Church history

[Alexander]

How much of the hearsay, doctored, official church narrative history can we believe?

[ChooseTruth]

The key is not to have a testimony of church history or one that relies on it. I keep mine centered on Christ. As for the restoration, Joseph Smith was a true prophet that brought forward the Book if Mormon and restored many precious truths and doctrines. Beyond that, very little is reliable. As you know, we have to use the Spirit as our guide to sort through it.

Here’s a good article on the topic

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/jnlp ... 02-PDF.pdf

[LukeAir2008]

Just a few paragraphs in...

‘Let’s get one thing clear: There is nothing in Church history that leads inevitably to the conclusion that the Church is false. There is nothing that requires the conclusion that Joseph Smith was a fraud.’. (Davis Bitton, I Don’t Have A Testimony of the History of the Church, Interpreter)

Yep, that sums it up....

[Mindfields]

Little to none.

[Phantom]

How much of the hearsay, doctored, official church narrative history can we believe?

If I might suggest -- if you have any of your family who was present during the early days of the Church I would humbly recommend delving into their lives as much as you can.

This is one of the real blessings of the doctrine of the family. Do your Family History. I'm not just talking dates, names and ordinances. I'm talking about real research of your ancestors.

I guarantee that if you have family that was there you will validate what you're looking for in Church history. You were born at this time to discover those things.

If you don't have this in your family history there is still other ways to know.

It starts with the old #1.

[JohnnyL]

How much of the hearsay, doctored, official church narrative history can we believe?

I'd say, more than whatever you're sharing.

[Bronco73idi]

Quitter always quit

[Dave62]

Don't really care; my testimony is centred on Christ becasue I am a sinner and need His help daily. To the extent that the Prophet Joseph Smith is the medium for the translation of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of Christ's church, I thank him. Anything else is quite irrelevant.

[zionssuburb]

I went to school in the United States, did the whole K-12 thing, Bachelors's degree. Throughout that entire time, I was taught some history, and I find now that it was NEVER as complex or as contextualized as I have found later studying on my own. If a system designed to teach history can get it wrong, how can I hold a church accountable when all historians throughout all the time in the 1800's and 1900's all taught history the same way (meaning edges were smoothed out, bad things were swept under the rug, etc).

Then there's the whole idea that I could take not too much time from my day and think about the difference between being 'educated' in the school system vs being 'inspired/taught' at church. It was pretty obvious and should be to anyone, that the church has never taught history.

[gkearney]

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. – L. P. Hartley [1895–1972]

[djinwa]

I went to school in the United States, did the whole K-12 thing, Bachelors's degree. Throughout that entire time, I was taught some history, and I find now that it was NEVER as complex or as contextualized as I have found later studying on my own. If a system designed to teach history can get it wrong, how can I hold a church accountable when all historians throughout all the time in the 1800's and 1900's all taught history the same way (meaning edges were smoothed out, bad things were swept under the rug, etc).


Missionary to investigator:

“I testify that we are led by a prophet, and the church is no worse than the public school system “
Then there's the whole idea that I could take not too much time from my day and think about the difference between being 'educated' in the school system vs being 'inspired/taught' at church. It was pretty obvious and should be to anyone, that the church has never taught history.

[zionssuburb]

I went to school in the United States, did the whole K-12 thing, Bachelors's degree. Throughout that entire time, I was taught some history, and I find now that it was NEVER as complex or as contextualized as I have found later studying on my own. If a system designed to teach history can get it wrong, how can I hold a church accountable when all historians throughout all the time in the 1800's and 1900's all taught history the same way (meaning edges were smoothed out, bad things were swept under the rug, etc).


Missionary to investigator:

“I testify that we are led by a prophet, and the church is no worse than the public school system “
Then there's the whole idea that I could take not too much time from my day and think about the difference between being 'educated' in the school system vs being 'inspired/taught' at church. It was pretty obvious and should be to anyone, that the church has never taught history.

I don't understand the comment, sorry. Does a Missionary testify to an investigator about their upbringing in the public school system being 'true' or something?

To diminsh the comment with sarcams is weak, and usually means someone doesn't have an argument of thier own.