I know it sounds confusing, but yeah, I believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but I don't believe that the modern Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is led by God. They teach a lit of good and true things, but there are many other doctrines they teach (that there's a living prophet today, that the church has God's authority, that men will have the option to have many wives after this life, etc) that I simply do not believe.
There's a fallacious argument that's often taught (I know I've taught it a lot), which says that if the Book of Mormon is true, then the church that believes in it, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, must also be true. While I agree that the only logical way that the Book of Mormon can even exist is if Joseph Smith was given a gift from God to translate them, that has absolutely no bearing on the rest of Joseph's life, or the question of whether he continued to be a true prophet, whether Brigham Young was supposed to take over after him as a true prophet, or whether the LDS church is still run by prophets that talk to God today.
After carefully studying the original documents on https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/ , I've arrived at the opinion that there's no other way that Joseph could have produced the Book of Mormon, other than by the power of God. I also found writings that I believe to be real revelations to him from God. However, I also found many such revelations that were altered by Joseph and others in the years following their being given. Joseph had many weaknesses, like the tendency to attempt to take power into his own hands, rather than relying on God (like when he searched for buried treasure to help finance his new floundering church, or when he created his own bank notes for the same purpose (he was basically shitcoining ~170 years before crypto existed), or when he ran for mayor of the biggest city in Illinois, or when he ran for president), but the weakness he's blamed for most by the modern LDS church, polygamy, was definitely not one of them.
So I have quietly believed for many months now that Joseph really translated the Book of Mormon, really received other revelations, but was still a very flawed human being, just like all of us. I also, discovered, though, that the LDS church was infiltrated and taken over by some of the most evil people around at the time: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Willard Richards, and others. And the church has been lost and falling away ever since.
I hope that clears up the confusion!
Jason Hodlers
npub169…r4j0c
2024-09-09 18:57:52
in reply to nevent1q…c8sv
Author Public Key
npub1693220pmp0a4c04a0p7hkz874vsxkyfrvtk2yk4zjyj3e4c0ugjs3r4j0cPublished at
2024-09-09 18:57:52Event JSON
{
"id": "eaffe0824fc521aba874fd66e0ff977decd957e1df76951b56a2699c3b3dcde4",
"pubkey": "d162a53c3b0bfb5c3ebd787d7b08feab206b112362eca25aa291251cd70fe225",
"created_at": 1725908272,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"2add48330bf88f000319911f103c83d1b07817c1c8f7d16186c5bd6487a95564",
"",
"root"
],
[
"e",
"f325643d2cb9620955d95abb99317dad9a94130dba2575a87e47d9c76693930d",
"",
"reply"
],
[
"p",
"d162a53c3b0bfb5c3ebd787d7b08feab206b112362eca25aa291251cd70fe225"
],
[
"p",
"181f334d46f8ec615ff12c0c987055ae8dc003a18967205baeeb27d41fe7d9f3"
],
[
"r",
"https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/"
]
],
"content": "I know it sounds confusing, but yeah, I believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but I don't believe that the modern Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is led by God. They teach a lit of good and true things, but there are many other doctrines they teach (that there's a living prophet today, that the church has God's authority, that men will have the option to have many wives after this life, etc) that I simply do not believe.\n\nThere's a fallacious argument that's often taught (I know I've taught it a lot), which says that if the Book of Mormon is true, then the church that believes in it, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, must also be true. While I agree that the only logical way that the Book of Mormon can even exist is if Joseph Smith was given a gift from God to translate them, that has absolutely no bearing on the rest of Joseph's life, or the question of whether he continued to be a true prophet, whether Brigham Young was supposed to take over after him as a true prophet, or whether the LDS church is still run by prophets that talk to God today.\n\nAfter carefully studying the original documents on https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/ , I've arrived at the opinion that there's no other way that Joseph could have produced the Book of Mormon, other than by the power of God. I also found writings that I believe to be real revelations to him from God. However, I also found many such revelations that were altered by Joseph and others in the years following their being given. Joseph had many weaknesses, like the tendency to attempt to take power into his own hands, rather than relying on God (like when he searched for buried treasure to help finance his new floundering church, or when he created his own bank notes for the same purpose (he was basically shitcoining ~170 years before crypto existed), or when he ran for mayor of the biggest city in Illinois, or when he ran for president), but the weakness he's blamed for most by the modern LDS church, polygamy, was definitely not one of them.\n\nSo I have quietly believed for many months now that Joseph really translated the Book of Mormon, really received other revelations, but was still a very flawed human being, just like all of us. I also, discovered, though, that the LDS church was infiltrated and taken over by some of the most evil people around at the time: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Willard Richards, and others. And the church has been lost and falling away ever since.\n\nI hope that clears up the confusion!",
"sig": "ddb6d5e6228fbffbeaff5e0cbe06c29c5c25f1d8ace6c1bd27284b7d6182778e20301350123bf93ef973278d6ed0872d74bbf7c600477057de7648972283ea92"
}