When Church History Gets Weird

Sometimes LDS church history gets really weird. I know more people that have left the church because of church history than any other reason. It’s a big deal. But perhaps it’s also like a pebble.

If you put a pebble right in front of your eye it becomes a boulder. If you pull it away from your eye you see it for what it is, a mere pebble.

Reading the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, will start to pull that weird church history “boulder” away from your eye so you can see it for the pebble that it is.  

Have you read the story about Lot and his daughters from the book of Genesis?

“And [Lot] dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the ^afirstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:

Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.” (Genesis 19:30-36).

Gross.

Have you read the story about Moses coming down from the mountain with the 10 commandments?

“As soon as he [Moses] came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it . . . Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side . . . and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men,” (Exodus 32:19-28).

Yikes.

Weird, uncomfortable, strange stuff happens in the Bible with God’s chosen people. So if I am going to continue believing in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I’ve got to resist the urge to make a boulder out of stories like these while figuring out my faith in Jesus Christ.

Weird, uncomfortable, strange, stuff happens in LDS church history. So if I am going to believe in the restoration of Jesus Christ’s gospel through Joseph Smith in 1830, I’m going to have to resist the urge to make a boulder out of those stories while figuring out my faith in Jesus Christ.

Latter-day history is as strange as former-day history. Stephen Colbert elaborates on this point: “Mormons believed Joseph Smith received golden plates from an angel on a hill, when everybody knows that Moses got stone tablets from a burning bush on a mountain.”[1]  It’s all strange.

When it seems like the Lord is or has done weird stuff it’s important to remember Isaiah 55:8, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” When people are the culprit for strange stuff it’s important to remember that sometimes people . . . are just weird.   

Read the Bible. Learn the history. See the pebble.

 

 

 

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[1] http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394360/august-10-2011/yaweh-or-no-way----mormons---god-s-poll-numbers I suggest clicking this and watching this.