Month: April 2016

Continuingmy reply to Jeremy Runnell’s “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:Prophets Concerns & Questions:1. Adam-God:  President Brigham Young taught what is now known as "Adam-God theory.” He taught that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.”  Young not ... Read more

Ihave never met Jeremy Runnells, although we have far more mutual friends than I realized when I first started writing my reply to his letter. Let me also say again that I have no interest in attacking Mr. Runnells personally, and that I wish him well in wherever his faith journey takes him.As I continue ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnell’s “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:In an attempt to influence and abate public rumors of his secret polygamy, Joseph got 31 witnesses to sign an affidavit published in the LDS October 1, 1842 Times and Seasons stating that Joseph did not practice polygamy.  ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnell’s “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:Joseph’s destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor that exposed his polygamy and which printing press destruction started the chain of events that led to Joseph’s death.Yes. I remember listening to Truman Madsen’s hagiographic Joseph Smith tapes on my ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnell’s “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:This is not the Joseph Smith I grew up learning about in the Church and having a testimony of.That’s because this is not the Joseph Smith that is Joseph Smith. The Warren Jeffs-like Joseph Smith that you’re ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnell’s “Letter to a CES Director,” with Jeremy’s original words in green:Polygamy/Polyandry Concerns & Questions:One of the things that really disturbed me in my research was discovering the real origins of polygamy and how Joseph Smith really practiced it.This is an interesting way to describe your objections ... Read more

Continuing my reply to Jeremy Runnells' "Letter to a CES Director," with Jeremy's original words in green:8. There’s a book published in 1830 by Thomas Dick entitled The Philosophy of the Future State.1830. A very good year, indeed. Same year, in fact, that the Church was organized and the Book of Mormon was ... Read more

Note:I've stopped posting an explanation at the top of these CES Reply posts, but that seems to be creating some confusion. So, for the record, this is an excerpt from my "Reply from a Former CES Employee," which was written in response to Jeremy Runnells'  "Letter to a CES Director." This is a ... Read more

The following is a side-by-side comparison of what Joseph Smith translated in Facsimile 1 versus what it actually says according to Egyptologists and modern Egyptology:Ah, we meet again, MormonInfographics.com. This is the same outfit that thinks it’s a scandal that Joseph Smith couldn’t choose between the words “light” and “fire,” or that a nine-word ... Read more

Book of Abraham Concerns & Questions:Oh, goody.1. Despite Joseph’s claim that this record was written by Abraham “by his own hand, upon papyrus,” scholars have found the original papyrus Joseph translated and have dated it in 1st century CE, nearly 2,000 years after Abraham could have written it.I know, right? It says ... Read more