Do you listen to LDS leaders or LDS intellectuals?

By Jonathan NevilleUncategorized
General Conference left us all with lots to think about, but one issue seems especially relevant to this blog.

Do we listen to LDS leaders or LDS intellectuals?

On this and other blogs, I’ve documented the numerous specific affirmations by modern prophets and apostles of what Joseph and Oliver taught; i.e., that the Hill Cumorah is in New York.

The Mesomaniacs at FairMormon, Book of Mormon Central, BYU Studies, the Intepreter, Meridian Magazine, etc., keep insisting the modern prophets and apostles were and are wrong.

I’ve blogged about this before, but I want to make a brief comment again to focus on Elder Ballard’s talk.
________________

Yesterday afternoon, Elder Ballard gave a powerful talk on where our footsteps in life take us. Here’s an excerpt from https://www.lds.org/general-conference/talk-summaries-sunday-afternoon?cid=HP_SA_23-9-2017_dGC_fBCAST_xLIDyL2-1_&lang=eng

We must be careful where our footsteps in life take us. …
  • Today I repeat earlier counsel from Church leaders. Brothers and sisters, keep the doctrine of Christ pure and never be deceived by those who tamper with the doctrine. …
  • Do not listen to those who have not been ordained or set apart to their Church calling and are acknowledged by common consent of the members of the Church.

______________

The overall question of Book of Mormon geography has not been settled. The Church is neutral and a variety of opinions have been expressed.

But the location of Cumorah in New York has been settled from the beginning of the Restoration. 

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught it unequivocally. All of Joseph’s contemporaries accepted it.

Every modern prophet and apostle who has addressed the issue has affirmed what Joseph and Oliver taught; i.e., that Cumorah was the location of Moroni’s stone box containing the plates, the scene of the final battles and the location of Mormon’s depository (Mormon 6:6) and it is in New York.

This includes members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

By contrast, LDS intellectuals teach that the “real” Hill Cumorah is in Mexico, that the hill in New York “cannot be” the “real” Hill Cumorah because it doesn’t satisfy their list of imaginary “requirements,” and that therefore all the modern prophets and apostles who have supported what Joseph and Oliver taught were speculating and were wrong.

For more, see some of my previous comments on this topic:

E.g., http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/10/prophets-vs-scholars.html

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/11/solving-cumorah.html

http://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/2016/12/burden-of-proof-and-lds-scholars.html

And speaking of footsteps, consider what course we’re on:

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wrong-course-fairmormon-takes.html

Source: Book of Mormon Wars

2 thoughts on “Do you listen to LDS leaders or LDS intellectuals?”

  1. You probably already have this quote but just in case you don’t please read Life of Heber C. Kimball by Orson F. Whitney where he describes the relics/artifacts found in and around Cumorah. I would paste some of it but you disallow it.

Comments are closed.