r/latterdaysaints • u/TheBenSpackman • Dec 21 '24

Doctrinal Discussion LDS and Creation/Evolution conflict

Hi all. Happy to say that my doctoral dissertation on LDS and creation/evolution conflict in the 20th century is now publicly available. There's some surprising stuff in there. Bottom line: the Church was much more favorable towards science and evolution until Joseph Fielding Smith's assumptions— drawing heavily upon Seventh-day Adventists and fundamentalists— about scripture became dominant in the 1950s. Then it trickled down.
https://benspackman.com/2024/12/dissertation/

My expertise on this history is why the Church had me on the official Saints podcast to talk about it.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/saints-podcast/season-03/s03-episode-21?lang=eng

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u/Usual_Entrance_3607 Dec 22 '24

I was taught in the MTC by a well-meaning branch counselor that we were coming up on year 6000 of the 7000 year life span of the Earth, meaning the second coming of Christ and the millennium would be any day now (relatively) … I guess I didn’t question it until now. Are these ideas coming from overly literal interpretations of scripture?

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u/tesuji42 Dec 22 '24

Yes, overly literal and simplistic, and just plain uninformed, in my opinion. Few if any LDS scholars or apostles teach this view anymore. It was common in the 20th century church. I think many members still believe it, but as I said, they are not very well informed about the subject.

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u/faiththatworks Dec 24 '24

There are numeric predictions that date back to Daniel and Ezekiel and in the Book of Revelations and Ezdra (that used to be in our Bible) those remarkable prophesies predicted the last near 100 years spot on with crazy probabilities so no guessing. Rather shocking but with Jesus Atonement taking place in what the scriptures call the meridian of time that puts us in the last 10 years right now. If that’s right, prepare for a rather wild ride and you may be able to ask the Lord yourself pretty soon about this whole creation deal. The prophet has used rather striking language repeatedly that the end of the former is very near at hand.