Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 16

Chapter 15

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Chapter 17

Claims made in Chapter 16: The Priesthood

Page	Claim	Response	Author's sources
442	The concept of "priesthood" was added later to the Church and was a creation of Sidney Rigdon.	Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact: how does Whitmer know? Why did he say nothing about it at the time?  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.: How do the Tanners or Whitmer know what Sidney talked Joseph into doing? The scanty evidence for this claim will require the Tanners to simply repeat it in a few pages (see p. 445-446). Priesthood restoration	David Whitmer, An Address To All Believers In Christ, p.64.
443	Revelations on the restoration of the priesthood are not present in the Book of Commandments.	Date of the restoration of the Melchizedek priesthood	No source provided?  [ATTENTION!]
443-444	The Aaronic priesthood was abolished at that death of Christ.	Hebrews 7 and the Aaronic Priesthood	Hebrews 7꞉11-14
445	The date of the restoration of the Melchizedik Priesthood is not known and the record of the event was added later.	Absurd claim: If Joseph was making the story up, why not just pick a date and stick to it? The uncertainty of dates is typical of real world events; any one clever enough to "fake" the restoration and organization of the Church could certainly pick a date off the top of his head. Who could argue with him?  Misrepresentation of source: the cited source (History of the Church) does not, of course, say a thing about the priesthood restoration being fraudulent or a later invention. Date of the restoration of the Melchizedek priesthood	History of the Church 1:40, footnote
445-446	The idea of the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordaining men to be High Priests came from Sidney Rigdon.	Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.: Making the same claim twice makes it no more convincing (see p. 442). Priesthood restoration	Whitmer, An Address To All Believers In Christ, p.35, 62-63