Category: Mormon History
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Early Deseret Almanacs and the Doctrine of God
By Kurt Van Gorden Kurt Van Gorden is an ordained minister and directs two missions to the cults:Jude 3 Missions and the Utah Gospel Mission.He is a researcher, contributor, and editor for 16 apologetic books.http://www.utahgospelmission.com Title page of 1851 Deseret Almanac.(All images are from the digitized collection of Kurt Van Gorden. Public Domain.) In 2007,…
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Apostasy in Sweden!
Their 15 Unanswered Questions By Sandra Tanner “Some Mormons Search the Web and Find Doubt” declared the front page story in the New York Times on July 21, 2013. Laurie Goodstein reported that Hans Mattsson, LDS European Area Authority Seventy from 2000–2005, and approximately 600 LDS members, mainly in Sweden, were sharing their doubts through…
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Where Did Joseph Smith Get His Ideas for the Book of Mormon?
By Sandra Tanner One of the claims often made by LDS people is that there was no information on the Indian ruins in Mexico and Guatemala available prior to 1830. Actually, numerous books recounting similar ideas as those in Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon had already been published. Many of the books published on the…
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Joseph Smith’s Death
Did Joseph Smith meet his death “like a lamb,” as he described, or by inciting justifiable anger and fighting against the results?
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Playing FAIR?
An Evaluation of Joseph Smith’s “Rocky Mountain Prophecy” By Johnny Stephenson Condensed and used by permission from: https://mormonitemusings.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/playing-f-a-i-r/ I often come across this scenario on Mormon Facebook Pages and other sites as I browse the internet: Self-proclaimed Mormon “apologists” using material from FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research) to “prove” that critics of Mormonism…
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Joseph Smith’s Death — (History of the Church excerpt)
The following account of Joseph Smith’s death is excerpted from Joseph Smith’s History of the Church, Vol. 6, chapters 33-34, pp. 602-622 [page 602] CHAPTER XXXIII THE DAY OF MARTYRDOM—THREATS—REPEATED WARNINGS OF THE PRISONERS’ DANGER GIVEN TO GOVERNOR FORD—THE CARTHAGE GREYS AS GUARDS. Tuesday, 27, 5 a. m.—John P. Greene and William W. Phelps called…
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Will You Love that Man or Woman Well Enough to Shed Their Blood?
Brigham Young’s Culture of Violence and the Murders at Mountain Meadows By Will Bagley A paper presented at International Conference of the Center for Studies on New Religions in Salt Lake City and Provo (Utah), June 20-23, 2002, Salt Lake City & Provo. Preliminary version. Used with permission. In 1845, the Mormon apostles issued a…
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Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth – Part 2
By Ronald V. Huggins Jerald TannerJune 1959 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight…
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New Joseph Smith Movie — History or Propaganda?
The history of Joseph Smith and his church is easily painted with heroism and undeserved suffering on screen, but historical records offer a much more complicated picture.
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The Reorganized LDS Church
The RLDS rejected Brigham Young’s leadership after Joseph Smith’s death. They also differ from the mainstream LDS Church in rejecting the teaching of plural gods, polygamy, temple ordinances and the Book of Abraham.