AboutMichael Kelley Expertise For a different viewpoint on Mormonism for your questions, try me. I am a staunch believer in the Book of Mormon and belong to another church (the Church of Christ)that is set up identically to the Biblical church. If there are things about traditional Mormonism that trouble you or you have questions about, just ask and you might find the answers from the Book of Mormon to be quite surprising. I have been studying the scriptures diligently for 16 years under the school of hard knocks... I may not have all of the answers but will sure go find them if I don`t. I`m strongest on Biblical and Book of Mormon doctrines, and am also somewhat familiar with Mormon history and archaeology.
Question Re: 1833 Book of Commandments vis-a-vis 1835 D&C
Dear Mike,
Thank you for your reply. I ordered the 1990 Authorized Version of the Book of Mormon from Church of Christ (TL).
I noticed toward the end of the current LDS D&C there is a change from the earlier revelation in D&C and Book of Mormon indicating the name Church of Christ, changing it to LDS. Also original B of C says pretend to no gift other than translating (4:2). Also Community of Christ claims the translator never translated Pearl of Great Price.
These seem like different approaches to the same problem, where some say the translator went awry in later years of his life, and the fallen are punished by the fallen (B of M), versus C of Christ claim that he never did or said those things. Is that right? What's your position?
These are a lot of issues. Could you clarify?
Thank you for your time. Sincerely,
Redfox
Answer Hi Redofox,
I will be happy to answer your questions. Please see my replies below in **, Mike
You sent: I noticed toward the end of the current LDS D&C there is a change from the earlier revelation in D&C and Book of Mormon indicating the name Church of Christ, changing it to LDS. Also original B of C says pretend to no gift other than translating (4:2). Also Community of Christ claims the translator never translated Pearl of Great Price.
**Mike replies: You are correct, the LDS (and Community of Christ) D&Cs have numerous alterations from the original revelations that were recorded in the original Book of Commandments. When you compare the original revelations to the D&C it quickly becomes obvious that these were not spelling or grammatical corrections but deliberate changes intended to change the meaning of the original revelations. Since God is an unchangeable being and does not make mistakes... then I can only conclude these changes were done by the will of men to bring in false doctrines which corrupted the early church. The name of the church in 1830 was indeed the "Church of Christ" and they later changed it to "The Church of Latter Day Saints" (no mention of Christ) and then later again to "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". As far as I know Smith did pretend to translate an Egyptian Papyrus into the Pearl of Great Price however this was later proven to be a common Egyptian book of the dead and bore no resemblance to what is contained in the Pearly of Great Price. This of course led many to scoff at all of Smith's works. We also must remember that only the Book of Mormon was translated by the Urim and Thummim (Seer stones) and the PoGP was not, only by Smith's "inspiration".
These seem like different approaches to the same problem, where some say the translator went awry in later years of his life, and the fallen are punished by the fallen (B of M), versus C of Christ claim that he never did or said those things. Is that right? What's your position?
**Mike: Yes, it's quite a mess. Personally, my opinion only, Smith fell from grace early on... much like King Saul did (even though he was hand picked by God). I believe that the moment Smith finished the translation of the Book of Mormon and the plates and Urim were removed from his possession he ceased right then and there being a Prophet - Seer - Revelator and then became a simple Apostle or Elder (if that even). It was right after this that many false doctrines were brought in by Smith and the enemies of the church rose up and drove them from their homes. Smith was to pretend to no other gift than to translate the Book of Mormon yet he was not content with this divine demotion... and altered the revelation and brought in other false offices such as High Priests, the 1st Presidency and others to exalt himself. He wanted the praise of the people and to be looked upon as a Moses and the people wanted it that way too. This led to the early church's utter apostasy and ruin.
In the Book of Mormon there is a passage about Helaman who was given charge of the plates and told how strict were God's commandments and that if he would remain faithful God would allow him to keep the plates and he would be delivered from all of his enemies. The Book of Mormon details that Helaman did do this and faced many battles and won them all and kept the plates and added to them. In a VERY SIMILARLY WORDED revelation God tells Smith He WOULD HAVE delivered Smith but because of his many sins and yielding to the persuasions of men he would fall and be driven as the chaff before the wind. History tells us this exact thing happened... he and his followers were indeed driven from their homes and cities and Smith ultimately faced an untimely death.
You can see a very good website that compares the D&C Vs Book of Commandments with the changes highlighted in color at: http://www.irr.org/mit/boc/
Of course the enemies to the Restoration totally reject the Book of Mormon as well as the D&C et al because of Smith's mistakes. However we must remember Smith did not author the BoM, he only translated it. The critics to the BoM do not tear out the Book of Psalms or Proverbs from their Bibles yet David and Solomon made mistakes equally as bad as Smith's.
It's a lot to wade through. We struggle enough trying to reveal the light in the Book of Mormon yet have to try to get people past all of Smith's mistakes, the other Restoration factions and their beliefs, and even our own mistakes. It is a very daunting task and our numbers are always few because of it. The sad thing of it all is millions are denied the truthfulness of the BoM because of these things which if Smith had remained faithful could have been avoided in a great degree. I hope you will have the patience to study these things through... there is a lot to learn and it can get very discouraging at times.
