The April Liahona has several articles exclusive to the online edition. Here’s a link to one of them:
These are important articles that address the widespread (and growing) problem of faithful Latter-day Saints whose friends and family members leave the Church.
As these articles point out, people join and leave the Church for a variety of individual reasons and under varying circumstances. We’ve discussed this before, such as here.
Some people who leave cite doctrinal issues raised by the Gospel Topics Essays, or Church history topics such as those set out in Rough Stone Rolling, as factors in their decision. Others refer to CES Letter, MormonStories, or other similar websites.
We’ve known for a long time that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. Few people leave the Church with an intact testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. Meanwhile, surveys show that only about one-half of millennials in the Church today still believe the Book of Mormon is an authentic history.
Youth and new converts are being taught the Book of Mormon by reference to a hypothetical geographic setting that teaches Cumorah is not in New York as had been consistently taught by prophets and apostles since the early days of the Church.
Nearly a century ago, Joseph Fielding Smith warned that the idea that Cumorah is not in New York (M2C, the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory) would cause members to become confused and disturbed in their faith. How could it be otherwise?
When he wrote the CES Letter, Jeremy Runnels hoped for a different perspective. Instead, LDS apologists stuck to M2C, SITH, and related theories.
After many requests for a different response, I’ve started two blogs on the topics.
For the CES Letter, see https://cesanswers.blogspot.com/
For MormonStories, see https://mormonstoriesreviewed.blogspot.com/
These are works in progress that I’ll update as time allows.
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It’s interesting that these articles don’t appear on the international online pages. For example, here’s a comparison of the Liahona in English and French.
The red arrows show the articles in the English Liahona that correspond to the articles in the French Liahona. The area circled in blue are in English only.
(click to enlarge)
Maybe it was the difficulty of translating so much content that led to these articles being omitted from the foreign-language editions of the Liahona, but the same issues that disturb the faith of English-speaking Latter-day Saints disturb the faith of those who speak other languages.
Source: Book of Mormon Concensus
4 thoughts on “April Liahona online extras and apologetics”
I can only stand in amazement at your ‘reply to Jeremy’ discourse.
Sadly, both the March and April 2021 issues of the Liahona deliberately excludes any mention of Oliver Cowdery’s Mission to the Lamanites in the brief coverage of Doctrine and Covenants Sections 28, 30, and 32.
On page 50 (D&C 27-28) of the Come Follow Me–For Individuals and Families, Doctrine and Covenants 2021, it states, “Why was Oliver Cowdery’s mission to the Lamanites significant? A very brief discussion follows with the suggestion to read more at “A Mission to the Lamanites,” Revelations in Context” (45-49). You can read it here, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/a-mission-to-the-lamanites?lang=eng
On page 62 (D&C 30-36) of Come Follow Me, it states, “Was the Mission to the Lamanites a failure?” Again, a brief discussion follows with the suggestion to read more at “A Mission to the Lamanites,” Revelations in Context” (45-49). In this article, it mentions Lamanite(s) 9 times. It also cites Parley P. Pratt’s Autobiography 7 times. Sadly, the most important statement in Parley’s autobiography was NOT quoted. Here is what Parley said on page 59, “This Book, which contained these things, was hid in the earth by Moroni, in a hill called by him, Cumorah, which hill is now in the State of New York, near the village of Palmyra, in Ontario county.” You can read it here, https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofp1874prat/page/58/mode/2up
Why is Cumorah censored in Oliver Cowdery’s Mission to the Lamanites and in Saint Vol I? Because this knowledge totally destroys the Mesoamerican Model of Book of Mormon Geography.
I forget to mention the painting by Robert T. Barrett on page 66 of Come Follow Me. It is called “Go Into the Wilderness.” Obviously, the title comes from D&C 32:2, “And that which I have appointed unto him is that he shall ago with my servants, Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Jun., into the wilderness among the bLamanites.” This painting would make more sense if the title was “Go into the wilderness among the Lamanites.” This phrase is found only once in the scriptures. However, there is a very similar account of 4 missionaries at Mosiah 28:9, “And they atook their journey into the wilderness to go up to preach the word among the Lamanites; and I shall give an baccount of their proceedings hereafter.” Mosiah 27:34 states, “And four of them were the sons of Mosiah; and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni; these were the names of the sons of Mosiah.”
Brother Barrett was an amazing artist and illustrator for lots of books. As far as I know, he only painted 1 Mesoamerican painting. If there were others, please let me know.
https://altusfineart.com/collections/robert-t-barrett/products/robert-barrett-the-time-is-at-hand-star-bethlehem-sign is another painting promoting Mesoamerica by Robert T. Barrett. Notice Chichen Itza in the background. I can’t blame the artist. They painted what they were taught.
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