When One Falls Away from the Church of Jesus Christ, and joins another, or quits religion altogether... how does their Belief System Fundamentally Change?

PROLOGUE:  I have often thought what it might feel like to fall away from the church of your upbringing. I personally don't believe I could ever do it, because I have a very firm testimony, so many proofs that God has given me over the years, but many have chosen to leave it all.  I have put together my thoughts on what I think that would really mean to me, and I suppose that some people have left without thinking this all through...  Maybe this blog can serve as a possibility of offering some thought that may not have been considered... and I do invite all who have left, to come back.

Joseph Smith once said, "…Before you joined this Church you stood on neutral ground. When the gospel was preached, good and evil were set before you. You could choose either or neither. There were two opposite masters inviting you to serve them. When you joined this Church you enlisted to serve God. When you did that you left the neutral ground, and you never can get back on to it. Should you forsake the Master you enlisted to serve, it will be by the instigation of the evil one, and you will follow his dictation and be his servant.
(The Prophet Joseph Smith to Isaac Behunin)" 
​Quoted by Daniel Tyler, in "Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith," Juvenile Instructor, Aug. 15, 1892, 492.

Most who have fallen away that I have spoken to have said primarily, it is because they no longer believe in the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. For reasons too many to list, they have become disaffected with their testimony of all that he has done as the first prophet of Jesus Christ (in this last dispensation), and instead have focused on the incomplete and entirely negative stories that have been told about him. But what about the positive accounts?   What prophet has not been scorned by the contemporaries of his day?  Did Moses get respect from Pharoah? Did Noah get respect from his peers?  Did Lehi or Nephi get respect in Jerusalem or from parts of their own family?  Did Paul get respect in Jerusalem and Rome?  Did Peter get respect?  Did they kill him,  and the rest?  How come most all of the prophets were so hated in their day, and their lives were at risk? Jesus was killed too, who deserved it the least.  Joseph was murdered in a jail along with his great brother Hyrum.  No, getting respect can NOT be the criteria for whether a man is a prophet or not, and certainly they all had bad people saying and possibly writing bad things about them.

murderers inspired by evil

martyrs paying the price

 These prophets all followed their Savior's example and they too did forgive their fellow man their trespasses against them.   It is actually a true sign of prophets that they are NOT loved by their contemporaries.  So you would be logical to understand that there would be many who would say false and defamatory things about Joseph Smith as well, and we have all of that on the internet, proving it is true, right?  Some have believed it all, but there is NO WAY to know what is true or what was exaggerated way back then, or what was an incomplete account.  We have the testimonies of several people who have left the church, whose doubting words have now been published on the internet, with the aid of bloggers in high circulation, focusing on early church history era journal snippets now made electronically modern.  These are gaining a high circulation of importance in those circles, circles which can be easily found with a simple Google search of terms.  They pop up.  However, one must realize that many of these snippets may not be important at all, and maybe not even true in many cases, and certainly not as good as your OWN journal writings.  Or blog.  But it gets out there and then stays out there! Willingly spread by enablers thinking that making something popular somehow makes it true.  Consider how unpopular Jesus was when it came time for crucifixion and everybody fled the scene leaving Him without any support.  Popular means nothing, really, when it comes to truth.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints who believes the negative tales and innuendos about Joseph Smith, instead of giving him the benefit of a doubt, or "giving brother Joseph a break" find themselves in a place where they begin to sadly forsake so many wonderful and true doctrines, doctrines like:

1. You are a child of God. Spirit offspring of Heavenly Parents.  You lived before you were born.  
But now what?

Well, not anymore?   The other 41,000  Christian denominations teach:
You are only a biological product of mother earth.  Sure God created you, He created the earth so He created you and everything in it... but any notion that you have a spirit within you that existed before you came to earth is not a doctrine that can be found in other Christian religions, because it is one of the plain and precious truths that can be found in the Book of Mormon (and the Bible, if you look for it).   Only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in and has a PLAN of SALVATION where we are the spiritual offspring of God.

Even though you sang I am a child of God all throughout your childhood life and believed it even when you got older, even bore testimony of it, now that you leave and forsake the doctrines revealed through the prophet Joseph Smith about this, you face the idea that you no longer had an existence before this life. You are only the biological product of a human mother and father, you don't have any eternal spirit within you, your feelings are just human emotions and you can be deceived by your feelings, etc., etc., so don't believe them, and you also have NO relation to God.  

 Not believing in the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Joseph Smith's divine calling as Prophet of God, the one who leaves the comfort of the doctrines revealed is told by others that they have no capacity to become like your heavenly parents, because you are not like your heavenly parents.  They didn't exist.  They don't exist.   There were no heavenly parents in a pre-mortal existence, they say.  There was no war in heaven where we made choices there in the presence of the Father, even though the Bible teaches of the hosts of heaven and the war in heaven in the Book of Revelation chapter 12.  WE were not there according to the vast majority of the 41,000 denominations who didn't get that revelation. But maybe they didn't get the revelation because they NEED a prophet, the doctrine of the Bible that many have taught is no longer needed, even though the Bible doesn't teach that.   They say WE didn't choose to follow Jesus Christ while the other 1/3 of our brothers and sisters chose to follow Lucifer's plan.  A plan of Salvation by the Father?  There was no plan, they say...  Just a universe God created and we are creatures of earth a little higher than animals, but not much.  Environmentalists would say even less, that we are like the enemies of earth.  The "plan" was nothing more than tinkering with the power of creation.
     Their doctrines teach that there can be No real advancement of people here, but life unfolds as merely whims of the Supreme God premeditating his creations, like a chess board.  There is no hope in a future with your family, or with your kids, because there is no eternal family, they say, no sealing of families in the temple, no celestial kingdom where families continue, just a vague future SINGLE existence somehow in the presence of a "God" entity that you are not related to, some powerful entity that doesn't even have a body.  Some of these denominations teach that God is so big he can fill the universe, yet so small he can dwell in your heart.  So big, so small.  Which is it?  Sits at the top of a topless-throne.  Whose presence is everywhere but circumference is nowhere.  A mass of confusion doctrine, yet it is taught, because it somehow satisfies the itching ears of those who have failed to listen perfectly to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost which teaches the truth about who we really are.  In fact, the Bible mentions nothing about what you will do after this life. If you are of the Jehovah's Witness faith, they actually teach that the wicked are just "ended" at death. Nothing more, life was just a biological event like pond scum, and its OVER at death. They become DIRT.  Think of your siblings or parents who dies in their sins... dirt forever.  A hard false doctrine to swallow, yet millions have intellectually embraced that one. It doesn't even make sense, since the scriptures speak of hell anyway!  Who is the hell for, if these people are eliminated?
     Some of the 41,000 denominations teach that you maybe could be an angel. But you might be sent to hell to burn for all eternity if you offend God or were born in a third world country that had no knowledge of Jesus and you never "confessed" Jesus.  You would have pain so severe akin to burning in fire in this hell that you didn't even play a role in choosing it, but nevertheless, this horrific pain never ends and they teach that "God" would do that to you if you didn't fully repent, forever, or even if you didn't know of Jesus in this life through no fault of your own.  

     For the person who leaves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, forsaking the doctrines they once embraced, now considers the idea that the work of salvation for the dead is now to be deemed a silly Joseph Smith doctrine, and you now believe as the rest, that there is no hope for the ignorant masses who never heard of the truth of Jesus, and therefore died in their sins with no knowledge of repentance and are forever damned.  Heathen nations who never were taught, damned forever.  How unfair would this really be, if true?  Or how about the babies who were aborted by their mothers or who died at a very young age and never heard about or comprehended Jesus to even say His name.  Such a person now has no doctrine to help comfort them, so they would just wonder about it and feel sad that God could actually do that (of course, this is a false, vain, and foolish doctrine).    
     Some pastors teach that it doesn't matter WHAT you do in this life, because they say Jesus paid all the price and you can sin all you want and if you merely LIKE Jesus and say his name once in a while, He will let you into heaven. They forget to preach repentance and how Jesus taught about repentance and what it really means.   If you are a Catholic you believe their doctrines that say even your dead baby has no salvation in Christ, that's why they are baptized immediately after birth so as to minimize the chance that a baptism could be missed, and the baby lost forever.  You don't wait until they are old enough to make a choice, you trust instead in dead works, and deny the mercies of Christ.  Dead works that have been condemned by ancient prophets who spoke about it in the Book of Mormon era.  The prophet Abinadi in the Book of Mormon, said of children:
Mosiah 15:2525 And little children also have eternal life.
The prophet Mormon wrote about people who anciently baptized their little ones
Moroni 8:2020 And he that saith that little children need baptism denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at naught the atonement of him and the power of his redemption.
21 Wo unto such, for they are in danger of death, hell, and an endless torment. I speak it boldly; God hath commanded me. Listen unto them and give heed, or they stand against you at the judgment-seat of Christ.

Baptism of little innocent children!  Denying the mercy of Christ! Sin without consequence!
Such false, vain, and foolish doctrines.  The prophet Nephi taught it well when he wrote 2,600 years ago:

2 Nephi 28:
7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say:  Eat, drink, and be merry,  for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.
 8 And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.
9 Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines,  and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark.

BUT ALAS, it doesn't work this way.  Jesus didn't ever condemn babies to hell. far from it.  He taught that all of us adults must become LIKE the little child. He specifically condemned those who would hurt one of these little ones. Yes, Jesus PROTECTED and defended the little ones.  They were obviously perfect before Him.  Jesus respected them.  He held them up as an example of what it took to get into heaven.  Jesus taught us all to also be Perfect even as our Father in Heaven is Perfect.  Why did Jesus say that HIS Father was OUR Father?  
John 20:17 ... I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

And why use the term Father if He were not really, REALLY, our Father?  Jesus was the SON of God, Son of the Father.  If we have the SAME father, then what of our relationship to Jesus then?  Jesus said it explicitly.  He was the only begotten son, meaning he was literally God in the flesh with a human mother Mary who was a virgin.  Unlike us, who were born of two mortals, Jesus' Father was immortal.  His mother mortal, and a virgin.  Jesus is not, cannot, be the same person as His Father and we all know that.  He is the Son of God, even though He is God with the other two beings Father and Holy Ghost. They are three beings, Jesus and God the Father being resurrected and exalted.
John 3:16 ¶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

​When we try to intellectually make God into some "3 in 1" entity, we are trying to create something complicated that was never there in the scriptures.  The false doctrine of the TRINITY is absolutely NOT in the Bible. It is not taught in any way or form in the Bible. Check it out.  It is in fact, extra-biblical.  Jesus was resurrected after death. He made this clear and explicit. He appeared to the apostles suddenly without coming through a door. And yet, he was flesh and bone. He ate a fish and honeycomb in front of them. He had them feel the nail prints in his hands, he had them thrust their hand into his side so they could feel he was real, authentic, and in his heavenly form. Not some other form. Jesus PROVED this to His Apostles, explicitly by showing them these physical examples of who He was.  But in other churches, they teach that Jesus does not have a body... in fact they teach that he is not even Jesus, but also the Father and the Holy Ghost all rolled into one somehow in a way that makes no sense, but "that's the beauty of it!" they teach.

So many churches among those 41,000 denominations, are teaching the mysterious doctrine called the Trinity, an idea so strange it is not even in the Bible, and they will admit it is not in the Bible. but intellectually they have accepted it.  It came from the Nicean CREED which is not scriptural and not even involving prophets of God. Just scholarly intellectuals privately interpreting scriptures and coming up with ideas to explain away what they cannot, or will not understand by the power of the Holy Ghost.  Many churches among the 41,000 explicitly reject this doctrine however, because it is not in the scriptures.

At least the doctrine of being a child of God are supported by the Bible, one of the STANDARD WORKS.  Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.  There is this reference to us being His children again.  Exaltation and living a life in houses (mansions) with God our Father is supported by the Bible, taught by the Bible.  (In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for YOU).  The Bible even teaches about mansions prepared in heaven for those who were faithful.  Jesus taught this.  We will all obviously have our BODIES with which to walk around in these houses/mansions.  The Bible also teaches of a Celestial Glory, and a Terrestrial Glory, and compares these glories in heaven to the SUN, the MOON, and the STARS.  Paul taught this.  The Bible also talks about Baptism for the Dead and how if the dead never would rise at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? (1 Cor. 15:29)  Its only logical that they are, because there is salvation even to the dead who never heard of Jesus Christ. 

What other church even mentions ANYthing about salvation for the dead who never heard of the gospel?  None.  It is a unique Latter day Saint doctrine, and is the chief reason that TEMPLES were restored to the earth once more so that this work can be done for them.  It will be the primary activity during the 1000 year Millennium when Jesus comes again in power and great glory and will rule on this earth as its KING for the entire 1000 years.  What are we going to be doing? HIS work. His work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Man.  (Moses 1:39).

The Book of Mormon has doctrines that were known to ancient saints and which do not appear in any completeness in the Bible record of the Jews.

That is because the Bible is a compiled record, done by a King James scholarly commission, and other Bible versions have come forth through other scholars who liked to focus on other details and language nuances.  Its all translation differences of opinion and learning, but the IMPORTANT part of the Bible is what the Spirit of the Holy Ghost can teach us when we read the Bible. Without that, we have only differences of our own opinions.  
   Opinions!  The things that we read all over the Internet on Blog after Blog after Blog about say, Joseph Smith, and people are believing absolutely those opinions as if they are some scripture from God, but they absolutely are not!  They are just the opinions of some man/woman, nothing more.  A persuasion.  Just like me.  I admit it.  We need to be careful with what we read, even what I write here are my opinions (excepting my heavy quoting of scripture which you can read for yourself) and I declare my opinions as such.  A persuasion is merely a motivator, but I encourage all to pray and seek the confirmation of the Holy Ghost, a spiritual manifestation, else it becomes merely an intellectual opinion much like politics is.

Without some confirmation from God we just can't know anything for sure to be true or false. People can lie.  And so the only thing I hope to accomplish by writing here is to get some people to reconsider where truth actually comes from. It comes from God. It comes from TESTIMONY revealed to one's own spirit. It does not come from intellect.  It is coming from the Holy Ghost revealing the truth as it did when say, you first read the Book of Mormon, and when you first decided with the missionaries, or with your parents as an 8 year old child to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by entering into the waters of baptism.  

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2. You maybe went to the Temple, made covenants, felt the Spirit of God there, and learned of many mysteries of God.  
But now what?

There will be those who teach you now that Joseph Smith made it all up.  Or stole it from the Free Masons.  Did you ever think that the Free Masons took it from God, or that it is an ancient temple ritual that has over the ages evolved imperfectly and inappropriately into the world at large, much like other interesting and religious vestitures have, such as women's head scarfs, hats, robes etc., which are no longer white, but are black in the Muslim faith, Colorful and red in the Catholic faith, and even women nuns wearing special black cloaks with white collars and hooded head coverings.  Where did all that come from?  Even though your previous Mormon experience in the temple was divine, sacred, and solemnly heavenly when you went through the endowment session and learned of the Plan of Salvation, that Adam and Eve really were our first parents, God spoke to them personally and gave them clothing, and learned of the continued  interaction between God and Jesus and servants of Christ and Adam and Eve and their posterity, that Adam was a prophet, and angels came to teach and inform him of the Plan of Salvation and the Doctrines of Salvation and Sacrifice...  Now, all of that truth is to be forgotten, considered a fiction, and you have only the Bible record to rely upon which speaks oh so briefly about Adam and Eve.  Even the Jehovah's Witnesses speak of Adam and Eve as deceived and disobedient and guilty of ruining earth, but in the temple you learned that it was a plan all along of the Father that Adam and Eve enter a Fallen State and He would provide a Savior for them and all mankind. It was the PLAN, and satan obviously did not know the plan, but he is part of the plan as well to tempt and try mankind.  He is the great deceiver, we learn that.  We learn that he is real.  Much of the 41,000 denominations teach that he is a myth, and Adam and Eve are myths.  I heard a Catholic Priest tell us in High School that the stories in the Bible are myths and allegories, but none of it ever happened.  And so we have these false and vain and foolish doctrines that prevail in so much of the 41,000.

3. You possibly read the Book of Mormon, felt the Spirit of God, even Prayed about it and got a confirmation that it was true.  
But now what?

Now you possibly have decided to believe you were deceived to have ever believed that book, and now you possibly say that Joseph Smith made it all up.  The gold plates? They never existed and Joseph Smith lied and there was no angel Moroni who presented the plates to him.  The Urim and Thummim account presented by Joseph and Oliver Cowdery his scribe for the vast amount of the Book of Mormon, even nearly all of it, or the egg stone in a hat account presented by Martin Harris in later years, or David Whitmer and apostate from the church also in aging older years, or Emma in her elderly years, her herself an apostate from the Church as well and attending another church.  

​Which witnesses and testimonies to believe?  Especially when they conflict.  Were these accounts even complete or accurate?  Much of it was never intended to be found, like a long lost snippet but now taken as a complete record if it fits a narrative.

The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, STANDS as a COMPLETE record, a record that was carefully prepared by the prophet / historian Mormon, and so it can be examined. 
The prophet Moroni who buried the plates and became the Lord's angel / messenger upon death and resurrection in Christ said:

Ether 4:5 Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to write them; and I have written them. And he commanded me that I should seal them up; and he also hath commanded that I should seal up the interpretation thereof; wherefore I have sealed up the interpreters, according to the commandment of the Lord.

So he placed the gold plates AND the Urim and Thummim in a box of stone in the Hill Cumorah around 400 AD and then appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823 to give him instructions, each year, and then after 4 years let him receive the plates of gold with strict instructions:

 On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.