More Comments from Readers – Part X

Here are more comments that we have received from readers of this website blog:
Comment #1: “Comment: “I have found that people who convert to Mormonism are largely from nominal Christian, or un-churched households looking for hope. Since Mormons are not permitted to read material critical of the Mormon beliefs, the LDS church or Joseph Smith, they simply never come in contact with the truth and consider the Bible a corrupted book, with its true message restored by Joseph Smith Jr., “The Prophet” in their own “Bible” MaryLee B.
Response: First of all, the LDS Church promotes learning with three universities (Provo, Utah; Rexburg, Idaho, and Laie, Honolulu County, Hawaii) with a total enrollment of almost 51,000, in which Religion is one of the subjects studied, including the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.
    There are also 390,000 students in over 170 countries in the world attending free seminary classes each day, which is a four-year religious education program for youth, ages 14-18 years of age, and volunteer teachers meet, each weekday during the school year, to study the Holy Scriptures including: The Bible (Old and New Testaments), the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. In addition, there are also 350,000 students in over 2,500 locations attending Institute of Religion classes world-wide, with an objective to help young adults 18-25 years old, as well as adults attending, understand and rely on the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ, qualify for the blessings of the temple, and prepare themselves, their families, and others for eternal life with their Father in Heaven, in which students can be nurtured by the Spirit through classes and activities.
    Plus all members of the Church are encouraged to read and learn from the best books about all about the sciences, human disciplines, and achievement, as well as human history through all periods of time. Lastly, there is no requirement to avoid any literature such as anti-LDS writings. In short, we are free to read and study knowledge as we choose.

The LDS Church is one of the most educationally-oriented Church known—it encourages study, learning, school through college attendance, and teaches both sectarian and church subjects at all levels of its colleges, and promotes learning at all times

Second, there is no ban on any type of reading material for LDS, and the Bible is one of the four standard works of the Church, with constant study throughout the Church for two of the four years (Old Testament one year, New Testament one year) in Primary (3 to 11 years of age), Sunday School (all ages 12 and up), and Seminary (14 to 18 years of age), which covers every member.
    Third: Unlike some Christian religions, we do not center our entire learning on Paul’s writings, but on all the gospel, from Moses writings through all the Patriarchs and Apostles to John (Genesis to Revelations of the King James Version), including all of the modern-day prophets.
    Fourth, and perhaps the most important to your comment, Latter-day Saints consider the Bible to be the Word of God as long as it is translated correctly (obviously having gone through hundreds of rewrites by scribes down through the ages there are known errors of both doctrine and transference, and numerous Christian Bible scholars from all religions have listed most of these in various books and studies). Joseph Smith corrected some of these errors as time permitted, which is found in the work “The Inspired Version,” however, the standard King James Version of the Bible used by most Christian Churches is the Bible the LDS Church uses and authorizes.

Fifth, The Book of Mormon is not a Bible and has nothing to do with the Bible per se, and stands as a separate book of writing by different prophets called in a different part of the World by the Lord covering a period of time from 600 B.C. to 421 A.D., and is called in the LDS Church “A Second Witness of Christ,” and centers around the exact same gospel found in the Bible.
    As is stated: “And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope" (Romans 15:12). And “there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1). And “in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:10).”
    As Christ, himself, said, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16).
Comment #2: “I read your book on “Scientific Fallacies,” and while it is a marvelous and very exact and helpful work, I still do not see why a combination of evolution and creation cannot be the way God used to create man through a series of steps that are stated in evolutionary terms” Dr. Thomas C. E.
Response: If you are like a friend of ours, an active member of the Church, who is a gynecologist and familiar with the steps of growth of the fetus, etc., he bases a similar belief on that knowledge from seeing fetus of humans as well as animals being much the same. In any event, I think the answer lies in the First Presidency letter “The Origin of Man,” found in the Improvement Era, Vol 13, November 1909, pp75-81, and signed by the Presidency Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder and Anthon H. Lund, which is too long to quote in total here, but should be read by and understood by every member, and all mankind.

One of the quotes is: “The omnipotent Creator, the maker of heaven and earth–had shown unto Moses everything pertaining to this planet, including the facts relating to man's origin, and the authoritative pronouncement of that mighty prophet and seer to the house of Israel, and through Israel to the whole world, is couched in the simple clause: "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27; Moses 1:27-41).
    The article also states: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." In these plain and pointed words the inspired author of the book of Genesis made known to the world the truth concerning the origin of the human family.
    Moses, the prophet-historian, "learned," as we are told, "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," when making this important announcement, was not voicing mere opinion, a theory derived from his researches into the occult lore of that ancient people. He was speaking as the mouthpiece of God, and his solemn declaration was for all time and for all people.
    Another quote: “It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth, and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declares that Adam was "the first man of all men" (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race.
    It was shown to the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after the image of God; and whether we take this to mean the spirit or the body, or both, it commits us to the same conclusion: Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our heavenly Father.

In a letter of the First Presidency of Heber J. Grant, Anthony W. Ivins, and Charles W. Nibley (Improvement Era, 28, pp1090-1091, September 1925), it is stated: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity. By his Almighty power God organized the earth, and all that it contains, from spirit and element, which exist co-eternally with himself. Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother, is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God.”
    In a letter to Samuel O. Bennion, February 26, 1912, Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose stated: “Our Father Adam—that is our earthy father—the progenitor of the race of man, stands at the head being 'Michael the Archangel, the Ancient of Days,' and that he was not fashioned from earth life and adobe but begotten by his Father in Heaven."

We could go on with such writings, but it has always been the fundamental doctrine of the theology of the Church and every prophet and First Presidency have said the same. It was Marion G. Romney, responding to a question on the beliefs of the General Authorities in 1973, that said it best when a student asked, "Are the General Authorities of the Church in one accord on the subject of evolution?" Elder Romney replied: "I don’t suppose that any two minds in the world understand exactly alike any statement on any subject. 
    The General Authorities of the Church are, of course, like all other men, different in their personalities. However, on the fundamentals they are in accord, and one of those fundamentals upon which they are in accord is that Adam is a son of God, that neither his spirit nor his body is a product of biological evolution which went on for millions of years on this earth…the truth I desire to emphasize today is that we mortals are in very deed the literal offspring of God. If men understood, believed, and accepted this truth and lived by it, our sick and dying society would be reformed and redeemed, and men would have peace here and now and eternal joy in the hereafter.”
    I will just add my own testimony to that, for whatever it might be worth to you, that I have not one iota of doubt in my entire being that the man Adam came into this world, as one did in other worlds, a fully developed being and was not the product of biological evolution in any way and that there never has been a biological evolutionary process in the development of any member of the human family here or elsewhere.