Why Are Calls Given?

It was the greatest shock of my life when God spoke to me. His voice came like an explosion upon my senses because I was alone in a little shack in Arizona.

I had tried to read the Book of Mormon and threw it against the wall, declaring aloud that it was “worse than the Bible!”

I was reading a short pamphlet titled “The Testimony of The Prophet Joseph Smith” when God spoke to me. I was reading it for the third time because I needed something to amuse me and the claims here were so stupid and far-fetched that they really amused me. God's voice was an explosion that rocked everything in my world, like an earthquake rocks a big city. Right out of nothing the voice of God dame to me, saying: “This is the truth!”

I knew instantly that this was God speaking. There was no doubt in my mind. I knew it was God. I also knew that God could not lie. Therefore, the words in that pamphlet were true. That jarred loose everything in my life system. Everything that I believed was cast down and thrown away. What had been on the floor was floating out my windows. All the little epigrams that had been hung on my walls were dashed to the floor, and crushed to a powder. The premises from which I made decisions were twisted and cast aside. The “truths” that had steadied me boiled away like dew. If there was a God, then none of the “truth” I had so laboriously collected were true. If Joseph Smith was truly a prophet then the Book of Mormon was Scripture and Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

I sank down upon the bed, stunned in much the same way as when a large artillery shell had exploded 20 feet away and many of my friends had been ripped to shreds while I had not a mark on me.

Truth; a man like me searches for truth for a lifetime. God said this was true. I shook my head to marshal what few faculties I had and began to read again. There was just so much there and every sentence was spinning my world again. There was no way that I could keep it balanced. All my moorings had come loose. All the errors of a lifetime were wanting to find a home in my mind again and tiny scratchings of doubt began to make place in my new surroundings. Once more that voice came, clear as before, but firm this time and less commanding. “This is the truth. Joseph Smith was a prophet. He saw God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.”

This time was like the after shock of a big earthquake when everything still standing is laid low. Things, thoughts and events of a lifetime had been jarred loose inside me the first time. When God spoke to me the second time He put a stone inside of me, a great, solid stone of truth that would never shake, slide or turn. It was to be my anchor that would hold my thoughts aligned and square. It was to be a compass that kept me pointed aright, and a gyroscope that would not let me fall.

NOTHING in my previous life had been either safe, or secure. Now I knew that I had a big rock of truth I could fasten my life to and KNOW it was sound. I could feel it, I could understand it, and I believed it with every fiber of my being.

As my life rearranged itself with truth as its center and new meanings were tied down and settled into place the astonishment of real peace came to me and I knew it would last for the rest of my life. Then God spoke to me again, for the third time. His voice was soft, gentle like a mist of drenching rain – a voice of confirmation that penetrated to the very depths of my soul: “This is the Truth.”

From that moment on I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and God is real. With years of trying you may someday convince me that I was never born, but this one thing I shall always be sure of: GOD IS REAL! He loves me and he has spoken to me in words of love.

My Testimony