Heart of the Matter

LIVE! From the Mecca of Mormonism . . . Salt Lake City, Utah . . . This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.! Show 24 June 11th, 2007 Pearl of Great Price 2

And I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion. . . . your host. Remember . . . if you have friends who are LDS or interested in Mormonism, just pick up the phone and have them go to www.bornagainmormon.com to watch us through the internet LIVE!

Shout Outs and Meetings

Boy have I met a lot of people this week. So a general shout out to whomever I had the good fortune to meet.

Specifically, Esther, my 86-year-old friend in Ogden. Great to meet you Esther, and thanks! Ken, for the chapter out of One. Excellent! A shout out to Jordan Cooper. Steve and his handsome family. Pastor Doug and Pastor Rodney. Deeta and Ruby and friends. And anyone else I might have missed.

In the House Tonight

In the House Tonight . . . Pastor in the Pub! Every Tuesday night after the show, we invite you to join us at Squatter’s Pub in downtown SLC. Last week we had over 30 people show up from all walks of life and I had a great time meeting each of you. All are welcome.

Because I was in town over the weekend, I had the honor of visiting a few churches and meeting with a few pastors in the area. Let me tell you about a few of them.

First, in Sandy, there is a small church called Sandy Ridge Community Church. The pastor's name is Travis Mitchell. If you want to have a real pastor in your life, go meet Pastor Travis at Sandy Ridge. He’s grounded in the Word, he is loving, patient, kind, and has a heart for the LDS. That’s Sandy Ridge Community Church – we recommend them – and you can go to www.bornagainmormon.com to get their information.

Second, if you are in the Layton area, you may consider Family Worship Center at 55 North Fort Lane with Pastor Doug. Great spirit there and a certain love for the Word and Truth.

Next, and if you’re looking for a little more hip place to hang out, check out the K2 church at 2100 South in SLC. The pastor is insightful, humorous, and has great insights into things about life. The ambiance is very casual and relaxed. K2 is loaded with the tech stuff so if you are into a multimedia church, check them out.

Finally, I want to tell you about a Church that really struck me. It’s called Capital Church in the City. It’s located at 10th East and 7th South. I absolutely loved this Church. Why? The worship was phenomenal. There was tech, but just enough so as to emphasize the message. The pastor actually taught verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty. out of the Bible in an informative but applicable way. The people were into the worship and the Word. And it was a really clean place to come and learn more about God. I highly, highly recommend Capital Church with Pastor Troy.

Church Challenge

If you want to review our Church recommendations, go to our website at www.bornagainmormon.com and have a look under the recommendations page.

Hey, I had a thought come to me the other morning that I think bears mention. One of the most oft asked questions I am asked through this ministry is “How can I reach out to my family and friends who are LDS?” or “My best friend is LDS and insists that they worship Jesus just like we do. What can I do?”

Let me introduce to you, Church Challenge. This is how it works. You and your LDS friend or family member take one month and alternately visit each other's religious services. The first Sunday you both attend an LDS sacrament meeting. The next Sunday you both attend your Christian service. Same thing over the remaining two weeks. And you just let God do the talking. Do not demean the LDS sacrament service content. Do not boast of your worship or Christ-centered messages from the Bible. Just go and exchange with each other a sampling of your religious services. God will do the rest.

Oh, and there is no staking the deck. You can’t go to your pastor and ask him to gear the service toward anything and your LDS friend can’t do the same with their bishop or ward leaders. Just go, experience, and observe. I’m gonna follow up with you guys every week or so and see how it is going. Why? Because I want there to be no reason under the sun for me to have to do this show. But Mormonism will not fall until the general membership starts to stand up.

The Discussion on Shifting Liturgy and Statements from Joseph Smith

No more Joseph – Jesus only. No more hymns – worship! No more standard works – the Bible! Get it? All right . . .

Just an FYI follow-up

Last week when we were talking about Zelph, I read where Joseph claimed that Zelph was a warrior who served under the great Onandagus. Robert emailed me and reminded me that there was an Onandaga County in New York. Add those whiskers to your beard!

Okay, got some heat from my tattoo comments last week. Let me say this: relax man. It’s a personal opinion no different than me saying I like long hair over short. It has nothing to do with salvation, worthiness, or liberty. I just don’t like them on girls. Now if a woman of sound reason chooses to get ink, so be it. I’m just trying to tell the young girls whose brains aren’t done cooking that they don’t need them to look cool or beautiful or sexy. Got it? There are just far more important things to worry about . . . for example:

We had a very sad and sincere voice of a teenage-sounding girl leave a message here at the studios asking “why do people die?” She said:

“God took my Mom away and considering I am adopted, and don’t even know who my real parents are, why would God take away the people we love?”

EXPLAIN

The Purchase of Egyptian Artifacts and Its Implications

All right, let’s have a word of prayer.

We are in part II of the Pearl of Great Price – a book of writings the LDS Church considers equal to the Bible. If you recall, we left off last week with one Michael Chandler, an Irishman with a traveling museum of Egyptian artifacts, stopping in Kirtland Ohio where Joseph had centralized the church. Some of the ancient fragments in Chandler’s possession were brought to Joseph Smith and he told Chandler that he could translate them – but that it would take some time.

Before long, the Mormons pooled their funds and actually purchased Chandler’s exhibit – the mummies and all – for a price of $2,400.00 (which would be about $50,000.00 in funds today) and presented them to Joseph and the Church. Joseph later wrote: “with W.W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery as scribes, I commenced the translation of some of the characters of hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another of the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc. – a more full account of which will appear in it’s place, as I proceed to examine and unfold them. Truly we can say, the LORD is beginning to reveal the abundance of peace and truth.”

Listen to what Joseph said, my friends, just listen: He said “much to our joy we found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another of the writings of Joseph . . .” and he concluded “Truly we can say – TRULY we can say, the LORD is beginning to reveal the abundance of peace and truth.” I have tried to give Joseph the benefit of the doubt with things. I’ve supposed that maybe his intentions were good in compiling the Book of Mormon. I’ve suggested he was subjected to extreme familial and domestic experiences. But my brothers and sisters, this was outright fraud. Pure and simple fraud. The evidence here, in and of itself, is enough to condemn everything Joseph Smith claimed as truth from this point forward in Church history.

Key Components of the Pearl of Great Price

The Pearl of Great Price is actually a collection of writings which include
the book of Moses
the book of Abraham
JS’s revision of the Gospel of Matthew
Js’s account of the golden plates and his early visions.
and the LDS Articles of Faith – which are 13 statements JS penned in 1842 and sent to John Wentworth at the Chicago Democrat.

The Book of Moses is essentially a revision or the book of Genesis. It takes much from the KJV, but also adds some LDS flavor to parts. Much of the pre-existent doctrine believed by the LDS originates here. Ideas that the fall of man was a good thing come from here too. Moses also tells us that Adam was baptized and likens baptism to being born of the spirit.

The Book of Abraham

The next segment of the Pearl of Great Price (a title, by the way, which is taken from a parable of the Lord found in Mark 13:46) is the Book of Abraham. This book includes three facsimilies of the Egyptian papyrus provided by Chandler and is described as “The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the book

Joseph Smith's Translation of the Papyri

"Of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus.” Is that a claim or what! Holy freaking chutspa!

There are plenty of witnesses to Joseph actually translating these papyri “written by the actual hand of Abraham.” And what a translation it must have been because very little was known about the Egyptian language at the time and Joseph had no training at all in what was available. Egyptologists were just, just beginning to understand how to translate writings in Joseph Smith’s day!

Now these papyri were lost for some time, and then they were thought to have been destroyed in a fire (I believe a fire – I’m thinking even the Chicago fire). Then suddenly, in 1967, they turned up in the New York Metropolitan Museum! This was at first a glorious discovery for the Church because in 1967 there was plenty of valid, scholarly information regarding the Egyptian language found on the facsimile for a legitimate comparative to occur between what they said and what Joseph wrote. The Church was ecstatic.

(More on this next week)

Insights and Doctrines from the Book of Abraham

Joseph claimed that Abraham had written about a number of very important insights on some very important issues. These included references to a lineal priesthood authority which Abraham held before the Levites existed. Now it’s important to know that Joseph translated the papyri on a few different occasions. He started in 1835-36, took time away, then picked the translation up again in 1842.

Equally important is to know that in 1842, Joseph began to introduce a number of his more adventurous doctrines (which truly define Mormonism today) which he conveniently had Abraham write about as he began translating the facsimiles again. These unique views include the idea that God sometimes justified deceit (See Abraham 2:22-25 if you don’t believe me) eternal progression, principles of astronomy, a pre-existence of spirits (reinforced) and the way Deity governs the heavens.

Doctrine on Kolob and Plurality of Gods

The Book of Abraham gives insight into God’s “plan” for organizing the earth, details on Lucifer’s rebellion, an account of the war in heaven, thoughts on free agency, the plan of progression, and how man could go on to become a God themselves. Kolob is introduced in the Book of Abraham, plurality of God’s in introduced here to, as is the only referential teaching about African American’s not being able to hold the priesthood.

The Matthew Revisions are simply Joseph’s Smith’s revelations regarding a correcting of 55 verse of the Gospel of Matthew. Joseph Smith History is the final and revised account of his early visionary claims and should be read in light of his earlier presentations of what he said he experienced in his life.

Finally, we have the Articles of Faith, which are 13 summary statements written by Joseph to help people understand what Latter-day Saints believe. As a side note, whenever a Latter-day Saint claims that Mormonism teaches that we are saved by grace, just quote them article of Faith number _ “We believe that all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.” I read nothing here about faith, faith in Jesus, faith in Jesus alone, grace, or grace alone.”

Let’s open up the phone lines . . .

(801) 973-TV20 (801) 973-8820

Next week, we will discuss what those facsimiles came from, and what they really said. As we wait for the operators to clear some callers, let’s go to a few emails.

Translation of the papyri started almost immediately. In addition to Cowdery and Phelps, another assistant was added to help transcribe – Warren Parrish. Joseph started by translating what he said was the writings of Abraham. Since knowledge of the Egyptian language had been lost for years, Joseph was throwing down some of the most original work of its time – he even undertook the task of forming an Egyptian alphabet and grammar series! During this time, the Church was facing some looming and serious issues.

The Kirkland Safety Society Bank fell and brought Kirtland into economic chaos and eventual abandonment. Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon were excommunicated for apostasy. The Saints were expulsed from Missouri and a number of Church leaders, including Joseph, were arrested and tried for treason. In my opinion, the Church withstood these difficulties in large part because of the new credibility these recent findings produced.

If Joseph could translate these real and visible and tangible and viewable records of true Egyptian origin, then he certainly translated the unseen golden plates. Therefore the writings are true. Therefore the Church is true. And all the suffering and difficulties in the world could never move a single soul away in the face of “unmitigated truth.” Right? Let me

The Pearl of Great Price

Explain what this fourth book called the Pearl of Great Price, and what the LDS call scripture equal to the Bible, contains.

Conclusion

All on our website at www.bornagainmormon.com

Heart in the Park

07/08/07
Sugarhouse Park

Heart on the Sea

Lord’sword Church at Gateway 12 Cinemas.

See you next week or at Squatter’s in the next 30 or so minutes!