Detailed response to CES Letter, Priesthood Restoration

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Response to "Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions"

[[../Testimony & Spiritual Witness Concerns & Questions|Testimony & Spiritual Witness Concerns & Questions"]]

A FAIR Analysis of: [[../|Letter to a CES Director]]

[[../Witnesses Concerns & Questions|Witnesses Concerns & Questions]]

I have been sensitive on this subject, I admit; but I ought to be so—you would be, under the circumstances, had you stood in the presence of John, with our departed Brother Joseph, to receive the Lesser Priesthood—and in the presence of Peter, to receive the Greater, and looked down through time, and witnessed the effects these two must produce...
—Oliver Cowdery, 23 March 1846 ^[1]

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• Response to section: "Although the priesthood is now taught to have been restored in 1829, Joseph and Oliver made no such claim until 1834."
• Response to section: "Why did it take five years for Joseph or Oliver to tell members of the Church about the priesthood?"
• Response to section: "Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery changed the wording of earlier revelations when they compiled the 1835 Doctrine & Covenants"

"Although the priesthood is now taught to have been restored in 1829, Joseph and Oliver made no such claim until 1834."

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"Why did it take five years for Joseph or Oliver to tell members of the Church about the priesthood?"

"Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery changed the wording of earlier revelations when they compiled the 1835 Doctrine & Covenants"

Notes

1. [note] Oliver Cowdery to Phineas Young, 23 March 1846, Oliver Cowdery Collection, "Scriptory Book of Joseph Smith Jr." (kept by George W. Robinson), 22, LDS Church Historical Department (published in Scott H. Faulring, ed, An American Prophet's Record.— The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), emphasis in original; cited in Scott H. Faulring. “The Return of Oliver Cowdery”, FARMS Featured Paper, no date.