The Parable of the Broken Clock Maker

The old clock maker loved his clocks as much as any father could possibly love his children.

Each was formed in his heart before being realized on his work bench. Components were hand-built from the finest possible materials. Each clock case was painstakingly hand-carved from the finest block of wood. Then each clock was expertly assembled, by hand, by the skilled hands of the clock maker. After the springs and pulleys and gears and levers were sealed inside the clock, the clockmaker would paint a clock face on the front of each clock—sometimes all 12 numbers, sometimes just 12, 3, 6, and 9, and sometimes just a 12—it was really a matter of artistic license. To complete the construction of his clocks, the old artisan would paint the clock hands onto the clock face. Like the other markings on the clock face, the time he painted was a matter of license. After all, it didn’t really matter anyway, the clockmaker reasoned, each clock would get to be right two times every day.

Laundry List of Issues Regarding Moroni's Promise

If there is a hub around which LDS epistemology revolves, surely it is to be found in Moroni’s Promise:

Moroni 10:3-5:

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Church Handbook of Instructions: Guidelines for Apologists

I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.

- C. S. Lewis

 

Church Handbook of Instructions:

Guidelines for Apologists.

 

Brethren,

 

Among the issues affecting the modern Church, foremost in the minds of the 15 and their advisors is the problem of disaffection. Although the numbers on the books have been climbing rapidly, the numbers of active practicing members has remained stagnant since the early 1980’s. As former official Church Historian Marlin K Jensen (Jensen, 2012) has pointed out, there has not been a disenfranchisement of this magnitude since the Prophet Joseph’s banking scam of 1837. The leadership is concerned: the Church is stagnant; the members are revolting.