Some people think the book Saints should not be subject to criticism. Maybe they think criticism of the book is equivalent to criticism of the authors, the Church, or something else apart from the words on the page. However, I don't think Saints has been, or ever will be, canonized as scripture.
I think Saints is an awesome book, but deeply flawed because of the way it imposes late 20th century M2C ideology onto figures in Church history who had never heard of, let alone contemplated, the idea that Joseph and Oliver and their contemporaries were ignorant speculators who misled the Church about the New York Cumorah.
Because I think the flaws in Saints could be easily corrected, I've offered some suggestions, both before and after the book was published. So far, all my suggestions have produced is the bizarre list of justifications for censorship that I wrote about in the previous post on this blog.
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To someone well informed about Church history, the revisionist Church history in Saints is not anything new. We've seen a pattern of Church history revisionism, driven largely by M2C ideology. We've come to expect that M2C intellectuals and their followers will censor references to the New York Cumorah at every opportunity.
Those familiar with Church history have shrugged our shoulders and laughed off these academic games because we know what the prophets and apostles have taught. We sustain prophets, not intellectuals.
But this is no longer a laughing matter.
Many Church members are ignorant of the teachings of the prophets and apostles about the New York Cumorah. This ignorance is growing, an inevitable development now that employees at BYU and CES teach students that the prophets were wrong.
In its current form, Saints not only contributes to that ignorance; it insures that this ignorance will be passed on to current and future generations around the world.
In this post, I provide an example of the teachings of the prophets and apostles that contradict the false historical narrative in Saints. This is an important General Conference address by President Marion G. Romney. You can read or watch the original here.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/10/americas-destiny?lang=eng
As you read these excerpts, realize that the intellectuals who promote M2C, and the historians behind Saints who are revising Church history to accommodate M2C, are teaching their students and readers that President Romney was merely expressing his own opinion--and that he was wrong. They are teaching people that President Romney and other prophets and apostles were misleading members of the Church about the New York Cumorah.
Four Presidents of the Church were in attendance when President Romney gave this talk and not one ever corrected the supposedly wrong teachings about the New York Cumorah.
To the contrary, a member of the Twelve reiterated the New York Cumorah three years later, also in General Conference. We'll look at some of these additional affirmations of the New York Cumorah in upcoming posts.
I've highlighted key passages in red.
____
I think Saints is an awesome book, but deeply flawed because of the way it imposes late 20th century M2C ideology onto figures in Church history who had never heard of, let alone contemplated, the idea that Joseph and Oliver and their contemporaries were ignorant speculators who misled the Church about the New York Cumorah.
Because I think the flaws in Saints could be easily corrected, I've offered some suggestions, both before and after the book was published. So far, all my suggestions have produced is the bizarre list of justifications for censorship that I wrote about in the previous post on this blog.
_____
To someone well informed about Church history, the revisionist Church history in Saints is not anything new. We've seen a pattern of Church history revisionism, driven largely by M2C ideology. We've come to expect that M2C intellectuals and their followers will censor references to the New York Cumorah at every opportunity.
Those familiar with Church history have shrugged our shoulders and laughed off these academic games because we know what the prophets and apostles have taught. We sustain prophets, not intellectuals.
But this is no longer a laughing matter.
Many Church members are ignorant of the teachings of the prophets and apostles about the New York Cumorah. This ignorance is growing, an inevitable development now that employees at BYU and CES teach students that the prophets were wrong.
In its current form, Saints not only contributes to that ignorance; it insures that this ignorance will be passed on to current and future generations around the world.
In this post, I provide an example of the teachings of the prophets and apostles that contradict the false historical narrative in Saints. This is an important General Conference address by President Marion G. Romney. You can read or watch the original here.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/10/americas-destiny?lang=eng
As you read these excerpts, realize that the intellectuals who promote M2C, and the historians behind Saints who are revising Church history to accommodate M2C, are teaching their students and readers that President Romney was merely expressing his own opinion--and that he was wrong. They are teaching people that President Romney and other prophets and apostles were misleading members of the Church about the New York Cumorah.
Four Presidents of the Church were in attendance when President Romney gave this talk and not one ever corrected the supposedly wrong teachings about the New York Cumorah.
To the contrary, a member of the Twelve reiterated the New York Cumorah three years later, also in General Conference. We'll look at some of these additional affirmations of the New York Cumorah in upcoming posts.
I've highlighted key passages in red.
____
America’s Destiny
President Marion G. Romney
of the First Presidency
President Marion G. Romney
of the First Presidency
My beloved brothers and sisters, I invite you to join in a prayer that while I speak you and I may both enjoy the Spirit. I will give you a lesson today that the Lord has taken great pains to bring to us.
Among the questions frequently raised in connection with our upcoming national bicentennial is “Can we maintain our basic freedoms, peace, and prosperity for another 200 years?”
The answer to this question is yes, if we shall individually repent and conform to the laws of the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ....
It is my purpose in making these remarks to point out from the record of ancient inhabitants of America that the foregoing decrees have been carried out.
In the western part of the state of New York near Palmyra is a prominent hill known as the “hill Cumorah.” (Morm. 6:6.) On July twenty-fifth of this year, as I stood on the crest of that hill admiring with awe the breathtaking panorama which stretched out before me on every hand, my mind reverted to the events which occurred in that vicinity some twenty-five centuries ago—events which brought to an end the great Jaredite nation.
You who are acquainted with the Book of Mormon will recall that during the final campaign of the fratricidal war between the armies led by Shiz and those led by Coriantumr “nearly two millions” of Coriantumr’s people had been slain by the sword; “two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children.” (Ether 15:2.)
As the conflict intensified, all the people who had not been slain—men “with their wives and their children” (Ether 15:15)—gathered about that hill Cumorah (see Ether 15:11).
“The people who were for Coriantumr were gathered together to the army of Coriantumr; and the people who were for Shiz were gathered together to the army of Shiz. …
Thus perished at the foot of Cumorah the remnant of the once mighty Jaredite nation, of whom the Lord had said, “There shall be none greater … upon all the face of the earth.” (Ether 1:43.)
As I contemplated this tragic scene from the crest of Cumorah and viewed the beautiful land of the Restoration as it appears today, I cried in my soul, “How could it have happened?”
The answer came immediately as I remembered that some fifteen to twenty centuries before their destruction, as the small group of their ancestors was being divinely led from the tower of Babel, the Lord “would that they should come forth even unto [this] land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people.
“And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared [their prophet-leader], that whoso should possess this land … from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them.
“And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land,” wrote the ancient prophet-historian, “that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.
“For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God.” (Ether 2:7–10.)
Pursuant to this decree concerning the land of America, the Jaredites were swept off in the manner we have reviewed, because, rebelling against the laws of Jesus Christ—the God of the land—they “ripened in iniquity.”
Nor were they the only people who anciently were divinely led to this choice land to grow in righteousness to be a mighty nation and then to deteriorate in wickedness until they ripened in iniquity and were, pursuant to God’s decree, swept off.
I emphasize “divinely led” because, as above indicated, the Lord told them that they were being so led, and “that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord....
This second civilization to which I refer, the Nephites, flourished in America between 600 B.C. and A.D. 400. Their civilization came to an end for the same reason, at the same place, and in the same manner as did the Jaredites’. From the account of their death struggle, I quote:
“And now,” says Mormon, their historian, “I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites … to the land of Cumorah. … And when … we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah, … my people, with their wives and their children, did … behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them....
The tragic fate of the Jaredite and the Nephite civilizations is proof positive that the Lord meant it when he said that this “is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:9.)
This information, wrote Moroni, addressing himself to us who today occupy this land, “cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles” (now, Gentiles is the term used by the Book of Mormon prophets to refer to the present inhabitants of America and to the peoples of the old world from which they came), “[this] cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God—that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done....
God gave us victory in the Revolutionary War. We are indebted to him for our nation’s independence. He has prospered us in every righteous endeavor. He established the Constitution of the United States “by the hands of wise men whom [he] raised up unto this very purpose.” (D&C 101:80.)
He himself with his Beloved Son appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith to open a new dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ here in this land. He has established his Church here and has sent and is sending representatives thereof into every nook and corner of the land—and as far as possible to all the earth—to declare and teach the laws of Jesus Christ, the God of this land.
He has revealed anew and repeated over and over again the ancient decree: “This is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God” concerning this land. (Ether 2:10.)
This knowledge has been revealed to us that we “may know the decrees of God—that [we] may repent, and not continue in [our] iniquities until the fulness come, that [we] may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon [us] as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done.” (Ether 2:11.)
We are living in the dispensation of the fulness of times, which will be climaxed by the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning the approach of that event and what is in store for the inhabitants of the earth between now and then, the Lord said 144 years ago:
“The wrath of God shall be poured out upon the wicked without measure. …
“Wherefore the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the earth, that all that will hear may hear.”...
Now my beloved brethren and sisters everywhere, both members of the Church and nonmembers, I bear you my personal witness that I know that the things I have presented to you today are true—both those pertaining to past events and those pertaining to events yet to come. The issue we face is clear and well defined. The choice is ours. The question is: Shall we of this dispensation repent and obey the laws of the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, or shall we continue to defy them until we ripen in iniquity?
That we will repent and obey and thereby qualify to receive the blessings promised to the righteous in this land, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.
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