mms wrote:In the first paragraph of the letter, Joseph Smith states:
As Mr. Bastow has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information, all that I shall ask at his hands, is, that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation.
My bolding. Chapter 38 of the manual includes this statement but then deletes the part of the letter I have quoted in the OP.
That's kinda funny. Of course, Joseph only requested Mr. Bastow to publish the entire account ungarnished. He said nothing about future church manual writers.
The Wentworth letter as presented in the current official church manual is the only true Wentworth letter. Previous versions of the Wentworth letter were presented without the light and knowledge that is currently possessed by the church correlation committee. Through continuing revelation the Wentworth letter has been updated to its proper form.
All joking aside, since that is the only part that was ommitted, I can only speculate that the LGT is taking over as the consensus interpretation of the Book of Mormon. I imagine there are some old-timer HGT believers in high positions that are preventing it from being taught openly from the pulpit, but I imagine within the next 20 years or so the LGT will be the approved interpretation of the Book of Mormon and will be adopted into the Correlated Lesson manuals. In the meantime, they are slowly removing references to the Hemispheric model from the lesson manuals. That's my theory, and I would be interested to hear from someon like DCP if the LGT is becoming the consensus belief within the church leadership.
"We of this Church do not rely on any man-made statement concerning the nature of Deity. Our knowledge comes directly from the personal experience of Joseph Smith." - Gordon B. Hinckley
"It's wrong to criticize leaders of the Mormon Church even if the criticism is true." - Dallin H. Oaks