tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41561067843898915232024-03-14T07:57:32.629-07:00Book of Mormon Wars (are over)This is a friendly discussion among brothers and sisters who are interested in the Book of Mormon. We look at what critics have said because most of them are sincere people who have relied on interpretations of facts and logic that we think are errors.jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-61826718231243531632023-06-07T15:50:00.004-07:002023-06-07T15:50:22.904-07:00David Whitmer: SITH and M2C<p><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding, we'll use this format when we discuss issues related to the Book of Mormon.</span></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="background-color: #fbfefa; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3" style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Relative acceptance of what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught: Cumorah/Ramah<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">All<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">Some<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">None<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Cumorah/Ramah is in western New York<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Cumorah/Ramah is in Mesoamerica (or anyplace in the world <i>other</i> than New York)<o:p></o:p></p></td><td style="border-bottom: 1pt solid windowtext; border-left: none; border-right: 1pt solid windowtext; border-top: none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Cumorah/Ramah doesn’t exist because it’s fictional<o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As always, see this link for explanation of acronyms (SITH and M2C).</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/p/acronyms-used-in-this-blog.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/p/acronyms-used-in-this-blog.html</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">_____</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">By now, readers here know that the current iteration of SITH (the stone-in-the-hat theory) was first set out in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> in 1834. Decades later, David Whitmer related SITH in various interviews, as well as his booklet <i>An Address to All Believers in Christ</i>.*</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Now it turns out that Whitmer also has a connection to M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory). </p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A few decades after David died, the Whitmerite church published an edition of the Book of Mormon that included the M2C maps first published by RLDS scholar L.E. Hills.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You can see a video presentation about this here:</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://youtu.be/N1gn18qgQAQ?t=754">https://youtu.be/N1gn18qgQAQ?t=754</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fbfefa; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_muW-DaYkrXMo3YE9unITIT3ZwubUJvdhH57QkFSl6NX_SbDK8n7abhYImKezAsxxTa5ESgrOYiwzCQQi8A9HuJXEBbkJpstBtS0Df86gxLzhI16RydWaLog1vDuJI-8fpvhJnFtVgwk0MGTdm6lAs2Pa7ll4_gIzRq-T2txgiBTV8HKXIYQd0dq/s916/M2C%20edition%20of%20BofM.jpg" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="916" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_muW-DaYkrXMo3YE9unITIT3ZwubUJvdhH57QkFSl6NX_SbDK8n7abhYImKezAsxxTa5ESgrOYiwzCQQi8A9HuJXEBbkJpstBtS0Df86gxLzhI16RydWaLog1vDuJI-8fpvhJnFtVgwk0MGTdm6lAs2Pa7ll4_gIzRq-T2txgiBTV8HKXIYQd0dq/s320/M2C%20edition%20of%20BofM.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This means the Whitmerite edition of the Book of Mormon was the first edition to publish an M2C map.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This was about 100 years ago, long before John Sorenson, Jack Welch, and Dan Peterson published their own derivative articles and maps.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">For a modern version of the Hills M2C map, go to <i>BYU Studies</i> and look at the map published there by Jack Welch.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://byustudies.byu.edu/further-study-chart/160-plausible-locations-in-mesoamerica-for-book-of-mormon-places/">https://byustudies.byu.edu/further-study-chart/160-plausible-locations-in-mesoamerica-for-book-of-mormon-places/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Needless to say, Jack Welch gave Hills no credit for developing M2C (although he did mention him once in a presentation, so he knew about Hills).</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Most of the M2C believers know nothing about L.E. Hills. Even Dan recently claimed he'd never heard of him, as if Dan was oblivious to what his associates Jack and John were publishing at FARMS.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">When he published his Source Book, John Sorenson at least recognized Hills as the first to put Cumorah in Mesoamerica.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Now, a handful of influential LDS scholars/academics (the Interpreters) have embraced the L.E. Hills map as the foundation for the theories they spend millions of dollars promoting through Book of Mormon Central.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here is the L.E. Hills map showing Cumorah in southern Mexico:</p><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fbfefa; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5mIoPTyxnpSpVLlV0Ru9n--cgmDyNHLckbCOdNd14VTUJbaLn082a5IkiCueuoCjYEJ4jbetqE2JUJ9hMlf045Syg2TL8qI4dt0P7-IsZFddVDVoBHDC254iuXwWeZZV1DX4y8E2W_blaKLXnvpwQeYdLFG0z8OM1AJPvsPgbJA6JTxI8bVmfbd2/s400/Hills'%201917%20Cumorah.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="400" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5mIoPTyxnpSpVLlV0Ru9n--cgmDyNHLckbCOdNd14VTUJbaLn082a5IkiCueuoCjYEJ4jbetqE2JUJ9hMlf045Syg2TL8qI4dt0P7-IsZFddVDVoBHDC254iuXwWeZZV1DX4y8E2W_blaKLXnvpwQeYdLFG0z8OM1AJPvsPgbJA6JTxI8bVmfbd2/s320/Hills'%201917%20Cumorah.png" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here is the Jack Welch map from <i>BYU Studies</i>, which moved Cumorah a little east and claimed this was all based on extensive research by BYU experts.</p><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fbfefa; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBc1k2WZpfJgj8zAjkKKdlTYWB2R61iOJ50QSdS7jRuXhLvJ0aXfpQXIPqOsvAg-twP2SCnS-DBChlY-PFKGO5CjDPTVPsFew6Fe67ZNT7GLHHfZmd7jR0rQMtOsDjpllIUbX7WvAYNKcNTQyxDXw2uGG231e61RALJB4kaRgHnIy6ONy9ebULh2DZ/s2740/M2C%20BYU%20Studies%20Cumorah%20outlined.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1755" data-original-width="2740" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBc1k2WZpfJgj8zAjkKKdlTYWB2R61iOJ50QSdS7jRuXhLvJ0aXfpQXIPqOsvAg-twP2SCnS-DBChlY-PFKGO5CjDPTVPsFew6Fe67ZNT7GLHHfZmd7jR0rQMtOsDjpllIUbX7WvAYNKcNTQyxDXw2uGG231e61RALJB4kaRgHnIy6ONy9ebULh2DZ/s320/M2C%20BYU%20Studies%20Cumorah%20outlined.png" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And here's how Book of Mormon Central currently portrays Cumorah to Spanish-language readers and followers:</p><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fbfefa; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBu98Bd9Bymj-oNgrrdL8ZuXhFksBDWdbbAwVC8C9NfVSAdA1CVHHjqogEBm-FCau_QUkVX3Lm3mwBHqmV8sp8EIU5qt568pQMAjppRJ1_aH2OmRd9ryjV9EvjJwnnjOEwf9EG6CGl2Kw7vNvIUO_ymDQ9xA1puXrxrLksvgk6Lfl2ifUNvZxx5Taw/s730/BMC-Spanish%20Cumorah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d5cc29; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="730" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBu98Bd9Bymj-oNgrrdL8ZuXhFksBDWdbbAwVC8C9NfVSAdA1CVHHjqogEBm-FCau_QUkVX3Lm3mwBHqmV8sp8EIU5qt568pQMAjppRJ1_aH2OmRd9ryjV9EvjJwnnjOEwf9EG6CGl2Kw7vNvIUO_ymDQ9xA1puXrxrLksvgk6Lfl2ifUNvZxx5Taw/s320/BMC-Spanish%20Cumorah.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://geografia.centralldm.es/mapa-modelo/?playlist=3db12fa&video=c33c342" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://geografia.centralldm.es/mapa-modelo/?playlist=3db12fa&video=c33c342</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">_____</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* It's strange to see so many modern LDS scholars embrace David Whitmer's account of SITH on its face, especially because they have to reject what Joseph and Oliver said to accept Whitmer's account. </p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here is the passage that modern SITH scholars quote as accurate:</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat. and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man</span></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/12/mode/2up" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/12/mode/2up</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The SITH sayers quote this passage, but they don't tell their followers about the rest of the claims David made in this pamphlet, such as his claim that Joseph was not called to establish the church.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Now I hope you understand me. I am not persecuting Brother Joseph, and never did persecute him. Because he erred is no reason why I should not love him. God called him to translate his sacred word by the power and gift of God; but he was not called to set up and establish the church any more thin any of us Elders were. This I will prove conclusively later on, from evidence which you are bound to accept.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/26/mode/2up" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/26/mode/2up</span></a></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">David wrote lots of things about Joseph Smith that the faithful SITH sayers reject.</p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Remember this matter brethren ; it is very important. Farther on I will give you references of scripture on this point, showing that this is God's way of dealing with His people. Now is it wisdom to put your trust in Joseph Smith, and believe all his revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants to be of God ? Every one who does not desire to be of Paul, or of Apollos, or of Joseph, but desires to be of Christ will say that it is not wisdom to put our trust in him and believe his revelations as if from God's own mouth I I will say here, that I could tell you other false revelations that came through Brother Joseph as mouthpiece, (not through the stone) but this will suffice. Many of Brother Joseph's revelations were never printed.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fbfefa; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/30/mode/2up" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/30/mode/2up</span></a></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-37302903968813640712022-09-20T12:21:00.003-07:002022-09-20T12:21:30.006-07:00M2C NPCs<p> </p><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-zl2h9q" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px 0px 2px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-k4xj1c r-18u37iz r-1wtj0ep" style="-webkit-box-align: start; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; -webkit-box-pack: justify; align-items: start; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; justify-content: space-between; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1d09ksm r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2" style="-webkit-box-align: baseline; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: baseline; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" data-testid="User-Names" id="id__h3wpm811ubm" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-1dbjc4n r-1loqt21 r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" href="https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays" role="link" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; 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padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">Scott Adams</span></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-xoduu5 r-18u37iz r-1q142lx r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="auto" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline-flex; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><svg aria-label="Verified account" class="r-1cvl2hr r-4qtqp9 r-yyyyoo r-1xvli5t r-9cviqr r-f9ja8p r-og9te1 r-bnwqim r-1plcrui r-lrvibr" role="img" viewbox="0 0 24 24"><g><path d="M22.5 12.5c0-1.58-.875-2.95-2.148-3.6.154-.435.238-.905.238-1.4 0-2.21-1.71-3.998-3.818-3.998-.47 0-.92.084-1.336.25C14.818 2.415 13.51 1.5 12 1.5s-2.816.917-3.437 2.25c-.415-.165-.866-.25-1.336-.25-2.11 0-3.818 1.79-3.818 4 0 .494.083.964.237 1.4-1.272.65-2.147 2.018-2.147 3.6 0 1.495.782 2.798 1.942 3.486-.02.17-.032.34-.032.514 0 2.21 1.708 4 3.818 4 .47 0 .92-.086 1.335-.25.62 1.334 1.926 2.25 3.437 2.25 1.512 0 2.818-.916 3.437-2.25.415.163.865.248 1.336.248 2.11 0 3.818-1.79 3.818-4 0-.174-.012-.344-.033-.513 1.158-.687 1.943-1.99 1.943-3.484zm-6.616-3.334l-4.334 6.5c-.145.217-.382.334-.625.334-.143 0-.288-.04-.416-.126l-.115-.094-2.415-2.415c-.293-.293-.293-.768 0-1.06s.768-.294 1.06 0l1.77 1.767 3.825-5.74c.23-.345.696-.436 1.04-.207.346.23.44.696.21 1.04z"></path></g></svg></div></div></a></div></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2 r-13hce6t" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0px 4px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1d09ksm r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2" style="-webkit-box-align: baseline; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: baseline; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-1dbjc4n r-1loqt21 r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" href="https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays" role="link" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 0;" tabindex="-1"><div class="css-901oao css-1hf3ou5 r-14j79pv r-18u37iz r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #536471; display: inline; flex-direction: row; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">@ScottAdamsSays</span></div></a></div><div aria-hidden="true" class="css-901oao r-14j79pv r-1q142lx r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-s1qlax r-qvutc0" dir="auto" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #536471; display: inline; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 4px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">·</span></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-18u37iz r-1q142lx" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><a aria-label="2 hours ago" class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao r-14j79pv r-1loqt21 r-xoduu5 r-1q142lx r-1w6e6rj r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-9aw3ui r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-3s2u2q r-qvutc0" dir="auto" href="https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1572272791667474439" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #536471; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; flex-shrink: 0; flex-wrap: wrap; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; gap: 4px; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap;"><time datetime="2022-09-20T17:13:39.000Z">2h</time></a></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1joea0r" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-6koalj r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-18u37iz r-1h0z5md" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; -webkit-box-pack: start; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; justify-content: flex-start; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-label="More" class="css-18t94o4 css-1dbjc4n r-1777fci r-bt1l66 r-1ny4l3l r-bztko3 r-lrvibr" data-testid="caret" role="button" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-pack: center; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; justify-content: center; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: none; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><div class="css-901oao r-1awozwy r-14j79pv r-6koalj r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-1h0z5md r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-o7ynqc r-clp7b1 r-3s2u2q r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: start; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #536471; display: flex; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; justify-content: flex-start; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: color; white-space: nowrap;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1niwhzg r-sdzlij r-1p0dtai r-xoduu5 r-1d2f490 r-xf4iuw r-1ny4l3l r-u8s1d r-zchlnj r-ipm5af r-o7ynqc r-6416eg" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-radius: 9999px; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; inset: 0px; margin: -8px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, box-shadow; z-index: 0;"></div><svg aria-hidden="true" class="r-4qtqp9 r-yyyyoo r-1xvli5t r-dnmrzs r-bnwqim r-1plcrui r-lrvibr r-1hdv0qi" viewbox="0 0 24 24"><g><circle cx="5" cy="12" r="2"></circle><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="2"></circle><circle cx="19" cy="12" r="2"></circle></g></svg></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" data-testid="tweetText" dir="auto" id="id__9lvwipu0rtb" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">No one predicted people would become robots before robots gained human intelligence, but here we are.</span></div></div></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihp-_uQ--fv13chyTyYedNNI53tP11DMBAO1jK_m0-6KU0fkUcI0OGodc79iegt2AXa5pmwf8v9-UzMqobegGc7rzhRbkYxzwHMXqnhEUQFxjwQ0hP8cuKRknAH51f0aYhr0GhEP97xv9_Gc8RB9ABZQGDIlcQjeCKklzm_CkMYo--f2YcvBHeypSk/s2711/M2C%20NPCs%20BMC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2475" data-original-width="2711" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihp-_uQ--fv13chyTyYedNNI53tP11DMBAO1jK_m0-6KU0fkUcI0OGodc79iegt2AXa5pmwf8v9-UzMqobegGc7rzhRbkYxzwHMXqnhEUQFxjwQ0hP8cuKRknAH51f0aYhr0GhEP97xv9_Gc8RB9ABZQGDIlcQjeCKklzm_CkMYo--f2YcvBHeypSk/s320/M2C%20NPCs%20BMC.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-2726816763664231542022-01-07T11:34:00.003-08:002022-01-07T11:34:34.255-08:00Wisdom vs knowledge<p> <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-1dbjc4n r-1loqt21 r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" href="https://twitter.com/NavalismHQ" role="link" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 1; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 0;"></a></p><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" id="id__calsos31y4r" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-18u37iz r-dnmrzs" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-1awozwy r-18jsvk2 r-6koalj r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-b88u0q r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-3s2u2q r-qvutc0" dir="auto" style="-webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline !important; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 css-bfa6kz r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline !important; font: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">Navalism</span></span></div></div></div><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-zl2h9q" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; 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padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">"Knowledge is discovered by all of us, each adding to the whole.
Wisdom is rediscovered by each of us, one at a time."
</span><div class="css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><span class="r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; flex-direction: row;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/naval" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1d9bf0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">@naval</a></span></div></div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-38993716803323055142021-06-11T14:45:00.000-07:002021-06-11T14:45:08.576-07:00Letter VII coming to Cumorah in New York!<p>Today Elder LeGrand Curtis, Jr., the current Church Historian and Recorder, announced that the Church is going forward with the restoration of the Hill Cumorah in New York. </p><p>Because this is a project managed by the Church History Department, we can be sure the new displays will provide visitors complete information about Church history related to the Hill Cumorah in New York. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-XiktH1WIfTzpX01Row3_j8HJUOTlz-WwpLwg53dWeLHhbk57_vEM1Lbi_6key-EVHgqRJUSzGdJeWSaDPJxbGvP9depVXU58nNkYmc2her7VjmyOIBlXzsQdX0i0RVQLm0DkApLfLi8/s960/Cumorah+sepia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-XiktH1WIfTzpX01Row3_j8HJUOTlz-WwpLwg53dWeLHhbk57_vEM1Lbi_6key-EVHgqRJUSzGdJeWSaDPJxbGvP9depVXU58nNkYmc2her7VjmyOIBlXzsQdX0i0RVQLm0DkApLfLi8/s320/Cumorah+sepia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgUOHjgqsdeuPy0pAioQMIj_twOuJlPTnbNeHUZS9SC35sbOCyiDz2vQkGPc1sBY1cwNnUuQikcxmJTSLDvcbpnSZHWhj_XnY2cIjEhLGER6fwNtJg4ywp1whi-Y6ZJaal3XycId3QHE/s496/Letters+of+Oliver+Cowdery.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="286" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgUOHjgqsdeuPy0pAioQMIj_twOuJlPTnbNeHUZS9SC35sbOCyiDz2vQkGPc1sBY1cwNnUuQikcxmJTSLDvcbpnSZHWhj_XnY2cIjEhLGER6fwNtJg4ywp1whi-Y6ZJaal3XycId3QHE/w116-h200/Letters+of+Oliver+Cowdery.JPG" width="116" /></a></div>The most detailed historical information we have about Cumorah is from Oliver Cowdery's essays on Church history. His essays, published as letters in every Church-related newspaper during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, discussed the significance of Cumorah, including Moroni's visit, the construction of the stone box, Joseph's experience visiting the hill, and the hill's connection with the events in the Book of Mormon. Letters IV, VII and VIII deal specifically with Cumorah. <p></p><p><a href="http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90" target="_blank">http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90</a></p><p><b>The Church History Department, in the ongoing effort to provide full transparency and educational materials to Church members and the public, is about to bring these materials back to Cumorah.</b></p><p>A news release outlines the plans to restore the Hill Cumorah:</p><p><a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-curtis-hill-cumorah-preservation" target="_blank">https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-curtis-hill-cumorah-preservation</a></p><p>Perhaps they will republish the collection of these essays that was printed in the <i>Messenger and Advocate</i>. Or the collection from the <i>Times and Seasons</i>. Or the collection from the <i>Millennial Star</i>. Or the collection from the <i>Gospel Reflector</i>. Or the collection from <i>The Prophet</i>. Or the collection from the <i>Improvement Era</i>. </p><p>Or, maybe they will republish the original collection that was published in England in 1844 and sold thousands of copies. which you can see here:</p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/lettersbyoliverc00oliv">https://archive.org/details/lettersbyoliverc00oliv</a></p><p>At the very least, we can expect these essays to be reproduced in full at Cumorah so visitors to the Hill Cumorah will learn about <i>all </i>the history related to that location.</p><p>Important excerpt:</p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: mckay, "Ensign:Serif"; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Church will create a network of accessible trails at the site. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: mckay, "Ensign:Serif"; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">These will have <b>a central kiosk that explains the sacred events that occurred at the Hill Cumorah. Signs along the way will provide additional information</b>. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: mckay, "Ensign:Serif"; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Each trail will lead to the angel Moroni monument at the top of the hill. The Moroni statue will be regilded, and the landscape around the monument will be refreshed. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: mckay, "Ensign:Serif"; font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">New exhibits will be placed in the visitors’ center in 2023 to mark the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s first visit to the hill.</span></span></p><p>No doubt the central kiosk will also feature all the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. They can use the BYU Packet for a list, with references.</p><p><a href="http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html">http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html</a></p><p><br /></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-51191248863052678102021-01-17T08:51:00.002-08:002021-01-17T08:51:13.529-08:00No one takes the truth seriously<p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“It's a great country: you can say whatever you like so long as it is strictly true--nobody will ever take you seriously.”</span> ― Edward Abbey</p><p><br /></p><p>It's a great Church History Department. Joseph and Oliver could say whatever they wanted, so long as it was strictly true--none of the historians take them seriously.</p><p>From the Wentworth letter:</p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The whole book exhibited many marks of antiquity in its construction and much skill in the art of engraving. With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,” which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.</span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God....</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">We are informed by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and came directly from the tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. <b>The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country. </b></span></p>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-32677062514958466942020-12-22T15:35:00.003-08:002020-12-22T15:35:52.396-08:00Getting real about Cumorah - Part 1, John Clark<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #d52a33; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In 2018, it's time to get real about Cumorah.</b></h3><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6729068773475083507" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><b><br /></b><b>Lately, people want to know who, exactly, is promoting M2C.</b> They have children and/or grandchildren attending BYU or in CES and they want to prepare them for what they will learn and from whom. I'm reluctant to identify individuals because people change their views from time to time. Just because someone promotes M2C (or, worse, BYU's fantasy map of the Book of Mormon) doesn't mean he/she won't later change course.<br /><br />Besides, as I keep emphasizing, people can have strong testimonies and can promote faith regardless of what they think about Book of Mormon geography. M2C is not some kind of scarlet letter.<br /><br />But, in my opinion and experience, M2C does have the long-term impact of causing confusion and disturbing faith, <b><span style="color: red;">especially because it's a gateway drug to rejecting what the prophets teach about other topics.</span></b><br /><br /><span style="color: red;"><b>As I explain below, I think anyone who starts with the premise that the prophets and apostles were wrong about Cumorah is not only embarking on a futile effort, but is leading others to doubt the prophets and apostles in their respective areas of expertise. </b></span><br /><br />Students at BYU and CES are especially vulnerable because they trust their teachers (as they should).<br /><br /><b>But when their teachers tell them to disbelieve the prophets and apostles about the Hill Cumorah, they introduce the idea that they, the intellectuals, are the final say on what students should believe. </b>As long as the prophets and apostles agree with the intellectuals, according to the M2C BYU/CES teachers, then students should believe the prophets and apostles. But when the intellectuals disagree with the prophets and apostles, then the students should believe the M2C intellectuals.<br /><br />Long-time readers of this blog know that in the early days, I took an academic approach of critiquing specific publications from what I called the "citation cartel" of FARMS, FairMormon, BookofMormonCentral, <i>BYU Studies</i>, the <i>Interpreter</i>, etc. Some of the scholars whose work I cited and assessed objected. While unwilling to discuss these things with me personally, they said it was inappropriate for me to cite them by name. In the interests of civility, I agreed to leave names out of the discussions going forward.<br /><br />Besides, I personally like the LDS scholars and intellectuals who promote M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory) and I don't think personalities have anything to do with the merits of an academic argument. I certainly have never intended any offense. I've always said I would prefer private conversations and resolution of disagreements, but because they are unwilling to engage in that effort, I've written this blog instead.<br /><br />That said, anyone who wants to know who promotes M2C can visit the directory pages of the <a href="http://interpreterfoundation.org/foundation/" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">Interpreter Foundation</a><i> </i>and <a href="https://bookofmormoncentral.org/directory" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">BookofMormonCentral</a>, two organizations that dogmatically promote M2C to the point of excluding and uniformly criticizing alternatives, contrary to the Church's position of neutrality. <b>People publicly affiliated with these groups embrace the editorial positions of these organizations. They reject the teachings of the prophets and apostles about Cumorah, as well as the Church's position of neutrality, and that's a serious matter in my view.</b><br /><br />Therefore, in 2018, it's time to get real about Cumorah.<br />_____<br /><br />This is the first of a series I'll post about Cumorah. I realize these are long, but lately people have claimed that I "cherry pick" quotations and don't apply academic standards. I have a lot of detailed analysis that I haven't published because I don't think enough people are interested in it. People like short posts. They like tweets, actually. But I like to delve into issues and understand them from multiple perspectives, and there may be some readers who think likewise, so I'll go ahead and post these here.<br />_____<br /><br />I start with an article by John Clark titled "The Final Battle for Cumorah," <i>Review of Books on the Book of Mormon</i> 6/2 (1994): 79-113. You can access it directly from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute here: <a href="https://publications.mi.byu.edu/pdf-control.php/publications/review/6/2/S00005-51b10ada1f8b75Clark.pdf" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">https://publications.mi.byu.edu/pdf-control.php/publications/review/6/2/S00005-51b10ada1f8b75Clark.pdf</a><br /><br />BookofMormonCentral references it here: <a href="https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/final-battle-cumorah" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/final-battle-cumorah</a>. (At the end of this post, I have a comment on Book of Mormon Central, showing how dogmatic their editorial position is.)<br /><br />This is a seminal article in many respects. <b>Brother Clark lays out the reasons why so many intellectuals in the Church reject what the prophets and apostles have taught about Cumorah</b>. His arguments here have endured.<br /><br /><b>Well, they have not merely endured. They have prevailed among LDS intellectuals and I think it's important to show why.</b><br /><br />The article is framed as a "Review of Christ in North America (1993), by Delbert W. Curtis."<br />Here is the Abstract: "Clark examines the scholarship and logic involved in assuming a one-Cumorah theory for Book of Mormon geography."<br /><br />Notice the editorial position here. The "one-Cumorah theory" is merely an "assumption" that can be assessed by examining its "scholarship and logic." That statement is a poetically concise description of M2C.<br /><br />Brother Clark usually does a nice job cutting to the key issues, and this article is no exception. In fact, one of his observations on page 84 helped lead me to embark on this review of Cumorah issues. <br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">"But these other scholars are never cited, nor is it clear that Curtis has read them with anything but disdain...."</span><br /><br />I agree with Brother Clark that it's important to cite scholars specifically and to read them with respect and due consideration. Maybe I should have been more specific for the last year or so and used more citations. At least in this post, it is clear that I am evaluating what Brother Clark wrote, citing his work specifically and treating it with complete respect.<br /><br />Here's another wonderful observation from p. 84.<br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">"Anyone with over a month's experience in the Church knows that interpretation of scriptures is tricky business and that differences of opinion are rarely resolved, especially when it concerns what someone "meant." The existence of Curtis's book is clear evidence that the scriptures for Zion and the land of promise can be read in a narrow sense. The question, however, is whether they should be."</span><br /><br />This is exactly what I've been trying to say since I started this blog. The semantic debates are, ultimately, <b>nothing more than bias confirmation.</b> If you want to believe a scripture means one thing, you can interpret it that way. If I want to believe it means something else, I can interpret it my way. Most of the debates about Book of Mormon geography involve this type of bias confirmation that can never be resolved. That's how we have ended up with dozens of different theories about Book of Mormon geography.<br /><br /><b>Actually, the futility of private interpretation that Brother Clark describes here is precisely why we have prophets and apostles, a point that doesn't seen to dawn on him, as we'll see.</b><br />_____<br /><br />The specific example that prompted Brother Clark's comment was the quotation from History, 1838-1856 of a sermon given by Joseph Smith on 8 April 1844. You can read it here:<br /><a href="http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-e-1-1-july-1843-30-april-1844/354" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-e-1-1-july-1843-30-april-1844/354</a><br /><br />"The whole of America is the land of Zion itself from the north to the south, and it is described by the prophets, who declare that it is the Zion where the mountain of the Lord should be, and that it should be in the center of the land." This is often quoted as evidence that Zion is the entire western hemisphere, meaning the continents of North and South America, and Brother Clark adopts that interpretation as we'll see in a moment.<br /><br />Back in 1994, people were citing <i>Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith</i>, which put this passage in italics. People rarely read the rest of the sermon, but Joseph went on to say this: "I have received instructions from the Lord that from henceforth wherever the Elders of Israel shall build up churches and branches unto the Lord throughout the States, there shall be a stake of Zion; in the great cities as Boston, NewYork &c. there shall be stakes." This observation, along with other contemporary references to the United States as "America" and the historical context of the division between the states in the North and South, make it is obvious to me that Joseph used the term "the whole of America" to refer to the United States. Twelve years earlier, Joseph had received a revelation that said, "For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States..." D&C 87:3. He was, in effect, telling his listeners that all of America, meaning the entire United States and not just the northern states where they lived, was Zion.<br /><br />But my interpretation is not binding on anyone else, and that's the point that Brother Clark tries to make. <br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">"The citation from Joseph Smith, <b><i>as I understand it,</i></b> appears to include "the whole of America." That </span><span style="color: blue;">this is "singular" only appears to weaken Curtis's reading that "Zion is from Mexico on the south to Canada on the north." Curtis appears to read the statement to mean that the land of Zion is in the center of the land; I think "center" refers to "the mountain of the Lord" as being in the center of the land. In any event, why would anyone want to read this statement so narrowly? The obvious suspicion is that it is the only reading that will support Curtis's geography. The same is true of the "Zion" scriptures. These appear to mention a Zion in "the tops of the mountains," a reference that</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">many have considered as an accurate description of the Salt Lake City intermountain region. It would be a poor description indeed for the Great Lakes area." </span>(emphasis added) pp. 84-5.<br /><br />Here, Brother Clark simply disagrees with Brother Curtis' interpretation, which he characterizes as "narrow," supposedly in contrast to Brother Clark's more "expansive" interpretation. He prefers his own view to Brother Curtis' because "The obvious suspicion is that it is the only reading that will support Curtis's geography." This is precisely the type of accusation to which I thought Brother Clark objected, yet he doesn't seem to realize what he is doing.<br /><br />Parsing the grammar of someone's hand-written account of Joseph's spoken, extemporaneous sermon is silly enough, but characterizing someone else's interpretation as "narrow" and therefore invalid is beyond silly. Prior revelations had identified Missouri as the land of Zion. How can it be unreasonable to ask what land Missouri is in the center of?<br /><br />My point is not to resolve the question of Zion, but to show how even a writer as precise and careful as Brother Clark can be blind to his own analytical errors.<br />_____<br /><br />In the next part of his article, Brother Clark sets forth the Columbus argument that so many M2C writers have relied upon. I engage this just to show how easy it is to support one's argument by attacking an easy target and ignoring arguments that contradict what you're advocating.<br /><br />Fortunately for Brother Clark, Brother Curtis is an easy target. Brother Clark quotes him as writing, "Columbus didn't actually come to North America..." Of course, that's factually wrong. The Bahamas and Cuba are north of southern Mexico and are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_countries_by_population" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">part of North America</a>.<br /><br />I've shown previously that, in fact, the first place Columbus landed (probably--the location remains open for debate) was the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas. This is less than 400 miles from Florida. (Many LDS think Lehi landed in Florida.) On that first voyage, Columbus also visited Cayo Cruz in Cuba, which is only 134 miles from Florida.<br /><div><br /></div>By contrast, San Salvador is 1,400 miles from the <i>east coast</i> of southern Mexico. M2C intellectuals think Lehi landed on the <i>west coast </i>of southern Mexico or Guatemala, which of course is even farther away from San Salvador, Cayo Cruz, and the other places Columbus visited in 1492.<br /><br />M2C intellectuals like to invoke all of Columbus' voyages, because on his fourth voyage in 1502 he visited Trujillon on the east coast of Honduras, which is <i>closer</i> to their Mesoamerican setting. But it's still far away. In addition to being the wrong coast, Trujillo is 300 miles away from Guatemala City.<br /><br />Plus, before Columbus' fourth voyage in 1502, Cabot landed in Newfoundland (1497) and Cabral landed in Brazil (1500), so it's difficult to justify Columbus 4th voyage as the one Nephi described in 1 Nephi 13:12. Before the time of the events in verse 13, when "other Gentiles" are coming, the man in verse 12 had already sailed upon the many waters "unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land." This means the Bahamas and Cuba, not Mesoamerica. Columbus' fourth voyage to Honduras was too late to qualify.<br /><br />If, as I believe, Lehi and Nephi crossed the Atlantic and landed in Florida, they would have sailed roughly the same route Columbus did through the Caribbean. (The Mulekites also sailed along a similar route, as I explain <a href="http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/07/columbus-reconsidered.html" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.)<br /><br />There's another important point. Assuming Lehi sailed all the way to Florida through the area Columbus visited, it's not surprising that Nephi, having had a vision of the promised land, recognized the place when they sailed through the area on their way to the landing site in Florida. The M2C theory requires that Lehi landed on the <i>west coast of Mexico</i>, an area Columbus never saw or even came close to, which raises the question of how Nephi would have recognized it from his vision.<br /><br />I realize all of this is getting in the weeds, but when M2C scholars insist Columbus visited Mesoamerica and not North America (meaning the U.S.), we have to assess their claims. No matter how you look at it, Columbus and Nephi are aligned with Caribbean voyages but not with a theory that has Lehi landing on the west coast of Mesoamerica.<br /><br />This is a digression from Cumorah, obviously, but Brother Clark's Columbus discussion fails to take into account these critical elements.<br /><br />As do the Columbus arguments of all the M2C proponents.<br />_____<br /><br />On, finally, to Cumorah.<br /><br />On pages 93-4, Brother Clark gives a nice biographical introduction that contains good persuasion techniques:<br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">For the first 22 years of my life I thought the location of Cumorah was well-known. as Joseph Smith received the plates from Moroni at that spot. My father occasionally told us stories about the New York Cumorah that he had heard while serving a mission there during World War II. I was told of tremendous earthworks and defensive trenches encountered by the earliest settlers in Palmyra, and of large deposits of metal weapons. I also heard of a vision wherein his mission president saw a red-headed Moroni lamenting over the destruction of his people. These were moving images in my youth. As with Curtis, I was extremely offended when I first heard the two-Cumorah theory. and I reacted strongly against it. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Until I heard the two-Cumorah theory after returning from my mission, I had no idea that the location of Cumorah was even a question or that the location of Book of Mormon lands was a topic of research. My initial reaction was to take offense and to argue the point with my roommate who was taking a class in Book of Mormon archaeology from M. Wells Jakeman. In the course of our arguments, it soon dawned on me that I had unthinkingly accepted a traditional view of the matter and had never seriously looked at the statements from the Book of Mormon. The internal evidence from the Book of Mormon eventually convinced me that I had been naive in accepting the traditional view and that there must be two hills called Cumorah: that of the Book of Mormon and one in New York.</span><br /><br />I especially enjoyed this biohistory because it's the inverse of the one I use all the time; i.e., that I had been an M2C believer/proponent for decades before, to use Brother Clark's words, "it dawned on me that I had unthinkingly accepted a traditional view of the matter."<br /><br />In other words, by the time I went to BYU, <b>Brother Clark and his fellow M2C promoters had successfully reversed the "traditional view of the matter" by replacing the words of the prophets with the words of the scholars.</b><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Currently, students at BYU and in CES are never taught what the prophets and apostles have consistently taught about the Hill Cumorah.</span></b> </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxurCIs0dDMDNi5cv8NHyLnJYzkzHz_YcF9k3sP3oRlS38dnSL_Ytn8kg4pNJWN4n_HgOfQUamsvVMrwMaUHr12VQlavAoS7qGQdIdgm2x_-xt-ZcAErvXV49KkFfYzRTPbuHsdoSK9pY/s1600/BoM-Abstract+Map-29-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #7d7717; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1486" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxurCIs0dDMDNi5cv8NHyLnJYzkzHz_YcF9k3sP3oRlS38dnSL_Ytn8kg4pNJWN4n_HgOfQUamsvVMrwMaUHr12VQlavAoS7qGQdIdgm2x_-xt-ZcAErvXV49KkFfYzRTPbuHsdoSK9pY/s320/BoM-Abstract+Map-29-crop.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="297" /></a></div><b>Instead, they are presented with a fantasy map of Book of Mormon geography that is based on the M2C interpretation of the text!</b><br /><b><br /></b><b>The map is supposedly based on the "best interpretation" of the text, by which the intellectuals mean their own interpretation, driven by M2C ideology.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b>The map makes sure that students never make a connection between Cumorah and New York.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b>If they ask about this, their teachers tell them that Joseph and Oliver were ignorant speculators who misled the Church about the true location of Cumorah.</b><br /><b><br /></b><b>(Or words to that effect.)</b><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Zs8_7KYva9ag7dMuFJYfF8M5AnQ1hAVur5PIkkwAwOwWPJblWizYN3YoZsWKUrXU4li0hT7sRO_FdGsKazD6SFW3CRpiPetME2civoVFxVnBNYzzbaY4BgR8MYsMuzBDUnUdVyMQhdE/s1600/BYU+Studies+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #7d7717; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="635" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Zs8_7KYva9ag7dMuFJYfF8M5AnQ1hAVur5PIkkwAwOwWPJblWizYN3YoZsWKUrXU4li0hT7sRO_FdGsKazD6SFW3CRpiPetME2civoVFxVnBNYzzbaY4BgR8MYsMuzBDUnUdVyMQhdE/s320/BYU+Studies+map.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a>Or, for the only alternative point of view permitted at BYU and CES, BYU/CES students can go to to the home page of <i>BYU Studies</i> and find another "plausible" map that is the only one presented by <i>BYU Studies</i>.<br /><br />Like BYU's fantasy map, the <i>BYU Studies</i> map also teaches students that (i) Cumorah cannot be in New York; (ii) Joseph and Oliver were ignorant speculators who misled the Church; (iii) all the prophets and apostles who have spoken about Cumorah were also wrong and should not have accepted what Joseph and Oliver taught; and (iv) students should believe their BYU/CES teachers instead of the prophets and apostles.<br /><br />If you go to the BookofMormonCentral web page directory, you'll see that the people responsible for these maps are BYU professors who drive the M2C editorial policy.<br /><br />Let's see how Brother Clark explains and justifies this reversal.<br />_____<br /><br />First, he cites David Palmer's "excellent" book, <i>In Search of Cumorah: New Evidences for the</i><br /><i>Book of Mormon from Ancient Mexico</i>. I put Brother Clark's term <i>excellent </i>in quotation marks because I would have used the term <i>infamous </i>instead.<br /><br />Brother Palmer wrote the entry about Cumorah that is still found in the <i>Encyclopedia of Mormonism (EoM)</i>. Following good citation cartel practice, he cites his own book, John L. Sorenson, and our own Brother John Clark. You can see the entry here:<br /><a href="http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/EoM/id/4391/show/5649" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/EoM/id/4391/show/5649</a><br /><br />[BTW, I love a lot of things about the <i>EoM</i>, but the entry on Cumorah is probably my favorite. Read it and you'll see why.]<br /><br />I characterize Brother Palmer's book as <i>infamous </i>not only because of the self-serving citation in <i>EoM</i>, but because of its role in the phony plagiarized fax that FairMormon, FARMS, and the rest of the citation cartel use as authority for their M2C ideology. I've blogged about that here:<br /><a href="http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-to-create-some-doctrine.html" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-to-create-some-doctrine.html</a><br /><br />Let's get back to Brother Clark's article and see how Brother Palmer's book fits in.<br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">P. 94: "It is noteworthy that this [i.e., Palmer's] book is not cited by Curtis, nor are its arguments for the internal evidence for the hill Cumorah considered . This is not polite or serious scholarship. The location of the hill Cumorah is the primary strut in Curtis's argument for Book of Mormon lands, yet</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">he presents no analysis of the statements from the Book of Mormon which reveal features of this hill. He assumes that the New York Cumorah and that mentioned in the Book of Mormon are one and the same. All his arguments for the configuration of Book of Mormon lands (see next section) follow from the assumption that the hill Cumorah is the one known Book of Mormon location in the New World."</span><br /><br />I suspect you already know what I'm going to write about this passage, but I'll write it anyway--in a moment.<br /><br />First, though, I need to digress and point out that Brother Palmer himself reviewed one of Brother Curtis' pieces in another classic from the <i>Review of Books on the Book of Mormon</i>. You can read it here:<br /> <a href="https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=msr" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=msr</a> In that article, Brother Palmer writes, <span style="color: blue;">"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never taken an official position on issues of Book of Mormon geography. Some unofficial books, written before modem</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">archaeological methods were applied, assumed that Mormon's Cumorah and the New York hill were the same. This tradition, begun by Oliver Cowdery, has continued to the present. The New York hill came to be known as the one Book of Mormon location known with certainty. However, it was generally believed that Mesoamerica was the cradle of those cultures."</span><br /><br />I provided that quotation to help explain Brother Clark's views and why he characterizes the Palmer book as "excellent." Brother Palmer frames the New York Cumorah as a "tradition begun by Oliver Cowdery," presumably referring to Letter VII <i>without citing it</i>. "Some unofficial books" assumed the tradition was correct, but they were "written before modern archaeological methods were applied."<br /><br /><b>Another way to frame the New York Cumorah is the way Joseph Smith did.</b><br /><br />Joseph referred to the eight historical letters that include Letter VII as "President Cowdery's letters." Why? Because when he wrote Letter VII, Oliver Cowdery was the Assistant President of the Church--a calling that placed him senior in authority to the First and Second Counselors in the First Presidency. Joseph designated President Cowdery as spokesman. Letter VII was published in the official Church newspaper, the <i>Messenger and Advocate</i>, copied into Joseph Smith's history, and republished in other official Church newspapers, including the <i>Times and Seasons</i> and the <i>Improvement Era.</i> Neither Brother Palmer nor Brother Clark will mention any of that.<br /><br />You can read everything published by the citation cartel--and everything in <i>Encyclopedia of Mormonism</i>--and never learn a thing about Letter VII and its context.<br /><br />For that matter, you can read all of the Joseph Smith Papers, including the notes, and never learn the context and importance of these letters, but that's a topic for another day.<br />_____<br /><br />Back to Brother Clark. I'll just put my comments in red.<br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">It is noteworthy that this [i.e., Palmer's] book is not cited by Curtis, nor are its arguments for the internal evidence for the hill Cumorah considered. This is not polite or serious scholarship. </span><span style="color: red;">Is it impolite and unserious because Brothers Palmer and Clark are both part of the citation cartel? Is Curtis supposed to cite and consider Palmer because Palmer cited Clark in <i>EoM</i>? Since when is anyone required to cite and address every book on a topic? For that matter, why is it not impolite and unserious for Palmer and Clark not to cite and consider Letter VII? </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The location of the hill Cumorah is the primary strut in Curtis's argument for Book of Mormon lands, yet </span><span style="color: blue;">he presents no analysis of the statements from the Book of Mormon which reveal features of this hill. </span><span style="color: red;">When we read the Palmer/Clark list of "features of this hill" supposedly "revealed" by the statements in the Book of Mormon, we see they are actually little more than self-serving interpretations designed to point to Central America. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">He <i>assumes </i>that the New York Cumorah and that mentioned in the Book of Mormon are one and the same. All his arguments for the configuration of Book of Mormon lands (see next section) follow from the assumption that the hill Cumorah is the one known Book of Mormon location in the New World. </span><span style="color: red;">Brother Clark makes a good point here. Brother Curtis did make an assumption that Cumorah was in New York. The issue is the validity of that assumption. Brother Clark addresses that next.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The meager evidence adduced to support this claim come </span><span style="color: blue;">from the "traditional" view and a few early statements of dubious </span><span style="color: blue;">origin. </span><span style="color: red;">I haven't read Curtis' book so I don't know if he cites other evidence, but let's look at what Brother Clark considers "meager evidence."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">Curtis's primary text is the Oliver Cowdery story of the </span><span style="color: blue;">Nephite records repository, as related by Brigham Young many </span><span style="color: blue;">years later. <b>Until now, it has been quite easy to ignore this story as </b></span><span style="color: blue;"><b>being devoid of specific content. </b></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">We can understand why M2C proponents have ignored President Young's account, and it's not because it lacks specifics. It is precisely because it contains specifics that contradict their M2C theory. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">But in light of its place in </span><span style="color: blue;">Curtis's argument I cite it here and consider it briefly. </span><span style="color: red;">Good for Brother Clark to at least consider it, albeit briefly. But you'll see that his "consideration" of President Young's sermon is cursory and misleading.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">On June 17, 1877, Brigham Young addressed the Saints in </span><span style="color: blue;">Farmington, Utah, on the occasion of organizing a stake there. </span><span style="color: red;">Brother Clark doesn't mention the historical context. This was one of the last sermons President Young gave. He died two months later on August 29th. He spent the last year of his life introducing important temple practices and reorganizing the Priesthood throughout Utah. He was quite ill but felt an urgency to leave the Church in as good a shape as he could. In this very sermon, he emphasizes that he discussed the room in Cumorah precisely so it would not be forgotten.</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The primary focus of the first part of his discourse was to warn the </span><span style="color: blue;">Saints against seeking after money and precious metals. As part of </span><span style="color: blue;">this message he conveyed the following story: </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">"Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he </span><span style="color: blue;">deposited these plates </span><span style="color: red;">[for sake of space I omit all but the first and last sentence from Brother Clark's quotation, but this passage is familiar to readers of this blog]</span><span style="color: blue;">. I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it, and who understood it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting, enjoying the day, and by and by we separate and go away, forgetting most of what is said, but remembering some things."</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">You can read the entire quotation here: <a href="http://jod.mrm.org/19/36" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">http://jod.mrm.org/19/36</a>. </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">If we accept this story at face value, it would seem to indicate </span><span style="color: blue;">that the hill Cumorah in New York is indeed the one in which </span><span style="color: blue;">Mormon deposited all of the plates. </span><span style="color: red;">Do you see the argument here? If we accept what President Young taught "at face value" it destroys the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory. So of course, Brother Clark and other M2C proponents cannot accept it at face value. Instead, they prefer to ignore it--and hope we ignore it also.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">This is exactly the same argument the M2C proponents make for rejecting the other prophets and apostles; i.e., we should not accept what they teach "at face value."</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">There is no indication in this </span><span style="color: blue;">story that Joseph and Oliver were carried away in vision, rather, the</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">circumstances appear quite pedestrian-a walk to the hill with the </span><span style="color: blue;">plates to return them to the angel. This story also indicates that at </span><span style="color: blue;">least two visits were involved and that other people were familiar</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">with this story.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Brother Clark recognizes that President Young spoke in a practical, matter-of-fact manner. But he begins his quotation where all the M2C writers begin because he doesn't want readers to know exactly how practical and real President Young was. When you read this, you see why Brother Clark and other M2C proponents always omit this part. Brigham Young introduced the account of Oliver's experience by saying:</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">"<b>I lived right in the country where the plates were found from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and I know a great many things pertaining to that country.</b> I believe I will take the liberty to tell you of another circumstance that will be as marvelous as anything can be. This is an incident in the life of Oliver Cowdery, but he did not take the liberty of telling such things in meeting as I take. I tell these things to you, and <b>I have a motive for doing so.</b> I want to carry them to the ears of my brethren and sisters, and to the children also, that they may grow to an understanding of some things that seem to be entirely hidden from the human family."</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Brigham Young specifically grounded Oliver's experience in the reality of western New York; i.e., he explained that he, Brigham, grew up in that area and knew about it. </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">So besides omitting Brigham's introduction, how does Brother Clark justify rejecting what Brigham Young taught "at face value?" He quotes another source.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Heber C. Kimball alluded to a slightly different version of the </span><span style="color: blue;">story with the significant difference that a vision experience is </span><span style="color: blue;">mentioned.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">"Brother Mills mentioned in his song, that crossing the </span><span style="color: blue;">Plains with hand-carts was one of the greatest events that </span><span style="color: blue;">ever transpired in this Church. I will admit that it is an </span><span style="color: blue;">important event , successfully testing another method for </span><span style="color: blue;">gathering Israel, but its importance is small in comparison </span><span style="color: blue;">with the visitation of the angel of God to the Prophet </span><span style="color: blue;">Joseph, and with the reception of the sacred records from</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">the hand of Moroni at the hill Cumorah. </span><span style="color: blue;"><b>How does it compare with the vision that Joseph and </b></span><span style="color: blue;"><b>others had,</b> when they went into a cave in the hill </span><span style="color: blue;">Cumorah. and saw more records than ten men could </span><span style="color: blue;">carry? There were books piled up on tables, book upon </span><span style="color: blue;">book. Those records this people will yet have. if they </span><span style="color: blue;">accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, </span><span style="color: blue;">and keep the commandments."</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Now, it makes a great deal of difference whether we are </span><span style="color: blue;">dealing with a vision of a record repository or with a less </span><span style="color: blue;">miraculous event. The two statements cited above suggest that the </span><span style="color: blue;">matter will remain ambiguous until we receive further revelation </span><span style="color: blue;">on the matter. Given this uncertainty, it seems unfortunate to place </span><span style="color: blue;">so much emphasis on these cave stories one way or the other.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">I agree with Brother Clark that it does make a "great deal of difference" whether Brigham Young was relating an actual experience or a spiritual vision, so let's look at the evidence. The only reason to suspect the account was a spiritual vision is Brother Kimball's use of the term "vision" here. But "vision" is a synonym for "view." Brother Kimball could have meant the "view" that Joseph and others had. Why does that connotation make more sense? Because "Joseph and others" shared the same experience. They went into the cave and "saw more records than ten men could carry." </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">To construe this as merely a "spiritual vision" we have to believe that (i) multiple people shared the same vision, (ii) that they had this vision on multiple occasions because they visited the depository at least twice, (iii) that Oliver was not speaking from personal experience when he affirmed in Letter VII that the depository was in the Hill Cumorah in New York, (iv) that Brigham Young didn't realize it was a "spiritual vision" but Brother Kimball did; (v) and that Wilford Woodruff and several others who also related this account were also misled into believing it was a real experience. Elsewhere I've written a more detailed analysis of this incident, but this is sufficient for now.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">The basic approach of M2C proponents is to generate confusion and conflict this way so that they, the scholars, can rescue us from the problems created by the supposedly inconsistent statements of the prophets and apostles. </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">I think a better approach is to reconcile the supposed inconsistent statements. Understanding Brother Kimball's term "vision" as "view" is a simple way to reconcile the various statements and is consistent with the context of Brother Kimball's own statement.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Brother Clark and other M2C proponents also omit the conclusion of Brigham Young's account because they wish the account of the depository in the Hill Cumorah would be forgotten: </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">"I relate this to you, and I want you to understand it. <b>I take this liberty of referring to those things so that they will not be forgotten and lost</b>. <b>Carlos Smith was a young man of as much veracity as any young man we had, and he was a witness to these things.</b> Samuel Smith saw some things, Hyrum saw a good many things, but Joseph was the leader. Now, you may think I am unwise in publicly telling these things, thinking perhaps I should preserve them in my own breast; but such is not my mind. I would like the people called Latter-day Saints to understand some little things with regard to the workings and dealings of the Lord with his people here upon the earth.</span><span style="color: red;">"</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Brother Clark continues:</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Contrary to some claims I have heard, the remainder of Brigham Young's discourse in Farmington that day gives no indication that this was one tall tale among many that he fabricated for the occasion. The direct historical background to this story, and the accuracy of the version recorded in the Journal</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">of Discourses (or Brigham's memory of Oliver's account), are both important questions but are beyond my abilities to address. The story should raise a few Questions for most Mormons, however, because it does not appear to conform to other information we have about the plates. Joseph Smith's official history indicates that the plates were returned to Moroni In a different manner than indicated in "Oliver's story."</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">This is an example of Brother Clark's fairness and objectivity; i.e., he recognizes that some attacks on Brigham Young lack merit. But then he raises another perceived conflict: "does not appear to conform." Let's take a look.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">He quotes Joseph Smith-History 1:60: </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">"I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict </span><span style="color: blue;">charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the </span><span style="color: blue;">messenger had said that when I had done what was </span><span style="color: blue;">required at my hand, <i>he would call for them</i>. For no </span><span style="color: blue;">sooner was it known that I had them, than the most </span><span style="color: blue;">strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every </span><span style="color: blue;">stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that </span><span style="color: blue;">purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe </span><span style="color: blue;">than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of </span><span style="color: blue;">God, they remained safe in my hands until I had </span><span style="color: blue;">accomplished by them what was required at my hand. </span><span style="color: blue;">When, according to arrangements, <i>the messenger called for </i></span><span style="color: blue;"><i>them, I delivered them up to him</i>; and he has them in his </span><span style="color: blue;">charge until this day, being the second day of May, one </span><span style="color: blue;">thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight."</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Of course, this account can be taken as an allusion to a return </span><span style="color: blue;">trip to Cumorah to deliver the plates as Brigham Young and Heber </span><span style="color: blue;">C. Kimball mentioned, but it can also be read that Moroni visited </span><span style="color: blue;">Joseph and took the plates back.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">First, notice that Joseph did not identify the messenger here. Brother Clark assumes it was Moroni, and that Joseph delivered the plates directly to Moroni. Joseph did obtain the Harmony plates from Moroni when he took them from the stone box on the Hill Cumorah, but he handed these over to "a messenger" before he left Harmony. This may or may not have been Moroni (I think it wasn't; Moroni could have sent another messenger to "call for the plates.") On their way to Fayette, Joseph, Oliver and David Whitmer encountered a messenger who had the plates and was taking them to Cumorah. Then in Fayette, Joseph received the plates of Nephi, which he translated in Fayette. Later, his mother said that the plates Joseph showed to the 8 witnesses he obtained from one of the three Nephites. Brigham Young's account is consistent with Joseph getting the Harmony plates from Moroni, turning them over to Moroni or another messenger when he was finished translating them in Harmony, receiving the plates of Nephi in Fayette from one of the 3 Nephites, taking these back to the depository in the Hill Cumorah, then getting them again to show the 8 witnesses.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">I would further suggest that the circumstances surrounding the </span><span style="color: blue;">vision given to the Three Witnesses, their stories of the experience, </span><span style="color: blue;">and Joseph's relief that others had seen these things, do not fit</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">Brigham's version of Oliver Cowdery's story about returning the plates to an angel at the hill Cumorah, or of paying a return visit. </span><span style="color: red;">These are valid observations as traditionally interpreted, but the two sets of plates explanation addresses all of these and is consistent with the revelations in the D&C.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Moreover, Oliver's and Joseph' s awkward silence about this event </span><span style="color: blue;">certainly cannot be attributed to hesitancy about testifying of </span><span style="color: blue;">angels, gold plates. and the like. </span><span style="color: red;">Another good point as traditionally interpreted, except that they had good reason not to discuss the depository openly. The treasure hunters were aggressive enough just knowing about the plates. As readers of this blog know, I think they moved the records in the depository, which is why David Whitmer later said the plates were no longer in Cumorah, but were not far from there. Oliver also said the plates were no longer in Cumorah. I think they used wagons to move them, which explains why Brigham Young referred to wagons, etc.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">There are issues of the timing of </span><span style="color: blue;">events and the reasons for silence here that I am not competent to</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">address. </span><span style="color: red;">Fair enough. We didn't know about two sets of plates until recently.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Certainly this story deserves more analysis in its historic </span><span style="color: blue;">context and more comparison to other claims we have for events </span><span style="color: blue;">surrounding the plates. Parts of the story do not square with other,</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">more reliable information. Therefore, it would seem poor </span><span style="color: blue;">procedure to take the story "at face value" as certain evidence </span><span style="color: blue;">that Mormon's Cumorah was in New York.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">This is that "sowing confusion" tactic that the M2C promoters rely upon. In my view, we are justified in believing the prophets and apostles "at face value." I don't see the point of having prophets and apostles if we disbelieve them unless and until we can independently verify what they teach.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">But that's my own bias. Obviously the M2C promoters take an approach different from mine.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">The question for each of us is, which approach do you take?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">P. 98. Curtis has proposed a procedure for dealing with conflicting </span><span style="color: blue;">claims from the early brethren. He argues that one give </span><span style="color: blue;">precedence to the standard works. What does the Book of </span><span style="color: blue;">Mormon tell us about the location of Cumorah? Palmer reviews </span><span style="color: blue;">the detailed evidence for the hill that indicates that the small hill in </span><span style="color: blue;">New York is an unlikely candidate. </span><span style="color: red;">These are the lists of criteria that are really just interpretations of the text designed to describe Mesoamerica.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">More convincing evidence for </span><span style="color: blue;">the location of Mormon's Cumorah/Ramah comes from a relative </span><span style="color: blue;">geography of natural features. The Book of Mormon clearly </span><span style="color: blue;">indicates that the hill Cumorah was (1) near a narrow neck of land </span><span style="color: blue;">in a land northward and (2) close to the borders of an East sea. </span><span style="color: blue;">These minimal and incontrovertible geographic relationships are </span><span style="color: blue;">not met by the hill near Palmyra, despite Curtis's claims to the </span><span style="color: blue;">contrary.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">The next section is a series of semantic arguments that I won't take the time to address, except conceptually.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The major criterion for evaluating a geography is how well it </span><span style="color: blue;">can account for the complexity of detail in the Book of Mormon </span><span style="color: blue;">without recourse to special assumptions. </span><span style="color: red;">Throughout this analysis, Brother Clark is oblivious to "special assumptions" he makes, such as the critical special assumption that geographic terms used in the Book of Mormon are proper nouns instead of adjectives relative to the writer's perspective at any given time and place. He also conflates the various terms "narrow neck," "narrow neck of land," "small neck" and "narrow passage."</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The geography described </span><span style="color: blue;">by Sorenson, for example, that Curtis reacts against, can account </span><span style="color: blue;">for all of the unambiguous details of the Book of Mormon by </span><span style="color: blue;">making only one special assumption; the assumption is that the </span><span style="color: blue;">hill Cumorah in New York is not the one mentioned in the Book </span><span style="color: blue;">of Mormon. </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: red;"><b>Actually, the "special assumption" that stands out in Sorenson's work, as well as the work of other M2C proponents such as Brother Clark, is the "special assumption" that the prophets and apostles are wrong.</b></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">I just listed other "special assumptions" that Brother Clark doesn't recognize. He writes this seemingly with a straight face:</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">I think the Book of Mormon </span><span style="color: blue;">clearly describes a small land (hat has an East sea and a West sea, a</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">land northward connected by a narrow neck to a land southward, </span><span style="color: blue;">and a major river in the land southward that runs northward. The </span><span style="color: blue;">hill Cumorah is described as in the land northward, north of the</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">narrow neck, and near the East sea. Curtis's hill Cumorah, in </span><span style="color: blue;">contrast, is located to the east of his narrow neck of land , and to </span><span style="color: blue;">the east of the River Sidon and Zarahemla, and south of the East</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">Sea.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Every clause of that paragraph is based on unstated "special assumptions" that are not required by the text, but Brother Clark doesn't acknowledge those. Instead, he simply states his interpretation is "clear."</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">This lack of self-awareness renders the entire semantic discussion pointless. When Brother Clark either cannot recognize the assumptions he is making, or refuses to acknowledge them, engaging on a line-by-line basis serves no purpose. His entire analysis is pure bias confirmation. I trust readers who are interested can dissect it easily.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">He does raise the inevitable M2C question about snow, however.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">All of the details of physical geography mentioned in </span><span style="color: blue;">the Book of Mormon, and those that can be inferred, fit more </span><span style="color: blue;">comfortably into a Mesoamerican setting than a New York setting. </span><span style="color: red;">Well, except the plants and animals mentioned, which according to Sorenson and other M2C promoters were mistranslations on the part of Joseph (i.e., "horses" should read "tapirs"). And then there's the obvious problem that volcanoes are never mentioned in the text but are ubiquitous in Mesoamerica. Same with tall, steep mountains, massive stone pyramids, jungles, jaguars, and jade. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">In this regard, what is not mentioned or alluded to requires </span><span style="color: blue;">explanation if the Book of Mormon writers lived in New York. I </span><span style="color: blue;">cannot imagine Moroni in a cave in New York Cumorah working </span><span style="color: blue;">through the winter scratching out the history of the Iaredites on </span><span style="color: blue;">gold plates. Rather than lamenting his weakness in expression </span><span style="color: blue;">(Ether 12:25), Moroni should have complained of numb fingers, </span><span style="color: blue;">freezing cold plates, and inability to hold his stylus.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Although Mormon notes he didn't have time or space to write about even a hundredth part of the proceedings of the people, including such important topics as shipping and building of ships, Brother Clark thinks he should have been complaining about cold weather.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">In the next section, Brother Clark provides a cascading series of assumptions about what evidence we should expect where. Again, Brother Curtis is an easy target because he is insisting on a western New York location for the entire Book of Mormon. Brother Clark points out that Brother Curtis relies exclusively on McGavin and Bean's <i>Book of Mormon Geography</i>, which, as Brother Clark points out, was out of date even in 1948 when it was published, and anyway included a section on Mesoamerica as part of Book of Mormon lands.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">p. 107. The overall impression of Curtis's discussion of artifacts </span><span style="color: blue;">might appear impressive, but such an impression would be </span><span style="color: blue;">misleading. Christ in North America exhibits the common failing </span><span style="color: blue;">of amateur excursions into archaeology. Curtis lacks any </span><span style="color: blue;">appreciation of time, either in his construction of archaeological </span><span style="color: blue;">expectations or in his handling of the archaeological information. </span><span style="color: blue;">Curtis is interested only in showing that forts. weapons, and bones </span><span style="color: blue;">have been recovered in the narrow neck region in abundance. </span><span style="color: blue;">This is a good start. The critical question is: What do they date to? </span><span style="color: blue;">We are not told; Curtis does not cite any study that would contain </span><span style="color: blue;">this information. Archaeological dating techniques have come a </span><span style="color: blue;">long way since 1948. </span><span style="color: red;">These are good observations, and Brother Clark doesn't claim expertise about western New York, so he is probably unaware of the sites in Western New York that demonstrate Hopewell occupation in 300-400 AD, research that is ongoing. Hopewell are the Ohio-centered people who many of us think were Nephites.</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The general cultural-historical picture for upstate New York, </span><span style="color: blue;">as I understand it, does not support Curtis's scheme. Our minimal </span><span style="color: blue;">expectations for the Book of Mormon are at least two traditions of</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">civilization: laredite and Nephite/Lamanite. Curtis devotes all of </span><span style="color: blue;">his energies to discussing the period from the time of Christ to </span><span style="color: blue;">A.D. 400. What of the earlier periods? Is there any impressive </span><span style="color: blue;">archaeological evidence in New York for an early tradition? No. </span><span style="color: red;">Here is a disconnect between expectations and the text. Brother Clark considers Mayan structures in Mesoamerica to be impressive and therefore expects no less of the Jaredites/Nephites. But the text never once mentions a stone building. In one passage a stone wall is mentioned, and there is no lack of stone walls in ancient North America. Everything else described in the text is made of earth and wood, with a brief exception for structures made of cement and wood. What Brother Clark is looking for does not appear in the text, so why would we expect to find it in the ground? In reality, ancient North American earth structures are extensive and sophisticated, just as we would expect from the text.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Most of the sites and weapons Curtis recapitulates from McGavin </span><span style="color: blue;">and Bean probably postdate A.D. 400. Undoubtedly much </span><span style="color: blue;">information has been destroyed, modified, and even </span><span style="color: blue;">misunderstood, but we would expect some information to survive.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Here is an expectation that the archaeological record does fulfill.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">One of Curtis's main claims for archaeological expectations is </span><span style="color: blue;">that we are looking for things that we ought not. I think he is </span><span style="color: blue;">absolutely correct on this score. It does not follow, however, that </span><span style="color: blue;">his anemic list of archaeological expectations resolves the </span><span style="color: blue;">problem, especially when he ignores the bulk of the text. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">I wonder if Brother Clark is writing tongue-in-cheek here, because as I pointed out above, the text does not describe what he expects to find. It certainly describes nothing like Mesoamerica.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">True, the </span><span style="color: blue;">Nephites did not move to the land northward until quite late in </span><span style="color: blue;">their hi story, but the Jaredites had lived there for over a thousand </span><span style="color: blue;">years previous to Nephite occupation. This is not a trivial point. </span><span style="color: blue;">Curtis's silence on the laredites is inexplicable.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Given the paucity of information in the text about the Jaredites, most of what people write about them is speculative. Brother Clark and other M2C proponents think they have discovered Jaredite civilization in Mesoamerica, so they conflate those discoveries with what the text actually says. They "can't unsee" Mesoamerican any more. But that doesn't mean the rest of us are required to impose their vision on the text. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">p. 110. </span><span style="color: blue;">Towards a Book of Mormon Geography</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">In this final section, I want to view Christ ill North America in a </span><span style="color: blue;">broader context. It is my impression that no other topic in Book </span><span style="color: blue;">of Mormon studies lends itself so readily to poor scholarship as </span><span style="color: blue;">the subject of geography. </span><span style="color: red;">That's possible, but there's a lot of nonsense about other topics as well. Think "horses = tapirs" as an example.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Christ in North America is merely the </span><span style="color: blue;">latest, but not the last, in a long series of highly improbable</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">geographies based upon dubious assumptions, minimal research, </span><span style="color: blue;">fallacious logic, and wishful thinking. </span><span style="color: red;">This is ironic, given that Brother Clark has cited Brother Sorenson's work so often in this article. Certainly, Brother Sorenson has done a lot of research, but neither he nor Brother Clark recognize or acknowledge their own dubious assumptions, beginning with their shared assumption that the prophets and apostles are wrong.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">I find little of redeeming </span><span style="color: blue;">value in the substance of Curtis's book. But can anything of</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">lasting value be salvaged from it? Yes. Christ in North America will </span><span style="color: blue;">stand for the next few years as an example of what not to do in </span><span style="color: blue;">writing a Book of Mormon geography. </span><span style="color: red;">IOW, the worst thing to do is start with an assumption that the prophets and apostles are correct.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">I do not mean to be cruel </span><span style="color: blue;">or flippant in this claim; often a poor example of "scholarship" </span><span style="color: blue;">is more useful to the cause of science than a good one. Scholars </span><span style="color: blue;">wishing to write Book of Mormon geographies should heed the </span><span style="color: blue;">tragic lessons of Christ in North America and profit thereby.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">What are some of the scholarly traps that one should avoid in </span><span style="color: blue;">writing a Book of Mormon geography? What can we learn from </span><span style="color: blue;">Christ in North America? First, one should avoid the trap of </span><span style="color: blue;">obvious facts. Curtis begins his study where it ought to end-with </span><span style="color: blue;">a known geographical Book of Mormon location in the New </span><span style="color: blue;">World. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;"><b>There it is. We have to start with the premise that the prophets and apostles are wrong, unless we can independently verify what they teach. That's really the essence of Brother Clark's argument, and the essence of all the M2C arguments, including BYU's fantasy map. </b></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Most of the distortions of the Book of Mormon text in </span><span style="color: blue;">Christ in North America are a logical consequence of assuming <i>a </i></span><span style="color: blue;"><i>priori</i> that the Cumorah in New York is the one mentioned in the</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">Book of Mormon. Curtis's unconvincing attempt to make this </span><span style="color: blue;">point serves as a useful caution for anyone seduced by this easy </span><span style="color: blue;">"fact."</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">IOW, anyone "seduced" by the unambiguous statements of prophets and apostles for over 150 years.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">The second caution is related to the first. Curtis's assumption </span><span style="color: blue;">of one known geographic point compromised the rest of his </span><span style="color: blue;">geography. </span><span style="color: red;">Again, believing the prophets is a mistake, according to Brother Clark.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">One should work out a consistent geography based </span><span style="color: blue;">upon the information provided within the Book of Mormon itself, </span><span style="color: blue;">independently of any locations in real space that one thinks might </span><span style="color: blue;">be Book of Mormon spots. </span><span style="color: red;">This is the popular approach and accounts for BYU's abstract fantasy map, but if we apply this standard to any other source, such as the Bible, we'll also get myriad models of geography that have no relationship to the real world. No two people can possibly interpret the text identically because the geographic terms are too vague. So why bother? </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Here's why.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">The scholars love this approach because, as Brother Clark exemplifies here, they have "special expertise" that empowers them with unique abilities to discern and interpret the text authoritatively. This work can't be left to mere prophets and apostles; in fact, teachings of the prophets and apostles must be repudiated unless and until validated by the intellectuals.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">That's why LDS intellectuals have titled their journal <i>The Interpreter.</i> Like the scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament, these self-appointed guides take it upon themselves to determine what the scriptures mean. </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">The other approach is to start with what the prophets and apostles have consistently and uniformly taught. That means there is one Cumorah and it is in New York. Everything beyond that is specifically identified as speculation, open to study, reflection, discussion, debate, etc. </span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">While I agree with Brother Clark that Brother Curtis may have fallen short of rigorous study and analysis, that's not because his fundamental premise was wrong.</span><br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">I think anyone who starts with the premise that the prophets and apostles were wrong about Cumorah is not only embarking on a futile effort, but is leading others to doubt the prophets and apostles in their respective areas of expertise. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">Very few Book of Mormon geography </span><span style="color: blue;">scholars have followed this procedure. but it is absolutely</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">fundamental. </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">There it is again. It is absolutely fundamental to M2C to start with rejecting the prophets and apostles.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">It is hard to be convinced of a Book of Mormon </span><span style="color: blue;">geography when it is clear the author has not studied the book in </span><span style="color: blue;">enough detail to get the basic facts clear. </span><span style="color: red;">Every time I see or hear an M2C proponent make this argument, I ask how they identify massive stone buildings as Book of Mormon structures. They are inevitably surprised when the search the scriptures only to find that the text never mentions anything built of stone, except a single stone wall. Beyond that, much of what Brother Clark characterizes as "clear basic facts" are actually just his interpretations and assumptions.</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">In Curtis's book, his </span><span style="color: blue;">discussion of the River Sidon, the narrow neck of land, and the </span><span style="color: blue;">location of Cumorah in relation to Zarahemla all signal a basic </span><span style="color: blue;">misunderstanding or misreading of the text.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Academic arrogance at its finest.</span><br />_____<br /><br />I think I've covered enough of the article. Anyone interested can read and analyze the rest. I've gone through this material to show how the M2C proponents don't heed their own advice, and how they don't even realize it.<br /><span style="color: red;"><br /></span>_____<br /><br />Here is a screenshot from Book of Mormon Central's listing of Brother Clark's article.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6oFoH1ER0JWndqcJ0oiUjlH2HSBgEN8-FO2PaC1L-U_JCtEk-OjafvYwK4Zq-KW-WiZAJmTpYfARK90YYbiHUpcU25rj13OTEJ11_dertHqGqI5Rhgvgh0UgjaPIsYwsn2Jfy8FyGkyI/s1600/BOMC-Final+Battle+for+Cumorah.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #7d7717; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1065" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6oFoH1ER0JWndqcJ0oiUjlH2HSBgEN8-FO2PaC1L-U_JCtEk-OjafvYwK4Zq-KW-WiZAJmTpYfARK90YYbiHUpcU25rj13OTEJ11_dertHqGqI5Rhgvgh0UgjaPIsYwsn2Jfy8FyGkyI/s640/BOMC-Final+Battle+for+Cumorah.PNG" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />You can see from the links how thoroughly they want people to reject the prophets. They don't link to my short book about Letter VII: instead, they link to the delightful "response" to my book. Of course, they refuse to publish my response to that "response," leaving their readers misinformed, as usual, about the actual state of my arguments and what the prophets and apostles have actually said.<br /><br />Pretty much everything on Book of Mormon Central is designed to persuade people to reject what the prophets and apostles have said about Cumorah in New York. They are clever; they portray themselves as following the Church's position of neutrality, but when you look closely, you see they are dogmatically advancing their corporate <a href="http://bmaf.org/about/mission_statement" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">mission </a>"to increase understanding of the Book of Mormon as an ancient Mesoamerican codex."<br /><br />They are completely uninterested in neutrality; in fact, in their academic arrogance, they don't trust their readers with alternative viewpoints--including the viewpoints of the prophets and apostles.</div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-58121165398727967872020-11-30T08:22:00.001-08:002020-11-30T08:22:06.821-08:00Parasite thinkers<p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Those who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.”</span></p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">― Ayn Rand</span>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-48048828286587113532020-11-25T10:26:00.001-08:002020-11-25T10:26:07.904-08:00To be greater<p> From Twitter:<a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-1dbjc4n r-1loqt21 r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l" data-focusable="true" href="https://twitter.com/EdLatimore" role="link" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; 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font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">You have to expose yourself to the possibility of embarrassment and failure if you want a chance to be something greater.</span></div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-67810442244237943722020-11-02T13:14:00.002-08:002020-11-02T13:14:16.298-08:00John L. Sorenson's 37 objections to North America<p>People have asked about some of my earlier posts about Book of Mormon Geography. We're going to repost some of the classics in upcoming weeks.</p><p>Here is the very first post I made.</p><p> <span style="color: #6d906a; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Wednesday, June 18, 2014</span></p><div class="date-posts" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(34, 177, 41); clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 0px;"><div class="post-outer" style="border-bottom: none; border-top: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="min-height: 0px; position: relative;"><a name="775157224706538535"></a><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #d52a33; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">John L. Sorenson's 37 objections to North America</h3><div class="post-header" style="line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-775157224706538535" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">John L. Sorenson is a retired BYU Professor who has authored 200 books and articles, many of them dealing with Book of Mormon historicity, geography and anthropology. His latest, titled Mormon's Codex, summarizes his life's work in this field. Wikipedia has a useful bio <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Sorenson" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.<br /><br />In subsequent posts, I'll address <i>Mormon's Codex</i>, but recently someone cited <a href="http://www.ancientamerica.org/library/media/HTML/enap8lyt/A%20Whole%20Bunch%20of%20Reasons%20Why%20Book%20of%20Mormon%20Geography.htm?n=0" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">Sorenson's list of 37 reasons </a>why the Book of Mormon could not have included North America, and I wanted to comment on them.<br /><br />Sorenson's list is a nice summary of the orthodox interpretation of North American archaeology and anthropology that was driven by the Manifest Destiny approach to the North American Indians in the 1800s. I can't tell if Sorenson was writing from ignorance or malice, but since I know him, I'll go with ignorance. After all, even Dr. Roger Kennedy, the former director of the Smithsonian's American History Museum, wrote a book titled <i>Hidden Cities--The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilizations</i>. He wrote this: "Few realize that some of the oldest, largest, and most complex structures of ancient archaeology were built of earth, clay, and stone right here in America, in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. From 6,000 years ago until quite recently, North America was home to some of the most highly advanced and well organized civilizations in the world--complete with cities, roads and commerce."<br /><br />So I'll assume Sorenson was just ignorant, or that he wrote his list before Dr. Kennedy wrote his book in 1991. But the list was cited by Gregory Smith a<a href="http://d7.bmaf.org/node/359" style="color: #7d7717; text-decoration-line: none;">s recently as January 2014</a>, so apparently some BYU people still think it is relevant. I'll address Gregory Smith in a separate post.<br /><br />So here are my comments on Sorenson.<br /><br /><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 40.8px;">A Whole Bunch of Reasons Why Book of Mormon Geography<br />Could Not Have Included North America</span></b></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 6pt; line-height: 13.6px;"> </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 6pt; line-height: 13.6px;">by </span><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">John L. Sorenson</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">1. The “promised land” occupied by the Nephites was characterized for many centuries as an area of “civilization.” As indicated by archaeology and related studies, no place in North America in the period of Book of Mormon history contained any cultures at the level of “civilization.” <span style="color: red;">This statement represents the orthodox view that supported not only Manifest Destiny but the genocide of American Indians prophesied by the Book of Mormon. Andrew Jackson signed the "Removal Act" on May 28, 1830, almost two months after the LDS Church was organized and about a year after the translation of 1 and 2 Nephi. In fact, the Hopewell and Adena civilizations were extensive and highly sophisticated, with some of the largest and most elaborate earthworks in the entire world.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">2. The population of Book of Mormon lands over much of the period of its history totaled from hundreds of thousands up to millions. The areas of North America touted as occupied by Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites cannot be shown from objective evidence to have been anywhere near that level. <span style="color: red;">More than two million people are buried in mounds in Illinois alone, most of them dating from around 2,000 years ago.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">3. Many “cities” and even “great cities” are reported by the Nephite record between 1500 BC and AD 400. Not a single such city has been documented in North America in that period. <span style="color: red;">The extensive, sophisticated Hopewell civilization included walled cities connected by roads, including the great Hopewell road between Chilicothe and Newark. Around 200,000 Hopewell structures and sites were leveled by settlers, but in some cases, the mounds were preserved, such Circleville, Ohio, which was built within the walls of the ancient city.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">4. Intensive agriculture is indicated as the economic means of support, according to the record. Agriculture only on a limited scale was employed by inhabitants of North America before AD 400. <span style="color: red;">A "limited scale" is a relative term, and certainly ancient agriculture everywhere in the world was on a "limited scale" compared with modern agriculture, but the Hopewell and Adena people lived in defined communities supported by agriculture. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">5. Multiple kinds of grains were cultivated by the Nephites as their subsistence mainstay.<br />In the Book of Mormon period, as far as is known, only limited grain crops of corn/maize were cultivated in North America. <span style="color: red;">"As far as is known" is a rhetorical technique that implies "no one knows" about multiple grain crops in North America, when it really means "as far as is known by the author of these objections." In fact, every food required by the law of Moses was grown in Hopewell areas (which is not true of Mesoamerica) and multiple "kinds of grains" were grown in North America.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">6. “Flocks” and “herds” were raised at times by the Nephites and Jaredites (at least). There is absolutely no evidence for any degree of animal husbandry in ancient North America. <span style="color: red;">This categorical objection is simply not true.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">7. Many major public buildings, many of them of a religious nature, are referred to in the scripture as characteristic of their settlements. In the Book of Mormon period there is no evidence of any such structures in North America. <span style="color: red;">It's true that 200,000 structures were destroyed by the European invaders, but the extensive earthworks that survive, as well as those documented by Squire and Davis, were both public and religious.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">8. Major wars were fought among Book of Mormon peoples for well over 1,000 years; they involved over hundreds of thousands of combatants. In North America in the relevant period there is no evidence of warfare on any significant scale. <span style="color: red;">There are massive burial sites with mixtures of bones and arrowheads throughout the Hopewell area, dating to the Book of Mormon period. The Zelph mound is one of many examples.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">9. Swords and “cimeters” (scimitars) are particularly referred to as weapons in the Book of Mormon period. Neither in archaeology or art are any such weapons identified in North American cultures. <span style="color: red;">There are such swords and scimitars in museums around North America, dating to Book of Mormon times.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">10. Armor and shields also were in common use according to the record. Evidence for those features is also entirely lacking in North America before AD 400. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">There are metal breatplates and helmets in museums around North America, dating to Book of Mormon times.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">11. Large-scale fortifications (of particular types) are described as being used by Book of Mormon peoples, but those types, nor in fact any such large-scale defensive structures, are not known in North America in Book of Mormon times. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">There are such fortifications at many sites around North America, dating to Book of Mormon times.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">12. Roads and highways were described by the Nephite record as being built near the time of Christ. North American archaeology reveals nothing of the sort. <span style="color: red;">The Great Hopewell Road, currently being excavated by the Ohio State Archaeologist, is an elevated highway stretching 60 miles that was around 100 feet wide. There are others, although most roads and highways have been destroyed for farmland.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">13. “Towers,” obviously tall, bulky structures of earth or stone, were features in some Book of Mormon cities. Such constructions were absent before AD 400 in North America. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">There are many such towers at sites around North America, dating to Book of Mormon times.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">14. People of Book of Mormon areas were frequently literate, in fact several scripts are reported. No North American cultures have been shown to have had any system of writing whatsoever. <span style="color: red;">The Book of Mormon text explicitly states that the elite were instructed in writing, which is common in ancient societies. The Mesoamerican "system of writing" has zero correlation to Hebrew or Egyptian languages, but there have been a few artifacts found in North American with Hebrew writing.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">15. At least the Nephites are said to have possessed “many” books covering many subjects. No ancient North American books at all are evidenced. <span style="color: red;">There are no "Nephite" books anywhere apart from the Book of Mormon, except for the depository that Oliver Cowdery described in the Hill Cumorah.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">16. The Nephites followed several different calendar systems. In North America even a single calendar is only uncertainly known. <span style="color: red;">The syntax of this objection is difficult to understand, but the earthworks of Newark and other sites were elaborate calendars.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">17. According to the Nephite record several kinds of metals were worked in the original settlement areas (land of Nephi and Jaredite areas). No true metallurgy is evidenced in North America during the Book of Mormon era. <span style="color: red;">Several museums in North American contain examples of metallurgy dating to Book of Mormon times, and there are photos and records of iron plates and tools, found by archaeologists dating to Book of Mormon times, that have "disappeared" from museums.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">18. A substantial number of priests, prophets, and other occupational specialists (including “thousands” of idle people in the land of Zarahemla—Alma 60: 22) are mentioned. No more than a mere handful of (“idle”) people occupying specialist roles are in evidence in any ancient culture in North America. <span style="color: red;">These categorical "objections" ignore the fact of the massive earthworks created to monitor celestial events. There are many ceremonial earthworks, as well. These required engineering and abundant labor not required for agriculture.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">19. There is no mention nor even hint of cold, snow or ice in the Book of Mormon account of its peoples. In the Great Lakes or Prairie regions winter storms are and were so common that it is unthinkable that they would not be a prominent mentioned feature of the climate. <span style="color: red;">The quotations from Isaiah that refer to snow would make no sense if people didn't know about snow, but the "nature of the climate" that led to diseases could easily include cold and snow. Besides, the mountains of Mesoamerica are also cold; it snows in Guatemala even today, and it's anyone's guess as to how much the climate has changed in the last 2,000 years.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">20. It is obvious from the description of the great catastrophe at the crucifixion of the Savior that volcanism must be involved as a natural cause (of at least the “darkness”). In eastern North America that is out of the question; there are no volcanoes there.<span style="color: red;"> Massive earthquakes documented in North America (specifically along the Mississippi River) have caused such darkness over several days, as documented in the 1800s.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">21. The river Sidon is a major drainage feature that runs hundreds of miles from south to north from the highlands of the land of Nephi through the “narrow strip of wilderness” past Manti and Zarahemla to the sea. No river in North America even remotely qualifies. <span style="color: red;">The Book of Mormon doesn't say the River Sidon runs from south to north, so this is a false premise.</span> </span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">22. The battle of Alma’s Nephite army on the riverbank (Alma 2) has them wade across the river Sidon to battle a combined Lamanite/Amlicite force. The idea of wading across the Mississippi is obviously absurd. <span style="color: red;">What is considered "obviously absurd" was a common practice anciently at the area near Nauvoo, which is the first "crossable" area of the Mississippi north of the Gulf of Mexico. This is why there are remnants of ancient civilizations in this area, dating to Nephite times.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">23. The Lehite party in their ship landed on the shore of the (west) sea in the “land of first inheritance” (Alma 22: 28). Any attempt to make that point anywhere but on the Pacific coast of North America requires fantastic twisting of the obvious meaning of the distances and other geographical language. <span style="color: red;">What requires "fantastic twisting" is claiming that the Nephites didn't know north, south, east and west, along with insisting that the only seas mentioned in the Book of Mormon are the Pacific and Atlantic. Any large lake, such as the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, qualified as seas to the Nephites. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">23. From the borders of the (immediate) land of Nephi to Zarahemla via the waters of Mormon, land of Helam and valley of Alma, took Alma’s party about 21 days. No plausible rate of travel can make that distance more than 250 miles. No suggested “Nephi” to “Zarahemla” distance in North America comes close to that. <span style="color: red;">Most if not all of these objections based on geography are inferences built on assumptions not required by the text. Even groups traveling by foot could use rivers for part of the journey, which would make travel over hundreds of miles easy.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">24. The land of Zarahemla is said to be “nearly surrounded by water” (i.e., seas). No North American geography qualifies.<span style="color: red;"> The "i.e., seas" here is another example of strained inferences. Land can be surrounded by rivers as well as seas and lakes.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">25. The land northward supported a population of millions (Ether 15: 2) in late Jaredite times. Not only is it manifestly absurd that any “land northward” around the Great Lakes, given the climatic conditions there, could have supported even one-hundredth as many people, but also the archaeology of that region shows only a tiny fraction of the history’s stated number ever to have dwelt there, let alone in Jaredite times when no one lived there but a few hunting tribes. <span style="color: red;">The archaeological record of early settlers describes massive civilizations, including in the Detroit area.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">26. Book of Mormon references allow that the “narrow pass” or “narrow passage” between the lands northward and southward was within the narrow neck of land and constitute the sole feasible way for large parties to go northward/southward. No North American geographical arrangement comes close to such an arrangement. <span style="color: red;">Another inference built on assumptions not required by the text.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">27. The hill Ramah/Cumorah of the Book of Mormon lay north of the narrow pass/neck, yet the hill in New York state is not so situated. <span style="color: red;">The hill where Joseph found the plates is actually north of most of the Hopewell civilization.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">28. King Limhi’s exploring party (sent from the land of Nephi to find Zarahemla) traversed the narrow neck/narrow pass without even realizing it, for they returned having been to the final Jaredite battleground (at hill Ramah) but supposed that they had only found the ruins of Zarahemla. Anywhere in North America this is impossible. <span style="color: red;">Again, the description of geography in the text could fit many places in North America.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">29. The kingdom dominated by the Lamanite king (Alma 22: 27) extended from east sea to the west sea. No North American correlation comes close to fitting with those conditions. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">Again, the description of geography in the text could fit many places in North America.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">30. The hill Cumorah in New York could not plausibly have been a refuge for the 23 survivors of the final battle who were found atop it on the day after the great battle. Had they so much as sneezed their presence would have been detected by the Lamanites. <span style="color: red;">Anyone who has visited the site knows that it is plenty large to hide this many people.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">31. Had New York’s hill been the site of the final battle, the 230,000 Nephite dead (not to mention a large number of Lamanite dead—up to half a million total corpses) would have left behind over half a million weapons. Remains on any such scale would have become obvious long since to archaeologists. In fact no weapons of the right period have been found near the place. <span style="color: red;">Many arrowheads have been found in this area, but there are many famous, well-documented battles in history that have not left behind such evidence. For example, wouldn't the victorious Lamanites have collected useable weapons and armor for use elsewhere? This is common practice in battle.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">32. The notion that Lehi’s party sailed around Africa and northward through the South and North Atlantic not only has no historical analogs whatever, but given the winds and currents, it was probably impossible in ancient times and has never been duplicated in modern times. <span style="color: red;">Actually, this is the only plausible route from the Middle East to the Americas and has been replicated by a modern copy of a Phoenician ship from 600 BC.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">33. From the land of Nephi Mosiah led his party “down [across a mountainous narrow strip of wilderness] into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla” (distant no more than c. 200 miles; see 23 above). In North America, it is impossible to find such a place. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">Again, the description of geography in the text could fit many places in North America.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">34. West of Zarahemla was the land of Melek (Alma 8: 3-6), “west by the borders of the wilderness.” (That wilderness was adjacent on one side to the land of Zarahemla {Alma 22: 28} and on the other to the west sea {Alma 22: 28}.) No North American area comes close to such an arrangement. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">Again, the description of geography in the text could fit many places in North America.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">35. The Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from east [sea] unto the west sea, and thus had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south that they could occupy no lands farther north (Alma 22: 33). These statements are meaningless in North America. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30.6px;">Again, the description of geography in the text could fit many places in North America.</span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">36. The Nephites gathered all their people (nearly a quarter of a million of them) to the land of Cumorah (Mormon 6: 3-4) for their final battle. Anyone who has spent a winter in western New York, let alone four of them, must wonder how they survived in their tents and what so many people might have eaten (there is no mention of manna!) <span style="color: red;">Indian tribes thrived in this area for thousands of years until the Europeans came. Indians taught the Europeans how to survive here!</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 27.2px; margin: 0.1in 0in 0.2in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 30.6px;">37. Any attempt to put a land northward in, say, Ontario, must face the fact that there is no trace of anything approaching what the Book of Mormon represents as Jaredite society in that area. <span style="color: red;">There are ancient ruins in this area, including the extensive ancient civilization that has been built over in the Detroit area.</span></span></div><br />So what do you think?</div></div></div></div></div>jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-84721226857220063462020-04-20T09:40:00.000-07:002020-04-20T09:40:05.663-07:00Growth trends 2019, M2C, SITH<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last year I <a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/05/restatement-of-obvious.html">discussed </a>the growth trends in the Church.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZsjr026KgZpcJM15hYD8atF4mz0tB7Nz__ZuRBUsS1QkXUO3kQerrkqrXFnhIOPMx3i4khwvmCsRb1iXw_Tb12njvl4wZnDzreL2y_Fu-EU9GJqPt9ce0MvET5w1xbHJLQFGQTQcerY0/s1600/August+1993+Ensign+cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="156" data-original-width="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZsjr026KgZpcJM15hYD8atF4mz0tB7Nz__ZuRBUsS1QkXUO3kQerrkqrXFnhIOPMx3i4khwvmCsRb1iXw_Tb12njvl4wZnDzreL2y_Fu-EU9GJqPt9ce0MvET5w1xbHJLQFGQTQcerY0/s1600/August+1993+Ensign+cover.JPG" /></a></div>
A recent Times and Seasons <a href="https://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2020/04/mid-1990s-projections-for-2020-revisited/">blog post</a> noted that the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1993/08/news-of-the-church/church-notes-1992-growth?lang=eng">August 1993</a> <i>Ensign </i>included this projection:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "ensign:serif" , "mckay" , "mckay ldslat" , "palatino" , "palatino linotype" , , serif; font-size: 18px;">If growth rates for the past decade remain constant, membership will increase to 12 million by the year 2000, to 35 million by 2020, and to 157 million by the mid-twenty-first century.</span> </span><br />
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Those growth rates have not remained constant. The Church's <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/2019-statistical-report">2019 Statistical Report</a> released the week after General Conference reported 16,565,036 members. <b>That's less than half of what was projected in 1993.</b><br />
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Nevertheless, there's a lot to be grateful for. Every time someone joins the Church, we are all enriched. The person joins a wonderful, world-wide family of believers in Christ who serve one another with love and compassion.<br />
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I spoke about that in my presentation at the FIRM Foundation conference last week.<br />
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The Statistical Report showed 248,835 convert baptisms, an increase from <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/2018-statistical-report">234,332 in 2018</a>. There were 67,021 full-time missionaries, up from 65,137 in 2018. For good analysis, see <a href="http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/">http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/</a>.<br />
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Although convert baptisms are not publicly reported by country, much if not all of the increase can be attributed to Brazil, which had an increased membership of 35,319 during 2019. This was 24,502 more people than the increase in membership in 2018. Maybe having an Apostle from Brazil made a difference. <br />
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But there remain areas of concern.<br />
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<b>In the United States, for example, the annual growth in Church membership was the lowest reported by the Church since approximately the mid-1800s. </b><br />
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The increase of convert baptisms in 2019 of 14,503 is in the right direction, but how does 248,835 compare? People tell me all the time that our missionaries face obstacles because people are more "worldly" and "less interested in spiritual things."<br />
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Maybe so, but is that a valid excuse?<br />
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The Seventh-day Adventists had 5,065 missionaries in 2017. They reported 1,352,931 "accessions" (by baptism or profession of faith) in 2017 (the latest numbers I can find).<br />
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Their detailed statistical report shows that they've had accessions of over 1 million per year for several years. Between 2016 and 2017, they've grown from 20,008,779 to 20,727,347. (online here:<br />
<a href="http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2019.pdf">http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2019.pdf</a>)<br />
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BTW, it would be pretty cool to have a Church statistical report with as much detail as the Seventh-day Adventists provide.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/05/restatement-of-obvious.html">Last year</a>, I noted that 10 states, plus the District of Columbia, lost LDS membership from 2017 to 2018.<br />
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From 2018 to 2019, 12 states lost LDS membership. Some were the same states that lost membership between 2017 and 2018, but others were new.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinLY_ypUDPTAnnCjQz6x-El2aZGqLRxMhPfDx-4ReAO-GJl3VhURjDyWmTDIwXpf-JYzp_u6TdE-NdRSIaulSmOmGSM79BmwFFd5fh0P5KlyfJs6RwMZPpVT3QxhZ38HlEoRepDbYuHyo/s1600/LDS+chapel+sold-Vermont-details.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="617" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinLY_ypUDPTAnnCjQz6x-El2aZGqLRxMhPfDx-4ReAO-GJl3VhURjDyWmTDIwXpf-JYzp_u6TdE-NdRSIaulSmOmGSM79BmwFFd5fh0P5KlyfJs6RwMZPpVT3QxhZ38HlEoRepDbYuHyo/s200/LDS+chapel+sold-Vermont-details.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/05/restatement-of-obvious.html">Last year</a>, I mentioned the LDS chapel I saw for sale in South Burlington, VT. It sold in late 2019.<br />
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The buyer was the Islamic Society of Vermont.<br />
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Comments to the Times and Seasons blog post included these observations about Australia and Scotland:<br />
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<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: blue;">In Australia the church say there are 155,000 members. There are 41 stakes, and 9 mission districts. The census say there are 60,000 members (not all claiming to be active). So maybe one third of claims.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Total membership (31 Dec 2017) — 13,912</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Latter-day Saint Census affiliation (2011) — 4,651</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">First Quarter Average Attendance (2019) — 2453</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">• Stake 1 — 403</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">• Stake 2 — 499</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">• Stake 3 — 507</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">• Stake 4 — 581</span><br style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">• Stake 5 — 463</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2020/04/mid-1990s-projections-for-2020-revisited/">https://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2020/04/mid-1990s-projections-for-2020-revisited/</a><br />
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I could go on, but I suppose most members outside of Utah can relate similar statistics.<br />
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Every member of the Church ought to think about what we are doing to help the work of the Restoration.<br />
_____<br />
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There are undoubtedly many factors involved with missionary and retention issues. We can all think of lots of excuses for why the Restoration is not proceeding as it has in the past in terms of membership, awareness, activity, etc.<br />
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In my view, M2C, SITH, and other revisionist history and scholarly changes to what the prophets have taught continue to create barriers for outsiders to seriously consider conversion.<br />
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A better approach, IMO, is to read afresh what the prophets have taught, starting with the original sources from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. I discussed some of those sources here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/04/reading-afresh-vs-m2c.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/04/reading-afresh-vs-m2c.html</a><br />
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<b>I can't make sense of the idea that it is a good idea to reject (or even modify) what Joseph and Oliver taught about the identity of the Lamanites, the location of the Hill Cumorah, the translation of the Book of Mormon, and other topics.</b><br />
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For example, to me, Joseph translating the ancient Nephite plates is a plausible scenario. The KJV itself is a translation of ancient languages. True, Greek and Latin were well known, but translation is a common human endeavor. The point of the Urim and Thummim was to "magnify to the eyes of men" the writing on the plates. Joseph studied the characters, copying and translating them with the Urim and Thummim. We can't say how it works, but the concept makes sense.<br />
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Mormon and Moroni abridged the ancient records, which makes sense. Moroni preserved the plates by concealing them in a stone box. That makes sense, too.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WmOQwPnabYuk9xeAVtVGqpQXxR1jL-9FB0xRlQg_zjvnpSagjfRKye9T-k-sghcPx2uZIlUEASjAbpYFFCmhGmtKc_gboM63r3tWPMmTFUXezqltM5l6M1XDF6sDFk1i8IDGT9fYQEg/s1600/Stone+in+hat+plates+covered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="883" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WmOQwPnabYuk9xeAVtVGqpQXxR1jL-9FB0xRlQg_zjvnpSagjfRKye9T-k-sghcPx2uZIlUEASjAbpYFFCmhGmtKc_gboM63r3tWPMmTFUXezqltM5l6M1XDF6sDFk1i8IDGT9fYQEg/s320/Stone+in+hat+plates+covered.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ensign</i>: Joseph Smith not using the plates</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
However, Joseph merely reading words that mysteriously appeared on a stone in the hat (SITH) makes no sense.<br />
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While that narrative is being taught in the <i>Ensign</i>, the <i>Saints </i>book, the current lesson manuals, etc., it directly contradicts the scriptures and what Joseph and Oliver always said.<br />
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There are exactly zero accounts to support this illustration that appears in the Ensign and recent Church videos.<br />
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Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery never once said or even implied that Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon by reading words that appeared on the stone in the hat.<br />
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To the contrary, they always said that Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that Moroni placed in the stone box with the plates. The Eight Witnesses <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/eight?lang=eng">testified </a>that "as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands."<br />
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Obviously, if Joseph translated the leaves of the plates as these witnesses testified, the plates were not sitting under a cloth the whole time.<br />
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Until recent years, it was only the critics of the Church who promoted SITH. Now we read about it in the <i>Ensign</i>. The youth are taught SITH in seminary and institute. Presumably missionaries are teaching this in the field.<br />
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I can't imagine teaching people that the Book of Mormon was produced from a supernatural teleprompter, with the plates serving as nothing more than a prop on the table, hidden under a cloth, with the Urim and Thummim nowhere to be found.<br />
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It seems completely predictable that fewer and fewer people will find SITH credible, let alone appealing.<br />
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After all, we're asking people to make the biggest change in their lives.<br />
_____<br />
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I'm hoping that more and more members of the Church read afresh the teachings of the prophets, as President Nelson advised. In so doing, they will rely less and less on the theories of men, taught by so many intellectuals in the Church.<br />
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<b>Maybe the pause in missionary work due to the corona virus will prove to be a time for reflection and renewal. Maybe we can read afresh the teachings of the prophets and recognize that their accounts make far more sense than the imaginations of the scholars.</b><br />
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-15990348842099420222020-04-10T08:46:00.001-07:002020-04-10T08:46:39.036-07:00Firm Foundation Expo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">People around the world who are staying home for public health reasons are spending a lot of time on the Internet. Some are learning new things and building their talent stacks.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here's a suggestion. Spend some time learning more about the Book of Mormon and related topics.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Many readers of this blog are aware of the Expo, but there are always new readers here, so I'm bringing it to your attention.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here's the link:</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><a href="https://firmfoundationexpo.org/" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #7d7717; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration-line: none;">https://firmfoundationexpo.org/</a><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Enjoy!</span></div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-81783901574258523452020-03-27T08:31:00.000-07:002020-03-27T08:31:15.224-07:00Why keep talking about the New York Cumorah?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The title of this blog alludes to the wars described in the Book of Mormon, but the substance is the ongoing differences of opinion about Book of Mormon geography and historicity.<br />
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Framing the debate as a "war" is hyperbole, of course. Most Church members are not angry or emotional about their differences of opinion. They seek to understand and are interested in exploring the facts and various interpretations.<br />
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True, some people who have invested heavily in M2C get angry, but their bias is transparent, which destroys their credibility anyway. We can't expect employees of M2C advocacy groups to do anything but defend their employers. As Upton Sinclair said long ago, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”<br />
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Some people want to see a cease-fire, which I'd be fine with if there were any casualties other than the egos of the M2C intellectuals and their followers. Instead, casualties from M2C continue to accumulate because it has become the de facto position of the Church. As such, people unfortunately attribute the logical and factual errors of M2C to the Church itself and lose their faith (or decline to continue with the missionaries).<br />
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Despite the bruised egos of the M2C intellectuals, I think it's important to continue to create a record, in print and on the Internet, of evidence that supports the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.<br />
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<b>In the future, when the prophecies are fulfilled, it will be important for the world to know that there have been faithful Latter-day Saints who accepted the teachings of the prophets all along.</b><br />
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The alternative is to remain silent as M2C further entrenches itself as the de facto position of the Church, only to be exposed as a hoax when the prophecies are fulfilled.<br />
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What prophecies, you might wonder?<br />
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Start with this one: <a href="http://www.lettervii.com/p/president-ivins-on-new-york-cumorah.html">http://www.lettervii.com/p/president-ivins-on-new-york-cumorah.html</a><br />
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For new readers, here's a quick summary. There are three basic positions on these questions:<br />
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1. The Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in New York as taught by LDS prophets.<br />
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2. The Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is elsewhere (such as in southern Mexico as taught by M2C intellectuals and their followers).<br />
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3. The Hill Cumorah does not exist in the real world (as taught by anti-LDS critics and the CES/BYU maps of Book of Mormon geography).<br />
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I accept alternative #1 and write blogs and books to explain why I disagree with #2 and #3.<br />
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When I started this blog, I actually thought there was a possibility of reaching a consensus of some sort among active LDS about this issue. By now, it's apparent that a consensus is unlikely, although I still discuss the possibility of consensus on the other blog:<br />
<a href="http://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/">http://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/</a><br />
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-56767558747745762172020-02-07T07:55:00.002-08:002020-02-07T07:55:40.818-08:00Visiting Australia and preparing for the Second Coming<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2020/01/how-the-lord-prepared-the-world-for-the-restoration?lang=eng" target="_blank">January 2020 <i>Ensign</i></a>, President Ballard wrote this:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">The Lord is now preparing the world for His Second Coming, just as He prepared the world for the Restoration of His eternal gospel</span>.<br />
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I'm wondering what that looks like. Does it have anything to do with the reality that everywhere in the world, people are becoming more prosperous, kind, loving, and happy? That's what the statistics show, and anecdotally I've observed these trends everywhere I've traveled over the last several decades.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9F4U1Xd3Xqj1A1NnOpMuEJAF-341a-yI_zFD-CQCvZHofd9silGRd8NWeAUr21qbX2P22SC7djKCIDOkp71Ql6bZSPi3j3GVGBfBtMjXK94y4HcGDjml1u1jp2UcgmS-hsndU34anWEA/s1600/20200207_112448.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9F4U1Xd3Xqj1A1NnOpMuEJAF-341a-yI_zFD-CQCvZHofd9silGRd8NWeAUr21qbX2P22SC7djKCIDOkp71Ql6bZSPi3j3GVGBfBtMjXK94y4HcGDjml1u1jp2UcgmS-hsndU34anWEA/s320/20200207_112448.jpg" width="320" /></a>I'm spending some time in western Australia right now. When we're not exploring new areas, I'm golfing every day and working on another book. Perth strikes me as one of the very best cities in the world in terms of livability, safety, harmony with the environment, emphasis on health and fitness, and generally kind people.<br />
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There are problems here, no doubt, arising in part from rapid economic and population growth in the context of cyclical trends for mining and other industries. But this city is exceptional in many ways.<br />
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There are about 15,000 LDS members in Western Australia in 4 Stakes and 1 Mission, all centered in Perth. Perth also has a temple. The LDS population is 0.62% of the total population of the area (2.4 million inhabitants).<br />
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We attended a wonderful ward here last Sunday. I visited with the missionaries and a local member. I also visited with some of the workers at the temple. The results: pretty much the same as everywhere we travel. Awesome people, blaming stagnation in the Church on people being too comfortable in their lives to change their beliefs.<br />
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There are about 153,000 members in Australia, about the same as Florida (159,000), which has a comparable population (as of 2018).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJVkwnrqFSyBb7tP0BWemVZ6TmM5mUYdR1INxgA-cIovFrXS8E6L2J9ewW_AtQrk80IT-FBHR0TEozg75V3vA3op41Z0TS-B0Wi94-3sHmUdaVPQdr2G6E0ZE4Jgemj9PFV6WGAlah3Yw/s1600/20200203_121653.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJVkwnrqFSyBb7tP0BWemVZ6TmM5mUYdR1INxgA-cIovFrXS8E6L2J9ewW_AtQrk80IT-FBHR0TEozg75V3vA3op41Z0TS-B0Wi94-3sHmUdaVPQdr2G6E0ZE4Jgemj9PFV6WGAlah3Yw/s320/20200203_121653.jpg" width="180" /></a>Australia - 23,470,000<br />
Florida - 21,300,000<br />
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Australia has an average of <a href="https://cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=2&wid=12&cmdfind=Search" target="_blank">505 members</a> per ward/branch (224 wards, 79 branches as of 2018, a reduction of 3 wards and 3 branches from 2017, which was a reduction of 3 branches from 2016). Florida has 587 members/unit, but that could include part-time residents, of whom there are many. (In the overall U.S., there are 468 members/unit.)<br />
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Branches are smaller, so allocating members proportionately to wards and branches would mean there are at least 750 members per average ward here (assuming the membership numbers don't include a large "unknown" file). There were about 125 in attendance Sunday. I was told that the other ward that shares the building is "much smaller." One of the missionaries had recently been transferred from a small branch that had only 2 youth after one family moved away.<br />
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Twenty years ago, the average membership per unit was around 350. Generally, high per unit numbers mean high inactivity. (For example, in Chile, there are around 1,000 members/unit.)<br />
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I pointed out in another blog that, according to census records, the largest religious affiliation in Perth is None, followed by Roman Catholic, Anglican, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. LDS come in 26th place, at 0.3%. This is well below Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists.<br />
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All of this leads me to ponder what it means to say the Lord is preparing the world for his Second Coming.<br />
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President Ballard's awesome message about the preparation for the Restoration doesn't mention the Internet. We all know how much the Internet has connected people around the world. The other day we met a young man from Canada who lives near Ottawa. He was on a two-week "round the world" trip, stopping in every continent except Antarctica. We had lots to discuss because I've visited every place he's going, except for one city. He also wanted to hear about the week I spent in Antarctica.<br />
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The people in whose home we're staying are currently spending a few months in Germany. A guy I went golfing with a few days ago trades homes with people from around the world.<br />
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Everybody is connected, it seems, and that helps explain why people everywhere are more understanding, patient, and loving. Old prejudices are fading as people get to know one another. Language barriers are overcome with AI-driven translators everyone has on their phones. With some exceptions, everyone is tolerant and respectful of others' religions and cultural practices.<br />
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In my view, people everywhere are more prepared than ever to accept the Gospel. Then what accounts for the stagnant growth and activity?<br />
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We'll discuss this more in upcoming days and weeks.<br />
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-59275497130003587402020-02-04T18:31:00.003-08:002020-02-04T18:31:27.211-08:00Come Follow Me, one more time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a follow-up to my post on the changes to the manual, I'm providing a link to an article that you might find useful, as well as an excerpt from Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.<br />
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<a href="https://www.ldsliving.com/How-We-Misinterpret-Black-and-Curse-in-the-Scriptures-Insights-from-a-Black-Convert/s/88562?fbclid=IwAR263d2GFE2UVRUW-LsNkD8pVdn1rPx2XKLAbLK2HggU2TBcF6kreOYr0yI">https://www.ldsliving.com/How-We-Misinterpret-Black-and-Curse-in-the-Scriptures-Insights-from-a-Black-Convert/s/88562?fbclid=IwAR263d2GFE2UVRUW-LsNkD8pVdn1rPx2XKLAbLK2HggU2TBcF6kreOYr0yI</a><br />
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The article includes an important account:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">After his presentation, a couple approached Perkins. “They were both sobbing, almost uncontrollably. When they were able to compose themselves, [the wife] admitted that she and her family are racists and have been racist all their lives. She mentioned that they use the N-word every day. She cried, ‘No one ever told us this!’” Perkins says. “She was ashamed of how she had lived her life up to that point, in how she had thought about, spoke about, and treated other children of God. I remember the penetrating words of her husband. He stated, ‘I value my word. And good people taught me those things, and I believed them and taught them boldly to others. I can’t believe I hurt so many people with things that were just not true.’”</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">That day, Perkins witnessed what he had seen on countless occasions—the way incorrect teachings or misinterpreted scripture can warp people’s understanding of the gospel and each other. But he also witnessed how the truth and our Savior’s grace can transform our understanding and our hearts—a transformation he knows from experience.</span></div>
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In like manner, many Church members (and nonmembers) have had the experience of realizing that incorrect teachings and misinterpreted scripture can warp people's understanding of the Book of Mormon.<br />
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Here is the excerpt from Benjamin Rush, published in 1773. You can find this on Wordcruncher, the software that I hope all my readers have and use regularly.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">An address to the inhabitants of the British settlements, on the slavery of the Negroes in America. To which is added, A vindication of the address, in answer to a pamphlet entitled, "Slavery not forbidden in Scripture; or, A defence of the West India planters." / By a Pennsylvanian. ; [Fifteen lines of verse, signed Proteus]</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Address to the inhabitants of the British settlements in America, upon slave-keeping</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Rush, Benjamin, 1746–1813.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">The second edition.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">[2], 28, [2], 54 p. ; 22 cm. (8 vo)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Printed and sold by John Dunlap.,</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Philadelphia: :</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">M,DCC,LXXIII. [1773]</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Attributed to Benjamin Rush in the Dictionary of American biography.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">SO much hath been said upon the subject of Slave-Keeping, that an Apology may be required for this Address. The only one I shall offer is, that the Evil still continues. This may in part be owing to the great attachment we have to our own Interest, and in part, to the subject not being fully exhausted. The design of the following address is to sum up the leading arguments against it, several of which have not been urged by any of those Authors who have written upon it.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Without entering into the History of the facts which relate to the Slave Trade, I shall proceed to combat the principal arguments which are used to support it.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">I need hardly say any thing in favour of the Intellects of the Negroes, or of their capacities for virtue and happiness, although these have been supposed, by some, to be inferior to [Page 2] those of the inhabitants of Europe. The accounts which travellers give us of their ingenuity, humanity, and strong attachment to their parents, relations, friends and country, show us that they are equal to the Europeans, when we allow for the diversity of temper and genius which is occasioned by climate. We have many well-attested anecdotes of as sublime and disinterested virtue among them as ever adorned a Roman or a Christian character. But we are to distinguish between an African in his own country, and an African in a state of slavery in America. Slavery is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it. All the vices which are charged upon the Negroes in the southern colonies and the West-Indies, such as Idleness, Treachery, Theft, and the like, are the genuine offspring of slavery, and serve as an argument to prove that they were not intended for it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>Nor let it be said, in the present Age, that their black color (as it is commonly called) either [Page 3] subjects them to, or qualifies them for slavery. The vulgar notion of their being descended from Cain, who was supposed to have been marked with this color, is too absurd to need a refutation.</b>—Without enquiring into the Cause of this blackness, I shall only add upon this subject, that so far from being a curse, it subjects the Negroes to no inconveniencies, [Page 4] but on the contrary qualifies them for that part of the Globe in which providence has placed them. The ravages of heat, diseases and time, appear less in their faces than in a white one; and when we exclude variety of color from our ideas of Beauty, they may be said to possess every thing necessary to constitute it in common with the white people..</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">It has been urged by the inhabitants of the Sugar Islands and South Carolina, that it would be impossible to carry on the manufactories of Sugar, Rice, and Indigo, without negro slaves. No manufactory can ever be of consequence enough to society to admit the least violation of the Laws of justice or humanity. But I am far from thinking the arguments used in favour of employing Negroes for the cultivation of these articles, should have any Weight.—M. Le Poivre, late envoy from the king of France, to [Page 5] the king of Cochin-China, and now intendant of the isles of Bourbon and Mauritius, in his observations upon the manners and arts of the various nations in Africa and Asia, speaking of the culture of sugar in Cochin-China, has the following remarks.—"It is worthy observation too, that the sugar cane is there cultivated by freemen, and all the process of preparation and refining, the work of free hands. Compare then the price of the Cochin-Chinese production with the same commodity which is cultivated and prepared by the wretched slaves of our European colonies, and judge if, to procure sugar from our colonies, it was necessary to authorize by law the slavery of the unhappy Africans transported to America. From what I have observed at Cochin-China, I cannot entertain a doubt, but that our WestIndia colonies, had they been distributed, without reservation amongst a free people, would [Page 6] have produced double the quantity that is now procured from the labour of the unfortunate negroes."</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">"What advantage, then, has accrued to Europe, civilized as it is, and thoroughly versed in the laws of nature, and the rights of mankind, by legally authorizing in our colonies, the daily outrages against human nature, permitting them to debase man almost below the level of the beasts of the field? These slavish laws have proved as opposite to its interest, as they are to its honour, and to the laws of humanity. This remark I have often made."</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">"Liberty and property form the basis of abundance, and good agriculture: I never observed it to flourish where those rights of mankind were not firmly established. The earth, which multiplies her productious with a kind of profusion, under the hands of the free-born labourer, seems to shrink into barrenness under the sweat of the slave. Such is the will of the great Author of our Nature, who has created man free, and assigned to him the earth, that he might cultivate his possession with the [Page 7] sweat of his brow; but still should enjoy his Liberty." Now if the plantations in the islands and the southern colonies were more limited, and freemen only employed in working them, the general product would be greater, although the profits to individuals would be less,—a circumstance this, which by diminishing opulence in a few, would suppress Luxury and Vice, and promote that equal distribution of property, which appears best calculated to promote the welfare of Society.— I know it has been said by some, that none but the natives of warm climates could undergo the [Page 8] `excessive heat and labor of the West-India islands. But this argument is founded upon an error; for the reverse of this is true. I have been informed by good authority, that one European who escapes the first or second year, will do twice the work, and live twice the number of years that an ordinary Negro man will do nor need we be surpriz’d at this, when we hear that such is the natural fertility of soil, and so numerous the spontaneous fruits of the earth in the interior parts of Africa, that the natives live in plenty at the expence of little or no labor, which, in warm climates, has ever been found to be incompatible with long life and happiness. Future ages, therefore, when they read the accounts of the Slave Trade (—if they do not regard them as fabulous) — will be at a loss which to condemn most, our folly or our Guilt, in abetting this direct violation of the Laws of nature and Religion.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;"><b>But there are some who have gone so far as to say that Slavery is not repugnant to the Genius of Christianity, and that it is not forbidden in any part of the Scripture. </b>Natural [Page 9] and Revealed Religion always speak the same things, although the latter delivers its precepts with a louder and more distinct voice than the former. If it could be proved that no testimony was to be found in the Bible against a practice so pregnant with evils of the most destructive tendency to society, it would be sufficient to overthrow its divine Original. We read it is true of Abraham’s having slaves born in his house; and we have reason to believe, that part of the riches of the patriarchs consisted in them; but we can no more infer the lawfulness of the practice, from the short account which the Jewish historian gives us of these facts, than we can vindicate telling a lie, because Rahab is not condemned for it in the account which is given of her deceiving the king of Jericho. We read that some of the same men indulged themselves in a plurality of wives, without any strictures being made upon their conduct for it; and yet no one will pretend to say, that this is not forbidden in many parts of the [Page 10] Old Testament. But we are told the Jews kept the Heathens in perpetual bondage . The Design of providence in permitting this evil, was probably to prevent the Jews from marrying amongst strangers, to which their intercourse with them upon any other footing than that of slaves, would naturally have inclined them . Had this taken place—their national religion would have been corrupted—they would have contracted all their vices , and the intention of Providence in keeping them a distant people, in order to accomplish the promise made to Abraham, that "in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed," would have been defeated; [Page 11] so that the descent of the Messiah from Abraham, could not have been traced, and the divine commission of the Son of God, would have wanted one of its most powerful argument […] to support […]. But with regard to their own countrymen, it is plain, perpetual slavery was not tolerated. Hence, at the end of seven years or in the year of the jubilee, all the Hebrew slaves were set at liberty , and it was held unlawful to detain them in servitude longer than that time, except by their own Consent. But if, in the partial Revelation which God [Page 12] made, of his will to the Jews, we find such testimonies against slavery, what may we not expect from the Gospel, the Design of which was to abolish all distinctions of name and county. While the Jews thought they complied with the precepts of the law, in confining the love of their neighbour "to the children of their own people," Christ commands us to look upon all mankind even our Enemies as our neighbours and brethren, and "in all things, to do unto them whatever we would wish they should do unto us." He tells us further that his "Kingdom is not of this World," and therefore constantly avoids saying any thing that might interfere directly with the Roman or Jewish Governments: and although he does not call upon masters to emancipate their slaves, or slaves to assert that Liberty wherewith God and Nature had made them free, yet there is scarcely a parable or a sermon in the whole history of his life, but what contains the strongest arguments against Slavery. Every prohibition [Page 13] of Covetousness—Intemperance—Pride—Uncleanness—Theft—and Murder, which he delivered,—every lesson of meekness, humility, forbearance, Charity, Self-denial, and brotherly-love, which he taught, are levelled against this evil;—for Slavery, while it includes all the former Vices, necessarily excludes the practice of all the latter Virtues, both from the Master and the Slave.—<b>Let such, therefore, who vindicate the traffic of buying and selling; Souls, seek some modern System of Religion to support it, and not presume to sanctify their crimes by attempting to reconcile it to the sublime and perfect Religion of the Great Author of Christianity.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">[Page 14]There are some amongst us who cannot help allowing the force of our last argument, but plead as a motive for importing and keeping slaves, that they become acquainted with the principles of the religion of our country.—This is like justifying a highway robbery because part [Page 15] of the money acquired in this manner was appropriated to some religious use.—Christianity will never be propagated by any other methods than those employed by Christ and his Apostles. Slavery is an engine as little fitted for that purpose as Fire or the Sword. A Christian Slave is a contradiction in terms. But if we enquire into the methods employed for converting the Negroes to Christianity, we shall find the means suited to the end proposed. In many places Sunday is appropriated to work for themselves, reading and writing are discouraged among them. A belief is even inculcated amongst some, that they have no Souls. In a word,—Every attempt to instruct or convert them, has [Page 16] been constantly opposed by their masters. Nor has the example of their christian masters any tendency to prejudice them in favor of our religion. How often do they betray, in their sudden transports of anger and resentment, (againsst which there is no restraint provided towards their Negroes) the most violent degrees of passion and fury!—What luxury—what ingratitude to the supreme being—what impiety in their ordinary conversation do some of them discover in the presence of their slaves! I say nothing of the dissolution of marriage vows, or the entire abolition of matrimony, which the frequent sale of them introduces, and which are directly contrary to the laws of nature and the principles of christianity. Would to Heaven I could here conceal the shocking violations of chastity, which some of them are obliged to undergo without daring to complain. Husbands have been forced to prostitute their wives, and mothers their daughters to gratify the brutal lust of a master. This—all—this is practised—Blush—ye impure and hardened wretches, while I repeat it—by men who call themselves christians!</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">[Page 17]But further—It has been said that we do a kindness to the Negroes by bringing them to America, as we thereby save their lives, which had been forfeited by their being conquered in war. Let such as prefer or inflict slavery rather than Death, disown their being descended from or connected with our mother countries.—But it will be found upon enquiry, that many are stolen or seduced from their friends who have never been conquered; and it is plain, from the testimony of historians and travellers, [Page 18] that wars were uncommon among them, until the christians who began the slave trades stirred up the different nations to fight against each other. Sooner let them imbrue their hands in each others blood, or condemn one another to perpetual slavery, than the name of one christian, or one American, be stained by the perpetration of such enormous crimes.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Nor let it be urged that by treating slaves well, we render their situation happier in this Country, than it was in their own.—Slavery and Vice are connected together, and the latter is always a source of misery. Besides, by the greatest humanity we can show them, we only lessen, but do not remove the crime, for the injustice of it continues the same. The laws of retribution are so strongly inculcated by the moral governor of the world, that even the ox is entitled to his reward for "treading the Corn." How great then must be the amount of that injustice, which deprives so many of our fellow creatures of the Just reward of their […].</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">But it will be asked here, What steps shall we take to remedy this Evil, and what shall [Page 19] we do with those Slaves we have already in this Country? This is indeed a most difficult question.’ But let every man contrive to answer it for himself. —</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">The first thing I would recommend to put a stop to slavery in this country, is to leave off importing slaves. For this purpose let our assemblies unite in petitioning the king and parliament to dissolve the African committee of merchants: It is by them that the trade is chiefly carried on to America. We have the more reason to expect relief from an application at this juncture, as by a late decision in favor of a Virginia slave in Westminster-Hall, the Clamors of the whole nation are raised against them. Let such of our countrymen as engage in the slave trade, be shunned as the greatest enemies to our country, and let the vessels which bring the slaves to us, be avoided as if they bore in them the Seeds of that forbidden fruit, whose baneful taste destroyed both the natural and moral world.— As for the Negroes among us, who, from having acquired all the low vices of slavery, or who from age or [Page 20] infirmities are unfit to be set at liberty, I would propose, for the good of society, that they should continue the property of those with whom they grew old, or from whom they contracted those vices and infirmities. But let the young Negroes be educated in the principles of virtue and religion—let them be taught to read, and write—and afterwards instructed in some business, whereby they may be able to maintain themselves. Let laws be made to limit the time of their servitude, and to entitle them to all the privileges of free-born British subjects. At any rate let Retribution be to done God and to Society </span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">[Page 21]And now my countrymen, What shall I add more to rouse up your Indignation against Slavekeeping. Consider the many complicated crimes it involves in it. Think of the bloody Wars which are fomented by it, among the African nations, or if these are too common to affect you, [Page 22] think of the pangs which attend the dissolution of the ties of nature in those who are stolen from their relations. Think of the many thousands who perish by sickness, melancholy, and suicide, in their voyages to America. Pursue the poor devoted victims to one of the West India islands, and see them exposed there to public sale. Hear their cries, and see their looks of tenderness at each other, upon being seperated.—Mothers are torn from their Daughters, and Brothers from Brothers, without the liberty of a parting embrace. Their master’s name is now marked upon their breasts with a red hot iron. But let us pursue them into a Sugar Field: and behold a scene still more affecting than this—See! the poor wretches with what reluctance they take their instruments of labor into their hands,—Some of them, overcome with heat and sickness, seek to refresh themselves by a little rest.—But, behold an Overseer approaches them—In vain they sue for pity.—He lifts up his Whip, while streams of Blood follow every stroke. Neither age nor sex are spared.—Methinks one of them is woman far advanced in her pregnancy.—At a little distance from these [Page 23] behold a man, who from his countenance and deportment appears as if he was descended from illustrious ancestors—Yes—He is the son of a Prince, and was torn by a stratagem, from an amiable wife and two young children.—Mark his sullen looks!—now he bids defiance to the tyranny of his Master, and in an instant—plunges a Knife into his Heart.—But let us return from this Scene, and see the various modes of arbitrary punishments inflicted upon them by their masters. Behold one covered with stripes, into which melted wax is poured—another tied down to a block or a stake—a third suspended in the air by his thumbs—a fourth—I cannot relate it.—Where now is Law or Justice?—Let us fly to them to step in for their relief.—Alas!—The one is silent, and the other denounces more terrible, punishments upon them. Let us attend the place appointed for inflicting the penalties of the law. See here one without a limb, whose only crime was an attempt to regain his Liberty.—another led to a Gallows for stealing a morsel of Bread, to which his labor gave him a better [Page 24] title than his master—a third famishing on a gibbet—a fourth, in a flame of Fire! his shrieks pierce the very heavens.—O! God! where is thy Vengeance!—O! Humanity—Justice—Liberty—Religion!—Where,—where are ye fled.—</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">This is no exaggerated Picture. It is taken from real Life.—Before I conclude I shall take the liberty of addressing several Classes of my countrymen in behalf of our Brethren (for by that name may we now call them) who are in a state of Slavery amongst us.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">In the first place let MAGISTRATES both supreme and inferior, exert the authority they are invested with, in suppressing this evil. Let them discountenance it by their example, and show a readiness to concur in every measure proposed to remedy it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Let LEGISLATORS, reflect upon the trust reposed in them. Let their laws be made after the Spirit of Religion—Liberty—and our most excellent English Constitution. You cannot show your attachment to your King, or your love to your country better, than by suppressing an evil which endangers the dominions of the [Page 25] former, and will in Time destroy the liberty of the latter. Population, and the accession of strangers, in which the Riches of all countries consist, can only flourish in proportion as slavery is discouraged. Extend the privileges we enjoy, to every human creature born amongst us, and let not the Journals of our Assemblies be disgraced with the records of laws, which allow exclusive privileges to men of one color in preference to another. </span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Ye men of SENSE and VIRTUE—Ye ADVOCATES [Page 26] for American Liberty, rouse up and espouse; the cause of Humanity and general Liberty. Bear a testimony against a vice which degrades human nature, and dissolves that universal tie of benevolence which should connect all the children of men together in one great Family.—The plant of liberty is of so tender a Nature, that it cannot thrive long in the neighbourhood of slavery. Remember the eyes of all Europe are fixed upon you, to preserve an asylum for freedom in this country, after the last pillars of it are fallen in every other quarter of the Globe.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">But chiefly—ye MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, whose dominion over the principles and actions of men is so universally acknowledged and felt,—Ye who estimate the worth of your fellow creatures by their Immortality, and therefore must look upon all mankind as equal,—let your zeal keep pace with your opportunities to put a stop to slavery. While you enforce the duties of "tithe and cummin," neglect not the weightier laws of justice and humanity. Slavery is an Hydra sin, and includes in it every violation of the precepts of the Law and the [Page 27] Gospel. In vain will you command your flocks to offer up the incence of Faith and Charity, while they continue to mingle the Sweat and blood of Negro slaves with their sacrifices.—If the Blood of Able cried aloud for vengeance;—If, under the Jewish dispensation, Cities of refuge could not screen the deliberate murderer—if even manslaughter required sacrifices to expiate it,—and if a single murder so seldom escapes with impunity in any civilized country, what may you not say against that trade, or those manufactures—or Laws, which destroy the lives of so many thousands of our fellow creatures every year?—If in the Old Testament "God swears by his holiness, and by the excellency of Jacob, that the Earth shall tremble and every one mourn that dwelleth therein [Page 28] for the iniquity of those who oppress the poor and crush the needy," who buy the poor with silver, and the needy with a pair of shoes, what judgments may you not denounce upon those who continue to perpetrate these crimes, after the more full discovery which God has made of the law of Equity in the New-Testament. Put them in mind of the Rod which was held over them a few years ago in the Stamp, and Revenue Acts. Remember that national crimes require national punishments, and without declaring what punishment awaits this evil, you may venture to assure them, that it cannot pass with impunity, unless God shall cease to be just or merciful.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">THE END.</span><br />
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-80785136513462376342020-02-03T07:30:00.000-08:002020-02-03T07:30:03.234-08:00update on Phoenicia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Long-time readers know about the Phoenicia expedition. Here's an important press release:<br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1F2igPkE5Wmas04uaRGD5eJqzNCV6ESOVavzXv0bBMUM/mobilebasic?usp=gmail">https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1F2igPkE5Wmas04uaRGD5eJqzNCV6ESOVavzXv0bBMUM/mobilebasic?usp=gmail</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700;">Replica </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Phoenician Ship</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700;"> Makes Landfall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida<br />after </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Unprecedented 6,000-Mile Atlantic Voyage</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br />Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 12:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700;">0</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">0pm</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">(Time is approximate due to sea and weather conditions)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt;">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 31, 2020 -- Coral Ridge Yacht Club is set to host replica Phoenician ship, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic;">Phoenicia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt;"> for its first U.S. landing </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">after a </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">five-month </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">voyage of over 6,000 miles. </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">The voyage is part of the </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.phoeniciansbeforecolumbus.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388313000&sa=D&ust=1580601388325000&usg=AFQjCNHMI2Q__pkolTHbwUOJtHtvm4II1Q" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Phoenicians Before Columbus Expedition</a></span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">, designed with the help of the US-based </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://thephoeniciancenter.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388314000&sa=D&ust=1580601388325000&usg=AFQjCNGGKgG6FwomgxirBtB5qxdOQqJszQ" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Phoenician International Research Center</a></span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, to show that Phoenician ships could have crossed the Atlantic over 2,000 years before Christopher Columbus “discovered” the American continent.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); display: inline-block; height: 300.55px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; transform: rotate(0rad) translateZ(0px); width: 224.5px;"><img alt="" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/fgmc9MBsNp2PVbCzJ9ToBWj2xNZdjBNigy25WB1E1gNLTkQRP0NQ4QctPYf_d0nN7gZTTi11DD6R5M8wA8WXHfa3lgp3wvOG-T3C6Qq3FazFgjJ9XuJw1VKQ9JgrdlghgOi9zHwM=s800" style="height: 300.55px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; transform: rotate(0rad) translateZ(0px); width: 224.5px;" title="" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt;">The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic;">Phoenicia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> began its voyage from Carthage, Tunisia on September 28, 2019. After sailing from Carthage to Cadiz, Spain, Essaouira, Morocco and Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the ship left the Old World on November 23, 2019 and safely reached port in the Dominican Republic on December 31, 2019, having crossed the Atlantic Ocean using nothing but wind, current, sail and compass.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700;">The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;">Phoenicia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700;"> will make landfall on American shores Tuesday, February 4, 2020, docking at </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.coralridgeyachtclub.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388315000&sa=D&ust=1580601388326000&usg=AFQjCNElsJatj7alEE4JiG2DjqV4CA4CUw" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Coral Ridge Yacht Club</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700;"> in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttps://www.google.com/maps/dir//2800%252BYacht%252BClub%252BBlvd,%252BFort%252BLauderdale,%252BFL%252B33304/data%253D!4m6!4m5!1m1!4e2!1m2!1m1!1s0x88d901db28cd1323:0x972c52b06ca846e5?sa%253DX%2526ved%253D2ahUKEwiWt5Xu-qvnAhUSlXIEHdwBCTAQwwUwAHoECAwQAw%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388315000&sa=D&ust=1580601388326000&usg=AFQjCNFwg2sQDBKaDxi0sRBStkZuXJFwnQ" style="text-decoration: inherit;">2800 Yacht Club Boulevard</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700;">). Viewing of the landing is open to the public. To reserve a space, call Coral Ridge Yacht Club at 954-566-7886.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">“We are honored to host the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Phoenicia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> and its crew at Coral Ridge Yacht Club, and to be part of this exciting moment in history,” said Commodore Pru Lewis. “We are also excited to welcome the local community to our Club to view this magnificent ship.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt;">The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic;">Phoenicia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11.5pt;"> is a traditionally-built replica of a Phoenician merchant vessel, based on a 600 BC design. </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">British Adventurer and Expedition Leader, Philip Beale FRGS, captains the </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Phoenicia</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, sailing with a multi-national crew with representatives from the United States, Lebanon, Tunisia, United Kingdom, Norway, Holland, Brazil and Indonesia. Amongst the crew is filmmaker Yuri Sanada from Aventuras Produções, Brazil. He is documenting life on board as well as the challenges the Phoenicians were likely to have faced. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">According to Greek geographer and historian, Strabo, the Phoenicians traded and settled along the East Atlantic coast, prompting Beale’s belief in the likelihood that the Phoenicians would have attempted to sail West in the hope of discovering more lands. Beale commissioned the building of the </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic;">Phoenicia</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> ship 12 years ago. It was traditionally built in Syria and its design was based on the wreckage of the Jules Vernes 7, discovered in the Mediterranean in the early 1990’s. The </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-style: italic;">Phoenicia</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> is believed to be the only replica of its kind in the world. Having already circumnavigated Africa in the First Phoenician Ship expedition (2008-10), Beale was once again at the helm for the cross Atlantic challenge; reiterating his passion for the seafaring Phoenicians. </span><span style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); display: inline-block; height: 189.17px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; transform: rotate(0rad) translateZ(0px); width: 252.5px;"><img alt="" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/pMcmlm0OwIwtv2t3v51kGgWk_UQk-_dN_9-W1_WCleypw_Lk4NJGOJIwDxAUoRqO5kt0sGrwbOCp4AluOI5rFH4H8cr0JmW2CACNny7VUvS2ftFavY8c-_yAjSWpremunKH3PEis=s800" style="height: 189.17px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; transform: rotate(0rad) translateZ(0px); width: 252.5px;" title="" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />The Expedition has been endorsed by the Ministries of Information and Tourism of the Republic of Lebanon and received support, expedition supplies and services from numerous organizations in the Republic of Tunisia, prior to the launch of the Expedition from Carthage, Tunisia in September 2019. The Expedition is part of the United Nations Environment ‘</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.cleanseas.org%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388316000&sa=D&ust=1580601388326000&usg=AFQjCNEESU4imeofpjK-jrkQmbawXDcj-g" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Clean Seas Campaign</a></span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">’, taking daily water samples to measure micro plastic levels and raising awareness about plastic pollution in the ocean.<br /><br />A wide international following has already grown for this unusual and inspired endeavor. Some believe the Phoenicians made it to the Americas and look for genealogy and archaeological evidence there. Beale is focused on highlighting their engineering and maritime skills and hopes that one day his work will contribute to wider archaeological findings to inform a bigger Phoenician story. Phoenicians </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">B</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">efore Columbus is approved by the UK’s </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.ses-explore.org%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388316000&sa=D&ust=1580601388327000&usg=AFQjCNFyOJFNsdsAEdUYUjjkJRFzGeWmbw" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Scientific Exploration Society</a></span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> and the expedition is the proud recipient of the 2019 </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.captainscottsociety.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388316000&sa=D&ust=1580601388327000&usg=AFQjCNHC1qSeKTO-rHG_rqm1Ac9HGr7HwQ" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Captain Scott Society’s</a></span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> ‘Spirit of Adventure’ Award.<br /><br />The journey across the Atlantic from Tenerife to the Dominican Republic took 39 days, a distance of some 3,700 miles. From the Dominican Republic to Florida, the journey of 1,000 miles </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">will take</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> 12 days. </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">Once completed, the total </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">voyage from Carthage, Tunisia to Florida </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">will have covered</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> over 6,000 miles</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">, taking five</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> months to complete.<br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">For more information or media inquiries, contact:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Cell: </span><span style="color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">404-580-0387</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #373737; font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Email: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="mailto:alfordroz@gmail.com" style="text-decoration: inherit;">alfordroz@gmail.com</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700;">Related Links</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">:</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.phoeniciansbeforecolumbus.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388318000&sa=D&ust=1580601388327000&usg=AFQjCNH_nASuV3INXSyEf7Go_U2gssRm4Q" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Visit the Expedition </a></span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.phoeniciansbeforecolumbus.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388318000&sa=D&ust=1580601388328000&usg=AFQjCNGnEXzMuOrvvsAeAAqtkJHvp64g_w" style="text-decoration: inherit;">W</a></span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.phoeniciansbeforecolumbus.com%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388318000&sa=D&ust=1580601388328000&usg=AFQjCNGnEXzMuOrvvsAeAAqtkJHvp64g_w" style="text-decoration: inherit;">ebsite</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11.5pt; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttps://www.facebook.com/pg/PhoeniciansBeforeColumbus%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1580601388318000&sa=D&ust=1580601388328000&usg=AFQjCNEk3MGMo4Yk8IMhPnQ8vzThvm4cRA" style="text-decoration: inherit;">Follow the Expedition on Facebook</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700;">ABOUT CORAL RIDGE YACHT CLUB</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e29; font-size: 10pt;">For over 70 years, Coral Ridge Yacht Club has beckoned to those who love the water, enjoy an active social life and who desire living life to the fullest. Established in 1947, the Club is located on Florida's famed Gold Coast along the Intracoastal Waterway and offers an escape into a tropical paradise. Mingling the traditions of old-world elegance with fun, fellowship and relaxation, this charming haven offers the magic of the true South Florida lifestyle, including award-winning cuisine, picturesque landscapes and an abundance of social activities and entertainment.</span></div>
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-85184412530230310242020-02-01T15:21:00.001-08:002020-02-01T15:21:25.228-08:00Changes in Come Follow Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZVboKik9Uw7v6FSwZDXKq84h2_fwNyb3dH4HYRPsunozsYxiyufkAec03xoq5RyZEqrq45Uf8RHd8vrTZCG4nF4Y0-_GjxSP49dgt48jKl9HJtYaCEivXT9PfXpJZsQwinDkj-ZtloM/s1600/Come+Folow+Me+2020+cover.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="267" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZVboKik9Uw7v6FSwZDXKq84h2_fwNyb3dH4HYRPsunozsYxiyufkAec03xoq5RyZEqrq45Uf8RHd8vrTZCG4nF4Y0-_GjxSP49dgt48jKl9HJtYaCEivXT9PfXpJZsQwinDkj-ZtloM/s200/Come+Folow+Me+2020+cover.PNG" width="131" /></a></div>
Some people wonder about the changes I mentioned in this blog recently.<br />
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The point of my post was that the manuals are not doctrine, they are subject to change at any time without notice, and even the Brethren don't always know what they contain before they are published.<br />
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I don't know why anyone would give credence to lesson manuals, books such as <i>Saints</i>, and other such materials regarding topics in which these things contradict the teachings of the scriptures, General Conference addresses, and original documents from Church history.<br />
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Web page links can change at any time, so if you couldn't find the links I provided, here are the two screen captures so you can see them.<br />
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The original manual:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RWawEFeMGb9BZp0QVW-5Wnneu_Q5IpDWpf2oSrx9rmSpxkorAyGc-cC5KN1Xw5gLxqJueXmRTOjTGc_QhB9qgVBSuby3o7xoJl5j3S7mv_ElsmCKzaGNZ4ZWJnqnucoaypGhYdHeLcY/s1600/2+Nephi+5-print+and+pdf.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="428" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RWawEFeMGb9BZp0QVW-5Wnneu_Q5IpDWpf2oSrx9rmSpxkorAyGc-cC5KN1Xw5gLxqJueXmRTOjTGc_QhB9qgVBSuby3o7xoJl5j3S7mv_ElsmCKzaGNZ4ZWJnqnucoaypGhYdHeLcY/s400/2+Nephi+5-print+and+pdf.PNG" width="400" /></a><br />
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The revised manual:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHzyCS-3VIUp4wcGGYyivLavFT0ZiPfNoPXR3wB-neKdeffg_fir7-VpehMfMQ3hbXRIBpYytane40OhyphenhyphenXEr81eioqjFbp7BHm15_kltkQvjTf91K8QOitSj96z6FLh4xVB9_CRNIDb7I/s1600/2+Nephi+5-online.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="534" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHzyCS-3VIUp4wcGGYyivLavFT0ZiPfNoPXR3wB-neKdeffg_fir7-VpehMfMQ3hbXRIBpYytane40OhyphenhyphenXEr81eioqjFbp7BHm15_kltkQvjTf91K8QOitSj96z6FLh4xVB9_CRNIDb7I/s640/2+Nephi+5-online.PNG" width="412" /></a></div>
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-78617676431064157702020-01-23T07:30:00.000-08:002020-01-23T07:30:05.319-08:00Who reviews Church curriculum?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHdY-YE2gJc40MhOxUz_R25rykdBp33HhBvkDpGQDRd2zor02kK0iNkKZ62i3-8uYjF0k9CiSRUOj7szFrYHkZWEXA5yIW1_4Hk1bExIFHubs_UZRqTVDG9dTd9iWaqkTSW_jXbfxrT8/s1600/Come+Folow+Me+2020+cover.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHdY-YE2gJc40MhOxUz_R25rykdBp33HhBvkDpGQDRd2zor02kK0iNkKZ62i3-8uYjF0k9CiSRUOj7szFrYHkZWEXA5yIW1_4Hk1bExIFHubs_UZRqTVDG9dTd9iWaqkTSW_jXbfxrT8/s320/Come+Folow+Me+2020+cover.PNG" width="210" /></a></div>
For years, M2C intellectuals, their employees and their followers have told me that the views of CES, BYU and COB employees are the views of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve because the Brethren review all of these materials.<br />
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If that's the case, then how did the <i>Come, Follow Me 2020</i> manual on the Book of Mormon leave Elder Gary Stevenson “deeply saddened and hurt” by a section in the manual that, according to the Church News, included an error "referencing outdated commentary about race" that should not be in the manual (the commentary on 2 Nephi 5:20-21, which is on page 24 in the print/pdf version but has been removed from the online version)?<br />
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<a href="https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-01-20/naacp-elder-stevenson-martin-luther-king-jr-172357">https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-01-20/naacp-elder-stevenson-martin-luther-king-jr-172357</a><br />
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print/pdf version (as of today):<br />
<a href="https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/manuals/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020/individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020-eng.pdf?lang=eng">https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/manuals/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020/individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020-eng.pdf?lang=eng</a><br />
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Online version (which has been edited to remove the outdated commentary):<br />
<a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020/06?lang=eng">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020/06?lang=eng</a><br />
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Was Elder Stevenson the only one of the Brethren who was "deeply saddened and hurt" by the error? That seems unlikely, given the context of his address.<br />
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And, as you can see from the links above, the error was promptly edited in the online version and will probably be edited eventually in the pdf and print versions.<br />
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<b>How did an error such as this show up in the most important Church manual of 2020?</b><br />
<br />
The answer seems obvious to me. The CES, BYU and COB materials are prepared by employees who convey their own ideas in drafts that they send up the chain. Certainly there are General Authorities who review the work of these employees, but many of them share the same biases and beliefs as the employees.<br />
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Anyone who has worked in a large organization know that decisions made at the lower levels constrain the options available to decision makers.<br />
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We've discussed that before.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/when-employees-have-spoken-thinking-is.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/when-employees-have-spoken-thinking-is.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/03/the-m2c-hoax-part-2-power-of-psychology.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/03/the-m2c-hoax-part-2-power-of-psychology.html</a><br />
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We see similar problems with the anonymous Gospel Topics Essays, the <i>Saints</i> book, and other curriculum.<br />
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For example, I doubt the Brethren specifically approved the errors in Volume 1 of the <i>Saints</i> book, such as the phony Mary Whitmer story that portrays Moroni as a shape-shifter. When he appeared to Joseph Smith, he was taller than average men, wore a robe, etc. If you believe the revisionist historians and M2C intellectuals, Moroni shifted his shape to appear as a short stocky old man with a very long beard.<br />
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According to Mary, the person who showed her the plates called himself Brother Nephi. According to David Whitmer, Joseph Smith said the person was one of the Nephites, meaning the 3 Nephites. This is all consistent, as we've discussed before.<br />
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<a href="https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-mary-whitmer-problem.html">https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-mary-whitmer-problem.html</a><br />
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But our revisionist historians and M2C intellectuals insist Mary and David and Joseph were wrong because they can't have one of the 3 Nephites taking the Harmony plates to Cumorah.<br />
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By now, we've all seen how Church curriculum teaches M2C. Some examples we've discussed on this and other blogs:<br />
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We have the BYU/CES fantasy maps which teach that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is anywhere but in New York where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said it was.<br />
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We have the Mesoamerican artwork throughout Church curriculum, the <i>Ensign</i>, and lesson manuals.<br />
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We have the Arnold Friberg painting of Mormon and Moroni at the Hill Cumorah in New York being removed from the missionary edition of the Book of Mormon and replaced with the painting of Christ visiting the Nephites at a ruined Mayan temple with Chichen Itza in the background.<br />
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See, e.g., <a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/correlation-department-uses-two-m2c.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/correlation-department-uses-two-m2c.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/03/m2c-technique-4-noah-flood-imprinting.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/03/m2c-technique-4-noah-flood-imprinting.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2017/05/expectations-and-art-missionary-work.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2017/05/expectations-and-art-missionary-work.html</a><br />
_____<br />
<br />
Everyone understands that in a large organization, leaders have to delegate. They have to trust subordinates. Naturally, errors creep into curriculum, as Elder Stevenson pointed out.<br />
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The problem is when the subordinates have their own agendas, such as revising Church history and promoting M2C. That problem is compounded by people believing everything that shows up in a manual, the <i>Ensign</i>, the Gospel Topics Essays, etc.<br />
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The best solution is for each individual to prayerfully study and consider the source material. When that's impractical, you need to be very careful about delegating your own beliefs to intellectuals, even when they are employed by CES, BYU, or COB.<br />
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<b>My advice: follow the prophets, not the employees.</b><br />
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-72944668699760830372020-01-09T22:53:00.001-08:002020-01-09T22:53:13.614-08:00Two scenarios - which do you believe?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">2020 is the year of the Restoration in the sense of the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's first vision.</span></h3>
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<br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">What will be the long-term impact of this momentous year? Will anyone outside currently active members of the Church care?</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The answer will depend, to some degree, on what they learn about the Restoration.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">One narrative is inspiring and has a long history of prophetic affirmations.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The other narrative is bizarre and academic in origins and nature.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><b style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Which do you think will be more persuasive and influential for people in the world?</b><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">_____</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The Restoration itself is a challenging concept for many people. It was unexpected by most of Christianity, but some people hoped and prayed for it. Some anticipated it. Most resisted and rejected it.</span></div>
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That's the situation today, even after 200 years.<br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Joseph's explanation that the angel Moroni guided him to the plates, the breastplate and Urim and Thummim, is straightforward and clear. The Book of Mormon, as well as the Doctrine and Covenants and Joseph's own statements, corroborated by Oliver Cowdery's statements, are consistent.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">They all affirm that Joseph Smith translated the engravings on the plates by the gift and power of God, using the Nephite interpreters Joseph and Oliver called the Urim and Thummim.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">For many people, the existence of ancient gold plates is difficult to believe but not impossible. Joseph Smith translating an ancient text is difficult to believe, but not impossible, given his four years of preparation and training, plus the months he spent with the plates, copying and translating characters before Martin Harris arrived to work as a scribe.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Joseph and Oliver stuck with their account their entire lives. Their faithful contemporaries and successors repeatedly re-affirmed that narrative.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-right: 1em; padding: 4px; position: relative;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ag_hw_-5F22cFim6QOVuqj8kuXHIGm0xk8V6dyeefA98OcixMw6XLQVabpmrUsWrqPH_YcOqEeuyTY4nPB6fcRMuNqyDA1jS2l6pI4aZqYjQvTm4KCq5z1Aqxnw2-TndjZuGKfXXj_A/s1600/Joseph+not+translating+with+U%2526T.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #7d7717; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="384" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ag_hw_-5F22cFim6QOVuqj8kuXHIGm0xk8V6dyeefA98OcixMw6XLQVabpmrUsWrqPH_YcOqEeuyTY4nPB6fcRMuNqyDA1jS2l6pI4aZqYjQvTm4KCq5z1Aqxnw2-TndjZuGKfXXj_A/s200/Joseph+not+translating+with+U%2526T.PNG" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 20px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.4px; text-align: center;">Joseph Smith, not using<br />the Urim and Thummim</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Then, about 15 years ago, a different narrative made its way into the Church. It is based on several statements made by, or attributed to, people who claimed to be witnesses to the translation. The statements claim that Joseph did not use the Urim and Thummim to translate the engravings on the plates.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Instead, he put a seer stone in a hat and read words that appeared. He didn't consult the plates, which sat under a cloth the whole time (if they were even in the room). He didn't use the Urim and Thummim.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The new narrative became popular quickly.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><b style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Except it's not a new narrative.</b><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's an old narrative, initially promoted by Joseph's fiercest opponents and, in more recent times, promoted by critics such as the CES Letter, the Tanners, and others.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Now, it's being taught throughout the Church. We see it in the </span><i style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Ensign</i><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">, in Church media, lesson manuals, etc.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The new narrative is a direct conflict with what Joseph and Oliver taught. Some have tried to say that when Joseph and Oliver referred to the Urim and Thummim, they actually meant the seer stone.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">But that idea contradicts the plain history.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The 1834 book </span><i style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Mormonism Unvailed</i><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> described two narratives. In one, Joseph produced the seer stone by reading words that appeared on a stone in a hat. In the other, he used the Urim and Thummim, aka the spectacles or interpreters that came with the plates.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Joseph and Oliver repeatedly testified that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim. Never once did they state or imply that Joseph used a seer stone he found somewhere.</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">_____</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Put yourself in the position of a nonmember, or a member who questions his/her faith. Which one of the following scenarios is more believable?</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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1. Joseph Smith actually translated the ancient engravings on metal plates by using the Nephite interpreters (Urim and Thummim) prepared for that purpose.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>OR<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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2. Joseph Smith merely read words that appeared on a seer stone he put in a hat that functioned as a supernatural teleprompter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p>It's pretty easy to compare the different approaches to Church history and Book of Mormon issues. The chart below offers some side-by-side comparisons.</o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-table-layout-alt: fixed; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 593px;">
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Topic<o:p></o:p></div>
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Scenario 1<o:p></o:p></div>
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Scenario 2<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">Urim and
Thummim<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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When Moroni hid up the abridged plates in the stone box in the Hill
Cumorah in New York, he included special interpreters prepared by the Lord to
translate the engravings on the plates. He told Joseph Smith about these,
calling them the Urim and Thummim (U&T). <o:p></o:p></div>
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When Moroni hid up the abridged plates in the stone box in the Hill
Cumorah in New York, he included special interpreters prepared by the Lord to
translate the engravings on the plates. He told Joseph Smith about these, but
did not call them the Urim and Thummim (U&T). W.W. Phelps or someone else
came up with that name and Joseph and Oliver applied it retroactively when
they related what Moroni told Joseph Smith.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">U&T
vs. seer stone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Joseph obtained the U&T and used them to translate characters.
Then he used the U&T to translate the 116 pages. When the 116 pages were
lost, he had to forfeit the plates and the U&T and lost the gift of
translation. Later he received the plates and U&T back again, along with
the gift of translation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Joseph obtained the U&T and used them to translate characters,
but it was more convenient for him to use a seer stone he had found in a well
years previously. When the 116 pages were lost, he had to forfeit the plates
and the U&T and lost the gift of translation, although he kept the seer
stone. Later he received the plates and U&T back again, or maybe didn’t,
depending on whom you believe, but it doesn’t matter because Joseph didn’t
use the U&T anyway. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Plates
vs seer stone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Using the U&T, he translated the abridged plates in Harmony, then
the small plates of Nephi in Fayette.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Using the seer stone, he dictated the Book of Mormon text without
referring to the plates, which sat nearby covered with a cloth.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Joseph
and Oliver<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery always said Joseph translated the
engravings on the plates with the U&T. Others said Joseph did not use the
U&T but instead used a seer stone in a hat. These observers apparently
witnessed a demonstration of the process Joseph conducted to satisfy their
curiosity, but not the actual translation because the Lord had forbidden him
from showing the U&T and plates to anyone. <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery always said Joseph translated the
engravings on the plates with the U&T, but that was misleading because
actual witnesses said Joseph did not use the U&T but instead used a seer
stone in a hat. These observers told the world how the translation was
actually done. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">Language<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph actually translated the engravings on the plates, using his
own language as any translator necessarily does. <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph merely read words that appeared on a seer stone in a hat. The
language is Early Modern English which long predated Joseph Smith and which
he could not have known.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Title
Page<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph said the Title Page was a literal translation of the last leaf
of the plates.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We don’t know how he knew the Title Page was a literal translation or
that the Title Page was on the last leaf of the plates because he didn’t use
the plates.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Need for
plates<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Mormon and Moroni abridged the Nephite and Jaredite history so a
future prophet could translate the engravings on the plates using the
interpreters prepared for that purpose.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We don’t know why Mormon and Moroni abridged the Nephite record and
gave Joseph the interpreters because he never used them. Instead he just read
words that appeared on a seer stone.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">U&T
and seer stones two separate things<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1834, the book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> identified the two
alternative descriptions of the process. When Joseph and Oliver responded to
that book in their first essays on Church history, they reaffirmed that
Joseph used the U&T.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1834, the book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> identified the two
alternative descriptions of the process. When Joseph and Oliver responded to
that book in their first essays on Church history, they said Joseph used the
U&T, <b>but they really meant he used the seer stone.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">LDS vs
RLDS position on U&T<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph’s contemporaries and subsequent LDS Church leaders have always
reaffirmed the account given by Joseph and Oliver. RLDS Church leaders and
other dissidents denied Joseph used the U&T and said he used the seer
stone in a hat.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph’s contemporaries and subsequent LDS Church leaders have always
reaffirmed the account given by Joseph and Oliver. RLDS Church leaders and
other dissidents denied Joseph used the U&T and said he used the seer
stone in a hat.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">LDS
scholars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the last few years, LDS scholars have embraced the RLDS position and
it has become widespread among LDS people.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the last few years, LDS scholars have embraced the RLDS position
and it has become widespread among LDS people.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Moroni
and Cumorah<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Moroni called the hill in New York “Cumorah.”<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Moroni did not call the hill in New York “Cumorah.” Parley P. Pratt
(or Oliver Cowdery) was mistaken about that.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Joseph’s
first mention of </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Cumorah</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph referred to the hill as Cumorah after meeting the angel there
months before he got the plates in 1827.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lucy Mack Smith was mistaken when she said Joseph referred to the
hill as Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Letter
VII<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As Assistant President of the Church and with the assistance of
Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery stated it was a fact that the final battles of
the Nephites and Jaredites took place in the mile-wide valley west of the
Hill Cumorah in New York. (Letter VII)<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
President Cowdery misled the Church when he said it was a fact. He
was merely speculating and he was wrong when he wrote Letter VII.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Letter
VII republication<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph Smith had his scribes copy Letter VII into his journal as part
of his life history and approved the republication of Letter VII in the <i>Gospel
Reflector</i> and <i>Times and Seasons</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph didn’t pay much attention to what Letter VII said and it
doesn’t matter because he didn’t know anything about Book of Mormon geography
anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 15;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">NY </span><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">depository</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">—Brigham
Young<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph and Oliver visited the repository of Nephite records in the
New York Cumorah multiple times, as Brigham Young explained because he feared
the truth would be forgotten.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Brigham Young misled the Saints about this because Oliver merely had
a vision of this visit but it never really happened. And the vision was of a
hill in Mesoamerica anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 16;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">NY </span><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">depository</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> —Wilford
</span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">Woodruff</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wilford Woodruff taught about the repository of Nephite records in
the New York Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wilford Woodruff misled the Saints about this.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 17;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">NY </span><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">depository</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> —<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Heber C.
Kimball<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Heber C. Kimball said he visited the Hill Cumorah in New York and saw
the embankments still around it. He also taught about the repository in the
hill.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Heber C. Kimball misled the Saints about his.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 18;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Joseph’s
contemp-oraries <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
All of Joseph’s contemporaries affirmed that the Hill Cumorah was in
New York.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
All these Church leaders misled the Church by repeating false
speculation.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 19;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Later
Church leaders<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Every prophet and apostle who has formally addressed the Hill
Cumorah, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General
Conference, reaffirmed that there is one Hill Cumorah and it is in New York.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
All these Church leaders misled the Church by teaching their own
private, incorrect opinions as the truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 20;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Anony-mous
articles in the <i>Times and Seasons</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1842, anonymous articles published in the <i>Times and Seasons</i>
speculated that Mayan ruins in Central America were left by the Nephites.
Joseph Smith was the nominal editor of the <i>Times and Seasons</i> but had
little to do with the paper. He was also the named printer but he did not
operate the printing press, either.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1842, anonymous articles published in the <i>Times and Seasons</i>
speculated that Mayan ruins in Central America were left by the Nephites.
Joseph Smith was the nominal editor of the <i>Times and Seasons</i> so he
wrote or approved of the articles, even though they referred to ruins built
long after Book of Mormon times.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 21;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Letter
VII again<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the late 1800s, LDS Church leaders republished Letter VII and
began seeking to purchase the Hill Cumorah in New York.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the late 1800s, RLDS scholars determined that the hill in New York
could not be the real Cumorah. Instead, the real Cumorah had to be in Mesoamerica.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 22;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Purcha-sing
Hill </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Cumorah</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the early 1900s, the LDS Church purchased the Hill Cumorah in New
York and reaffirmed its importance as the repository of Nephite records, the
scene of the final battles, etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the early 1900s, RLDS scholars published books to prove the New
York hill could not be the real Cumorah. To reconcile statements from early
Church history, there had to be “two Cumorahs.”<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 23;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">M2C<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the mid to late 1900s, LDS scholars adopted the RLDS position of
two Cumorahs, with the real Cumorah in Mesoamerica, now known as M2C.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the mid to late 1900s, LDS scholars realized the RLDS scholars
were correct while LDS Church leaders were wrong. <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 24;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">CES<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
LDS scholars taught M2C for decades, while censoring the teachings of
the prophets about the New York Cumorah. <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
LDS scholars taught the correct ideas of M2C for decades, while
de-correlating the incorrect teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 25;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Neutra-lity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Church is currently neutral on the question of Book of Mormon
geography but has not stated a specific position about the New York Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Church is currently neutral on the question of Book of Mormon
geography, which means the living prophets have repudiated the teachings of
the dead prophets about the New York Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 26;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Evidence—North
America<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Evidence from archaeology, anthropology, geography and geology
corroborate the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Evidence from archaeology, anthropology, geography and geology
demonstrate the fallacy of the teachings of the prophets about the New York
Cumorah.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 27; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.25pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Evidence—Mesoamerica<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 198.1pt;" valign="top" width="264">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Evidence from archaeology, anthropology, geography and geology in
Mesoamerica has no connection with Book of Mormon descriptions.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 197.35pt;" valign="top" width="263">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Evidence from archaeology, anthropology, geography and geology in
Mesoamerica has shows lots of correspondences with Book of Mormon
descriptions, so long as you assume the Book of Mormon was not translated correctly;
i.e., “horses” are actually “tapirs,” “towers” are actually “massive stone
pyramids,” etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-78463143926304245782020-01-04T14:14:00.000-08:002020-01-04T14:14:00.205-08:00Come, Follow Me 2020<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This year, members of the Church will focus on the Book of Mormon. There are lots of supplements, books, commentaries, etc.<br />
<br />
But there's one that will offer ideas and information you won't find anywhere else.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://comefollowme2020.blogspot.com/">https://comefollowme2020.blogspot.com/</a><br />
<br />
I'm keeping it succinct and only touching on a few topics, but I'll try to give you resources to pursue the various topics in more detail.<br />
<br />
Let's all have a wonderful year studying and sharing the Book of Mormon.</div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-3819244035192033152019-12-31T14:51:00.000-08:002019-12-31T14:51:21.993-08:00Top 10 posts of 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here were the top 10 posts on this blog in 2019.<br />
<br />
1. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-fighting-preacher-willard-bean.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-fighting-preacher-willard-bean.html</a><br />
<br />
2. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/09/fluhman-mason-discussions.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/09/fluhman-mason-discussions.html</a><br />
<br />
3. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/08/review-of-case-for-book-of-mormon.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/08/review-of-case-for-book-of-mormon.html</a><br />
<br />
4. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/11/dr-houston-and-m2c-hoax.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/11/dr-houston-and-m2c-hoax.html</a><br />
<br />
5. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/09/revisiting-evolution-byu-vs-math.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/09/revisiting-evolution-byu-vs-math.html</a><br />
<br />
6. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/mayan-warfare-at-byu.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/mayan-warfare-at-byu.html</a><br />
<br />
7. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/07/mormon-stories-cultural-context.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/07/mormon-stories-cultural-context.html</a><br />
<br />
8. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-fiction-narrative-grapes-of-thorns.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-fiction-narrative-grapes-of-thorns.html</a><br />
<br />
9. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/paradigm-shifts.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/paradigm-shifts.html</a><br />
<br />
10. <a href="https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/04/conference-classic-americas-destiny.html">https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/04/conference-classic-americas-destiny.html</a><br />
<br />
<b>We're looking forward to an awesome 2020!</b><br />
<b>_____</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
BTW, here is the most popular all-time post on the Consensus blog:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<a href="https://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/2016/08/expectations-and-art-missionary-work.html">https://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/2016/08/expectations-and-art-missionary-work.html</a><br />
<br />
The most popular all-time post on the Letter VII blog:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.lettervii.com/2017/01/the-hill-cumorah-by-president-anthony-w.html">http://www.lettervii.com/2017/01/the-hill-cumorah-by-president-anthony-w.html</a><br />
<br />
The most popular post on the BookofMormonCentralAmerica blog since it started:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/07/no-wise-453-how-are-oliver-cowderys.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/07/no-wise-453-how-are-oliver-cowderys.html</a><br />
_____<br />
<br />
These rankings do not reflect additional views on other sites, such as Amazon, moronisamerica, bookofmormonevidence, and other sites that repost these.</div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-1547250382513073142019-11-26T17:31:00.003-08:002019-11-26T17:31:53.082-08:00Divine authenticity: Comstock on Education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Below is an excerpt from a wonderful book, published in 1810, sold in Palmyra in 1819 as "Comstock on Education."<br />
<br />
The excerpt explains how religion fails when it is taught as a superstition, attended by bigotry, instead of as a rational, evidence-based truth that embraces examination. Some might find it astonishing to realize that this was written over 200 years ago. It reads as if it could have been written yesterday. It is congruent with the Church's emphasis on family-centered, Church supported gospel learning, and it has application to M2C and other issues.*<br />
<br />
One key passage: <b style="color: #0b5394;">"Strive to comprehend the evidence for the divine authenticity of the sacred scriptures yourselves."</b><br />
<br />
As you read this, recall that for Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and their contemporaries and successors, the New York Cumorah was a key component of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://archive.org/details/essaysondutypar00comsgoog/page/n56">https://archive.org/details/essaysondutypar00comsgoog/page/n56</a><br />
_____<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Respecting the unfaithfulness of parents preparing the way for the reign of infidelity, and the </span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">importance of religiously educating children as a barrier against it. </span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">One of the most deplorable consequences attending a neglect of parental duty, is the prevalence of infidelity. The professed friends of religion have contributed, indirectly, to raise up a formidable enemy against it [i.e., against religion]. It is evident that the unfaithfulness of parents, in the government and religious education of their children, has prepared the way for the reign of this pernicious evil. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Fifty years ago, there was perhaps fifty times the attention paid to the government and religious education of children in this country, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, that there has been for some years past. At that period there was scarcely an infidel to be found. If there were any who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ and the sacred scriptures, they were obliged to be silent ; for such characters were held in universal abhorrence. But now infidelity triumphs over shame, appears entirely without a mask, and often enters our temples, dedicated to the worship of that God and Saviour, whom it does not hesitate publicly to blaspheme without a blush....</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But the popular cry is, that period was the reign of superstition and religious bigotry. And that superstition and bigotry served as blinders to their eyes, and prevented people from acting rationally. They disposed people to take things for granted on their parents' testimony, and place such an implicit confidence in their veracity, as forbid inquiry. But the present is the reign of reason, they say, a time for rational inquiry. These blinders are removed, and the human mind is rising above these prejudices, and people now see how much they have been imposed upon by their ancestors. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>And here it must be observed, that we have no objection against having religion come to the light. We believe it will bear the most critical </b><b>investigation.</b> And notwithstanding it has been to some a stumbling block, and to others foolishness, yet to every honest, unbiassed [sic] heart, to every one that believes, it is to their abundant satisfaction, the wisdom and the power of God. It does not stand in any need of such supports as superstition and bigotry, and we pointedly disavow them as necessary in the least to support religion. But they have often, Judas-like, betrayed it into the hands of its enemies. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">That there is a period, in which it is proper and necessary for children, on account of the weakness of their own mental powers, to place confidence in the judgment and opinion of parents, must be admitted. But that they should to old age, continue to be children, without making any inquiry after the reason on which, those opinions were founded, is an abuse of their rational powers. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">That this was too much the case with people formerly, we are disposed to grant. And with regard to the impropriety of it, <b>we are pleased </b><b>to see people's eyes opened, and their prejudices removed. Error is error, let it be found when or where it may, and we wish to have it detect</b><b>ed.</b> </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But there is that weakness, or imperfection, attached to human nature, that leads mankind, when they have discovered errors on one extreme, not to rest satisfied with correcting the error, and stopping at a medium, but like the vibration of a pendulum, rush into the opposite extreme. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">This has ever been the case. And although it has been observed by the wise and prudent, and the observation has been common, yet people in general have never been disposed to improve in this respect, by the failings of others. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">There is a medium between a superstitious, bigoted attachment to religion, and a bold, presumptuous renunciation of it. </span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">That medium, we conceive to be, a rational attachment to religion, founded on a conviction of its troth, reality and importance, produced by the most convincing, satisfactory evidence.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">This rational attachment to religion, we profess; and we do earnestly recommend it to mankind. We believe it is the only source of true, solid enjoyment for them. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">But it is not surprising, that people who have never studied the evidences of Christianity, nor felt its enlightening influence on their hearts; who are disposed to think freely, when they come to see the influence which superstition and bigotry have had on their own, and the minds of others, and see what a restraint they have laid upon their rational powers; should be offended, and turn from religion with a degree of disgust.</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It is just like depraved human nature. This has led many in this day, profanely to say, what is the Almighty that we should serve him ? and what profit should we have if we should pray unto him? It is vain to serve God.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">But it is observable in this case, that religion is not so much the object of disgust, as the manner in which people adhere to it, and are influenced by it.</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But it is denied that a superstitious bigoted attachment is a rational one, or that religion in such cases has its genuine influence. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>When the great Jehovah made the rational soul of man, he designed it should be happy in the enjoyment of himself, without laying re</b><b>straint upon his rational powers.</b> And when man had sinned, and fallen under the curse, and God entered into a covenant of grace for his redemption from sin, he ordained that religion, and what is implied in it, should be the only thing that should make men happy, without laying the least restraint upon the free, unbiassed exercise of reason. And this religion certainly does, whilst it forbids, and even mocks at that false reasoning, and vain philosophy, which is used as a shelter for vice, </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">The scriptures inform us, that the carnal mind is enmity against God. That the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, that he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. We grant that there is something in religion, as it respects the heart, that appears mysterious, or unaccountable to natural men. But it appears so, not because it is irrational, but because their understandings are darkened, through the moral blindness of their hearts. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And here we observe, that it is not uncommon for very loose, wicked men, when taking a view of their own characters, to despair of ever enjoying the blessings which religion promises its friends. In this situation, human nature has been disposed to fly to some shelter, to screen it from those curses which it denounces upon its enemies. And this has commonly been, to renounce religion, and deny its divine authenticity. And they take occasion from every unfavourable circumstance, connected with religion, to justify themselves for doing it. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>But with respect to superstition, and what is commonly called religious bigotry, it is evident that they are not the natural, legitimate offspring of religion. They have their origin in the weakness and depravity of human nature. </b>And we grant that religion has been the occasion of the depravity of the human heart discovering itself, or operating in these particular ways. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But this we conceive affords no ground, or colour of objection against religion. And we farther grant, that on these accounts religion has often been made a tool of state, and has been improved by the aspiring arid ambitious, to obtain the most abominable purposes ; yet we conceive this affords no ground of objection against it. As well might people be prejudiced against money, because it was improved by a Judas to betray his Lord, as to object against religion on these accounts. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And it is further observable, that superstition and bigotry are not the natural, or necessary fruits of a religious education. These evils do not necessarily follow, as unavoidable consequences upon the religious education of children. We grant, however, that they follow, as consequences of a certain improper method of religious instruction. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>When parents religiously educate their children, under the influence of superstition or bigotry, these consequences com</b><b>monly follow.</b> These evils produce their own likeness. When children are taught their creed, or what they ought to believe, and what they ought to do, and their mouths are shut against any inquiry, and they are taught that it is criminal to make inquiry, because it may imply </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">doubt, and this, enforced by awful considerations suggested to the imagination; <b>it common</b><b>ly makes such an impression as leads children to think they must never inquire, that to inquire will be sinful ; and in this opinion they grow to manhood. In this manner children have taken things for granted, on their father's testimony. This is the principal fountain from whence these </b><b>evils flow.</b> </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>This, as our Saviour said of the phairisees, is </b><b>taking away the key of knowledge.</b> This method of instruction is to be deplored. We have reason to believe that it has carried, and is carrying thousands of stupid mortals blinded to destruction....</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">These neglects of parents, and their slothfulness in the religious education of their children, have contributed to aid the cause of infidelity in our country. An affecting, lamentable consideration ! Yes, parents, your unfaithfulness to your children has contributed, indirectly, to raise up enemies against religion, and to strengthen their cause....</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It is a fact, parents, and one that ought to alarm you, that the discerning among the enemies of religion are highly gratified with your inattention to your children. They know how subject the minds of children and youth are to the influence of education. And they have been mortified to see, that where a faithful attention has been paid to their religious education, their own sentiments have generally been held in abhorrence. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>And this very consideration has led the enemies of religion to educate young men with their sentiments, and send them out into the world as teachers of schools, and instructors of children and youth, to disseminate their own pernicious opinions, in order to prevent the religious education of children, and counteract its </b><b>influence.</b> These enemies of religion see, and they are pleased ts see, that where parents neglect their duty to their children, they indirectly aid their cause. A garden neglected will soon be full of noxious weeds ; so the youthful mind, that is not instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, nor impressed with its truths, falls an easy prey to those false reasonings, and foul sentiments, which, like unclean spirits from the mouth of the dragon, or the bottomless pit, are destroying the souls of men, and hurrying them down to their own native regions. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Friends of Zion, these considerations are truly alarming. This subject is truly interesting, it demands your serious, prayerful attention. It demands your vigorous exertions. The enemies of Christianity, you see, are bold and enterprising. They have raised their stance and are officiously busy to enlist people unto it....</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Study, therefore, to know your duty in all its branches... educate your children rightly, point out to them forbidden paths, show them their danger, and train them up in the way they should go. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>And be particular, as their minds expand, to impress them with the consideration, that religion is a rational thing, and that it lays no restraints upon </b><b>their rational powers.</b> Instruct them in the great doctrines of the Christian religion. Strive to understand them yourselves, and whatever you inculcate, as matter of faith, as soon as your children are able to make the inquiry, let them know you have reason for believing it ; and that if they are not able now to comprehend it, express your hope that they will be able, when their understandings are more enlarged. <b>Strive to comprehend the evidence for the divine authenticity of the sacred scriptures yourselves</b>, and as soon as your children are able, help them to understand it. Teach them their duty, and make it as plain as possible, and help them as far as you can, to see the propriety and reasonableness of it....</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">And by doing this you may erect a hedge around your vineyard, which it will be difficult for your enemies to break over. God in his providence, is calling upon you to be more faithful in this branch of your duty. And we press it upon you as the most prudent measure, to stop a dreadful torrent, and the contaminating influence of those pernicious sentiments, which threaten to overwhelm our country. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">But in recommending the religious education of children, we do not expect the approbation of that class of men, who avow infidelity, in opposition to the sacred scriptures. <b>We expect to </b><b>incur their displeasure.</b> And you may expect it and their opposition too. But this, Christians, we must beat. </span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">_____</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
*This has obvious application to the ongoing censorship being practiced by Book of Mormon Central and other M2C organizations.<br />
<br /></div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-29226212950917642302019-11-07T07:30:00.000-08:002019-11-07T07:30:04.496-08:00Dr. Houston and the M2C hoax<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In a previous <a href="http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2019/10/mayan-warfare-at-byu.html">post</a>, I mentioned the bizarre headline announcing the visit of <a href="https://www.macfound.org/fellows/799/">Dr. Stephen Houston</a> to BYU (bizarre because of the way it was worded). Dr. Houston spoke about some archaeological discoveries in Central America.<br />
<br />
I wasn't able to attend, but I've heard from some attendees. I also have some screen shots of the presentation, which are basically the same images from previous accounts of the LIDAR work done in Guatemala recently. He gave a similar presentation at the Library of Congress, which you can see here:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxveog3liyM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxveog3liyM</a><br />
<br />
Professor Houston, a former BYU professor who now teaches at Brown University, is not LDS. I'm told that at his recent presentation at BYU, he said, "It's really hard to see how the Book of Mormon relates to Mesoamerica--especially for archaeologists."<br />
<br />
By now, I think it's becoming apparent that it is really hard for anyone outside the delusional M2C bubble to see how the Book of Mormon relates to Mesoamerica.<br />
<br />
Probably that's because M2C is a hoax, based on a mistake in interpreting Church history. <b>The M2C hoax persists only because our M2C scholars and their followers continue to censor, suppress, and repudiate the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.</b><br />
<br />
Which is fine, so long as everyone involved understands what's going on here.<br />
_____<br />
<br />
I've previously discussed the disconnect between non-M2C Mesoamerican scholars and M2C scholars who "can't unsee" Mesoamerica when they read the Book of Mormon. This post is an example:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/04/m2c-exposed-on-facebook.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/04/m2c-exposed-on-facebook.html</a><br />
<br />
M2C is an outstanding example of bias confirmation. No matter what discoveries archaeologists make in Mesoamerica, our LDS M2C intellectuals will suddenly "find" something in the text that fits.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JPtZkdIdmiPtFyXvm87xUmafBVcaakX7DWflCg8ziHEyb-laTzVm8RvsMFIx2TWq0NIIQkajiYdRIZDqfYufkfZK0-kEHSGnbamHcVNDrw0HkowBEYERdWp-jQ8_tZBC-QRVpsm3NGA/s1600/Mormon%2527s+Codex-M2Capproved.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JPtZkdIdmiPtFyXvm87xUmafBVcaakX7DWflCg8ziHEyb-laTzVm8RvsMFIx2TWq0NIIQkajiYdRIZDqfYufkfZK0-kEHSGnbamHcVNDrw0HkowBEYERdWp-jQ8_tZBC-QRVpsm3NGA/s1600/Mormon%2527s+Codex-M2Capproved.jpg" /></a></div>
Dr. John Sorenson was one of the best at doing this, so it's appropriate that this lecture was named for him. <br />
<br />
For example, the largest enumerated army in the entire Book of Mormon was a Lamanite army that had 42,000 men. But now that LIDAR has discovered millions of Mayans, our M2C scholars claim the Book of Mormon wars involved massive armies.<br />
<br />
Mesoamerica features volcanoes. The Book of Mormon does not. Naturally, our M2C scholars "find" volcanoes in the text, just as they "find" tapirs, mountainous terrain, etc.<br />
<br />
If you're not inside the M2C bubble, the M2C hoax is obvious. If you're still inside the bubble--if you still follow the M2C intellectuals instead of the prophets--you might want to step outside the bubble for an hour or so and look around.<br />
<br />
You'll be surprised to discover that actual archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc., support the teachings of the prophets--something you'll never learn as long as you're inside the M2C bubble.<br />
<br />
We thank Dr. Houston for his presentation and comments.<br />
<br />
<b>Maybe a few more presentations such as this will finally pop the M2C bubble and liberate members of the Church to believe the teachings of the prophets once again.</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-81561174366595267782019-10-21T08:00:00.000-07:002019-10-21T08:00:01.599-07:00Mayan Warfare at BYU<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Although I don't write about the topic on this blog much any more, the topic is apparently thriving at BYU, based on this <a href="https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/dr-stephen-houston-speaking-on-mayan-warfare-at-byu">headline</a>:<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 48px; letter-spacing: -1.5px;">"Dr. Stephen Houston Speaking on Mayan Warfare at BYU"</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 48px; letter-spacing: -1.5px;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
The Mayan warfare at BYU apparently involves the M2C advocates and the handful of professors who still believe what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I hope someone attends and takes notes for me.</div>
</div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-52913162055796144042019-10-15T07:30:00.000-07:002019-10-15T07:30:04.447-07:00The fiction narrative - Grapes of thorns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXX6BY72cVrZpXPgRWO_5bE79mLlUKMOpN3WoYk_gQjQKt4K21F-RndO3_p6wuiy8_aQZQBEr7OlKW4aF1UY2vgl0OqGKmTkFV62EjE67fUZZX6rrjujGf_PqgHO1ICG7RrhQSDJCezIU/s1600/BoM-Map-37-M2C+approved-cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="616" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXX6BY72cVrZpXPgRWO_5bE79mLlUKMOpN3WoYk_gQjQKt4K21F-RndO3_p6wuiy8_aQZQBEr7OlKW4aF1UY2vgl0OqGKmTkFV62EjE67fUZZX6rrjujGf_PqgHO1ICG7RrhQSDJCezIU/s200/BoM-Map-37-M2C+approved-cropped.jpg" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fantasy map: the seed of fiction</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unless there is a change of course soon, within a few years it will become commonplace for faithful members of the Church to believe and teach that the Book of Mormon is fiction. Even today it's not unusual to meet active members who think this.<br />
<br />
The seeds of the fiction narrative have already been planted in the minds of the youth.<br />
<br />
<b>It seems unlikely, to say the least, that the fiction narrative will produce the fruit of strong testimonies and conviction.</b><br />
<br />
After all, do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?<br />
<br />
From the time a handful of scholars persuaded so many LDS to disbelieve the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, the fiction narrative became inevitable.<br />
<br />
IOW, the M2C narrative leads directly to the fiction narrative. Looking for Book of Mormon events in Mesoamerica is like looking for Biblical sites in eastern China because there are ancient cities there. If one tried hard enough, one could find "correspondences" between those ancient cities and the descriptions in the Bible, applying the same circular reasoning that the M2C advocates apply to "see" the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica.<br />
_____<br />
<br />
Some people find it impossible to believe that the fiction narrative would ever become mainstream in the Church.<br />
<br />
But the seed of fiction cannot produce the fruit of divine authenticity.<br />
<br />
Think about the fruit another seed has produced.<br />
<br />
Twenty years ago, members of the Church would have said it was impossible that someday, LDS scholars would teach that Joseph Smith didn't really translate the Book of Mormon, that he didn't use the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, and that he didn't even use the plates themselves.<br />
<br />
After all, Joseph and Oliver consistently and persistently taught that Joseph translated the engravings on the plates with the Urim and Thummim. The revelations in the D&C teach the same thing. The prophets have reaffirmed their testimony innumerable times over the years.<br />
<br />
And yet, here we are today.<br />
<br />
The ideas that Joseph didn't use the plates, didn't use the Urim and Thummim, and didn't translate anything is completely mainstream.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVK81aGe9Tuvqn57i02sf0QQw1XKLA3-gR9sXSBQ5Unk-YRF1QmzQpUqyfbLnCJZDx_LxALVBnHZM_DexqWm6kR7UZ-NoWFNlSykh_KYz3RGpJl_v_Fj3mc4hJz_8L4rHGMd2IJLuy_ZU/s1600/JS+movie+-+seer+stone+in+a+hat.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVK81aGe9Tuvqn57i02sf0QQw1XKLA3-gR9sXSBQ5Unk-YRF1QmzQpUqyfbLnCJZDx_LxALVBnHZM_DexqWm6kR7UZ-NoWFNlSykh_KYz3RGpJl_v_Fj3mc4hJz_8L4rHGMd2IJLuy_ZU/s1600/JS+movie+-+seer+stone+in+a+hat.PNG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.4px;">Scene from Church film that teaches the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.4px;">stone-in-a-hat theory of translation</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is a still image from a movie now being shown in visitors centers that depict Joseph Smith staring at a stone in a hat to dictate the text, while the plates remain under a cloth, a useless prop.<br />
<br />
The script for this film was adapted from a passage in the 1834 book, <i>Mormonism Unvailed.</i><br />
<br />
Here is the passage.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiENq7vH20Zep-ZZSVhkwbjQrD9SnUC-yyBT-HOM7LdAzniSGnPENF8mJ-FE5rQ_Ogw7cWohoyOUZaIkwFqMNJmWcwLWFUZ-v7UNayQrAOxMcwBsQ-11oU0Ao16s-0jXQCW44uTLgPKhlY/s1600/Mormonism+unvailed+cover.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="192" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiENq7vH20Zep-ZZSVhkwbjQrD9SnUC-yyBT-HOM7LdAzniSGnPENF8mJ-FE5rQ_Ogw7cWohoyOUZaIkwFqMNJmWcwLWFUZ-v7UNayQrAOxMcwBsQ-11oU0Ao16s-0jXQCW44uTLgPKhlY/s200/Mormonism+unvailed+cover.PNG" width="120" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mormonism<br />Unvailed</i>, <br />
now playing at a<br />
Visitors Center<br />
near you</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The translation finally commenced. They were found to contain a language not now known upon the earth, which they termed "reformed Egyptian characters." The plates, therefore, which had been so much talked of, were found to be of no manner of use. After all, the Lord showed and communicated to him [Joseph] every word and letter of the Book. <b>Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old ''peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging.</b> This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to </span><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">the end of the book. </span><br />
<br />
The screenwriters could have chosen instead to use the scriptures for a text, but the scholars and film producers claim the scriptures are, at best, misleading. They prefer <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> over the scriptures.<br />
<br />
Actually, they could have used another passage from <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Another account they give of the transaction, is, that it was performed with the big spectacles before mentioned, and which were in fact, the identical Urim and Thumim</b> mentioned in Exodus 28 — 30...</span><br />
<br />
Of course, the second version is the one Joseph and Oliver testified was true. Right in the Pearl of Great Price, where everyone can read it, we have their testimony:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, <b>the Urim and Thummim</b>, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. ... immediately after my arrival [in Pennsylvania] I commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and <b>by means of the Urim and Thummim</b> I translated some of them... Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of April) <b>I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon</b>, and he began to write for me.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">(Joseph Smith—History 1:52, 62, 67)</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="color: blue;">Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, <b>as he translated with the Urim and Thummim</b>, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ <b>the history or record </b>called ‘The Book of Mormon.’</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">(Joseph Smith—History, Note, 1)</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
I realize that our revisionist historians claim that when Joseph and Oliver used the term <i>Urim and Thummim</i> they actually meant the peep stone; i.e., <b>they claim Joseph and Oliver were misleading the Church by using a code word for the peep stone described in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>. </b><br />
<br />
That's how they rationalize using <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> instead of the scriptures to explain Church history and the origins of the Book of Mormon.<br />
<br />
You can read it right in the <i>Saints </i>book, volume 1.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Buried with the plates, Moroni said, were two
seer stones, which Joseph later called the Urim and
Thummim, or interpreters. The Lord had prepared
these stones to help Joseph translate the record.... Sometimes Joseph translated by looking through
the interpreters and reading in English the characters
on the plates.
Often he found a single seer stone to be more convenient. He would put the seer stone in his hat, place his
face into the hat to block out the light, and peer at the
stone. Light from the stone would shine in the darkness,
revealing words that Joseph dictated as Oliver rapidly
copied them down.</span><br />
<br />
<i>Saints</i>, Volume 1, pp. 22, 61, available here:<br />
<a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/ldsorg/media-library/ebook-pdf/Saints-v1-English-PD60001624.pdf?lang=eng">https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/ldsorg/media-library/ebook-pdf/Saints-v1-English-PD60001624.pdf?lang=eng</a><br />
<br />
<i>Saints </i>teaches revisionist history that directly contradicts the scriptures quoted above and everything that Joseph and Oliver said about the translation. For example, here's what Joseph actually said about the Urim and Thummim:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">He said unto me I am a Messenger </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">sent from God, be faithful and keep his commandments </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">in all things. He told me also of a sacred record which was </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">written on plates of gold. I saw in the vision the place </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">where they were deposited. He said to me the Indians </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">were the literal decendants of Abraham. He explained </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">many of the prophecies to me; one of which I will mention, </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">which is in Malachi 4</span><span class="superscript" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 6px; text-indent: 22px; vertical-align: super;"><span class="underscore" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: underline;">th</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"> chapter. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh <(&c> </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><b>He also informed me that the Urim & Thummim was hid up</b> </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><b>with the record</b>, and that God would give me power to translate it </span><span class="line-break" style="background-color: white; border-right: 1px dashed rgb(111 , 96 , 83); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; margin-right: 0.25em; text-indent: 22px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;">with the assistance of this instrument;</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 18px; text-indent: 22px;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/64#full-transcript">https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/64#full-transcript</a><br />
<br />
It's undoubtedly true that several people testified they saw Joseph put a stone in a hat and dictate words. What they never testify to, however, is that Joseph said he was translating the Book of Mormon. They never relate what words he dictated. All the evidence indicates Joseph was demonstrating the process, not translating the Book of Mormon in front of an audience.<br />
<br />
After all, Moroni (and the Lord) had told Joseph he could not show the plates or Urim and Thummim to anyone until the translation was complete. He couldn't possibly have translated the plates in public view without violating that prohibition.<br />
_____<br />
<br />
<b>With the peep stone in the hat narrative as precedent, do you still think it's impossible that the seed of the fiction narrative will bear fruit?</b><br />
_____<br />
<br />
I posted some comments about the faith crisis here:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://dearlatterdaysaints.blogspot.com/2019/10/faith-crisis-is-no-surprise-at-this.html">https://dearlatterdaysaints.blogspot.com/2019/10/faith-crisis-is-no-surprise-at-this.html</a><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4156106784389891523.post-54615735525215891752019-10-14T08:00:00.000-07:002019-10-14T08:00:10.365-07:00Paradigm shifts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Everyone loves and hates paradigm shifts, depending on whether they like or dislike the new paradigm. Everyone who promotes a new paradigm cites Thomas Kuhn and his Copernicus example, or another famous historical shift in understanding and perception. They don't cite the numerous attempts at creating a new paradigm that don't catch on because they are nonsense or because they are merely revivals of long-discredited ideas.<br />
_____<br />
<br />
People continue to ask about the stone-in-a-hat issue. As I anticipated, thousands of people left Education Week in Provo last August believing that (i) Joseph dictated the Book of Mormon by reading words that appeared on a metaphysical teleprompter (the peep stone in a hat) and (ii) Joseph didn't translate the plates but instead the words were provided by an unknown intermediary translator.<br />
<br />
The purveyors of this narrative have tried to frame it as a "paradigm shift" because that sounds smart, cool, progressive, and informed.<br />
<br />
This peep-stone-in-a-hat narrative was revived a few years ago by a group of LDS historians. They claim it is a "new paradigm" but they forgot to mention a key fact.<br />
<br />
<b>This is not a "new paradigm" at all.</b> It's a zombie version of an old narrative that was killed years ago by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.<br />
<br />
<div>
I discussed this here:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/07/peep-stones-vs-urim-and-thummim-part-1.html">http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/07/peep-stones-vs-urim-and-thummim-part-1.html</a> </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In that post, I observed this:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We can understand the chronology of the alternative theories through a simple chiasmus:</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Joseph produced the Book of Mormon by reading words off a stone-in-a-hat (critics) [1834]</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim (alternative account) [1834]</span><br style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim (taught for decades by LDS leaders) [1834-2015]</span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fbfefa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Joseph produced the Book of Mormon by reading words off a stone-in-a-hat (revisionist historians) [2015 to present]</span> </div>
<br />
The "paradigm shift" was presented to BYU educators in this article that comes complete with the inevitable Kuhn/Copernicus reference:<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://rsc.byu.edu/review/fall-2016/mormon-paradigm-shifts-joseph-smiths-seer-stones">https://rsc.byu.edu/review/fall-2016/mormon-paradigm-shifts-joseph-smiths-seer-stones</a> </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Alert educators could tell something was up. The article is basically an ad for the book, <i>From Darkness unto Light. </i>Worse, the article pretends that the peep stone narrative is new, and that everyone in the Church needs to adjust to this "paradigm shift."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Nowhere does <i>From Darkness unto Light </i>quote or discuss the peep stone theory as it was introduced in 1834 in the book <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>. I included the relevant passage in the link above, but here it is again:</div>
<div>
_____</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On page 18, which you can read <a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18">here</a>, <i>Mormonism Unvailed </i>acknowledges two alternative explanations of the translation. The first involved the seer stone (which the book calls a "peep stone") that Joseph put in a hat to read off the words that appeared. Setting aside the sarcasm of this passage, <b>we can see that the first paragraph below is what our revisionist Church historians are teaching today</b> (although they claim Joseph saw a group of words instead of a single word at a time).<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">The translation finally commenced. They were found to contain a language not now known upon the earth, which they termed "reformed Egyptian characters." The plates, therefore, which had been so much talked of, were found to be of no manner of use. After all, the Lord showed and communicated to him [Joseph] every word and letter of the Book. <b>Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old ''peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging.</b> This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to </span><span style="color: blue;">the end of the book. </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><a href="https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18">https://archive.org/details/mormonismunvaile00howe/page/18</a><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaRzEK9JkCxp6Rcb76LN-kRynDd0vz_vqBMIu5Xty-afhIgONHA6yOt2iwZzzxxY2QWzmJxONd5N-ZYOkf0FzTppcQYWaKFsu_wFynjRZjJfQcoEe5h_DrOgqJFN7U5C4nTtntC0W8CA/s1600/JS+-+South+Park+episode.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="901" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaRzEK9JkCxp6Rcb76LN-kRynDd0vz_vqBMIu5Xty-afhIgONHA6yOt2iwZzzxxY2QWzmJxONd5N-ZYOkf0FzTppcQYWaKFsu_wFynjRZjJfQcoEe5h_DrOgqJFN7U5C4nTtntC0W8CA/s200/JS+-+South+Park+episode.PNG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">South Park depiction of the<br />
stone-in-a-hat theory</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This version of the translation was been infamously portrayed in an episode of South Park, as well as on many web pages critical of the Church.<br />
<br />
Now, this stone-in-a-hat theory has been embraced in Church publications, as mentioned above.<br />
<br />
<i>Mormonism Unvailed </i>acknowledged an alternative explanation of the translation. This is the explanation that Joseph and Oliver always gave, albeit not exactly the way it is explained in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>.<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;"><b>Another account they give of the transaction, is, that it was performed with the big spectacles before mentioned, and which were in fact, the identical Urim and Thumim</b> mentioned in Exodus 28 — 30, and were brought away from Jerusalem by the heroes of the book, handed down from one generation to another, and finally buried up in Ontario county, some fifteen centuries since, to enable Smith to </span><span style="color: blue;">translate the plates without looking at them ! </span><br />
<br />
<i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> is not noted for accuracy in its presentation about the Book of Mormon. Here, the authors missed the points that (i) the Urim and Thummim that Joseph received was not brought from Jerusalem by Lehi but instead had been used by the Jaredites in America, and (ii) Joseph actually looked at the plates with the spectacles.<br />
<br />
However, the passage quoted above makes a clear delineation between the stone-in-a-hat theory and the Urim and Thummim narrative. (Elsewhere in the book the authors distinguish between the peep stone and the spectacles.) <b>Everyone who read <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i> understood these were two competing explanations of the translation of the Book of Mormon. </b>There was no suggestion that Joseph, Oliver, or anyone else referred to the "seer stone" as the Urim and Thummim. All contemporary accounts referred to the interpreters Moroni put in the stone box as the Urim and Thummim.<br />
_____<br />
<br />
The peep stone theory is having the same effect today that Mr. Hurlbut hoped for when he published it in <i>Mormonism Unvailed</i>. The theory makes the plates themselves superfluous.<br />
<br />
If an unknown "intermediary translator" could generate words that appeared on the metaphysical teleprompter (the peep stone in a hat), why did Mormon go to all the trouble of abridging the Nephite records? Why would the Nephites bother keeping records at all? Why would Moroni risk his life to preserve and add to the abridgment? Why bother with the plates of Nephi to replace the lost 116 pages?<br />
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<b>Maybe we can replace the "paradigm shift" with another paradigm shift back to what the prophets have taught. </b><br />
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jonathan3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05379975395372054926noreply@blogger.com0