“I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus died for my sins to save me, so I can go to heaven when I die. I’ve been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and I believe the Bible is God’s word.”

If someone spoke these words to you, it would be easy to conclude that you are speaking with a Christian. But what if the next thing they told you was:

“I believe Joseph Smith is God’s prophet and the Book of Mormon is God’s word.”

With this statement, we can see how Mormonism starts to differentiate from Christianity. But aren’t they essentially the same? Isn’t Mormonism just another form of Christianity, like Lutherans, Methodists, or Baptists? With nearly 20 million members worldwide, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) continues to grow, although at a decreasing rate over the last 20 years.

While much of the growth of the Mormon church worldwide can be attributed to missionary outreach, Mormons have historically had higher-than-average birth rates. The LDS church places a strong emphasis on family and conservative values, which is attractive to anyone who sees the culture around them continuing to become more secular and liberal with each generation. For those that are born into the faith, the church is synonymous with family, representing stability and tradition. But whether newly converted to the faith, or born into a family of Latter Day Saints, many Mormons do not know a great deal about Joseph Smith or about the foundational beliefs of the church. So this is what we will attempt to undertake here, starting with an examination of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith.

Joseph Smith

Born in Vermont in 1805, Joseph Smith spent his teenage years in western New York during a time period known as the Second Great Awakening. This part of New York was referred to as the “Burned Over District” because religious revivalism and spiritual fervor seemed to set the area on fire. His parents were religious, but they were not members of any particular church. Along with other members of his family, Smith engaged in religious folk magic, which was relatively common in that area. Seer stones and divining rods were some of the preferred instruments that were used in order to locate buried treasure, metal, and water.

In the spring of 1820 at the age of fourteen, Joseph Smith was praying in the woods near his home. A thick darkness gathered around him and he was unable to speak. He then saw a light, and two men appeared; God the Father and Jesus Christ. God the Father said “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”^[1] Then Smith asked which church he should join and Jesus explained that all of the existing churches at that time believed “in incorrect doctrines and that none of them was acknowledged of God as His Church.”^[2]

While the preceding is the official LDS account of The First Vision, there is much controversy surrounding this event. Even though the vision supposedly occurred in 1820, the version above was not published until 1842. A first draft of Joseph Smith’s vision, written in his own handwriting, from 1832 describes a meeting with just Jesus where Jesus expressed anger about the ungodliness of the world, and assured Smith that his sins were forgiven.^[3]

Latter Day Saint President and prophet Brigham Young taught “The Lord did not come with the armies of heaven…But He did send His angel to Joseph Smith…and informed him that he should not join any of the religious sects of the day.”^[4] Future teachings by church Apostles such as Orson Hyde,^[5] Wildorf Woodruff,^[6] Heber C. Kimball,^[7] John Taylor,^[8] and George A. Smith^[9] all gave conflicting accounts of the First Vision.

Perhaps in an effort to reconcile the controversy, Joseph Smith is reported to have experienced another vision three years later in 1823. This time, an angel named Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith while he was praying in his bedroom. The angel informed Smith that God had called him to translate ancient golden plates inscribed in a language called “Reformed Egyptian.”

The plates had been buried near Joseph Smith’s home by the angel Moroni himself, 1400 years earlier when Moroni was still just a man. After the vision, Smith promptly located the stone box that contained the plates, buried in a hill called Cumorah. When he tried to touch them, he felt a shock go through his hand and the angel would not allow him to take the plates. Every year, on the Autumnal Equinox, Smith would return to the same place and attempt to retrieve the golden plates, but was prevented from doing so by the angel Moroni.

Joseph Smith was staying at the home of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale in Harmony, Pennsylvania during this time, having been hired by Josiah Stowell to search for buried Spanish silver. Smith ended up secretly marrying the daughter of the Hale family, Emma, in January of 1827 since her father did not approve of Joseph Smith or his profession as a treasure hunter. Smith had been arrested the previous year and charged with a misdemeanor for fraud, claiming to be able to locate buried treasure with his “seer stone.” Court documents referred to him as a “glass-looker.”^[10]

In September 1827, Joseph Smith returned once again to the hill Cumorah and this time the angel Moroni allowed him to take the plates. Included were a breastplate and spectacles (called Urim and Thummim) to help him translate the plates since they were written in “Reformed Egyptian.”

Joseph described the plates as measuring “six inches wide and eight inches long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings, in Egyptian characters, and bound together in a volume as leaves in a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed.”^[11] Upon retrieving the plates, he had to run three miles through the woods fighting off people who were chasing him.^[12] Given the dimensions of the plates, they would have weighed nearly two hundred pounds if they were composed of pure gold, making a run through the woods physically prohibitive.  

The Book of Mormon

Smith began the process of translating the golden plates in 1828 with Martin Harris, a former employer of his father, acting as scribe. Harris’ wife was skeptical of Joseph Smith and the existence of the plates, since no one besides Smith had actually seen them. By June 1828, one hundred sixteen pages of the plates had been translated and Martin Harris convinced Joseph Smith to let him bring the pages home to show his wife. All one hundred sixteen pages disappeared while in their possession. It is believed that Martin Harris’ wife wanted to test the authenticity of the translation by forcing Joseph Smith to reproduce his previous work. Upon learning of their disappearance, Joseph Smith was infuriated. The angel Moroni was also upset and took the golden plates back from Smith, before returning them a few months later.^[13]

Once translation of the plates resumed in April 1829, Joseph Smith used a new scribe, a schoolteacher named Oliver Cowdry, who had heard of the plates from Smith’s family. However, Smith chose to translate different plates rather than the same plates that he had previously translated. Smith apparently did not want to try and reproduce the original translation for fear that the lost pages would be found, and shown not to match his new translation. Instead of the breastplate and spectacles that the angel Moroni gave him, this time Smith would use his trusty seer stone to translate the plates, the same stone he had used in the past to locate buried treasure. 

A description of the translation process is as follows: “Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English.”^[14]

Since the translation process apparently did not directly involve the use of the golden plates at all, it is not clear why Smith had to wait four years until he found the plates in order to begin the translating them. Smith maintained that the Book of Mormon was written word-for-word on the golden plates in Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics, and that he simply translated them.^[15]

If the translation process was indeed word-for-word, it is odd that Smith not only used verbiage from the King James Bible, such as “thee” and “thou,” but also hundreds of verses copied verbatim from the King James Bible.^[16] Additionally, Smith’s translation contained Greek words, such as “Christ,” “Christian,” “Bible,” “Synagogue,” “Alpha,” and “Omega.” If the golden plates were written in Reformed Egyptian by Mormon and Moroni in North America, the presence of these distinctly New Testament-Greek terms is indeed puzzling.

Nevertheless, the translation process was finished in June of 1829, and the Book of Mormon was published in 1830. Joseph proclaimed it to be “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion”^[17] and that “there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.”^[18] Despite these bold claims, the current edition of The Book of Mormon has undergone 3,913 changes compared to the original version, including spelling, grammatical, word choice, and inserted phrases.^[69] The latest edition was published in 1981. As for the golden plates, Smith returned them to the angel Moroni, never to be seen again.

The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible

After finishing the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith began work on his own translation of the Bible (the Joseph Smith Translation – JST), since he believed the Christian Bible had been corrupted. The Book of Mormon states that  “many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants” have been removed or changed by “that great and abominable church.”^[19] His new translation included a prophecy about himself in the book of Genesis, which describes “a seer” whose “name shall be called Joseph, and it shall be after the name of his father.”^[20]

Smith also made substantial additions to the book of Isaiah, including more prophecies about himself and the Book of Mormon. 

“And it shall come to pass, that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book…the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall deliver the words of the book…three witnesses shall behold it by the power of God.”^[21]

In total, Joseph Smith added or changed 2,427 verses from the Bible, including the outright removal of the book Song of Songs. In 1947, a complete copy of the book of Isaiah was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves in Israel, dating back to approximately 100 BC.

When compared to Joseph Smith’s version of Isaiah, none of the changes that Smith made can be found in the ancient copy of Isaiah that was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Not one word.

Smith never finished his JST bible, and today the LDS church officially recognizes the King James version of the Bible as scripture rather than the Joseph Smith Translation – although they believe the King James version to have been corrupted by the Christian church.

The Pearl of Great Price

In 1835, Joseph Smith purchased some papyrus fragments from a traveling mummy exhibition in Kirtland, Ohio. He believed the papyrus contained the writings of Abraham himself, written in Egyptian hieroglyphics. His translation would become known as the Book of Abraham. Unlike the golden plates of Moroni, the papyrus fragments did not have to remain hidden and were seen by many people. Although thought to be destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, sections of the papyri that Smith used were actually found in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1966 and were acquired by the LDS church. Numerous Egyptologists, Mormon and non-Mormon, set about to translate the fragments and the end result was conclusive; None of the modern translations matched what Joseph Smith had written at all. 

From the official site of the Latter Day Saints, www.churchofjesuschrist.org:

“None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham.”^[22]

Today, however, the Book of Abraham makes up part of the Pearl of Great Price, one of the four official LDS scriptures.

1. The King James Bible (although believed to be corrupted)
2. The Book of Mormon
3. The Pearl of Great Price
4. The Doctrines and Covenants

The Doctrine and Covenants is unique in that it contains revelations given to Joseph Smith and other LDS prophets, rather than a translation of ancient documents. The latest entry in the Doctrine and Covenants is from 1981.

Mormon Church History

With the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830 also came the start of the Mormon Church in upstate New York. Joseph Smith and his translator, Oliver Cowdery, claimed to have been visited by John the Baptist in the woods, who ordained them as Levitical priests.

With this new power, they were set to start a new, uncorrupted church, with the freshly-published Book of Mormon as its foundation. The church began sending out missionaries to test how the new revelation from God would be received. A man named Sidney Rigdon read the Book of Mormon in fourteen days after being visited by Mormon missionaries and was baptized into the church on November 14, 1830. Rigdon was the minister of a church in Kirtland, Ohio and began converting hundreds from his congregation to Mormonism. He visited Joseph Smith in New York and must have left quite an impression. Soon after the visit, Smith received a revelation from God in December 1830 that he should move the church to Kirtland, Ohio. Sidney Rigdon was also ordained as a high priest and helped Joseph Smith with his personal translation of the Bible. 

While staying with the family of John and Alice Johnson at a farm in Hiram, Ohio in 1832, Smith was tarred and feathered by a mob in the middle of the night. The reason for this attack is unclear but multiple sources have indicated the motivation may have been due to inappropriate relations between Joseph Smith and Marinda Johnson, the sixteen year-old daughter of the family he was staying with.

“It is said that Eli Johnson demanded that the prophet be castrated, for he suspected Joseph of being too intimate with his sister, Marinda. But the doctor who had been persuaded to join the mob declined the responsibility at the last moment…”^[23]

Another account says

“The castration attempt might be taken as evidence that the mob felt that Joseph had committed a sexual impropriety; since the attempt is reported by (Marinda’s brother who became LDS apostle) Luke Johnson, there is no good reason to doubt it. Also, they had planned the operation in advance, as they brought along a doctor to perform it.”^[24]

Despite this, the Mormon church became established in Ohio where Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon started a bank called the Kirtland Safety Society in order to raise money. Eventually, they began printing their own currency, including $3 and $4 bills. When people realized that the money was worthless, there was a run on the bank and a warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest on a charge of banking fraud.^[25] With their future in Ohio looking doubtful, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon decided to move the church to Missouri in 1838. 

It was in Missouri that the church would first come to be known as “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” Smith and the church council would expel several of the oldest and most prominent leaders of the church, charging them with apostasy and labeling them as the “dissenters.” Included in this group were Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer who, along with Martin Harris (the original scribe who lost the first one hundred sixteen pages of the Book of Mormon), comprise a group known today as “The Three Witnesses.” These men claimed to have been shown the golden plates by an angel, and a statement from them is included in every Book of Mormon printed since its first publication in 1830.

Despite being one of the primary witnesses to the golden plates, Joseph Smith called Martin Harris a wicked man.^[26][27] Oliver Cowdery had fallen out of favor with Joseph Smith after Cowdery had accused him of engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl who worked as a servant in Smith’s home named Fanny Alger.^[28] Cowdery is recorded to have denied the Book of Mormon, according to official LDS publications.^[29]

Their time in Missouri would be short-lived, as the local population opposed the influx of Mormons to their state. The Mormons established their own vigilante group, known as the Danites, and in August 1838 the Missouri Mormon War began. The governor of Missouri issued an “extermination order” against the Mormons in October, decreeing that they should be exterminated or driven from the state. On October 31, 1838, after seventeen Mormons were killed in the Haun’s Mill massacre, the Latter Day Saints surrendered to the state militia and agreed to forfeit their property and leave the state.

Joseph Smith was brought before a military court, accused of treason, and sentenced to be executed. With Smith in jail awaiting his fate, Brigham Young, a rising leader in the LDS church, organized the exodus of about 14,000 Mormon refugees to Illinois. Aided by the sheriff and several guards, Joseph Smith escaped custody on April 6, 1839 during a prisoner transfer and fled to Illinois.

Illinois was not as resistant to the Mormons as Missouri had been, allowing them to settle on the banks of the Mississippi River near the border with Iowa, where they established the city of Nauvoo. At one point, this city would become the largest in Illinois – even larger than Chicago at that time.

It was here that Joseph Smith introduced the doctrine of baptism for the dead ^[30] and began to reveal his beliefs regarding plural marriage to his closest associates. While there is some dispute regarding the number of official “sealed” wives he had throughout his life, Smith has been linked to forty-eight women besides his wife Emma.^[34] These were not only single, adult women, but included a mother and daughter,^[31] sisters,^[32] girls as young as fourteen,^[33] and up to twelve women who were already married to living husbands.^[34]

Smith even went so far as to approach men among the Mormon leadership to take their wives as his own. One of the prominent leaders in the church, William Law, was appalled by Smith’s attempt to take his wife and went on to set up an opposition newspaper named the Nauvoo Expositor to expose Joseph Smith as a polygamist.

Smith, now mayor of Nauvoo, declared the press a public nuisance and sent his army, the Nauvoo Legion, to destroy the facilities of the opposition newspaper. Outrage ensued throughout the state and Smith declared martial law in the city of Nauvoo under enforcement of the Nauvoo Legion. The governor of Illinois took notice and had Smith and his brother Hyrum arrested for treason and placed in a jail located in Carthage, Illinois.

Loyalists to Joseph Smith smuggled weapons to him, including guns, in preparation for another jailbreak. But the citizens of Illinois had other plans, and on June 27, 1844, the jail was surrounded by a mob of about two hundred men. Smith and his brother attempted to fight their way out, emptying their weapons and shooting multiple people, but both were ultimately shot to death. Smith’s death was a pivotal moment in the history of the LDS church, where he is widely regarded as a martyr who was killed in cold blood.^[70]

The church was thrown into disarray without their leader and once again, Brigham Young rose to the occasion and organized another Mormon exodus, this time to the Great Salt Lake Valley, then part of Mexico. By the time the Mormons arrived, the territory known as Utah had come under American control. They founded Salt Lake City, and Brigham Young became Utah’s first governor in 1850.

Young governed the territory as a theocracy, with LDS doctrines taking precedence over Federal laws. The church publicly embraced plural marriage in 1852, and tension grew between the Mormons and the US government. Brigham Young himself had fifty-six wives during his lifetime, several of whom were the widows of Joseph Smith, and included 2 of his own mothers-in-law.^[35] Like Smith, Young also took the wives of other men as his own. This practice was deeply rooted in Brigham Young’s beliefs regarding the afterlife.

“The only men who become gods, even the sons of god, are those who enter into polygamy.” – Brigham Young^[36]

In 1857, President James Buchanan declared Utah to be in a state of rebellion. The Utah War began as 2500 federal troops were dispatched to remove Brigham Young as governor. Young agreed to step aside in 1858, ending the war. Although no longer governor, Brigham Young remained a prominent figure in Utah until his death in 1877. LDS church president Wildorf Woodruff announced the official end of plural marriage in 1890. In 1893, after 40 years of construction, the Salt Lake Temple was completed. It was the sixth temple built by the church and remains the largest Mormon temple in the world.

Although this is the most famous Mormon temple in existence, Joseph Smith had made a prophecy about another temple that would be built in Missouri. In 1832, he wrote

“Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the restoration of his people…for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem. Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith…which temple shall be reared in this generation. For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord”^[37]

One generation is generally regarded as forty years, so the prediction by Smith should have been fulfilled by 1872 at the latest. LDS prophet Orson Pratt remained steadfast in his hope that the temple would still be built when, in 1870, he declared:

“The Latter-day Saints just as much expect to receive a fulfillment of that promise during the generation that was in existence in 1832 as they expect that the sun will rise and set tomorrow. Why? Because God cannot lie. He will fulfill all His promises. He has spoken, it must come to pass. This is our faith.”^[38]

In 1931, LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith still held out hope that some who were alive in 1832 would see the temple be built:

“I firmly believe that there will be some of that generation who were living when this revelation was given who shall be living when this temple is reared.”^[76]

The Temple Lot site, purchased by Bishop Edward Partidge in 1831, remains vacant to this day.

Beliefs of The Mormon Church

Now that we’ve looked at the early history of Joseph Smith and the church, we will now turn to the actual beliefs of the Mormon religion. The God of Mormonism is one of many Gods in existence throughout the universe who rule their own planets. Regarding these Gods, Joseph Smith said “when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods.”^[39] Similarly, Brigham Young said “How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods.”^[40]

Known as Elohim, the Mormon God is the spirit child of another God and his Goddess wife. Elohim gained a physical body when he was born to human parents on another planet. As a human, Elohim lived a good life and proved himself worthy of godhood. As a God, Elohim now lives on a planet near a star called Kolob with his Goddess wives. Mormons refer to Elohim as Heavenly Father. The first spirit child of Elohim and one of his wives was Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother would have another child who is now known as the Holy Ghost^[41] and also a child named Lucifer who would come to be known as Satan. Elohim would eventually have billions of spirit children, including you and me. In fact, all humans, angels, and demons associated with planet Earth are the spirit children of Elohim and his many Goddess wives. 

A pivotal moment in Mormon history occurred when a great heavenly council meeting was called, which included Jesus and his brother Lucifer. You and I were likely there as well, in our pre-existence. The council agreed on a plan to create the planet Earth, where all the spirit children of Elohim would be given physical bodies and learn good from evil. Lucifer wanted to force all of the spirit children to become Gods while Jesus suggested that they should be given freedom to choose.

A vote was taken and Jesus’ plan was approved. Lucifer was furious and convinced one third of Elohim’s spirit children to revolt. As punishment for their rebellion, Lucifer and his followers would not be given physical bodies. They would be sent to Earth and come to be known as Satan and his demons.

Elohim’s loyal spirit children who fought against Lucifer would be given white skin, while the spirit children who remained neutral would be given black skin.^[42]

Brigham Young taught that Elohim and one of his goddess wives came to planet Earth as Adam and Eve,^[43] and that Elohim later had sexual intercourse with the virgin Mary in order to provide Jesus with a physical body.^[45][46]

In 1979, LDS President Ezra Taft Benson stated “I am bold to say to you, … Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. He was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father!”^[47]

LDS Apostle Orson Hyde taught that Jesus was a polygamist who took multiple wives and fathered children prior to his crucifixion.^[48][49]

After rising from the dead, Jesus would make a visit to North America to preach to the people there. 

But who were these people?

The Book of Mormon teaches that a group of people known as the Jaredites crossed the ocean on eight small wooden barges around the time of the Tower of Babel, approximately 2200 BC. The barges were of supernatural design, capable of being fully submersed, with stone lights inside. God sent a furious wind to blow the barges to North America over the course of three hundred forty-four days.^[71] The Jaredite people aboard would be the first humans to ever reside in North America.

The Jaredites grew into a civilization of millions that lasted 1500 years before a civil war would wipe them all out. The last survivor was Coriantumr, the king of the Jeredites.

In 587 BC, a group of Jews left from Jerusalem and journeyed across the ocean to North America. These were the followers of Mulek, a son of King Zedekiah. Although the Bible says that King Zedekiah’s sons were killed before his eyes by the Babylonians ^[72], Mulek apparently escaped and fled to North America. Once the Mulekites arrived in America, they found Coriantumr, who lived with them for nine months until his death.

In 600 BC, another group of Jews left from Jerusalem to make the voyage to North America. These were also Jews, followers of a man named named Lehi. Once settled in America, Lehi’s son, Nephi, believed that his brothers Laman and Lemuel wanted to kill him. So Nephi and his followers, the “Nephites,” went into the wilderness while the followers of Laman came to be called the “Lamanites.”

The Lamanites, who were previously “white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome,” were cursed with a “skin of blackness” so they would “not be enticing” to the Nephites.^[50] The two groups would be at war for centuries until Jesus Christ appeared to them after his resurrection in approximately 33 AD.

This event would unite the Nephites and the Lamanites into one nation, and they would live at peace for two hundred years before war between the groups resumed. The Lamanites would completely exterminate the Nephites, leaving a single survivor, a prophet named Moroni. Moroni was the son of Mormon, leader of the Nephite armies, who was killed in the final battle with the Lamanites in 385 AD.

Mormon and his son Moroni had engraved golden plates in a language called Reformed Egyptian with a history of the people who had come to America from the Middle East. In 421 AD, Moroni buried the golden plates in what is now New York and then returned fourteen hundred years later as an angel to show Joseph Smith where to find them.

Since the Nephites were completely wiped out, Mormons believe that the Lamanites are the ancestors of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders…meaning that they are Jewish. With the advent of genetic testing in the 1980s, it became possible to scientifically verify whether there is a link between the Jews and the first inhabitants of the Americas. Extensive testing of Native American DNA has not shown any link to the Jewish people, as the Book of Mormon teaches. Rather, Native Americans are genetically linked to the people of Asia.

In terms of archaeology, no evidence for the Jerodites, Mulekites, Nephites, or Lamanites has ever been found in the Americas. While the Book of Mormon speaks of horses, elephants, cattle, wheat, steel swords, and silk – these things did not actually come to the Americas until the Europeans arrived more than one thousand years after Moroni buried the golden plates. The Book of Mormon tells us that 230,000 people were killed in the final battle at Hill Cumorah in 385 AD,^[xx] yet all attempts to uncover archaeological remnants from this epic battle have been stopped by the LDS church. 

Mormon Prophecies

Another way that we can examine the authenticity of the Book of Mormon is to examine some of the prophecies that it contains. The Bible rightly asks this question:

“How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken”– Deuteronomy 18:21-22

This is a simple, and logical test that we will now apply to the Book of Mormon, beginning with a prophecy from Nephi that was written in 592 BC and translated by Joseph Smith in 1829 AD.

“And after…the twelve apostles of the Lamb…thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church…for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious”^[19]

Not only does Nephi claim that the Christian church corrupted the Bible, but also that the Christian church was founded by Satan himself.

“that great and abominable church, which was founded by the devil and his children”^[52]

So, in light of this, we should easily be able to find evidence for the corruption of the Bible among the thousands of preserved manuscripts that have been discovered over thousands of years.

Except that we don’t.

What the manuscripts show is the remarkable preservation of the Bible through the centuries. There are, of course, textual variants and scribal errors – which should be expected when thousands of copies are being written by hand – but there is simply no evidence of large-scale corruption. Because these manuscripts were dispersed throughout the ancient world, the possibility of anyone changing them all is essentially impossible. If someone wanted to make a change to a manuscript, they would have to retrieve all of the other copies to change them as well.

Since Nephi claimed that this corruption would take place after the twelve apostles, perhaps we could find evidence of corruption by comparing the Dead Sea Scrolls from 100 BC to the modern Bible. Nearly every book of the Old Testament is represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so this is an excellent opportunity to expose corruption of the text if it has indeed occurred. Since any manuscripts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls predate the “great and abominable church”^[19] by at least one hundred years, they should not be corrupted since the church did not exist when they were written. So what do we find when we compare the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts to the Bible we have today? 

New Text? Deleted Text? Modified Text? Massive changes?

No.

When compared to modern Bibles, the Dead Sea Scrolls match to an extremely high degree, with no evidence of corruption. So the prophecy from 1 Nephi that predicts the corruption of the Bible^[19] is simply not true.

We will now turn to another prophecy from the Book of Mormon, this time from the book of Alma concerning the birth of Jesus. 

“And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem”^[53]

This is clearly a mistake, since Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In the Bible, this was prophesied in the book of Micah (five hundred years before Jesus was born) and confirmed in the books of Matthew^[54] and Luke.^[55]

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” –Micah 5:2

So, if the Bible shows no evidence of corruption and Mormons believe that the Bible is the word of God, as stated by Joseph Smith:

“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”^[56]

Why does the Bible teach things that contradict Mormonism? 

For instance, the Bible teaches that God is spirit.^[57] But Mormonism teaches that “The Father has a body of flesh and bones, as tangible as man’s.”^[58]

The Bible teaches that there is one God,^[64] and that there were never any Gods before or after Him.^[59] But Mormonism teaches that there are many Gods, and that Heavenly Father is the spirit child of another God, who is the spirit child of another God, who is the spirit child of another God, etc. Curiously, the Book of Mormon itself affirms that there is only one God,^[73][74][75] but later teachings of the church are clearly polytheistic.^[39][40]

The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith.^[60] The Book of Mormon says that “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”^[61]

So what are these things we must “do” in order to be saved?

Mormonism teaches that if we are to reach exaltation, the highest level of salvation, these are the ordinances that a person must complete:^[62]

• Baptism
• Confirmation
• Melchizedek Priesthood Ordination (men only)
• Temple Endowment Ceremony (washing and anointing)
• Celestial marriage in a temple
• Sealing ceremony in a temple
• Keep all the commandments
• Repent of all wrongdoings
• Attend church meetings regularly
• Have family and individual prayers every day
• Search out dead family members and receive these saving ordinances for them

If you are able to do all of these things, you can go to the highest level of heaven, which is known as the Celestial Kingdom. Only those that go to the Celestial Kingdom have a chance to eventually become a God with their own planet some day. 

Those who don’t make it to the Celestial Kingdom can still go to the Terrestrial Kingdom. Even non-Mormons can go to this kingdom if they are “good.” Jesus visits the Terrestrial Kingdom sometimes, but Heavenly Father does not. 

Atheists and those who are not “good” go to the Telestial Kingdom. The Holy Spirit visits the Telestial Kingdom sometimes, but Heavenly Father and Jesus do not. 

Finally, Outer Darkness is reserved for Satan and his demons…and any Mormons who leave the faith. 

The Bible teaches that there are only two destinations for all of humanity: 

Heaven or Hell

In the book of Matthew, we get a clear picture of what the final judgment will look like

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’…And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” –Matthew 25:31-46

The only difference between those in heaven and those in hell is God’s grace. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.^[63] But God made a way for sinners to be saved by sending His Son Jesus, to become a man. The Bible describes this in the book of John 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” -John 1:14

Jesus has always been God, and didn’t cease to be God when he became a man. As a man, he lived a perfect life, laid down His life as a ransom for sinners, and defeated death by rising from the dead. 

Christianity teaches that by grace, God became a man to save men from their sins.

Mormonism teaches that by works, men can become Gods. 

Only one can be true. The only way to be saved is to repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ to save you. 

But which Jesus? 

The Jesus of the Bible or the Jesus of Mormonism? They are not the same.

The Bible teaches that Jesus created all things^[65][66] – which would include Satan. Mormonism teaches that Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers, created when Heavenly Father had sex with Heavenly Mother. 

Only one Jesus can save. Only one Gospel can save. 

The Bible tells us that some will be led astray by a counterfeit Jesus and a counterfeit gospel.

“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” –2 Corinthians 11:3-4

The basic premise of Mormonism is an angel bringing another gospel to Joseph Smith. I will conclude with this verse from the Bible:

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” –Galatians 1:8

Conclusion

My goal with this post is not to attack Mormons or ridicule their beliefs. Rather, I wish to help people learn more about this religion, and to contrast Mormonism with Christianity. I believe there is only one way to be saved and it is my desire that Latter Day Saints come to know the true Jesus, the only Jesus who can save. If you would like to contact me with questions regarding this post, please click here. You can also email me directly at ullmerboys@gmail.com.

I would also like to offer you a free copy of the book Unveiling Grace: The Story of How We Found Our Way out of the Mormon Church by Lynn K. Wilder. Click here to request your free copy

We all know God is real. God has given us sufficient evidence of His existence through creation. We don’t need a book to tell us that there is a Creator. Yet if we want to know anything about God, if we want to know who He is, our only option would be some sort of revelation from Him. Among the most famous writings in human history are the Quran and the Bible. Both claim to be the word of God, both claim to be a revelation from the Creator. Let’s look at some basic facts and beliefs related to each:

The Quran

• A single book without multiple authors, containing 114 surahs (chapters) and 6236 ayahs (verses), arranged non-chronologically
• Compiled after the death of Muhammad by the first caliph, Abu Bakr in 633 CE
• Further standardized by the third caliph, Uthman in 653 CE (all other known copies were reportedly burned)
• Written in Arabic
• Muslims believe that the Quran was revealed to Muhammad orally by the angel Jabril, and that the words revealed are the literal words of Allah. The Quran states that the words contained in it have always existed, eternally inscribed on a tablet in heaven (Surah 85:22). Muslims believe that the words of the Quran have been perfectly preserved, to the letter, since the time of Muhammad until today

The Bible

• A collection of 66 books written by 40 different authors
• Written over the course of 1500 years, from 1400 BC to 100 CE
• Written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
• Contains different writing styles such as poetry, prophecy, historical narrative, epistles/letters, law, apocalyptic
• Christians believe the authors of the Bible were personally inspired by God, and that the original writings have been accurately preserved through history, despite minor scribal or copyist errors

Clearly there is a profound difference between these two books, both in terms of how they were written, and in terms of what people believe about them. But despite these differences, if both books are ultimately from God, we should expect perfect agreement between them.

What does the Bible say about the Quran?

Nothing. The latest writings in the Bible predate the Quran by over 500 years, so there is no mention of the Quran in the Bible.

What does the Quran say about the Bible?

Since the Quran came hundreds of years after the Bible, and references many of the same people from the Bible (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Jesus, etc), it makes sense that the Quran would include references to the Bible. In fact, the Quran makes multiple references to the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and the Gospel (writings about Jesus):

• Surah 3:3 – He has revealed to you ‘O Prophet’ the Book in truth, confirming what came before it, as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel previously, as a guide for people
• Surah 5:47 – So let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed in it.
• Surah 5:68 – Say, ‘O Prophet,’ “O People of the Book! You have nothing to stand on unless you observe the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.”
• Surah 7:157 – They are the ones who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whose description they find in their Torah and the Gospel.
• Surah 10:94 – If you ‘O Prophet’ are in doubt about ‘these stories’ that We have revealed to you, then ask those who read the Scripture before you.

From these ayahs, it is clear that Allah revealed the Torah and the Gospel as his word. Christians and Jews are instructed to judge by their own scriptures and to observe all that is written in them. Muhammad himself confirms that the Christians and Jews had their own scriptures during his lifetime, according to Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2653. Further, we know from manuscript evidence that the Bible that exists today matches the Bible from the time of Muhammad.

But this is a problem.

The Bible and the Quran teach things that contradict each other.

For example, in the Bible, Jesus predicts his death and resurrection multiple times (Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:22-23, Matthew 20:17-19, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22), yet the Quran says that Jesus didn’t really die (Surah 4:157).

These cannot both be true.

Perhaps the clearest statement regarding the divinity of Jesus is found in John 1:1-3, where Jesus is referred to as the Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

A few verses later in John 1:14, we see that the Word (Jesus) came into this world, as a man.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us

This is a clear statement in the Bible that Jesus is divine and came to earth as a man. But in Surah 5:116, Jesus denies his own deity.

Jesus is referred to as the Son of God throughout the Gospels (Luke 1:30-35, Matthew 14:32-22, Matthew 16:13-17, John 11:25-27, Mark 3:11) and God the Father calls Jesus his Son (Mark 1:11, Mark 9:3, Matthew 3:17, Luke 9:35).

Yet, the Quran says that Allah has no son in Surah 17:111

“All praise be to God, who has had no son and who has no partner in His kingdom, and who needs no protector from disgrace!”

From these contradictions alone, we can conclude that both the Bible and the Quran cannot both be the word of God. Many Muslims have recognized this fact, and have concluded that the Bible must have been corrupted.

But the Quran says no such thing.

Rather, the Quran confirms the inspiration, preservation, and the authority of the Bible. If there was corruption, we would expect to see evidence of this in the Biblical manuscripts that we have – many of which predate the Quran. But we see no such evidence of corruption in the manuscripts.

So although there is no reference in the Quran about the corruption of the Bible, and no manuscript evidence of corruption, Muslims are still forced to believe that the Bible is corrupted because it contradicts the Quran.

This presents another problem.

The Quran states that there is no changing God’s Words:

Surah 18:27 Recite what has been revealed to you from the Book of your Lord. None can change His Words, nor can you find any refuge besides Him.

and

Surah 6:115 The Word of your Lord has been perfected in truth and justice. None can change His Words. And He is the All-Hearing, All- Knowing.

If the Quran confirms that the Bible is God’s word (Surah 3:3, Surah 5:47, Surah 5:68) and that God’s word cannot be changed, then we can logically conclude the following:

If the Quran is true, then the Bible is true. And if the Bible is true, then the Quran is false.

For Muslims who believe the Bible has been corrupted, they are forced to believe either one of two things:

1. God couldn’t protect the Bible from corruption (meaning God is not all-powerful)
2. God chose not to protect the Bible from corruption (meaning God is not trustworthy, and He allowed billions of people to be deceived and sent to hell)

Abdu Murray grew up as a Muslim in the United States. He was forced to confront this very issue regarding the Bible and the Quran. If you would like to listen to his story, you can do so below.

If you are interested in studying the differences between Christianity and Islam, this book is one of the best I have read. For a free copy of this book, click here and I will send you one as a gift.

There is a popular notion that the Jesus of the Bible is the same person as Isa of the Quran. When there is so much hostility between Christians and Muslims, there is an understandable tendency to try and find common ground between the two religions. One example of this is in the attempted harmonization between Jesus and Isa, combining them into a single character.

So what does the Bible say about Jesus? What does the Quran say about Isa? We will compare the two characters using the Bible (all references in RED) and the Quran (all references in GREEN). Lets start with the birth of Jesus.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

-Luke 1:26-35

From this text we learn that Jesus was the Son of God. The Holy Spirit caused Mary to supernaturally become pregnant, since she was a virgin, and that the child to be born would be holy.

From the Quran, we read

And she who remained chaste, protected her cleft (farjaha), so We blew into her from Our Spirit, and We created her and her son (as) a sign to world.

–Surah 21:91

And Mary Amran’s daughter who remained chaste, protected her cleft (farjaha) between her legs, so We blew in it from Our Spirit (roohina), and she confirmed the truth of her Lord’s words, and His Books , and she was of the devoutly obedient.

–Surah 66:12

The references to “Our Spirit” (roohina) perhaps indicate that this was all done through the the angel Gabriel (or Jibril).

The Quran records that Isa was born in a desolate place, where Mary was alone under a palm tree. 

She said, “How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, and I was never unchaste?” He said, “Thus said your Lord, `It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign for humanity, and a mercy from Us. It is a matter already decided.”

So she carried him, and secluded herself with him in a remote place. The labor-pains came upon her, by the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, “I wish I had died before this, and been completely forgotten.” Whereupon he called her from beneath her: “Do not worry; your Lord has placed a stream beneath you. And shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards you, and it will drop ripe dates by you.”

–Surah 19:20-25

This is quite different from the Bible, which records Jesus being born in Bethlehem in a place where animals were kept. According to the Bible, Mary was not alone, but was with Joseph during the time she gave birth to Jesus. 

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a feeding trough, because there was no guest room available for them.

-Luke 2:4-7

The Bible records the first instance where Jesus is worshiped as a small child. This occurred when Magi (Kings or wise men) from the East visited him.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

-Matthew 2:11

Jesus is worshiped on multiple occasions throughout the Bible, and never rejects the worship being given to him.

Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

-Matthew 14:33

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

-Matthew 28:8-9

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

-Matthew 28:16-17

While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

-Luke 24:51-52

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

-John 9:35-38

Jesus is referred to as “The Word” in both the Quran and the Bible.

O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion, and do not say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Isa, the son of Mary, is the Messenger of Allah, and His Word that He conveyed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him.

–Surah 4:171

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

-John 1:1-3,14

Here we can see that the Bible clearly expresses the deity of Jesus – “the Word was God.“

Perhaps the most striking difference between Jesus and Isa is in how they died. Jesus predicts his own death and resurrection multiple times in the Bible

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.

-Mark 8:31-32

As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.

-Matthew 17:22-23

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

-Matthew 20:17-19

And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

-Luke 9:21-22

Isa also references his own death and resurrection in the Quran

“And peace is on me (Isa) the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.”

–Surah 19:33

But then, in a shocking revelation, the Quran tells us that Isa didn’t actually die on the cross, it only looked that way.

And [for] their saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Isa, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah .” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them.

–Surah 4:157

Allah fooled those who were present that day, witnessing the crucifixion. According to the Quran, Isa was not killed, but rather, another person who looked like Isa was crucified on that day. Today, billions of people believe that Jesus died by crucifixion. If Isa and Jesus are the same person, and Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross, then this is undoubtedly the greatest deception in the history of the world. 

Further, since Jesus predicted his own death, he would have to be considered a false prophet if he didn’t actually die. Without the crucifixion, there is no resurrection. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Perhaps there are other sources we can look at to determine whether or not Jesus actually died by crucifixion. Besides the Bible, what do other historical sources say when it comes to this issue? The following sources all confirm the crucifixion of Jesus:

Mara Bar Serapion (73AD)

Josephus (93AD)

Clement (95AD)

Ignatius (100AD)

Tacitus (115AD)

Polycarp (115AD)

Lucian of Samosata (165AD)

If Jesus did not die on the cross, then we would expect to see some sort of historical evidence that refutes the crucifixion of Jesus from that time period. But there is no such evidence, and it’s not until the Quran was written over 600 years later that there is any mention of an impostor in the place of Jesus on the cross.

For this reason alone, we can conclude that Jesus and Isa are not the same person.

Jesus died by crucifixion. 

Isa did not.

Jesus went beyond simply predicting his own death. Jesus predicted his own resurrection, to prove that he had power even over death. This was how Christianity started, because hundreds of people claimed to have seen Jesus alive days after he was executed. Many of those people would be persecuted, tortured, or even killed for this belief.

So who was this Jesus? 

I believe that is the most important question any of us will ever ask.

A Muslim named Nabeel Qureshi dared to ask that very question, and it took him on a journey that challenged his faith and ultimately changed his life. You can watch him tell his story here, or listen to it below

If you would like a free copy of Nabeel’s book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”, please click here and I will send this book to you by mail.

The resurrection of Jesus is a game-changer. It either happened, or it didn’t. If there was no resurrection, Christianity is a joke. No other religion rises or falls on the veracity of an historical event, and that’s one of the many things that make Christianity unique among the world religions. For those that claim to be Christian, they can often feel compelled to try and defend every single statement or event in the Bible. Their faith can start to feel like a house of cards, and if uncertainty about anything in the entire Bible comes into question, the whole thing comes crashing down. But if we look back to the very first followers of Jesus (the Apostles) we can see that their faith was based on something quite simple.

They saw Jesus alive after he was executed.

I recently read a book called Irresistible by Andy Stanley, and I thought this excerpt really helped to convey this sentiment effectively:

Perhaps it would help to imagine a debate with atheists Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris on one side and apostles Peter and Paul on the other. Dawkins and Harris would deliver their typical blistering critique of all things Old Testament. They would argue persuasively for a 13.8 billion-year-old universe and a 4-billion-year-old earth. They would highlight God’s genocidal directives to the ancient Jews and then turn right around and point out the lack of evidence for a Jewish exodus from Egypt to begin with. They would rail persuasively about the dangers of religion and cite in excruciatingly clear detail the atrocities carried out in the name of God. Here are a few actual quotes that would fit well in their closing arguments.

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 51

“It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.” – Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 67

“To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and “improved” by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors, and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to one another, spanning nine centuries.” – Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 268

“The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.” – Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 4

How would Peter respond? How would Paul respond? I think Peter, who had no formal education, might respond something like this:

“Fellas, I’ve never given much thought to the age of the earth. So I can’t really comment on any of that. Perhaps Paul can. I’m certainly familiar with the God of the . . . what did you call it again . . . the Old Testament? I know my people’s history, including God’s instructions to Moses and Joshua. I’m sure the reason I’ve never questioned those stories is because of how and when I was raised.

But gentlemen, none of that . . . in fact none of what you’ve said . . . has anything to do with my decision to follow Jesus.

Sam, you referenced the inadequacy of my reasoning. Allow me to explain my reasoning. I only have one. One reason, that is. When my teacher was arrested, I ran. When asked if I knew him, I lied. When the Romans crucified him, he died. In that moment, I was like you. I had no faith. I had no reason to believe. I didn’t know what to believe. When the women burst into the room early that morning to tell us the tomb was empty, I didn’t assume a miracle. I’m no fool. You ever seen a crucifixion? Of course not. Let me tell you, nobody survives crucifixion. I assumed someone had stolen the body or perhaps the women had gotten confused and went to the wrong place. But I was curious. So I went to see for myself. Before I knew it, I was running. And yes, hoping. But as John and I stared into that empty cave, we didn’t know what to think. Later that day, Mary Magdalene found us and insisted she’d seen the master, alive. But I wouldn’t allow myself to believe it. I’d just spent three years chasing a confused rabbi. I wasn’t going to spend another season chasing ghosts. Besides, I had a price on my head. If I wasn’t careful, I would end up a ghost myself. So that night, as was our habit, the boys and me, we found a safe house just outside of town. The doors were locked and we were huddled together whispering about everything that had happened. And that’s when he came. Nobody saw him walk in. I swear to you the door was locked. But we looked up and there he was. Very much alive.

Fellas, I can’t argue with anything you’ve said. But I would like to clarify one thing. My reason for believing isn’t something I’ve heard or read or had read to me. I believe what I believe because of what I saw. I watched him die. And I know for a fact, Nic and Joe buried him. But God raised him. And fellas . . . I saw him. That’s the reason . . . that’s the only reason . . . for my hope.”

Perhaps Paul’s response would go something like this:

“Gentlemen, you believe religion is dangerous. I wholeheartedly agree. I weaponized Judaism. I arrested, jailed, tortured, and oversaw executions in the name of God. Sam, you aren’t fond of Christians. I wasn’t either. But while you and your friends are content to attack with your pens, I used a sword and a noose. I wasn’t content to write about it. I got deputized and did something about it. My intent was to stamp out The Way, as we called it back then. And yes, I was absolutely convinced I was doing God’s work. Religion can indeed be a dangerous thing.

But then something happened.

You’ve heard about it. I was on my way to Damascus to do more violence in the name of religion when I went blind. But it was while I was blind that I began to see. Richard, you mentioned weird stories. Well, this is a weird one for sure. But I’m just telling you what happened. I heard a voice. The voice asked, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” Well, I had a hunch, but I asked anyway, “Who are you, Lord?” And gentlemen, I don’t expect you to believe me, but the voice said: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Jesus, as in crucified and buried Jesus. Long story short, I was commissioned by the God I thought I had been serving all along to take the message of Jesus to the Gentile world. Which is exactly what I did. And from what I understand, nobody in your modern world disputes that that’s exactly what I did. The only thing you can dispute is why I did it.

So, Sam, Richard, why in the world would a die-hard Pharisee like me do an about-face and serve the very person whose memory I set out to destroy? What’s your theory?

If you’re going to dismiss the Christian faith, it’s not enough to discount the credibility of my Jewish ancestors. You’ve got to discount me! Oh, and one last thing. Richard, for the record, there’s really only one weird story that matters. The one Peter told you. The one Matthew and Luke documented. And if you think about it, it’s not much weirder than something the two of you believe. You believe all of life arose from a single organism. Peter and I believe a full-grown man arose from a single tomb.”

It all comes down to Jesus and the resurrection. Click here to learn more

Just the very mention of the word “prophecy” can cause a lot of people to tune out. Maybe the idea of a fortune-teller looking into a crystal ball comes to mind. Or perhaps some of the self-proclaimed “prophets” that you can find on the internet selling their books and DVDs about their version of how the world will end. People should be skeptical of anyone who claims to be a prophet, or of anything that is labeled as prophecy. I know I am.

So with that being said, what would it mean if we found evidence of actual prophecy? What would be the implications of that? Let’s take a look at an example of what some consider legitimate, verified prophecy.

In 1947, a young Arab shepherd boy discovered a cave near the Dead Sea in the Judean Desert. Excavations of the site over the next decade would reveal 11 caverns, now known as the Qumran caves. These caves contained numerous ancient scrolls and manuscripts, dating back thousands of years, now referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

A 24-foot scroll containing a complete copy of the book of Isaiah (one of the books of the Bible) was among the artifacts found in this cave. The scroll was independently carbon-dated multiple times and the age of the scroll was determined to be from 100 BC. This means we can prove that the book of Isaiah was written before the birth of Jesus. This particular copy was dated by scientific method to 100 years before the birth of Jesus, while the original book of Isaiah has been dated by historians to 739 – 681 years before the birth of Jesus.

Many have claimed that the book of Isaiah contains prophecy that foretells the coming of Jesus. Since we know that these writings originated hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, as verified by carbon dating, it would be quite remarkable if they indeed spoke of someone who had not yet been born.

Let’s take a look…

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”  -Isaiah 7:14

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  -Isaiah 9:6

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.”  -Isaiah 53:2-3

“He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”  -Isaiah 53:7,12

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  -Isaiah 53:5

So who do you think these passages are referring to?

If someone were familiar with the story of Jesus, but had never read the book of Isaiah, what do you think they would conclude from these passages?

The implications of authentic, verified prophecy are not lost on those that doubt the existence of God. There is no naturalistic explanation to account for something like this. If God is real, and God created time itself, then it follows that He sees all of it – past, present, future. He alone can reveal the future to us.

Check out this video to learn more…

Exactly 20 years ago, on March 1, 2003, my life was changed. I was changed. It started in my hands, sort of like the feeling you get when your arm falls asleep – except it was in both hands, gripping the steering wheel of my 1985 Toyota Celica GT hatchback.

It was 3:30AM and I was driving through the empty streets of my hometown listening to music, smoking cigarettes, remembering what it felt like when I first got this car back in high school. Those days seemed so distant, but not because of the years that had passed, but because of the innocence lost. I was now twenty-two years old, a senior in college at the University of Wisconsin. Hungover again, I had come home for the weekend to visit my girlfriend Wendy.

She was a Nurse and had just left for her 12-hour shift, which started at 3AM. I was staying in her parent’s basement, and I still hadn’t fallen asleep. Sick of lying around with my racing thoughts, I decided to go for a drive since. What followed changed the course of my life forever.

So what happened on that night, March 1, 2003?

Much of the information I share here will require you to believe I am a truthful and credible person. If you don’t know me personally, that obviously presents some difficulty. If you do conclude that I’m simply making this up, I don’t blame you. This world is full of attention-seekers and fakers, so maybe I’m just another one to add to your list. I just want to assure you that I’m not trying to sell you anything and I don’t want your money. Telling a story like this does not exactly paint me in a flattering light, as you’ll see later on when I recount how I impaled myself on a fence while drunk. Putting detailed, personal information about yourself on the internet isn’t really a prudent idea either. Anyway, I better get to it, I know attention spans are short these days. First, just a little background on myself.

(If you would prefer an audio version, click below for a talk I gave in 2015)

I was born on June 7, 1980 and I grew up in Menasha, Wisconsin (USA). I come from a family of six children, me being the second-eldest. We didn’t have a lot of money, but my parents provided a loving home. They were both Christians, and took us all to church every Sunday. I guess I would have considered myself a Christian growing up, but by the time I was a teenager, I was essentially done with all of that. I worked most Sundays and stopped going to church with my family. While not an atheist, I just didn’t really care about spiritual things at that point in my life. I always got good grades in school, but I was never much of an athlete or very popular. As a sophomore in high school, my friends and I discovered a new way to pass time…getting drunk. It seemed innocent enough at first, but as the years passed, the hangovers worsened and the consequences became more severe. Days before I graduated from high school, I was arrested for drunk driving and lost my license. I had been dating a girl named Wendy for the last few months and we would attempt the dreaded “long-distance relationship” since I would be leaving for college in the Fall and she still had another year of high school to finish. Madison was two hours away, and I think we both had our doubts about how long we would make it together.

I was never what I would consider an alcoholic, because I didn’t drink every day. I was a binge-drinker, which meant that I would get hammered Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and then swear I would never drink again by Sunday. I was not what you would call a “social drinker.” Many of you can relate, I’m sure. If you’ve ever been hungover, you know how much it sucks. When you first start drinking – especially if you’re young – the hangovers aren’t bad at all. But they steadily get worse with age and experience. By the time I was twenty, the hangovers started to not only get worse physically, but also mentally. There was a “darkness” to them that I could feel, and sleeplessness usually accompanied that. It’s hard to describe exactly what I mean, but it was almost as if I felt like a machine, not fully alive, very aware of the mechanics of my breathing – if that makes any sense. My friends and I were also experimenting with drugs, some of which offer their own dark experiences that are inescapable when you are under the influence of them.

A series of physical injuries would ultimately help motivate me to take a step back and at least start questioning the life I was living. I want to detail each of them, as they are both relevant for reasons you will understand just a bit later. I’m sure it all sounds a bit confusing, but bear with me. Here’s the first injury.

May 15, 2001 – Somehow, the Milwaukee Bucks were in the playoffs and were tied in a best-of-seven series with the Charlotte Hornets, two games each. As I mentioned, I am from Wisconsin, and the Bucks are the professional basketball team from our state. For most of my life they had been terrible, but that year they were actually in the playoffs. It was a Thursday night, and I was getting drunk as usual. I shared a house with four other guys, and we were watching the game. The Bucks lost that night, and apparently I was quite upset about this. I went outside on our back deck and started throwing things (yes, I am an idiot).

I picked up a large, broken shard of wood from a demolished piece of furniture and tried to throw it like a Frisbee with both hands. The jagged end came around as I let it go and slashed open my right hand. The cut was deep and my friends took me to the hospital where they stitched me up. I lied and told them I cut my hand washing dishes, as you can see on the hospital report. This event didn’t really slow me down at all in terms of drinking. I was actually very fortunate that the laceration missed any tendons or arteries. All that remains today is a scar and some nerve damage, but otherwise my hand is fully functional.

A year later, I would injure myself again, only this time it was much more serious. It was Friday night, April 5, 2002. I was in the midst of a “bender”, meaning I had been drinking for days, stopping only when I slept. We were hanging out at a bar on State Street near the university campus in Madison, Wisconsin. One of my friends wanted to leave and I followed him. He hopped a fence that was across the street from the bar.

I don’t have a clear memory of the exact series of events that followed, but I know I tried to climb the fence and got stuck, I believe from my belt. There were two individuals who pushed me up over the fence, but I don’t remember if they were trying to help me off the fence or hurt me. My full weight came down on one of the fence spikes, driving it deep into my body in the very upper part of my left leg, essentially…my ass. I don’t know how I got off the fence, or really how I got home. I remember getting punched at some point, but I’m not sure if it was the same guys by the fence or someone else. When I arrived at my house (322 West Wilson St), I stumbled into my room and collapsed. Waking up from a night like that is always confusing, the mind struggling with only random images and scattered memories of the night before. In this case, the sight of blood in my bed jolted me awake. Everything felt kind of numb and swollen around the wound area, and I was obviously still bleeding. I showered and hid my bloody clothes, not knowing how bad it was. I didn’t even tell my roommates because I was embarrassed about the whole thing. With a black eye and a swollen face, I laughed it off with them – just another night of stupidity. As the day went on, and the bleeding continued, I finally conceded to myself that I needed medical attention. I made up a story about my sister coming to town, and told my roommates that I was going to stay with her for a few days. I packed a change of clothes and walked to Meriter Hospital, alone.

At the hospital, I waited in the Emergency Room to be admitted and examined. They asked a lot of questions, and were very skeptical of my story. I told them I hurt myself trying to climb a fence, but they kept asking if someone had attacked me or stabbed me. Every person that looked at my injury went to go get someone else, and finally they concluded that I needed to have surgery immediately. Since it had been nearly twenty-four hours since the injury occurred, and the wound had not been properly cleaned, the doctors wanted to act quickly because they believed the risk of infection was high. Dr. Jacquelynn Thompson (now Jacquelynn Arbuckle) was the surgeon on call that Saturday night, so we waited for her to arrive while I was prepped for surgery. I had to call my dad for insurance purposes, and also called my girlfriend Wendy. I was ashamed and scared, but did my best to hide it.

When I awoke from surgery, Dr. Thompson came in and informed me regarding the severity of my injury. She said she could fit her entire hand inside the wound. From what she saw during surgery, she had serious concerns about potential infection. She was very straightforward with me about the consequences of infection and due to the location of the injury, there was potential for permanent damage, impacting my future ability to have children. That news hit me hard. Every few hours they wanted me to sit in a warm bath to help the wound heal. I remember sitting there, alone, naked, and dead sober. This was the lowest point of my life. I hated that this had happened to me. In my pride, I hated the thought of anyone seeing me like this. I was released a couple days later after a heavy dose of IV antibiotics, with no signs of infection. The healing process was slow, and required multiple follow-up visits. I never told any of my friends.

I gladly left Madison after that school year and spent the summer in my hometown with Wendy, working at Neenah Foundry as an intern. Wendy and I spent a lot of time together, and I began to realize how grateful I was that she was still with me. I had been a selfish drunk for the five years we had been together, yet she continued to love me despite all of the ways I hurt her. That summer together strengthened our struggling relationship, and I remember wishing I could stay with her for more than just three months.

We used to watch a lot of movies together back then, and one in particular had captured my mind. The Fellowship of the Ring was the first movie released based on the The Lord of the Rings book series by JRR Tolkien. I won’t bore you with a plot synopsis, but the story is based on a ring that holds immense power, capable of corrupting anyone in possession of it. I was fascinated with the intricate ways the movie was able to contrast good and evil. Wendy must have gotten sick of me watching it over and over. Ultimately, I decided to try reading the book.

Prior to that, I hadn’t really read anything of substance unless it was required for school – at least not since I was quite young. I found that reading was very calming because it kept my mind preoccupied, especially when I was hungover. I started to take this concept of good and evil and apply it to my life. Wendy and my family back home were “good”, while my life of drinking and drugs was “evil.”

But there was a serious problem. I still loved the evil things that were destroying my life.

I loved getting drunk. I loved looking at porn. I loved getting high. I would never admit this to myself of course, but I could have stopped all of it…if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to. When I returned to school for my senior year of college, I could tell things were different. Our apartment that year was right on the shore of Lake Mendota (620 N Carroll St) and I had my own room. I was definitely more withdrawn from my friends, and didn’t mind spending time alone. There was a gym in the basement, so I started working out and often I would just stay in our apartment to watch music videos, getting drunk and stoned by myself while my roommates went out. I struggled with sleep more than ever, but at least now I had something to occupy my mind. Reading at night was something I looked forward to and I finished all three books in The Lord of the Rings series. I had to find something to read next.

My mind kept going to the Bible that my parents had given me four years earlier as a high school graduation present, days before I went off to college. I remember when my mom handed it to me, flipping through it, hoping there was some money inside and trying not to roll my eyes when I read what she had written in the front cover.

I took it with me to college and stuffed it in my top dresser drawer. I didn’t want to throw it away or anything – I mean, it was a Bible – but I never considered reading it. Every year I forgot I even had it until it was time to move to a new apartment and I would transfer it to a new dresser drawer. But now…I felt like I was drawn to it. I couldn’t get it off my mind. I started reading in my room with the door locked. I didn’t tell anyone – except Wendy. My Dad always used to quote Proverbs to us when we were young, so I started there. Over and over again I would read something, and my mind would instantly flash to moments from my past or people in my life.

I finished Proverbs and started reading about Jesus in the New Testament. The Jesus depicted here in the Bible was nothing like my notions of him that I carried from childhood. He was so authentic, so wise, so loving – yet willing to throw down with the religious hypocrites that seemed to bother him so much (Matthew 23:1-36). He had the power to heal people and could speak into their life because he knew what they were thinking. Jesus made claims that would have gotten him sent to an insane asylum today – such as coming down from heaven (John 6:38), or existing thousands of years before his birth (John 8:58). He told his followers that he would be killed, but come back to life three days later (Mark 8:31). Then, that very thing happened, just as he said. Today, Jesus is the most famous human to ever live. My heart would pound when I would read certain parts of the Bible, sometimes causing me to slam it shut. I didn’t like feeling convicted. If all this was true, I had no excuse. If all this was true…I was lost. 

I remember reading about a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. He met with Jesus in secret, afraid of what his peers would think, since he was a powerful man and a ruler among the Jews. Jesus said to him:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

This was the first time I had encountered that term “born again” in the Bible. I always thought it was just a slang term for Christians. Like, crazy weird Christians. Jesus continued:

“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7)

What did it mean to be born of the Spirit?

I had a very basic understanding of Christianity, but this was beyond me. I finished reading the entire New Testament and I had a lot of questions. I wasn’t sure what to think about being “born again” or about the mysterious “Holy Spirit.” One thing I was sure about was the existence of evil. I had seen too much over the last few years. Things like the Columbine school shooting, the September 11 attacks, and even some of the people I had encountered in the world of drinking and drugs. It was clear to me that something had gone very wrong with this world. I had felt it inside myself too. Evil.

And that’s where I found myself on March 1, 2003 at the age of 22. Driving my car in the middle of the night. My mind restless. Searching for answers, searching for peace.

Then I felt it.

It started in my hands, just a light tingling sensation. It was like they had fallen asleep, or maybe I was just cold? But it intensified, and I could feel it in my neck, my head, spreading through my body. Now please, understand. I’ve done drugs. I’ve experienced all kinds of unnatural highs and things like that. This was nothing like that. The only way to describe the physical intensity I was feeling was like some sort of “electricity” – but it wasn’t painful.

I blurted out the words ‘It’s God, it’s God’, and the moment I did, the intensity increased to a point that I didn’t think I could physically handle it. I seriously thought I might die if it kept getting stronger. It wasn’t painful, but I was scared out of my mind because this was not under my control. Breathing fast, I pulled my car into Butte des Morts Park, trying to hold it together. I remember shutting off my loud music that was blasting in my car because it wasn’t helping matters.

I remember saying out loud ‘call Dad’ and struggling with my cell phone. It was probably around 4AM, so my dad was sleeping, soon to be getting up for work at Miller Electric. When he answered, I must have sounded like a crazy person- no doubt. I was scared, and I wanted him to come get me, since I didn’t think I could drive home in this state. I described my location the best I could, and he said he was coming. I think he believed I was suicidal…or drunk again.

There I sat. Alone, but not alone. Sitting in my car, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. I knew it was God. The God that I had been reading about. The God that had interacted with all of these people in the Bible thousands of years ago. And suddenly, He was here. Very real…and very powerful. I had felt just a tiny fraction of His power, and it was more than I could take. The physical intensity started to subside, and I wept.

Why me?

Why would the God of the universe even think of me? Years later, I would read the words of Isaiah when he encountered this very same God named Yahweh:

Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5)

Undone. Unraveled. Broken. Lost. I became so aware of my sin in that moment, it made me want to hide. Sin was a concept I had learned from the Bible because it was spoken of so frequently…and I was covered in it. I had broken God’s law. I was guilty before the Judge of the universe and I had no defense. No appeal. Similarly, these are the words of Peter, when he realized he was in the presence of the Lord:

“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
-Peter (Luke 5:8)

I felt the same. The only thing I knew how to do was ask for help. After an eternity of silence, I found the words to speak to Him.

“God I need you, please help me. Please save me.”

The words of a broken man. Not just broken, but dead. I was physically alive, but spiritually dead. The Bible speaks with astounding clarity about my condition, and about what God had done for me.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:1-5)

I didn’t deserve this. I was full of pride and had done many, many shameful things throughout my life. For all of these years, I had rejected the God who had given me life. I had not simply ignored Him, I was His enemy. But by the grace of God, I surrendered my life to Him that night. The war was over and for the first time, I had peace with God. I had been born again, born of the Spirit – just like Jesus said, and I would never be the same.

My dad arrived on the scene and I remember his hesitancy to get out of the car as his headlights shined on me. I ran up to him and hugged him – freaking him out for sure! We spoke for a long time in his van, as the sun came up, and I could see his skepticism turning to joy. I got back into my car, a different person than I was just a few hours earlier. I called Wendy at work and said something like

“You’re never going to believe what just happened to me. I felt the presence of God and I’m a Christian now. I’ll see you after work.”

She was stunned.

I could tell you all kinds of things about the next few weeks, but I said I wanted to keep this as concise as possible. In light of that, I would like to get into some evidence I have for the authenticity of this experience. However, I want to be clear, I do not expect that any evidence I present here will convince you that what I experienced was from God. I simply want to share some things that God showed me. So I will get right into it with the first piece of evidence I have.

Myself.

I was changed on that night. My desires changed, and for the first time I felt the desire to please God. I proposed to Wendy two weeks later and I told her I wanted to stop having sex until we were married the following year. It’s not that I didn’t want to have sex, but I wanted to honor her and to honor God more. I felt convicted about how I had treated her over the last five years and asked for her forgiveness. I confessed that I had not been faithful to her. Her response was one of love and forgiveness, a response I didn’t deserve. We were married the following year.

I stopped getting drunk, stopped getting high, and did my best to live a life that reflected what I knew from the Bible. While none of this always came easily, I was not alone. The Spirit of God now dwelled inside me, helping me in this new life. I was a new creation, with a new heart, and new desires. I started reading books about God, spirituality, religion – anything I could get my hands on. I wasn’t perfect. At all. God was “cleaning me up” and it was not a quick process. But life change, real life change, is hard to fake and there is no denying that my life changed on that night. Those around me saw it and were witnesses to it. So I want to offer that as a piece of evidence in regards to the authenticity of this experience. No matter what you believe about my experience that night, there is no denying that it changed my life.

Now let’s get weird. All right, this story is already weird, but this is where we go down the rabbit hole a bit. Hopefully I can present this in a somewhat rational way. Remember that loud music that was playing during my experience in the car? I remembered it only because it was freaking me out at the time, and that caused me to shut if off. The song was by a band named TOOL, and the name of the song was Parabola.

TOOL is a rock band that has a pretty large following. They aren’t exactly mainstream, but they definitely aren’t obscure. A Rolling Stone readers’ poll from 2011 put them in the top 10 metal bands of all time. At that time in my life, I was into heavy rock (Deftones, Disturbed, Mudvayne, KORN, Alice in Chains, Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, etc.) and TOOL was just another band that I really enjoyed. Their lyrics are usually pretty weird, I would even say nonsensical at times, and it’s often hard to understand what lead singer Maynard James Keenan is saying. But his voice is phenomenal, and their sound is very unique. Anyway, the only reason I know the song Parabola was playing is because at the end of the song there is a very heavy guitar riff with no vocals. It stands apart from the rest of the song, having an almost ominous sound to it. That is the particular part of the song that was playing during my experience in the car, and actually caused me to shut it off – because it was freaking me out! I mean, I was scared already from what I was feeling, and this ominous guitar solo blasting in my car was not helping things. So when I got home early that morning, just hours after my experience, I had this song Parabola stuck in my head and I felt compelled to look up the lyrics. Here are a few lines from the song:

Hold on, stay inside this holy reality, this holy experience

I am not alone in this body, this body holding me

Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing

I mean, ‘recognize this as a holy gift‘ is about as clear as it gets if you are looking for some sort of explanation for what happened to me. TOOL is most certainly not considered a “Christian” band and if you check out other lyrics and songs from them, and you won’t see content like this. Lead singer Maynard Keenan’s lyrics are usually very confusing, and fans are left wondering what exactly he is talking about. But, no matter what song happened to be playing, I have come to view everything about that night as a gift from God.

A holy gift.

God allowed me to feel a tiny fraction of His power. He gave me His Holy Spirit. He set me free from slavery to sin. He brought me from death to life. He saved me. I was given the gift of salvation , just as the Bible says:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

But why me?

That is a question that bothers me because I know I am not more intelligent, more spiritual, more “good” than anyone else. I did nothing to earn this. It was a gift in the truest sense of the word. There have been many times over the years where even just remembering this experience has given me strength during times of doubt. So I offer these lyrics from the song that was playing during my experience as further evidence that what occurred was from God. Now of course you can say that I just searched for some lyrics that sounded spiritual by a popular rock band, and invented this whole story about a song playing during my experience. Well, let’s look a little deeper into the song at something that would be much more difficult to fake.

This next piece of evidence from the song Parabola will connect with some of my previous experiences. First, just a quick reminder of the two injuries I sustained during my years at college. My hand in 2001, and the fence incident in 2002. Now, let’s look at the music video for Parabola. Yes, I am an adult, and I’m actually going to present a music video as evidence for God’s interaction in my life. Really.

I don’t remember seeing the music video until a week or two after my experience, when I was back at college. We didn’t have YouTube back in 2003, so I had to download music videos off the internet. As I said previously, during that time in my life, I loved to sit around in my apartment, smoke weed, drink and watch music videos – my roommates from that time could confirm this. So I finally got around to downloading the music video for the song Parabola, and again, I was presented with something extremely relevant to my experience. Now most of the video is pure nonsense, the entire beginning is…weird – typical of most TOOL videos. But fast forward to the end of the song around 8:40 (click here) and watch the video sequence during the heavy guitar riff I mentioned earlier.

Freaky? Yes. But the parallel to what I experienced is undeniable. Let’s look even closer at what’s going on here.

At 8:54 (click here) you have the subject looking at his right hand. Now recall back to my hand injury in 2001

While the visual similarity is plain to see, even the date that my hand injury occurred relates to this song. The album (Lateralus) was officially released on the same day I slashed my hand open.

Let’s keep going with the video…The flaming eyes in the video enter the subject’s body from the feet and make their way up. At 9:09 (click here), you see one of the eyes (with a red trail) pierce through the subject’s body at the same location as my fence impalement from April 2002.

Continuing with the video sequence to 9:18 (click here), you can distinctly see a cross form in the subject’s heart. Again, I think the symbolism speaks for itself.

I was born of the Spirit on March 1, 2003.

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9-11)

The Holy Spirit appeared visually as a flame when the disciples first received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2:1-4. So I would even consider the flames from the video to be relevant.

Okay, enough of the music video, I probably lost a lot of you on that one. I have shared that with a few of my family and friends and I usually just end up with blank stares. Anyway, one final piece of evidence for you. March 1, 2003 instantly became a very special date to me. Every year, Wendy and my family would acknowledge this day as the day I had been “born again” – like a spiritual birthday. Wendy and I were married one year later in 2004 and welcomed our first child (Liam) into the world on March 1, 2006 – exactly 3 years to the day after my experience.

So how do I know that this experience was from God? Maybe I just had a panic attack or some type of seizure. I think the bigger question is how can we really know anything? How can we discern actual, objective reality from perceived reality? If we can only rely on our senses and our mind, how can we be sure of something if our senses and our mind can deceive us?

In this case, I knew it was God in the midst of my experience. It wasn’t as if I got back in my car and drove home confused about what had happened. I didn’t need the circumstantial evidence (lyrics, music videos, birth of my son, etc) to convince me that I had really encountered the living God on March 1, 2003. Rather, I was convinced in the moment that it happened. It’s quite simple actually. Since God is both all-knowing (omniscient) and all-powerful (omnipotent), He is the only one who can make us know something.

How does God make us know something? I don’t know. But I think back to that night, and to the words that seemed to fall out of my mouth:

‘It’s God, it’s God’

In that moment, God made me know.

But which God? What if the God I encountered that night was actually Allah of Islam or maybe I had some sort of Hindu Kundalini Awakening? Well, it’s been over 20 years since I had this experience and I am closer to Jesus today than I ever have been. I could try and convince you that Jesus is the only way to be saved, but I can’t change your heart. You need to be born again, you need the Spirit of the living God to show you the truth.

How? Ask Him. Humble yourself before God. Repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus.

There is no other way to be saved.

Want to learn more about Jesus? Let me send you a free Study Bible to help you (click here). Read the book of John, which is a short biography about Jesus. The nice thing about a Study Bible is that it includes notes at the bottom of every page that help explain what the Bible says. But even without the notes, I can’t emphasize enough how just reading God’s Word can reveal truth and expose the lies that we believe.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

When I read the Bible it cut me, right down to my soul. The words of God enlightened me, but they also convicted me. God speaks through His Word. Click here if you would like me to send you a free Study Bible.

Questions? Feedback? Want to just tell me I’m insane? Contact Steve

I would also like to send you a free gift that I hope will help you on your own spiritual journey. If you have questions or objections to Christianity, this book is one that can provide some answers.

One of my fears when I became a Christian was that I would have to “check my brain at the door” when it came to issues of science, history, and the Bible. But faith is not a matter of intelligence. There are brilliant people on both sides of the matter. If you would like me to send you a free copy, click here.

So now that I have been born again, life is perfect right? God just wants me to be happy and rich and stuff like that, right? God would never allow anything really bad to happen in my life, right?? Well, if you’ve been told things like that…I’m sorry. To continue reading my story, click here.

I don’t know why I woke up that night. I looked over at her, sleeping, hair spread out across her pillow. Peaceful. Beautiful. My wife.

Wendy and I met in high school. We did the whole long-distance thing all through college. I’m still not sure how our relationship survived those days. She loved me despite myself. Despite the pain I caused her. She taught me what unconditional love meant. Her selfless nature would come to define her among those whose lives she intersected. She stuck with me while I nearly destroyed my life with alcohol and drugs. But grace invaded my world when I wasn’t expecting it. God got my attention at the age of 22, and I gave my life to Him. Everything changed. I asked Wendy to be my wife two weeks later, and we were married the following year.

Here I was, nearly 13 years later. Life was good, life was…comfortable. Our marriage was strong, far from perfect, but never better. We’d been blessed with four amazing kids – all boys. Wendy was a healthy, vibrant 36-year-old in the prime of her life. We had just moved to a new house and it felt like we were starting a new chapter in life, a chapter I was eager to see unfold.

Then I heard her take a breath.

It didn’t sound right, more like a gasp than a breath. I decided to wake her, gently nudging her and whispering her name ‘Wen, wake up. Wen, wake up babe.’

Nothing. I shook her, started screaming her name, pleading with her to wake up. But there was no response. My mind struggled with the reality of it all. I called 9-1-1. No pulse. Her breathing had stopped. I performed CPR until help arrived. Sheriffs, EMTs, a whole team of strangers in my bedroom doing everything they could to save her. Nothing was working. I saw the looks on their faces. I could feel her slipping away, and I was struggling to hold it together. They took her to the hospital where they were somehow able to restart her heart, but only for matter of hours, she never regained consciousness. On the morning of March 17, 2017, her heart gave out for the last time. She was gone.

Riding home from the hospital with my dad on that dreary morning, watching the sleet hit the windshield, I looked down at my phone and saw a message from my 11-year-old son.

‘Is Mom okay?’

I broke. They had no idea how bad it was. I knew I was about to shatter their hearts, all four of my sons. They would never be the same, nothing would ever be the same. Everything was changing.

The days and weeks that followed blur together in a sleepless, nightmarish haze. The outpouring of support for my family was unlike anything I had ever seen. So much love directed towards me and my boys, it was overwhelming. Yet there is a loneliness that comes from a loss like this. How many have walked down this road? How many can relate? Three months later, as the dust settled and life seemed to go on around me, the permanency of death was a sobering reality. She wasn’t coming back. So many reached out to me, so many cards, letters, text messages…I lost count.

But this one stopped me cold. It was a simple message of encouragement, from a person I had never met. It wasn’t the message itself that got my attention, it was the name attached to it. Erin Stoffel. That name had become known by almost everyone around this area in 2015. It was a name that brought a story so heavy, so dark, it was hard to believe she actually lived it…

Erin met her husband Jon when they were in high school, both of them deeply committed to their faith. They did the long distance thing while Jon went off to Bible College in California. A year younger than Jon, Erin would follow him there after she graduated. She was only 19 when they were married.

Nearly 13 years later, they were a close-knit family of five. Erin and Jon’s faith permeated every aspect of their life, perhaps best reflected in their marriage. Jon was a 33-year-old carpenter, providing for his family with hard, honest work. Their eldest, Olivia was quiet and genuine, mature beyond her 11 years. She was a miniature version of her mother, following Erin around like a shadow.

May 3, 2015, was one of those beautiful spring days that begs to be enjoyed outside, after the long, bleak winter. Jon, Erin and their three children went for a walk along the newly-constructed Trestle Trail Bridge, a 1600-foot pedestrian bridge located in Menasha, Wisconsin. As they approached the red pavilion at the midpoint of the bridge, there was a man standing next to another man who was slumped over on a bench. Jon approached the man, trying to assess the situation.

Death was upon them.

Without warning, the man pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot Jon point blank in the chest. He then turned the gun on Erin and 11-year-old Olivia, shooting each of them once. All three went to the ground. Erin’s 5-year-old daughter Selah stood frozen next to her.

Run.

Shot through the leg, Erin scrambled to her feet, grabbing the hand of her daughter Selah. More shots fired. A bullet went through Erin’s abdomen, then another pierced her left hand as she approached her 7-year-old son Ezra, who was further ahead. Erin ushered her two children off the bridge, finally collapsing when she reached the shore. Then the pain set in. Sirens in the distance. Her mind coming to grips with what had just transpired. Lying on the ground, bleeding out from 3 gunshot wounds. Unbearable pain in her stomach. The gunman somewhere nearby. Her family scattered. So much chaos, so much confusion, there was only one thing she could be certain of. Everything was changing.

Erin’s husband Jon, their daughter Olivia, and another innocent man were killed that day on the Trestle Trail Bridge. The gunman did not know any of the victims. His apparent intentions were to take lives indiscriminately, the last one being his own. When Erin awoke from multiple surgeries in the hospital the next day, she was unable to speak because of a breathing tube, but she was determined to say something. She furiously scribbled on a blank sheet of paper that was given to her. Erin was trying to tell everyone the last words of her husband Jon as he faced his killer:

‘May God forgive you.’

Those words brought healing and hope to those touched by this tragedy, and inspired many to forgive. This event made national news, and I remember how surreal it was to hear my hometown, Menasha, being mentioned in a story like this. This wasn’t supposed to happen here. This wasn’t supposed to happen to a family like this. I remember praying for Erin and her family, along with thousands – maybe millions – of others.

Two years later, here she was, Erin Stoffel, reaching out to a stranger with a message of encouragement. People had been sharing my story with her, and she felt compelled to try and help. I read her text, and I could feel it.

Hope.

The feeling was immediate, tangible, real. Hope because I knew what Erin had been through, and I knew that we both followed Jesus. If He could carry her through the horror that she had faced, and take her to a place where she was reaching out to help others…I knew I could make it.

She would send me encouraging texts, songs, Bible verses, and continued to pray for me every day. She was a light to me in a very dark place, a lifeline as I struggled to hang on. Suddenly, I wasn’t alone. I could relate to her, I felt like I could ask her anything. I asked a lot of questions. So many questions. These were raw, often heavy topics. The connection was effortless, natural, and deep, because of what we had faced.

We met for the first time in person a month later at Lifest, a Christian music festival here in Wisconsin. We walked and talked for hours, and I could feel this unique friendship materializing between us. Knowing her story, and the darkness that she endured, you almost expect her to be this sad, fearful person. It didn’t take me long to realize that she was anything but that. There is a spark to her, an underlying joy you can’t miss. Grief had changed her, but not in the way you would expect. It was grief that brought us together, but a relationship based on that alone won’t survive. I remember the day she told me, ‘You help me too Steve.’ I began to understand that God was using us to help heal each other.

But this was about more than just two people. Both of us were haunted by the thought of our kids growing up without a mom, without a dad. As a parent, the pain you experience through your children can be the worst, the most gut-wrenching. To see them trying to live their lives, trying to navigate this new reality, it crushed me over and over again. They were alone. For them, there just weren’t any peers in their life who had experienced this type of loss…until suddenly…all of that changed. Seeing all of our kids together, seeing them relate, laugh, connect and talk openly about their grief, well, it’s hard to put into words how that made us feel. They were able to find healing through each other, a kind of healing that we simply could not offer as parents. The same connection that came so naturally between us was occurring between our children as well.

This was yet another confirmation about our relationship as it progressed beyond friendship. Erin had become so special to me. A beautiful girl, with beautiful scars. A beautiful heart, marked by unimaginable loss. A bond so deep, a love so strong, the path forward was clear…

Erin and I were married on June 28, 2018, one year after she reached out to me with a simple text. Every day we embrace the chaos that comes with a blended family of 8. It’s beautiful, it’s messy, it’s amazing, it’s hard. It’s life. Grief will always be a part of our story, but it doesn’t define us. It can drive you in 1,000 different directions, down 1,000 different roads – most of them toxic. The temptation to give in to bitterness, regret, and isolation is strong because so often, it’s the easier choice. Instead, Erin has taught me how to be open and honest with grief. She taught me to embrace the moments of joy when they come, to embrace the tears when they come, and they do still come. We have chosen to live with gratitude for the loved ones we lost, for the years we were gifted with them, and towards a God who made a way for us to see them again.

We are not okay because we found each other. We are okay because we know Him. There are things we just won’t understand in this life, but we have to continue to trust that God is good – even when our world is falling apart. If there is no God, then all of this is meaningless, and life is merely a cruel joke for those who are faced with tragedy. But if there is a God, then the pain we’ve endured is not wasted, there is purpose in it. There is hope. There is healing. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing.

Story originally written by Steve Ullmer for LoveWhatMatters.com. To read Steve’s story, click here

Wendy’s autopsy ultimately revealed that Cardiac Sarcoidosis was the cause of her death. This caused her heart to go into a deadly rhythm known as V-Fib on the night she died. To read her story, click here

Contact Steve here / Contact Erin here

(Video version of Wendy’s Story if you prefer, click here for Youtube, here for Facebook)

March 16, 2017 11:40 pm – I had fallen asleep about an hour earlier. I was sleeping next to my wife in bed, seemingly just like any of the thousands of nights we have spent together over the years. On that night, I woke up. I don’t know why I came out of sleep, but I did. I looked over at my wife and she was lying peacefully with her head on the pillow and her hair was spread out across it. Her breathing didn’t sound right though, and I decided to try and wake her up. I was not panicked or alarmed at all, but just wanted to try and wake her, so I gently nudged her arm and whispered;

“Wen, wake up. Wen, wake up babe.”

There was no response. The pauses between her breaths grew unnaturally long, and sounded more and more like a gasp. I started to shake her, screaming her name, but she would not wake up. My heart pounded out of my chest, my mind raced, I was gripped with fear. I grabbed my phone and dialed 911 for the first time in my life.

My wife Wendy was a healthy 36 year old mother of 4 who died suddenly and unexpectedly from heart failure in March of 2017. Since then, I have had many moments when I screamed at God;

“Why her? How could this happen? It wasn’t supposed to be this way!”

Losing her has been the hardest thing I have ever faced in my life, and I have been consumed by a darkness that is overwhelming at times (funeral audio, click here). Many of us have come to a place like that, where all we can do is cry out to God. Going through this has helped me to better understand how Wendy felt at her darkest time, on May 23, 2012. On this day, she had surgery to remove our baby from her Fallopian tube – a baby we both believed was an answer to prayer. This was a low point in her faith journey. She didn’t turn away or abandon her faith in God, but I know every fiber of her being was asking – “Why would a God who says He loves me, allow me to go through something this horrible?”

I can’t really speak to Wendy’s life before I met her, and many of you knew her before I did. I met Wendy in September of 1997 in Youth Service Class at Menasha High School in Wisconsin, she was 16 at the time. Here’s a picture that was taken just a few weeks before we would meet for the first time.

We became friends first, and started dating a few months later in February of 1998. I can’t even say that I knew Wendy was a Christian back then, and it would not have mattered to me anyway. The first thing I noticed about her? She was hot. At that time in my life, I didn’t care about God and wanted nothing to do with Him. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe He existed, but I had no need for Him. What did I need God for? I was doing fine without Him (at least I thought I was). My priorities at that time were friends, girls, and having fun – fun that usually involved alcohol. When I first met Wendy’s parents, I started to get the feeling that this was another “religious” family – like mine. Her parents would have people from their church over for Bible studies and to sing worship songs – which totally weirded me out. We were mainly focused on each other and our social life in high school. We were pretty typical teenagers…

I went off to college at UW Madison, which was about 2 hours away, and Wendy stayed home to finish high school since she was a year younger than me. She studied to be a Nurse while living at home after high school. We fought our way through 5 years of a messy long-distance relationship. Her patience with me through that time is something I am still stunned by. God must have wanted us to be together, because a lot of the time, our relationship with each other was very difficult – to say the least. Sometimes when I was home in Menasha for the weekend, Wendy would ask me to come to church with her. The worship time was really awkward for me, but the sermons were at least something I could think about. Every time I would go with her, Pastor Bill Lenz would say something that felt like he was speaking directly to me. Sometimes I walked away feeling guilty, because I knew I wasn’t living a very honorable life. I was extremely self-centered and focused on satisfying my desires. I put my own desires first, instead of honoring Wendy the way she deserved to be honored – the way every girl deserves to be honored.

March 1, 2003 – At around 4 am on this morning, I got saved in a very intense way. It still blows my mind when I think about it, even to this day. I had an experience with God in the middle of the night, alone in my car, that changed me. I won’t go into that here, but if you would like to hear my story, just click on this audio link and you can listen for yourself. When I gave my life to God, I think it took Wendy by surprise and kind of flipped our relationship upside down. Up until that point, she was always the one with faith, and she would gently push me towards it as best she could. Now I had found God in a very real way (or He found me I guess you could say!), and I started pushing her a bit. I honestly think she thought I was going crazy those first few days after this experience, maybe she thought I was turning into one of those religious whack-jobs you see on TV! I stopped getting drunk, stopped doing drugs, and Wendy and I stopped having sex. I started reading every book about God that I could find and I studied the Bible like a textbook, trying to get to know this God who had reached down into my life and saved me that night.

March 15, 2003 – I proposed to Wendy a few weeks after I got saved. Before I asked her to marry me, while I was down on one knee, I asked for her forgiveness. I needed her to forgive me for everything I had put her through, for all the ways I had hurt her, for all the times I had treated her poorly, for all the times I had not been faithful. I had not loved her the way she deserved to be loved. God had forgiven me already, but I needed Wendy to forgive me. I was overjoyed when she said “yes” to forgiveness and “yes” to marriage on that day! Throughout our relationship, Wendy loved me in a way that I did not deserve. She loved me no matter what I did, and I simply could not make sense of that.

Here’s how my parents (Dave and Shirley Ullmer) put it, in a letter they wrote to our pre-marital counselors on January 11, 2004:

“Steve and Wendy have been together since high school, and we know Steve has gone through some rough times along the way. One thing we have always watched and admired is how Wendy has stuck by him through it all. Her love for him, along with the awesome grace of God, has helped him through some difficult times. We know she loves him, and we know Steve loves her. She is just what he needs.”

I got saved in March 2003 and graduated college in May 2003. Wendy and I were now able to really walk our faith journey together, since we were finally living in the same city for the first time since high school. When you are a new Christian, the best thing you can do is just read the Bible and learn who Jesus is. The best place to start is any of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John). These 4 books in the Bible each contain the story of the life of Jesus. Each of them is written from a different perspective, and they have been historically verified by thousands of ancient manuscripts, scattered throughout the Ancient World. These books are not fairy tales, they are not about religion, and they are not part of some grand conspiracy by the church. The Gospels are simple historical accounts written by simple people, describing what happened in the life of this man, Jesus. Many people don’t realize that Jesus was an actual, historical person, who walked around in the Middle East 2000 years ago. He’s not some myth or legend that developed over time. If you have any notions like that, you haven’t done your homework, or you may be motivated by a desire NOT to believe. Even secular historians agree that there was a Jewish man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago in Israel and was executed by the Romans. But most of these historians stop there. What you need to determine is whether He was God or not, because Jesus claimed to be God. Seriously. He claimed to be God. So either He was completely bonkers…or…He was God in human form, God the Son, walking among us. The Bible foretells the coming of Jesus, 100s of years before his birth. The Bible is the only book in all of human history that can claim to have actual predictions about the future that have come true (also known as prophecies), and there are a lot of them. Here’s a quick 3 min video I made that shows a few prophecies concerning the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

One of the most helpful things for Wendy and I when we first started to really look at the Bible was to use a Life Application Study Bible. My sister bought me one of these when I first got saved, and it really helped me to understand the Bible because it explains each verse in a way that is helpful and applicable to daily life. I still read that study Bible today. If you would like one of these study Bibles, just click here to request one and I will have one to you in 2 days (thank you Amazon Prime!). Seriously, give one a try, what do you have to lose? I bought Wendy one of these study Bibles on June 13, 2003 and we started to try and learn more about Jesus and what it means to be saved. We went to church every Sunday, not because we felt we had to, but because we wanted to, we actually looked forward to it.

We were married on July 17, 2004 at Christ the Rock Church. (check out this audio message about marriage, it’s raw, real, and relevant I remember on rehearsal night, Pastor Bill asking us something like:

“So you guys must have found each other in high school because you were both Christians, right?”

Wendy and I just kind of looked at each other and laughed awkwardly, since that was probably the furthest thing from our minds back then. Click here for a short clip from our wedding ceremony.

There is something you need to understand about Wendy, and I really respected her for this, even if it frustrated me at times. Wendy would not be pushed with her faith. Wendy would not fake her faith. It had to be the right time, and it had to be authentic, or she wanted nothing to do with it. Her faith was more of a private thing, which is understandable since she was a private person. It wasn’t something she was embarrassed about, or ashamed of, it was just something she probably wouldn’t talk about freely with you unless she felt safe with you. Even myself, as her husband, if I pushed too hard or made her uncomfortable, she would push back or shut down. It’s probably hard to understand exactly what I am talking about. Let me give you an example, let’s talk about baptism.

Baptism is not what saves you. You can know Jesus as your Lord and Savior and not be baptized. Let me give you an analogy that helps me. To be saved means that you’ve given your life to Jesus. You love Him, and you are in a relationship with Him. If being saved is like being in a loving relationship, then baptism is more like a wedding ceremony. Wendy and I loved each other before we got married, no one can deny that. Wendy and I could have continued to love each other, and even have kids together without getting married. But at some point, we made the decision to stand up before our family, friends, and before God and commit our lives to each other. Baptism is similar to marriage. It is a time when you stand before your family, friends, and God and commit your life to Jesus. You are taking a stand and saying that you want to live for Jesus. It takes humility, especially as an adult. I was baptized on March 28, 2004, about a year after I got saved.

At the time, I hoped Wendy would get baptized with me, but she said she wasn’t ready. I didn’t understand, but I was okay with that, since I knew she believed in Jesus and understood what it meant to be saved. We both understood that getting dunked in water is not what gets you to heaven when you die. Over the years, when I would sometimes bring up baptism, she would always just tell me that she didn’t feel it was her time yet. Like I said, she would not be forced into things like that. I’m thankful that God made her this way, and it really shows how genuine of a person she was.

Okay, I feel like I’m rambling on and on, and I haven’t even gotten to what I feel are some of the most crucial and pivotal moments in Wendy’s faith journey. Let’s fast forward through some things:

(Warning: this is a long read. You can pick up right here with the video version, just click here)

My sister Amy and her husband Jason asked Wendy and I if we would help them start a church in Oshkosh in 2007. That was an odd question for us, since we didn’t really understand what “starting a church” looked like. But we both felt that this was something that we wanted to do – at least it would be interesting, right? We left Christ the Rock Church to help Amy and Jason start Water City Church in Oshkosh. Wendy was in charge of the Children’s Ministry and spent many, many hours helping kids learn about Jesus through curriculum, projects, Christmas plays, and teaching class. I don’t want to make it sound like she did all of this on her own, and she would be the first to tell you that she had plenty of help. One of the things that Wendy would do specifically was to schedule volunteers to teach the kids or watch the young ones in the nursery. She would always be hunting people down, especially anyone new to the church, since it seemed like we were always in need of more volunteers. Wendy would take on more shifts in kid’s church than anyone, and fill gaps as needed, because it was so important to her that these kids develop a relationship with God. Most people who become Christians do so before the age of 14, so you can understand how critical it is that kids learn about Jesus at a young age.

We had three kids during this time (Liam-2006, Jack-2007, and Silas-2009), and we never really had any problems getting pregnant. Apparently, I am pretty potent. Now I want to take you to the year 2011.

Wendy and I had been talking about having a 4th child, and we had even entertained the idea of adoption. We also considered just hanging up the cleats, and stopping at 3 kids, which meant I would have to get snipped! I was really hoping our 4th child would be a girl. I don’t think the idea of having a baby girl was as important to Wendy as it was to me. Wendy just wanted another baby. If she wanted a girl, it was probably because she could see how badly I wanted a girl. Don’t get me wrong, I love my boys, and I thank God everyday for the chance to be their dad. I just always wanted to have a little girl, like my beautiful wife, and to watch her grow up. I wanted to experience the beauty and uniqueness of a father-daughter relationship. Some of it may have been related to the guilt I carry from how I treated Wendy when we were dating, before I knew Jesus. Maybe I thought if we could have a little girl, it would be like having another chance at “doing it right,” since I had failed with my wife.

Anyway, in 2011, Wendy and I got the chance to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for her sister Sally’s wedding. I have such great memories from that trip. We had no kids to deal with and it was the longest time we had spent together alone since we had Liam in 2006 – almost like a second honeymoon. It was in Mexico, that we made the choice to literally start trying for baby #4 (if you know what I mean). I’m going to stop myself right there, because I don’t want this to get awkward – too late! – but let’s just say it didn’t suck. Wendy wanted a baby and I was just the man for the job!

I remember specifically, standing in the Pacific Ocean, alone with my wife. I was holding her in my arms and we were up to our chest in water. The waves were coming in and you just get this feeling when you’re in the ocean of how powerful it is compared to you, as the waves move you, over and over again. 

I felt very close to her and to God in that moment and I told her I wanted to pray for something very specific. I asked God, in that moment, if He would give us a baby girl. I know that’s kind of a shallow and even selfish prayer – especially when some people struggle to get pregnant, or have babies with serious health issues, or can’t have kids at all. In the book of James 4:2, the Bible says “You do not have because you do not ask God.” Well, I’m pretty simple with this stuff, so I guess that means it’s okay to ask God for things. Yes, He knows what we want already – but He wants us to ask Him, He wants us to verbalize it through prayer. I never asked God specifically for a girl before that moment, so why not give it a shot? Will we get everything we ask God for? No. It’s stupid and childish to believe that. If that were the case, we would use God for our own purposes, and it would cease to be a real relationship with Him. To help you understand how God feels about us, just think of how you feel about your own child. Many times, you already know what they want, but you still want them to ask you because you love them and you have a relationship with them. You don’t give them everything they want, or they would end up drinking soda and playing video games all day instead of going to school. It’s the same way with God, and He truly knows what’s best for us.

It had been 2 years since our 3rd child, Silas, was born. Wendy and I felt like now was the time for us to have our 4th and last baby. Here’s what Wendy had to say:

“I took my fertility for granted and got a little cocky, thinking we’d come home from Mexico knocked-up” (letter from Wendy to Sally, unknown date)

For the first time in our life as a married couple, we struggled to get pregnant. Every month we would time everything out, and when the time came to take the test, we would always think “this is it, here we go” – but the tests continued to come back negative. For Wendy, this quickly began to frustrate her. Wendy had issues with control (we all do I guess), and I think for the first time, she felt out of control in this area. For me, at least at first, a negative test was another month of “trying” to have a baby, and that wasn’t a bad thing. When you’re married, trying to have a baby can be some of the best times, especially for the guy, since kids can be so disruptive to the bedroom stuff – Whoa! TMI Steve! – I know. But it’s true, so let’s be real. Eventually, month after month, the negative tests started to weigh on me as well. I hated seeing her cry every month, and eventually I just said something like:

“Maybe we’re not meant to have this baby Wen, and that’s okay. We have an awesome family, with three boys who mean the world to us. God has blessed us already, so maybe we should just rest in that.”

Here is a picture of Wendy with her 3 boys and her Grandma Joyce from right around this time in our life

Now, I’m going to try and piece together some timeline stuff as best I can. I can prove most of this with Gmail time-stamps, Facebook time-stamps, medical records, and even witnesses for all you skeptics out there! And let me say this about being a skeptic. Being a skeptic is a good thing, as long as you are seeking after truth. I am a skeptic. You should question things, and seek out the truth from whatever sources are available to you. The problem comes when you don’t want to believe. Maybe we just want to be in control of our life – even though that is not really possible. Deep down we think “If I believe in all this God stuff, then I might have to change how I am living my life.”  Change is scary to us. We want to be the ruler of our life, submitting to no one, like the famous words of Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way.” We like comfort and routine. The truth is, if you seek comfort in this world apart from God, you won’t find it, because it doesn’t exist. I don’t mean comfort like being rich and having whatever you want, I mean peace. Real peace. Peace in your soul.
Jesus says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
If you have come to a roadblock on your journey towards belief in God, let me send you this book called ‘Letters From a Skeptic.’ Unlike many books that try and answer difficult questions about God, this one contains actual letters between the author, Greg Boyd and his father, who was not a believer. Greg addresses many of the concerns and questions about God that can make belief difficult to embrace. I have read this book more than once, and it is one that I regularly consult. Click here to request a free copy of this book.

Anyway, here’s the timeline (click here to continue with video version):

May 7, 2012 9:44 pm – Wendy sends an email to herself with the following Bible verse:

‘Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.’ – Matthew 18:19

May 8, 2012 1:45 pm – Wendy forwards the above email to me, with no explanation whatsoever. This is a bit strange for Wendy to do. Wendy was not the type of person to randomly forward Bible verses to people. Has she ever forwarded one to you with no explanation? Probably not.

May 11, 2012 12:36 pm – I finally respond to the email 3 days later, which tells me I didn’t even ask her about it. Yes, I am an idiot. Here’s my response:

“Forgot to ask u about this. When did you come across this verse?”

The sad part is, I don’t remember how she came across this verse. I just know it was a verse that struck her, and something she felt strongly about. I really don’t know where or how she came across it, and I wish I did. I’m sure she told me, and I forgot. I am not a great listener.

May 14, 2012 (the day after Mother’s Day) – Wendy has a positive pregnancy test for the first time since we started trying to get pregnant. I remember her taking this test, and I remember the excitement and joy of that morning. It was a special moment for us as a couple.

May 14, 2012 12:28 pm (later the same day) – Wendy sends me this picture from her phone in an email with the subject line “this was my devotion for today, may 14”

The picture of the pregnancy test was taken by Wendy at 6:56 am on that morning – but was not included in the email.

For anyone that can’t see the images, the one she emailed is from her devotional book. A devotional is a book you read every day (theoretically!) with a short scripture from the Bible and a teaching. They are helpful for getting to know God better, a little at a time. In the picture, you can see the date ‘May 14’ in the upper right corner. The Bible verse for that day is Matthew 18:19, the same verse she emailed me 6 days before.

May 14, 2012 12:47 pm (only 19 minutes for me to respond this time, instead of 3 days!) – I respond back with the following

“Whoa…..is this what u were reading this AM when u took the test? I was thinking too, that it could be like a mother’s day gift from God – you know?” (Email from me to Wendy)

May 14, 2012 12:58 pm – Wendy responds back to me with the following:

“No, just read it when I sent it to you. Crazy.”

Again, Wendy is not someone to fake something like this. For her to say “Crazy.” is for her to acknowledge that this was kind of blowing her mind. I hope you are at least seeing the significance of the verse, let me lay it out for you in case this is not making sense to you.

Here’s the verse again:

‘Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.’ – Matthew 18:19

Wendy and I stood together at a specific time (November 2011 in Mexico) and we agreed that we wanted to have a baby. We agreed that we would like to have a little girl. We asked our Father in Heaven to give us this baby girl. This Bible verse (Matthew 18:19) became significant to Wendy on May 7, 2012 for some reason that I do not know. I never heard her talk about this verse or reference it before then. On May 14, 2012 she has a positive pregnancy test in the morning. Later that morning she reads her devotional book for that day, and the exact same verse is listed (Matthew 18:19). Coincidence? Maybe. I guess you can always explain things away if you want to. I believe God was speaking to her. I believe God was giving her a sign that our prayer had been answered. You can’t prove it was coincidence and I can’t prove it was from God. It is a matter of faith.

May 22, 2012 – Wendy has her first ultrasound at Women’s Care of Wisconsin in the Neenah office. Wendy’s good friend and OB/GYN doctor, Kristin Clark, was working that day. I was not with Wendy at the time of the ultrasound. Kristin interprets the ultrasound and sees that the baby has implanted in the Fallopian tube instead of the uterus. This is called an Ectopic (or Tubal) Pregnancy, and it is not good. If the baby is allowed to develop, the tube will rupture, and the mother’s life will be put at risk. Dr Clark’s nurse that day is one of Wendy’s best friends, Candi Teske.

“I’m not sure if you know, but I was working with her the day she found out about the baby and Kristin Clark came out after the ultrasound and said I needed to go in. I held Wendy while she cried. It became a joke between us later on.. about how we were the type of friends that could cry while naked…but I really love the thought of her in heaven with your baby. I know how hard that was.” (Text from Candi to me, April 14, 2017 at 9:38 pm)

I just want to say how grateful I am for Wendy to have a close friend like Candi in a moment like that. Sometimes, during a time of intense sorrow, there really are no words to express that can bring comfort. Candi was simply there for her. That’s what good friends do.

The Bible makes reference to this in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn”

Candi and Amy Sokel (another of Wendy’s best friends) each got a tattoo on April 10, 2017 after Wendy died, in honor of her.

I wasn’t with Wendy for the ultrasound, so she drove herself to my work to let me know about the pregnancy. I guess I had a hard time understanding at the time, I just knew she was heart-broken and crying. I soon understood that we would have to make a decision to end this pregnancy. I remember looking up this term on the internet, Ectopic Pregnancy, trying to figure out if there was anything we could do to save the baby. Some websites, especially “Christian” ones, emphasized that we should just have faith and see what happens. “Maybe God would miraculously move the baby to the uterus! Maybe the baby would survive somehow, and Wendy would die. Maybe both would die. Maybe both would live. Just have faith!”  Wendy and I discussed and prayed about this at length, and at no point did we ever feel like God was telling us to just let this situation unfold without surgical intervention.

May 22, 2012 2:06 pm – Here’s an email from my sister Amy to the leadership team at Water City Church

“We’d like to ask you to join us in praying for Wendy. Very recently, she discovered that she was expecting a baby. Today, however, it was determined that the pregnancy is ectopic. She will be having laparoscopic surgery tomorrow morning to remove the baby.

Please pray that the procedure would go smoothly, and that Wendy and Steve would feel God’s presence and peace as they go through this difficult time.”

Thanks, everyone.
Jason and Amy

May 23, 2012 – Wendy undergoes surgery to terminate the pregnancy. Wendy’s friend Dr Clark performed the surgery and tried to repair Wendy’s Fallopian Tube, but she was forced to remove it. Wendy’s chances of getting pregnant were now further decreased.

After this procedure, both of us kind of gave up on having another child of our own. I didn’t want to start the cycle over again. It was so hard for me to watch her read those negative tests every month. We started to very seriously consider adoption, and were even getting excited about that prospect. However, after a few months, we started to feel like we should keep going with this. We started trying again, this time with decreased odds, since Wendy only had one Fallopian Tube.

August 24, 2012 – Our 8 year old Yellow Lab, Finley, was suddenly and completely paralyzed on this day, from the middle of her back down, due to a Fibrocartilagenous Embolism (FCE). We tried to carry and cart her around for a couple days, but she was so miserable, we had to put her down. This was a very hard time for my family. It hit me much harder than I ever thought it would. Here’s a picture from August 25, 2012, when we were carting her around, saying our goodbyes and taking some pictures to remember her.

In retrospect, I wonder how this event impacted Wendy’s faith in God – especially at this time in her life. I have to believe it was just one more thing that made her wonder “Why would God allow something like this to happen?”

October 3, 2012 – Wendy had been having trouble sleeping at night because she was having heart palpitations. She wore a holter monitor on this day after seeing her cardiologist and having an echocardiogram. The cardiologist said that she was experiencing Premature Ventricular Contractions or PVCs. He said they were benign, she should learn to live with them, and follow up if they got any worse.

November 26, 2012 9:15 am – Wendy had been having severe gastrointestinal issues and underwent a colonoscopy on this morning. The GI doctor saw significant inflammation, and diagnosed her with Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s is a chronic, lifelong disease that requires constant treatment and has no cure. If you knew Wendy for the last 5 years, you know how difficult her battle with Crohn’s was.

Throughout that time, we continued to struggle to get pregnant, and I sensed a growing anger in my wife. In the past I could see the sadness in her when she would test negative, but that was being replaced by anger, and I didn’t blame her. This is a quote from Wendy:

“I feel bad about wanting this so bad when we already have 3 beautiful, healthy children. I know God has a plan for us, I don’t doubt that. I am just so impatient waiting and so hurt with how everything has played out. I don’t understand it. I feel like I am becoming this angry, resentful person.” (Facebook message from Wendy to Andrea, March 13, 2013 4:58 am)

Now you might be asking, who is Andrea? We met Andrea and her husband, Tod, back in 2007 when we were just starting Water City Church. They were on our team to help get the church started, but they were missionaries, and we knew that at some point they would be leaving to begin their work. They always had a heart to reach the lost in Scotland, and still do, which is where they are right now. Scotland, and much of Europe, is turning away from God in large numbers. You could categorize this part of the world as “post-Christian”, and with each generation, the situation worsens. The old churches and cathedrals in Europe are beautiful, but they have become museums and tourist destinations, no longer places of worship.

Here is Andrea’s response to Wendy:

“I know it’s counter intuitive to run to the One who you feel hurt by, the One who could so easily solve every part of your hurt. But run to Him even if you don’t understand. Choose Him. He grieves with you. And then surrender. This does not mean giving up hope, just your idea of expectation. Hold your hope with an open, rather than a tightly closed hand so that He can fill it. I stand in prayer and belief with you, both for what He will do in your life at this very moment, and for the hope of another baby.” (Facebook message from Andrea to Wendy, March 14, 2013, 2:01am)

I think this response from Andrea was not what Wendy was expecting. Basically she was saying that if Wendy felt mad at God, that she should draw closer to Him. I think Wendy felt that God was toying with her, and that misconception caused her to resent Him. I too was confused by how it seemed that God had given us a sign on May 14, 2012 and fulfilled a promise, but then that ended so horribly with an abortion. Let me quote Wendy:

“When I was in the middle of it, it didn’t make sense at all. I was angry, angry at Steve, my kids, my friends, my family, and most of all, God. I always believed in God, but it felt like I was just going through the motions. I never experienced Him the way others did. I went to church, even helped plant one, ran the children’s ministry, did all the things I’m supposed to do, right? Trying to get pregnant was one of the darkest times in my life. I felt alone and abandoned by God. I prayed and prayed for a baby, and I got nothing but loss and heartache.” (letter from Wendy to Sally)

“I have gotten pretty good at slapping a smile on my face and telling everyone, including myself, that I am fine. I even tell Steve “I am fine.” It seems easier than dealing with the reality of it all. My relationship with God has been strained for a long time. I have become, and maybe always have been, a “lukewarm” Christian. I just read the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. It was an eye-opener and man did I feel convicted. Maybe this is my “horrible and wonderful journey.”  Maybe this is my way of coming to know Jesus better. I can’t believe all of what we have been going through is for nothing. It can’t be. Right?” (Facebook message from Wendy to Andrea March 15, 2013, 6:50pm)

If you’ve never heard of Francis Chan, I would highly recommend checking out some of his stuff on Youtube. The book Wendy is talking about here – ‘Crazy Love’ – is one that will challenge your view of what it means to be a Christian. Whether you are exploring Jesus for the first time, a new believer, or a life-long follower – this is a great read. There’s a free audio version on Youtube here, otherwise click here to request a copy of this book and I will send you one free of charge.

April 5, 2013 – Wendy meets with Andrea at Panera Bread in Appleton. I know this meeting was very significant to Wendy, since she made reference to it more than once and to multiple people. Andrea was able to pray for Wendy in person, and I know how meaningful prayer was to Wendy. Every time I would pray for Wendy, she would cry. Every. time.

April 8, 2013 1:47 pm – Wendy emails herself the following Bible verse:

‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.’ Proverbs 13:12

I believe this meeting with Andrea had given Wendy hope for the first time in a while.

May 17, 2013 6:25 AM – (I was in Canada for work) Wendy sent me an email with the same picture of the devotional page from May 14, 2012 (are these dates confusing enough for you?).“Forgot to tell you that on this past Tuesday, it was a year since I found out I was pregnant the first time. Remember me showing you this on the day I had a positive pregnancy test?”

May 17, 2013 6:42 AM – I replied back to Wendy:

“Yes, I remember babe. That was such a difficult time for us, and I know it didn’t go as we hoped. But I’m thankful that we will still get to meet that baby some day (maybe all grown up?). I know we are closer now because of all we went through last year. Good times or bad, I am blessed to have you as my wife”

May 17, 2013 9:17 AM – reply from Wendy to me:
“I am even more blessed to have you as my husband…”

Now this next event is very random, and you’re going to have to just trust me on this one. If you’ve read this far, you’re already pretty invested, so what do you have to lose?  I have no idea what the date was, but I know it was during this time frame, after the ectopic pregnancy. I have to believe this was after Wendy’s meeting with Andrea. I was talking with her one day, probably about babies or something, and she just blurted out the following sentence:

“We’re going to have a little boy and we’re going to name him Judah.”

I remember being surprised by her boldness when she said that to me. It was very unlike Wendy to say something like that. I don’t remember if I asked her how she knew this, or why she said it, I just know that she was very confident about this. In my mind, I was thinking

“But…I thought we asked God for a girl…who’s this Judah kid she’s talking about?”

May 27, 2013 (Memorial Day) – We always have a cookout at my parent’s house for Memorial Day. We call it Wingfest, and I grill up a mess-load of chicken wings with various sauces from Buffalo Wild Wings (Asian Zing is the best by the way!). I remember that this year we had slept in tents the night before in the backyard. By we, I mean I had froze my ass off in a tent with the boys while Wendy slept in the house 🙂 That day, my sister Amy told us all that she was pregnant with their 4th child. Wendy tried hard to be happy for Amy and Jason, but she was falling apart on the inside. I was cleaning up the tent, getting ready to take it down, and Wendy came inside the tent by me. It was just Wendy and I, and she was crying. She had just taken another negative pregnancy test. I saw her break like I’d never seen before. She was sobbing, and mad, and confused, and frustrated, and just DONE with this whole pregnancy thing. I had no words for her, I just held her and thought to myself

“We have to stop trying to have a baby, she literally can’t take this anymore.”

For the last few months leading up to this moment, Wendy had been taking fertility medication and giving herself injections to increase her chances of conceiving. This last time when she was supposed to take the medication, she felt that God was trying to tell her not to take them. She felt that God was telling her to trust in Him instead. Let me quote her:

“Up until that point, I had tried to control the situation. I was writing my own fertility plan, telling my doctor what I was planning on doing each month like I had it all figured out or something. Not once seeking guidance from God, only praying that what I was doing would work. Steve and I were planning on doing another round of meds the month I got pregnant with Judah. The night before I was to start taking the meds, I was reading something a missionary friend of mine had posted.” (letter from Wendy to Sally)

Wendy was referring to Tod Chapin, and this is what he wrote:

“This morning I was watching Grayson (5) dance and play with little particles he could see moving in the direct sunlight. I thought to myself – what gives him such abandon, I can see those same tiny particles and that hasn’t been my reaction in decades. Then God reminded me that somewhere between 5 and 36 I’ve taken up my own problems, and I actually carry them around like I’ve got any say in their outcome whatsoever. And it’s not that simple, somehow these problems become the important things and our lives turn into an intricate series of man-made safety nets. We forget to dance in the majesty of God because it’s not about who He is anymore, it’s all about me now. Heaven forbid we ever come across problems we can’t buy or work our way out of. Except Heaven doesn’t forbid it, He longs for it. Childlike faith, that’s what the Bible calls it. Today I am reminded to let God be God, and let me be me…His kid, lost in the wonder of it all.”

“I knew right then and there that I couldn’t take those meds no matter what that meant for the future and another baby. It was really hard to give up that control and just trust.” (email from Wendy to her sister-in-law Brittany, October 13, 2015, 9:14 am)

Wendy didn’t take the fertility meds. Wendy stepped out in faith, and trusted God. A few weeks later, Wendy still got a negative pregnancy test. Wendy was not happy with God…
She reached out again to her friend Andrea

“Say, I was wondering if Steve and I could take you and Tod up on your offer to pray with us. Another month down and another negative test. A relative whom I am very close with found out she was pregnant the same day I found out I wasn’t. I burst into tears and lost it. Seriously, what is wrong with me?! I hope you aren’t becoming annoyed with me and my infertility woes because I am becoming annoyed with myself.”  (Facebook message from Wendy to Andrea, May 28, 2013 7:05 pm)

May 30, 2013 – 3 days after Wendy took a negative pregnancy test, she decided to take another one. This one was positive. I honestly did not believe her when she told me. I told her to go to the doctor and get a better test, I didn’t trust these stupid Walgreens pregnancy tests anymore! Her due date was 5 days after my sister. Let’s go back to Wendy:

“But He is faithful and that very month, we got pregnant with Judah. There is so much more I could say about this story, so many more God details interlaced through it all but not enough time to write it all out. I look back at this journey and it was the most horrible and wonderful time in my life. The suffering was unreal, but the way I came to know Jesus in a new way was irreplaceable.” (letter from Wendy to Sally)

Now I wish I could tell you that the next 9 months were a blissful and beautiful time for Wendy, as she carried our child. It was not. Both of us were scared to death of losing this baby, and I don’t remember having that feeling with any of our other kids. In my mind, if she lost this baby, she might turn away from God completely – and that scared me.

“I keep thinking that I am going to lose this baby. Every time  I am crampy or every time my boobs don’t hurt or I don’t feel like hurling, I feel like it’s over. I seriously can’t handle this part of pregnancy. There is too much that I have no control over. It’s driving me insane! In the meantime, I am pushing Steve away and everyone else because I can only think of what I am or am not feeling. Ugh. I just want to be able to enjoy this and not analyse it.” (Facebook message from Wendy to Andrea, June 19, 2013 2:18 pm)

Here is picture of Wendy, 24 weeks into this pregnancy.

I knew Andrea was significant to Wendy’s story, but I didn’t understand how much she helped my wife until this week when Andrea sent me a history of their Facebook messages. Wendy had actually shut down her Facebook account in 2016, and this gave me the idea of re-opening it so I could post this story on her page. One of the most common ways that we can see God active in our everyday life is through people. I believe God used Andrea to give Wendy hope, encouragement, and to strengthen her faith. I am so thankful that God put this specific person, Andrea, in Wendy’s life for that specific time. Andrea herself was told that she would never have children early on in their marriage. She went through the pain and heartache of infertility for a long time. She and Tod stayed faithful to God through all of that, and He has blessed them with 4 children of their own.

As followers of Jesus, we are not immune to pain and difficulty in our lives. God will always stay faithful through those times, even if it doesn’t feel that way, or if things don’t turn out the way we hope. God then wants to use us and our experience to help others. For example, check out this video blog. This woman, Erin Stoffel, was in the news a lot around here because she went through something horrific in May of 2015, an unbelievable tragedy. Yet she is trusting in God to get her through, and God is using her to help give others hope. She reached out to me after Wendy died, even though she didn’t know me, just to let me know she was praying for me. God works through people, I’ve witnessed it over and over again.

So, thank you Andrea, for walking with Wendy through this time. You were able to speak to her soul in a way that I could not. It is clear that Wendy was so grateful for Andrea, as you can see from these messages to her:

“Thanks for being there, Andrea. It’s such a lonely path to be on, it’s nice to have someone along for the ride. Steve is always there of course but he looks at it through a different lens than a woman. You get it and I appreciate that. Thanks, friend.” (Facebook message from Wendy to Andrea, May 13, 2013)

“Out of all of the people and friends I talked to about this, you were the only one to walk me through it and show me how God was using it to bring me closer to Him.” (Facebook message from Wendy to Andrea, August 15, 2013)

If you would like to learn more about Tod and Andrea Chapin, and how they are helping people to know Jesus as missionaries in Scotland, you can follow the link http://www.thechapins.org/

My sister Amy ended up having a little girl, Ruby, on January 26, 2014 and our baby was born 2 days later. I remember Wendy’s mom Chris hoping we could have the baby one day earlier, on her birthday, January 27. We didn’t find out if we were having a boy or girl, but I was so sure that this would be my little girl, the girl we had asked God for. Even though Wendy had told me we were going to have a boy named Judah before we even got pregnant, I just knew this baby was going to be a girl. I was so shocked when the baby came out and I heard those words for the 4th time in my life; “it’s a boy!”  Judah Michael Ullmer was born that day, January 28, 2014.

July 12, 2015  – Wendy was baptized on this day, along with my son Jack, and niece Lucy (click to watch a video).

Wendy was previously baptized as a baby in the Catholic church, but she didn’t really have a choice in the matter. I don’t believe that act of sprinkling water on her head when she was a baby had any impact on her salvation whatsoever. Was it wrong for her parents to make that choice for her? No, they had good intentions, but it did not save her. Jesus saved Wendy. He did this by laying down his life and allowing Himself to be executed on a cross for her sins. Even when Wendy was baptized at the age of 34, it didn’t make her any more saved than she already was the moment she put her faith in Jesus.

There is something incredibly beautiful about baptism, and the symbolism it represents. It’s hard to understand until it is you making the choice to publicly identify yourself as a follower of Jesus. It takes humility to admit that you are not good enough, and that you need God’s grace to cover over your sins. It takes courage to stand up and declare your faith publicly. I remember back to all the times when I tried to gently bring up baptism to Wendy and push her towards it. But July 12, 2015 was the day she chose to declare her love for Jesus in front of friends, family, and her church. Her faith in Jesus was more real to her and had come alive in a way that she had never experienced before. God had brought her through a very dark time, showed Himself to be faithful, and her relationship with Jesus was stronger than ever. Here’s a card that I gave to her on the day she was baptized:

“Wendy, I want you to know how precious you are to me. I am so blessed to have a woman like you in my life, who encourages me and helps me lead our family. As we journey through life together, it is becoming more and more clear to me how special and unique God made you. I am proud and humbled to call you my wife. It is so beautiful to see you walk in your faith, and to pass that on to our children. You have no idea what type of impact you are making on the lives of your family by choosing to follow Jesus. Your character and commitment to others is so encouraging and inspiring to me. I have seen your faith grow stronger, and become more real through the last few years. Sometimes, through joy and laughter, and sometimes – maybe more so – through pain and tears. I am so proud of you today as you make this public declaration of your faith. We are in this together babe, no matter what the future holds, we will face it side-by-side with our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

I love you Wendy,

Steve

(click here to continue with video version)

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 – Wendy has trouble sleeping due to heart palpitations. This is the first time in over 4 years she has had this issue. She hasn’t mentioned any palpitations or issues with her heart since she wore a holter monitor on October 3, 2012.

Thursday, March 16, 2017 – Wendy goes into work the next morning at Women’s Care (she worked every Wednesday and Thursday). Right away, she asked her friend (and her boss) Amy Sokel to order a holter monitor for her so she could monitor her palpitations. Wendy left work at 10 am to get a holter put on, and when she returned, she had Amy listen to her heart. Here’s Amy’s description of that day:

“She was sitting down at our desk and quietly said “hey grab a stethoscope.”  I did right away and listened. It would skip a beat, then beat very quickly, then normal and then skip beats again, it was all over. I asked another nurse to listen as Wendy sat very quietly for us. That nurse told Wendy to go see her cardiologist. Wendy said that she would wait for the holter results, as they wouldn’t do anything different until it was back. She then got up to walk to the break room, as that improved the palpitations she was feeling.” (text from Amy to me, May 21, 2017, 8:00pm)

After work, I met Wendy at my mom’s house around 5pm, and we briefly discussed the palpitations she was having. I remembered that she had these before, so I wasn’t overly concerned. We ate dinner with my mom and dad, my brother Aaron and his wife Brittany, and my brother Jon. It felt like any other night at my mom’s, where we meet together every Thursday for piano lessons, a meal, and some time together – we call it “Grandma Night.”

Thursday, March 16, 2017, 9:20 pm – Wendy and I leave my parent’s house in separate cars. When we get home, I put the kids to bed while Wendy cleans up the house and gets lunches ready for the kids, since it was a school night. We went to bed at around 10 pm. On most nights, Wendy falls asleep before me. On this night, I fell asleep first. Our last talk was about a sleepover that my oldest son Liam was invited to that coming weekend. Wendy was unsure if we should let Liam sleep at his friend’s house, but she had a really sweet talk with him that night before he went to bed, and she said she trusted him. Wendy and I discussed the sleepover briefly in bed. That was the last conversation I had with my wife. The last time I looked over at her before I fell asleep, she was sitting up in bed against the headboard, holding her phone.

10:25 pm – Wendy sends my sister Amy a text, asking if there’s anything she could do to help them, since they had just got back from a family vacation in Hawaii the day before. That was the last text she sent out that night.

11:05 pm – Wendy takes a video of herself, just 26 minutes before her heart would stop and ultimately kill her. I discovered this video a few days before I finished this story as I was looking through Wendy’s phone for pictures to use. When I initially found the video, I felt a sense of fear hit me. As I watched it for the first time, I thought to myself;

“If she actually says something in this video, I’m going to lose it.”

You can watch it for yourself here. I don’t know exactly what it means or why she took it. If she was scared or knew something was wrong, why didn’t she wake me up? I was sleeping right next to her as she took it. As soon as I discovered this video, I knew it was something I would struggle with. I had so many questions, and I knew it could take a long time for God to help me find peace with it. But God is good, and he gave an explanation to my sister Amy on the morning that she viewed the video for the first time. I met with Amy for lunch on that day at Wittmann Park in Menasha, and she was able to bring me to a place of peace. This type of peace can only come from God, and that is how I know it’s true. You can read Amy’s description of that word from God concerning this video here:

Here is a picture I took of her phone where you can see the time-stamp from the video – March 16, 11:05 pm. The time you see at the top of the screen (6:52 am) is the actual time on the phone when I took the screenshot. Below that you can clearly see March 16, 11:05 pm.

The following timeline was pieced together from holter monitor results, Calumet County 911 records, phone logs, and hospital records.

Thursday, March 16, 2017, 11:31 pm – Wendy’s heart goes into a type of cardiac arrhythmia called Ventricular Fibrillation (V-Fib). The heart quivers instead of pumping due to disorganized electrical activity in the ventricles. It was not a heart attack or a stroke, the blood in Wendy’s body stopped flowing and she had no pulse. She was almost certainly asleep when this happened, or I know she would have reached for me or tried to call out. I was laying asleep right next to her at the time. We know she lost consciousness very quickly after her heart went into V-Fib, according to what I’ve read about that condition.

11:40 pm (estimated based on placement of 911 call) – I come out of sleep and hear Wendy breathing in a way that didn’t sound normal. I looked over at her, and she looked peaceful, head resting on her pillow. I am not panicked or alarmed at all, but I want to try and wake her up since I know her breathing doesn’t sound like it normally does during sleep. I start to gently wake her up.

“Wen, wake up. Wen, wake up babe.”

There is no response.

I start to get louder, I start to shake her more forcefully, I start screaming her name. There is no response from my wife whatsoever, no pulse, and now no breathing. I can feel the fear and adrenaline flooding over me, my mind racing.

11:43 pm – I call 911 and tell them my wife is unresponsive and needs help immediately. I am advised to start CPR, so I lift her off the bed and set her down on the floor. I begin CPR with chest compressions and breathing for her. There is still no response from Wendy.

11:48 pm – I hear loud pounding and yelling at my front door, and I know it’s someone that can help. I don’t want to stop CPR, but I know I need to let them in. I run downstairs and say “Get up here! She’s up here!”  Two Calumet County sheriffs race upstairs with me and immediately attach a defibrillator to Wendy. The device analyzes her heart rhythm, and I can still hear the automated female voice from the defibrillator saying “shock advised, stand clear”

11:51 pm – We step back as the defibrillator shocks her for the first time. There is still no response. The sheriffs take over CPR and continue to administer multiple shocks in an attempt to revive her. I am totally hysterical at this point, and start to call people.

11:53 pm – I call my dad, Wendy’s dad, my sister, my brother-in-law Jason.
Another sheriff arrives, then the ambulance. Now there is a whole team of people taking turns performing CPR and trying to revive Wendy with shocks, injections, and chest compressions. She is still unresponsive. They won’t allow me in the room, since there is nothing I can do, and I am losing it pretty bad. Wendy’s sister Sally arrives at the house, then my parents. Wendy’s other sister Sarah and her husband Joel arrive, then my brother Aaron and his wife Brittany. Wendy’s parents are in Arizona and are experiencing this nightmare over the phone.

Wendy is transported to St Elizabeth Hospital, where they are able to somehow restart her heart. Her heart is beating irregularly, but it is beating. Her blood pressure is dangerously low, and they have her on multiple I.V. meds to try and raise it. A machine is breathing for her. They start cooling her body down to preserve organs. Then suddenly they decide to start heating her body back up.

They don’t know what to do.

We receive update after update as they conduct testing and rule out a heart attack and a stroke, and finally they are able to scan the holter monitor that she was wearing that night. They determine that she went into Ventricular Fibrillation, and in the words of the cardiologist, Dr Kenneth Geller,

“she was probably gone by the time you woke up.”

At one point, the ICU doctor came in and informed us that if her heart stopped (he knew this was imminent), it was his professional opinion that we should not resuscitate. That statement hit me very hard, as I knew I would probably never see my wife on this earth again. Legally, they needed me to advise them on how to proceed. I stared into nothingness and did not respond. They kept asking me every 15 minutes or so, and finally I told them that we believed in a God that could bring her back from anything, and that they needed to resuscitate, while we prayed for a miracle.

I remember, near the end, praying for Wendy with with my dad. We prayed hard, pleading with God to save her. I thought to myself that God would revive her right there and all of the people in the ICU would see a miracle. People would see that God is real, and my family would not be shattered apart.

There was no miracle. God chose not to act.

Friday, March 17 approximately 9:40 am – Wendy flat-lines for the last time, her heart has stopped beating. I heard ‘Code Blue’ announced over the speakers in the ICU and every doctor and nurse in the area packed into her room as they tried everything they could to revive her. I stood in the room with them while they worked on her lifeless body, as a machine violently compressed her chest over and over. Doctors were starting to look at me, pleading with their eyes for me to give the word and let them stop. It was a scene that has been seared into my mind.

I didn’t know what to do.

My dad was standing by my side, as he always has throughout my whole life. I looked to him, and knew what needed to be done.

“it’s enough” was all I could say

The room went quiet. All intervention ceased. I knelt next to my wife’s body, grabbed her hand and prayed. It was the only thing I could do.

Friday, March 17, 9:50 am – Wendy Ullmer is declared legally dead. My dad drove me home. I remember sitting in the car as we drove back to my house. It was a dreary day. Nothing felt real, the world didn’t look the same. I wondered if I was dreaming. I looked down at my phone and saw a text from my 11 year old son Liam:

“is mom okay?”

This broke my spirit, I wept uncontrollably. I knew I was about to break their hearts, all of my boys, they would never be the same. It was a horrible moment for all of us. I remember seeing the news hit them, each reacting in their own way. The darkness I felt in my heart during that time was indescribable, and I don’t wish it upon anyone.

I won’t try to describe the pain that I went through, that I am still going through. I am writing this particular sentence on May 17, 2017 and the pain is still just as real as the day I told my kids their mom was not coming back from the hospital. I cry every day. I cried this morning, watching my 3 year old son Judah in the rear view mirror sing a song that his mom used to sing to him. There is no way to sugar-coat this with religious cliches. This is awful.

If I didn’t know with certainty that Wendy was with Jesus right now, and that I will get to see her again someday when my time comes, I honestly don’t know how I would make it. If there’s no God, and we’re all just a bunch of highly evolved animals, what is the point of all this? If there’s no God, then there’s no wrong or right, no love, no beauty, no heaven, no hell…there is ultimately nothing, this life is just a cosmic joke.

But…if there is a God…

Then we better make sure we make every effort to know who He is. God revealed Himself to us by becoming human. So if we want to know what God is like, if we want to know Him, we need to take a look at this Jesus, who walked around on the earth 2000 years ago, and breathed the same air we breathe. Jesus claimed to be God, because He was God. He is God. You don’t hear people making that claim very often, and if they do, they are insane. Tons of people have claimed to be God, and they are all delusional nut-jobs. Jesus made that claim. Was He insane? Or was He actually God in the flesh? You need to figure that out on your own, don’t just shrug your shoulders about this one. Do the work, look into it! (here’s a free book to help you) What you believe about Jesus determines what will happen to you when you die – it’s that important. Being a good person and crossing your fingers is not enough, you can’t earn God’s favor with good works. A price has to be paid for your sins.

So do I just wander around and cry all day? Do I just sit around my house in my underwear rocking back and forth in the corner? Of course not. I have moments of hope, moments of peace, even joy in the midst of this.

My God is with me. He sustains me every day.

I know exactly where my wife is and exactly how to get there. It’s just likely to be a very long time until I see her again, and that can be overwhelming to think about sometimes. Wendy’s time on this earth is over, but I have a lot of work to do. Every morning I look into the faces of my four kids and I know that we have to keep moving. We have to keep going. I can’t go into every detail here, and I probably have already lost some of you with this novel, but God has given me confirmation that my wife is with Him in heaven – even though that is not something I ever really questioned. I believe God speaks to us through music, books, people, the Bible, nature, dreams, thoughts, symbols, movies, television shows and in even more ways than we can realize. I have never heard the audible voice of God, but I know He has spoken to me many times in my life. How can I be sure of this?  Well that’s where the faith element comes in. Faith isn’t always easy, but the more you walk with God, and get to know Him and His character, the more you learn to discern when He is trying to tell you something. Let me give you an example.

March 30, 2017 4:30 am – I have struggled with sleep ever since Wendy died, it’s probably my number one recurring issue that I wish I could resolve. I just can’t stay asleep for very long. My mind races, I sweat, I worry, I toss and turn. Well this night I was listening to Spotify (which is awesome by the way, you should get a subscription), and I came across a song called “The Garden”, by Kari Jobe. This was probably Wendy’s favorite Christian singer, or at least one of her favorites for the last few years (here’s her favorite Kari Jobe song), but I wasn’t really into her music. I haven’t really listened to music much at all since college. I was much more into podcasts, sermons, Audible, sports talk, etc. But since Wendy died, I listen to music all the time – mostly worship music. Listening to Kari Jobe now kind of calms me down, there’s something about the beauty of her voice that reminds me of my wife. Well I had never heard this song before in my life, and the album had just come out on February 3, 2017, so it was pretty new. It wasn’t on any of Wendy’s playlists either. The first time I heard this song (The Garden), I’m lying awake in bed and I get this picture in my head of Wendy closing her eyes for the last time on this earth, and opening them in heaven. She sees Jesus, and our daughter for the first time. I start to cry at the beauty of this image, and can’t stop for the rest of the song. The lyrics in this song are powerful as well, and spoke to me on a very deep level. At one point in the song, Kari sings;

‘And for this moment, You planned ahead’

God knew Wendy was going to die, and He had been planning ahead. God was preparing things around our family to get us ready for this. Ask me about that some time (email me: ullmerboys@gmail.com). This image of my wife in heaven that I saw in my head, I’m sure you could explain this with some textbook psychological evaluation of my mental state. “Steve is trying to cope with his wife’s death, so he is thinking happy thoughts and imagining happy things in his head to try and make himself feel better.” Whatever. This image in my head of Wendy seeing Jesus and my daughter hit me so hard and so fast, I know it was from God. I didn’t have time to imagine all of this, it was just there – in my head. Not all the time, but sometimes tears can be confirmation that God is telling you something – especially if the tears are uncontrollable. And yes, sometimes we just cry because we’re emotional. Especially women. They cry all the time.

Now if you were paying attention, I said two things in the last paragraph that might have sounded a little weird. Let’s look at both of them.

First, I said Wendy closed her eyes for the last time on this earth and then opened them in heaven. That doesn’t sound like the night of March 16, 2017 that I described earlier does it?  Again, I am speaking out in faith, but I believe that Wendy’s spirit left her body at 11:40 pm on the night of March 16. Yes, they did restart her heart at the hospital, and she was finally declared legally dead at 9:50 am on March 17. But I believe her spirit left at 11:40 pm on March 16. Why else did I wake up that night? Wendy wasn’t struggling, yelling out, or grabbing me. I simply came out of sleep and noticed that she was breathing differently. I was not panicked or alarmed, which in itself is confirmation to me that I was woken up – either by God or by my wife’s spirit as she left her body and went to be with Jesus. This is getting a little weird right?

Well, let’s get even weirder then…

The second thing I said when I was talking about that song, was that I had a picture in my head of Wendy seeing Jesus AND our daughter for the first time. How do I know that the baby we lost was a girl?  I guess I can’t prove that. Let me at least give you some reasons I have for believing that I have a daughter waiting for me in heaven.

1: Wendy and I asked specifically for a baby girl in a moment of honest prayer together. This happened in November 2011, when we were in Mexico for Sally’s wedding. I believe God gave Wendy confirmation of an answered prayer on May 14, 2012. If you are confused about these dates, you’re going to have to go back – it’s all there.

2: Judah was not a girl, although he gets mistaken for a girl sometimes. Seriously, look at this kid, he needs a haircut. He actually looks a lot like Wendy when she was little.

If God’s answer to our prayer from November 2011 in Mexico was to give us Judah, shouldn’t he have been a girl? Remember, I was fully expecting that Judah was a girl until I saw him on the day he was born.

3: Here is a quote from an email I received from one of our good friends at Water City Church, Beka Weiss:

“I’ll tell you that when we heard Wendy had passed the first image that arrived in my mind was Wendy in heaven and the joy she had in meeting a daughter. It was such a beautiful picture that was accompanied by such peace that I really never thought to question the detail.” (May 1, 2017 2:01 pm)

That’s another way that we can sometimes confirm a message from God – when the message is accompanied by peace. Now you may not know Beka, but for those of us who do, you know that she is just about the last person who would ever make up something like this. Beka is not one to draw attention to herself, or try to be dramatic in any way. She is a very genuine and intelligent person, who knew Wendy and loves Jesus. I believe God gave Beka a picture of what Wendy experienced in heaven.

4: Wendy’s sister Sally got pregnant with her little girl Hadley in March of 2012, so Wendy and Sally would have been pregnant at the same time if we hadn’t lost that baby. Wendy was so excited about being pregnant with Sally. Her hope was that her and Sally would bond over being pregnant together, like Wendy and my sister Amy had bonded over their first pregnancies in 2006 (Wendy with Liam and Amy with Sophi).

When we found out Wendy was pregnant on May 14, 2012, I had the same thought. I even remember thinking that if Wendy and Sally both had boys, or both had girls, that these two would be especially close for their whole life, like siblings. It makes me sad when I think that Hadley (Sally’s daughter) never got to meet our child on this earth, but I know they will meet some day! To summarize, since Hadley was a girl, I always thought our baby was a girl. Here’s Wendy with Hadley in 2013

5: Lastly, Wendy’s cousin Krista had a baby girl named Mercy on April 13, 2012 – right around the time we would have conceived the baby we lost on May 23, 2012. Well that’s kind of random, right? I don’t even really know Krista. I only met Krista once, at her wedding in Texas, but I know she and her husband are followers of Jesus.

I was talking to Becky on Thursday, April 27, 2017 around 5pm. Becky and her husband Tim were in town to visit Wendy’s parents and help comfort and grieve with them. I remember Becky talking about her grandchildren, and when she said the name Mercy – I can’t describe it, I just felt something. That name is beautiful. I have never heard of a child or even a person named Mercy, but something about that name just hit me. I emailed Krista on May 20, 2017 to find out more about how they decided to name their daughter Mercy. Here’s Krista’s email response:

“As far as Mercy’s name, well, we named our children with intention. I knew a girl once, her name was Mercedes and people called her Merci, but I liked the idea of making the spelling true. Her name is Mercy Dawn, with the scripture in mind, “His mercies are new every morning“. I guess in our mind we were thinking of the condition of our country and people’s hearts and named her that as a plea to the Lord, as a prophetic name to continue to have mercy on our nation.” (May 21, 2017 10:32 am)

Krista makes a powerful statement here, about the direction our country is heading. We need a revival, a spiritual awakening that will point people to Jesus Christ. We have clouded the powerful message of the Gospel with religion. Religion doesn’t help people to know God, religion is man’s way of trying to control God. Religion makes things complicated when they don’t have to be. I think the younger generation sees through the hypocrisy of religion, but unfortunately they have responded by being accepting of EVERYTHING. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Humanism, Atheism – it’s all good! Nobody is wrong, everybody is right, everybody wins, everybody gets a medal in the end!

This way of thinking is false. Faith in Jesus is the only way to have eternal life. Belief in anything or anyone else does not lead to heaven. Let’s see what Jesus says about this:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

So I have been listening to a song called Mercy by Amanda Cook for the last several weeks. This song basically has two themes. The first one is that God delights in showing His mercy to us, even though we deserve judgment. The ultimate example of this is God loving us so much that he sent his only son Jesus to pay the price for our sins (that’s John 3:16 people!). All of us deserve God’s judgment because we fail to live up to His perfect standard.

Well that’s not fair, you might say. Why would God set a standard that no one could possibly attain? I’m a good person, I haven’t killed anyone. Isn’t that enough?

If God were to judge you in a court of law, based on His ten commandments, would He find you guilty or innocent?

Have you ever told a lie? You are a liar

Ever stole anything, even something small? You are a thief

Ever look at another person with lust? According to Jesus, you are an adulterer

You stand condemned, you have been found guilty. Based on this, do you think you will go to heaven or hell?

Maybe you don’t believe in hell. Well, Jesus certainly did. In fact He spoke about hell three times more than He did about heaven. Here’s what He said:

“This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” Matthew 13:49-50

What’s hell going to be like? I have no idea, but it sounds horrible. No matter how many good things you have done, nothing can change the reality that you have broken God’s law. God is perfect, His standard is perfect. All of us fall short of this standard. You, me, Wendy, Mother Theresa, Hitler, the Pope, all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s perfect standard. Even Jesus’ own mother Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior. Uh oh. Now the Catholics are fired up…

The point is, we all fall short. We all need a Savior. We need someone who is perfect, someone who is sinless and blameless to be a sacrifice for us. The Bible tells us that we were bought at a price (1 Corinthians 7:23). That price was the life of God’s son Jesus. Your fine was paid with His blood, you are free. But you have to surrender to God, you have to repent – which means you show remorse to God for your sin.

The second part of this song called Mercy is about God making all things beautiful. This is a profound message, but hard to accept during a time of grieving like this. How could God possibly make beauty out of such tragedy? An aborted baby. A widowed husband. Four young children who will not see their mom again for the rest of their lives. These are tragic things, but they aren’t even close to some of the horrors and darkness that are occurring every day in this broken world. All throughout history, the presence of evil in this world has been plain to see. Wars, genocide, abuse, cancer, injustice, slavery, rape, terrorism – I could go on and on. Here’s the important part. In the end and I mean the end – when Jesus returns to this earth – God will put an end to evil. He will make all things beautiful. I don’t know how it’s all going to go down, the book of Revelation is super confusing, and anyone who thinks they have it all figured out is an idiot. What I do know is that the promises made for those who believe in Jesus are beyond what our brains can even comprehend. God will redeem all of this. Can God bring beauty out of Wendy’s death even now?

Yes. He can. He has. He will.

If you asked Wendy right now if she would have laid down her life on this earth for just a single person to find Jesus, I know what her answer would be. Let that mess with your head. If that upsets you, please ask me about it so I can help you understand what I am saying.

One of Wendy’s co-workers emailed me after reading this blog and made a reference to the previous paragraph. I was really touched by it and wanted to share that here:

“…maybe I was like Wendy saw herself before baptism. A Christian just going through the motions, always searching for answers. It makes me cry when you said Wendy would have died to save just one person. What if that one person was me? I honestly think she’s saving a lot of us.” – (email to me, June 20, 2017 12:26 pm)

I have to wrap this up, or I’m going to lose you people. If you are reading this and you got this far, wow. Let’s think of the lyrics to the song Mercy in a new way. “You delight in showing Mercy”  Amanda Cook sings this over and over. Yes, God delights in showing His mercy. But I also understand this as a message from God to me. God delights in showing me Mercy, in revealing her, as a real person to me. God delights in showing me my daughter in heaven. Wendy and I asked for a daughter in 2011. God gave Wendy a sign that He fulfilled our prayer on May 14, 2012. God did give us a daughter, but she was not meant for this earth.

Now please don’t miss this, I need to state this as clearly as possible so there is no doubt about what I am saying:

I have a daughter in heaven. Her name is Mercy.

Here’s another reference to my daughter, Mercy. I emailed Andrea to thank her for what she did for my wife. She responded with the following:

“I want to say first how deeply sorry I am for the loss of your amazing wife. She really was one of a kind. Her tender heart and gift of mercy touched my heart on many occasions. And my heart broke when I learned of her passing. Although we hadn’t been in touch in a while because of living overseas, I was affected so much as she held a special place in my life.

Your message means more to me than you know. I wept as I read it. To think that I was able to be a good friend to her as she was to me is the greatest gift. To know that I could encourage her and minister to her as she encouraged and ministered to me is a treasure I will cherish for the rest of my life.” (email from Andrea to me, April 30, 2017 6:41 am)

Did you catch that?  Andrea said that Wendy had a ‘gift of mercy.’ That is true, those of you who know Wendy would agree with that. Let’s think of that in another way now. Wendy was given a gift. A daughter named Mercy was that gift.

May 21, 2017 – As I was feeding the kids dinner, I was playing music in the background. My 3 year-old Judah thought it was the song Mercy. So he asked me “Is this Mercy?”  (It wasn’t) Before I could answer followed with “Does Mercy say hallelujah?”  It took me about 4 or 5 times to figure out that he was saying “hallelujah”, I even had the boys help try to figure it out. I felt like God was speaking through Judah in that moment, allowing my 3 year old son to talk about his sister, Mercy. God has spoken through Judah before, so this would not be the first time.

My daughter Mercy does say Hallelujah. Along with my wife. In heaven. Right now. To their Savior Jesus.

I will close with a prayer that Wendy wrote to her sister Sally in 2015:

“Where there is weariness, replace it with strength. Where there is hopelessness, let there be hope! Our hope is in you! In Jesus powerful name, amen!”

This picture was taken by my sister Amy. I cannot even put into words what my sister means to me. She has been by my side and with my boys throughout this very difficult time, and I just want to say thank you Amy, I love you. The post-it note is something that Wendy wrote out and kept in her car to remind her of God’s faithfulness. You can also see Wendy’s necklace that she wore every day. The pendants hanging from the necklace each have a letter, one for each of our kids. There is a 5th pendant that Wendy got, with a footprint instead of an initial. She got this to remember our baby that we lost on May 23, 2012. We didn’t know her name then, but we do now.

Our God is good. Our God is merciful. Our God desires to know each one of us, but we have to choose Him freely, it cannot be forced. Will you choose Him or reject Him? What you believe matters. Your eternity hangs in the balance…(click here)

(blog post originally written May 23, 2017, 2 months after Wendy died)

If you would like to try a study Bible, just like the one Wendy used to read, click here

*UPDATE* – (August 7, 2017) – Wendy’s autopsy revealed that she had Sarcoidosis in many of her organs, including her heart. This is what caused her heart to go into V-Fib, which stopped the flow of blood throughout her body. Read more on my Facebook post here

*UPDATE* – (June 28, 2018) – Remember the girl that reached out to me in the story, Erin Stoffel? Read what happened next here

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3/17/19 – 2 Year Anniversary Tribute – Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

This story is a little weird, but there is no denying that my life was changed forever on March 1, 2003. Please take a moment to listen to my story and judge for yourself…

Was it God?