What is Considered Official LDS Doctrine?

[_brade]

I feel like I'm the one defending the Church here.

[_bcspace]

The point of the examples I've been offering is to show the absurdity of the view that you at least attribute, uncharitably in my view, to the Church - that literally everything in official publications is doctrine or expresses doctrine.

But instead you have shown the absurdity of straining at gnats. You make me truly believe that that you've searched long and hard and unsuccessfully for something major that was said and yet might not be doctrine.

I feel like I'm the one defending the Church here.

Welcome to my world.

[_brade]

The point of the examples I've been offering is to show the absurdity of the view that you at least attribute, uncharitably in my view, to the Church - that literally everything in official publications is doctrine or expresses doctrine.

But instead you have shown the absurdity of straining at gnats. You make me truly believe that that you've searched long and hard and unsuccessfully for something major that was said and yet might not be doctrine.

I haven't, and I think you've missed the point. The point wasn't to find something that isn't doctrine by the view you're attributing to the Church. The point is to show that by the view you're attributing to the Church all sorts of really silly and absurd things are now doctrine.

[_brade]

Allow me to continue to come to the Church's defense against the utterly inane view you're attributing to it. From LDS.org in the section entitled "Teach the Doctrine" we read this:

Jesus commanded us to “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom” (D&C 88:77). Doctrine is the word of God as found in the scriptures and the teachings of latter-day prophets and apostles. The word of God has power to change our lives.

Teachers must ensure that they keep the doctrine pure by teaching gospel truths as the Lord has revealed them. You can do this by teaching from the scriptures and the words of the latter-day prophets. President Ezra Taft Benson said, “Always remember, there is no satisfactory substitute for the scriptures and the words of the living prophets. These should be your original sources” (The Gospel Teacher and His Message [1976], 6).

Also make sure that you use Church-produced materials when you teach. This will help you keep the doctrine pure. Avoid speculation and private interpretations.

Now, let's break this down. A dictionary tells us that doctrines are teachings, as in the teachings of a group. This statement tells us something further about LDS doctrine - namely, that it's the word of God as found in the scriptures and the teachings of latter-day prophets and apostles. Doctrine is the word of God. We're told something else. The word of God has the power to change our lives.

Here's an example of something that is clearly doctrine from an official Church publication:

Jesus suffered and was crucified for the sins of the world, giving each of God’s children the gift of repentance and forgiveness.

It's in the form of a sentence. It's declarative. It purports to tells us the way things are. And this teaching evidently has the power to change lives. We find that teaching, expressed through different, but still declarative, sentences all throughout LDS scripture. I should hope there's no question that from the LDS perspective the statement above is the word of God.

Now, here's something else from an official Church publication:

Can you find the two pictures that are most alike?

It's also in the form of a sentence. But it's not a declarative sentence. It's a question. Like all ordinary questions, it doesn't purport to tell us the way things are. I can find nothing even remotely like this in the scriptures. Further, this question does not seem consistent with the sense of how doctrine is life changing written of in the "Teach the Doctrine" section on LDS.org.

Nevertheless, by the view you attribute to the Church "Can you find the two pictures that are most alike?" is Church doctrine because (1) it's in an official Church publication, and (2) it doesn't say of itself it isn't doctrine and there aren't any statements saying of it that it isn't doctrine. You're kind enough to say that this is unimportant doctrine, but by this view, it's doctrine nonetheless. Of course, since, per the LDS.org "Teach the Doctrine" section above doctrine is the word of God, that question must represent unimportant words of God. And we can keep going down this line. It's absolutely ridiculous.

But, let's revisit the "Teach the Doctrine" quote from above. At the end we find this:

Also make sure that you use Church-produced materials when you teach. This will help you keep the doctrine pure. Avoid speculation and private interpretations.

You've harped on this as evidence for the view that the Church's position is that everything in official Church publications is doctrine. But this business about purity simply does not imply that.

make sure that you use Church-produced materials when you teach

Why? Because as your blessed Newsroom release says, that's where you'll find the doctrine. Just like my house is where you'll find my laptop, but not everything in my house is my laptop.

This will help you keep the doctrine pure.

And what could that possibly mean? That the statements of doctrine in official Church publications are instances of pure doctrine. In other words, one can trust that those particular statements of doctrine don't contain errors. Not, as you suggested, that in order for the doctrine to be pure everything in there must be doctrine, or something queer like that.

You've taken Mormon legalism and turned it up to 11 to your Church's discredit. Purely out of charity I beg critics and anti-Mormons not to take bcspace's astoundingly asinine conception of Mormon doctrine seriously, as if anyone did.

[_Morley]

"...as if anyone did."

[_brade]

"...as if anyone did."

The irony isn't lost on me.

[_moksha]

Remember, if God no talky, church no truey.

The proof is in the pudding. The truth of the Church can be found in the good it does and its capacity to continually improve on that good.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

This is what I feel like every time Mr. BCSpace talks about "official doctrine":

[_Darth J]

The point is to show that by the view you're attributing to the Church all sorts of really silly and absurd things are now doctrine.

Yeah, we wouldn't want to have that.

[_Darth J]

bcspace, in my copy of No Greater Call this is in the front of the manual:

Printed in the United States of America

What is the doctrine being expressed?

article of faith #12

This exemplifies what Mormons who consider themselves deep thinkers mean when they talk about the profound meanings they have derived from LDS teachings.