Paul taught to offer milk to the infant in Christ before meat. This is a sound argument for those first investigating the LDS faith to stay away from some of the more mysterious and deeper doctrines of Joseph Smith. That is logical. But that is only valid if there is a path to take the infant toward understanding the mysteries and deeper doctrine in full, thus answering all major disputable questions that arise in the believer’s mind.

Currently there is no path or teaching agenda in the LDS Church to answer the controversial issues in Church history and explain meaty doctrine. Therefore, the argument of milk before meat of the LDS Church is not valid because there is no path to find “authorized answers” and positions, even for the most experienced member. If the LDS Church’s position is that “mysteries and meaty doctrine” are to be “kept under our hats”, and it’s between the Lord and the individual, then I accept that logic. However, that logic does not fit with the saving priesthood doctrines of what the LDS Church teaches! The Church teaches that the Lord reveals his will and teachings through living prophets. It teaches that following living prophets will save the people. Therefore, LOGIC DICTATES a path should and must be made by the living prophets to take the believer to the spiritual meat and explain it to them. That is the essential paradigm of Joseph Smith. He taught the meaty doctrine. It is the logic he used frequently to build the LDS Church.

Has that changed? Why? Is God a changeable God?

You can not have it both ways. You can’t say and teach that following the living “prophets and apostles” save a people and then turn around and say, “Well, the meat is between the individual and the Lord.” If the Lord saves us through prophets, then the meat must come THROUGH THE LIVING PROPHETS and nobody else. Otherwise, the principle is meaningless and God does not use His prophets to save us.

Where is the meat today in the LDS Church, I ask? Where is the path set up by the prophets to feed the people the answers to the meaty questions? If salvation truly comes through living prophets, where is the beef?

Very important topics ought to be addressed with priesthood authority and clearly understood such as the Adam-God theory, blood atonement, the Danites, plural marriage, polyandry of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the council of fifty, the Book of Abraham controversies, changes in the Book of Mormon and D&C, the early Church teaching that men lived on the moon and the sun, the second anointings, the unpublished prophesies and revelations of Lorenzo Snow, Wilford Woodruff, and John Taylor regarding plural marriage, succession of priesthood authority from Joseph Smith, and on and on.

If this Church holds the priesthood keys to Heaven, then there ought to be clear answers from the Lord Jesus Christ regarding these very important topics. But the Church does not provide the answers, does it? The brethren are silent, pretending to love the apostate. Don’t they care about all people? If they really loved the apostate and had revelatory keys, then they would get the answer of truth from God, and explain it clearly to apostates that none could err. Only God knows the truth. He can answer the questions like no on else, right? But rather than having clear answers, the sincere person who desires to simply understand the truth is left with endless questions and contradictions in the LDS Church that frequently changes the “meaty doctrine” and “historical documents”. The controversies are deep, numerous, and glaring. Their existence can not be disputed or denied by an honest person.

Again, I could quote many, many issues to point out altering revelations, changing church history, and unresolved meaty doctrine. But that is not the purpose of this book. Any reader can study the facts and see the indisputable discrepancies. My purpose is to ask the LDS people why they so afraid to study and investigate another point of view with an open mind? I encourage the modern prophets to go to the Lord and receive direct revelation for those sincere apostates who only desire to know the truth and honestly confront the controversies with truthful answers. If Joseph Smith actually taught that men lived on the moon, then a clear statement from the First Presidency should clear up the controversy.

Do we exclude the civil war and slavery from American History because teaching that truth would not be faith promoting to our county? Do we argue: “It would be just horrifying to imagine that the United States ever really believed in slavery. Oh, quick! Let’s change the history books and just omit that ugly part of the past. Soon the people will forget, and the whole world won’t even know about the slavery problems of the past. We don’t believe in slavery today. It will disappear from history.”

Imagine if this actually were true. Imagine the government suppressing factual truth about slavery and someone discovering the truth years later. The person publishes the truth, and then well-intentioned politicians revoke his citizenship and privileges in the United States because he spoke the truth against the political agenda of the leaders. The person is dragged into court, his social security number and citizenship is stripped from him, and he’s asked to leave the United States. Or he’s put in jail.

This is exactly the logic of LDS Church, which excommunicates a person for sharing negative facts about the church or its history. It presumes that such information destroys the “positive image” that is trying to be promoted by the Church. Unfortunately, since the LDS Church is one-sided, it is also very closed-minded. Members who desire to be open-minded to the truth and facts can be excommunicated for their open-mindedness and frankness.

That is utterly illogical. It is based on an emotional feeling that the presentation of facts destroys the faith of members and that those who are “weak” can’t handle the facts, and therefore, it is harmful to the Church. The Church has an “image” it is trying to present, and the book contradicts that image. What will be the long-term impact on the Church for excommunicating the honest and open-minded? I have a very interesting hypothesis. The weak, dependent, and close-minded will survive in the Church; but the strong, open-minded, and independent thinkers will leave or be excommunicated for being honest. The end result? The LDS church will become weaker and weaker. Eventually it will crack. It has to. The weaker the base of believers and the more closed-minded to the facts, the greater the shock when the false foundation of Mormonism is exposed! Eventually, the existing facts and the ability of the people to accept and handle the facts will be so far apart, the LDS Church will one day snap like a stretched rubber band.

It’s an eternal law. It’s a matter of time. If people hide from the truth and run away, time eventually brings it right in your face. God will expose all falsehoods and lies, and the truth in the end will stand independently over all error. If a person can stand and face the truth, whatever it is—which means listening to apostates’ point of view with empathy and understanding—then that person will become a strong person, grounded in true principles. But if a person is shaken by the “lies” of another person or can not accept and at least “understand” another viewpoint, then that person is not standing on the rock of truth, but is standing on the sand of false assumptions.

Anyone who believes that the truth should be purposely manipulated or hidden to protect another human being is assuming that being one-sided is God’s approach to teaching. The one-sided argument of Elder Packer is flaky sand, my friend! It is not the truth. It is not supported in the scriptures. Yes, people need to be taught in gradual steps. But the argument of milk before meat is bogus because there is no explanation of the meat anywhere in the LDS Church pathway to eternal life! Joseph Smith had the meaty doctrine and no one else since him really understands nor has seen the doctrine the same way since. Therefore, the meat remains mysterious to all members. If I’m not telling the truth, ask yourself how long you have been in the Church. 2 Years? 10 years? 40 years? Now, tell me the path laid by the prophets that leads you to the meat of the gospel? Joseph taught a man can not be saved in ignorance. We are saved by our knowledge. If this is true, where is that path to understand all the juicy doctrines of Joseph Smith? This is very critical. If a member of the LDS Church has limited spiritual knowledge in this life, it will affect his speed of progression in the next life! Are we progressing in light and truth fast enough? Chances are most members haven’t even read Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and are not even aware of what he taught!

But of course the teachings of Joseph Smith are not important because we have a “living prophet today”, right? President Hinkley is all we need, and Joseph Smith is a dead prophet! Wake up! What kind of reasoning is this? Look at the facts! What has the LDS philosophy of “living prophets” done? It has moved all the people away from meat and into only milk! The living prophets steer the Church away from any controversy, and I’ll prove it. President Hinkley was asked by the television program, Sixty Minutes, if the LDS Church believed God was once a man. He answered, “Well, I’m not sure we know anything about that!”

What kind of answer is that? It’s clear what Joseph Smith taught, and President Hinkley didn’t even have the guts to stand up and defend the Prophet Joseph Smith’s clear teachings! Attention all Mormons! Look what I’m writing. Think! Can you not see the politics being played? Can you not see the thinking behind the prophet’s reasoning that he can’t say the “meat” in front of the world? So he lies?

And if he is not lying, then he doesn’t believe in Joseph Smith anymore. If that is true, then he is an honest man, and I’m OK with that. Amen to President Hinkley for telling the truth! Except, if he doesn’t understand the doctrine of Joseph Smith nor believe it, what the heck is he doing being the Prophet of the LDS Church? He doesn’t believe in Joseph Smith’s plain teachings in the King Follet discourse? Everyone who has done any research into the teachings of Joseph Smith knows that he taught God was once a man on an earth like ours!

Now, I don’t blame President Hinkley for his statement. This whole book exposes the false angels and imitation “white light” that was burned into Joseph Smith’s spirit. I can appreciate President Hinkley’s answer. But, personally, I can’t live with myself knowing Joseph taught such terribly wrong doctrine and still be a faithful member of the LDS faith. I can’t accept President Hinkley’s answer as valid, if He truly is a prophet of God. I can’t just say like President Hinkley, “Well, we don’t know about those things,” shut my eyes and then add, “The Church is still true anyway!” I just can not do that! My integrity and honesty required me to look more deeply behind the whole LDS religion. And I discovered the false foundation, so I had to wave goodbye!

Look for yourself what the “living prophet” teaches! There is no more meat doctrine about God once being a man! And if the prophet speaks this way, it can be guaranteed the LDS Church will only get more “milk”. It will likely change to “skim milk” over time. The prophets are so far removed from the members and meaty doctrine themselves; the people will not be taught how to resolve these issues! And don’t give me “FARMS” or Hugh Nibley as a source for resolving the controversies. These “scholars” don’t hold the keys of the “priesthood of God”. They don’t have any LDS authority to save anyone! According to LDS theology, the light and truth of Hugh Nibley has no “binding power” on the people! Only the First Presidency and the Twelve hold the “priesthood keys”! And now, where are the LDS prophets and apostles teaching the difficult-to-answer doctrines from Jesus Christ? Where is the priesthood path to the meat?

No where!

The LDS priesthood keys govern the truth, right? That’s what is taught and believed. Since there obviously is no priesthood path to the meat, what does this line of reasoning and logic tell an average person with half a brain?

• 1) The modern prophets have sinned and do not believe in Jesus to get the answers that sincere apostates desperately need, even though they hold the priesthood keys.
  
• 2) The people have willfully sinned, and God is withholding the truth deliberately, leading us based on our own faithfulness.
  
• 3) The LDS priesthood keys are bogus. The LDS Church is half-true. False angels deceived Joseph Smith.

Mormonism claims to be the Kingdom of God, not a country club. As such, with the revelatory priesthood keys, it promises answers to theological questions. It offers to bring us to God. And the official priesthood answers given by God is that these controversies are “skeletons in the closet” and are best left in the closet? We can always find mud if we look for it? Does that direction mean the past prophets were not telling the truth, or were they? Joseph Smith received an answer for everything! With Mormonism we can’t just let an issue such as polygamy or the origin of the temple ordinances just be brushed aside. The founder, Joseph Smith, made certain claims about the LDS religion. All other religions are clearly wrong, he taught. If he’s right, then that specific concept needs to be defended as the truth, and only the truth, and the meaty LDS theology must be taught and defended. If he’s wrong, then the whole Church 170 years later becomes highly suspect. Skirting the deep issues by insisting we merely gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon through prayer, is not only sign seeking and built on doubt, but it never addresses the original questions asked in the first place. So again, where is the first person revelations from Jesus Christ saying, “Thus saith the Lord”, to clear all matters of controversy once and for all?

We can’t blame the lack of revelation on the members. Mormons are some of the most obedient and faithful people on earth. They diligently implement the Church programs outlined in Salt Lake City. President Hinkley constantly praises the people for their prayers, faith, and hard work. Is he lying? If he’s telling the truth, then the people are NOT the problem of having no path to the meat.

On the other hand, if the problem is that the LDS prophets do not have the required faith to received first person revelations from the Lord to meet the current, desperate need for theological answers, then why are they claiming to be prophets? Why lie? Why pretend to speak with the Lord Jesus face-to-face if you can’t assist the honest lambs who are leaving the flock because clear revelatory answers are lacking? That was not Joseph Smith’s way. Joseph had an answer for everything! He even explained where God came from, the name of the planet He lives on, Kolob. He explained that God was once a man. But president Hinkley tells Sixty Minutes that we don’t know about such things?

Although the LDS Church has many pillars of truth such as strong family values, doing good to our neighbor, having faith in God, and serving others, etc., these true principles are not the principles that founded the LDS religion. A believer must look to Joseph Smith and examine the foundational theology and priesthood structure that was put in place. If that foundation is merely sand and is exposed as a lie from false angels, then a member ought to understand what he belongs to—a half-true, mixed-up religion.

A testimony of the priesthood is based on an emotional response to the Book of Mormon and prayer, in which the believer trusts in his or her feelings, even if good sense and logic dictate otherwise. Anyone caught in a emotional belief system such as this can not see that they are trapped, for the mind is disconnected from logic and reason, being strapped to one’s own emotions. A person can not see clearly with the mind. He sees things first “with the heart.” When that emotional response is linked to God, those feelings become invincible and irrefutable. A spiritual experience is used as “evidence and proof” that Mormonism is true, much the same way a miraculous healing performed by Jesus led to belief. However, believing in our good feelings through prayer, goes a step beyond belief . The mind is imbued with an idea and feeling together, which is believed to be the truth because of the evidence, not the idea itself. God doesn’t lie, and therefore, the mind reasons the witness and interpretation of the experience creates a false “knowledge” that the Church is true. And once the mind is trained to think in this manner, it is exceedingly difficult to ever go back to simple belief as a foundation of our religious faith. We believe that “we know” something is true. And we like that secure feeling. We don’t want to give up that security. We finally know.

Fortunately, God has given reason, logic, and facts to melt down our loyal feelings to Mormonism, until finally, a person can withdraw from the false beliefs system and return to the truth. Facts, precious and honest facts, can break through any falsehood and bring one into the truth. But I do admit, in a world of controlled information, true and reliable facts are sometimes very difficult to come by. Who has touched this fact or that fact? Is it pure? Who do we trust?

The leaders of this country were wise enough to see the damage of “information manipulation” in the hands of a few leaders. The freedom and right to speak our mind which is guaranteed in the United States was established to prevent a few powerful leaders from controlling information. One must realize that the background for this safeguard came from the roots of manipulation and persecution imposed on early settlers of America. The European powers “controlled information”. Those in authority decided what was most important and promoted a one-sided view of the truth. The logic used by Elder Packer is no different than the Church of England’s view that it had the right to control and manipulate information for the good of the people. It too was one-sided.

The principle is unholy and comes from the mind of Satan.

The average Latter-day Saint just does not understand nor comprehend the magnitude of “controlled thinking” that permeated Joseph Smith and the foundation of the LDS church. For example, most members do not understand that Oliver Cowdrey was excommunicated, not because of sin, but because he disagreed with the viewpoints of Joseph Smith. Oliver wanted to practice law, and Joseph wanted him to do something else. So he was “fired” from the Church. Any reasonable member of the Church today would conclude that God does not force one into a church assignment at the threat of loosing his Church membership. But 160 years ago, “obey the priesthood or lose your soul,” was the accepted spirit of the priesthood. Temple covenants were made under the penalty of death for breaking priesthood covenants. It was the way Joseph operated. And he learned this principle directly from “false light”. A powerful angel with a sword threatened to destroy him if he did not implement the practice of plural marriage in the church! Logic will immediately dictate to any reasonable person that such an angel would not be from God, but from a different master! But not Joseph Smith. The foundation of Mormonism is not one of logic or truth but is based on feelings. Joseph loved the “white light” and the power and the intelligence that flowed into his spirit. He worshipped the knowledge it fed to him. His life was wholeheartedly committed to it. So what happened with polygamy? Joseph Smith scrapped logic and common sense, assuming God really can force people to do His will if He wants to, for the good of His Kingdom! God can do whatever He wants to. By believing this false angel Joseph automatically justified himself in having marital relationships with as many women as he desired. What carnal man wouldn’t want to believe in his heart such an angel was from God? It sounds like an exciting principle! Next he’s listening to his “feelings” and “false impressions” with every pretty face and fanny that walks by, inspiring his mind to marry this or that woman, and he assumed the impressions were from God! Like us all, he probably realized his mistake here and there, and tried to keep sorting through the questions: “What’s from God; what’s from Satan; and what’s from me?” Just like all believers do.

At Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph Smith sadly observed Oliver Cowdrey and other high leaders turn away from his priesthood authority, dragging a stream of followers away. Joseph claimed all apostates were liars and evil, inspired by the devil, ranting and railing accusations contrary to the instruction of Jesus, who taught we should agree quickly with our adversaries. Jesus taught us to prayer for our enemies not to curse them. Joseph did not follow this counsel very often.

Those who saw changing revelation, bizarre behavior, and inconsistent doctrines coming from the lips of Joseph Smith were forced to reconcile the illogical contradictions, or leave the Church. If God reveals truth, even if it is meaty, then that official church doctrine and position should stand clear to all and not change, right? Only those who ignored the obvious facts and instead trusted in “their own feelings” were able to stay with Joseph no matter what he said and no matter what happened. Their minds believed in a spiritual experience, converting that mere belief to knowledge and fact. After that, absolutely nothing could change their minds.

Since the mind desires to believe logical thoughts, it is interesting to observe what people will do to avoid thinking about the obvious false prophesies and contradictions of Joseph Smith. As quoted earlier, Joseph Smith received a revelation about building the city of the New Jerusalem in Joseph Smith’s generation. 166 years later, it still is hasn’t even started to be built! Obviously, the LDS viewpoint will clearly differ from my conclusion. It is believed that Joseph Smith was the Lord’s prophet, and therefore, it is assumed that the words from Joseph Smith must be true. The revelation about New Jerusalem could NOT be wrong, for every faithful member “knows the church is true”. The D&C must be 100% true. There is no room for human error or deception. With this logic imbedded in the believer’s heart, the mind will automatically force-fit the revelation to fit the facts. For example, the LDS mind may reason something like the following:

• 1) I have my doubts about this revelation on the Temple being built in this generation, but I don’t know all the answers. It appears that this revelation isn’t true, but I’m not a prophet, and there is probably something I haven’t understood yet. If I give it time, the pieces will all come together, and then we will really see what the Lord meant.
  
• 2) This is a question I will have to put on the back burner. One that I’ll have to ask the Lord when I meet him after death. I’ll accept it on faith.
  
• 3) The word “generation” must be longer than the traditional 70 year span of

For a non-Mormon observing this revelation outside the Mormon belief system, the answer to this question is crystal clear: Joseph Smith was wrong. He was deceived. He was a false prophet. To a faithful Latter-day Saint, however, it is plausible and reasonable that God is waiting patiently for His people and circumstances to fulfill his promises. He doesn’t lie. Both viewpoints are in conflict, while both appear to be logical to those who are trained to think a certain way. Who is right? This book bridges the gap between the two perspectives, thus clearing the way for less miscommunication and more understanding between Mormons and Christians.