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. I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. The Gospel Topics essays, as we mentioned in yesterday's show, we have referenced them quite often because we do feel that there is a wealth of information that can be used by Christians when communicating with their LDS counterparts.
There was a book that was published in late 2020 titled the LDS Gospel Topics Series, a Scholarly Engagement. And in yesterday's show, we kind of gave you a little bit of background about the publisher of this book, Signature Books, as well as the co-founder of Signature Books, and that being George D. Smith, who happens to have a chapter in this book. But we were reading the description or the summary, I should say, of this book that is found within it across from the contents, and it talks about those who were contributing to the book. Now, remember, this book has 13 chapters in it. There were 13 original Gospel Topics essays that were meant to tackle some of the thornier issues of Mormon doctrine and Mormon history. And these chapters are not written by the same person.
There's a number of different individuals that have written these chapters. And in the summary, it describes them as including a variety of faith traditions, including the LDS Church, Community of Christ, which was formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Catholic and Evangelical Christian. I think we should talk about that a little bit, Eric, because when it says that some of the contributors are from the LDS Church, it doesn't tell you really where they are in the LDS Church. I mean, we read yesterday how some people like the late Stephen E. Robinson, who is a former BYU professor, wasn't real happy with any of the books, it sounds like, really, that come from signature books, referring to that phrase that Korihor is back and he's got a printing press.
Obviously, Korihor being described as an Antichrist in Alma chapter 30 of the Book of Mormon. That's not meant to be flattery, I'm sure, on the part of Stephen Robinson. So it might make a lot of average members of the church wonder, well, what kind of Latter-day Saint are they that would write an essay for this kind of a book? I really don't know the personal beliefs of those who claim to have an LDS background who contributed to this book.
I think it would probably be fair, maybe you disagree with me, Eric, but would it not be fair to say that if they are a member of record, they probably lean in more of a liberal direction? Well, you have to guess, because they do have a biography at the back that talks about each of the authors, and some of them, you can assume, who they are. I mean, one man says he's an evangelical Christian, another one says he's a Roman Catholic, and so you know in the first two chapters who they are. But some of the chapters, they don't really tell us who they are, except maybe they do have a background in Mormonism. Are they still in the church today?
We just don't know. But these would not be what you might call the TBMs, the true blue Mormons. These are not going to be the conservative members of the church.
Probably not. But does that take away from what they have to say? I would argue it shouldn't, because if what they are saying is accurate, it needs to be taken into account. I get a little bit tired of Latter-day Saints who always want to know the genesis of a statement to see, well, did that come from a site that's friendly to the church?
Well, that's a genetic fallacy, and we shouldn't go by genetic fallacies. If a statement is accurate, it needs to be evaluated. If it's not accurate, naturally it needs to be rejected. So I don't know if it would be fair if a Latter-day Saint was wanting to read this book to just dismiss a lot of the chapters, simply because they don't think the author of that chapter is the Mormon they should be, according to their personal views. Before we look at the introduction, Eric, I want to talk about the cover. The cover of the book is a painting, and it says so inside the book. It describes the portrait of Lucy Mack Smith. Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS movement. This is a painting of Lucy Mack Smith, as it says in the book quite correctly, that was done by Sutcliffe Maudsley around 1842.
So that would be about two years before Joseph Smith was killed at Carthage, Illinois. I don't know why this is the cover of the book, because it's a picture of Lucy Mack Smith sitting in a rocking chair, showing a side view of her, and she's holding in her hand a book that, if you look very carefully, it actually says the Book of Mormon on the book, although it's written sideways in a way that I don't think any edition of the Book of Mormon ever had it. I think the person who painted this wanted you to know that that was the Book of Mormon that she's holding. It's not a Bible, it says Book of Mormon on it. But then in the upper part of it, it has facsimile one from the Book of Abraham, which of course is the doctored up picture that is included in the Book of Abraham to show a rendition of this funerary text that is very familiar to a gyptologist. It's interesting that that is put in here, because that's a controversial facsimile in and of itself, just by the way someone, perhaps even Joseph Smith, filled in the torn section of the papyri that Joseph Smith had, and made it into something the original could have never been. When I looked at the cover too, I was puzzled. The only thing I can think of, Bill, is because the Book of Mormon is talked about in the Gospel Topics essays, as well as the Book of Abraham, maybe that was their way to say this is what it's going to cover, but I was a little confused why Lucy Mack Smith is on this cover when she's not talked about at all in any of the essays or in this book. Well, I wonder if it may be because, if I remember correctly, that painting of Lucy Mack Smith was found on her autobiography, and some of the things that she said in her autobiography were probably controversial, maybe not at the time she wrote them, but certainly years later, she does say some things that I would think that a modern Latter-day Saint would go, really?
I didn't know that, because, well, she was there at the time, and she's writing about it. Perhaps that's why. I don't know. I have no idea.
I cannot answer that question. But let's look at the introduction, because the introduction goes back to a time in more modern LDS history that we have talked about many times on this show, and that was an event that took place in Sweden, in Stockholm, Sweden. It actually starts off by saying on a chilly evening in November 2010, some 600 Swedish Latter-day Saints met at an LDS chapel in Stockholm to discuss their concerns about difficult theological questions in the LDS church, and it says it was not an ordinary fireside. Bill, we spent several weeks back in 2014 talking about that very important fireside that took place in what's called the Swedish Rescue, and a very important part of this book that we're going to be looking at, because that's the impetus for getting the Gospel Topics essay started. And it's funny, because some might say, well, how come you talk about it around 2014, when this took place in 2010? As far as I know, very few people were even aware of this event. We came across a recording of this, and it started getting some publicity, and it certainly drew our attention, but we didn't even know this had taken place in 2010. Certainly, this story probably would have not even gotten out when it did had not somebody recorded it, and I don't think the two Mormon historians that were there were privy to the fact that it was being recorded.
Maybe they were, I don't know. But certainly, this recording got out, and this started a whole new chapter in Mormonism, and as you correctly said, it was dubbed the Swedish Rescue, and it says this special fireside was led by LDS church historian slash recorder and general authority Marlon K. Jensen, and assistant church historian slash recorder Richard E. Turley. Jensen explained that the purpose of the fireside was to, quote, offer some information in a reliable and loving way that will be responsive to some of the questions that you have, end quote. He further stated that, quote, we're going to invite you to share with us your most pressing questions.
I know the church is true, and my prayer tonight is that those of you who may be in doubt may have some of your doubt removed, end quote. When you read that, you wonder, that's a pretty gutsy invitation, wouldn't you say? You're talking to 600 members, and you already know that a lot of these people in the audience have some serious questions, and you're going to invite these questions. Now the book, and I think quite appropriately and accurately, says that this fireside, this meeting, quickly turned testy. After Jensen's opening statement quoting scripture and bearing testimony, one of the members asked, is it okay to ask questions now? For the next three and a half hours, they asked Jensen and Turley questions concerning polygamy, polyandry, the ancient authenticity of the Book of Abraham, the translation of the Book of Mormon, and other controversial doctrinal and historical matters. Turley and Jensen tried to answer them. During one tense moment, a participant chided the two men for what he perceived was an obfuscating answer about the Book of Mormon. That is amazing, he noted on a press with Turley's answer, but those are not the questions we want. It seems like it goes back to Robert Millet, who's a Mormon apologist, who always said, always answer the question they should have asked, don't answer the question they may have asked.
Maybe that was the attitude that this audience had. You're not answering our question, but notice the subject matter of the questions. And as we've mentioned on this show, very similar to the controversies that we have heard here in the United States, questions dealing with polygamy, Joseph Smith's polyandry, the fact that he was married to women who had living husbands, the ancient authenticity of the Book of Abraham, the translation of the Book of Mormon, and as it says, and other controversial doctrinal and historical matters. Bill, these are the very same issues that are bothering Latter-day Saints or former Latter-day Saints today. And when they published these essays from 2013 to 2015, I don't know if they realized how much of an impact that was going to have on many of the believers, because we have talked to, we have met many, many people who have left the church in the past five years, six years or so, because of what they learned by reading these essays that were published by their church and are still available today. So your point being that these essays can be used in a witnessing kind of situation because they are, as you want to call it, official and supported by the First Presidency of the church. Tomorrow we're going to continue looking at this Swedish rescue, as it was called, as well as looking more deeply into this introduction to the book, the LDS Gospel Topics Series, A Scholarly Engagement. Your viewpoint on Mormonism. Thank you for your support of this ministry.
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