Common Latter-day Saint perceptions
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[edit] Cultural sources versus official sources
Some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as others outside the Church often cite speculative sources, journal accounts, and other traditions as official doctrines of the LDS Church.
For authoritative sources about the church, one can read information that has been approved by the LDS Church Correlation Committee in officially-published works by the Church. Most of these materials were printed after 1970. They do however, contain information from earlier verified and authoritative sources.
[edit] Truisms in the LDS culture
According to LDS Church tradition, the LDS Church President and First Presidency alone have the right to establish doctrine and policies for the entire church. The perceptions of faithful members are often expected to be in line with the current views of the Quorum of Seventy, Quorum of the Twelve, and ultimately the First Presidency of the church. One of the common criticisms of the leadership is historical inconsistency.
Topics which may or may not be doctrinal, but are often taught or debated among Latter-day Saints include (but are not limited to):
- Polytheism ("Plurality of Gods") has been replaced by a more monotheistic or henotheistic approach.
- Outer Darkness
- What it actually means to be a god or exalted human.
- Pre-existence issues including divisions by valiancy, pre-mortal sin, and the war in heaven.
- The nature of pre-mortal intelligence, and how it (and/or/if spirit and spirit matter) was created
- The Adam-God theory
- Blood Atonement
- Miscellaneous Mormon folklore and "faith-promoting rumors" such as encounters with the three Nephites.
Although members may be correct in their speculations, the church is very careful about what is official doctrine and what is not.
See: News article on Mormon folklore.
