Episode 16: Micah Wilder, From Mormonism to Christianity

Micah Wilder was devout, on mission for the Lord and shared his testimony often. The problem was, Micah was Mormon. And his mission? Converting an entire Baptist church! Find out what happened when Micah was challenged to read the Bible like a child, finding the Jesus he never knew and the true love to conquer all. Learn what the Mormon church believes and how the radical love that Micah found spread like wildfire to his entire family.  

Learn what Mormons mean when they refer to the five pillars of Mormonism, Christ’s restored church, the restored gospel, Mormon baptism, and the best way to answer the knock at your door from a Mormon missionary. Hear about the shockwaves that were sent when Micah shared his actual testimony in the risen Christ, and how he is reaching many more through his ministry, Adam’s Road, and his book, Passport to Heaven: The True Story of a Zealous Mormon. Stay for the Sendoff, where TC Boyd the Artist shares a rap inspired by Micah’s story, “Open the Door.”

Micah Wilder’s book, Passport to Heaven

Micah’s ministry, Adam’s Road

Adam’s Road Ministry’s Free Music 

Lynn Wilder’s book, Unveiling Grace

Mormonism vs. Christianity Commentary

For further reading on Mormonism, God Loves Mormons

Mormon Prayercast video

Central Florida’s Historic Edgewater Hotel

Micah on Youtube, trophy of God’s grace 

Hebrews 10, NLT

Romans 5, ESV

Matthew 16, NIV

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website. 

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OneWay Ministries

Transcript

One80 Podcast Episode 16
Micah Wilder: From Mormonism to the God of the Bible

This transcript may have errors that do not reflect the original audio in the show.

Ryan: Micah Wilder, faithfully served God and was literally on a mission. He led a righteous life. He loved to share his testimony often, but when he was challenged to read the Bible, like a child, Micah found the Jesus he never knew. And he realized that the Mormon church was not the true church he once thought and all those good works? They weren't going to get them to heaven. Jesus alone was learn about Micah story and how the love of Jesus and other Christians won him over in his real testimony. Today on One80. Welcome , Micah. So glad to have you here on 

Micah: the show. Oh, so glad to be here. Thank you for having me. 

Ryan: Yeah. Awesome story. I can't wait to get into it and just hear more about your life and your upbringing. But before we do that, I want to ask you a random question from our chat deck. Random question generator. So here's a random question. If you could experience a sailing adventure or a cruise on any river lake or ocean, where would you go?

Micah: Hm, I get seasick, so it'd probably have to be a river. I would say , the Nile river in Africa, I think that'd be nice. 

Ryan: Yeah. I'm in agreement with you. That would be pretty awesome. Cool. Well, Micah, I just want to say that many of our stories, they involve people having a sinful rock bottom that gets them to the feet of Jesus.

 Like Robert who found Jesus in jail, but your upbringing, your life was, is so wholesome and righteous as a Mormon yet you still lack Jesus. And sometimes our rock bottom is actually, it's a crisis of misguided faith. And so friends, friends who are listening, you can find Micah his whole story in his book , it's called Passport to Heaven.

And you can find a link to that in our show notes. But Micah, would you be able to just give us an overview of the Mormon church kind of like a Mormonism one-on-one? 

Micah: Yeah. So Mormonism is a, I would describe it as a works based righteousness to where the individual. Although there is an emphasis in faith placed in Christ and his atoning work on the cross that faith in Jesus's work alone is not sufficient for an individual to have eternal life in the presence of God.

And so there are these works and laws and ordinances that are placed upon the burden of a person to follow and do in order to make themselves righteous and to establish that right, standing with God. The other unique doctrine of Mormonism is that it teaches that it is the one and true church of Jesus Christ on the earth.

And so only through that religious institution can an individual find the proper authority. In order to have eternal life in the presence of God. And so Mormonism also has extra biblical scriptures and teachings. They have what they describe as modern day prophets and apostles that they believe continually speak the word of God that add to the scripture that's been written in the Bible and that continually give new commandments, new revelation, new scripture and new doctrine.

And so the Canon of scripture and Mormonism is not closed, but is continually growing. And so for me, growing up in Mormonism, there is always an emphasis placed on my leaders on their unique authority and their mediation between me and God and my need to submit to them and to follow their commandments as though they were the commandments of God himself.

Ryan: wow. Wow. So , if you were coming to my door and we were going to, you know, talk about faith and things, and I had the question of how do I be saved? What would you say. 

Micah: Well, I would have responded with the, the first step is to have faith in Jesus. And once that faith is established, the individual then needs to be baptized by water.

The problem is that the baptism and Mormonism needs to be done by an individual with the proper authority. So not just baptism anywhere by anybody, but baptism into the true church of Jesus Christ, which they would believe is the Mormon church. Once that's taken place and a person, as a member of the church, and they've made that commitment through baptism, they then need to submit to the commandments and the laws, the ordinances of this religious system.

There are certain moral codes, there are dietary codes, and there is an expectation of a lifelong devotion to attending church, to serving the church, to paying tithing and to living out this lifestyle. And so all of those things contribute to a person's ability to be saved, you know, in the presence of God, for eternity.

And so all of that for, for a person would be going to the Mormon temple and within the Mormon temple are the ordinances that ultimately save an individual. So it's very much a long and extensive process that a person undergoes, but they don't know if they have salvation until the very end until they die.

And they go to the judgment bar of God. They cannot know with a certainty that they've done enough or done that, which is, required. 

Ryan: Yeah. . Wow. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate that. Let's get into your story. So, so how did it all start for you? I mean, if you could just take us back to the very beginning, 

Micah: yeah. So I was raised in a very devout Mormon home. My parents had converted to Mormonism before the four of us children were ever born. And so they had actually both grown up in nominal Christian homes. But obviously didn't know enough about the word of God to recognize the distinct doctrinal differences between biblical Christianity and Mormonism.

And so when they were in their mid twenties, they joined the Mormon church. They, they became immediately very deeply enmeshed in it. And it actually was not there. adherence to the doctrines, but it was their, their drawing of the community of Mormonism. And that's something that we see happen a lot is people are drawn into this just love and the sense of community that happens within Mormonism.

And so we grew up in the Midwest, which is not a very Mormon prevalent area. I was one of three in my entire school. But my family, my, my parents were good parents. They loved us. We went to church every week. We read the scriptures together. We prayed we, we very much. We're committed to our faith and we live that out on a daily basis.

And my parents, you know, set that example for us. And then when I was 14 years old my family and I replanted to Utah, my mother got a job to be a professor at a prestigious Brigham young university, which of course is a, is a private Mormon owned school out in Provo, Utah. And so we went from the Midwest where I was one of three Mormons in my entire school to a town that was about 99% Mormon called Alpine Utah.

And so that was a massive cultural shock for me. And it was a paradigm shift for me because Mormonism. As much as it was a part of my life before I was really thrust into this environment where I had to live out my faith and not only did I have to, but I wanted to, and being a competitive person by nature I wanted to be the best of the best, you know, as, as Saul was a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law blameless My life shifted to being God-centered, but it was God centered through the lens of Mormonism.

And so in this zeal that I had for God and this desire that I had to have a right relationship with God, I believe that the only way to establish that right relationship was by being faithful to the commandments of Mormonism. And so as a teenager, I just excelled in, in my faith and in my, my ability to, to live out the doctrines and the commandments of this religious system.

And I, and I would say that I was unparalleled in that, in that zeal, you know, to where I was living it out with greater fervor than anyone around me, and really became well known amongst my peers for my passion and my devotion to, to God through, what I believed was was the true church.

Ryan: So yeah, Mike, if you could just kind of elaborate on like some of those accomplishments.

Micah: Yeah. So in Mormonism, I held every leadership position possible for, , whatever age group I was in throughout my teenage years. My high school that was 98% Mormon. I was on the seminary council, 

 when I was 18 I was a full-time worker in the Mormon temple. I received my duty to God award. I was on the stake youth committee and it'll many of these terms, aren't going to mean much to people, but it was really just, you know, for me, it was my pedigree of, of living out my faith and, and taking pride in the fact that I was doing what I was being asked to do by God.

Yeah. So 

Ryan: you were what we would say kind of a big deal. And it's when that, wow. Wow. Okay. So, so you're a stellar Mormon. People know you you're, you know, excelling in every way. And then you finally get to a point on you know, where you get to go on the, the, the mission, you know, many of us know that Mormons all go on these missions.

And is it at the end of high school? Is that when you 

Micah: go? Yeah. So once you can conclude high school for me at that time, when I went on my mission in 2004, the age requirement was 19. It has since now gone down to 18. And so young men are, are leaving on their missions immediately after graduating high school.

Wow. Okay. 

Ryan: So what was it like to get that, that missions assignment. 

Micah: Well, it's exciting. I mean, for me, I had been preparing for several years for this experience. I was preparing myself mentally, emotionally, spiritually, because I wanted to go out and commit these two years to God to commit myself to sharing what I believe the gospel to be.

 And was sincere in that zeal. And so I was excited and, and you go through this, this process where you meet with your Mormon leaders, you go through this kind of worthiness interview. You are deemed worthy to be a Mormon missionary. You submit paperwork to the leadership in salt lake city, and then you wait for them to basically send you your assignment, which could be anywhere on planet earth.

And so there's a lot of anticipation that builds up because you want to go somewhere exciting. I had brothers that had served missions in Russia and Denmark, and so it's really, you can be sent to any, any corner of the earth. And so there was a lot of, for me just anticipation and waiting for the place that I felt God had designated me specifically to go and share the Mormon gospel.

Yeah. 

Ryan: Wow. . And I, and if I could, just right now, I know in your book, you write. At the beginning, , your mission journal entry you wrote, I am so excited to be a missionary of the Lord. I know that I am in the true church of God. I know Gordon B Hinckley is a prophet of God. I know that Joseph Smith suffered greatly to restore the true church on the earth.

And these latter days, I know that the book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it is another Testament of the Jesus Christ. Temples are the house of God and families can be together forever. So you read that and you're like, man, he, he was in it, like he was in it to win it just, yeah, just amazing.

So, okay. So I'm just, you know, to think that you were so far so deeply you know, steeped into this thing, let's, let's keep moving. Talk to us about that mission . I mean, what are some things that you experienced? Did you convert anybody to Mormonism on that? 

Micah: I did so, so I ended up serving my two year mission in central Florida.

And one of the things that I think is important for the listeners to understand is that Mormon mission , is a very serious commitment. , there's very few commitments in the world that take you away from your family for two consecutive years. And that's what the Mormon mission is.

You, you leave your home, your family, your job, your schooling, you know, your friends, your girlfriend, everything that you know, and love. And you're asked to commit every day to proselytizing the Mormon gospel. And so there, there's a very strict system under which these young men and women have to live.

 Our, our communication with the outside world was very limited. When I was a missionary, you were only permitted to communicate with your immediate family on the phone twice per year. In addition to that, we could communicate with them weekly through emails and everybody outside of our immediate family, we had to write handwritten letters to, and that was only allowed once a week.

 We were very limited on what we could do for entertainment. We couldn't watch movies. We didn't have computers. We weren't allowed to read the newspaper, read magazines. We had to go to bed at 10 30 every night. Get up at six 30 every morning. We had to do a certain amount of study time, and then we would go out at 9 30, 10 o'clock in the morning and expect to proselytize, knock doors, talk to people all day long, come home at 9:00 PM.

Do more administrative paperwork and then have a little bit of downtime get up the next morning and do it all over again. And so it's a very challenging experience. And I, and I want to emphasize that because I think that a lot of people approach the Mormon missionaries , with the wrong mindset.

 These are young men and women who have made a massive sacrifice for their religion, for the God that they, that they know and love. Many of them are dealing with homesickness. Many of them are dealing with depression. And the last thing that they need is to be mistreated by people who claim to know and follow Jesus.

And so I did have success as a Mormon missionary but it was not easy. It did not come easily. I would say. Probably 99 out of a hundred doors that we would knock on wood, just slam the door in our face and not any type of, you know, engagement with us or conversation with us. And out of those, one of a hundred, there's maybe one in, a few thousand that ended up, you know, joining the Mormon church.

And so I did find some success early on in my mission, but it, was not easy to find people that wanted to discuss, , religion with us. And that wanted to give us the time to be able to communicate our faith. Right. Right. 

Ryan: And I really appreciated what you said about how we, a lot of times come into this conversations with Mormons with the wrong perspective.

 And I know pastor Benson, which we haven't really talked about him much, but you'd mentioned that he said to you, , honestly, I wish more Christians had the same type of zeal for the faith that you Mormons do for yours. Right. And I mean, it's so true because I mean, I'm not out there, , knocking on every person's door, , sharing the faith.

And I think it is definitely something to admire, you know, just that the passion.

So would you would you help us, I mean, as a Christian, you know, if a Mormon knocks on my door, what would you suggest? I mean, what, what, what should we do? 

Micah: Yeah. Great question. Number one is, is treat them with kindness, with respect, with gentleness, with compassion.

 I met a lot of Christians that their response to me was you're in a cult. You're going to hell. Slammed the door in my face, you know? And and obviously that was not effective. That's not what God used to, to reach me when I was lost and unsaved. And so, but when we approach people like our heart has to be centered on love.

 And I think that, that even if we do have this desire to share the gospel, like the motive for why we do it is so important. I mean, you know, Paul said that you can have faith to move mountains. You can give up your very body to be burned, but if you don't have love, and then you're just a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.

And so our hearts motivation is Christians in sharing the gospel. Because of love because of God's love for us and the love that we want other people to know in Christ. And so I think that just having that heart of love, that's where it all starts, you know, is to see them as, as people who are lost, who are unsaved and, and who need truth and need the gospel.

 And then I think it's a matter of just being able to, to dialogue with them, you know, giving them opportunities to share what they believe. I think one of the most common mistakes that people make is that they're not good listeners. And they don't want to, they just want to preach and they want to preach.

And that's kind of an immediate turnoff to Mormon missionaries into Mormons in general, when they feel like they're the ones being evangelized. And so I think giving them the opportunity to share their faith, share their doctrines, so that as a Christian, you can then lovingly respond to, to their faith, with what you know, and understand according to what the Bible teaches and then asking lots of questions and getting them to, to share why they believe what they believe, which in turn gives us the opportunity to respond with the gospel message and to challenge them.

 In love to read the Bible, to go to the scriptures, to seek truth and, and, you know, to plant those seeds in their hearts. Yeah. Yeah. That's 

Ryan: great. I appreciate that 

 would you talk to us, take us to to being, you know, being in Orlando and, and what, what was that like? What kind of response did you get? 

Micah: Yeah, so, so I was actually called to be a Spanish missionary. So. Spanish speaking missionary specifically designated go and to witness to, to the Hispanic population.

 So there was a distinct difference in, I guess, the, the welcoming nature of the Hispanics versus, you know, the, the white Americans they were very open. They were very loving. They used, they would feed us a lot. But they were all Catholic. And so every time you'd share your faith with them, they'd be like, that's great, but we're Catholic and we're not interested, you know, but they were very inviting.

 But it was hard. I mean, a lot of people, I don't know if it's Florida in general. I th you know, I think it just, maybe being a Mormon missionary anywhere, it's just, most people. We're not very kind to us. I mean, I had things from guns pulled on me too. People throw glass bottles at our head too. You know, people just just swear at us and people try to run us over in their cars.

I mean, you know, it was a lot of rejection and, and that was something that was difficult to get used to. You know, the first few days that I went out and I guess I just had this this picture picturesque understanding of what a mission was going to be. And I was going to get there and just knock on people's doors and have these great conversations.

And after three days of knocking doors and having no conversations, I realized though that this is going to be a challenging experience. But after a while, you kind of wear that rejection as a badge of honor. And you just, say, you know what, this is just more evidence that I am in the true church or else I wouldn't be persecuted like this.

And so yeah, so, you know, Florida was a unique place. I mean, it's my home now. And it was very hot in the summers and you're on bicycles and in shirts and ties and long pants. And I mean, it's just, it's just such a physically and emotionally demanding experience being, being on a mission. Yeah. 

Ryan: Wow. .

Yeah. It's so interesting too, because you have scriptures, you know, that support the fact that you are going to be persecuted, . And so I'm sure being in that, facing the persecution, it does kind of fuel you on, especially if you're zealous, you know, it fuels you to continue on, you know, which is, again, I think something that Christians we can do better at is to not run from you know, the afflictions and the oppression and the persecution that we face, you know?

. So, so let's talk about the, the first event that got you to really start thinking about your walk with the Lord, 

Micah: where did it all start to change? Yeah. So I would say the most pivotal moment of my, my mission early on was when I had an encounter with a Baptist pastor and talking about my zeal.

 I actually went to a Baptist church to try to convert this pastor and his entire congregation. And so that just speaks to how, how bold I was and also how much I believed the message that we were going about teaching as missionaries. Right. And so I encountered this man, his name was pastor Benson.

And , the first thing that really stood out to me about him was, was the way that he treated us. And, and he was not like the majority of people that I had encountered up to that point in my mission, he was very loving and he was very kind, he was very respectful. And and I did take note of that initially.

And so we ended up having a, a formal discussion with him sitting down in his office and he gave us the opportunity to share with him our belief system to kind of go point by point through Mormon doctrine and explained to him why we believed it was the true church and had the only authority necessary to perform the saving ordinances.

And so we're going through this, this process and this Christian pastor very lovingly responds to our message with the saving gospel of Christ. And I mean, obviously that's profound in and of itself, but for me personally that was really the first time in my entire life that I had heard the gospel.

 I had heard a gospel my entire life. And I believe that Jesus died for my sins on the cross that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day. I believe that I could not be saved outside of the atoning work of Christ. However, I did not believe that Christ's work alone was all sufficient to save me . Well.

So the message of this, this Baptist pastor was that Jesus accomplished everything necessary for mankind to be reconciled to God through his one act of righteousness on the cross of Calvary, and that he did the only work necessary that could bring mankind into a right standing with God. And that wasn't something that we could add to or contribute to.

And it wasn't something that we could earn or be worthy of, but that eternal life itself was a free gift to be received. By faith. And that I could have the guarantee of my right standing with God and of the forgiveness of my sins through the blood of Christ if I trusted in Jesus alone. And so that was a pivotal moment of my life because the seed of truth, the seed of the gospel was, was put in my heart.

And when I heard this message, I'll be honest with you. I, I very vehemently rejected it because it stood in such stark contrast to everything that I had known and believed as a Mormon growing up. And I, I really, I knew the gist of what Christians believed and I heard it from this man and, and I mocked the idea of salvation by grace alone, through faith.

I mocked it because , I saw it as a cheap grace that, that Christians held onto as their own personal license to sin and to do whatever they want. And even approaching it with that mentality shows that my relationship with God was not based in love. It was based in fear and anybody that approaches a Christian and, and says that shows that they don't understand the grace of God and they don't understand the effect that it has on the heart of mankind.

And so the kind of culminating moment of this meeting with this Baptist pastor was that he gave me a, a life-changing challenge. And that was simply to go to the scriptures, go to the Bible and to read the word of God as a child to, to open up God's word, seeking truth and allow God's word to speak for itself.

And he said that if I did that, God was going to change my life. And he was going to open my eyes and reveal to me what the true gospel of Jesus really was. And so that day. It changed the trajectory of my life to the glory and praise of God. Not only did I hear the gospel, but I was then challenged to go to the word of God and to seek truth for myself and because of my stubbornness and pride, I ended up doing that.

And so that, that day in that meeting with pastor Benson , is a memory and experience that that is forever etched in my heart. Wow. 

Ryan: Talk about a divine encounter. That's amazing. Yeah. 

 Yeah. So so after that point, I mean, did you start reading the Bible like a child yet? Or was there another event that, you know, got you reading? 

Micah: So I did but I didn't start reading it like a child. You know, admittedly, I began the process in a very arrogant mentality, believing that reading the Bible was going to prove Mormonism to be true.

And so that was my expectation of reading the Bible. So I want to clearly say that I wasn't looking for truth outside of the construct of Mormonism. So I didn't believe there was truth outside of Mormonism. And so my,  expectation of this entire process of reading the new Testament was going to be that I would walk away with my faith and testimony in Mormonism, further strengthened.

 So I think that. It's evidence of God pursuing the lost that I wasn't looking to be found because I didn't know, I needed to be found. I wasn't looking to, to have sight because I didn't know that I was blind and yet God did. And so I began this process. I, I committed myself to reading the new Testament from beginning to end for the first time in my life as a result of pastor Benson's challenge.

And so I began to read the new Testament daily, and I did that for the remainder of my two year Mormon mission trip. And I had about 20 months left of that two year commitment. And in that timeframe ended up reading the new Testament in total 12 times from beginning to end. 

Ryan: Yeah, that's amazing. So was there a particular time let's, let's get into your rock bottom, you know, was there a particular time that you felt just the most apart from God, 

Micah: you know yes. I went through a very gradual process for 20 months of being washed by the water of the word of God is always undergoing this transformation in as is.

I knew that God was opening my eyes to something that he was drawing me into himself. I, I never foresaw that my ultimate destination would be leading me away from the Mormon church. So as much as I was learning about what the scripture taught, the gospel Jesus, like my heart was just, you know, being centered on this incredible grace and love of God and Christ.

And, and yet, I didn't know. that was going to lead me away from my religious roots. And so I got to the point where I had about three weeks left of my two year mission commitment. I was reading the book of Hebrews for, I guess, the 12th time. And I began to read Hebrews seven through 10 and to summarize the message of the author of Hebrews, it is that Christ alone is all sufficient in Christ alone is all Supreme to everything, including the old law.

Well, in Mormonism, all of these elements of the old law, the prophets, the high priests, the ordinances, the temples, those were all foundational to my faith as a Latter Day Saint. I, I believed that those things were necessary in contributing to my right standing with God. But when you read the book of Hebrews, it becomes very clear that every element of the old law was a earthly type and shadow of a spiritual fulfillment and reality to come.

And so it was never meant to be eternal and it was never meant to be salvific that it was all pointing to one ultimate hope and that hope is Christ. It was the Messiah, the Maschiach that was promised from the beginning who would take away the sin of the world. So I realized reading Hebrews seven through 10, wait, Jesus is the only high priest.

After the order of Melchizedek. He is the offering. He is the temple. He himself encompassed all of those things that they were all just pointing to what Jesus was going to do. And once Jesus fulfilled those things and offered himself on the cross and was buried and raised on the third day, that those things no longer had any bearing with man's relationship with God and as that temple veil was torn from top to bottom, mankind was then given free access to God through the finished work of Christ, no longer through these ordinances and no longer phrase, this earthly building and institution.

And so we're talking about rock bottom moment. Well, my rock bottom moment was, the church is not true. The, the very institution to which I have dedicated my life is not built on the true saving gospel of Jesus. It is built on a false gospel and I was terrified and I was terrified because. Everything that I knew and believed in a vowel was, was washed away.

That foundation was ripped down under me, but the praise of God his mercy toward me was that the entire time, 12 times reading the new Testament unknowingly God was rebuilding my foundation underneath that sand without even recognizing it so that when the living waters came and they pulverized that house and they washed away, you know, that Sandy foundation, there was a foundation there all along and that foundation was Christ and his gospel.

And so my rock bottom was, well, what do I do now? I mean, this, this whole life that I know and love is so invested culturally relationally into Mormonism and this understanding that Mormonism isn't true. It means that my life moving forward will never be the same that I can never go back to the only life that I had ever known and loved.

And that was a terrifying prospect for me at that time of my life. Oh 

Ryan: yeah. Oh my gosh. It came to imagine Yeah.

so you talk about many hurricanes in the book, right? So would you just take us, to that night in Beverly Hills your, your, your hurricane of your soul. So talk to us about what happened 

Micah: there. Well, when I had had this revelation, that Mormonism wasn't true. It scared me and I was trying to figure out what to do and where to go from there.

And one of the things that I struggled with was does God love me? And will he forgive me? And, and I had to come to this moment of complete and utter brokenness before the Lord, this God just stripping me just figuratively, naked before him to where I couldn't hide behind my religiosity any longer. I couldn't hide behind , my good works , of man-made origins.

And I just had to recognize that God saw every part of me, every thought, every sin all the things that I had known and done in my life and, . In a sense, felt hopeless. Like I know even though I'm so good on the outside, like every human being knows what we are on the inside. And I recognize that I am not a good person, that I've lived my entire life following a false gospel.

I've been going out every day as a missionary, just like Saul of Tarsus. , like I've been fighting against the very God that I've been claiming to serve and do I deserve to be forgiven and do I deserve to be loved by that God, that even when I was his enemy, that he would still love me. And that's the beauty of God is that he does Romans five.

You know, that God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, even when we were his enemies, he would reconcile us to him by the death of his son. And so I had this moment of just of, of hopelessness of recognizing that I couldn't do it myself, that I wasn't good.

I wasn't worthy. I was not righteous that I deserve death in hell, but then the love of God poured into my heart through the holy spirit where all of the things that I had read over the last 20 months, all of the scriptures that had been embedding themselves in my heart and soul came to the surface where I recognized, but God being merciful.

And, and so God's mercy had been revealed to me in Christ that God, the whole time he knew that I was sinful. He knew that I was unworthy. He knew that I would never be good enough. And that's why he sent Jesus to die for my sins. And then I had this beautiful, but simple revelation just of how deep and vast and wide God's love for me really was that Jesus.

Stood in my place as my substitute and one upon the cross. And he took upon himself, the penalty and the death and the wrath of God that I deserved and that he bore on his body, my sins on the tree. And that because of what Christ did, I could be forgiven and that God loved me. And that love was perfectly revealed in Christ.

And all I had to do was trust in Jesus. And so it was in that moment that I fell to the floor and laid in the shape of a cross. And I, I just surrendered my life to Christ and, and professed that he alone was the only way to salvation. And by God's grace, I was spiritually born again and baptized through the word of God, 

Ryan: praise God, praise God, a much more simple way of being saved, 

just letting go. Ah, so beautiful. So what did you notice happen after that personal encounter with Jesus and finally getting it? 

Micah: Well I noticed that I could no longer profess the things that I had been professing as a Mormon. And so I was in a very challenging predicament because here I was wearing the white shirt tie and the name tag with the church's logo on it and was expected to go out daily and to convert people to this religion.

When I now knew that it no longer represented you know, the truth is I thought that it did. And so I pleaded with God , and tried to figure out what was expected of me now and what he wanted me to do and how I was supposed to come forward to my friends and my family and my missionary peers and my leaders.

. And tell them what he had done in my life. And so God's answer to my predicament happened just just two days after I had had that born again, experience where as a Mormon missionary, who was about to conclude my two year mission, as I stated previously, I only had three weeks left of this two year commitment.

That it's a tradition that the Mormon missionaries who were going to go home soon, stand and give a public testimony in front of their missionary peers. And so I was supposed to give a testimony and of course the timing was all by the grace of God, because I now had a testimony that was vastly different than the testimony that I had had my entire life.

And my testimony was now solely in one solid unshakable foundation. And that was the rock of Christ. 

Ryan: Yeah. So Mormon testimony? What, what is that? 

Micah: Yeah, so a testimony and Mormonism, there's essentially five pillars of a Mormon testimony.

And so they are these five things. Number one, that Jesus is the Lord. Number two, that the Mormon prophet is the prophet and the mouthpiece of God. Number three, that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism is a prophet of God. Number four that the book of Mormon is the word of God. The book of Mormon is the, the extra biblical scripture in Mormonism.

And number five that the Mormon church itself is the only true and living church of Jesus Christ on the face of the earth. And so that testimony is something that is, is taught from the time that you're a young child from the time you're four or five years old, you share that testimony and you've been developing that testimony, you know, throughout your childhood.

And then up until you go on your mission. And so that had been my testimony. My entire life was Jesus plus all of these other things. And now, you know, Jesus, plus those things equals my salvation and now my testimony was Jesus equals salvation. And so so when I was expected to share a testimony, the understanding is that you get up and you share a proper Mormon testimony, a testimony that encompasses.

Right. Those five pillars of the faith. And so I got up there and I knew that I had lost four of those pillars, but I had gained one and one alone. And so I got up there and my testimony was simply that the one thing that I had learned was that Jesus alone was all that I needed to be saved. And that I was saved not by my works, but by his grace alone.

And that for the first time in my life, I had the assurance of the forgiveness of my sins. I knew that I was saved and redeemed by the blood of Christ, not because of the laws and the works and the ordinances that I had done, but because of what God had done for me in sending Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for my sins.

And so that was an unusual testimony to hear in a Mormon meeting. And from that point I knew. I could no longer hide the transformation that God had made in me, nor did I want to I just didn't know what the full repercussions of that transformation was, was going to be. 

Ryan: Right. Yeah. So then what happened?

So you shared this testimony and everyone's looking at you. 

Micah: Yeah, it was actually, it was a very powerful moment. There are many Mormon missionaries in the audience who I knew were impacted. Some of them had tears in their eyes. A lot of them, I don't think had considered the power of the gospel or the power of God's love in that way before.

And I know that God planted seeds. My Mormon leader was also there, however, and he was not so pleased. And so two days later after I shared that testimony, my Mormon leader called me and wanted to meet with me face to face, and I knew this isn't going to be good because I. Was fully aware that he knew that my faith had changed.

 And that if I was forthright to him about the transformation of that faith, that it was going to come at a cost and that cost was going to be, losing my life in Mormonism. And for me, my mother was a tenured professor at BYU. My father was a high priest in the Mormon church. Other older brothers, faithfully served missions.

I had been a student on scholarship at BYU previous to my mission. All of my friends and my community, right? I mean, everybody that I knew in love that was part of this, religious community. And I knew that all of those things would be at stake, including , my relationships with my own family members.

And that was a difficult moment for me. As I faced going to meet with my Mormon leader because , the devil was doing everything he could to discourage me and to, , expose my weakness and to get me to figure out a way to compromise the gospel. And I considered all these things in my mind.

Well, I can say it this way, or I could do it like this in a way that's not going to get me in trouble and , all these other things. And as I was reading the Bible seeking for strength and encouragement, I was led to Matthew chapter 16, where Jesus says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

And then he says, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul. And I cannot even begin to convey how convicting that scripture was in the recognition that this is what God was calling me to do now was, just like those first century apostles as Jesus walked the shore of Galilee and said, come follow me.

And it said they straightway left their nets and their in their boats. And we know that the rest of their lives were dedicated to the cause of the gospel. That that's what God was calling me to do to trust that what I had in him was, was greater than anything that I would ever lose because of him. And God gave me , that strength and that encouragement and I just remembered.

Thinking to myself, you know what? It doesn't matter what I lose or what I give up or what I walk away from, because I have found something that is infinitely greater than anything that this world has ever offered me. And I had tasted everything religiously, academically athletically, and, you know, I had reached the pinnacle of, of everything that I had done in my life.

And I had never found. Anything that had fully satisfied me until Christ had filled that void in my heart. And so I knew that Jesus was the all sufficiency of my every need. And so I basically said, you know what? It doesn't matter because if I have Jesus, I have everything. And that's the hope that every Christian should have no matter where we are or what our background is or what we're asked to give up and walk away from that we have that hope that, that our satisfaction is not in this world.

And it's not found in the things of this world because those things will always leave us empty and unsatisfied, and only Jesus can give us that, which eternally satisfies. And, and I remember a verse that I had read John 6 35. Where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

And whoever believes in me shall never thirst. And so Jesus alone gives us something that nothing had no one else does. And so I knew that my life was never going to be the same after this meeting. 

Ryan: Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. Such a courageous moment for you and your parents , how do they react to all this?

Micah: Well, so they were still back in Utah at that point. So I was still on my mission in Florida. I met with my moral mission leader and by the grace of God, I told him, this is what I found. I've been reading the Bible. I've come to know what the true gospel is. I've recognized that my salvation is secure in Christ and I don't need the Mormon church to be saved.

And not only that, but I think it's actually teaching a false gospel. And so I was sent home from my mission. It was terminated three weeks early. And so that's when my parents got involved because my mission, leader out in Florida called my parents. And they were told that I had the spirit of the devil in me and that I was being deceived.

And so they had a heads up and I give my parents , a lot of credit too, to the glory of God because they. were so loving through this process, not to say that it wasn't difficult not to say that they were fully understanding, but they didn't stop loving me. And so when I got home, I actually met with my parents and my leader in Utah.

And so the four of us met and it was actually a very eyeopening experience for my parents because my Mormon leader just very harshly abased me, I mean, was, just very unkind and unloving and, Punitive toward me and my parents were sitting there watching this man tell me that I was being led astray by Satan.

And all I was doing was sharing a testimony of Jesus Christ. And I think that that experience was actually very impactful for my parents to say like, wait a minute, if my son, like he's not leaving Mormonism so he can go off and be a heathen , which a lot of people do. Like I wasn't going into the secular realm.

I wasn't going so I could go drink and do drugs and, all this other stuff. It was like, I was just turning all my focus and hope and trust in Christ alone. And here I was being disciplined by my religious leadership. By the church that was claiming to be Christ's very church. And I was told that, you know, I was filled with the spirit of the devil because of my profession of Christ.

And so from that point forward God began to work in their hearts. And I remember that night going back to their house and just having a very short conversation in the kitchen. And my parents were just in shock because here my mother was this world renowned professor at BYU, my father, , the reputation that they had garnered in their community and, me as their prized Mormon son sent home from his mission for being an apostate.

And, and for them, it was just shocking. And I can't imagine what they were going through at that time, but , they were curious, , why are you doing this? Like, why have you given up your faith in the church? And so I was able to share the gospel very simply with them. And give them the same challenge that I had been given.

And that was just go to the source, right? I'm not going to change your mind. I'm not going to convince you. I can't save you, but the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. And so go to the Bible, read the new Testament and just see what you find. And so I gave that challenge to my parents.

 I give it to my siblings and God begins to work in their hearts and lives over time. Man 

Ryan: So, , what has been some of the fruit from that decision that has come from your testimony, and , your 

Micah: change.

Yeah. So the, the first loved one of mine that got saved was actually my high school Mormon girlfriend. And so, as I mentioned previously, we had those strict communication rules where we could only hand-write people outside of our immediate family. So Alicia and I. Had been handwriting letters for two years.

And I had been sharing with her what God was doing in my heart. She was a student at BYU at the time, very devout Mormon. And so I had issued her the challenge to read the Bible as I was still reading it as a Mormon missionary. And she had come to saving faith in Christ and was born again, kind of simultaneous with me, which is incredible. She had her own journey of coming to faith by the grace of God, and then immediately after my mission, she and I ended up leaving Utah and moving to Florida and we eloped. And so we've been married almost 16 years now and have three children. My older brother, Matt and my younger sister, Katie came to saving faith in Christ by the grace of God, went to the word of God and were transformed by the gospel message.

Now my parents. They had everything in the world to lose. And as much as I had to lose it, it paled in comparison to what my parents would have to lose for a profession of faith in Christ alone. I mean, if my mother professed that she no longer believed in the Mormon church, she would lose her job. She would lose her tenureship.

She would lose, you know, everything that she'd worked decades for in her professional field. But , my parents were very curious and I think that out of curiosity, they wanted to know why I was willing to give up everything that I had worked for for Jesus alone. And so my mother incredibly began her journey in the gospel of John.

And John one, one says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was God. And right there was a contradiction between the nature of the eternal nature of Jesus revealed in the scripture and the Jesus that she knew and Mormonism. And so she continued through the gospel of John and God eventually saved her and opened her eyes to the sufficiency of Christ alone.

My father, just a few months later. And so that was back in 2007. And so my mother resigned her job. She walked away. My father walked away from his business, his clientele from their home, their lives, their community in Utah. They moved to Florida in their mid fifties at the time. And literally born again, started over, , they were not only in, in faith, but even in the world.

And they moved to south Florida and started everything over, but holding fast and firm to Christ and fixing their eyes on him and my mother .

 Has been an incredible witness of the gospel. She wrote a book about eight years ago called unveiling grace that was published by Zondervan and was a best bestseller.

And she's been all over the world doing ministry as well, sharing the gospel of Christ. And they're just such faithful examples of the gospel. And so I, you know, , it never ceases to amaze me how the grace of God changes people. You know, it's like, I was not somebody.

who should have been changed. Just like Saul of Tarsus was not somebody who should have been changed in the, in the church, looked at him and said, he's the last guy. And in fact, when reports of Saul's conversion began to make their way people didn't believe it and they didn't want to believe it because they thought, well, this is the guy, number one, he, he's not going to change the number two.

He doesn't deserve it. And that's how it's loved or the worthy is that none of us do. And in that parable, The lost sheep. It's like, all of us are the one sheep that's, that's kind of the moral of the story. None of us are the 99 because none of us are righteous. So Jesus left the 99 to search each one of us who was lost and bring us into his arms.

And so that's what God did for me. It's what he did for my family. Kind of, even for several people that I love, one of my, my best friends on my Mormon mission, Joseph has also come to saving faith in Christ and ended up marrying my sister and are part of our ministry Adam's Road. And so I just give all the glory to God.

Ryan: I love what you said. I heard you talking about you referred to yourself and some YouTube video that you were in as a trophy of God's grace and I just, I love that. It's just a beautiful way of of, of phrasing it.

 Talk to us about your ministry of Adam's Road. 

Micah: Yeah. So after I got saved, there were several people in my life that got saved as well. In fact, there were five of us, former Mormons. Four of us were former Mormon missionaries who had come to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And we were all musicians. And so we got together and started a at the time, a band called Adams road. And begin to write music based on our testimonies of the gospel of Christ. And so that ministry has since morphed into a more mature ministry where we put the word of God to music, we go out, we preach, we share the word of God.

We equip the church we train. And so we spend about four to five months every year on the road, living in a tour bus, traveling all over north America, sharing the gospel, sharing our testimony, sharing music. And one of our hearts from the beginning has been that we wanted to give the gospel for free that Paul's encouragement to the Corinthians where he says, what then is my reward that in preaching the gospel, I can offer it free of charge.

And so our heart from the beginning has been to do that. So all of our music is free. All of our materials are free. We preach the gospel for free. We don't have any fees or any requirements or anything else. And we have our own tent making operation and business in Florida where we actually own a historic hotel that is a ministry in and of itself.

which finances all of our personal living so that we can go out and not be a burden on the church. And so we've been doing that now for 15 years and have seen God use our ministry, user testimonies and the simplicity of ourselves to, to reach people all over the world. Wow. 

Ryan: Micah, that's amazing. It's so amazing.

Yeah. So Micah for our last question would you just take us back to the day of testimonies from the elders? On-mission you know, your, your final zone conference, what do you think would have happened differently? If you hadn't shared your real testimony in Christ that day, 

Micah: you know, My testimony would be different.

 Because , that moment of publicly sharing my testimony, the gospel of Christ set off a chain reaction that led to my meeting with my mission, president led with my termination of my mission early, that led to me then going home and confronting my family and sharing the gospel and in the formation of our ministry and really everything else that happened including, you know, the, the missionaries that were there.

There actually three missionaries that were in that room who to this day are, are saved and following Christ. There's a lot to go, but that's still a testimony of the gospel of the grace of God. And so, I think that it's important to recognize that when God gives us opportunities to share the gospel, whatever that means, whatever that costs, however uncomfortable, it may be to do it, to be faithful, to that, to recognize that God can and will use it in, in powerful ways.

And, and I'm grateful. Hmm, the grace of God sustained me and gave me strength to share that testimony and my testimony hasn't changed and I'm not going to stop sharing it. You know, whether it's in a public platform in front of thousands of people, or whether it's to the person next to me in line at Walmart that, that we are called to go out and to make disciples of all nations, to proclaim the gospel to all of creation.

And so that's my heart and I hope that that's your heart as well. 

Ryan: Yeah. Wow, Micah, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that. I mean just what an incredible story your passion for the Lord is just so contagious and I just, I have so appreciated just talking to you and feel inspired myself. 

Micah, thank you so much again for being on the show. It's been amazing, 

Micah: Ryan, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. 

Ryan: Yeah. Bless you, man. Bless you and your ministry.

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