[Leonard Arrington]
I learned that some time ago when Ed Lyon was in Nauvoo, Elder [Howard W.] Hunter and his family came there on a Church history trip. They would read about each area as they came to it, in their hotel room at night. In the course of Ed's comments to them as they were in Nauvoo, he told them some things that are not "traditional" history as it is generally taught. One of Elder Hunter's sons said, "Dad, why are we doing this and not telling people the truth? Why is our history written like that?" Elder Hunter is reported to have responded that he regretted that it was, and that he sincerely hoped that we would do better in the future.
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
140 years ago today - Feb 17, 1886
[Wilford Woodruff]
My abode was visited to day by 2 spotter. They did not finally search the House But they made a great Deal of Enquiry about the House but finally went off. <I was hid.>
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
My abode was visited to day by 2 spotter. They did not finally search the House But they made a great Deal of Enquiry about the House but finally went off. <I was hid.>
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
140 years ago today - Feb 17, 1886
George Q. Cannon, arrested for polygamy, is released on $45,000 bail. Apostles Heber J. Grant, John W. Taylor, Franklin D. Richards and John Henry Smith visit him at his home and "found him badly bruised but feeling cheerful." Cannon was "badly bruised" from jumping from a moving train in an escape attempt after being arrested.
170 years ago today - Feb 17, 1856
Brigham Young "asked Elder Orson Pratt what He thought of his preaching that intelligent beings would continue to learn to all Eternity. O. Pratt said that He believed the Gods had a knowledge at the present time of every thing that ever did exist to the endless ages of all Eternity. He believed it as much as any truth that he had ever learned in or out of this Church. President Young remarked that he had never learned that principle in the church for it was not taught in the Church for it was not true. It was fals[e] doctrin[e] For the Gods and all intelligent Beings would never cease to learn except it was the Sons of perdition they would continue to decrease until they became dissolved back into their native Element & lost their Identity." This is only one point of doctrine over which Brigham Young and Orson Pratt differed throughout their lives. In 1980, Apostle Bruce R. McConkie calls Brigham Young's doctrine that God continues to learn a "deadly heresy" and says: "[t]his is
false-utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of truth in it."
false-utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of truth in it."
170 years ago today - Feb 17, 1856
Prest Young said: if a man has many visions he is more liable to be overcome by the devil than the man that has no visions.... When this Church goes to Jackson Co. they will go from the West towards the East and not go through South America or Texas as many think. But before we go there we must live in a desolate place where gentiles can't, till we get a large company. When people leave a gathering place of the Saints to find a good country where they can live easy, they will apostatize or be driven from it. -- SLC Tabernacle
[John Pulsipher Journal, BYU. 38, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[John Pulsipher Journal, BYU. 38, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
170 years ago today - Feb 17, 1856
[Brigham Young]
When a person apostatizes, he continues to decrease until they are wilted out to nothing - My spirit in me was not a particle contaminated by the fall of Adam but in consequence of being connected with the body it must continue until it is released - The devil had not a particle of power over the spirit but if I die in my sins then he continues his power - he will destroy sin and he that hath the power of it - he will decompose it into element but not annihilated - the individuality is annihilated - The earth and the air is full of the properties of the grape. -- Salt Lake City
[Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.) 9-13-4, 169, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
When a person apostatizes, he continues to decrease until they are wilted out to nothing - My spirit in me was not a particle contaminated by the fall of Adam but in consequence of being connected with the body it must continue until it is released - The devil had not a particle of power over the spirit but if I die in my sins then he continues his power - he will destroy sin and he that hath the power of it - he will decompose it into element but not annihilated - the individuality is annihilated - The earth and the air is full of the properties of the grape. -- Salt Lake City
[Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.) 9-13-4, 169, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
180 years ago today - Feb 17, 1846
[Brigham Young] instructed the brethren to ... never to borrow without asking leave and then be sure and return the same lest your brother be vexed with you and in his anger curse you and then you will be cursed according to the power of the priesthood that a brother professes, and evil will come upon you; that all dogs in the camp should be killed if the owners would not tie them; that any man who would keep a horse in camp that had distemper should forfeit all his horses; ... He then called upon all who wanted to go with the camp to raise their right hand, and all hands were up.
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal]
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal]
185 years ago today - Feb 17, 1841
[Heber C. Kimball]
And it come to pass that we went to Barttalomy [St. Bartholomew] Hospital. We went threw one room whare we saw as menny as 20 bodies of men and wimmen Laid in diffrent Situations under diffrent stats [states] of decetion [dissection], some just brought in with thare mouths soad [sewed] up. I must confess It gave wonderfull feelings.
[Kimball, Stanley B. ed, On the Potter's Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball]
And it come to pass that we went to Barttalomy [St. Bartholomew] Hospital. We went threw one room whare we saw as menny as 20 bodies of men and wimmen Laid in diffrent Situations under diffrent stats [states] of decetion [dissection], some just brought in with thare mouths soad [sewed] up. I must confess It gave wonderfull feelings.
[Kimball, Stanley B. ed, On the Potter's Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball]
190 years ago today - 17 February 1836 - Wednesday
Wednesday the 17th attend[ed] the school and read and translated with my class as usual, and my soul delights in reading the word of the Lord in the original, and I am determined to persue the study of languages untill I shall become master of them, if I am permitted to live long enough, at any rate so long as I do live I am determined to make this my object, and with the blessing of God I shall succe[e]d to my sattisfaction,- this evening Elder Joseph Coe called to make some arangements about the Egyptian records and the mummies, he proposes to hire a room at J[ohn] Johnson s Inn and exibit them there from day to day at certain hours, that some benefit may be derived from them- I complied with his request, and only observed that they must be managed with prudence and care especially the manuscripts [[Seven months earlier, Coe loaned eight hundred dollars to help purchase the mummies and papyri, expecting to be quickly repaid from the sales of JS's translation of the papyri. With
the translation still unpublished, Coe desired to recoup his losses by exhibiting the mummies and papyri.]]
[Joseph Smith, "Sketch Book for the use of Joseph Smith, jr.," Journal, Sept. 1835-Apr. 1836]
the translation still unpublished, Coe desired to recoup his losses by exhibiting the mummies and papyri.]]
[Joseph Smith, "Sketch Book for the use of Joseph Smith, jr.," Journal, Sept. 1835-Apr. 1836]
20 years ago today - Feb 16, 2006
L A Times front page story "Bedrock of a Faith is Jolted" on fact that DNA studies show no Hebrew ancestry to Native Americans.
30 years ago today - Feb 16, 1996
[Same-Sex Marriage]
Rex E. Lee, issues a position paper arguing for the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex partners.
[Crapo, Richley, Chronology Of Mormon / LDS Involvement In Same-Sex Marriage Politics http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/?q=node/59]
Rex E. Lee, issues a position paper arguing for the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex partners.
[Crapo, Richley, Chronology Of Mormon / LDS Involvement In Same-Sex Marriage Politics http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/?q=node/59]
35 years ago today - Feb 16, 1991
Arizona Republic' publishes an analysis of decades of talks by Seventy's president Paul H. Dunn who has misrepresented his military and baseball careers in order to tell "faith-promoting" stories to LDS youth and young adults. This is based on the research of investigative reporter Lynn Packer, whose teaching employment is terminated at BYU after the story's publication. In an interview Dunn defends himself by saying that parables of Jesus are not literally true either. On 23 Oct. Dunn writes an "Open Letter to the Members of the Church," confessing his "inaccurate" sermons and "other activities inconsistent with the high and sacred office which I have held." He acknowledges that general authorities "have censured me and placed a heavy penalty upon me." In addition to receiving emeritus status in 1989, five years before its normal implementation at age seventy, the unnamed "heavy penalty" allegedly now includes Dunn's loss of LDS privileges. Without formal disfellowshipment this
would be similar to the 1911 decision concerning Matthias F. Cowley, who also had been previously released as a general authority before his added punishment.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
would be similar to the 1911 decision concerning Matthias F. Cowley, who also had been previously released as a general authority before his added punishment.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
35 years ago today - Feb 16, 1991
Leftist rebels in Santiago, Chile, set a Mormon chapel afire and leave pamphlets protesting the U.S.-led war against Iraq. According to the Associated Press, the attack is one of a number of attacks against U.S. and European targets in South America after the war began.
75 years ago today - Feb 16, 1951
[George Albert Smith to Arthur Haycock]
.... You know as much or more about my affairs as anybody. I am not gaining any strength, and unless the Lord takes a hand it will not be long before it is over. ... Zion's Savings Bank has been appointed my trustee, as you know, and my will provides for the division of the real estate amongst my children, share and share alike. I don't think my girls have any idea how near I have been to the other side. I haven't felt that my work was done at all.... The big automobile belongs to the Church. It isn't mine. One of my regrets is that I have been unable to organize a library and dispose of it. I don't know how I ever got here (in the hospital). They never talked to me about it. I don't like the idea of being in the hands of doctors all the time. I want to leave some of it up to the Lord. Arthur, I want you to know that I have absolute confidence in your faith and integrity and in you as a member of the Church. My family feel toward you just as I do. The Lord bless you, and many, many
thanks for your kindnesses. As long as I have the money I want to pay my own hospital expenses. I don't want the Church to do it.
['Statement Made by President George Albert Smith to His Secretary, D. Arthur Haycock, Friday, February 16, 1951, 10:15 A.M., L.D.S. Hospital, Room 703', as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
.... You know as much or more about my affairs as anybody. I am not gaining any strength, and unless the Lord takes a hand it will not be long before it is over. ... Zion's Savings Bank has been appointed my trustee, as you know, and my will provides for the division of the real estate amongst my children, share and share alike. I don't think my girls have any idea how near I have been to the other side. I haven't felt that my work was done at all.... The big automobile belongs to the Church. It isn't mine. One of my regrets is that I have been unable to organize a library and dispose of it. I don't know how I ever got here (in the hospital). They never talked to me about it. I don't like the idea of being in the hands of doctors all the time. I want to leave some of it up to the Lord. Arthur, I want you to know that I have absolute confidence in your faith and integrity and in you as a member of the Church. My family feel toward you just as I do. The Lord bless you, and many, many
thanks for your kindnesses. As long as I have the money I want to pay my own hospital expenses. I don't want the Church to do it.
['Statement Made by President George Albert Smith to His Secretary, D. Arthur Haycock, Friday, February 16, 1951, 10:15 A.M., L.D.S. Hospital, Room 703', as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
115 years ago today - Feb 16, 1911; Thursday
[John W. Taylor to Joseph F. Smith]
Beloved President:
I earnestly request that you call a meeting at your earliest convenience of all of the members of the Kingdom of God [Council of Fifty].
The rights and liberties of some of my co-religionists, my family and myself are now being unjustly attacked and trampled under foot by members of our organization, contrary to our sacred rights that we are entitled to enjoy under the provisions of our constitution.
... In the name of every thing that is sacred to the heart of man, I implore you as Prophet, President and King, to grant unto me a hearing at once, that I may more fully set forth the reasons for my grievance which the consitution of the Kingdom of God so fully guarantees to its members.
Anxiously awaiting an answer, I remain with the sentiments of the highest esteem, Your brother in the bonds of the New and Everlasting Covenant and fellow laborer in the Kingdom of God.
[signed] John W. Taylor
[Note at top of letter:] Not granted I think the demand most absurd. J[oseph]. F. S[mith].
[John W. Taylor, letter to Joseph F. Smith, and Joseph F. Smith, handwritten response, Quinn Papers, original in LDS Archives]
Beloved President:
I earnestly request that you call a meeting at your earliest convenience of all of the members of the Kingdom of God [Council of Fifty].
The rights and liberties of some of my co-religionists, my family and myself are now being unjustly attacked and trampled under foot by members of our organization, contrary to our sacred rights that we are entitled to enjoy under the provisions of our constitution.
... In the name of every thing that is sacred to the heart of man, I implore you as Prophet, President and King, to grant unto me a hearing at once, that I may more fully set forth the reasons for my grievance which the consitution of the Kingdom of God so fully guarantees to its members.
Anxiously awaiting an answer, I remain with the sentiments of the highest esteem, Your brother in the bonds of the New and Everlasting Covenant and fellow laborer in the Kingdom of God.
[signed] John W. Taylor
[Note at top of letter:] Not granted I think the demand most absurd. J[oseph]. F. S[mith].
[John W. Taylor, letter to Joseph F. Smith, and Joseph F. Smith, handwritten response, Quinn Papers, original in LDS Archives]
140 years ago today - Feb 16, 1886
[Wilford Woodruff]
It is Confirmed to day that Georg Q Cannon is arested & in the Hands of the Marshals. We are in the Midst of a National Persecution. The United States Government is making war upon the Latter Day Saints. Judgment is begining at the House of God. But if the Saints Suffer for their Religion Our Persecuters will Suffer for thir sins. Great things await this Generation. Behold the signs of the time. Watch for the Coming of the Son of Man.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
It is Confirmed to day that Georg Q Cannon is arested & in the Hands of the Marshals. We are in the Midst of a National Persecution. The United States Government is making war upon the Latter Day Saints. Judgment is begining at the House of God. But if the Saints Suffer for their Religion Our Persecuters will Suffer for thir sins. Great things await this Generation. Behold the signs of the time. Watch for the Coming of the Son of Man.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
180 years ago today - Feb 16, 1846
Brigham Young, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, organizes the Camp of Israel at Sugar Creek, Iowa, preparatory to the Saints' trek across the plains. The organization includes captains of tens, fifties, and hundreds.
185 years ago today - Feb 16, 1841
Wilford Woodruf writes while in England of "the awful Judgments that await the Nations. WAR WAR is [at] the door between England & America. O Lord Deliver us."
85 years ago today - Feb 15, 1941
Sunday School and Stake Conferences-- Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.
All Sunday School classes, with the exception of the adult Gospel Doctrine class should remain in session on stake quarterly conference days. {1941-February 15-Original circular letter, L.D.S.}
[Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
All Sunday School classes, with the exception of the adult Gospel Doctrine class should remain in session on stake quarterly conference days. {1941-February 15-Original circular letter, L.D.S.}
[Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
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