Category: Gospel Topics Essays
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Why a Fourth Gospel Topics Essay on Plural Marriage?
Note: The following was originally printed in the July/August 2021 edition of the Mormonism Researched, a bimonthly periodical of MRM that is free upon request. To request a free subscription to Mormonism Researched, please visit here. Between October 2013 to December 2015, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published 13 official “Gospel Topics essays”…
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Gospel Topics Essays Reviews Catalog
Podcasts and Articles Introduction According to the LDS Church website, the original Gospel Topics Essays that were produced between 2013-2105 are official, authoritative, and ought to be considered seriously. One page on the church’s website reads: These essays complete a series of 13 that the Church began publishing in 2013 to provide an accurate resource…
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Are Mormons Christian? A Review of Chapter 1 in The LDS Gospel Topics Series
Review of Chapter 1: Are Mormons Christian? (The LDS Gospel Topics Series, Signature Books, 2020) Authored by Craig Blomberg, New Testament professor at Denver Seminary NOTE: Click here for an introduction and a short review of each of the 13 chapters in the book The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement (edited by Matthew…
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The Gospel Topics Essays: The Dynamite Approach
Summary Written by LDS scholars, the “Gospel Topics Essays” are available on the official lds.org website. These articles cover a variety of topics and attempt to confront the checkered history of Mormonism while smoothing out the rough edges. However, instead of placating many questioning Mormons, these writings tend to chafe the souls of the faithful…
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Are the Gospel Topics Essays Helping or Hurting LDS Membership?
When the Gospel Topics Essays were first posted on the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (lds.org), the intention of the leadership was to calm the concerns that many members had about their church’s more controversial history and doctrine. However, the essays have caused mixed reactions. Naturally, some members have welcomed…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women
Gospel Topics Essay: Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women To see an introduction to the Gospel Topics essays, click here. The entire essay is printed below, underlined, with my commentary included throughout. Because I will try to be short and to the point as much as possible, a number of sites (many from MRM) to…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Mother in Heaven
To see an introduction to the Gospel Topics essays, click here. The entire essay is printed below, underlined, with my commentary included throughout. Because I will try to be short and to the point as much as possible, a number of sites (many from MRM) to support my disagreement are included. I encourage interested readers to consider…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints
Gospel Topics Essay: Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints To see an introduction to the Gospel Topics essays, click here. The entire essay is printed below, underlined, with my commentary included throughout. Because I will try to be short and to the point as much as possible, a number of sites (many from MRM) to support…
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MRM’s Short Introduction to the Gospel Topics Essays
To see all of the reviews and podcasts MRM has done on the Gospel Topics Essays, click here. In an attempt to deal with several vital historical issues propagated by the LDS Church throughout the years, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produced a series of 13 essays between 2013-2015. On January 18,…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah
Gospel Topics Essay: Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah To see an introduction to the Gospel Topics essays, click here. The entire essay is printed below, underlined, with my commentary included throughout. Because I will try to be short and to the point as much as possible, a number of sites (many from MRM) to support…
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Gospel Topics Essay: The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage
Gospel Topics Essay: The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage To see an introduction to the Gospel Topics essays, click here. The entire essay is printed below, underlined, with my commentary included throughout. Because I will try to be short and to the point as much as possible, a number of sites (many from MRM)…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Book of Mormon Translation
To see an introduction to the Gospel Topics essays, click here. The entire essay is printed below, underlined, with my commentary included throughout. Because I will try to be short and to the point as much as possible, a number of sites (many from MRM) to support my disagreement are included. I encourage interested readers to consider…
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Gospel Topic Essay (Defined)
Gospel Topics Essays. A series of essays posted on the official lds.org website that mainly deals with controversial issues. While the essays are meant to come clean on topics such as race and the priesthood and polygamy, complete objective information and analysis is not typical. The essays began to be posted one-by-one beginning in late 2013…
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Mormon Church Essay on Priesthood Ban Banned From Church Classroom
An interesting thing happened to Mormon Sunday school teacher Brian Dawson. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that a student in Mr. Dawson’s youth Sunday school class asked him why his Nigerian wife joined a church that had at one time excluded blacks from the priesthood and Mormon temples. The student wondered where the priesthood ban…
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What About Those Essays?
When asked by the New York Times why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to post several “Gospel Topics” essays on its official web site, church historian Steven E. Snow said, “There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we owed our members a safe place where they…
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Faithful Mormons Respond to News of Joseph Smith’s Polygamy
Shock waves continue to move across the globe as Mormons discover their Church’s recent admissions regarding Joseph Smith’s polygamy. There is much distress evident among Mormons who have always believed (been told) that the kinds of things now disclosed in the Mormon Church essays (i.e., Joseph Smith married up to 40 women, many were quite…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo
On October 22, 2014, the LDS Church published another “Gospel Topics” essay titled “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo.” There were a number of admissions made. However, all the facts were not included to give a complete picture. The information contained within should be disconcerting for any faithful Latter-day Saint, as history doesn’t lie. A…
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Gospel Topics Essay: Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham
The LDS Church has produced another essay in its series titled “Gospel Topics.” Did Joseph Smith correctly translate the Book of Abraham papyrii? The arguments offered in this recent essay provide nothing new and show that Smith was unable to translate anything from the Egyptian langauge. This topic is featured during the week of December…
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New LDS.org Gospel Topic Articles Were Submitted to the “Presiding Quorums of the Church and the First Presidency for Approval”
I am already hearing of BYU professors mocking the new LDS.org gospel topic articles as non-official. Elder Steven E. Snow, LDS Church Historian and Executive Director of the Church History Department, explains that each of the articles was submitted to the “presiding Quorums of the Church and the First Presidency for approval”: “How does the…
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Gospel Topics Essay: First Vision Accounts
A good Mormon will be able to explain Smith’s supposed vision of God the Father and Jesus. As part of the Gospel Topics Essay, Joseph Smith’s First Vision account is described and defended by the LDS Church. But what about the different accounts that provided contradictory details? Did Smith see angels or did he see God…