CES Reply: Even More Polygamy

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

CES Reply: Polygamy (Part II)

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

CES Reply: Polygamy (Part I)

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

CES Reply: The Abrahamic Finale

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

CES Reply: The Book of Abraham (Part II – with a musical twist!)

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:abe 3Ah, 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
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CES Reply: The Book of Abraham (Part I)

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

CES Reply: The First Vision (Part II)

3. In the 1832 account, Joseph said that before praying he knew that there was no true or living faith or denomination upon the earth as built by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. His primary purpose in going to prayer was to seek forgiveness of his sins.4. In the official 1838 account, Joseph ... Read more
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CES Reply: The First Vision (Part I)

First Vision Concerns & Questions: “Our whole strength rests on the validity of that [First] vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most important and wonderful work under the heavens.” – Gordon B. Hinckley, The Marvelous ... Read more
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