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MormonTimes.com: Y. law professor details Book of Mormon, Old Testament legal parallels
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The Book of Mormon claims that the Nephites were keeping the law of Moses. However, the Nephites broke the law of Moses by using the first of the flocks for burnt offerings. These should have already been given to the Lord as tithing.
Mosiah 2:3 "And they also took of the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses."
Community of Christ(RLDS) President W. Grant McMurray reflected on increasing questions about the Book of Mormon: "The proper use of the Book of Mormon as sacred scripture has been under wide discussion in the 1970s and beyond, in part because of long-standing questions about its historicity and in part because of perceived theological inadequacies, including matters of race and ethnicity. We no longer view the Book of Mormon as divinely inspired."
There are a lot of things in the Bible that don't seem to fit, either. The LDS church needs to stop trying to find proof. Take a page out of the Book of Mormon: Nephi's brothers supposedly saw an angel and were rebuked by him. But in the end, they still didn't believe in Lehi and Nephi.
No evidence will be found to conclusively support the Book of Mormon, just like no evidence conclusively supports the divinity of Jesus. It is a matter of spiritual belief/faith.
To those who believe, I say great. To those who don't, I respect them for their beliefs. Mormon, non-Mormon, Christian, non-Christian - I just don't see why there is often so much animosity between people who believe differently.
Take your pick.
"We do not have to prove the Book of Mormon is true. The book is its own proof. All we need to do is read it and declare it! The Book of Mormon is not on trial�the people of the world, including the members of the Church, are on trial as to what they will do with this second witness for Christ."
"Didn't some guy named Charles Darwin find a parallel between squirrels and chickens? What a lunatic!"
Yes, Charles Darwin did find a parallel. It was DNA! We all know what happens when you put DNA into the discussion. lol!!!!!!!
"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time."
If the things that he finds and shares are so interesting that he is able to make a living from his work... even better.
Some of you don't like his work, or feel it is meaningless or contrived, or whatever. I am sure I wouldn't be thrilled with what some of you do for a living and vice versa.
I am personally glad that he does what he does, and I may very well pay him for it by buying the book. If you think it is stupid. Don't buy the book, but stop attacking him for writing it.
He didn't say it was Alma the Younger in the case of Abinadi. He said it was Alma when he was younger. There is a difference.
What bothers me even more is when Latter-Day Saints dismiss scholarly work on BOM evidences, as if it is wrong or non-faith promoting or something like that. If you are LDS and BOM evidences arent'tg important to you, fine. But to throw criticisms at scholars or BYU for doing so shows ignorance.
At the beginning of the "Journey of Faith" video, the narrator quotes Joseph Smith as saying that in the century after his, there would be droves of evidences for the BOM. That has and continues to come to pass. Shouldn't we praise those who dedicate their lives to fulfilling Joseph Smith's prophecy? I think so. Plus, learning about these things had greatly deepened my understanding of the BOM and my testimony. If it doesn't interest you, fine. But not only is it OK to study evidences, it actually is very beneficial.
I think that is true when it comes to explaining the Book of Mormon.
I believe it is true, but people who have already have an oppinion think I am crazy when I say that. But on my mission in Australia, there were a few truly interested people who did believe me.
But there were a few times in my ameteurish teenage (19 year-old) wisdom that I thought I would throw out "irrefutable" (I used quotes on purpose) evidence to convince people (usually hardened ministers) I was right. It hardly ever (never) worked.
The only times it did work bordered on miraculous, and was never the result of facts, but only as a result of simple testimony.
As a side, the one time I did beat a minister at his game was when I asked him how much money he made making money off selling Jesus. He replied that he made a "healthy" income, I replied that I remember that Judas was the only disciple of Jesus who made any money off of him. He left. We baptised the family we were teaching there.
Also, the DNA "evidence" that supposedly refutes the B of M is not based on any research by POPULATION DNA experts. It is just general DNA information that has been taken from other researchers and interpreted by LDS critics to be in opposition to the B of M.
Archaeology--again you are not up on the latest information. There actually is a great deal of archaelogical, linguistical, cultural, historical, etc., etc. evidence that supports the B of M.
May I say in conclusion, the Book stands on it's own as truth. Our testimony of it is based on a witness from the Lord. "Skeptic" and others who have CHOSEN not to believe for whatever personal reasons they have, will never believe even if God himself came down to testify of it.
The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know this from a personal witness from Him. You, also, may know through prayer.
In the same way, we have no definitive proof of DNA for the Book of Mormon at the current time, but many evidences have been found to authenticate it.
Please do not research "Zelph". It is a testimony destroyer. I know a couple of people who left the Church researching the "Zelph" issue.
I would argue with those people who say that a testimony of the Book of Mormon cannot be obtained through studying the evidences of it.
The Holy Ghost testifies through seeing evidence of the Book of Mormon, just like it testifies through other methods. I know, because I have felt it when studying it.
I have spent countless hours reading both sides of the story (pro BoM evidence, and anti BoM evidence), and have found the evidence is stronger in support of the BoM being what Joseph Smith claimed it to be. For every anti-BoM evidence there is a stronger rebuttal.
A lot of the time, anti-BoM evidence is just trickery. One example is that some say JS got names for cities in the BoM from cities local to Palmyra. In fact the vast majority of these cities were not even founded until well after the Book of Mormon was published. Cont'd-->
In fact, many of the city names in the BoM have real Hebrew origins and were even placed in circumstances where the name makes sense:
Examples:
Za-rhahem-la (Mulek, son of Zedekiah escaped death from the Babylonian invasion and founded the city) means:
My son - Of my womb taken away, loved scattered -without mercy
Jersh-on (The land that was given as an inheritance for Lamanite dissenters) means:
Inheritance - Place of
How did Joseph Smith know the Hebraic meanings? What's more astounding, is how did he know the meanings and manage to place the names in historical and situational context of the Book of Mormon story?
When I was on my mission in the Lima Peru Central Mission, I baptized a single woman at my half-way point. At the end of my mission, I was touring Cuzco with my parents, several hundred miles away from the village that I baptized the woman at.
On Sunday we attended the sacrament mtg of one of the several church buildings in Cuzco. By sheer luck (or by divine intervention) we happened to find the woman visiting the same church the same day. She had brought along her parents, and a couple relatives. Her parents were already baptized and her other relatives were investigating the church.
Cont'd-->
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