Category: Truth and Discernment
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The Struggle of Leaving Mormonism
It’s easy to forget that intellectual topics are not always the main challenge for people who are doubting their LDS faith. Hearing some of their stories can remind us of the complexity of their struggles.
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Trojan Horses in Mormon Land
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner A great deal has happened since we began working on the last issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger. For example, on April 23, 1991, we were informed that Darrick Evenson, a Mormon writer who has worked very hard in an attempt to discredit our work, had been unmasked as…
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Dunn in the Name of God!
Confession by Emeritus General Authority of the Mormon Church Raises New Questions About the Origins of Mormonism By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In 1989, we found ourselves faced with a very serious decision with regard to a story that had been leaked to us concerning charges that Paul H. Dunn, who had served as a…
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The Tanners: Demonized Agents of the Mormon Church?
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner When the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia, he asked this question: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16) Paul was painfully aware of the fact that his stand for true Christianity was costing him a great deal. Many of those…
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Witchcraft Controversy Rekindled
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the Salt Lake City Messenger for September 1988, we noted that a statement by Walter Martin of Christian Research Institute had finally ended a controversy between our ministry and Ed Decker. At the heart of the disagreement was a question regarding the influence of witchcraft and Satanism on the…
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Mormon and Anti-Mormon Forgeries
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner An article examining the possibility of forgery in Oliver Cowdery’s “Defence” and the Overstreet Confession Over thirty years have passed since the editors of this newsletter (Jerald and Sandra Tanner) began studying the doctrine and history of the Mormon Church. Not long after starting our research, we began to realize…
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Satanic Verses and Mormonism
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner Joseph Smith was certainly not the first to claim revelations or to bring forth a new book purporting to be scripture. For instance, the story of the coming forth of the Koran, the sacred scripture of Islam, bears some interesting parallels to Joseph Smith’s account of the origin of the…
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CRI Statement Ends Witchcraft Dispute
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner Most of our readers are aware of the fact that for a number of months we have been involved in a disagreement concerning the question of whether the Mormon temple ceremony came from witchcraft and Satanism. The conflict centered around William Schnoebelen, a man who participated in both witchcraft and…
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State of New York vs. Joseph Smith
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In 1945 Fawn M. Brodie first published her book No Man Knows My History. In Appendix A of that work she included what she claimed was a “Record of the trial of Joseph Smith for disorderly conduct, Bainbridge, New York, March 20, 1826” (1971 edition, page 491). This document, which…
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Covering Up Syn
Ex-Satanist Brings Confusion to Mormons and Their Critics By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the late 1960s William Schnoebelen, a young man who had always wanted to be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, decided to enter into the occult. On September 22, 1968 he became a “1st Degree (Gardnerian Tradition) Witch.” He later…