Posted by:
jiminycricket
(
)
Date: July 01, 2013 11:12PM
Thanks for this article Steve. It’s a keeper.
Like RFM’s poster releve, I too am infuriated. I echo his statement regarding the varying First vision accounts, “This is the one piece of evidence that toppled the shelf for me and the fact that it is taught as a nice tidy story when it is not a tidy story just infuriates me.”
There’s a pattern of deception perpetrated by the top 15 who advocate SIMPLICITY instead of an honest, intelligent study of all the true historical facts surrounding the First Vision accounts. They can't and won't do it. They keep their apostolic precious little wrinkly old hands clean and free from controversy and leave the dirty work to paid manipulative apologists.
In 1993 Dallin H. Oaks stated to Benson, "It's kind of like drawing cartoons. You keep the cartoons simple." SIMPLE?
What has changed in the last two decades? Well, it’s still SIMPLE. Isn't it amazing how the word SIMPLE is now a cherished Morgbot virtue?
As I read Benson’s quote of Oaks' private comments, I was instantly reminded of remarks that I heard as a TBM recently uttered by Elder Ballard at the Nov. 2010 CES broadcast held at BYU’s Marriott Center. He declared, "Keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ SIMPLE."
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=1b5b4e5ca0f26210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=43d031572e14e110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRDApostle Ballard made light of tough anti-Mormon questions he once faced as a mission president years ago with one of his doubting Elders. The point of one of Ballard’s chuckles was that we must focus on the SIMPLICITY of the Gospel (there’s that word again) not its troubling details.
It is clear to me, that in the mind of LDS Mormon prophets, the word SIMPLE means “our whitewashed version.” Their posturing is SIMPLY feeble. That’s just sickening. It’s repulsive. There is a consistent pragmatic behavior by these crafty corporate executives called holy-anointed apostles who are venerated by the mere office they occupy. The 15 prefer stuffed pews and wealthy sheeple with SIMPLE minds. No thinkers are needed or wanted today. Most historical veracities aren’t welcomed any longer especially when SIMPLE facts are brought to you in living color by their enemies of all righteousness – historians who idolize the truth.
The SIMPLE truth is this ― there were numerous commonplace contemporary visionary-like epiphanies which morphed into Joe Junior’s most celebrated account. All evidence confirms a charlatan whose pious narratives lacked rudimentary consistency – the antithesis of a true prophet of God or an honorable, honest, upright citizen. The smallest life-altering detail of such a grand theophany could never be forgotten, not even for the common man. How could God be so incompetent as to choose a mortal who can’t get SIMPLE facts straight? A prophet who would usher in the last dispensation of time prior to Christ’s return?
It is SIMPLE and clear – for decades following Joe Junior’s death, his prophetic successors attested to factoids that categorically contradict today’s canonized narration. Did he, or didn’t Joe Junior see God and Jesus? Or was it just an angel as alleged by holy prophets (Young, Taylor Woodruff, Kimball etc.) who couldn’t recount the facts of the First Vision reliably? That’s the big elephant in the room that nobody was or is still looking at. Correlation has swept the SIMPLE conflicting details into the dustbin.
On this subject God was notably quite. If he took the time to visit Joe Junior with his son, than why didn’t he insist the story be consistently taught? Why didn’t the Almighty issue revelations to his first prophet or subsequent prophets mandating that records accurately detail the alleged 1820 visitation? Why wasn’t Joe Junior instructed to put the true account in the Book of Commandments or the Doctrine and Covenants or into the first published history of the Church? Wouldn’t God at least want HIS STORY to be SIMPLE and straight forward with zero defects?
Wouldn’t the all-knowing designer of the universe foresee problems with conflicting accounts? Allegedly God gave many revelations to Joe Junior on a number of topics and we are so fortunate to be bored with those tall-tales. Why didn’t God even offer a single SIMPLE revelation instructing his mortal spokesman to get the record straight from the get-go. Where was God’s incensed reprimand? Did he just appear with his Son in 1820 and then forget about the matter – meandering off to some far away galactic resort?
Individually, the First Vision accounts are by themselves SIMPLE. But this eventful, stellar, singular pillar of Mormon faith, the one that is touted by modern-day prophets as either true or a great fraud, still has one impossible colossal hurdle to overcome – the SIMPLE First Vision accounts just don't add up to a “nice tidy story” and they never will.
Steve Benson's cartoons might look SIMPLE - after all that is his unique extraordinary talent. Why is it that Steve can articulate his SIMPLE facts but God cannot or could not with his chosen peeping stone-a-holic 'n hat?
Well done Steve!
EDIT: for all you TBM lurkers, learn the facts at
http://www.mormonthink.com/firstvisionweb.htmEdited 6 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 08:10PM by jiminycricket.