Base Information

            Let’s call the following, base information. These are the first thing I want to start off, things that I had had pounded into my head for as long as I can remember. These are things that are paramount to the views taught by the LDS church. I actually had to go looking for references for these things, I have known them for so long that I wasn’t even sure where they originated in the church. As a number of my questions and issues relate back to these core views and teachings, I decided to lead off with them and will refer back to them repeatedly as I continue to explain my position.

1.      God is the same “Yesterday, Today, and Forever” and he is “Unchanging”

a.       Mormon 9:9-10

                                                              i.      9 For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?

                                                            ii.      10 And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.

b.      Moroni 8:18

                                                              i.      18 For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.

c.       Thomas S. Monson: Stand in Holy Places, Oct 2011 GC

                                                              i.      Our Father in Heaven is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The prophet Mormon tells us that God is “unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.” In this world where nearly everything seems to be changing, His constancy is something on which we can rely, an anchor to which we can hold fast and be safe, lest we be swept away into uncharted waters.

2.      The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth.

a.       Introduction to the BOM by Joseph Smith

                                                              i.      “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book”

b.      Ezra Taft Benson: Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon, Oct 1988 GC

                                                              i.      “…the most correct of any book on earth—the Book of Mormon.”

3.      Prophet/Quorum of the 12 cannot lead the people contrary to the word of God

a.       M. Russell Ballard: Elder Ballard Urges Mission Presidents to Teach Missionaries the Worth of Souls. July 2017

                                                              i.      “This work is led by a prophet of God and apostles who will not and cannot lead this Church astray.”

b.      Gordon B. Hinckley: The Church is on Course, Oct 1992 GC

                                                              i.      “Now, in conclusion, do you believe this body of men would ever lead this Church astray? Remember whose church this is. It carries the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who stands as its head. His is the power to remove any found remiss in his duty or who is teaching that which is not in harmony with His divine will.”

c.       James E. Faust: Called and Chosen. Oct 2005 GC

                                                              i.      “The President of the Church will not lead the people of the Church astray. It will never happen.”

4.      When a prophet speaks from the pulpit, it is the word of God

a.       Brigham Young: Journal of Discourses 13 page 95.

                                                              i.       “I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture.”