I'm a life long member of the church and I really need a serious reply..... Did Bruce Mcconkie or any GA or prophet ect. ever answer this question: if the prophets can err on doctrine then how can the "standard works" be trusted? Since prophets are the ones who recorded/wrote them? Time and time again when there are contradictions in doctrine or what "leaders" say we're told to refer to the "standard works"
Also is there any answers put forth by church authorities conserning the obvious connection between the Freemason rituals and the temple endowment? Or any church record on how the endowment came about? I've scoured the Internet and church lediture but much of it is vague concerning the revelation (if any)for the endowment....

I remember reading an apologetic article within the last year or two that suggested that the racism in the Book of Mormon (dark skin is a curse, righteousness causes skin to turn white) was due to the racist attitudes of the Nephite authors. This suggests that the scriptures are as potentially flawed as any prophet is after he dies.

But if Joseph translated with a rock that God made the words appear on why wouldn't God change the words? Stupid argument.

Racist and misogynist, both of a 19th century flavor. Try to find one strong woman similar to Rachel or others of the OT in the BOM, D&C or PofGP.

If modern "Indians" came from the Lamanites, why are/were many Native American tribes matriarchal if their ancestors were so patriarchal?

Generally speaking, patriarchy leads to war and matriarchy leads to peace. Surely during the 200 year peace there would have been prominent women. But that wascally Mormon thought they weren't worth mentioning!

I remember a friend of mine convincing me that jackalopes don't exist. We had a long discussion until he finally said, "How would they get down their rabbit holes?"

It only takes one physical impossibility to sink a theory. The BOM has many, such as wooden submarines and Laban's murder.

Seriously, all you gotta do is look into scientific accuracy of the Book of Abraham.

Every Egyptologist on the planet not on BYU's payroll has stated that the Book of Abraham papyri translation was 100% wrong. The papyri does not even come from the bronze age (the age in which Abraham lived), they come from the iron age circa 200 BC. All the facsimiles are 100% wrong. They have nothing to do with Abraham whatsoever--they are just common funeral papyri buried with every mummy from the Book of Breathings from the Book of the Dead.

Behold Joseph's divine gift of translation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvdqiTOf0PA

The Joseph Smith 'inspired version' is the most correct Bible. You can't go wrong if you use it.
Solid doctrine the church follows..., like 1 Tim 3:12 where it says a Deacon should be the husband of ONE wife.

You can be assured this is Truth - Joseph Smith said so.

I feel I need to further explain my original post....the original post was intended to be connected to the Bruce R Mcconkie interview in which he basically said that official church doctrine can be found in the "standard works" and thats where we should look for answers. because as he stated a prophet can be wrong sometimes. As in the Adam/God Brigham Young doctrine. I wish Mcconkie could have answered (or tried) to answer my question: The Book Of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of Great Price ect. were all recorded, compiled and translated by prophets, seers and revelators. Who as Mcconkie admits can be wrong. So now what?

There is no good answer. The conundrum is a tautology or circular argument. The written scriptures are the standard but they are subject to interpretation by church leaders. However church leader pronouncements are limited by the content of the written scripture. What is lacking is a valid external reference.

Which version of the so-called standard works?

The Book of Mormon has had thousands of changes mainly to hide its New York origin. Most of the early revelations to Joseph Smith later had significant revisions to "back date" early restoration events, and the PoGP Joseph Smith History contains numerous edits including the "First Vision" account.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2014 11:59PM by Templar.

I wish I'd made a copy of a brilliant piece someone wrote here about the circular reasoning used in explaining how we can know when a church leader is speak for the Lord or only for himself. It involved checking his statement against the scriptures. And how can we know which scriptures aren't mistranslated or corrupted? By comparing them to the statements of his modern prophets. And so on.

If you are approaching it with an open mind, you'll soon realize that the LDS scriptures were written completely by 19th century religious eccentrics and they reflect all the flawed opinions, racism and crackpot theories about the origins of peoples that were prevalent then. The whole thing is a fraud, top to bottom.