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Originally posted by rameumpton
Now, we tend to accept the stories, regardless of whether they are factual, because we simply do not know which one is/isn't factual, plus the stories teach great things to us.
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That's not what the 8th Article of Faith says. It says we believe the Bible to be the word of God. Do you really believe it's been that badly translated that whole entire stories are false? I don't think that's the Church's position and I've never heard a Sunday school teacher or general authority put the Bible into the prespective that you just did.
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Did Joseph Smith ever say he was infallible? Or did he say that a prophet is only a prophet when speaking by the Holy Ghost?
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He said there was no error in the things he had taught. Apparently that was wrong.
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He did not spend time focusing on whether the stories were historically factual. He focused on doctrine. And what IF Joseph embellished? We clearly have embellishment in the Bible from the ancient prophets (or the scribes). Do we really need to have infallible prophets to have the true Church?
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It isn't just the stories in the Bible that have problems. The doctrines do as well. And if a prophet can be so fallible as to lie and give wrong information, what is the benefit of following a prophet over any other man?
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What about them? Are you attempting to set up a straw man? Joseph Smith got some things wrong, so he must be a false prophet, because logic suggests that prophets must be perfect in science, math, English literature, quantum theory, and baking French pastries? Is that the kind of straw man you are getting at?
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No, I'm saying that if Joseph Smith was wrong in his interpretation of scripture and prophecy, there might be something more complex about being a prophet that what the Church has traditionally taught. Don't you believe that the Church should teach the truth about this complexity?
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We do not claim the PoGP to be perfect.
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No, we claim that it's true. And obviously there are parts of it that are not true.
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Why not spend some time on the things Joseph got right?
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I do when I'm talking to non-members on other threads.