Church Historygospel topics essaystransparencyhidden historyseer stone

Did the Church Hide Its History?

Weren’t seer stones, polygamy, and the First Vision accounts hidden until the Internet forced the essays?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · Luke 1:1–4

KJV + NRSVUE

An orderly account. We now have the Joseph Smith Papers. That is the opposite of a vault.

King James Version
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us… it seemed good to me also… to write unto thee in order.

NRSVUE
Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us… I, too, decided… to write an orderly account for you.

Book of Mormon

Also restored

Doctrine and Covenants 123:13
Wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness.
We should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness.

Faithful answers

Gospel Topics Essays

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The essays exist because the Church chose to put its hardest files in the lesson manuals’ path. Joseph Smith Papers, Saints, and the essays are the opposite of a cover-up. Sunday class culture sometimes lagged the archives. Lag is not conspiracy. If a source will not mention the Joseph Smith Papers, it is not interested in what was published. It is interested in the feeling of being lied to.

An institution putting its controversies on its own website is not ‘getting caught.’ It is doing the work.

Joseph Smith—History has mentioned the Urim and Thummim in canon for generations.
The 1832 First Vision account was printed by Church-adjacent historians long before the bloggernacle.
‘I didn’t hear it in Primary’ is not the same as ‘they hid it in a vault.’

Read the original

Keep going

Rate this answer

Be the first to tell us if this case is strong.