New Book by Gospeldoctrine.com author Bryan Richards

We are excited to present to you, our faithful readers, a new book by gospeldoctrine.com's author, Bryan Richards.

You can purchase it at Cedar Fort here

Joseph Smith and Charles Darwin: A Search for the Origins of Man is a historical and philosophical comparison of two great men. These contemporaries have revolutionized our understanding of God and provided the secular explanation of the origin of man, respectively. Now 200 years after the First Vision, this work compares the theological implications of God appearing to Joseph as an exalted Man with the development over the same 200-year span of an evolutionary theory that has become fact in the minds of most of the secular world.

Latter-day Saints, especially students of biology, zoology, comparative anatomy, etc. are incessantly challenged to believe evolution explains it all. This work compares the evidence and the conjecture. It also explores Joseph’s theophany and theology as a “science friendly” God—a God that never created matter out of nothing because matter is eternal—a God that teaches that spirit is refined matter, and that time is defined by the rate of planetary orbits. Indeed, the First Vision turned Christianity on its head; God was supposed to be an omnipresent, incomprehensible essence in the universe, not an anthropomorphic Being, Supreme Physicist, Divine Chemist, and Master Microbiologist.

Only three months after Joseph Smith recorded his official version of the First Vision, Charles Darwin began exploring the possibility that man is nothing more than an evolved primate. We suggest the timing is not coincidental. Other chronological coincidences are equally compelling. We explore what happened to Darwin’s own belief in Christianity? What really happened during his voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle that changed him from a Unitarian to an evolutionary? The answer is not what you have been taught in school.

Mobile app for GospelDoctrine.com

We are retiring the Android app in favor of a Progressive Web App that can be installed not only on Android, but on iOS, MacOS, PC, and Linux. It can be found at https://mobile.gospeldoctrine.com

While most of it should be pretty intuitive, you can find the instructions for a couple of non-obvious things here: https://gospeldoctrine.com/content/mobile-app-help

Among the non-obvious items is how to use the app offline. So be sure to check it out.

Please also take note of the Limitations and Bug Report sections.

--Bryan Richards, content director

--Ryan Constantine, webmaster

Welcome

This website is designed to assist teachers and students of the gospel. The format is set up to provide more information on the most important topics in any given chapter of scripture. Specific quotes from the General Authorities are given to confirm the validity of the doctrine being taught and to provide good quotes for use in classes and talks. It is recommended that the reader read the commentary for the entire chapter, especially if looking for commentary on a phrase or verse that was not specifically referenced. If the same topic was dealt with elsewhere in the chapter, it may be discussed at length in another section.

It is the experience of the author/editor of this website that too many Sunday School classes and gospel discussions focus on the same superficial concepts, year after year. In the scriptures, there are a lot of profound truths which can help us understand God and how He would like us to live. Unfortunately, these are rarely brought into the discussion. Sometimes teachers are faced with teaching a myriad of different possible topics and make the mistake of trying to cover all of them or else they cover the less important subjects. It is hoped that this website will help improve gospel lessons, improve personal scripture study, and improve access to the doctrines of the Church.

One might argue that this website offers nothing new, that doctrinal commentary books have already been written and by more credible authors. This statement is true. There has been a great body of literature written to help us understand the scriptures. What makes this work unique is its availability on the internet; it is free, and it provides a collection of quotes from many different sources to paint a crystal clear picture of what the prophets are teaching. Decide for yourself whether it has any value. If you have any comments or criticisms (particularly if you're sure that false doctrine is being taught on this website), please let me know via the contact form.

Lastly, I need to explain the big picture for this website. We are pleased to announce that every chapter of the New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price has complete commentary.  Not so with the Old Testament.   While trying to keep the website up to date with recent conference material, we are also trying to finish a complete commentary on every Old Testament chapter.  However, since it has taken 12 years to produce commentary on the other standard works, the Old Testament will likely take quite some time to complete.  Still, much is already available and useful for review. 

Thanks for your interest in gospeldoctrine.com.

Bryan Richards

DISCLAIMER

The following information is provided as a service to students of the gospel of Jesus Christ as believed by the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The information contained herein is meant to be doctrinally correct, but this website is not an official site of the church and none of the material contained herein is meant to represent the official stand of the church on any gospel topic.  Where possible, sources are listed to aid the reader to discern the validity of any given statement.  The creator/editor of this website takes full responsibility for the material contained herein.

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