to do to find purpose and fulfillment. I had been taught that the Mormon Church was the only church that contained all of God's truth. Yet I couldn't deny that these Christians were experiencing a personal relationship with the living God that I never had in my own life or seen in the lives of my Mormon friends.

I can remember laying in bed at night as a young man and wondering what would happen to me when I died. Would I just cease to exist forever? Was there really life after death? I had been taught that there were three kingdoms of glory, and if I was found worthy I would be in the highest kingdom of glory when I died, the Celestial Kingdom. From there, I could eternally progress to become a God of my own world. This all sounded great, but deep inside of me I was afraid of death, and I doubted I would ever be able to create light out of darkness, or speak a whole universe into existence as the Creator of this world had. Yet these Christians had complete confidence about where they would spend eternity. Their assurance radiated from them and shone in their eyes. They would spend eternity with the same Lord and Savior that they walked and talked with every day of their lives.

I wanted this same confidence. I also wanted to know the real purpose for my life. I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive my sins and come into my life as my Lord and Savior. As He did, my fear of death was replaced with the confidence that I would spend eternity with Him. But more importantly, He became my closest friend and leads and guides my life into His peace and eternal purpose.

In my quest for truth, I found not a doctrine nor a church nor a prophet, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

If you're searching for truth, purpose or fulfillment in your life, or if you have the same uncertainty about death that I used to have, let Jesus change your life.

If I can help, please write, email or call.

John Hardy

2404 Pine Cove Rd.
Prescott,
AZ

86305888-875-2867 (toll free)