How Well Do You Know Mormon Church Leaders of the Past?

Mormon Coffee ^ | April 7, 2011 | Sharon Lindbloom

[Colofornian]

Last month (March 2011) Ensign magazine included a challenge titled “How Well Do You Know Our Church Leaders?” It consisted of 15 details from the lives of the 15 current Prophets, Seers and Revelators of the LDS Church. Readers were invited to match the names with the facts.

The Ensign challenge included things like figuring out which leader once raised rabbits or worked on an oyster boat. The lives of LDS leaders throughout the history of the Mormon Church reflect much more interesting details than those included in the Ensign article. So I here add my own version of “How Well Do You Know Mormon Church Leaders of the Past?” See if you can match the following eight names of early Church leaders with events or other details from their lives. Answers and references follow, but see how well you can do without peeking.

1.Apostle Jedediah Grant

2.Apostle Amasa Lyman

3.Apostle Franklin D. Richards

4.President Sidney Rigdon

5.President Joseph Smith

6.Apostle* David Whitmer

7.President Wilford Woodruff

8.President Brigham Young

A. When returning to Salt Lake City after a mission, this leader and his travelling companions overtook the Willie Handcart Company, stopping for a night to encourage the pioneers. After promising that they would all end their journey in the “Valleys of the Mountains with strong and healthy bodies,” this leader asked Captain Willie for “fresh meat” and took the Company’s fattest calf.

B. This leader was sealed to four hundred unmarried women ancestors in a single day.

C. He accused his wife of attempting to murder him by putting poison in his coffee.

D. This Mormon leader said he received a revelation from God telling him to separate himself from the Latter-day Saints because they had “gone deep into error and blindness.”

E. Speaking of the sinful actions of some Latter-day Saints, this leader publicly called for a place to be designated where the blood of covenant-breakers could be shed.

F. According to the Law of Adoption practiced in the early Mormon Church, this man was sealed to someone who was later convicted of mass murder.

G. In a fiery and memorable sermon, this leader declared a “war of extermination” against non-Mormons.

H. Hosting and participating in séances and automatic writing, this Mormon leader fully embraced the “spiritualist underground” operating all throughout Utah.

* While not usually listed among LDS apostles, D&C 18:9, Brigham Young, and Larry Porter writing for the Ensign, all indicate that David Whitmer was called as an apostle.

ANSWERS:

A. 3, Roberts, Devils Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy, 162-164; B. 7, Van Wagoner & Walker, A Book of Mormons, 399; C. 5, Newell & Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, 164; D. 6, Whitmer, An Address To All Believers in Christ, 27; E. 1, Journal of Discourses 4:49-50; F. 8, Van Wagoner & Walker, A Book of Mormons, 156; G. 4, LeSueur, The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, 50-51; H. 2, Avery, From Mission to Madness, 186-188.

—

Good friend Mike Tea has also compiled a version of the Ensign challenge. Take a look at The Mormon Chapbook

[fishtank]

I like your screenname, “DB”!

[Religion Moderator]

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

[K-Ben-K]

“There is no way to state the truth where it becomes a lie.”

Someday I hope you find out how foolish that notion is.
Until then you will only know the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to the Anti-Mormons and the like.

Ben

[K-Ben-K]

“FAILS to address the point.”

Please don't true to change the subject.
The point is that many an Anti-Mormon will state true facts in a way that the thought becomes a lie.

Ben

[Godzilla]

Please don't true to change the subject. The point is that many an Anti-Mormon will state true facts in a way that the thought becomes a lie.

Once again kbk - an epic fail. Called poisoning the well and faced with your apparent inability to show otherwise further reinforces the fail.

By making an unsubstantiated statement you don't prove anything, except ignorance of the subject. Lets examine just one comparison -

E. Speaking of the sinful actions of some Latter-day Saints, this leader publicly called for a place to be designated where the blood of covenant-breakers could be shed. - Ans: Apostle Jeddiah Grant.

Now please kbk - what 'lie' is being transmitted here? Want to read it for yourself, go here. In fact Grant calls for the shedding of their blood no less than three times and infers that they should be killed for their iniquity.

So come on kbk, do your homework - just what is the 'thought' that becomes a 'lie' in this speech? You made the accusation - you need to pony up the proof.

[DariusBane]

You must know your history!

[Osage Orange]

And don't say it is not important to the rest of the sentence, the "mormon coffee" people are experts at creating their Anti-Mormon rederick.

Rederick? Whoa....Ben, you be channeling someone...

[rickomatic]

So come on kbk, do your homework - just what is the 'thought' that becomes a 'lie' in this speech? You made the accusation - you need to pony up the proof.

.......cue Jeapordy music.

[Elsie]

The point is that many an Anti-Mormon will state true facts in a way that the thought becomes a lie.

Then it will be REaLLY easy for you to QUOTE one of them doing exactly what you claim.

Right??

[Elsie]

We accuse: you defend.

--MormonDude(We don't HAVE to show ANY evidence!)

[Zakeet]

"God made Aaron to be the mouthpiece of the children of Israel, and he will make me to be god to you in his stead, and the elders to be mouth for me; and if you don't like it, you must lump it." Joseph Smith, Jr., Nauvoo, Illinois April, 1844

[Godzilla]

.......cue Jeapordy music.

Then why is he asking for whats behind door number two?

[Tennessee Nana]

an Anti-Mormon will state true facts in a way that the thought becomes a lie.
_________________________________________

WOW

I do know anti-Christians will state lies from the religion called mormonism and claim them to be “true facts”

[roylene]

I have read moronic statements before but for you to believe the truth can be stated as a lie really takes the prize.
I follow Jesus Christ, and yes Jesus Christ is anti-MormonISM.

[Godzilla]

I do know anti-Christians will state lies from the religion called mormonism and claim them to be “true facts”

[Tennessee Nana]

Just a “milky” mormon

The meat is where the blood is found

Milk mormons arent told the meaty “truth” of mormonism

This one would obviously leave in a hurry if told

or would never have joined in the first place

Its not nice to find out one has been lied too

[Tennessee Nana]

LOL

[Colofornian]

The point is that many an Anti-Mormon will state true facts...

Ah, good so far.

... in a way that the thought becomes a lie.

Hmm...(So there's degrees of truth within the "rainbow" of truth...ranging from truly true to truly false...?)

(Interestin' def of "truth" there...but consistent with Mormonism)

BTW...tell us what you think of this Joseph Smithism:

To be damned: ...turn to a modern dictionary, and you will see "damnation" defined as "exclusion from divine mercy; condemnation to eternal punishment." In common usage the word has no other sense. http://www.what-the-hell-is-hell.com/HellEncyclopedia/WordDamn.htm

That site says that originally "damn" as an English word = "Loss, harm" & then came to mean "judgment upon."

Smith came along and took the English word "dam" and then said that "damnation" simply = "dammed up"...in other words, controlled for a period of time prior to release.

IOW, even though the Book of Mormon regularly talked about eternal and everlasting hell...he then in the early 1830s switched it to a temporary state (in the D&C).

So how about taking a true word ("dam") and superimposing it falsely upon another word ("damnation") -- and then claiming that adjectives "everlasting" doesn't mean "everlasting" after all?

(There ya go, all...that's the kind of verbal gymnastics' games that Mormons play)

[svcw]

I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it has nothing to do with that joseph smith and his nine versions of the first vision, his lying, his pedophilia, his adulatory, his thievery, his blasphemy of the Word of the Eternal God, his flim flam activities, his shyster activity............IE mormonISM.