u/despiert

I’m in my late 30s now, and whenever we get together, since doing keto then carnivore a few years ago, I’m always complimented by my friends for looking young and “what’s your secret?”

Obviously, I don’t look 21 anymore but compared to my friends I’d say I look “younger” than them—tighter healthier body, clearer skin, etc.

As time goes on I definitely notice the compounding interest that comes on a person from their diet. Being on an optimal human diet has allowed me to age gracefully and with very good health. In contrast, my friends who eat mostly a SAD masked with lots of veggies and “health” food are on a different track and it shows.

What we can document about early Mormonism is unusually dense for a religious movement. We have diaries, letters, newspapers, multiple editions of scripture, and internal records. Because of that level of visibility, it can be conclusively demonstrated that the belief system and its founding narrative shifted quickly and materially within a very short window.

In the early 1830s, core elements that later become “always-known” foundational claims either do not appear or appear in different forms. The priesthood restoration is the clearest example. Earliest documents do not present the now-standard narrative of angelic ordinations by John the Baptist and Peter/James/John. That layered priesthood story emerges later (1834) and is retroactively inserted into the movement’s origin story, with subsequent retellings presenting it as if it had always been part of the founding events. The historical record shows development, then backfilling, then normalization.

The First Vision narratives show a similar pattern. The 1832 account differs in emphasis and theology from the 1838 canonized version. Over time, the account becomes more structured, more theologically loaded, and more central. Again: development, then consolidation, then presentation as fixed origin.

Scriptural production also shows rapid evolution. The Book of Commandments (1833) becomes the Doctrine and Covenants (1835) with significant edits, additions, and doctrinal expansions. The introduction of a more formalized priesthood hierarchy happens between those editions. The theology of God also shifts—early language sometimes reads closer to a more traditional Christian monotheism, while later Nauvoo-era teachings move toward a plurality of gods and an embodied Godhead.

By the Nauvoo period (early 1840s), the system has expanded dramatically: temple rituals, eternal marriage, plural marriage, baptism for the dead, and an increasingly complex cosmology. None of this is present in anything like its later form in 1830. Within roughly a decade, the movement goes from a restorationist Protestant-seeming sect to something structurally and theologically distinct.

Under Brigham Young, practices and doctrines continue to shift. Plural marriage becomes publicly acknowledged and institutionalized, then later restricted and officially discontinued by 1890 under federal pressure. The Adam–God teaching appears in sermons and in the endowment and is later rejected. The temple endowment itself undergoes further revisions in presentation and content over time. Governance structures stabilize and centralize.

By the early 20th century (up to ~1930), the church is actively reshaping its public identity. Polygamy is not only abandoned but reframed as a past aberration. Correlation begins to standardize teaching. Earlier speculative theology is deemphasized. The movement becomes more institutionally conservative and more aligned, in outward presentation, with broader American Christianity, while still maintaining distinct core claims.

At that point, the church has a recognizable continuity with its 1830s origin, but the resemblance is partial. The structure, narrative framing, and doctrinal emphasis are not static. They have been revised, expanded, pruned, and reinterpreted repeatedly—sometimes with clear documentation showing the transition, and sometimes with retrospective framing that presents later forms as original.

The key point is that this is a movement with extensive documentation, internal records, and living memory chains during its early decades. With that level of evidence, we see how foundational narratives are shown to develop over time and then be re-presented as fixed.

Now compare that to 1st-century Christianity:

The textual record is sparse by comparison. The New Testament documents are decades after the events they describe. There are gaps, redactions, and competing theological voices even within the canon itself. Non-canonical texts show further diversity. There is no equivalent of continuous internal documentation tracking doctrinal development in real time.

Given that, the question becomes straightforward. If a 19th-century movement with abundant records can undergo rapid doctrinal and narrative evolution that is partially obscured by later retellings, what confidence level is reasonable when attempting to reconstruct the detailed teachings and practices of Jesus or the earliest Christian communities from far thinner evidence?

That includes basic issues like:

- What Jesus taught at different stages of his life

- How his immediate followers understood those teachings

- What practices were normative versus local or temporary

- How early theological interpretations diverged before later consolidation

To conclude, the documented evolution of Mormonism shows how quickly a religious system can change, how origin stories can be retroactively stabilized, and how later forms can overwrite earlier ones in collective memory. If that level of transformation occurs in a well-documented modern context, then claims of detailed, high-confidence reconstruction of “original Christianity” from limited 1st-century sources require a much higher level of skepticism than they are often given.

Anyone else experience this? I don’t know if my diction is better or my speaking resonance has become more optimized for microphones to pick up or what. Nevertheless, it’s kind of a cool little side effect and it’s saving me from embarrassing typos as I dictate texts in the car now.