Books of the Mormons: What Mormons base beliefs on

[jonny]

I came across this article from today's Santa Cruz Sentinal today. I can't really figure out the purpose of the article, other than to present LDS beliefs in a negative light (something that I thought most newspapers were above), but I wanted to share the article, make my comments, and allow others to make their comments.

I think anyone who reads this article can see the mocking undertone of the article. It's almost like the guy checked out the latest anti-mormon book from his favorite southern baptist library and wrote a book report.

Books of the Mormons: What Mormons base beliefs on

By Don Miller
Santa Cruz Sentinal

Mormons believe their church is the one and only true church established by Jesus Christ in New Testament times.


That church, however, was hopelessly corrupted soon after Jesus ascended into heaven, which led to what Mormons call the Great Apostasy that resulted in the misinterpretation and misteaching of many scriptures.


Mormons believe that the true church had to be restored, through the priesthood, a term which refers to male believers who have the authority to act in the name of God.

So far, so good, although his definition of the priesthood is way to simplistic to be correct. It is true that only LDS men are in priesthood offices in the LDS church, but I wouldn't say that priesthood only refers to male believers. Any LDS member who has attended the temple realizes and understands that women can also be given the authority to act in the name of God.

Here's a short, admittedly incomplete, history of the Mormon movement:


In 1823, 17-year-old Joseph Smith Jr., a young man who practiced so-called "black magic" to find buried treasures in his hometown of Palmyra, N.Y., was visited by the angel Moroni, who told him of a sacred text written on solid-gold plates buried on a nearby hill.

Did Joseph Smith practice "black magic"? Joseph Smith did have a reputation for helping people find lost property and other things with some stones that he had found. I wouldn't call this black magic as much as I'd call it treasure seeking. This is something that the author of this article is trying to describe in terms of our present views, when it really needs to be understood in terms of the culture where Joseph Smith was raised. The lack of research on the part of the author shows his bias in the article.

Treasure seeking was an epidemic in the area where Joseph Smith lived. There's no doubt that this rubbed off on Joseph Smith. In fact, Joseph Smith himself admitted that he was prevented from obtaining the plates because of his weakness for seeking treasure for years. He only obtained them when he had the right intentions. One of the men who employed Joseph Smith to help him look for treasure with this so-called "black magic" was Willard Chase, a Methodist class leader at the time who later became a minister. Josiah Stowell, another man who employed Joseph Smith to look for treasure, was a well-known Presbyterian in his community. The people in the New York area had little problem mixing magic and Christianity.

Eventually, Joseph was able to uncover and transcribe these plates, which became the Book of Mormon, the history of how an ancient Hebrew tribe left Jerusalem 600 years before the birth of Christ and traveled to North America.


This tribe eventually split into two rival groups, the Nephites, the fair-skinned good guys, and the Lamanites, who were not favored by God.


According to the Book of Mormon, Jesus, after his resurrection, visited North America to share his gospel with the two clans, who then quit fighting for a while, but eventually started up again.


The dark-skinned Lamanites eventually slaughtered all the Nephites, and became the ancestors of modern American Indians.


Mormon was a wise leader of the doomed Nephites, and his son was Moroni, who would eventually return as an angel to reveal to Joseph Smith that the church he would found would lead to the salvation of mankind.

I'm not going to comment on this summary of the Book of Mormon. It isn't extremely inaccurate, but it isn't how I would summarize the book.

But the greatest promise of the Mormon religion was that each follower would have an extraordinarily intimate relationship with God. Divine revelation, starting with Joseph Smith, was a bedrock of the new religion he founded in 1830.

This is true, and I believe it's what separates members of the LDS church from other Christians.

Mormons believe God has not always been the supreme being of the universe, but attained that status through righteous living and persistent effort. They believe God the Father has a "body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's."

I'm not sure that all of this is official church doctrine, but it would be accurate to say that many Mormons believe it or assume it. The "body of flesh and bones" part comes out of the scriptures.

Mormon leaders also have taught that Jesus' incarnation was the result of a physical relationship between God the Father and Mary. They believe Jesus is a God, but that any human can also become a god.

I don't really see why the Jesus incarnation stuff, something that isn't church doctrine, was included in the article. Most members of the church today wouldn't say this.

While there are far too many differences with Christianity to list here, for most Christians, Mormonism is seen as a false religion. Mormons, in turn, believe present-day Christians follow hopelessly corrupted doctrines and teachings and that as Latter-Day Saints, they are the true sons and daughters of Israel.

I'm not going to comment on what other Christians believe, but Mormons don't believe that Christians follow hopelessly corrupted doctrines. Most of the doctrines that Christians believe are also accepted by Mormons. Authority, not doctrine, is at the core of the restoration.

Another sacred text for Mormons is the revelation to Smith known as the Doctrine and Covenants. Section 132 of this text has become the rallying cry for polygamous fundamentalists. In it, the prophet described plural marriage as part of "the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on earth."

While Section 132 does mention plural marriage, that isn't the focus of this section, nor is it the focus of the Doctrine and Covenants. The section deals with marriage and at the end of the section it sets forth the laws governing plural marriage. In the seven pages of my D&C that this section comprises, 1/2 page is devoted to plural marriage. The rest of the section deals with things such as exaltation and celestial marriage.

After being arrested, Joseph Smith was murdered in Illinois in 1844 by a mob.

Can't argue with this one, although the author missed a great opportunity to introduce Masonry into his article!

Brigham Young, who also had multiple wives, later became leader of Smith's church, and led the Saints to the Great Basin of Utah.

The issue of polygamy became a national scandal, pitting the federal government against the LDS church, and kept Utah from gaining statehood.


In 1890, LDS leaders gave up polygamy.


The church, cleaned up of this nefarious practice, moved from being considered a wild-eyed sect of crackpots into its present standing as a pro-family, conservative, entirely sensible American faith.

I'm trying not to be offended, but did he just call my ancestors crackpots?

The church today excommunicates any member either practicing or openly advocating the practice of polygamy and believes that it is improper to call any of these splinter polygamous groups "Mormon."


But after the LDS church forsook polygamy, various splinter groups left to continue the practice, which persists today in Utah and neighboring states. Polygamist churches of Mormon origin are called Mormon fundamentalist.


Mormon fundamentalists believe the church sold them out to gain acceptance. Modern-day polygamists believe that the LDS church, in forsaking Section 132, has lost its way.


Fundamentalists also cite another part of the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 85, in which it was revealed to Joseph Smith that "one mighty and strong" will be sent to Earth to restore the Mormon church to its rightful place, which they say would include Joseph Smith's "most holy and important doctrine" of polygamy.


Both FLDS and mainstream Mormons believe that Smith was a prophet on the order of Moses, and believe in the same "scriptures" that Smith said were revealed to him.
There are between 30,000 and 40,000 FLDS polygamists living in the American West, Canada and Mexico — less than 1 percent of the LDS worldwide church.

I'm not FLDS so I can't comment on his stuff about them.

My summary on the article, I don't see it as having any purpose other than to demean the beliefs of members of the LDS church and present them in a less-than-favorable light. The author has a clear agenda.

 

[Katzpur]

A bunch of crap. So what else is new?

 

[PHOTOTAKER]

they have alot of history wrong... i personal thank it is irresposible...

 

[Bishka]

News outlets and the media do not care if the are irresponsible, as long as they have the story first.

 

[nutshell]

Was this considered a follow-up to their other article about "False Prophets" and polygamy? Is the Sentinel a religious paper?

Is there any documentation on how the old polygamy was practiced compared to the current practice by the F-LDS? It might be nice to get the differences out there for people to see and read.

 

[jonny]

Was this considered a follow-up to their other article about "False Prophets" and polygamy? Is the Sentinel a religious paper?

Is there any documentation on how the old polygamy was practiced compared to the current practice by the F-LDS? It might be nice to get the differences out there for people to see and read.

The sentinel isn't a religious paper as far as I know and I'm not aware of another article. It would make a lot more sense if it were a follow up to some other article. Otherwise, I'm having a hard time seeing its purpose.

 

[PHOTOTAKER]

heres an artical on the articals... Mormon perspective

 

[Katzpur]

heres an artical on the articals... Mormon perspective

Thanks, Phototaker. That was an excellent commentary.

 

[Callous]

I can only say may departure from the church had little to with the history of the church and more to do with the organization. Which is what I feel all religions or at least western religions all have in common.
As far as the history of the Mormon church goes it has much in common with the Freemasons in structure. That may upset some, but I must say I have great respect for the Mason.
I feel people are quick to discriminate against a status quo