The LDS Church has published a new version of the 13 Articles of Faith on their website www.mormon.org. It is a summarized and shortened version of the original Articles of Faith written by Joseph Smith. Not sure why the need to summarize the summary of the Church Beliefs that all Primary children have to memorize by the time they reach of age of 12.
Apparently the original 13 Articles of Faith was too long or too wordy that the Church felt they need to shorten it. However, in doing so, they have "garnished and misrepresented" what Joseph Smith wrote back in 1842.
Joseph Smith made it very clear that the Articles of Faith and the entire Wentworth Letter should NOT be altered. They were to be printed word for word, ungarnished and without misrepresention.
Joseph Smith wrote on March 1, 1842.—
And yet, the LDS Church has now taken the liberty to reduce, edit, add to and change the meaning of some of the Articles of Faith. Here is a screenshot of Church's Website:
Apparently the original 13 Articles of Faith was too long or too wordy that the Church felt they need to shorten it. However, in doing so, they have "garnished and misrepresented" what Joseph Smith wrote back in 1842.
Joseph Smith made it very clear that the Articles of Faith and the entire Wentworth Letter should NOT be altered. They were to be printed word for word, ungarnished and without misrepresention.
Joseph Smith wrote on March 1, 1842.—
"At the request of Mr. John Wentworth, editor and proprietor of the Chicago Democrat, I have written the following sketch of the rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-day Saints, of which I have the honor, under God, of being the founder. Mr. Wentworth says that he wishes to furnish Mr. Bastow [Barstow], a friend of his, who is writing the history of New Hampshire, with this document. As Mr. Bastow has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information, all that I shall ask at his hands is that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation"
And yet, the LDS Church has now taken the liberty to reduce, edit, add to and change the meaning of some of the Articles of Faith. Here is a screenshot of Church's Website:
I have done a side by side comparison of the Original Articles of Faith (left) to the new Revised Articles of Faith (right) and have highlighted only a few of the additions and garnishings.
One of the biggest additions is the insertion of 'confirmation' into the Church as being necessary for salvation. The Fourth Article of Faith has been changed in this summary. Apparently in this new "summary" - Faith, Repentance, Baptism and Receiving the Holy Ghost in NOT enough for salvation but you now need to be confirmed a member of the Church as well. See below as well as other changes to the Articles of Faith.
One of the biggest deletions that probably makes me the saddest is the changes to Article Faith # 7. As you can see below, the Gift of Tongues, Prophecy, Visions, Interpretions of Tongues have all been removed.
Please look over and compare the two version. It is one thing to just summarize, but it is another to add to and change the meaning.
12 comments:
The new version is so lame!!! Too bad :(
The Bible no longer has the caveat "as far as it is translated correctly" and the Book of Mormon is no longer translated. It is is revealed.
God no longer reveals things; He communicates them.
There is now an out for not having pastors, evangelists, prophets, and so forth.
No longer does a man need to be called by God, but by "priesthood power".
They continue to show the fruits of an apostate religion that has ousted a true messenger from God, and are no longer being led by the Lord, nor even the lesser priesthood.
Toni
The following ideas almost made the cut, but the church did not want to tip their hand too much.
14. We believe GOD picks leaders by killing all the other contenders off first.
15. We believe poor people should pay tithing the same as rich people, so that the poor can become poorer as a test of their faith. Rich people are already saved, because their wealth is a sign of divine approval.
16. We believe Joseph Smith was a liar and Brigham Young told the truth.
17. We believe men are superior to women.
18. We believe polygamy will someday return, here or in the hereafter, because LDS men today can be sealed to multiple wives if they are widowed, but women do not have the same privilege.
19. We believe God's love is conditional.
20. We believe whatever our latest polling data tells us to do, because Public Relations is a gift from God.
21. We believe Jesus is merely our older brother, and not the God of this earth.
22. We believe in magic temple sealings that assure our marriages will last forever, even if we treat our spouse like property.
23. We believe church should be 3 hours of torture where Christ is only mentioned at the end of a prayer.
24. We believe in proof texting to make the scriptures mean whatever we want them to mean.
25. We believe anyone who figures out that the Church is in apostasy should be ironically excommunicated for apostasy.
26. We believe in quoting general authorities quoting general authorities who were quoting general authorities in an infinite circle of the blind leading the blind.
27. We believe in building ornate temples (aka great and spacious buildings) instead of homeless shelters and food banks.
28. We believe R rated films are 2 steps away from outer darkness.
29. We believe fornication to be a sin greater than child abuse, spousal abuse, bestiality, torture, rape, and any sin other than murder because of a misreading of the story of Alma and his son Corianton.
30. We believe general authorities should be paid and exempt from tithing. We also believe mission presidents should be exempt from tithing.
31. We believe teenagers whose brains have not yet fully developed should proclaim the gospel throughout the world, because apostles are too busy opening shopping malls.
32. We believe today's video addicted and self-centered youth to have been generals in the war in heaven.
33. We believe poor people did something in the pre-earth life to merit being poor.
34. We believe we have the Melchizedek priesthood, even though GOD has to give that to individuals via his own voice.
35. We believe girl's camp to be one step away from Zion.
36. We believe Eagle Scouts have their own special kingdom at the top of the Celestial Kingdom.
37. We believe living in the high desert of the American West to have been a reward from God after having failed to finish the Nauvoo temple.
38. We believe the 24th of July to be a greater holiday than the 4th of July.
39. We believe the sacrament to be so important and sacred that we skip it at stake conference and general conference. We also believe that if JESUS would prefer we use wine as a symbol for his split blood, that water is even better.
40. We believe that people who leave the modern LDS church after learning the real history and endless lies are weak in the faith.
41. We believe that GOD cannot allow his people to be led astray, except Eve and Adam's posterity, Noah's generation, the New Testament church, the Israelites while Moses was alive, and Abraham's family after 3 generations. This generation is the exception even if all the aforementioned people believe this to be unfair and a violation of agency.
42. We believe that a temple recommend is the golden ticket to Heaven.
43. We believe somehow Cain survived the flood and walks the earth today probably as a kind of Yeti or Bigfoot.
44. We believe that once you become a God you can just send your oldest son down to do the hard stuff.
John Scott Peterson
a follower of CHRIST, and not men.
I wonder if they will change the actual text in the Pearl of Great Price or not. If you look, this is from mormon.org, which is intended for outreach to potential converts. And though the larger blue text makes it sound like these are the actual statements written by Joseph, the smaller black text beneath that — which hides from attention beneath the large blue text — admits that the Articles are only "summarized here".
If they don't change the actual text in the PoGP, then these "summarized" versions lay an interpretive spin on the actual Articles of Faith, to begin shaping the perspective of the potential converts before they read the actual text, while granting the LDS church the back door of claiming that they are not actually rewriting the Articles themselves.
However, if this text does come to replace the original text in the Pearl of Great Price, that will be an interesting event...
The question remains though, why even bother with "summaries" of Joseph's summaries (because that's what his Articles were), unless the very intent is to shape interpretation of the text before the text itself is read? It appears to be a subtle-but-not-too-subtle effort to preemptively regulate and control understanding of the scriptures, while perhaps avoiding the riskier step of actually altering the canonized scriptural text itself.
Great analysis Mike H. Spot on.
After having spent 6 years studying the deeper truths of the articles of Faith, and connecting it to Hebrew, sacred geometry, Egyptian, color and vibration, as well as the most beautiful chiasmus, I am more than devastated to see this, and more than ever am I convinced that the men that lead this corporation have no connection at all with the magnificence of Joseph Smith and his spiritual gifts. What a sad day this is.
I also find interesting that it is no longer “the Gospel” it is instead the gospel . Any reference to the Gospel as a distinct defined proper name has been eliminated all together.and in one case replaced by the “Church “ See A of F 3, 4 and 5.. They should read Robert Poleman talk in GC as originally given if they don’t understand the difference. They might also note that neither Joseph nor Oliver were “ confirmed” nor were the Lamanites in Helaman 5 but they all received the Gift of the Holy Ghost . So are we to understand none of them were saved? This is no longer the same church I joined 65 years ago and it is decaying faster and faster with each passing day . What a tragedy.
This lds church proves daily it isn't of God. Why people put up with it is beyond me..
The "new" AoF is mostly gender neutral, as there was an effort to eliminate, 1984 style, the politically-incorrect word "man" or "mankind".
Instead of "mankind may be saved", it's "we can be saved".
Instead of "a man must be called of God...", it's "leaders and teachers...must be chosen and ordained."
Instead of "allow all men the same privilege", it's allow "others to do likewise."
Going back to verse 5, the new corporate version adds a deeply-meaningful word: "chosen". A quick study of how that word is used in Scripture proves that it's chock full of meaning, with the key meaning clearly denoting that God Himself does the "choosing", not men. The distinction between being "called" and being "chosen" is painstakingly made in DC 121. Any halfwit Mormon knows that "many are called, but few are chosen." So it's rather astonishing that the new version haphazardly inserts the word "chosen". It's an obvious attempt to water down the meaning. Even Elder Eyring recently watered down the meaning of this very word in a recent Gen. Conference address to the Priesthood. In light of his talk and this insertion in the updated AoF, you can see a coordinated attack with the goal being to water the meaning down, so EVERYBODY is chosen.
It is reminiscent of 2 Nephi 28 when the Lord warns the Gentile saints that "there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us (because you are "CHOSEN"). God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God (because we are "CHOSEN"). Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark."
Quite the effort is underway to "hide" things from the people. Deception is the name of the game in this great day of Satan's power, as he reigns from the rivers to the ends of the earth.
Yvonne, could you share your analysis please? Would love to see how you connected the AoF to those things you mentioned. Thank you! Perhaps just hit some highlights, or reference anything you've published elsewhere?
And I share you devastation.
You are correct that the Church's new summarized Articles of Faith are on not posted on the lds.org site.
However, The Church has posted them here:
https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/articles-of-faith
Hopefully that helps in your observation.
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