Category: Priesthood
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Questions to Ask
Introduction These questions are designed to probe various aspects of the LDS Church’s history and truth-claims.1 The list was made for 1) investigators to ask the missionaries, 2) active members to ask themselves, or 3) those experiencing a faith transition to ask their parents or ecclesiastical leaders. The majority of…
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Problem Summaries: resources discussing LDS-truth claims
Problems with LDS truth-claims Before reading about the problems, you may want to first consider the pros and cons of investigating the truth-claim data. Very short summaries Five Key Facts (~ 1 page) 50 Problems with the Mormon Church (~10 minute youtube video) More significant summaries Mormon Primer (multiple perspectives: mainstream, critical,…
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Five Key Facts
This is a very short summary of what I view as the 5 most important facts in understanding alternative models for LDS truth claims. To the best of my knowledge, every point made in this document is accepted as factual by both LDS and non-LDS scholars (please correct me if…
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The three-fold nature of the LDS Church: corporate, totalistic, and individual-growth
The three-fold nature of the church: corporate, totalistic, and individual-growth bwv549 last updated 2016-06-06 Teachings and actions of the Church, its leaders, and its members may be categorized into three prominent mindsets: corporate, totalistic, and individual-growth (aka “growth-mindset”): There is certainly overlap and interplay between these mindsets, but many of…
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Riding the Wake of 60 Years of the Good Ship Zion
It’s Christmastime 2015. I’m 61 years old, a loving husband, father of four, grandfather of nine and — eight months into the Post-Mormon portion of my life. The past two years of transition have been painful, terrifying, embarrassing, disorienting but ultimately liberating. I am an active, faithful, lifetime member of the…
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Leaving the Church, Part 7 — Priesthood Restoration
1. Overview: Like the First Vision story, Joseph Smith waited many years before claiming to have received the priesthood from John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. Although the Church teaches that the priesthood was restored in 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery made no such claim until 1834.…
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Examining the Fruits of the Church in Practice
I first need to make a crucial distinction here, between the Corporate and Institutional Church, and the Church that exists in the lives of the individuals and families that comprise the various Wards and Branches of the Church. Even though I was a convert to the Church, I raised my…