Posted by:
Elder Berry
(
)
Date: July 30, 2018 02:35PM
Mr. McConkie was quite the character. I was an older child in 1980. I've read this speech a few times wondering what he was talking about? Were Mormons back then really caught up in these Mormon heresies?
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-r-mcconkie_seven-deadly-heresies/I've commented under Bruce's words commenting on how absurd these truly are to me in my experience as a Mormon. I don't think as a believer I harbored much of this thinking. Did you?
"Heresy one: There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths."
"Eternal progression consists of living the kind of life God lives and of increasing in kingdoms and dominions everlastingly. Why anyone should suppose that an infinite and eternal being who has presided in our universe for almost 2,555,000,000 years, who made the sidereal heavens, whose creations are more numerous than the particles of the earth, and who is aware of the fall of every sparrow—why anyone would suppose that such a being has more to learn and new truths to discover in the laboratories of eternity is totally beyond my comprehension."
LOL! An infinite being "presiding" for a couple billion years? Seriously? I don't remember being taught he was still learning stuff. Were you?
"Heresy two concerns itself with the relationship between organic evolution and revealed religion and asks the question whether they can be harmonized."
"My reasoning causes me to conclude that if death has always prevailed in the world, then there was no fall of Adam that brought death to all forms of life; that if Adam did not fall, there is no need for an atonement; that if there was no atonement, there is no salvation, no resurrection, and no eternal life; and that if there was no atonement, there is nothing in all of the glorious promises that the Lord has given us. I believe that the Fall affects man, all forms of life, and the earth itself, and that the Atonement affects man, all forms of life, and the earth itself."
I was taught evolutionary theories were false and of The World. No one ever preached them or espoused them that I knew. Nowadays I hear Mormons all the time saying they can reconcile evolution thinking and their beliefs. It wasn't even entertained when I was a believer even a couple decades ago. How about you?
"Heresy three: There are those who say that temple marriage assures us of an eventual exaltation. Some have supposed that couples married in the temple who commit all manner of sin, and who then pay the penalty, will gain their exaltation eventually."
"Baptism is a gate; celestial marriage is a gate."
What pray tell in "the penalty"? Anyone know? And how many "gates" are there to get to those pearly ones? Jeez, anyone told or taught that their sealing was the same as a "Second Anointing"?
"Heresy four: There are those who believe that the doctrine of salvation for the dead offers men a second chance for salvation."
"Those who reject the gospel in this life and then receive it in the spirit world go not to the celestial, but to the terrestrial kingdom."
So old gentile Uncle Bob who vehemently denied "the gospel" when he was alive doesn't need anything other than baptism for the dead?
What is the church's position on Uncle Bob? Just process him like all the other names?
"Heresy five: There are those who say that there is progression from one kingdom to another in the eternal worlds or that lower kingdoms eventually progress to where higher kingdoms once were."
"They neither progress from one kingdom to another, nor does a lower kingdom ever get where a higher kingdom once was. Whatever eternal progression there is, it is within a sphere."
I think this was called "multiple mortalities" and I heard my parents talking about it in the 80s. I think some people believed it. I didn't because it sounded like reincarnation to me which I knew wasn't "the gospel." It was mostly "mysteries" Mormons who were looking for converts to their versions of Mormon crazy and these people eventually became polygamists I think or at least were excommunicated.
"Heresy six: There are those who believe or say they believe that Adam is our father and our god, that he is the father of our spirits and our bodies, and that he is the one we worship."
"We worship the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost; and Adam is their foremost servant, by whom the peopling of our planet was commenced."
This one cracks me up. No one believed it or taught it that I experienced because I didn't know about it until I was an adult and then I learned my ancestor Brigham actually taught it as "the gospel." IT was definitely a HUGE shelf item when I learned that fact.
"Heresy seven: There are those who believe we must be perfect to gain salvation."
"This is not really a great heresy, only a doctrinal misunderstanding that I mention here in order to help round out our discussion and to turn our attention from negative to positive things."
Not a "great heresy"??? I was taught this all the time. Of these heresies of Bruce Almighty this was "The One" that everyone took as "the gospel." How about you?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2018 02:36PM by Elder Berry.