Here's some things I've been wondering about for the last few years and no one can seem to answer them...
1.) There are 3 degrees of glory in Heaven. So lets say a family of 5 is sealed in the temple. Everything is great until one child decides to go and murder 10 people and then another son/daughter falls away from the church and doesnt get married in the temple. So here's the problem with that...If they are all sealed together (to be together as a family forever) and there are three degrees of glory in heaven ...how will they all be together...b/c obviously they all wont be going to the same kingdom.
2.) Joseph Smith and all his wives...I'll never understand that....the whole polygamy thing.
3.) What are the Mountain Meadow Massacres (did I get that right? .. i know its Meadow or mountain something..)
4.) Something that bothers me...people that are married but not sealed in the temple won't be together in the afterlife.
5.)The temple rituals...I have read on the internet on various sites how they have changed over the years...they seem a little bit strange to me. And I thought one of the prophets qouted that the temple rituals would never change?
6.)Kolob...I been confused about this since I was a little kid. My dh thinks it sounds like something from the scifi channel..just sayin....
Will continue to post things I am confused/wondering about..as I am sure I can think of more if I sit down and think about it for a while

1. Even the Mormons can't answer this one. Their standard reply is that "God will sort it out in heaven".

2. Quite easy to understand... Joe Smith wanted new sexual partners.

3. A wagon train from Arkansas to California was attacked and massacred by Mormons near Cedar City, Utah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre.
Also read Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley

4. It bothers a lot of people. Keep in mind that temple sealings originated as a means of covering up polygamy.

5. Yes, the changes in temple ceremonies gives lie to the Mormon claims that the fundamental ordinances of the gospel can never change. It also should cause them to ask what the difference is between those changes and the great apostasy they claim happened after the death of Christ.

6. Well, Kolob really is science fiction!

1. The example you gave, murdering, is rather extreme. In theory the person would get exed, canceling all sealings, and have to go through the repentance process before they could get accepted back. Of course, Hitler was baptized postmortem, so apparently he was forgiven for the extermination of 6 million people...

2. No one does. It was a horrible practice and has left a legacy of abuse and repression still practiced by many people. In reading about cults and how common it is for the patriarch of the community to have sexual relations with multiple women in the community--including young girls--as a tactic for the leader to maintain control over the entire group, sheds light on the psychology behind the practice.

3. The MMM was the extermination of over 200 pioneers traveling through Utah, rumored to have been ordered by BY himself and carried through by John D. Lee and the local Mormon militia. These were innocent people who were merely traveling through the state on the way to California. They were ambushed by Mormons wearing Indian war-paint. They were ordered to surrender, and once they did, lined up and shot. Only the youngest children were spared. For years it was said the local Indian tribes committed the crimes but later evidence at the site showed the people were stabbed with bayonets the tribes would not have access to. This confirmed the children's stories that it was white men wearing war-paint who murdered all those people. It was a truly horrific crime.

4. This is the purpose of postmortem temple work. :P It really makes no sense.

5. Yeah, the ceremonies have been changed several times over the years to make them more acceptable for the members.

6. The early church leaders had many revelations about God and who/what he is. The church now says it was all speculation. Kolob was said to be a planet near the center of the milky way that god actually lives on. Earth was once located near this place but when Adam fell from grace Earth was moved to the outer end of the Milky way. All that stuff can be read in the Journal of Discourses, an early church publication of general conference and other talks given by said leaders. This collection has since fallen out of favor and I don't think it's even published by the church any more. You can find the entire collection online. I've read through much of it. It discusses polygamy, the Adam-God theory, Jesus having three wives, members getting their own planets and becoming gods, and a bunch of other bizarre stuff you probably heard mentioned when you were a kid.

Just on the temple question:

Initially the temple washings involved a bath with others of the same gender.

6. Actually I think it's the star nearest the planet.

Start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre

In August of 1857, a wagon train of Arkansas families consisting of nearly 140 people, mostly women, teen-agers, and young children, passed through Great Salt Lake City on their way to California. They were led by Alexander Fancher (who'd been to California twice before) and John Baker, and the group is often referred to as the Fancher/Baker wagon train.

The emigrant train stopped briefly outside of Cedar City nearly a month later, after Mormon apostle George A. Smith had visited Southern Utah, carrying orders that none of the Mormons should sell supplies to the Arkansas Emigrants (such trades were a common source of income for Mormons begining with the California Gold Rush in 1849).

The wagon train was attacked on Monday morning by a mixed group consisting of about 40-60 Mormons dressed as Indians and perhaps a few Indians recruited from local tribes.

A siege resulted, and additional reinforcements were sent from surrounding Mormon communities. On Friday, September 11, the enrenched Arkansas emigrants were approached by a white man with a flag of truce, and negotions followed where the emigrants surrendered their firearms in exchange for promised safe passage to Cedar City.

Men and women were separated with the men marched in the read each walking next to a Mormon male. The women followed and the children and wounded were in wagons at the front of the caravan. After approximately a mile, a signal was given, and each Mormon shot the man next to him in cold blood. The women and children old enough to tell what happened were also murdered by Mormons and Indians who had been concealed along the route.

Seventeen children survived. They were held by Mormon families in Southern Utah for a time but later returned to their surviving family in Arkansas.

The bodies were hastily buried in a common grave but quickly unearthed by wolves (they had been stripped naked by Indians and their Mormon killers). Well over a year later, a detachment of the U.S. Army under Major Carleton reburied the remains and erected a rock memorial over the mass grave with a wooden cross at the top.

Brigham Young led an entourage to the site several years afterwards, looked things over, raised his arm to the square, and members of his party dismantled the rock memorial.

That much is not in historical dispute. Everything else is...

Here are some sources to begin your research... It was wanting to learn about MMM ten years ago that first led me to this site. Since then I've acquired considerable familiarity with what happened, formed a strong friendship with Will Bagley, a leading authority on the subject and a prize-winning historian, and participated in a large number of discussions on the matter with others here, many of whom are also far more familiar with what happened than the average Mormon.

Here are a number of books on the subject...

http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Meadows-Massacre-Juanita-Brooks/dp/0806123184

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Prophets-Brigham-Massacre-Mountain/dp/0806136391/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

http://www.amazon.com/American-Massacre-Tragedy-Mountain-September/dp/0375726365/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_3

And an excellent video...

http://www.buryingthepast.com/

There's more, including a church-underwritten volume that Will and I concluded may have cost the church ten million dollars to produce and was written as a reaction to "Blood of the Prophets."

Your tithing dollars at work...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2010 10:04PM by SL Cabbie.