Why do we keep finding information in our Church Manuals that has been edited by either our Church History Department, or Correlation? If we have found these few examples over the years, how many other alterations will we find? I believe 80% of scholars and intellectuals who work for the church, believe and teach that the Book of Mormon events happened in Mesoamerica, so they also have to find a hill Cumorah somewhere in Mexico to validate their theory. The official Church position is neutrality about where the BofM events happened. I believe events happened in North America.
| Teachings of the Presidents, Brigham Young Manual, Chapter 47: President Brigham Young’s Witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith | Original talk by Brigham Young, delivered June 21 1874, Journal of Discourses Vol. 18 p. 239 |
| When Joseph first received the knowledge of the plates that were in the hill Cumorah, he did not then receive the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, he merely received the knowledge that the plates were there, and that the Lord would bring them forth. … He received the knowledge that [early inhabitants of the Americas] were once in possession of the Gospel, and from that time he went on, step by step, until he obtained the plates, and the Urim and Thummim and had power to translate them. | When Joseph first received the knowledge of the plates that were in the hill Cumorah, he did not then receive the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, he merely received the knowledge that the plates were there, and that the Lord would bring them forth, and that they contained the history of the aborigines of this country. He received the knowledge that they were once in possession of the Gospel, and from that time he went on, step by step, until he obtained the plates, and the Urim and Thummim and had power to translate them. |
“I maintain that the issue of the historicity of the Book of Mormon is basically a difference between those who rely exclusively on scholarship [Mesoamecanist] and those who rely on a combination of scholarship, faith, and revelation.[Heartlanders] Those who rely exclusively on scholarship reject revelation and fulfill Nephi’s prophecy that in the last days men “shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance” (2 Ne. 28:4). — Dallin H. Oaks, 29 October 1993, The Historicity of the Book of Mormon Words, color, and emphasis added.
To see the other edits and changes to the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith Manual and the new “Saints” book, visit by other blog at, https://www.bofm.blog/why-edit-joseph-smiths-words-continued/
