truth

Coverup?

Q. Why does the Church not tell people that the Prophet Smith “translated” part of the [Book of Mormon] by looking into a hat using a seer stone? An Elder of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles wrote about this in the Ensign [the Church’s monthly English-language publication], but why don’t missionaries tell the whole story of the translation? It seems like the Church is hiding something.

I understand how you must feel — betrayed to learn about something that seems so odd for the first time, but it really isn’t that odd. One of the best ways to make Mormonism out to be cultish and strange is to take facts completely out of their context–just leave them standing there naked and defenseless. Learning about the process of translation is the best way to understand this fact in its context. nelson

Elder Russell M. Nelson gave a great talk about the process of translation at the Missionary Training Center, and he spoke about this process of Joseph figuring out how to translate.

It does seem supernatural, but so are most of the amazing stories in the scriptures–Moses parting the Red Sea, Joshua crossing the River Jordan, marching around Jericho seven times and the walls collapsing, David slaying Goliath, Samson killing 2,000 Philistines, Christ healing people–himself rising from the dead! etc. We come to expect supernatural things from our God and His servants. Joseph’s use of a seer stone or the Urim and Thummim to translate fits in with all the other miracles that have been documented in the scriptures.

The Church’s curriculum department must meet the needs of all members. This means everyone from the just-baptized and uninitiated to the seasoned scholars. It’s a tall order to serve milk to some and meat to others, so what generally happens is everyone mainly gets milk. I think the Church prefers that members who are prepared to get more carnivorous in their pursuit of Church history and deeper doctrines learn it through independent study. But the information is readily available to those who want to know. I searched “seer stone” on lds.org and it came up with a list of links with conference talks, manuals, explanations, scriptural citations and other information.

The Church isn’t trying to hide anything–if it isn’t spoon fed into your mouth each week at church, seek it out on your own through prayer, scripture study and other resources (like lds.org). The Lord will readily teach a searching mind (see Matthew 7:7).

Q. I’ll throw a quick question at you. How can you claim your church tells “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” if historically they have changed their beliefs because of social pressure? (i.e. polygamy, blacks receiving the priesthood, and even changing the Book of Mormon from “cursed” to whatever they changed it too.)

Good question. The essence of what you’re saying is “if you say you belong to the TRUE church of Jesus Christ, then why isn’t that truth unchanging?” Right?

We’ll get to the “social pressure” in a minute.

Well, the thing is, God commands and His servants obey. Sometimes God tells His servants to do one thing, and then tells someone else to do the opposite. Both things are commandments, though, and both things are right in their context.

Examples?

How about when Jesus came and overturned the ENTIRE system of Mosaic law? It must have really made some people mad when Christ started saying,
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. . .
don’t commit adultery,
don’t kill,
divorce is okay with the proper documents,
don’t swear by your own self–swear oaths in the Lord’s name,
an eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth,
love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say unto you . . .
don’t even lust,
don’t even get angry,
divorce isn’t okay unless the reason is fornication,
don’t swear oaths at all,
resist not evil and turn the other cheek,
love your enemies.

Talk about changing policy!

You would respond (as I would) that it was the necessary evolution of the religion–that Jesus came to FULFILL the Law of Moses, as part of the grand design of the earth and our salvation. You would say that it is God’s will that Jesus came and taught us the Higher Law. I agree. I also agree that God can keep doing that. When we tell God that He can’t keep giving us higher instruction, we damn ourselves.

How about the revelation that Peter received on the housetop that he should start preaching the gospel to Gentiles? That shook some people to the core. It was such a departure from the way it had been before! But God’s timing was (of course) infallible and the church grew.

You ask about changing beliefs because of social pressure, which I think is an important point to examine. Plural marriage was introduced in the church by Joseph Smith and then discontinued by Wilford Woodruff, the 4th president of the Church. This was the scene in the Church after the Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed in 1887:

“The church was disincorporated, the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company was dissolved, and all property belonging to the Church, with the exception of buildings used exclusively for religious worship, was escheated to the government. Hundreds of men who had contracted plural marriages were heavily fined, and imprisoned. All persons who could not subscribe to a test oath which was provided especially for those who practiced or believed in the practice of plural marriage, were disfranchised [lost political power, voting, etc.]”. (Clark, James R., ed. Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 5:320. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-1975).

It seems to me that if social pressure was going to sway him to change course, he would have done it before the Church fell down around him.

Woodruff said, “I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I did do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write”

The same kind of scenario was repeated with the Priesthood being made available to all worthy male members of the Church. The fact is, not until God said go, did the church go. This is not to say that the Church didn’t uphold the Civil Rights movement, or believe that all people should be given equal rights. This just means that God hadn’t told the Prophet to extend the Priesthood to everyone yet (see the Peter example, above). But it was time to extend it to a broader population. He still hasn’t given the Priesthood to everyone, though. Women still don’t hold the Priesthood and there is plenty of social pressure currently to make that happen, but it hasn’t. And it most likely won’t. The Church doesn’t do things because “everyone is doing it”. We do things when God commands.

So I end this post with a question to you: People may accuse us of “flip flopping”, but can you find a church that is honestly more consistent with the church that Christ formed when He was on the earth? With prophets, apostles, teachers, priests, elders, missionaries, miracles, healing, continued revelations, fasting, tithing, temples, ordinances and priesthood ordained from God?

The only way to really know is to pray about it.

Come Hear the Voice of a Real Prophet

monson_medium Today and tomorrow are what is known to Mormons worldwide as “General Conference Weekend.” It happens twice a year — the first weekend of April and of October. It’s a broadcast service in which the living Prophet and the twelve Apostles speak to all the world. Usually, Mormons are the bulk of the audience, but the messages are for all people, regardless of religion, and I would like to invite you to tune in.

If you live anywhere near Utah, you’ll likely find the station on broadcast TV and radio. Satellite carries the BYU channel throughout the world. I believe some cable companies also carry it. If all else fails, the Church offers live streaming video on their website, along with LOTS of options for streaming audio in whichever language you prefer.

The schedule is as follows (Mountain DST):
Saturday April 5, 2008
10:00am – noon ~ First session
2:00pm – 4:00 pm ~ Second session

Sunday April 6, 2008
10:00am – noon ~ Third session
2:00pm – 4:00 pm ~ Fourth session

And please, share with us what you thought of it.

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ADDENDUM:
The weekend is over and there were some terrific talks. I particularly liked Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ sermon on testimony. How can we know things? There is more knowledge than can be gained by the scientific method, and a lot of it is more important.

Since there is no longer live streaming video, check out the Church’s online audio and video archives to catch the talks you might have missed.

What Do Mormons Believe? – The Restoration

What is it that makes us different? Why do Mormon missionaries knock on the doors of Christians if they preach the gospel of Christ? It is more than a desire to gather sheep into our flavor of worship.

Since the Garden of Eden the Lord has given us instructions on what we ought to spend our time doing in life. His pattern is to choose a mortal man, call him a prophet, and dispense the information through him. He needs two things: access to truth and authority (priesthood) to preach it. It’s simple and efficient. At least, it is when the people listen to him.

Invariably, the backlash against the prophet leads to a revolt against him and against God. When the prophet is killed, the dispensing of gospel truth is thwarted and the people are left in the dark. We Mormons call this “apostasy.” Fortunately, the Lord has always followed apostasy with a new prophet and a new dispensation, beginning with Adam, then Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, etc.

Case in point: John the Baptist was called as a prophet to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry. He and Jesus taught the gospel truth, restored the priesthood power, and organized the Church of Jesus Christ. Jesus called Peter and the other apostles to lead the flock after His departure.

Up to this point you probably feel comfortable. Here comes the primary theological difference between Mormons and most other Christians:

John the Baptist was beheaded, Christ was crucified, and the apostles were rejected and murdered. They who held the authority of the Lord were eliminated and the world became apostate again. This time it lasted for over a millennium, allowing a smattering of false teachings from non-prophet church leaders to creep in.

Reformers such as Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, Roger Williams, and others saw problems in the religions of their days; they did their best to correct them, but lacked the capacity (and the authority) to fully revert to Christ’s original church. They could not authoritatively speak for God, since he had not spoken to them or given them permission, and many of these reformers recognized that fact.

This dark apostasy came to its end when a young man of 14 years prayed in seclusion in a grove of trees in 1820. Joseph Smith was looking for the true church. Not a nice church, or a charismatic church, or a ceremonial church, but the church that God himself directed. As he searched the Bible he read,

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5

He felt that if anyone lacked wisdom he did, for what to do he did not know. And unless he could gain more wisdom he would never know. In a grove of trees near his country farmhouse, he knelt and prayed. In his words:

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me…

“When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

“My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right…—and which I should join.” Joseph Smith-History 1:16-18

Joseph received an answer from the lips of the Savior himself: That his Church was in apostasy. There were no prophets on the earth and there hadn’t been for over a thousand years.

However, even in these demoralizing words was a message of hope: the apostasy was now broken, and Joseph was receiving direct communication from God. Over the course of Joseph’s life, he was visited by the Lord, and also by other angelic messengers, many more times. He was chosen to be a prophet and through these visitations the priesthood authority was restored. The church was reorganized upon the foundation of apostles and prophets.

Now, we carry this amazing message of hope to all nations of the earth. We are honest in our desire for others to know that the Lord’s work is restored. His successor, Thomas Monson, is the living prophet today. We know it, and we want you to know it too.

How? It’s simple. Pray.

God knows whether this is all true, and I daresay he has an opinion on the matter. Ask him yourself. I have, and so have millions of now-Mormons. You may not receive as glorious a visitation as Joseph did, but he will answer you. Often it comes as a feeling from the Holy Ghost, or an idea you hadn’t thought of. Maybe in a word from a neighbor. Ask and ye shall receive. If you won’t ask, you don’t receive.