Insider's View Of Mormon Origins Pdf Download
Corette Guitreau
An Insider's View of Mormon Origins is a 2002 book about the origins of Mormonism by Grant H. Palmer, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a Church Educational System instructor and Institute director with a master's degree in history.
Palmer's stated purpose in writing the book was to incorporate recent critical historical and scholarly studies of LDS history in an orthodox defense of the faith. He states that his aim is to "increase faith, not diminish it".[1]
Palmer's book suggests that the foundation events were rewritten by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and other early church officials. This reworking made the stories more useful for missionary work. Palmer asks, "Is it right to tell religious allegories to adults as if they were literal history?"
Mark Ashurst-McGee, an LDS member, states that Palmer presents only one side of an issue and only uses evidence that supports his own views,[2] such as using the Hurlbut affidavits from Eber Dudley Howe's book Mormonism Unvailed for the purpose of "overlaying run-of-the-mill treasure lore" onto Joseph Smith's original account of the recovery of the golden plates.[3]
Responding to five negative reviews of Palmer's book by FARMS (the LDS affiliated Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies),[4] Ron Priddis asks: "Is nothing beyond the reach of sarcasm by FARMS polemicists?" He refers to the reviews as "tabloid scholarship".[5]
Palmer was disfellowshipped from the church in December 2004. He said he still loves it and is pleased he was not excommunicated.[6] A disfellowshipped member retains church membership but loses certain privileges. In 2010, he resigned his membership in the church and did not reinstate it before his death in 2017.[7]
Grant (M.A., American history, Brigham Young University) is a three-time director of LDS Institutes of Religion in California and Utah, a former instructor at the Church College of New Zealand, and an LDS seminary teacher at two Utah locations.
Thanks for the great podcast. The last two podcast have been fantastic. Grant wrote a great book that addresses most of the big problems in mormon history. I had read many of the problems before but Grants book just puts them all together and makes it so clear that the church is not being honest in its history. John thanks for all the hard work. Keep it up. Grant, thanks for your time too.
Japanguy
In any way, it makes no sense to try to keep the LDS church alive.
It will inevitable stumble to the ground, because the truth always prevails,
and the invention of the internet has made the truth accessible to many people around the globe.
You may slow down the process by watering down the doctrine, but in the end, the credibility of the
book of mormon will sink to 0 until noone believes in it anymore.
Anyway, this is my prophesy:
The LDS growth rate will be devastating decreasing in the following years because of the availability of information in the internet. As a consequence, the church will try to water down some aspects as well as
admit some aspects of their twisted image of church history, but eventually the number of people leaving will increase, while the number of converts and of new missionaries will decrease.
In the near future, the LDS church will lose its importance and will be replaced by other more successful churches.
Just my two cents on the topic.
Grant : good luck for the future,
John : Keep up your podcast,
I think that the podcast about yourself was one of the best podcasts ever made,
and I believe that your podcast will increase in importance and number of listeners, because
you do high quality interviews on highly relevant issues.
Your effort is really appreciated by the internet/podcast community. Thanks in the name of all listeners.
I read the scriptures and I see a pattern that when God has something to tell us He does it through the prophet, so that is whom I listen to for new revelation. It might be additional knowledge or clarification on misunderstood doctrine. The pattern has always been that when you follow the prophet he will lead you to God. The lesson of the scriptures has never been that the prophet knows everything about everything. Let us not expect the prophets to be more than they were chosen to be.
It would be nice if when we follow the prophet everything turns out nice and neatly packaged. I followed the prophet, I was obedient to God and now I have a perfect family, the perfect job, I am rich and I have a perfect life. That has never been true. Remember Job? Remember how Israel followed Moses into the desert. The DESERT! That must have been terribly awful and a difficult pill to swallow. Many of the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt and the false dead gods. They were not willing to withstand the trial of the desert and failed to remember the evidence of God they had already received. I think that for many at the time, Moses appeared to be a false prophet, but we know today that he eventually lead them to a land of milk and honey. Most importantly he lead them to the true and living God.
Brother(I still consider him one of us, as does he) Palmer has had a long time to research his book. I think it is unfair to expect anyone to be able to adequately explain everything he talks about in a quick knee jerk response.
We will eventually know the answers to all questions. Today we can only hold to the knowledge that has been revealed. The unbeliever considers faith to be weakness. The believer knows faith to be strength.
In the end, the internet is here to stay, members who are curious about issues but feel uncomfortable bringing them up in Sunday School or PH meeting will increasingly turn to the internet. Grant was correct in saying that this is only the beginning. Whether the church is ready to move quickly or not, the truth about the historical problems of the church is coming to the membership at large, and its coming fast.
By comparison, look at the Seven Day Adventists. They too had to confront faith promoting history. They did so courageously, lost almost a third of their followers but have become one of the most vibrant proselyting movements in the world.
If a public company treated its shareholders the way the church treats its members, management would rightfully end up in prison. And I think we can all agree that the one true church on the face of the earth should be held to a higher standard than your average Fortune 500 conglomerate.
If the point of life was to enjoy truth then the Lord would have given us all much much more. But the point of life is not to gather truth (for even the wisest of us would come up way short). It is, as Hugh Nibley says, to learn repentence and forgiveness.
I consider myself a scientist. What can one know for certain? What is knowledge? Synapses? Spirit? It is very arrogant to say that one knows something for certain to be true. It just as arrogant to declare something false. I envy such arrogance and would love a dose.
I used to get into raging arguments with Mormons about things, but in the end, nobody felt different about Joseph Smith, but we did about each other. no sense in losing friendships over the Joseph Smith story. It is not worth it. Life is too short to worry about that.
Someone on the Recovery from Mormonism website (www.exmormon.org) provided a link to this blog. Thanks for your comments about Grant Palmer, another Mormon-esque Galileo (like D. Michael Quinn). Both tried to help Latter-Day Saints gain a deeper and broader understanding of church history through their research and writings, and what happened to them? They got hit with the big stick of church disciplinary action for communicating the truth. Such is the enlightenment of Mormon patriarchy. Some things never change in the church, apparently.
Palmer is right that the Internet is booming and today we have you John, and Palmer, which is a new phenomenon. Maybe if enough progressive Sunstone Mormons start speaking up then the Church will become less Josephcentric and more Christ-centered as Palmer envisions.
The Church leaders should acknowledge the problems that Palmer is identifying not to humor him but to strengthen the Church. The challenge is, of course, that problems with Joseph Smith reflect on the current leadership who would compromise its own status.
When we talk of history it is very inacurate to speak of the true story. It is more accurate to say more of the story. Historians have been changing the view of history as long as they have been looking. Tomorrow someone might find another account of the same event.
The church will go on fussing over the liberal and less active Mormons, and you will always get some looks at church. But on the bright side if you are in my ward we can go get stoned after church. And people like us are growing in numbers. TBMs are starting to feel the way white people feel when more black people move into the neighborhood. I think there is a real possibility that there will be more of a place for us in the near future. Solidarity!
I know a lot of folks that dropped out of college, for example, because they had too many children too early as they had put their faith into the advice of Mormon leaders such as Elder Maxwell. I have seen others that did not know how to pay their bills because their families were bigger than they could afford. I have seen countless people who are depressed by feelings of guilt and inadequacy.
I have seen children who have had the fear of the devil put into them by their primary teachers. I know about two who could not properly sleep for years while they were teenagers. One of them had to undergo institutionalized therapy for over a year and remains on anti-depressants.
I know a number of women who have never gotten married because they bought into the advice to only marry in the temple. There are so many gays and lesbians that suffer from ignorance proclaimed as doctrine so much that they attempt to commit suicide.
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