Peter Elliott is a fifth generation RLDS who grew up in Western Australia. His great-great grandmother converted to Mormonism during the first mission to England before the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. Although Peter was immersed in the RLDS world view, his interest in history led him to investigate the church more thoroughly and he came to the point where he couldn’t continue believing the RLDS story. He resigned his membership and embarked on a fascinating journey for truth which led him through 40 countries and eventually to the land of Israel. It was at the Garden Tomb that he had a life changing experience with the risen Lord. Peter has written a book Reasons for Disbelief about key RLDS issues which will undoubtedly help others to find the truth and be set free. This is his testimony.
My testimony goes back a long way; five generations to be exact. My great-great grandmother converted to Mormonism during the first mission to England before the death of Joseph Smith Jr. As the years passed, a daughter in the family moved to Fremantle, Western Australia and eventually affiliated with the RLDS Church.
When I was born in 1956 my grandfather had been pastor of the Fremantle RLDS church for many years, strongly supported by my grandmother, and my mother (their only child) was the church organist. Although my father wasn’t a member, he and my mother separated when I turned five, and I grew up surrounded by RLDS family and friends. My mother remarried shortly before my twelfth birthday and my stepfather joined the church, later becoming pastor himself. We were regular attenders at all church events and frequently had missionaries and church officials stay in our home.
Thus, I grew up thoroughly immersed in the RLDS worldview as it was during the 1960s and 1970s in Western Australia. I believed implicitly that everything the RLDS church taught was correct; other churches simply didn’t have the amount of truth that we did.
As I progressed through my late teens, I noticed that several of my cousins were called into the priesthood and I realized that one day my turn would come. This disturbed me. My cousins seemed to accept their priesthood callings fairly light-heartedly, but I could not. I knew that I had largely accepted the RLDS church’s teachings because my family believed them, but I was convinced that this was not enough of a foundation on which to accept priesthood responsibility. If I were to undertake such a responsibility, I needed to have a firm conviction of my own. The logical place to start seemed to be through history: the RLDS church was based on certain historical experiences and revelations, and I could investigate those.
As I turned twenty, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English literature, then obtained full-time work. Life was in an exciting new phase, and as I hadn’t yet begun investigating the church, I was hoping no-one would tap me on the shoulder with a priesthood call to consider.
During 1977, one of my closest friends came over to tell me that his girlfriend had broken up with him; in the next breath he asked me if I wanted to travel the world with him and his ex-girlfriend’s brother. I said “yes” immediately. I knew that this opportunity offered two immediate benefits: firstly, I would be removed from the RLDS world and the possibility of being approached about the priesthood; secondly, I could visit the church’s archives in Independence, Missouri and begin my investigation.
To shorten a very long story, I spent all of 1978 and most of 1979 in non-stop travelling through nearly 40 countries, and in early 1979 made it to Independence. I photocopied lots of nineteenth-century material which was obviously not available in Australia, and returned home. I was still convinced that what I would find would completely corroborate the RLDS version of history, prove the Utah Mormons wrong, and lead to my eventual acceptance of a priesthood call.
At this point, something astonishing happened. I had moved back in with my mum and stepfather, but I realized that I was making a terrible mess in my room as I was spreading out all my research materials. I felt like I was imposing on the neatness of their lives. I prayed a prayer that was totally outlandish. It went something like this: “God, I would really like a place of my own so I can properly do my research. But I don’t want to have to share with anyone else, I don’t want to have a mortgage, and I don’t want to pay rent.” I think it was about six weeks later when mum gave me the news. My father (who had never remarried) had rung her to ask if it would be okay if he bought me a small apartment. She had said she didn’t think I would object. Now, my father was never particularly wealthy, having worked in public service jobs all his life. His reasoning was that he wanted to provide for me in case he subsequently remarried and had to look after a second wife and her children; at the time he wasn’t dating anyone and he never did remarry.
Naturally, I accepted, and within weeks had a place of my own. Although I was working full-time, I recognized that I needed to keep my end of the deal and do the research now that I had no excuse. I worked through the night and on weekends and as I did so, I came to the point where I couldn’t believe the RLDS story any more. There were so many reasons for this, that I can’t list them all here, but they all centred around history in one way or another. I came to the conclusion that history was under no obligation to be palatable, but I was determined to follow what I believed to be true.
What to do next? The answer seemed obvious: I felt in a privileged position because of the information I had – I needed to share it. It took me about six weeks to write an 80 page book, Reasons for Disbelief, and my mother helped me produce two dozen copies of it. We distributed it around the local membership and I waited for the response. I kept attending church every week because I expected people to challenge what I had written and I wanted to be able to answer their questions and show them the evidence. I was also nervous that I might get some violent reactions. What I wasn’t prepared for was largely widespread apathy. The strongest reaction I received was hearing second-hand that some people were “disgusted” with me. Others (including my grandfather) started the book but couldn’t finish it. I was stunned by the lack of reaction: these were people who had committed their lives to the RLDS church; how could they be seemingly unaffected by a frontal assault on its foundations?
I attended the church for a further year, but people largely avoided the issues. Not so my mother, who (without discussing it with me) sent a copy of my book to the RLDS First Presidency with a “please explain” letter attached. This initiated a lengthy correspondence between then church historian Richard Howard and myself. Richard simultaneously criticised my methodologies and complimented my writing and reasoning abilities. It soon became clear that the church leadership was fully aware of the information I had discovered, which led to the burning question: why didn’t they reveal the anomalies to the general membership of the church? The answer came, rather chillingly, in a letter from the First Presidency to my mother: they had a “long-term plan” to change the thinking of the church on these issues. [My interpretation of the actions of the RLDS leadership since 1980 has been that they have followed through on these plans.] I immediately resigned my membership; I was left with a belief in God, but not much else.
In 1981 I went overseas again for six months. It was partly as a result of a bet to walk around Ireland, which I spent three months doing, and then went on to Israel and Egypt. While I walked around Ireland by myself, I read through the New Testament, something I had never done before. I realized the importance of going back to the original sources, and I wanted to discover how Jesus really fitted into the picture.
When I arrived in Israel, I began to meet some amazing people. There was Howard, a young Jewish guy who had become a Christian only a few months before. A few of us were talking to him about his journey when a casual conversation suddenly became something else, and in the dormitory of a youth hostel, Howard began preaching. We were riveted. This was not planned or rehearsed, but flowing completely spontaneously. I had never seen or heard anything like it.
As I bussed my way around Israel, my companions were a South African theology student and a young professional gambler who had thrown it all in to come to Israel to find God. One way and another I met numerous people whose faith was completely genuine, who were making significant decisions based on their faith rather than money and convenience, and I was deeply impressed. Their faith was alive and vibrant and informing every aspect of their lives in a way I had never seen before.
The turning point for me occurred as I was about to leave Jerusalem for the last time. I had often visited the place known as the Garden Tomb and I went once more. This garden contains a tomb that dates from the time of Christ and is empty. No-one claims that it actually was the tomb of Christ, but who knows? It is on the side of a hill with a remarkable skull-like appearance. I was sitting there in the garden, annoyed at the crassness of tourists whose flashbulbs ceaselessly glared in the tomb. Gradually, I became aware of singing: behind me and to both sides were three different worshipping groups: Japanese, Germans and African -Americans. Inwardly, I started to laugh. I had been led out of the RLDS church, through 40 countries, to Israel where Christianity began. I was sitting in front of an empty tomb with its own pyrotechnic display, surrounded by three gospel choirs re-enacting the day of Pentecost for my benefit. God really must have wanted to get my attention, and he did it in such an over-the-top manner that I couldn’t fail to get the point. At that moment, I quietly uttered the words, “I surrender. I’m yours.” To have done anything less would have seemed an act of cosmic ingratitude.
Many years have passed since that day in October, 1981, but it truly was a turning point in my life. I married Deborah and we have two wonderful sons, Joel and Jason. I obtained two degrees in Theology and am currently working on my doctorate. Since 1997, I have been lecturing in Church History and enjoying every second of it. History was a very real part of my decision to leave the RLDS in the first place and I’m a grateful believer in its liberating power and its ability to help us understand ourselves and our world a little better.