Wow: an actual admission that Biblical doctrines were, over time, gradually lost.
Score one for Joseph Smith and the Restored Gospel.
The health of the church today requires re-thinking on the issue of God's sovereignty. With semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism the norm rather than the exception in the modern church, the tough issues must once again be grappled with. There must be another reformation.
A reformation can never restore that which has been lost. What is truly needed is a restoration. And only God can bring about a restoration.
Perhaps this should start with a "rediscovery" of the doctrines of times long past.
More confirmation that important doctrines have been lost. Such blatant honesty is truly surprising. I guess he wasn't expecting any LDS readers.
Perhaps there must be a revival of reading ancient documents and treatises to discover the secrets long obscured.
That's a curious request, given how the author ends this essay: how does a revival of the reading of ancient documents and treatises square with the "sola scriptura" viewpoint? The author would appear to be appealing to extra-Biblical documents here.
The church must see its place in history through the light of the past. The author, however, does not speak now of that ancient light of St. Augustine, now dimmed and wearied with age. God continues to raise up new lights for the continual reformation of His church. The light now shining is not Augustine, but Martin Luther himself.
Is the author now claiming that the Christian world would be better off if Augustine hadn't muddied the waters?
Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria
But don't forget about searching those ancient manuscripts: it could be a real help.
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2 Nephi 5: 21-22
And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be centicing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.
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Maybe the peep stone got a little foggy in translating this from those Gold Tablets.
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Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its face we may see what is termed "the man in the moon," and what some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets; and so will this earth when it is celestialized. Every planet in its first rude, organic state receives not the glory of God upon it, but is opaque; but when celestialized, every planet that God brings into existence is a body of light, but not till then. Christ is the light of this planet. God gives light to our eyes. Did you ever think who gave you the power of seeing? who organized these little globules in our heads, and formed the nerves running to the brain, and gave us the power of distinguishing a circle from a square, an upright from a level, large from small, white from black, brown from gray, and so on? Did you acquire this faculty by your own power? Did any of you impart this power to me or I to you? Not at all. Then where did we get it from? From a superior Being. When I think of these few little things with regard to the organization of the earth and the people of the earth, how curious and how singular it is! And yet how harmonious and beautiful are Nature's laws! -- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses