Not all Church Artwork is doctrinally correct

THERE'S some great, inspiring artwork out there in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, sometimes the best of art takes significant liberties in accuracy. That factor is almost expected.
Artwork doesn't have to be totally doctrinally correct to be spiritually uplifting, but it is nice to always know correct doctrine.
Take the above artwork, found in several mortuaries in Utah. Done with a Church accent, it is inspiring and uplifting, but not strictly correct in doctrine.

For example:

Christ’s influence is in the Spirit World, but he personally is not. No person meets Christ in the Spirit World after death. Only spirits can reside or visit there. Hence, why during the 3 days of Christ’s body in the tomb, that’s where his Spirit was – in the Spirit World, setting up missionary work there that continues to this day. 

Also, the popular painting of Christ with angels in the clouds that hangs in many temples is also not perfectly doctrinally correct as Christ will be dressed in red at the Second Coming, not white.
My roughly colored in red alteration to the original white painting (see picture below) is doctrinally more accurate.

In addition, there's one popular artist who uses people she knows to paint and represent church prophets and their families.
One Sunday some years ago, I was puzzled over who was represented in a painting at the entrance to the Relief Society Room in my ward meetinghouse. My wife said, "That's Joseph and Emma!"
I replied, "It can't be ... Doesn't look anything like them."
Sure enough, this popular artist gets by with such outrageous liberties, though I would never buy her work when they don't even resemble the originals.
-And it isn't just artwork in the Church that can be doctrinally incorrect, so can some popular hymns be so.

"Praise to the Man," "Come, Come Ye Saints" and "If You Could Hie Unto Kolob" are examples of LDS hymns, though very rousing tunes, contain a little incorrect doctrine in their words.


NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.