“Grace is for sinners, not the sinless.”
I heard this statement recently in a sermon I was enjoying, and it resonated with my own salvation experience. Growing up in the Mormon polygamous religion, we never heard about grace, but we heard a lot about how wicked and sinful we were. When I began studying the Bible for myself, I discovered “GRACE” - and was completely awestruck, even shocked. As I studied more deeply into the Biblical salvation message—God’s love and grace gripped me and I surrendered to His love.
Then I remembered the Book of Mormon about grace:
“...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do”. 2 Nephi 25:23
"After ALL we can do?” That’s not grace—that’s works.
12th Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball said: “One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God.”
In spite of Biblical teaching, they discount God’s FREE gift of grace:
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works;
otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no
longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Grace is for sinners—and sinners need Grace. Polygamists need to know God’s message, that Grace is His method of salvation, not the Mormon works of polygamy.
We thank you for your support and prayers that enable us to bring God’s Good News to polygamists!
Karen Bradshaw is an ex-plural wife from the AUB polygamy group. She has given her life to Jesus and explains that God has laid it upon her heart to become part of the Shield and Refuge team. We welcome Karen to the team as we seek God’s
will in this and in everything. Karen continues to share her story of being born and raised and married in a Mormon Fundamentalist Polygamy Group.
“My father always planted an enormous garden, in early spring we would help plant corn, beets, peas, red potatoes, watermelon, cantaloup and rhubarb. He rented a five-acre lot and was very particular about how everything was planted; we sometimes got get a kick in the pants for not doing things just right! One hot summer day I was sitting by the side of the canal and began to draw a picture in the sand with my finger. I thought my father would be proud of me when he saw what a nice picture I could draw. I took great care to draw a perfect house and a door and windows were placed in just the right spot, then the shrubs and flowers placed right in front of the house. Suddenly I felt a terrible pain—my father smashed me on the head with the metal shovel, I screamed out in pain and began to cry.
"What are you doing?" he hollered. "Get back to work and stop your crying!" He watched as I ran to pull weeds from the corn patch. “Don't pull out the corn he yelled!" He knelt down beside me and showed me the difference between the corn and the weeds, they looked almost identical, but the corn was not as wide and seemed to be a lighter green than the weeds, you could hardly tell them apart. I find it interesting how the gospel can be camouflaged too. It took me almost fifty years to see the difference between a false gospel and the True Good News!!
Doctrinally polygamy is supposed to be about love, marriage, pleasing God etc. But my polygamous father was not a loving husband or father. He frequently brutalized his children. One day he beat one of my new sisters with a wire brush, her head swelled up so badly she was hospitalized with a severe concussion, so they called the police.
Her mother Claudette told them she had fallen down the stairs, but she had been threatened not to tell truth. He had almost killed her daughter and now she was scared for her own life. My father’s anger and violence ended up costing him the loss of both of his plural wives and families.
Claudette was traumatized by all the abuse and asked for a release from the man, which is how polygamists obtain a divorce. My mother asked for a release at the same time.
Claudette showed my mom the way out and she took it! She was now free from the cruelty of a polygamous man... for a little while any way.”
…continued next month!
“And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else”
(Mormon Doctrine and Covenants 132:61).
MORMON POLYGAMY HISTORY
~~It all began with Joseph Smith~~
"Exposé of polygamy in Utah: A lady's life among the Mormons. A record of personal experience as one of the wives of a Mormon elder during a period of more than twenty years". 1872
“Polygamic Mormonism is full of deceptions. They deceive each other, and are at the same time often themselves the most deceived. I knew well enough that my husband was not happy. It was not in his nature to have deceived me; but he was compelled to do so from the very circumstances of the case; and, as I said before, for peace sake. He knew that there were times when I was perfectly wild with despair, and was reckless of consequences; and I was prepared to cast aside my hope of salvation, my life, and every thing, rather than endure another day what I then was suffering.
At these times I would say the most bitter things that I could think of, of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and all the leading men of the church. My husband was perfectly awe-stricken at the attacks I would make upon those whom he then believed were the servants of God. I know that there were times when he felt that it was the greatest sin that I could commit to speak thus.
In my calmer moments, seeing my husband so terribly in earnest, and having confidence in his superior judgment, I would come back to the old feeling that the wrong was in
myself, and I would earnestly pray to the Lord to be forgiven...
“I was now expecting soon to be called upon to undergo the most fearful ordeal that any woman can possibly be required to pass through — that of giving my husband another wife. The thought of doing this was even worse than death. It would have been fearful to have followed my husband to his grave; but to live and see him the husband of another woman seemed to me like exacting more than human nature was capable of enduring. With all my faith in Mormonism, doubts would arise, and in my bitterest moments of anguish I would exclaim, "This is more like the work of cruel man than of God. Why should man have this power over woman, and she so helpless ? Surely, a just and impartial God can have nothing to do with this!" Then, again, I would come to the conclusion, as I had many times before, that "the ways of the Lord are past finding out," and, therefore, I must submit.”
~ Pgs115,117
Q. “If God is against polygamy, why did He promote it by requiring a brother of a woman’s dead husband to marry the widow?”
A. Deuteronomy 25:5 is the source for this question, but verse seven tells us the living brother has the option of not taking the widow to wife. And there’s nothing in the text to indicate the brother is already married. Actually there are specifications if a man should marry his brother’s widow, we find at the beginning of the verse: “If brothers are living together…” obviously they are sharing the same dwelling making it highly unlikely that the surviving brother is a married man. God will never require us to do something that he has prohibited.
“Joseph called polygamy “adultery”!! That in and of itself proves that not only was he a false profit...but he wasn’t very smart either.....that’s crazy..” WGS
“I appreciate your ministry because you give people an insight on what the FLDS and the other Mormon denominations are really like on the inside. Again, thank you, your testimony is invaluable to me.” EM
“I have an insight on this issue of suicide. I was born and raised LDS in Utah. I was taught that Joseph Smith said if we could see the bottom level of the 3 heavens (telestial kingdom), we would kill ourselves to get there. I never forgot that teaching and it came to me at very difficult times in my teenage years, so I
finally decided to overdose to get to that telestial kingdom. It was definitely better than living with a Mormon father, who bullied his children with religion (and he still does at 84). My death was stopped by a volunteer fire department who rescued me. I continued to be suicidal for 30 more years, always with those words of Joseph Smith playing in my head at my weakest moments. Good news.... I have been set free from that dark religion and have found the real Jesus. Maybe this teaching from Joseph Smith has influenced other suicides. It was why I was suicidal for so many years.” RD
NOTE: We believe this to be part of the reason that Utah has topped the list for suicides in the nation. Utah has also maintained a top rating in the country for the use of anti-depressants, and teen pregnancies.
“By their fruits ye shall know false prophets.”
- Pray for two former FLDS families that A Shield and Refuge helped provide for their Christmas. There are many children, and many challenges for the mothers. Please pray God would meet their needs and especially their most important need—a Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ.
- Pray that 2022 will bring many former polygamists to Jesus.
Just call Doris: 801-649-3103, or Email: doris@shieldandrefuge.org |
