Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 16
Claims made in Chapter 16: The Priesthood
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Claim
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Response
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Author's sources
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442
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The concept of "priesthood" was added later to the Church and was a creation of Sidney Rigdon.
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- 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
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- David Whitmer, An Address To All Believers In Christ, p.64.
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443
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- Revelations on the restoration of the priesthood are not present in the Book of Commandments.
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- No source provided? [ATTENTION!]
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443-444
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- The Aaronic priesthood was abolished at that death of Christ.
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445
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The date of the restoration of the Melchizedik Priesthood is not known and the record of the event was added later.
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- 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
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- History of the Church 1:40, footnote
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445-446
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- The idea of the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordaining men to be High Priests came from Sidney Rigdon.
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- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.: Making the same claim twice makes it no more convincing (see p. 442).
- Priesthood restoration
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- Whitmer, An Address To All Believers In Christ, p.35, 62-63
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