TO BE CLEAR. I have an absolute and sure witness that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s church and kingdom on the earth. I know it, as surely as Paul knew he was part of Christ’s original church.
HOWEVER, as with the Church in Paul’s day, there are detractors today working both inside and outside the church. I prefer the external detractors, because for all their fallacies and flesh reliance, they at least are upfront about where they are coming from. On the other hand, the flesh reliant, logically challenged and spiritually deficient apostates within, are like the proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are harder to detect, because they live the culture, and wear the trappings of the faithful. Thankfully, unlike the Judaizers that Paul had to deal with, these internal threats will never destroy the church as a whole. However, they can, and do, degrade and destroy the testimony of individuals, and so their fallacies must be exposed. In the next few posts I will be taking on a group of these flesh reliant saints, which I label as pseudo church historians. #HistorianHijackers.
History is Revisionist-All of it.
As with science, statistics or any other human endeavor the study of history can become a purely human function. Since all humans are flawed, subject to bias, have imperfections, etc. then all historical records made by them, every piece of evidence interpreted by them, and every human conclusion based on those records, and interpretations are also subject to human flaws and weakness. That is not to say history has no place or is not valuable. History actually is extremely valuable, and provides data that can assist in the search for absolute truths. However, history by itself, cannot provide absolute truth. The knowledge of absolute truth, must come from a non-human and perfect source, God. Thus the proper place of history and historical study in the church is to provide data which the sincere truth seeker can use to formulate conclusions, which they can then take to God for verification.
The issue arises when human pride corrupts the historian to believe that they can, without God’s revelation, or sometimes even contrary to that revelation, know absolute truths, based on the flesh alone. They move from honest statements of belief like “it appears that, or it seems that, or it is possible that” to absolute language and conclusions such as “Joseph Smith did….it could not be…. or there were no…(fill in the conclusion)” That trend to elevate human reason and discovery to the level of Divine Revelation is common in many other scholastic and human centric endeavors. Never the less It is still a form of self-deification. The astute historian no longer needs God or revelation of the Holy Spirit, because their research skills and human conclusions have discovered ample evidence for them to assert their private conclusions as truth.
In spite of the popularity of the trend, and the too many Latter-day Saints who are engaged in that self-deification process, the fact remains that elevating academia to the level of God, is simply a modern form of the ancient practice of idolatry. It is time for Mormons to admit their flawed humanity, and in so doing accept their necessary reliance upon God and revelation, and to stop worshiping at the pagan alter of alleged historical facts.