Earlier this week I was doing one of my typical word searches in the scriptures, in this case on lds.org, and discovered something unbelievable. Something that suggests the LDS church is filtering scriptural searches on their website so that certain references don’t come up. It suggests active attempts to prevent the casual searcher from coming across information that does not reflect kindly on the claims of the modern church.
Here’s what I did. In the search bar on lds.org I inserted the word “restoration.” Ten scriptures came up in the D&C. As I looked through the list I could not find a reference to D&C 77:15, a scripture I have known about for some time which refers to the two prophets who would preach to the Jews “at the time of the restoration.” Why on earth would this scripture be excluded? I checked my spelling to make sure I hadn’t made a typing mistake. I went to section 77 (which can be accessed on lds.org if you just go directly to it) and typed the exact phrase from verse 15 in the search bar “at the time of the restoration.” Nothing came up with that phrase! Now I am really curious. How about a search on any number of other key words and phrases from section 77?
I proceeded to do a search on the following terms all of which are embedded in D&C 77: sea of glass; sanctified; four beasts; figurative; felicity; seven seals; hidden; four angels; Elias; trumpets; and, two prophets.
SECTION 77 NEVER COMES UP!
Let that sink in for a minute. It NEVER EVER comes up. Someone has decided to exclude section 77 from the results of all scriptural searches on the LDS church’s official website. I wanted to think that this could just have been a coincidence, but the evidence was overwhelming for a deliberate exclusion by someone in church headquarters.
As another blogger is known to say (shout out to you Watcher):
Un-FREAKING-believable!
Why? What is contained in Section 77 that is so dangerous to the narrative of the LDS church? What’s in there that would potentially provoke a decision to try to hide information that is plainly manifest in the scriptures.
Section 77 is a bit different than most revelations in the D&C. What makes it unique is that the entire section is a question and answer session between Joseph and the Lord about various verses in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. The only other example of this question and answer format in the D&C is section 113. As a test, I also ran searches on key words in section 113 and discovered that indeed, they did show up. The church is not blocking search results for section 113.
In section 77, verse 8 is the first area that could cause serious indigestion for the modern corporate church.
8. Q. What are we to understand by the four angels, spoken of in the 7th chapter and 1st verse of Revelation?
A. We are to understand that they are four angels sent forth from God, to whom is given power over the four parts of the earth, to save life and to destroy; these are they who have the everlasting gospel to commit to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; having power to shut up the heavens, to seal up unto life, or to cast down to the regions of darkness.
As we can see, Revelation 7:1 is referring to four angels who commit the everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people in the last days. Importantly, they have the sealing power to seal up individuals unto eternal life, or to damn those who do not repent.
Contrast this with what is taught in the church that:
- The church has the everlasting gospel to commit to the world
- The church is spreading the everlasting gospel through it’s missionary program
- The church is the sole custodian of the sealing power via the chosen 15.
- Via the “2nd Endowment” selected members are sealed up unto eternal life and themselves given the sealing power. (This doctrine is not openly taught, but is reported to be taking place in temples under the personal administration of one of the Twelve).
What Revelation 7:1 and the explanation given by the Lord in section 77 DOES NOT say is that the current leaders of the Lord’s people will continue to grow the ranks of the elect and dispense the everlasting gospel and administer the sealing power prior to the Lord’s return in glory. The foregoing is largely the narrative taught by the corporate church. This scripture seriously calls that into doubt which is why it could be seen as a serious threat.
9. Q. What are we to understand by the angel ascending from the east, Revelation 7th chapter and 2nd verse?
A. We are to understand that the angel ascending from the east is he to whom is given the seal of the living God over the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, he crieth unto the four angels having the everlasting gospel, saying: Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And, if you will receive it, this is Elias which was to come to gather together the tribes of Israel and restore all things.
This verse refers to an angel (resurrected person) who is identified as Elias (Elijah) the restorer who will be instrumental in sealing the servants of God (making their calling and election sure) prior to Christ’s return. There are all sorts of heartburn-inducing truths taught in this verse. It confirms that:
- Elijah the restorer must return to gather the tribes of Israel. In other words, the modern church is not the one to gather the tribes of Israel.
- This Elijah will oversee the dispensing of the sealing power, not the chosen 15.
- The true purpose of sealing has nothing to do with marriage. Contrast this with church teachings that “families are forever” and that we need to seal families together via temple ordinances. I have addressed what the scriptures teach about sealing in a previous blog post accessible here.
Joseph taught “How shall God come to the rescue of this generation? He will send Elijah the prophet…” Notice the future tense of “will send” as Joseph taught this long after the appearance of Elijah in the Kirtland Temple. Section 77 is another witness to the futurity of these events.
11. Q. What are we to understand by sealing the one hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel—twelve thousand out of every tribe?
A. We are to understand that those who are sealed are high priests, ordained unto the holy order of God, to administer the everlasting gospel; for they are they who are ordained out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, by the angels to whom is given power over the nations of the earth, to bring as many as will come to the church of the Firstborn.
Verse 11 teaches that the angels previously mentioned will ordain 144,000 high priests to administer the everlasting gospel and bring people in the last days into Christ’s true church. The modern corporate church claims to have the fulness of the priesthood and routinely ordains high priests within its ranks. Instead, this scripture clarifies that the restoration of priesthood power will be from heaven-sent messengers, not from the current leaseholders of the Lord’s vineyard in SLC.
This doctrine is corroborated by D&C 113:7-8:
7 Questions by Elias Higbee: What is meant by the command in Isaiah, 52d chapter, 1st verse, which saith: Put on thy strength, O Zion—and what people had Isaiah reference to?
8 He had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, who should hold the power of priesthood to bring again Zion, and the redemption of Israel; and to put on her strength is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage; also to return to that power which she had lost.
Finally, the zinger and the beginning of my scripture search which sent me down this rabbit hole.
15. Q. What is to be understood by the two witnesses, in the eleventh chapter of Revelation?
A. They are two prophets that are to be raised up to the Jewish nation in the last days, at the time of the restoration, and to prophesy to the Jews after they are gathered and have built the city of Jerusalem in the land of their fathers.
Verse 15 clearly places the “restoration” in the future. No one I know in any sector of the religious community is arguing that this prophecy about the two prophets has been fulfilled. I have written in a previous blogpost about how the marvelous work is a future event. Those additional evidences can be accessed here.
One can see how troubling this could be to church leadership. It contradicts the story we have all been told about the restoration happening at the time of Joseph Smith. It directly challenges the timelines and narratives of the church. It challenges the authority claims of the church.
Further, this should be a cautionary warning to those who believe that we need to “preserve the restoration.” While I appreciate and love those who are seeking for Zion, the scriptures make it clear that it will not be rebuilt organically. Messengers are to return with true priesthood power to usher in the Lord’s “Strange Act” and “Marvelous Work.” Understanding these things will prevent you from being led astray by voices who would convince you otherwise.
Finally, I would be intensely curious to see if anyone else has a similar experience with the church website. Clearly the church wants to direct you to certain scriptures because they always sort by “relevance” rather than by “book” and you can’t change that default setting. You have to go in and change it every time you do a search. Very annoying! Do they really think they can get away with this?
Keep Searching.
One Who Is Searching 
I have also noticed that the site seems to restrict my results. Unfortunately, I don’t remember now what I was searching for. But I had the same experience, where I knew what the scripture said, but the search did not take me to that scripture.
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Submitted the following request. Interested in hearing their response. The submitted Paige said I should receive a response in 2-3 days.
https://www.lds.org/tools/feedback/?lang=eng&id=11340¬e=lds.org:homepage¬e=lds.org:/
Hi, when I do a key word search on scriptures.lds.org for either “restoration” or “restore” your search results do not include section 77 verses:
15 Q. What is to be understood by the two witnesses, in the eleventh chapter of Revelation?
A. They are two prophets that are to be raised up to the Jewish nation in the last days, at the time of the restoration, and to prophesy to the Jews after they are gathered and have built the city of Jerusalem in the land of their fathers.
9 Q. What are we to understand by the angel ascending from the east, Revelation 7th chapter and 2nd verse?
A. We are to understand that the angel ascending from the east is he to whom is given the seal of the living God over the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, he crieth unto the four angels having the everlasting gospel, saying: Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And, if you will receive it, this is Elias which was to come to gather together the tribes of Israel and restore all things.
Please resolve this and let me know when it has been fixed.
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Incredible bit of detective work my friend!
I actually noticed the same thing when I was doing a keyword search on “restoration” some time ago but I must have assumed it was an honest glitch in the system only having to do with just the one keyworld. It never even occurred to me to check all of the keywords in that section like you did. It is difficult to believe that such a glitch the blocks the entire section was anything but intentional by those that provide the search function.
You have just killed two birds with one stone… You have destroyed several of the truth claims of the corporate church AND you have proven that Snuffers claim to be the final servant conducting the final work is bogus.
Praise God for his holy word and the light that it sheds forth for those that study and search it.
On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 6:44 PM, One Who Is Searching wrote:
> onewhoissearching posted: “Earlier this week I was doing one of my typical > word searches in the scriptures, in this case on lds.org, and discovered > something unbelievable. Something that suggests the LDS church is filtering > scriptural searches on their website so that certain refer” >
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When did Snuffer ever claim to be the final servant? I’ve read most of his writings and have never come across such a claim.
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Daren-
Have you listened to Denvers recent talk at the Doctrine of Christ Boise Conference?
He has proclaimed that only his followers that are baptizing per his protocol and instructions are baptizing correctly and with proper authority. All other baptisms have no authority. He has commissioned his followers that are using his protocol to go forth baptizing all who will receive the baptism.
Denver made the following statements-
“I have come to see that the baptism offered by you, this people, (referring to Denver’s followers) appears to be the only one offered on earth that meets the requirements of what I was shown by the Lord years ago (February 13th 2003)
“we have a great work to do. And but little time to do it in and if we don’t exert ourselves to the utmost in gathering up the strength of the Lords house.. there remaineth a scourge.”
The D&C states unequivocally that Joseph Smith will be the one to gather the strength of the Lord’s house and establish Zion, however, Denver has replaced Joseph with himself. Denver is now the one who is overseeing the final gathering up of the strength of the Lord’s house.
Denver claims to have had a vision showing that when the Lord comes in glory dressed in red, Denver and his followers will be the only servants standing on the earth proclaiming the true gospel with the true baptism. (Denver must not think he and his followers are the elect of God because Section 88 clearly states that the elect will not be standing on the earth when the Lord returns in glory, rather, they will be with the Lord when he comes and will descend with him.)
Prior to Denver’s talk, one of his disciples quoted from section 135 but inserted Denver’s name as the one who has done more for the salvation of the world than anyone else save Jesus Christ.
Denver endorsed that claim by not correcting it when he got up to speak.
Any followers of Denver who have listened to that talk and still deny that Denver has proclaimed himself to be the final servant conducting the final work of restoration are simply in denial.
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I heard the Boise talk and I don’t believe it proves any such claims.
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I tried it and replicated your results on a kindle fire
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If you go to LDS.org and use the “Search Church sites” button on the right side of the opening page and then when the results come up click on the scriptures tab on the left side, all of the references to any word you type will come up including section 77.
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I enjoy the “searchers” and the thoughts these posts lead me to. I’ve been aware of the anti-established narrative since I began searching the scriptures as a youngster. Section 77 always intrigues me, as well as all of the context involving the verses describing the future restoration.
One who is searching: here is my ponderance:
we’ve established that Joseph smith had authority before God, as a friend of God (a very rare title) and a reining high priest himself with the sealing power.
We know that the sealing power provides a binding act between the Sealer and God– God is bound to act as the Sealer determines, which is why this power is so rarely found and why it is only given to those whom God themselves respects.
We’ve determined that like Moses, Joseph’s restoration was interrupted due to the failings in faith of the saints (i.e.,failure to build the nauvoo temple) .
As one whom had the sealing power, I find evidence that Joseph moved to establish almost a covenant of insurance — current temple covenants and family sealings– which allow for a measure of power and covenant before god, even if the full mechezidek covenant is no longer in play.
This would fit gods pattern of allowing multiple lower laws and covenants to guide his people until the fullness is restored in its fullness ; i.e., the mosaic law, the early apostles Christian church, the pre-Christ nephite patterns, etc. they aren’t really considered apostate because they have covenant agreements of behaviors and beliefs established between god and their prophetic intercessors. For these groups, there is no restoration to preserve because the sub-covenant was patterned in a new way. Once the master was rejected by the people.
Additionally, all apocalyptic revelations provide for a final, overwhelming display of TRUTH, where these sub-covenants point to the master covenant of salvation between god and an individual. Not as a people, not as a family, not as a couple, but salvation itself is single.
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Pondering:
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I have heard similar observations from others, i.e. that the current temple endowment and sealing ordinances are somehow a “lesser law” like unto the law of Moses that prepares us for the return of the fulness. While I can understand how comforting that viewpoint can be, I can find no justification within the scriptures for that interpretation. In fact, I find just the opposite. The ancient prophets talk of us as believing lies, hiding ourselves under falsehoods and being under the curse of “strong delusion”. The Lord talks of how we practice abominations before him, and blaspheme his holy name “daily”. Hosea 8:14 talks of how we have forgotten our Maker and build temples.
Instead of the simple truths of the preparatory gospel which we should be living under in this, the dispensation of the Gospel of Abraham, we are looking beyond the mark like the ancient Jews. I have searched high and low for anything that would justify the need to know secret words, signs and handshakes to get to heaven and can find nothing that justifies that doctrine. Again, I find just the opposite – significant scriptural support for the view that we have in fact been turned over to Satan for a period of chastisement as the Lord promised in Book of Commandments 4:5-6, and that it is only Satan who employs secret oaths and signs (roundly condemned in the Book of Mormon).
I would suggest reading my blogpost entitled Under Falsehood Have We Hid Ourselves for a more thorough presentation and analysis.
Thanks and Keep Searching
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When I did a search on the entire site for “D&C 77”, only 7 relevant links came up before it starting shoving me off to completely different results like D&C 76 or D&C 4. The entire site! The first link is just the index, and a couple of others are similarly trivial. The most on topic link returned a 4 page section of the D&C Student Manual written in 2002. It is filled with postulating mularky and the foolish wisdom of men. The link I provide you below would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-student-manual/section-69-80/section-77-questions-and-answers-on-the-book-of-revelation?lang=eng
As for Denver Snuffer (mentioned in comments above), I was under the impression that baptisms under his direction are only unique because persons are being baptized unto Jesus Christ rather than into any sort of organization. The authority he preaches can be attained by anyone who trusts in Jesus directly, regardless of whether they have even heard of Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon.
I just listened to his Boise talk yesterday, and I can see where some people are interpreting his vision to mean that only he and “Snufferites” will survive the 2nd Coming. But I actually got the opposite from it. Only those who are worthy of terrestrial glory because they have become Christ’s children (and act like it!) will survive those judgments – at least in the covenant lands of America and Judea.
Thank you for your insights, brother. I appreciated the obvious truths you pointed to in the blog post.
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Actually Denver was not specific in his talk about why his baptism protocol that he is having his followers use is superior. My recollection is that he previously gave them a protocol out of the Book of Mormon.
I would first submit that he makes the same mistake that the modern church makes in not following the protocol that Joseph gave in section 20 which requires a public confession on the part of the candidate prior to baptism.
Another major baptism protocol deviation which is unsupported in scripture, which makes his baptism completely unique from this or any other dispensation, is the new priesthood order that Denver has revealed wherein seven women are required to certify a priesthood holder before they can perform the baptism.
Regarding Denver’s vision. I think you misunderstood the point I was making.
The scriptures are very clear about the fact that the elect of God that come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, including the last servants that give the last warning, are caught up into the cloud and return to the earth with Christ BEFORE he descends.
Denver is claiming that He and his followers who he presumes to be the last servants that give the last warning, will be standing on the earth when the Lord comes.
In other words, his vision is not consistent with the narrative relative to the coming of Christ in glory as contained in the scriptures, unless Denver and his followers are terrestrial servants preaching a terrestrial gospel..
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Study the scriptural references to the Lord’s Coming, and you will see that there is a hidden mystery not revealed to mankind there. This is intentional. The 2nd Coming involves Jesus coming to set his foot on the Mount of Olives to rescue and convert his people in Jerusalem. It ushers in a period of generations in which every ear on earth will finally hear the gospel in their own language, right down to the dialect and perfect accent.
Then there are other descriptions in which Jesus does not set his foot on earth, but saints are caught up to meet him and his heavenly host in the cloud. What is unique about this is that 50% of the world’s population is left behind. “One taken and the other left”. “5 foolish virgins and 5 wise virgins.” Only people who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and profess to follow him are considered virgins. So apparently, the entire world’s population will believe in Jesus Christ at this time.
Then we have the wonderful mystery of the sealed plates and the prophecy from the beginning of the world to the end. King Mosiah was told to keep that record hidden until after Christ came. And it happened in just that manner. But then apostasy set in, the Nephites were destroyed, and the Lamanites rejected it until that knowledge was lost. But the prophecy is unto us as well. Those sealed records will not be revealed until after Christ’s 2nd Coming. Fortunately, Jesus has said that his 2nd Coming will be cut short IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. The sealed plates cannot come forth until we are righteous enough for Jesus to return to Zion.
So here’s the million dollar question. Is the rapture and marriage feast the same timing as Jesus setting his foot on the mount of Olives and closing the final chapter on the House of Israel? What about the rest of humanity that comes through Japheth and Ham? Their stories began before Abraham, and their stories should conclude after Jesus’ 2nd Coming since the first is last and last is first. Remember, during the marriage feast the earth will undergo such violent changes as it returns to a terrestrial state that everyone left behind will die. Would it be fair to let all those who still haven’t heard the gospel by this point in time die?
We also have a prophecy in the Book of Mormon that it won’t be very many generations before the Lamanites are once again a fair and delightsome people AFTER the Gentiles bring the gospel back to them. I suggest the Native Americans are the descendants of Lehi, and they won’t convert until we produce a true example of love and self-sacrifice a decade or two after America is laid waste.
THEREFORE, if we are going to look holistically at the scriptures given us, and not wrest or reinterpret them, it seems highly plausible Section 77 will be fulfilled after Jesus Christ’s 2nd Coming (to the Jews) and before Jesus Christ’s 3rd Coming (in the clouds of glory). Food for thought, at least.
Is Denver off his nut? I frankly don’t care one way or the other. I live 1,000 miles away, in the heartland. The only person I know who has even heard of Denver Snuffer is a friend who lives 2.5 hours to the west in the Kansas City area. I spend 99% of my time studying scripture.
But if Denver is still alive when Jesus comes again, he’s probably gonna be in his 90’s. And it won’t be for the marriage feast (3rd Coming). It will be for the 2nd Coming. Either that, or his dream was metaphorical, and he will be dead when it finally happens, and people are reading too much into it.
As for the baptism. No doubt about it. The Book of Mormon clearly states that none were baptized save they first brought forth works meet for repentance. There does need to be a short 1 or 2 sentence interview first to the effect of: “Do you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Do you want to obey his commands and serve him the remainder of your mortal life?”
As for Priesthood and 7 women. Remember, Denver states that anyone who received the Priesthood prior to 2014 in the LDS church still has it legitimately, provided they have not had an ‘amen’ to it through unrighteous dominion. As I understand it, men do not need 7 women to sustain them unless it is to assume a specific Priesthood role, or unless the man did NOT receive a line of authority prior to April 2014. Even so, true authority only comes from Jesus even after a conferral by laying on of hands. So any man who wishes to baptize must seek out authority personally from Jesus.
It is only those who are trying to receive a line of authority after 2014 that need to receive that line outside the LDS church. I don’t care if Denver is a true prophet or not. The way he and many others have been excommunicated is a clear demonstration of strong-arming and compulsion. So I can absolutely believe that the LDS church has lost its claim to not just Melchizedek, but also Levitical, or Aaronic Priesthood authority. Therefore, any who have had the Aaronic Priesthood conferred upon them after April of 2014 by the LDS church have not received legitimate authority that is required to perform physical rites and outward ordinances such as baptism.
But again, if Denver is off his nut, it doesn’t really mean diddly squat to me, seeing as how I look directly to Jesus as my sole leader. If Denver says something that disagrees with my understanding of scripture, I study it out and let the Holy Spirit guide me. While all true messengers bear an important message, I have yet to hear any prophet (save Jesus) show him or herself completely foolproof in understanding. This makes sense, as no one can know all of God’s mysteries and afterward remain here in the flesh.
Also, we are all required to discern truth from error for ourselves by study and prayer. So when you read my brief rationale about Christ coming both a 2nd AND a 3rd time, you can reject it out of hand. Or you can study it out and let the Spirit teach you whether it is correct or not. I only state that I believe this to be the case. The Lord has always revealed truth in such a way that mankind jumps to the wrong conclusion about it. What I have discovered is that 2 separate appearances, approximately 70 – 100 years apart, rather than a single appearance, could be scripturally plausible, and indeed satisfies the criteria better than the single 2nd Coming paradigm.
When he comes in the clouds, everyone on earth not caught up to meet him will know what just happened, and they won’t have expected it at that time. The most popular mantra in the Christian world today seems to be “Rapture, rapture, rapture”. They’re all expecting it soon, and they’re all looking out for the anti-Christ. But the cloud Coming verses of scripture have no reference to the anti-Christ. And they speak about the ENTIRE world’s population, not just the Christian population.
So like I say. Just study it out. If Jesus never specifically said something is NOT the case, then it could be man’s interpretation and false assumptions that have taught us something is not the case instead.
As always, keep feasting on the word, brother. God bless. Whether someone believes in Denver Snuffer or Joseph Smith is completely irrelevant to whether they forge a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. We can rejoice that all who hear the voice of the good shepherd and serve the true master will be saved in the kingdom of God.
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I should also mention that the current Doctrine and Covenants Teacher’s Manual does not have a single reference to D&C 77 in the entire manual. That’s telling.
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I’ve done word searches in the past on LDS.org and found that from time to time, certain scriptures are not listed. These same verses not listed appear in other search sites used for bible study(blueletterbible.org) or appear in a Concordance. The only Concordance to the Book of Mormon I have was copyrighted in 1977. I got it from a guy at work for 5$. I’ve never been able to find it in print anywhere else. I prefer to do my searches from the concordances first, then double check that with the electronic results. More than once, I’ve found lds.org lacking when it comes to search results. Working in IT, I know from a database perspective, it is either poor management of the database queries OR they are intentionally setting the queries to NOT show certain results. Which is disturbing. It’s happened on different word searches, not just the one you mention. I also like to keep a copy of the older scriptures with their footnotes for cross reference as sometimes those footnotes will contain links also not shown in the modern day versions.
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I have had trouble finding certain scripture verses by using the scripture search engine on lds.org, there are many verses that simply do not show up. Search “Priestcraft” the only three results that will come up are Alma 1:12, Alma 1:16 and Nehor in The Guide to the Scriptures, you will not find 2 Nephi 26:29.
” 29 He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion.” (2 Nephi 26:29)
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I cannot say if these have always been there or not:
D&C 77- https://www.lds.org/search?domains=scriptures&lang=eng&q=restoration&page=2
2 Nephi 26:29 – https://www.lds.org/search?domains=scriptures&lang=eng&query=priestcraft
I was able to find references to both scriptures on lds.org after conducting the above searches.
TL
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If you search for priestcrafts instead of priestcraft, it does come up, along with several other verses that have priestcrafts in the text that don’t come up under priestcraft. Apparently the search engine only searches for exact word matches.
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I got 2 Nephi 26:29 and five other scriptures to show up when I searched for “priestcrafts”.
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There is no cover up. The search engine finds everything you type into the “Search Church sites” area, but it only finds exactly what you type in. (To search in the scriptures, type your word in, press the button and then click on the “Scriptures” link.) If you are looking for something which is spelled differently, even by one letter, such as “priestcrafts” instead of “priestcraft,” you must input that exact spelling to find it.
The other search engine, the one called “Search Scriptures”, works differently, which is why some things don’t show up on that one. (I’m not sure how it works.) So, two types of searches are available to the membership.
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Also, D&C 77 has been input into the search engine incorrectly. Whoever did the input, used the footnoted version, not the version without footnotes. As there are a lot of footnotes all over that section, words like “restoration” are listed as “crestoration,” because the footnote “c” is attached to it. And so on, throughout the section. So, there has been an error made with that section and the webmaster ought to be contacted to make the necessary correction.
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I found this post that says section 77 being hard to find isn’t a case of suppression but technical difficulties.
http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=45153#p773708
Amonhi wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:47 am
Some of us noticed that the LDS.org/scripture search engine refuses to list certain scripture verses. I have seen this going on for years making it difficult to find certain scripture references. Why they do that, I can only imagine.
I’m involved in the development of that bit of code. I’ll enlighten you.
Part of the trouble is we keep migrating technology. The internet seems to shed front end rendering systems every 18 months, and the church’s core content systems go through similar cycles. I’ve only been here a couple of years and I’m working on my 3rd scriptures content redux. So occasionally that means we get the big reset button on the backend and the new system isn’t always superior to the old.
There is no censorship going on. There is a little bit of design-by-committee (conflicting goals) and I-want-my-favorites-to-show-up-at-the-top that results in a sort of code hairball for some things :(( Some individuals have similar complaints to yours and the power to tell us to do it, so we do. Just… not… exactly the same as yours 😀
Just be glad I was able to help axe the google search appliance as a proposed replacement. #:-s Probably never would have gone live, but it was breathtakingly horrible.
Pretty major release just went live late last week which will impact scriptures search quite a bit. It *should* be an improvement. If you have feedback I would like to hear it. Don’t know if I’ll have any budget for search changes anytime soon but it’s possible!
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I agree with Amonhi above that any failure is probably not intentional. About 8 years ago I worked as QA on LDS.org when they were redoing their front end as he describes. When we discovered any issues such as you have discovered, we submitted them as bugs to be fixed. It’s entirely possible that this section was input in such a way that it has simply not been indexed into the searches. While I can’t categorically state that there is no mischief happening here, I don’t believe it to be the case. There was no authority who would intervene to exclude search results when I worked there, and I doubt there is today.
The people who work at the church are, like most LDS, not intentionally evil. It would be difficult to conceive of a software development team at the church being able to convince members of the team that they needed to manage things so as to render a particular view of doctrine, especially since 99% wouldn’t understand the nuances that you’re discussing anyway. Occasionally they mess up and deliver inferior results, but I think that honest mistakes are a more likely explanation than deliberate design.
It’s been some time since you wrote this, so I’m hoping that it has been fixed since you wrote this. If they refuse to fix it, then it becomes a bigger question.
Dale B.
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I just checked (November 30, 2017) and it looks like the Church has fixed this bug.
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