(This is dad’s reply to our son’s 3-15-2010 letter to Mom and Dad, posted August 1st)
3-19-2010 Letter from Dad
Dear Son: Got your latest letter today and wanted right from the start to tell you: I love you. Your Mom loves you; your siblings love you and I feel confident that anyone who really knows you would never want you to ‘rot’ in jail! I’ve talked to all my kids. They all feel terrible about all that your experiencing. They agonize over what you’re going through.
Now, about the New Testament and Paul. It’s really quite understandable why the writings of Paul are so difficult. Scholars have been trying to figure him out since the beginning of the Christian era. The early church ‘fathers’ picked and chose what writings of the apostles went along with the Christianity they wanted to propagate. They had many conclaves and councils that lasted decades trying to pretty much bury the pure simple doctrine of the gospel taught by the apostles during the 1st century AD. Even then, though, corrupt doctrine and practices snuck into the churches. The letters of Paul, John, Peter and James are mostly sent to the early Saints to correct what the apostles saw was an apostasy from the truth. Paul’s writings are changed and made ambiguous on
purpose, to be difficult. And the writings of James and all the other apostles have been lost intentionally from history because of, well, evil men. This is why there had to be a restoration; the calling of a Prophet to whom the Lord could restore what was lost for the last time. Read the Joseph Smith Story and history in your scriptures. Read the footnotes when reading the New Testament. Love Dad
momofaninmateson 