Maxwell again insisted that external authentication of The Book of Mormon would be left "until the last," but that the Lord will no longer let critics of the Church "slam-dunk" The Book of Mormon. Danita’s—JS enforcers stole and looted from nonmembers in Missouri, JS went court many times for illegal activity, Temple included complete naked washing and anointing, Temple included secret Blood oaths of loyalty to leaders above all else, Polygamy is required to live with Christ and family eternally, BY: Kill interracial couple who sleeps together. The only scholars in the world acquainted to any degree with the Egyptian language would have been those in the field of classical studies. ye prosecutors! Hugo Miza, “Deep in the Mountains,” Ensign 34, no. It is possible that when Joseph Smith felt the need to quote Isaiah, he opened his Bible and read the chapters aloud, making whatever changes he deemed necessary. Again, there are several problems with this theory. Others of Nephi's sisters - perhaps as many as 3-4 women. However, we are intrigued by this drawing that some LDS defenders on LDS message boards promote as literary evidence of elephants in America: This could be an elephant. Major Discovery: Archaeologists Find Roman-Era Battlefield in Germany," Spiegel Online International. By Alan Wolfe: Whatever one's views on the authenticity of the text, it has been widely regarded as a rather inferior work of literature, especially when compared to the King James Bible. 2d ed. Be that as it may, Oaks acknowledged that F.A.R.M.S. Because the Smithsonian regards the unauthorized use of its name to disseminate inaccurate information as unlawful, we would appreciate your assistance in providing us with the names of any individuals who are misusing the Smithsonian's name. Royal Skousen renders the original manuscript, “& many of them are our {r|n}ear Breth / -re{r|n}” (Royal Skousen, ed., The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon—Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text [Provo: FARMS, 2001], 297, virgule line break added), and the printer’s manuscript, “& many of them are our near brethren” (Skousen, ed., The Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Part Two, Alma 17–Moroni 10— Typographical Facsimile of the Entire Text in Two Parts [Provo: FARMS, 2001], 553); “near” is absent for the first time in the 1837 edition Book of Mormon. If Joseph simply used words of things that really existed, or even used non-English words for things, this problem wouldn't exist. We would need figures that are precise, and not impressionistic. Then he spoke of other leaders serving with him in the Nephite army, all of whom had fallen with the forces under their command. As mentioned at the top of this article, the "NHM" find is a classic example of the fallacy of irrelevant proof. (In an essay released by the LDS Church in 2014, "Book of Mormon and DNA Studies," they agree that "The evidence assembled to date suggests that the majority of Native Americans carry largely Asian DNA." 3: 22, 2. 1 Nephi 3, p. 32 These last records … shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Savior of the world. There was no doubt in my mind or in the minds of my associates that what was revealed was the mind and the will of the Lord. Why is there a sealed portion anyway as it was never translated and never will be? As Dr. Kimball above said "Since the science of Egyptology did not exist in 1828 there were no Egyptologists." But even to produce a total population as large as the fatality figures for this one day would have required an average annual growth rate of 1.2 percent during the preceding four centuries. LDS scholars have proposed locations for Nahom based on archaeological evidences. There are a fairly large number of words that appear only in a King James context. The farmer added, that he had been requested to contribute a sum of money towards the publication of the "golden book," the contents of which would, as he had been assured, produce an entire change in the world and save it from ruin. How can you just dismiss Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon when there are several things which he couldn't have know about such as the NHM location, Chiasmus, stone boxes and metal plates, etc.? The most common defense proffered by Mormon apologists in this case is that the Book of Mormon does not offer a testable hypothesis. [5], Additionally, apologists[who? The only way I can think that this would even be possible would be on foot at a pace of 3.88 mph for sixteen hours a day to the Bay of Aqaba because both camels can not travel more than 40 miles a day at 2-3 mph and they eat for 8-12 hours a day. PDF file, p. 21 Detailed Summary of Approved Adjustments for the 2013 Edition of the Scriptures. If Smith was able to translate the rest of the non-Biblical passages of the Book of Mormon with apparent consummate ease, why did he suddenly abandon his divine gift in favor of a text that could not hope to be any more accurate? And faithful Mormons are expected to swallow all this without the slightest thought that they are being sold another lie to cover the original lie. Although Mulek's group began multiplying in the New World shortly after Lehi's, both events may be considered effectively simultaneous. If we go back ten generations, it only tells us about 1 in 1,024 of our ancestors. In the case of the American Indians, essentially all of their mitochondrial lineages fall into one of five major families: A, B, C, D, or X, none of which were derived from a recent migration from Israel. The critic would point out that the phrase "count the clock" and the word "stricken" clearly refer to clocks that make noise and that in the particular scene in "Julius Caesar" it was 3:00 in the morning—not exactly a time at which a sundial would be consulted. "He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang…" -Joseph Smith-History 1:34, "And now, behold, I say unto you that it is not revealed, and no man knoweth where the city Zion shall be built, but it shall be given hereafter. Early in the 5th century A.D., the wicked Lamanite faction battle and eliminate the entire opposing Nephite nation which numbers more than 300,000. His name was Mormon. The book is in large part an abbreviation of the … Widtsoe and Talmage did much of their writing before they became Apostles, but Roberts served as a member of the First Council of the Seventy during the entire period. This is an assumption that we simply cannot make without forcing the evidence. But modern science won't let it. Members are encouraged to focus on the spiritual value of the BOM instead of the historical aspects. Mormon scholars have long been aware of the problem, and have come up with several theories to account for the phenomenon. They developed brass!! Pilots at altitude undergoing oxygen deprivation experience the same hazard. These were supplemented by such things as avocados, amaranth, etc. Portions of Smith’s 1842 account rely heavily on the writings of Orson Pratt (see Orson Pratt, A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records [Edinburgh: Ballentyne and Hughes, 1840], 14–15). Option 3: Joseph made it up and there were no plates. Because of female anonymity in the Book of Mormon, we know the name of only one of the seafaring women: Lehi's wife Sariah (1 Nephi. Here is item # 8 [emphasis added]: You must describe their religious, economic, political, and social cultures and institutions. The Book of Mormon explicitly states that the "Liahona", was a director, it was certainly used by Lehi's party to direct them in the wilderness, and Alma the younger even made more clarification of its nature by calling it a director and compass—this is an anachronism because the compass which directed one's course wasn't invented yet for many centuries. Although none of the comments on this page are in quotation marks, in would be safe to say that 99% of the information on this page was taken directly from the essay by Mr. Kunich, in most cases, word for word. The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be "reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics" is perfectly false. Language does evolve; but not at such an unprecedented rate as to leave such a scattering of textual and vocal variants (all with no resemblance to the Book of Mormon 'mother tongue') within such a short period of time (less than 2000 years from the end of the Book of Mormon narrative to the present). Critics charge that the description of the Liahona as a "compass" is anachronistic because the magnetic compass was not known in 600 B.C. An example of the problems facing the Book of Mormon from an archaeological standpoint is found in 2 Nephi 5:16 … We present FOUR totally different approaches to answering the LDS apologists. He can be refuted—but why bother… It would be like wiping out placebos in medicine, and that would make no sense when they do lots of good…. Here's why Givens' statement actually hurts the BOM's case: At that part of the BOM storyline, the Lehites have left Jerusalem and are on their way to the promised land. I have been focusing entirely on the historicity of the Book of Mormon in its New World context. Like the issues surrounding the Book of Abraham (see: Book of Abraham), the attempts (such as Dr. Kimball's above) to push the available evidence out of the realm of scientific scrutiny are indicative of the true lack of compelling evidence to substantiate the purportedly 'testable' claims of Mormonism in general and the Anthon Transcript in particular. There are at least three possible interpretations of the Martin Harris statement regarding his visit with Dr.'s Anthon and Mitchill: The first is that Martin Harris fabricated the whole story. Please read THE BAT CREEK FRAUD: A FINAL STATEMENT. In contrast, when studying the Bible, the place names are derived from Hebrew or a local dialect. Nephi saw a vision of the New World in about 600 BC in which he saw that his "seed" and "the seed of [his] brethren" had multiplied until they did "number as many as the sand of the sea" (1 Nephi. The changes that were made to the text are illuminating. (There is that irritating little matter of the two thousand-plus year gap between the "Nihmites," wherever they lived, and the Ottoman-era settlement of Nahom). Many apologists today reject that the Hill Cumorah in New York is the same Cumorah where the large battles in the Book of Mormon took place. There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. Note: The author has many interesting theories and evidence that supports various supernatural phenomena in the other chapters of his book. The altar inscriptions, on the other hand, refer to a people or tribe. Afterward, a member challenged him, arguing that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were one God rather than three distinct beings. As early as 1881 Talmage had resolved to "do good among the young," possibly by lecturing on the "harmony between geology and the Bible." 1, Spring 1966, pp. In the western part of the state of New York near Palmyra is a prominent hill known as the "hill Cumorah." How does the confusion in translating this verse arise? Virtually all mitochondrial lineages found throughout the world can be grouped into less than twenty-five major family groups represented by letters A, H, X, and so on. If it is so easy to locate, why the continued list of contenders? This passage of Mormon scripture read: "…their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people.". Many of the weapons found are in good condition and they prove that Roman armies were still engaging in major military operations far north of the Alps at a time when the Roman Empire was in terminal decline. " (emphasis in original). John, Thanks so much for your work on this. No one seems to doubt that chariots were used in the Old World but no non-Mormon scholar believes that chariots (or any wheeled vehicle) were used anywhere in the New World before Columbus for any purpose other than toys or religious effigies. I have a few remarks before I give the names and responses of the professors. Intriguingly, the find includes more than 300 iron projectiles that were fired by powerful Roman torsion weapons known as scorpions (scorpio), which could catapult heavy darts with a high velocity and deadly accuracy. Here is a summary of the BOM by Richard Packham that was to be used as a first response to a proposed debate on the BOM entitled "Is the Book of Mormon an authentic ancient history of ancient American peoples, or a work of 19th century religious fiction?" While we cannot accept the Book of Mormon story as literally historical; we can, in a sense, accept the book as a somewhat symbolic embodiment of 'the American story' - the creation of a unique but "familiar" vision of manifest destiny, wars waged to protect the "liberties" of patriots, democracies created to secure the sanctity of these liberties, and the overarching struggle of good and evil - all roughly woven together within the framework of an American Christian apocalypse. He wrote at least three books on the subject. They divided into two classes, an industrious and an idle group and engaged in many long wars. [1] The introduction of domesticated modern barley and wheat to the New World was made by Europeans sometime after 1492, many centuries after the time in which the Book of Mormon is set. This is not the case. Exmormon Board: Horses and wheel discussion, Ethnic Diversity in America before Columbus. Could the shape of the boats, the front and back "ends thereof were peaked" (2:17), have presented insufficient flat surface at the back for the wind to blow against, causing the trip to last longer? … unstop the hole … " Also, "thou shalt make a hole in the top and also in the bottom." John Butler recently claimed that the DNA results produced in population genetics research are unreliable because no chain of custody procedures were followed. While LDS Church members as a whole regard a witness of the Holy Ghost (the Spirit) as the primary anchor of their faith (or any of its various tenets), they are usually quite willing and eager to accept secular affirmations of their bedrock claims—hence, the existence of institutions like the Neil A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (formerly F.A.R.M.S. ". 24:24, (Note: A vast majority of the information on this page (including extensive quotes) is from the book New Approaches to the Book of Mormon by Brent Metcalfe. Moreover, the Prophet Joseph Smith himself is on record, definitely declaring the present hill called Cumorah to be the exact hill spoken of in the Book of Mormon. No. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution; 34: 181-189. Grammatical, Spelling and Syntactical Changes. In addition, Brigham Young preached that Adam was not only the first man, but that he was the god of this world. Several locations with names somewhat like "Nahom" are to be found in the Arabian Peninsula. And there is a very good reason for this. Normally LDS apologetic websites likes SHIELDS are very pro-LDS and dismiss any critic's arguments outright, however, we found this article on the. America wasn't exactly a "New World," but a very old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals and causeways. LDS apologists think that only coincidences in their favor are more than coincidences. 4, Winter 2000, p 163), although poking fun at chiasms, is instructive and worth the read. Silence is golden—etc…. Joseph Smith nor the Nephites lived in Jacobean England. Jesus quoted Micah, verbatim from the King James Version, in 3 Nephi 20:16 and following. *The 1830 text did not have verse divisions. While a significant portion of these errors (spelling and punctuation) can be easily overlooked as incidental to the copious process of transcribing dictation and manually setting print type in early 19th century America, an equally significant portion of the anomalous instances point to an obvious limited discipline of proper grammar (this is not referring to the appearances of Semitic inverted parallelisms in the text - discussed in a later section). "Nuclear and mitochondrial evolutionary analyses of Collared, White-lipped, and Chacoan peccaries (Tayassuidae)." To distinguish between those “who are friendly to Nephi” and those who “seek to destroy the people of Nephi,” Jacob labels the two competing factions “Nephites” and “Lamanites” respectively (Jacob 1:13–14). He could not have translated Egyptian, and certainly not "reformed Egyptian." In an interview with P. Wilhelm Poulson, David Whitmer gave another account of the cave: [Whitmer]: In a cave, where the angel has hidden them up till the time arrives when the plates, which are sealed, shall be translated. Just as it was very obvious to the Church editors and to B.H. The LDS eye of faith typically accepts the story unfazed. The following responses have not been discussed above but have been suggested to us by various believing LDS: One of the literary features of the Book of Mormon that is often lauded by faithful Mormons as evidence of the book's authenticity is the appearance of Chiasmus. In his book By The Hand of Mormon, Mormon apologist Terryl Givens writes of the ancient altars found in Yemen carved with the letters "NHM": These altars may thus be said to constitute the first actual archaeological evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Simon Southerton, Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church, 2004. The individuals tested are positively identified by checking government-issued identifications, and they are photographed and fingerprinted for records. In fact, Smith thought so much of his 1842 account that in 1843 he repurposed it for publication by Daniel Rupp (see I. Daniel Rupp, He Pasa Ekklesia: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States [Philadelphia: J. Y. Humphreys, 1844], 404–07; see also Vogel, Mormon Documents [1996], 1:183–86). John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1985), 242; see also Sorenson, “When Lehi’s Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 1, no. I just need the time to do that. Of the twenty-six books of the New Testament, twenty of them are represented by one or more quotes in the Book of Mormon. Reconsideration of the doctrine of God and the ambiguity in discourse and printed works over the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ pointed to the need for an authoritative statement on the nature and mission of Christ. 5:13), and by 399 BC they had "multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land" (Jarom 1:8). There would be civilization, including the largest town of the region, Ma'rib. Twice in late 1844, after the Prophet's martyrdom, portions of these symbols were again published as characters that Joseph Smith had copied from the gold plates. Verse 9 of the passage contains a reference to Malachi 4:2, as does the preceding chapter, 2 Nephi 25:13. Since Nephi would have been familiar with what that temple was like. My next comment that follows, will be on a subject that I’ve not yet heard in Mormon discussions of criticism or apologetic writings. They are not allowed to question what leaders tell them to think or do. The gospel records that there were so many people in the house, that the friends of the patient were forced to let him down through the roof. Was it supposed to be a secretive trek? In his "Speculations on Book of Mormon Populations," Vern Elefson (1984) briefly discussed population figures contained in the Book of Mormon, and then reverse-engineered them to estimate the growth rate that must have prevailed for those figures to be reached. Statements in their handout pointed out what somebody at the Institution claimed were contradictions between the text of the scripture and what scientists claim about New World cultures. 3 [March 1949], cited in Clark, Messages [1965], 1:252) or to Brigham Young (Marvin S. Hill, Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989], xv). Some American cultures—after the wheel was introduced by the Spanish—refused to use the wheel because of it's religious symbolism associated with the Sun. Long, Mammal evolution, an illustrated guide (1986, Facts on File, pg. Words of the Apostle Paul are … Of particular interest are quotes that appear long before their sources were written. The amount of DNA variation found in each of the five American Indian female DNA lineage families indicates that they have been present in the Americas for at least 15,000 years, possibly longer. The name NHM denotes both a tribal region and a location in the southern part of Arabia (Brown 2001). The pieces of gold and silver described in Alma 11:1-20 are not coins, but a surprisingly sophisticated system of weights and measures that is entirely consistent with Mesoamerican proto-monetary practices. Is it necessary to offend Asians now, as well? Long after the 1830 publication of the Book of Mormon, maps of Arabia continued to show the eastern coastline and interior as unknown, unexplored territory. 232-43.) I’m sorry to say, as a life-long older member of the church. 2 (2003): 35–90; Thomas W. Murphy, “Lamanite Genesis, Genealogy, and Genetics,” American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, eds. However, we found two basic responses from LDS apologists. The food supplies, and especially the water supplies, would have had to be lashed down to prevent lethally crushing slides into people and animals. Yes. Reference: Wikipedia - Book of Mormon anachronisms: Apologists assert that there is fossil evidence that some New World horses may have survived the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, though these findings are disputed by critics. The leaders require blind obedience. See pp 2-3. 2 [2003]: lxiii [and passim]). It becomes a much larger problem to Bible literalists, and becomes a huge obstacle for the claims of Mormonism John J. Robinson in A Pilgrim's Path, pp. By reading just Isaiah, it doesn't seem that this is an actual, specific future event about a specific man thousands of years in the future that Isaiah is prophesying about, but rather an analogy about how mankind is ignoring the words of God and that the words of God are as good as a sealed book unless you unseal them and read them and follow the words written. [35], The apostolic body further decreed: “[God] has revealed the origin and the Records of the aboriginal tribes of America, and their future destiny.—And we know it.”[36], Smith’s successors, from Brigham Young to Gordon B. Hinckley, have buttressed his view of the Book of Mormon as an etiological saga of ancient America. American Indians had no wheat, barley, oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, or camels before 1492. I cannot understand how it can be. As there is no other evidence to support the existence of elephants in the Americas during BOM times, such as tusks or very clear, complete carvings, we decided to investigate it further: Critics maintain the drawing looks like an elephant because it is an extrapolation from a damaged original. Others, at least Jacob and Joseph, were born "in the wilderness" following Lehi's exodus from Jerusalem but prior to the ocean voyage and thus were very young (1 Nephi. After the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, the Church supported The Evening and the Morning Star in Independence (June 1832-July 1833) and Kirtland (December 1833-September 1834). Where can Book of Mormon readers find the throngs of indigenous “others” who revisionist scholars claim intermingled with the Jaredite and Amerisraelite societies? Their responses were generous, kind, and above all enlightening. As already noted, there is a large amount of acknowledged, quoted material in the Book of Mormon. [4], Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."[5]. In this response, p. 4, Mr. Ferguson wrote: 'With all of these great efforts, it cannot be established factually that anyone, from Joseph Smith to the present day, has put his finger on a single point of terrain that was a Book-of-Mormon geographical place. For an original band of thirty reproductive individuals in 590 B.C.E. E From his own spiritual substance he formed seven sons. 9 ¶ Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 2 [2003]: 114–16). Given the fact that Arabia is a Semitic-language area bordering the lands of the Bible, this should come as no surprise. Characters appeared in the December 21 issue of the Mormon newspaper The Prophet. Read "Wayne May Distorts Facts about Hill Cumorah" He concludes: It seems to me that if Wayne May truly desired to be accurate, honest, and not deceptive that he would simply have a reputable university or qualified scientist, do a "real" "extensive soil analysis" of the Hill Cumorah in New York and the surrounding area and corroborate his highly speculative and erroneous conclusions.

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