44. What is Mormon Doctrine?

In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the forty-fourth lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (Oct. 23-29) is titled “Be Thou an Example of the Believers” and covers 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus - and they mention the name of the book Philemon on the title page. 

We invite you to worship with us on any Sunday - either at First Baptist Church of Provo or Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna. We welcome visitors!  

Pastor Brendon's Colossians series can be found here and/or here. 

Correction: Every time Skyler said "Rasban", he actually meant to say "Renlund" (who's talk is cited below). Although both are equally boring - they may not be equally Jacobin. Being baptized "for the remission of sins" (understood as, by the correct priesthood authority claimed, the sins are washed away) being so common in the experience of nearly every LDS (ever) to the point of raising the question of the limits of needed documentation - it should be said that, technically, the True to the Faith manual states: "Because you have been baptized, you can receive the remission of your sins." Can implies a potential, rather than a guarantee. Thus, perhaps this change has been in the works longer than previously realized.

Also, the recent talk on “the Gathering” that was mentioned was actually by D. Todd Christofferson (who's talk is also cited below). 

D&C 132; original D&C 101; D&C 26.2; D&C 28.13; D&C 1.38;D&C 68.4

Sunday School Manual: here, here, here and here 

True To the Faith: A Gospel Reference 

Preach My Gospel ; Gospel Principles

The New Testament Made Easier by David Ridges 

Understanding Paul by Richard Lloyd Anderson 

The Articles of Faith; The Articles of Faith by James Talmage 

“Articles of Faith: Know What We Believe” (Spencer Kimball) 

“Approaching LDS Doctrine” 

“Eternal Truth” (John Pingree, Jr.) 

“Trial of Your Faith” (Neil Andersen) 

“The Doctrine of Christ” ; “The Sealing Power” (D. Todd Christofferson) 

“Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet” (Ezra Taft Benson) 

“The Love and Laws of God” (Russell Nelson) 

“Living in the Fulness of Times” (Gordon Hinckley) 

Russell Nelson statement: “If you think the Church is fully restored, you’re just seeing the beginning...” 

“Kingdoms of Glory” (Dallin Oaks) 

“Jesus Christ Is the Treasure” (Dale Renlund) 

Tim Ballard and his personal connections to M. Russell Ballard: here and here, e.g. 

"Stand As True Millennials" (Russell Nelson); also here, and here

"A Triumph of Faith: Paul's Teachings in Second Timothy" by John Scott; found in The Apostle Paul: His Life and Testimony which was the 23rd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium

 

HC 6.366; wherein Joseph Smith states: “I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.” Joseph Smith also taught “that a prophet was a prophet only when he was acting as such.” (HC, 5:265.)

Evidences and Reconciliations; A Rational Theology by John Widtsoe 

Mormon Doctrine; “All Are Alike unto God” by Bruce R. McConkie (notice: “They don’t matter anymore. It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year, 1978. It is a new day and a new arrangement...”) 

"Finding Answers to Gospel Questions" (Bruce R. McConkie), esp. see section no.3. - wherein he quotes Joseph Fielding Smith (who would become a president-prophet of the LDS chuch) as saying: "It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine." Yet, how does this square with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young - and even points taught by Ezra T. Benson cited above.

"The Place of the Living Prophet, Seer, and Revelator" (Harold B. Lee); one pertinent quote by Pres. Lee is: "The only one authorized to bring forth any new doctrine is the President of the Church, who, when he does, will declare it as revelation from God, and it will be so accepted by the Council of the Twelve and sustained by the body of the Church."

Preface to JD 8 states: "The Journal of Discourses deservedly ranks as one of the standard works of the Church, and every rightminded Saint will certainly welcome with joy every Number as it comes forth from the press as an additional reflector of 'the light that shines from Zion's hill.'"

Brigham Young stated:

• "I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture." (JD 13.95)
• "when they are copied and approved by me they are as good scripture as is couched in this Bible" (JD 13.264)

Brigham Young: JD 1.50-51; 9.149-150; 9.289; 10.251; 11.375; 11.269,272; 13.95; 13.264; 18.359 

Young stated in a "Discourse on Marriage" that: "Some years ago I advanced a doctrine with regard to Adam being our Father and our God. That will be a curse to many of the elders of Israel because of their folly with regard to it...It is one of the most glorious revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world hold it in derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of the baptism for the dead instead [of] Joseph Smith, there are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until doomsday, but they are ignorant and stupid, like the dumb ass."

Heber C. Kimball: JD 3.125; 5.203 

Joseph F. Smith: JD 20.28; 21.10 

Messages of the First Presidency, compiled by James Clark; specifically – Vol. 4, pp.266-267 

Statements of the LDS First Presidency compiled by Gary Bergera 

• “It ought to have been known, years ago, by every person in the Church – for ample teachings have been given on the point – that no member of the Church has the right to publish any doctrines, as the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, without first submitting them for examination and approval to the First Presidency and the Twelve. There is but one man upon the earth, at one time, who holds the keys to receive commandments and revelations for the Church, who has the authority to write doctrines by way of commandments unto the Church. And any man who so far forgets the order instituted by the Lord as to write and publish what may be termed new doctrines without consulting with the First Presidency of the Church respecting them, places himself in a false position, and exposes himself to the power of darkness by violating his priesthood.” (Millennial Star, Oct. 21, 1865) 
• “No man is authorized to teach to the Church new or advanced doctrines except the presidency thereof. Light comes from the head, and to that point must members of the Church look for knowledge and wisdom and doctrine and principle.” (Millennial Star, Apr. 15, 1878) 
• “The theology of our Church is the theology taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles, the theology of scripture and reason.” (Improvement Era, May 1907) 
• “Our doctrines are open to the world. They are not secret or clothed in mystery. We proclaim the pure gospel of Christ as revealed from heaven in these last days through the prophet of the nineteenth century, Joseph Smith. We invite all mankind to look into our teachings and promise all who obey them a witness of their truth by the power of the Holy Ghost, which makes men free indeed.” (Improvement Era, June 1911) 
• “[T]he theories, speculations, and opinions of men, however intelligent, ingenious, and plausible, are not necessarily doctrines of the Church or principles that God has commanded His servants to preach. No doctrine is a doctrine of this Church until it has been accepted as such by the Church, and not even a revelation from God should be taught to His people until it has first been approved by the presiding authority – the one through whom the Lord makes known His will for the guidance of the Saints as a religious body. The spirit of revelation may rest upon anyone, and teach him or her many things for personal comfort and instruction. But those are not doctrines of the Church, and however true, they must not be inculcated until proper permission is given.” (Joseph F. Smith to Lillie Golsan - July 16,1902) 

Compare President Wilford Woodruff and Elder Bruce R. McConkie on the question of eternal progression:

• "If there was a point where man in his progression could not proceed any further, the very idea would throw a gloom over every intelligent and reflecting mind. God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end. It is just so with us. We are in a probation, which is a school of experience." (Wilford Woodruff, JD 6.120)
• "Now may I suggest the list of heresies. Heresy one: There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths. This is false - utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of truth in it." (Bruce R. McConkie; Seven Deadly Heresies; Notice the condemnation of earlier men of higher church-rank then himself - including but not limited to Presidents/Prophets Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff.)

 

Jason Wallace: here, here, here and here 

“The Art of Scripture and Scripture as Art: The Proclamation on the Family and the Expanding Canon” by Boyd Petersen and David Scott; found in The Expanded Canon 

“The ‘Lectures on Faith’: A Case Study in Decanonization” by Richard Van Wagoner, Stephen C. Walker, and Allen D. Roberts 

As A Thief in the Night by Daniel Erickson 

The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism by Grant Underwood 

Conflict In the Quorum by Gary Bergera 

Power From on High; David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory Prince 

The Mormon Jesus; Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John Turner 

Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right; The Mormon Church and Blacks by Matthew Harris 

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner 

“This Is My Doctrine”: The Development of Mormon Theology by Charles Harrell 

Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Statehood by Edward Lyman 

 

Christianity at the Crossroads by Michael Kruger 

The Trinitarian Theology of Cornelius Van Til by Lane Tipton 

Out of Mormonism by Judy Robertson

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen 

Core Christianity by Michael Horton 

Reformed Dogmatics by Herman Bavinck 

The Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC) by George Knight III 

The Authority and Inspiration of the Scriptures by B.B. Warfield 

 

God and Reason in the Middle Ages by Edward Grant 

The Territories of Science and Religion; The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science; Science Without God? Rethinking the History of Scientific Naturalism by Peter Harrison 

The Rise of the Universities by Charles Haskins 

Universities In the Middle Ages by Alan Cobban 

The Savior of Science by Stanley Jaki