The LDS Church has had some issues with determining what its doctrine is.
Bruce R. McConkie is one of the most frequently cited and quoted authorities on LDS doctrine. He was a General Authority of the LDS Church. In 1958, when he was a member of the First Council of the Seventy, he published a book called Mormon Doctrine: A Compendium of the Gospel, which was called "the first major attempt to digest, explain, and analyze all of the important doctrines of the kingdom," relying on LDS scriptures and the scriptures and recognized doctrinal authorities including, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, and Joseph Fielding Smith.
One of the Apostles of the Church, Mark E. Petersen, said there were 1,067 errors in the first edition copy of the book. The first edition is the one in which McConkie called the Roman Catholic Church "the Whore of Babylon", the great and abominable church, and the great whore of all the earth, in LDS theology.
From there, things get muddy.
A Second Edition was published, with corrections. Prophet David O. McKay authorized it. However, although the McConkie family has handwritten notes authorizing the publication, the LDS church says that McKay was 92 and in ill health, and didn't consult his counselors.
Anyway, the book was published by LDS-owned Deseret Books and went through 40 printings. It was one of the most popular books ever printed by Deseret Books.
In 2010, Desert Books quietly ceased publication, claiming low sales - although Amazon and all other sellers claim that the book continued to sell well.
The one-year anniversary of 'quiet removal' of one of Mormonism's best-selling books got attention.
The Salt Lake City Tribute called it one of the most influential books on Mormonism of the last 50 years.
Some observers opined that the move was due to the book's uncompromising presentation of controversial Mormon ideas from which the Church is attempting to distance itself to seem more like mainstream Christianity.
So, if you want to know what LDS theology is . . . don't go looking for the principal source that's existed for that information for the last 50 years. It's been pulled from publication. And apparently an Apostle of the LDS Church didn't know what the theology of the LDS church was, or at least there was disagreement among the Members of the First Presidency.
Spencer Kimball, a member of the First Presidency during the mid-60s, was assigned to personally oversee McConkie's re-draft to ensure that the "errors" earlier id'd in the '58 version were "corrected." So McConkie had an over-the-shoulder "mentor."