Latter-Day Saint Dad

I testify that Jesus is the Christ. That He lives. That He loves each of us and wants the very best for us in the world and throughout eternity. I have listened to the voice of the Spirit bear record to me of this truth and nothing the world has can diminish this knowledge because it is pure light. I love the Lord Jesus. He is my salvation. He is my advocate with the Father. He is my friend.

@MikeDeHart67 @Other_Sheep_ Dude becomes the meme🤣

“I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I.” - Joe aka little Joey heretic

Antis call Joseph Smith “Joe” or “Joey” because using his full name gives him too much Aura

@Matthew56193629 Love watching antis post about how much they don’t know about our religion. 🤣

Why is it taking more than three days for Joseph Smith to walk out of his grave? I thought he was becoming a god, like Jesus fully became a God 2000 years ago? 🤔 Nobody to roll the stone away? Is that a problem for a newly minted God?

Not drinking alcohol is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Too many people I know struggle with that vice and it’s not something I have to worry about.

@Other_Sheep_ Yeah. I have to mute many of my posts after a while. They simply cannot handle someone saying something different than they are willing to believe. It’s a sickness in our country when we cannot tolerate people who are not exactly like us.

Woke up today with probably 50 comments from people who have nothing new to say Just angry ramblings of people who can’t get The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out of their heads. Why do you kick against the pricks?

@BookMormon2day Consistently good! MILLIONS AND MILLIONS agree!

The fruit is good!

As a reminder, June is Family Proclamation Month.

Now Joseph Smith is a bank robber!🤣

@joshnaa2gez @realHoid Awesome job!

Christians: “Mormons are just like transgenders! They’re trans-Christian! Haha! Meanwhile, Christian theology: “So God is, like, one God, but he, like, IDENTIFIES as three persons… Like, he’s the Father, but sometimes he manifests differently as the Son, and sometimes it’s more like the Holy Spirit. But really it’s just always all of them at the same time…. Because, you know, you might think that 1+1+1 equals 3, but in God’s lived experience, for him, like, 1+1+1 actually equals 1. It doesn’t make sense to you, but it doesn’t have to. You should just love him for who he is and believe what he tells you about how he identifies…”

@ThisMomSaid @nypost I rated the community note. We’ll see if it gets released.

@nypost Why doesn’t this have a community note yet? 😂

Trump’s ‘American Flag Blue’ Reflecting Pool Turns Green After Algae Takeover

@Sarahsred7 True!

Your life will be better when you read the Book of Mormon and apply its principles

@Other_Sheep_ Those comments are hilarious - twisting and turning, doing all they can not to answer the core question.

I how is this not an easy yes for Anti-Mormons? “Yes absolutely. Definitely not going to happen but yeah” They literally CANNOT be intellectually honest with themselves it’s crazy I never knew it was this bad lmfao

@RandomLDS This is what I was taught growing up and it's absolute horse shlit. It takes 5 seconds to understand how mondern bibles are translated. It's actually super solid and robust. Just because Joe made it up doesn't mean everyone else makes it up like him

Some faiths treat the Bible as if it’s perfect in its current state; however, the more you look at the history of the Bible, the harder it is to pretend it reached us unscathed from error. These texts were copied long after the originals disappeared, often by people working with damaged pages, missing lines, or handwriting they could barely read. Every time a scribe had to guess at a word or reconstruct a sentence, the meaning potentially shifted a little. I common children’s game illustrates this perfectly where they whisper a sentence to one another and see how it changed along the way. Sometimes the changes to the Bible were accidental. Sometimes they were intentional. Either way, the idea that this process produced a perfect final result is impossible to defend. If the Bible passed through that many hands, across that many centuries, with that many opportunities for human error, then of course mistakes and errors crept in. Of course some meanings were lost. Of course some passages were altered. It would be strange if that had not happened. Therefore, we cannot act like the text we have today is guaranteed to match what God originally revealed to His prophets. That is why Joseph Smith’s statement matters. When he said, “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly,” he was stating the only position that makes sense once you understand how the Bible actually came down to us. If the transmission was imperfect, then we need God to clarify what is true. We need Him to correct what was lost. We need Him to speak again. This is where a living prophet becomes essential. If God spoke anciently but the record of those revelations has been altered, damaged, or misunderstood over time, then the only way to recover the original meaning is for God to speak now. A prophet is not a luxury. A prophet is the only safeguard against the accumulated errors of centuries. Without one, we are left guessing which parts of the text reflect God’s voice and which parts reflect the limitations of the people who copied it. Thankfully we have the Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ that stands as a second witness and helps clarify Christs simple doctrine.

@sister_slay We have a starter that is more than 50 years old. Makes a sweet sourdough bread - different than what’s popular today.

Is making sourdough bread as hard as everyone says it is?

@SierraSamIV @grok

@RandomLDS @grok Saturday morning commercial music: “Grok grok Battle Groks! Can you take the heeeeeaatt?!”

This argument might work on casuals, but it’s ridiculous to an informed Christian. @grok the fact that textual errors exist in different manuscripts is undeniable. Would most critics, even non-Christian ones, concede that the vast majority of the errors are trivial? Does the BOM have any variation between versions or errors - however minor?

Thank you for providing the quotes most used by critics to bolster their claim. As usually, you present them in strawman format instead of a steelman argument. You have purposely attempted to undo her life’s work. Congratulations. You expect me to address 7 so-called falsehoods in my post while not even attempting to address the fact that your entire premise is false. Allow me to correct what you left out. When you look at her full context, writings, and specific testimonies hosted on josephsmithfoundation.org, the historical record paints a completely different picture. The claim that Heber C. Kimball was merely manipulated by Joseph Smith into convincing his daughter is contradicted by Helen's description of her father's character and motivation. Helen emphasized that her father acted out of deep religious devotion and love, not because he was tricked or weak-willed. She wrote: "I think that no honest heart can read the outpourings of his soul and ever doubt the motive that prompted him to take upon himself burdens and responsibilities such as himself and brethren were called to do in marrying a plurality of wives, for it did not add to their domestic happiness in this life..." Furthermore, she noted that her father approached her himself first because he loved her and wanted to protect her from hearing the doctrine from a distorted source. "Fearing that I might hear it from a wrong source, knowing, as he did, that there were those who would run before they were sent, and some would not hesitate to deceive and betray him and the brethren, he thought it best that I should hear it from his own lips." In her autobiography, Helen explicitly stated that nobody else could have pressured her into accepting this doctrine. Her compliance came from her own personal trust in her family and her eventual spiritual conviction… not from being trapped or bullied by Joseph Smith. She notes that after her father introduced the concept, she spent 24 hours reflecting on it before Joseph ever spoke to her. "...during which time I was filled with various [thoughts] and I was skeptical–one minute believed, then doubted. I thought of the love and tenderness that he [her father] felt for his only daughter, and I knew that he would not cast her off, and this was the only convincing proof that I had of its being right. I knew that he loved me too well to teach me anything that was not strictly pure, virtuous and exalting in its tendencies; and no one else could have influenced me at that time or brought me to accept of a doctrine so utterly repugnant and so contrary to all of our former ideas and traditions." When Joseph Smith did come over the next day to explain it, she accepted it based on her trust in them. "The next day the Prophet called at our house, and I sat with my father and mother and heard him teach the principle and explain it more fully, and I believed it, but I had no proofs, only his and my father's testimony. I thought that sufficient..." You stopped quoting Helen at her childhood struggles, but she grew up to write extensive pamphlets (such as Why We Practice Plural Marriage) explicitly to combat the narrative that LDS women were helpless victims. Regarding the critics of her day who tried to paint plural wives as oppressed, Helen wrote: “My purpose in publishing another pamphlet on the subject of plural marriage is to throw more light upon it, and to show forth the foolishness and inconsistency of those who hold it up as a 'foul stain that pollutes the very soil where it exists.' ... a plain, unadulterated truth has become a rarity which sensible people will [appreciate].” Helen actually became an outspoken, lifelong defender of Joseph Smith and plural marriage. Her own words strongly refute the idea that she was an unwitting victim or that her father was coerced. You have no evidence to back up your claim that Jospeh Smith coerced her or her father. You have speculation. Muted.

I haven't stated any falsehoods sir. I pointed out 7 errors you made. You didn't even try to correct one. How is that legitimate? It doesn't matter if Helen thought it was great or thought it was terrible 8. Many Nazis thought Hitler was great. Does that prove it? No, Joseph did talk to her. That is her own testimony 9: “Joseph Smith came to our house and talked with me about the principle of plural marriage. He explained it to me and said that it was a commandment from God.” “My father [Heber C. Kimball] had told me about it first, and I was very much opposed to it at first, but after hearing Joseph explain the principle, I felt that it was right and that great blessings would come from obeying it.” “It was a great trial to me, but I was willing to make the sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom of God and to obey the commandment.” “Joseph told me that the Lord had revealed this principle and that it was necessary for the exaltation of the Saints.”

I don't think this is how a prophet acts. Offering salvation? I didn't know he's God!😂 Joseph Smith also said an angel with a flaming sword would destroy him if the family disagreed! Would any Mormon Dad agree to such an offer? No. Then why follow him as a prophet?

Again, Helen is the wrong person to try to use as a poster child for this argument. Her own writings literally discount what you are saying about Joseph Smith. Her words show her as a multifaceted human being feeling a wide range of emotions and deep personal thoughts in the topic. The fact that she writes about the joys and pains of living as a plural wife only adds to her credibility. She spent her adulthood championing the practice through poetry and writing. Because she was such a prolific writer, we have the most detail of any other person during this time. Her words do not support the conclusions you are making nor does your cute picture embody or represent her actual lived experience. You say Joseph Smith pushed her through her father - that’s not what she says. What evidence do you have that is stronger than her own testimony - her own words - about the subject? I have no reason to suspect anything good from your intentions based on the falsehoods you are stating.

if she wanted this and it was good, why would she describe it as a "sacrifice". 1. Do people getting married describe marrying their spouse a "sacrifice"? No, it's a gain. Not a loss. She didn't want it, she initially recoiled at it 2. and only agreed based on the spiritual promises Joseph Smith said. And yes Joseph Smith used those to persuade her directly. Also the Dad's persuasion came through Joseph Smith persuading him. if it was for eternity only, why was Helen not allowed to function as a single young woman? After the sealing she was not allowed to socialize as a single young woman would. She was kept home while siblings went to such parties and she said she didn't like that. That's not just "for eternity" was it? 3. So everyone was being sealed to each other and your defense for that is "everyone was doing it"? 😂 That's not a defense. 4. "Everyone" is doing drugs at a high school, that doesn't justify it either. The fact the Mormon church ISN'T doing this today and YOU aren't doing it speaks volumes. I'm not going to call you a "liar" for that contradiction, although it wouldn't be unreasonable. But that's what you called me, when I said nothing false 5. AND you impugned my motives. 6. And survivors of abuse do sometimes defend their abusers, look at David Koresh and Warren Jeffs. Their followers defended those men's actions too 7. 7 errors.

Great point. With so many people involved, with the imperfections associated with the manual process over such a long period of time, coupled with unknown parties intentions and motivations, and no real process (especially in the beginning), there’s no way to expect the output to be without flaws. Someone tried to used Grok to float the idea that the majority of scholars believe (where have I heard that type of argument before [majority of climate scientists]) only minor imperfections are in the text.

@RandomLDS Not only telephone game but at various times religious leaders may have just written new books out of whole cloth borrowing from oral tradition etc

This is amazing.