Ex-Mormons For Jesus

10/31/2026

This map shows the share of each US county's population that is Mormon, and the highest shares, many of them above 60% and one in the 90-100% band, are in Utah and southern Idaho. Across the rest of the West, most counties fall between 2% and 29%. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now headquartered in Salt Lake City, was organised by Joseph Smith on 6 April 1830 in western New York.

10/25/2026

WE GET LETTERS
From time to time we get letters that I feel could be helpful in learning how to witness to Mormons.

Dear EMFJ,
Thank you for coming to Costa Mesa last Thursday and witnessing to some LDS members. I could not do it alone. You really broke them down (the Mormons that were there that evening). The LDS members could not defend their faith very well because you were always one step ahead of them. You never let them go off on a tangent. The attitude you took was a loving one. When I attempted to tell them about the real Jesus I took the Bob Larson way. I don’t mean to offend Bob. It’s just his attitude is different than yours. You were terrific. The Lord really spoke to those LDS members and He spoke through you. I was touched by God that evening. I hope I can refute Mormons as well as you do. At least someday I hope to be capable of doing so.

I have told quite a few people about what happened and they think it was great. The people I told were the ones that were praying for us. My co-pastor that I grew up with had the story told to him and he thought you were pretty sharp the way you handled the LDS members…I learned something that night and that was how to witness effectively, but first you need to have a loving attitude like the one you have.

Bye for now, S.H.

From the Ex Mormons For Jesus newsletter, September/October 2026

10/25/2026

Cary’s Column

LDS vs. Christian Biblical Hermeneutics.

Let’s have a mini seminary course in hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is simply the study of how we interpret Scripture. Comparative Biblical Hermeneutics is a study that seminary students undertake — The study of how each religion interprets Scripture through the lens of their religion. This is very interesting and comes into play for many of us who are former Mormons.

Almost all of us Christians approach Scripture with assumptions shaped by many factors; upbringing, church, traditions, denominations, theological, education, favorite teachers, and past experiences. These factors become our lens every time we read our Bibles. Let me encourage you: Conservative Christian churches — more than any other religion on earth — interpret Scripture with scholarly exegesis. Exegesis is the study of drawing meaning out of the text. This contrasts with eisegesis, where religions put their preconceived meaning into the text. Eisegesis is how cults twist scripture.

I just gave you weeks of seminary study in that last paragraph, lol.

Our biblical mandate for scholarly exegetical study is 2 Timothy 2:15: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

Whereas the conservative Christian interpretive lens would primarily be scripture/grammar + context + comparing Scripture with Scripture, the Roman Catholic Church lens would add Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium to the Bible, and Mormonism would add additional scripture and continuing revelation to its unique biblical interpretation.

Here are two good examples where the Mormon interpretive lens, misses correctly, handling the word of truth:

1) What the Passage Actually Says.
The LDS Church interprets the New Testament from the King James English translation, not the original Greek text. Because English grammar lets us interpret a sentence in several ways Mormons can easily change the meaning of a biblical text originally written in Greek. A clear example is when Jesus is called “firstborn” as in Colossians 1:15. You may remember that the LDS teaching suggest this means Christ was “born first” in God‘s creation. “Firstborn”, however does not mean born first nor does it even imply birth. The Greek word used is prototakas meaning “priority and pre-eminence.” The LDS church came up with its own doctrine that Christ was born in creation, and uses the biblical word “firstborn” incorrectly, changing what the Bible actually says. Taking a word or a phrase from the King James translation and interpreting it as if the revelation had been given in that language is a dangerous method of study.

2) What the Bible Means in its Immediate Context.
The LDS take on the “two sticks of Judah” passage in Ezekiel 37 which is a clear Example of terrible Eisegesis — putting their preconceived meaning into the text. It reads:

“Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘ For Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph, the stick of Ephram and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick and they will become one in your hand” (vs 15 to 17).

They interpret these two sticks to mean two bodies of scripture that God would bring together in the latter days: the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

This is not only an excellent example of missing what the passage actually means but it is also a humorous one. Christians know the two sticks mean the two kingdoms coming together as one nation. It would be nice if the text would tell us that something like, “Will you not show us what you mean by these?…Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land… they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.” Don’t laugh, but this IS what the immediate context says (vs. 18 -22 ). The LDS Church commits terrible eisegesis like this throughout the Bible.

For more examples of LDS interpretation errors, please see my past articles.

Scholarly Christian churches recognize that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”(2 Timothy 3:16). We need to be like the Berean Christians of Acts 17:11 and “examine the Scriptures every day to see what is true.” THIS is good hermeneutics.

From the Ex Mormons For Jesus newsletter, September/October 2026

10/25/2026

FROM CHAR’S DESK ☎️
We are so grateful to God that He uses us to be a blessing to our readers! One of our donors wrote us saying, “We are living in interesting and challenging times and we need all the tools and skills to serve those God has entrusted to us.” How true that is!

One of our readers said she met me many years ago at our center when it was in downtown Orange near The Circle. She now lives in Utah and is the women’s ministry director of Refuge city Church. In the last couple of months they have baptized many former Mormons ~ What an amazing miracle! Right there in Utah!!

She said they are now looking for any resources that they can get their hands on, so I sent her a large packet of material to help them in their ministry in Utah. God never ceases to amaze me at how He is using many to set the Mormons free to find the Biblical Jesus!

God called me to the Mormons when I was 42. On September 14th I will be 97 years old. When I told Him, I give you my life for the Mormons.” He took me up on it!

From the Ex Mormons For Jesus newsletter, September/October 2026

09/16/2026

On X: https://x.com/dttpeople/status/2099876420906520692/video/1?s=46

09/09/2026

This Saturday morning at the UCRC!

David Johnson was a Mormon bishop who once got into trouble from the stake presidency because he was caught carrying a New American Standard Bible—a version he used so he could understand the Bible better to be able to better teach his people. (Don’t let Latter-day Saints tell us that the modern translations have always been accepted!) David, a board member with MRM, will be speaking this Saturday morning at the UCRC in Draper on "How Scripture/History Dismantled My Mormon Upbringing (Testimony).”

We begin at 9 a.m., with Q&A following. We will be done by 10:30 a.m. and there’s a chance to fellowship afterward. For those who have not toured the Center, we will begin a tour around 11 a.m. Hang around and see what we have to offer.

PLEASE COME…it’s more fun when we fill the room!

utahchristianresearchcenter.com

NOTE: Bradley Campbell was scheduled to speak this Saturday but will speak next week instead.

09/08/2026

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. This understanding is rooted in scriptural and prophetic teachings about the nature of God, our relationship to Deity, and the godly potential of men and women. The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints.”

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

08/28/2026

Have you ever been approached on a college campus or in a store by someone asking if you’ve heard about “God the Mother”? Many people have had encounters like this, and our guests share their insights, personal stories, and concerns based on their time in — and research on — the group.

Steve Matthews, a friend of ours at EMFJ and Adam Stillman who was raised LdS, and later persuaded to join the WMSCOG are guests on this CULTISH podcast.

In this episode, we sit down with our good friend Steve Matthews fr...

08/19/2026

CARY'S COLUMN
Proof that Joseph Smith used Ai

Did you know that if you ask Ai to help you create a religion that is completely opposite to what the Bible teaches, it will give you lots of crazy ideas? It's funny what ChatGPT comes up with. That's what I think Joseph Smith did. After all, was he really clever enough to create such a bizarre concept as having God be just a man from a distant planet who earned godhood? Or to make it so that we, too, could earn godhood like him? That concept is REALLY out there! I think he asked Ai to help him do this. From there he could formulate its doctrines and organization -- maybe with the help of Ai again. And ta-da! Joseph's new bizarre religion would be formed.

Here is what it looks like Ai must have told him:
"First and foremost, make sure the public thinks that God Himself met with you and told you that all the Bible teachers throughout history got it all wrong -- That at some point in history true Christianity fell apart at the seams and got us off track. Make it look like Christianity got so corrupt that every part of it must be re-introduced; perhaps call it a "restored gospel." Be careful how you word your experience of how God contacted you --
You don't want it to look like an experience that sounds like classic demon possession."

"Second, make God out to be something completely different from the God of the Bible.
Not self-existent, not eternal. Perhaps he could have started out as a man from a far-away planet who worked real hard to earn his godhood. You can have fun with this concept and make him out to be the son of another god-man from somewhere else -- perhaps from a long lineage of gods in the far reaches of outer space. Be careful how you teach this concept though, because people may catch on that if God had a god over him, then he would not be God at all, but rather just a demi-god. We don't want to make you look like your intelligence is artificial."

"Third, make sure people think that the Bible has lost important scriptures over the centuries. Our new religion cannot stand if the public knows about how amazingly accurate and preserved the Bible really is. Also, for heaven's sake, don't say something stupid like, "We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly." We don't want them to discover that they are not dependent on translations. They can read and study it from its original languages!"

"Fourth, with your newfound recipe for changing what the Bible really says, you now have liberty to change key doctrines, like Jesus' identity! You can make Christ out to be the literal 'son' born in heaven, instead of being co-existent with the Father from all eternity like the Bible says. You can be daring and make him to be brothers with the devil -- Why not, huh?

You can create so many reinventions of scripture; You can reinterpret 'salvation' to mean that people can become gods. You can pretend that the Aaronic priesthood needed to be restored and then held by their members, even though the Bible shows how it was permanently annulled and replaced by Christ. You can even go crazy and claim that they can also hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, even though the Bible makes it clear that it can only be held by Christ. The possibilities for scripture change are endless if you simply ignore what the Bible really says. People unlearned of the Bible might think that they should follow you!"

"Fifth, don't forget to claim that God gives you continued revelation. All our changes will have so much more clout if you claim that you're in cahoots with God. Just don't let your members see passages like 1 John 4:1, which shows them that all this should be tested 'to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.'
Hopefully they won't know to be like the Berean Christians in Acts 17:11, who 'examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true'."
Yes, those five examples sure make it look like proof that Joseph Smith used Ai. It would be better to assume proof that he used Artificial intelligence than to assume proof that his intelligence was artificial.

From the Ex-Mormons for Jesus newsletter, July/August 2026