Proposed Analysis: The Foundational Claims of Mormonism

A foundation is a literal or metaphorical base for a structure, philosphy, or idea.  As I was driving into work today, I started wondering about the foundational claims of Mormonism.  I was wondering about how I assess those claims and what is the validity and verifiability of any of those claims.  I was mentally speculating in a vacuum, without having defined what those claims are.  Thoughts of those claims raced across my mind.  I paused, realizing that I had a series of assumptions about what those claims are, based upon my upbringing, religious training, and life experiences.  I don't recall ever having specifically read, "The Foundational Claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."  At a stop light, I decided that I needed to test my assumptions of what those claims would be.  As I thought about how I would test that, three things came to my mind:

• What are the claims laid out in the Joseph Smith History?  Since this is really the only canonized LDS history that we have, it would seem likely to contain The Foundational Claims.
• I thought about the current missionary tool, Preach My Gospel.  Since this is the current guidebook for the missionaries, I suspect that the foundational claims that are taught today would be included.  To be honest, although I have thumbed through the book, I have not been able to bear the thought of actually reading it.  I will include this in my research.
• The idea of searching the church website for "foundational claims," also crossed my mind.  Perhaps there is an obscure talk or pamphlet that outlines the foundational claims.  I don't anticipate that will be true, but it might be.  I'll check into that.

After investigating these sources, I will summarize what I find to be the foundational claims as characterized by the church.  This will open the door to what I expect will be a series of posts regarding an objective analysis of each of these claims.  Truth be known, I suspect much of my research will be duplicate efforts of people like Grant Palmer or Arza Evans.  That said, I think the process will be cathartic and help me to solidify my own, personal views regarding these foundational events.  I will return and report.