Today I’d like to talk about scriptures that Mormons just ignore. This is sort of a continuation of my post about “Back to the Cafeteria” that Mormons of all levels of belief pick and choose what they will believe/follow.
We could talk about all the crazy rules/commandments in the Old Testament, like the rule in Leviticus 20:18 where if a couple has sex while the women has her period, they both shall be cut off from the people. Or we could talk about Deuteronomy 23:1, that says if a man’s junk has been crushed or cut off, they can’t come to church [1]. But these are easily dismissed as “Law of Moses” rules, and Christ did away with that law. The one exception is any of the rules against homosexual behavior (Leviticus 20:13) in the Old Testament, for some reason these are still valid, but I’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Then we have the New Testament. I’ll ignore all the crazy stuff Paul said, as that can be dismissed as just the writings of Paul (or an impostor) for the people in his time. That leaves us with the things Jesus said in the four Gospels. But even those could be dismissed by the most strident TBM with the “as far as it is translated correctly” caveat. So I’ll talk about a couple of scriptures in the New testament that have modern prophetic endorsement.
Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, and Luke 20:35 are all the words of Jesus, and he says that after the resurrection, there is no marriage, but they remain single. A direct contradiction for our current doctrine of LDS Temple sealing. It also goes against the counsel given to single women in the church they will have a chance to marry after the resurrection. While this may also be dismissed as a mistranslation, it is a little harder to dismiss as it is in the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) of the Bible, with Joseph’s own stamp of approval. But again, this can be dismissed as not part of our scriptures, even though none other than Bruce R McConkie said “”the Joseph Smith Translation, or Inspired Version, is a thousand times over the best Bible now existing on earth,” [2]
I’ve saved my best for last. From the KJV of the Bible, in Jesus own words:
But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornacation, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Matthew 5:32
This is pretty straight forward. The only reason for divorce is fornication/adultery. Further, if you marry a woman who is divorced and was not divorced for fornication, you commit adultery! I think the Catholic church following this verse pretty well. [3]
But how do we know that this verse is translated correctly? How about we look at the most correct of any book on earth! [4] From the Book of Mormon:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultrey; and whoso shall marry her who is divorced committeth adultery.
3rd Nephi 12:32
The above verse is obviously translated correctly, was directly from the mouth of Jesus, and was spoken by him twice in his lifetime, so it must have been important! Yet we ignore it completely.
What other scriptures do we ignore in a Sunday School lesson, or just outright don’t follow at all?
[1] I’m not sure how they would enforce this rule. Maybe it was easer back then as they just lifted their toga? I know this would have made being an usher in Sacrament meeting when I was a teacher much more interesting!
[2] BYU Speeches 11/3/1984; “Joseph Smith Translation: The Doctrinal Restoration” 38 minute mark.
[3] From my original “Cafeteria” post a few years ago I would recommend the comment by Steve Marsh on the underlying Hebrew of these verses, and how the affects the interpretation of it.
[4] History of the Church, 4:461
Wheat & Tares 
We ignore or excuse away most the language about the dangers of wealth. Eye of the needle, Samuel the Lamanite’s sermon about the people’s wealth being cursed (quite possibly the Nephites tried to kill him), the fact that the most righteous society in the Book of Mormon did not have poor or rich. It’s a major point of discussion in ALL the standard works, and gets mostly glossed over or entirely ignored today.
*(quite possibly WHY the Nephites tried to kill him)
“obviously translated correctly” Was that tongue in cheek?
At least once the Catholic church applied the rule much differently than many would expect. It “annulled” the 12-year first marriage of a friend so he could marry his second wife in the Catholic church. The legal divorce had not been based on adultery or fornication. The “annulment” was grounded on a view that the first marriage had not been a real marriage because the first wife had declared both before and after the wedding that she intended never to have children.
One LDS church leader remarked that in view of the scriptures it is easier to justify same-sex marriage than to justify divorce and remarriage.
I know of no church that doesn’t indulge in selective reading of its foundational texts. Is there any?
How about most of D&C 89?
Josh, I’m still awaiting inspired clarification on what constitutes mild barley drinks. Also, what exactly is the problem w/ health-research-positive green tea when the guzzlement of caffeinated but nutrient-zero Diet Coke has become an LDS cultural marker? Rampant meat eating NOT in times of cold or famine, especially when a great many Saints, perhaps a majority, are clinically obese? The authority’s interpretation of 89 is somewhere between negligent & Republican. In lieu of new inspiration on the topic, familiarity w/ current research would be useful.
I think the latest CHI’s rules on so called courts of love are a complete affront to D&C 102.
The current church doesn’t really seem to care about common consent
But most importantly, all too often, the church seems to forget the scripture “we talk of Christ”.
Great post, great comments. Looks like within the Ignored Scriptures category there’s a spectrum of “good idea” to “good riddance.” Time for another Venn Diagram, Bishop Bill?
This post raises issues that are absolutely crucial to the future of the church. This should be a warning for all.
Without question, the most ignored scripture is Doctrine and Covenants 88:124–
“Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.”
The younger generation ignores this entire scripture. Late nights spent in the playing of violent video games is the epitome of spending time in idleness, rather than getting enough sleep to be productive.
There is a consequence to ignoring scripture. Our society will pay a terrible price as the hordes of sleep-deprived video game players reach adulthood and reman idle rather than obtaining productive employment.
JCS, Many of the older generations also ignore at least very important parts of that scripture. Are you finding fault with the younger generation?
John spring
Our kids were sleep deprived from 530 am early morning seminary. Not idelness, not video games but the LDS CHURCH programs and inflexible decision makers.
Please gather more facts before you state an opinion . I hope you being an active participant of this blog is helping you to sow the seeds of emphathy and compassion, and put your middle name into practice.
From this week’s reading:
D&C 49:15 And again, verily I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man.
We forbid LGB folks from marrying and preach celibacy to them, despite that this was the major fault Joseph Smith found with the celibate Shakers.
JCSpring:
“ The younger generation ignores this entire scripture. Late nights spent in the playing of violent video games is the epitome of spending time in idleness, rather than getting enough sleep to be productive.”
Are you speaking of your own family? Your kids? grandkids? Neighbors?
Because what I see in my sphere are many young people who did/do play video games but also graduated from college and now have demanding careers, provide for their families etc.
What is sad is what a messed up world we are going to leave behind for them—such as politicization of a deadly pandemic—resulting in messing up their educational processes, a country where too few speak truth to power, instead, continuing to support the fomenting of an insurrection by an amoral leader etc etc
Come on everyone: Mr. Charity is trolling. Don’t take the bait.
Well, as long as they’re not wearing crocs while playing violent video games.
It is said that the scriptures are the authoritative source of doctrine and God’s words. And yet we ignore or rationalize so much of them. The scriptures are also nebulous and lend themselves to a variety of interpretations. So where do we find the authoritative teachings then? The interpretations of the scriptures? Joseph Smith’s teachings, at least the ones derived from scripture? The current leaders words as spoken in conference? The church manuals, which have no attributed authors? Feelings that you have from praying?
In the church there is a sense that something somewhere is authoritative. But as we boil things down to fine details, figuring out what exactly is authoritative is elusive. And I gather that the leaders want it that way. They like to be able to shroud their words in an aura of authoritativeness in order to give the church leadership the appearance of divine calling and the community a sense of order. Yet when some line of reasoning, coming from a leader, a group of members, or even a group of ex-Mormons, emerges that starts reverberating through the common discourse that challenges previous statements, beliefs, and positions that were previously understood to be authoritative, then the current leaders can conveniently say that that teaching didn’t actually have its roots in the scriptures or that the leader(s) was/were speaking as a man/men and not from revelation. It is like nailing green Jello to a wall.
Haven’t you all figured out yet that JCS has been playing the role of a TBM caricature, deliberately setting up stawmen for the W&T community to knock down.
So who is the real John Charit Spring? An admin who uses JCS to boost comments when the slow down? Some sociology grad student conducting research on how non-conforming views are handled in an online forum? A member of the Strengthening Church Members Committee, looking to provoke anti-church responses as evidence of apostasy?
Who knows? But I found it usually is best to ignore absurd statements.
Jesus didn’t say “they are not married.” He said “they do not marry.” That’s not the same thing. I don’t know any Greek, but those who do tell me that the distinction between “being married” and “getting married” is reflected in the original, and is not just an artifact of the English translation. Also, neither the Greek nor the English says anything about remaining single.
P’s use of the phrase “somewhere between negligent & Republican” is the winner of this thread, hands down. Forgive me if I use it in conversation this week!
Deuteronomy 21:18-21, succinctly summarized by BRM: —-Stubborn and rebellious son may be put to death. He left out other authorized reasons: disobedience, gluttony, & being a drunkard.
Seems widely disregarded by probably all churches. It would be difficult for a people that put it into practice to expand.
How would today’s Supreme Court rule on it?
I think even a giant step too far if they’d included Crocs, sweat pants, hot dogs and violent video games.
Still glad JCS is unequivocacably anti racist.
p.s. Crocs are coming back at my work – it only takes one cool colleague to start a trend.
It is stated in scripture that we are children of God, joint heirs with Christ and will receive all that the Father has. Based on this, women should be eligible for priesthood ordination, should preside in their homes and churches, and become queens and priestesses to God. But we ignore this and still claim men and women receive the same blessings, which simply is not true.
Mormon 8 (actually the whole book) where our day is prophesied about- and materialism is condemned. We are a prosperous and materialistic people (City Creek, $100b nest egg, expensive crystal chandelier temples dotting the globe, etc. ). At the same time many saints are adamantly anti-refugee and spout the prosperity doctrine and total self reliance for the poor.
The entire chapter is worth a read…The Lord goes ballistic about this pride/vanity and swords of vengeance are mentioned as a start. Gets worse from there. And yet when was the last time this book was highlighted in Conference? Elsewhere? Talks on materialism? Crickets.
Mormon 8:
34 Behold, the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you.
35 Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.
36 And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, EVEN EVERY ONE, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.
37 For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
https://peteenns.com/rules-in-the-bible/?fbclid=IwAR3icb7B5NTEXIcDu_wrTdax-bWZuiJUgxO4R0ps080pBEaSNZ4k_eMjh3A
Something I rather liked on this topic