"If I examine the recovered ancient sources... I will have confirmed the restoration". Dr. Einar C. Erickson

[kirtland r.m.]

Quite a large amount of confirming information from ancient sources on the restoration was not known in Joseph Smiths day. Some additional information was beginning to be known but only to a small number of scholars and theologians and others who were following them. Even more will yet come forward. This is a subject I love to post on.

The following is an interesting and insightful group of comments by Dr. Einar C. Erickson on the state of the earth from Adam and Eve, till now. It is not long, yet it is very good.

RESTORED DOCTRINES-1

INTRODUCTION

The Latter Day Saints characterize their Church as a Restoration of all things that have ever been revealed to man over a period of six thousand years and at least seven dispensations, and new and complete doctrines held back from those previous periods of gospel presence on the earth. With this belief they can assert that whatever records may be found of previous dispensations they may contain the content in fragmentary or complete form of doctrines that are unique to the Church today. Or there is no restoration. Only if you have all the doctrines can you call yourself the True Church.

The ancient records are incomplete, it is evident from what is available that earlier pristine and complete doctrines were had, then lost, and only fragments or shadows of the past glorious teaching remain to be exhibited again..

LIST OF THINGS TO LOOK FOR

Even a partial list might be interesting. So we are looking for evidence FOR ALL the doctrines of the Fall, the role of Adam and Eve, the creation, the cosmological history and present understanding of the delirium of immensity that is out there, the nature of the God Head; Oh God how great thou art! The premortal life or pre-existence; The Father, The Son, The Mother, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit World, birth and childhood in the Spirit World; the Celestial, Terrestrial, Telestial, and kingdoms of glory and kingdoms of no glory. The spirit world after death but before resurrection. The geography of the Universe, Kolob. The ascent Ceremony or How to get into heaven, sealings, families and marriages forever, The Law and covenants of God, the priesthood of God, priesthood blessings, authority, revelations, baptisms, for the living and the dead. The role of Jesus Christ. The Atonement and Redemption, justice and mercy. Forgiveness, long suffering and enduring to the end, prophets, seers and revelators. A, any doctrines found in the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine & Covenants, temples, Man, the Son of Man, signs and names. Lucifer. The last days. Sacrifice, being tried, tested and proven and so on and on.. This list is by no means complete or exhaustive. There is much more, especially in the detail. Mormons call ALL of this THE PLAN OF SALVATION. “The PLAN was ordained by the Father so Jesus Christ and all the rest of his spirit offspring could progress to exaltation.” (McConkie p. 575) For our individual goal we should all take into “consideration the plan of Salvation” (HC v-4 p. 8; Madsen p. 298)

PROVING THE RESTORATION

If I examine the recovered ancient sources of theology, cosmology, anthropology, and soteriology, mythology or narrative accounts, however they are compiled and translated, and they contain any thing, however complete or fragmentary but clearly describe, or refer to any of the above, I will have confirmed the restoration. If the Church is not true, and all these things, and more, were the vain imaginations of one man, then I should find little if anything about any of the above and there has been no restoration.

Where to start?

Because of recent discoveries, the content of Gnosticism in the early Chrisitian world seems a good place to start. This discovery of more than 52 texts were made in 1945 and are discussed in my CD on the THE NAG HAMMADI, “These are diverse texts, and range from secret gospels, poems, and quasi-philosophic descriptions of the origin of the universe, to myths, magic, and instructions for mystical practice.” (Pagels p. xvii) They contain “The greatest impact on the alteration of religion, the addition of myths and addition or deletion of doctrines with fanciful explanations taking over of the original Jewish-Christian teachings by the myriad of Gnostic movements.” (Jonas p. 264) And their weird and distorted ideas. But the baggage they possess may have tid-bits of ancient doctrines restored today. Most of the time they probably did not understand what they actually knew.

RELIGION MINGLED WITH THE PHILOSOPHIES OF MEN

Heresies of the first three centuries after the resurrection of Christ are many. “The apparent lack of Christian features does not make the work necessarily non-Christian; the basic mythological and ritual structure …derive from Christianity, and Porphyry’s testimony …suggest the product of Christian Gnostic groups.“ (Logan p. 53) “…are revelations written in Greek by Syrians claiming to be simultaneously disciples of Berossus and Plato, and uniting Chaldean astrology and Platonically-inspired philosophy.” (Logan p. 29) Sound familiar?

In the USA there are more than 2,200 religions formal and tribal, that have been identified. There are 725 ”Christian churches “ most of which have risen after the three way split of the Catholic religion in the eleventh century. There was a proliferation of Christian groups after Christ’s resurrection. Most of these offshoots were in place by AD 220- 250; (Logan p. 53) the years most of the Nag Hammadi tracts had been bound into books. As Gnosis and variations of it spread out and began to dominate the religious world, great changes in religion occurred. The Jews were having their internal travail’s as well, one of the most important are the people of Qumran who were copying their Hebrew scrolls as early as 275 BC. Oddly there are 165 apostate groups from Mormonism, most are very small. In the last days religion would be characterized by being diluted by the philosophies of men. The ancient religions have been degraded to myths.https://www.einarerickson.com/research/ ... octrines-1

[Niemand]

A post I made canon of the Restored Branch, an English LDS microsect led by Matthew Gill. I recently posted on its canon which includes works such as the Nag Hammadi and Gnostic texts: these are the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Phillip, the Gospel of Truth, the Letter of the Apostle Paul, the Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus the Christ, the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles and the Letter of Peter which he sent to Philip.
viewtopic.php?t=70413

I'm still working on finishing this post but it covers a couple of the topics you mentioned above.

Oddly there are 165 apostate groups from Mormonism, most are very small.

The largest Mormon group seems pretty apostate these days.

[kirtland r.m.]

Hugh Nibley believed in and was a preeminent explorer of an “expanding gospel.”

Nibley used this term to refer not only to the phenomenon of an open-ended canon due to continuing revelation but also to the miraculous recovery of fragments of inspired religious teachings in new discoveries of ancient apocrypha and pseudepigrapha from pre-rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, as well as religious texts from pagan sources. According to most of mainstream Judaism and Christianity these sorry fragments of admittedly mixed, uncertain, and checkered provenance have little of value to teach us, but to Nibley they were, despite their imperfections, valuable witnesses of truths known anciently. By way of analogy he wrote:6

If one makes a sketch of a mountain, what is it? A few lines on a piece of paper. But there is a solid reality behind this poor composition; even if the tattered scrip is picked up later in a street in Tokyo or a gutter in Madrid, it still attests to the artist’s experience of the mountain as a reality. If the sketch should be copied by others who have never seen the original mountain, it still bears witness to its reality. So it is with the apocryphal writings: most of them are pretty poor stuff, and all of them are copies of copies. But when we compare them we cannot escape the impression that they have some real model behind them, more faithfully represented in some than in others. All we ever get on this earth, Paul reminds us, is a distorted reflection of things as they really are (1 Corinthians 13:12). Since we are dealing with derivative evidence only, we are not only justified but required to listen to all the witnesses, no matter how shoddy some of them may be.https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/wh ... -than-ever

[kirtland r.m.]

A post I made canon of the Restored Branch, an English LDS microsect led by Matthew Gill. I recently posted on its canon which includes works such as the Nag Hammadi and Gnostic texts: these are the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Phillip, the Gospel of Truth, the Letter of the Apostle Paul, the Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus the Christ, the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles and the Letter of Peter which he sent to Philip.
viewtopic.php?t=70413

I'm still working on finishing this post but it covers a couple of the topics you mentioned above.

Oddly there are 165 apostate groups from Mormonism, most are very small.

The largest Mormon group seems pretty apostate these days.

While I am sometimes disappointed with the current state of affairs, if I start feeling discouraged that some important things seem to be no longer emphasized, I take heart in verse one of section 13 of the D&C.
1 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.

[kirtland r.m.]

Great Apostasy as seen in the Book of Mormon

Recent scholarly developments may help us understand further these three stages seen by Nephi. A volume of Gnostic writings from early Christianity, newly translated by Bentley Layton, was published in 1987 by Doubleday. It gives many texts analyzed several years ago by Hugh Nibley in The World and the Prophets and Since Cumorah, showing ways in which early Christian doctrines changed under the influences of Hellenistic philosophy and mystic religion.1 Today there is considerable evidence that secret and sacred covenants of early Christianity were lost early. Baptism for the dead, the use of prayer circles, and the sacrament itself underwent transformation, if not elimination. Similarly, asceticism and celibacy entered Christianity at an early stage to distort the meaning of the covenant of marriage and many passages in the Bible. John W. Welch, "The Plain and Precious Parts," in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992), Chapter 10.

[ransomme]

A post I made canon of the Restored Branch, an English LDS microsect led by Matthew Gill. I recently posted on its canon which includes works such as the Nag Hammadi and Gnostic texts: these are the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Phillip, the Gospel of Truth, the Letter of the Apostle Paul, the Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus the Christ, the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles and the Letter of Peter which he sent to Philip.
viewtopic.php?t=70413

I'm still working on finishing this post but it covers a couple of the topics you mentioned above.

Oddly there are 165 apostate groups from Mormonism, most are very small.

The largest Mormon group seems pretty apostate these days.

While I am sometimes disappointed with the current state of affairs, if I start feeling discouraged that some important things seem to be no longer emphasized, I take heart in verse one of section 13 of the D&C.
1 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.

Verses like that also give me hope. I believe that I have that priesthood as do others. I anxiously seek/wait for the restoration of all things.

I don't think that Church Inc is organized as it was set up and intended to be. I think man, not God, made those changes. The fruits of the leadership seem to bear witness that they have gone astray. And many humble followers of Christ do err, because of the precepts of men.

Exactly where that leaves us today is worth contemplating.

[Ymarsakar]

A post I made canon of the Restored Branch, an English LDS microsect led by Matthew Gill. I recently posted on its canon which includes works such as the Nag Hammadi and Gnostic texts: these are the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Phillip, the Gospel of Truth, the Letter of the Apostle Paul, the Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus the Christ, the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles and the Letter of Peter which he sent to Philip.
viewtopic.php?t=70413

I'm still working on finishing this post but it covers a couple of the topics you mentioned above.



The largest Mormon group seems pretty apostate these days.

While I am sometimes disappointed with the current state of affairs, if I start feeling discouraged that some important things seem to be no longer emphasized, I take heart in verse one of section 13 of the D&C.
1 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.

Verses like that also give me hope. I believe that I have that priesthood as do others. I anxiously seek/wait for the restoration of all things.

I don't think that Church Inc is organized as it was set up and intended to be. I think man, not God, made those changes. The fruits of the leadership seem to bear witness that they have gone astray. And many humble followers of Christ do err, because of the precepts of men.

Exactly where that leaves us today is worth contemplating.

Just like the Holy Spirit will confirm some things when you ask of it what is best for your soul growth, so the Godhead will send tests and trials if you wish to advance in the priesthood.

These are separate from what the LDS traditions talk about, such as temple advancements or rituals. I had a number of such tests show up for me, and I found it a bit strange that others in Elder's Q and faith meetings didn't talk about it. There were enough stories that I got the impression that the Spirit was helping the saints and looking over us, for sure, but I also knew from stories that not every Ward or Stake was like mine.

The tests I took for the priesthood were very peculiar but also tailored directly for my personality and standing. As such I can confidently say that even if the LDS removed me from active or inactive membership rolls, I would still qualify under God's priesthood or whatever role they will see fit to provide me. But the strangest thing about this is as I advanced farther in the priesthood, the less I could talk about it, because it would be "lording it over" the brothers and sisters in Christ. So I found it a lot more convenient to go incognito as some people in the BoM have done. Just go outside and pretend I'm a normal person like they are, which even if untrue, is also true in another frame of reference.

Hopefully, you will never see me using my "priesthood" as a badge of rank or authority to back my positions, because that is the opposite of what Christ did when washing the feet of the apostles. That was a task given to women and serfs, not to leaders. The point of the lesson was to say that you cannot lead when you cannot follow and you cannot lead when you think yourself special from those that you guide. Even if you are freaking special, that is even more so.