The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used to have a tradition of building cities.
Under the leadership of Joseph Smith, we built the cities of Kirtland, Far West, and Nauvoo. Brigham Young oversaw the building of almost 300 cities across the Intermountain West. City building slowed dramatically after his death. We haven’t built any new cities in the last hundred years.
Why?
McConkie was the most influential theologian in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the second half of the twentieth century. His magnus opus was Mormon Doctrine, an encyclopedia which attempted to answer all of the important questions about Mormon doctrine. It has been somewhat controversial because many of the answers it gave were wrong, but I think that it has a bigger problem. Mormon Doctrine is contrary to the way Mormonism approaches Truth.
Grains – wheat, barley, millet, rice, and corn – are the dominant food in all of the earliest states because they are the easiest to collect taxes on, not because they are the best for the people who farmed them.
When Lehi leaves Jerusalem, he builds an altar in the wilderness. The Levitical law forbids offering sacrifices anywhere than the temple, under the authority of the Chief Priest. Lehi’s altar shows that he is establishing a new church – not with different beliefs and practices, but with a different community and organization.
How do we understand and interpret the historical events recorded in scripture – or elsewhere?
