Stand on the Rock of Revelation Part 6

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now, your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism. I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. Stand on the Rock of Revelation. Last week we began looking at an article by Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge, an emeritus member of the Seventy. As we mentioned, this article is really the product of a devotional address that Mr. Corbridge gave on January 22, 2019. As the title implies, he's instructing members of the Church that they should stand on the Rock of Revelation. But what is the Rock of Revelation?

How does it operate in the life of a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? And is this understanding regarding Revelation always a safe way to go? And that's what we've been looking at as we examine this article that begins on page 27 of the October 2020 Ensign magazine. Now, Eric, last week we were discussing what Mr. Corbridge calls primary questions and secondary questions. I think we need to go over that again for the benefit of our listeners because really these four primary questions become the crux of his whole point that he's trying to make, that these are the four questions that you need to answer for yourself. And once you answer those questions for yourself, all the other secondary questions, at least I assume in his opinion, are not all that important. As we were trying to bring out last week, they most certainly are important, but let's go through the four primary questions.

And this is how he sets the stage for this. He says there are primary questions and there are secondary questions. Begin by answering the primary questions first. The primary questions are the most important.

There are only a few primary questions I mention for what are they? Number one, is there a God who is our Father? Number two, is Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world? Number three, was Joseph Smith a prophet? Number four, is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the Kingdom of God on earth? Now, as I mentioned last week, if he is listing points one and two, one being, is there a God who is our Father? Two being, is Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world?

My argument was you can have points one and two without having points three and four. However, if Mr. Corbridge listed points one and two within the context of a Mormon understanding as to who God the Father is, and what I mean by that, as Joseph Smith taught, God the Father was once a human being. He has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's, and he was not always God. Certainly then, number one would be connected with number three was Joseph Smith a prophet, because it was Joseph Smith who gave us that understanding of who God the Father is. Now, as I also mentioned last week, I think that disqualifies Joseph Smith as being a true prophet of God, because what he does is he introduces a God that we as Bible-believing Christians would say is not the God of the Bible at all.

So that would disqualify Joseph Smith. But I think you can believe that God is the Father, that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, without having the baggage of whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet or is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the Kingdom of God on earth. Bill, I want to add that yes, he does talk about God and Jesus, two very important doctrines in the LDS Church as well as the Christian Church. But I notice he doesn't really talk about authority, whereas Christians would say the Bible. He doesn't talk about that except referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Kingdom of God on earth.

He doesn't talk about salvation. So these are questions that seem to not be in the same category. You've got the first two that are general questions that all of us have to determine who is God and who is Jesus, but the last two are very specifically oriented toward the LDS Church. I mean, somebody from the Islamic faith would not be able to answer any better than we do on Numbers 3 and 4, because we're going to reject Joseph Smith as being a prophet, and we're going to say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the Kingdom of God on earth. The secondary questions then have to do, I think, more with the last two questions about Joseph Smith and the Church when they include questions about church history, plural marriage, people of African descent and the priesthood, women and the priesthood, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, DNA and the Book of Mormon, gay marriage, different accounts of the First Vision, and on and on. Each one of those deals specifically with the LDS Church and its position on Joseph Smith and the Church being true. And I think you're absolutely correct. And this is why I think those questions are very important, even though Mr. Corbridge tries to make it sound like it's not that important.

First and foremost, you have to answer those first four questions. And then, as he says in the next paragraph, if you answer the primary questions, the secondary questions get answered too, or they pale in significance. I don't think any person who has left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, let's say in the past five, ten years, would agree with that statement. Because for a lot of people who have left the Church, questions about church history, plural marriage, people of African descent and the priesthood, women and the priesthood, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the translation of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price.

He just mentions the Pearl of Great Price. I would be more specific and say it has to do with the Book of Abraham. We know from our experience that many people began their journey out of the LDS Church once they saw that the Book of Abraham was a fraud. That certainly didn't help Joseph Smith's cause.

And that, of course, is point number three. Was he a prophet? That told them he was not a prophet. And so because of that, that started their journey out of the Church. Plus, of course, you have the issue of DNA in the Book of Mormon. The Church has always maintained that the American Indian are of Hebrew descent.

Well, DNA doesn't support that. That seems to undermine a huge truth claim that the Mormon Church has been perpetuating ever since the beginning, back in the 1830s. And so how do we figure out, was Joseph Smith a prophet?

How do we know that the LDS Church is the kingdom of God on earth? He gives us in the next section the ability to understand. He calls it the divine method of learning.

And this is what he writes. There are different methods of learning, including the scientific, analytical, academic and divine methods. All four methods are necessary to know the truth. They all begin the same way with the question.

Questions are important, especially the primary questions. The divine method of learning incorporates the elements of the other methodologies, but ultimately trumps everything else by tapping into the powers of heaven. Ultimately, the things of God are made known by the Spirit of God, which is usually a still small voice. The Lord said, quote, God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, end quote. And that comes from Doctrine and Covenants section 121, verse 26.

Notice what he did. He said that there's the scientific, analytical, academic and divine methods of learning, and that all four methods are necessary to know the truth. But doesn't he tend to refute that statement in the next paragraph, when he says, ultimately, the things of God are made known by the Spirit of God, which is usually a still small voice?

Now, let me ask this question when it comes to what he calls secondary questions. Do you think that when the Gospel Topics essay started coming out in 2013, the end of 2013, when Mormons were reading how the Book of Mormon came forth, not by Joseph Smith using the Urim and Thummim in the traditional sense as Mormons understood it, but rather by a seer stone and a hat? Do you think that the still small voice is what told them that it wasn't a seer stone and a hat?

But what is the truth? The church has admitted that predominantly Smith used a seer stone and a hat, that he didn't just look at the characters on the plates through these stones that were supposed to translate it from the reformed Egyptian into English for him. But how many Latter-day Saints knew that? They learned it by reading about it, and of course, seeing it confirmed by their own church. When we would say it, how many times did Mormons say to us, oh, you're making that up?

That's not true. Well, did the still small voice tell them that what we were saying was not true? Now they find out because the church admits it that it was, I guess, true after all, and that we were not lying when we said that. And Bill, we have talked to many former Latter-day Saints.

We've talked about this before. Many of them wanted the church to be true, but when this information came out with the Gospel Topics essays and they read the Gospel Topics essays and realized that the church was now saying something different than what they learned about things having to do with Joseph Smith and their scriptures, that caused a lot of angst. And we know people who have left the church because the still small voice was not enough to overtake the damage that had been done by this information that they were given. When he says ultimately the things of God are made known by the Spirit of God, which is usually a still small voice, I think where we would definitely argue against that premise is we would say, no, not necessarily a still small voice.

It would be God's written word. There's a reason why we believe God gave us his written word. And you would think that Mormons would tend to agree with us by the very fact that they also place a very strong emphasis on their own written word. When we use their own written word, let's say the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine and Covenants or the Pearl of Great Price, and we demonstrate that there's problems in these sources, do you think the still small voice is telling the Latter-day Saint that we're telling them the truth?

That's not been our experience. Most of the time even when we're quoting their own material, they still think we're wrong. How many times have we quoted, for instance, Moroni 10.32, deny yourself of all ungodliness, then his grace is sufficient for you, and we have Mormons tell us, well, you're taking that out of context, when in fact all we did was really read it as it is on the printed page. Did the still small voice tell them that we were wrong? When we're reading their own material, you can see how this subjective way of determining truth can cause a lot of problems for Latter-day Saints, and certainly it has caused a lot of problems for them, because they realize that this alleged still small voice that they were told to place a very strong emphasis in was not really telling them the truth in the first place. Is it possible their presuppositions outweigh the still small voice?

Because when we show them how 1 Corinthians 15, 29 is not talking about baptism for the dead, but they think it is because that's what their church has taught, they're not willing to look at the context and be able to determine that that is not a good verse to use, and the Bible does not teach in something such as baptism for the dead. Tomorrow we're going to continue looking at Lawrence E. Corbridge's talk, Stand on the Rock of Revelation, found in the October 2020 edition of Ensign Magazine. Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding Mormonism Research Ministry, we encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org where you can request our free newsletter, Mormonism Researched. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism.