Archive
Reason #93: Rewriting Biblical history to fit LDS doctrine
Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants purports to be God’s explanation of why ancient prophets were allowed to have multiple wives and concubines. The revelation is in the form of an answer to Joseph’s question. Verse 1 sets the tone for the entire section by...
Reason #92: Shaking Hands
If you're around Mormons much, you know that folding arms and shaking hands is part of their culture. Just how much a part? Handshakes are very important elements of the LDS temple ordinances. And in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 129 gives the vision-prone LDS...
Reason #91: Conducting a Survey about Truth
The Deseret News reported that the LDS Church ran a survey of its members to find out if they wanted the truth about LDS leaders, history, and other matters. The fact that an organization run by divine inspiration would conduct a survey to make decisions about truth...
Reason #90: Truth, and Jesus' lovely name
I recently found an excellent video, made by a faithful Mormon, about why people leave the LDS Church. It is shocking in its candid admissions of the "faults" of the LDS Church in its presentation of its own doctrine and history. However, it is the first...
Reason #204: A response to an atheist's question
Recently an intelligent and thoughtful ex-Mormon atheist asked a question. Briefly stated, he wanted to know why Christians would say a serial killer whose deathbed confession of Jesus could enter heaven, while a moral and decent atheist would go to hell. Here's how I...
Reason #89: LDS “scripture” scholarship
What is so amazing about Royal Skousen's "critical text" of the BofM published by Yale University Press? It's that Mormons are touting it as being "on a par with" the "critical texts" of the Bible -- that is, a look at different original language (Hebrew, Greek,...
Reason #88: From “I Love Mormons” Blog
This is a marvelous hypothetical situation on an excellent blog called “I Love Mormons.” It provoked a stimulating discussion there, with this scenario: What would happen if a 14-yr-old LDS kid from Mississippi suddenly showed up on the scene claiming he had received...
Reason #87: The Word of Wisdom–Part Two
Past Church leaders were adamant in their condemnation of the liquor and tobacco industries. The Word of Wisdom, according to its own admission, was given “in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the minds of conspiring men” (89:4). Dr. Sperry,...
Reason #86: The Word of Wisdom Health Law–Part One
I won't argue with the Word of Wisdom’s condemnation of the addictive substance, alcohol. But in the Word of Wisdom its use is encouraged as an agent in washing the body. I am as much puzzled by this as by the Word of Wisdom’s advocating the use of tobacco on bruises,...
Reason #85 — The Civil War Prophecy
Reason #85 The famous Civil War prophecy of Section 87 of the Doctrine and Covenants has for years been touted by Mormons as proof positive of Joseph’s powers as a prophet. However, the force of this assertion is lessened considerably when one considers that “the...
Reason #84: The LDS “Inspired Version” of the Bible
The mainstream Latter-day Saint Church did not in the past officially recognize its own “Inspired Version” as doctrine, claiming that it was never completed by Joseph Smith, and that what was finished was later corrupted by uninspired persons. In recent years, the...
Reason #83: Mormonism changes the wording of its own Scripture
When I was a Mormon, Section 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants contained some strange foreign-sounding names which were assigned to the persons mentioned in this section (such names were also used as aliases for church leaders in Sections 82, 92, 96, 103,...