 I had more joy following Jesus than I had with all of the world combined and I couldn't deny it anymore. 2014 YouTube was a pretty frightening place depending on what crowd you got pulled into. It marked the rise of YouTube pranksters, these down on their luck 20-something guys that sought to bring their audacious pranks to the limelight. Because of the iconic responses of many of the supposed strangers in the videos, accusations of the pranks being faked began to rise. That didn't stop these opportunists from continuing to crank out clickbait content. One of the pioneers of this genre was none other than Roman Atwood. He would often clickbait using overt sexuality or play up a stranger's negative reaction to a prank. Fast forward eight years later, Logan Paul, who I should note has had his own redemption arc, invited Roman Atwood onto his podcast. During the podcast, Roman revealed something that shook even longtime viewers of his content to their core. This is the story of the transformation of Roman Atwood. It gave me so much hope and joy. My mom's passing was easier. My life became easier. I had more joy than I ever found skydiving in Dubai or a successful YouTube channel or all the money that I could ever want in a bank account. I had more joy following Jesus than I had with all of the world combined. And I couldn't deny it anymore. Could this really be true? To fill in the gaps, after years of prank videos and social experiments, Roman took on the persona of a family vlogger, daily vlogging the lives of his wife and kids, moving to the middle of nowhere, Ohio and transforming his content from rated R to PG overnight. While the evolution of his content is fascinating, I'm personally more interested in his spiritual transformation. So what are we waiting for? Let's dive in. This ministry is supported by my patrons on Patreon. To support my work in equipping people to follow Jesus daily, become a supporter today. Best friend, soulmate. I 20 minutes without her, I'm texting her. I miss you. Yeah, that's amazing. He's talking about his wife here. And you're not Mormon. I am Mormon. Yeah, actually, I'm very nice. Yeah, we are. I'll give you a real story. Fascinating. It's something I've never told because I, 13 years on YouTube, no religion, no politics. So I'm gonna break out the, break out of the box for you. Here we go. For me, that's not the one. When I was a young, I don't know, 14, 15, my mother and father joined the LDS Mormon Church three plus years ago. My mother passed away. We were all on vacation. She's on a scooter. She literally falls off a scooter, passes away on the spot. I couldn't believe that. Devastated. That incident pulled Brittany and I both without ever talking to each other about it, to church. We weren't going to join a church. We just had to be part of this, this thing that my mother was a part of. Like something in my head was like, this is what she wants from me. So what are the differences between Mormonism and Christianity? I think this is an important question that we need to answer because a lot of people within the LDS Church or Mormons would identify also as Christians. Are they? You know that Latter-day Saints are Christians, right? As I've dug into the Mormon faith, one key aspect that keeps coming up is how we see Jesus. You see, the Jesus of Mormonism was created. He was once a man and yet he inherited Godhood. Now this belief is a direct contradiction with what it says in John one. Actually, it's one of my favorite passages in all of scripture because it is so clear and it is so glorious. Let me just read it for you here. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and this life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Who is this word that was with God in the beginning? That is Jesus. Another important distinction between Christianity and Mormonism is that Christianity teaches that God does 100% of the work in saving us. We see this truth in Ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9, among other places, but here it is, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing. It is a gift from God, not a result of your own works so that no one may boast. But here's the thing. Mormonism teaches that God will save us after all we can do. Let's say we can do 15% of the good works necessary to go to heaven. God will fill in the rest. In 2 Nephi 25-23 it says this, he said, for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. The LDS Church also teaches that if we obey heavenly Father that we one day can become like Jesus, a God. Yes, it's true, but Isaiah 43-10 says this, before me no God was formed nor shall there be after me. Okay, so Mormonism very clearly does not line up with biblical Christianity, but this really shouldn't be a surprise to us. After all the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, started the church when he said he received a revelation. He was considering the fact that all churches were wrong, that they had lost the way of Christ, and yet he had received this new or restored revelation that made it clear what the truth was in the church of Mormonism and through the book of Mormon. This is Alexa, may I know the purpose of your visit? We're missionaries and we're going around sharing messages about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and how that message can help us and our families grow closer to God. So even though Roman uses biblical language and language that Christians would use, Jesus, joy, peace, all these kinds of things, forgiveness, he's using them in a context that is very different and using definitions that are very different, because the Jesus that he's referring to was created. He is not God, or he is one of many gods to put it more clearly in his belief. But in the Bible, Jesus is equal with God. He is co-equal and co-eternal. So we're using the same terms, but we mean very different things. Okay, let's drop back into the podcast for a bit. And when we kept, we just kept naturally going. It was so heavy on me, man. Like it gave me so much hope and joy. My mom's passing was easier. My life became easier. I had more joy than I ever found skydiving in Dubai or a successful YouTube channel or all the money that I could ever want a bank account. I had more joy following Jesus than I had with all of the world combined. And I couldn't deny it anymore. So what are Christians supposed to make of the overflowing joy that Romans seems to have? It sounds like he's saying the right things. And after all, it gave him peace, joy, hope, comfort, all the good stuff. Okay, to answer that, I want to talk about Christians for a second. This is my problem when Christians use the evidence of their joy or happiness or peace as the fact that Christianity is true. They say, Hey, look, you know, Jesus did die and he did rise again because I'm happy or I'm joyful or I have peace. And that's why you need to believe in Jesus, because that is the exact argument that Mormons use. And honestly, a lot of the time they seem more happy and more joyful and more at peace than a lot of Christians do. So if it's up to that kind of measurement, a lot of Christians will fall short, but it's not, it's not, that is not the standard by which we discover what is true. Think about it for a second. If what is true is determined by my emotions or how I feel about something, then a lot of people's belief systems would be true and accurate as long as they give them peace, hope, joy, comfort, all these things. And arguably, those folks in Buddhism or Islam can claim those exact same feelings. Yes, I would argue that there's a deep sense of joy that can only be completed in the true biblical Christ and God. I understand that. I get that. But on the outside, everyone claims peace, joy, happiness as indication that their belief system is true. People from the LDS faith will often talk about this burning within their bosom or this fact that they just know that what they believe is true. Every time he mentioned the word of Christ, there was a glow. The more I heard, the more I felt happy, the more I felt at peace. And when he added that I would be with my mother and father again and get a second chance for them to see me who I am today, you know what, that's all I needed to hear. As Christians, we shouldn't be holding to that kind of weak argumentation. This is why I believe God revealed himself to us through the Bible. And though people often painted as a convoluted contradictory mess, it is not. Yes, it was written over a millennia by over 40 different authors, but it presents itself as a cohesive, intertwining narrative of God's pursuit of mankind, even though they rebelled against him. It's cooperated by eyewitness accounts and has more documents and manuscripts from its time compared to any other document in antiquity. It's not even close. We've been just trying to live as good humans, man. That's it. Like, we don't go, we don't, we're not too deep into the church, but we enjoy going and we just, I don't know, man. To be good people, that's the heart of it. Not just for LDS folks, but for most other folks too. If you ask them what they try to do, they try to be a good person. Isn't that enough? Wouldn't God respect a life lived as best we could? Even a life that we tried to live for others. Wouldn't that be enough for God? Well, here's what the Bible says. In James 2.10 it says, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking all of it. But in Romans 5.8 it says, but God showed his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you're someone that's part of the LDS faith and you're constantly concerned with measuring up or striving hard enough for being a good enough person, I want to offer you the words of Jesus. And this is the Jesus of the Bible, not Jesus the brother of Satan, not Jesus one of many gods, Jesus, who is God and our only Savior. Matthew 11.28, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. I pray that Roman encounters the Jesus of Scripture, the Jesus that can provide deep joy. And this joy is found in the fact that we no longer have to strive, we no longer have to do our own part in order to earn our salvation, but Jesus has done it for us. And now our joy can be made complete in him and his grace. That's my prayer for you as well. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe because I'm putting out new videos every single week. Until next time.