Foundation of the Restoration Midterm

1. According to the Church and Gospel Questions source about the First Vision, which of the following is not a reason for differences between Joseph Smith's First Vision accounts?

The accounts were produced under similar circumstances

2. According to the Church and Gospel Questions source about the First Vision, why did some early Church members not mention the First Vision in their accounts of the Restoration?

The visitation of Moroni and the translation of the Book of Mormon came to be seen by many early Church converts as the primary evidence of Joseph’s divine calling. Early Latter-Day Saints were especially excited about their personal testimonies of the Book of Mormon.

3. According to the Church and Gospel Questions source about the First Vision, how many of Joseph's four firsthand accounts of the First Vision clearly describe two personages?

Three

4. What does "First Vision Accounts" (Church and Gospel Questions in Topics and Questions on Gospel Library) say about how to think about Joseph's 1832 account of the First Vision describing "the Lord" opening the heavens and then Joseph seeing "the Lord"?

Correct answer: B and C

B. Joseph may have referred to both the Father and the Son as the lord

C. Joseph may have focused on Jesus Christ, who forgave his sins and delivered the message of the vision

5. According to the Gospel Topics Essay "First Vision Accounts" on Gospel Library, how many accounts of the First Vision did Joseph Smith publish in his lifetime?

Two

6. Which two First Vision accounts were generally forgotten until historians working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rediscovered and published them in the 1960s?

The 1832 and 1835 accounts

7. In addition to the firsthand accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision, how many descriptions of the First Vision were recorded by Joseph Smith's contemporaries?

Five

8. Which account of the First Vision is the only account written in Joseph Smith's own hand (handwriting)?

1832

9. The "First Vision Accounts" Gospel Topics Essay names and addresses two arguments that are frequently made against Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision. What are they?

Memory and Embellishment

10. Which of Joseph Smith's firsthand accounts includes a pillar of fire, a "silent grove," a swollen tongue, one personage appearing followed by another personage, Joseph receiving forgiveness for his sins, Joseph seeing many angels, and Joseph being fourteen years old?

The 1835 account

11. Joseph Smith translated an ancient book that was written in an unknown language. What was that language?

See Mormon 9:32-34 (Reformed Egyptian)

12. Who testified that at the time of the translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph "could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat el a book like the Book of Mormon"?

Emma Smith

13. Almost all of the present Book of Mormon text was translated during a ______ month period in 1829.

Three

14. wrote, "These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven." The manuscript that Joseph Smith dictated to his scribes is known today as the original manuscript, about _____ percent of which still survives.

Oliver Cowdery, 28

15. For much of the twentieth century, memory of _____ faded among many Latter-day Saints, which greatly influenced the way artwork depicted the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Seer stones

16. The _______ were tangible evidence that the Book of Mormon was an ancient record. Multiple witnesses saw the _______ and testified of their reality. Members of Joseph Smith's family and others held the _______ or felt them under a cloth. Three witnesses were shown the _______ by an angel and heard the voice of God testifying to the truth of the Book of Mormon. A separate group of eight witnesses testified in a formal statement that they had also seen the ______ and had held and examined them. The presence of the ______ and the accounts of those who saw or held them provide important testimony of the Book of Mormon record.

Plates

17. Joseph Smith made revisions to the Book of Mormon text after it was published. For example, he changed _____ to _____ in 2 Nephi 30:6.

White, pure

18. Is the following true or false? According to faithful eyewitness sources, Joseph primarily used the interpreters or spectacles to translate, especially between April and June 1829. Critics trying to discredit Joseph as a "money digger" often suggest that he translated with a seer stone.

False

19. Some Latter-day Saints believe that (a) the seer stone allowed the meaning of the golden plates' text to be revealed to Joseph Smith in a nonverbal or preverbal form, which he then put into his own words. Other Latter-day Saints think that (b) when he looked at the seer stone, he could see English letters and words, which he read aloud to his scribes. Which (a or b) is God's "tight control" of the process of translation? Which (a or b) is God's "loose control" of the process of translation?

“a” is loose control; “b” is tight control

20. Eyewitnesses to the translation process like Martin Harris, Emma Smith, Joseph Knight Sr., David Whitmer, and John Whitmer believed that Joseph was reading a pre-existing text, meaning that he was reading English words given to him in vision by God. T/F

True

21. According to the Gospel Topics Essay, the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a _________________ belief of Latter-day Saints.

cherished and distinctive

22. We have a record of a formal revelation to Joseph Smith on the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother. T/F

False

23. Which of the following is one of the early Latter-day Saint women whom Joseph personally taught about a Mother in Heaven? Hint: Remember the women mentioned in the body and footnotes for the "Mother in Heaven" Gospel Topics Essay.

Zina Diantha Huntington Young

24. Which of the following is NOT a source for Latter-day Saint doctrine regarding a Mother in Heaven? Hint:
    Remember the sources mentioned in the body and footnotes for the "Mother in Heaven" Gospel Topics Essay.

Elder Jefferey R. Hollands “The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent” (2007)

25. According to "Women's Service and Leadership in the Church" (Church and Gospel Questions), which ONE of the following is NOT a situation in which women exercise delegated priesthood authority?

When they hold priesthood keys as the president of an organization (like Relief Society, Young Women, Primary, or Sunday School)

26. "Women's Service and Leadership in the Church" (Church and Gospel Questions) quotes President Nelson, who explained that priesthood ______ and ______ provide access to God's power: "Every man and every woman who participates in priesthood ______ and who makes and keeps ______ with God has direct access to the power of God."

ordinances, covenants, ordinances, covenants

27. According to "Women's Service and Leadership in the Church" (Church and Gospel Questions), women's responsibilities in the Church have changed over time. Which of the following is NOT a responsibility that women had at one time (but do NOT have now) in the Church?

Serving as chaplains

28. In "What Is Women's Relationship to Priesthood?" (BYU Studies) Lisa Olsen Tait argues that President Dallin H. Oaks's landmark "The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood" (GC, Oct. 2014) made a "reorienting contribution" to the discussion about women and priesthood. Olsen Tait asserts that President Oaks influenced our current understanding of women's relationship to priesthood by teaching that "women exercise priesthood _____ by virtue of being set apart for their callings; they do not exercise priesthood ____ Which are held by men ordained to priesthood _____.”

Authority, keys, offices

29. Olsen Tait quotes President Oaks to reaffirm that Church leaders are not free to change the "divinely decreed pattern" that only men will hold priesthood ______.

Offices

30. Olsen Tait asserts that early Latter-day Saints understood priesthood to refer to both _________ and _________.

Authority bestowed by ordination, the collective body of men ordained to priesthood offices

31. Hymn #2 contains a powerful line, one that is helpful to remember when wrestling with changes over time in the ongoing Restoration and its church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What line did we discuss in class as we spoke about historical (i.e., 1852-1978) priesthood and temple restrictions related to race?

The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding

32. Who said, '''This nation's history of racism is not a happy one, and we must do better"?

Dallin H. Oaks

33. Which of President Benson's fourteen fundamentals in following the prophet did we apply in class to historical priesthood and temple restrictions based on race?

Fundamental #3 “The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet”

34. "Today, the Church _______ the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form" ("Race and the Priesthood," Gospel Topics Essays, Gospel Library).

Disavows

35. Which of the following combinations is true (in each of its parts) to what President Nelson taught in the Oct. 2020 general conference about race, favor, and prejudice?

God does not love one race more than another. His love depends on our devotion not our skin color. we should abandon attitudes and prejudices, we should put God before ourselves.

36. Who had a son whose marriage led to a letter (in June 1847) from a mission president that raised questions about priesthood ordination for Black men and interracial marriage?

A. Walker Lewis

37. Who was ordained an elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood by Ambrose Palmer on January 25, 1836? We looked at a picture of his ministerial certificate from March 1836, which proves his priesthood ordination and is signed by Joseph Smith. This source is important because it provides evidence that priesthood ordination of _______ men occurred prior to the 1852 ban announced by Brigham Young.

Elijah Able

38. Who walked over 800 miles to Nauvoo to join the Saints, saying in an autobiography, "We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We stopped and united in prayer to the Lord; we asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet and our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith." This person was later sealed to Joseph Smith's family as a _______.

Jane Manning James

39. According to "Race and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Church and Gospel Topics) and "Race and the Priesthood" (Gospel Topics Essays), which of the following combinations is all true about the origin of the priesthood and temple restrictions based on race that began in 1852?

Utah territorial legislature, black descendants can’t go to temple or have priesthood, was not formal revelation, black priesthood holders before legislature, speculations were made, but they’re all not true

40. Who testified the following? "God told me when I was sixteen years old that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was His Church. That the Book of Mormon was His word. That prophets and apostles still lived and guided His work. That I was to gather myself with His people, in the water [through baptism] and in the temple, and make covenants with Him. He told me that I belonged; that I was His. That I was purchased with the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. That my inheritance was eternal life with God the Father, and God the Son. And He told me that the melanin in my skin, or the skin of my children, or the skin of my ancestors, would never change these truths. Not even an uncomfortable part of the Church's history can change it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not racist, and He stands at the head of His Church."

Sister Tracy Y. Browning