Another fiasco from Book of Mormon Central

By Jonathan NevilleUncategorized
We have another example of how M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory) causes its advocates to undermine.

Because the M2C citation cartel insists the “real” Cumorah is in Mexico, not New York, they consistently reject every historical account about the New York Cumorah. They also reject all the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

As we’ve seen, it’s not only the M2C citation cartel but also the revisionist Church historians who are changing Church history to accommodate M2C, such as the Saints book.
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BMC logo that incorporates Mayan language to
explicitly reject the New York Cumorah

In this case, we have another M2C no-wise from Book of Mormon Central about the sword of Laban.

The article points out that the sword of Laban was made of steel, a point that critics claimed was impossible. However, a steel sword has been found near Jericho that dates to about 620 B.C., which corroborates the account in the Book of Mormon.

This could be important evidence of the historicity of the Book of Mormon.

Actually, it is important evidence of the historicity of the Book of Mormon for those who still believe the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

But because of M2C, Book of Mormon Central frames the sword of Laban as a purely visionary item!

IOW, they want people to believe that because the “real” Cumorah is in Mexico, David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery must have seen the sword only “in vision.”

As usual, Book of Mormon hands a gift to critics such as the CES Letter.
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Here is the link to the no-wise.

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/what-was-the-sword-of-laban-like

I’ve discussed some of the sword of Laban issues before, here:

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/11/visiting-temple-square-moroni-at-hill.html

Let’s look at a portion of the no-wise. Original in blue, my comments in red.

Finally, it is possible that the sword of Laban had words engraved on it. 
Possible? Oliver explicitly described the sword, which he saw during multiple visits with Joseph to the depository of Nephite records in the Hill Cumorah in New York. (See Mormon 6:6 and Letter VII.) M2C intellectuals reject what Oliver said, as well as the teachings of all the prophets who have affirmed the New York Cumorah.
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery once saw a large room which contained many plates. 
Notice how Book of Mormon Central censors the key point here: Joseph and Oliver saw the large room inside the Hill Cumorah in New York! 
M2C intellectuals always censor this information from their readers, followers, and financial supporters. Here, you can read about it in the linked footnotes, which are designed to undermine faith. This is typical of these intellectuals. They could (and should) have linked directly to what Brigham Young taught. David Whitmer also explained that Oliver told him about this experience. Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, and others also corroborated it. 
But according to Book of Mormon Central, all these people were wrong.
Here is the excerpt they give their readers. 
“The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: ‘This sword will never be sheathed again until The Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our God and his Christ’.”15
You can see the original statement in context in my post here, which also gives a link to the Journal of Discourses.
It is hard to know if this was a somewhat symbolic vision, a vision of a real location with real items, or an actual cave which they visited in upstate New York. In any case, if they were seeing the actual sword of Laban, either in vision or in person, then this gives us one more detail about its appearance.
This is my favorite paragraph. 
“It’s hard to know” if the prophets have told us the truth.
Oliver referred to an “actual cave” that we already know was a man-made chamber in the Hill Cumorah.
They can’t bring themselves to use the term “Cumorah” so they adopt the “hill in New York” meme that we see in the Saints book and the M2C-inspired displays in the visitors centers. 
BTW, the Church History Department has already approved a budget to remodel the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center in New York. Apparently it will be renamed as a Church History center that won’t even use the name Hill Cumorah any longer.
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When LDS intellectuals at CES, BYU and COB are undermining faith in what the prophets have taught, the youth of the Church will lose their faith even without reading CES Letter, which loves what Book of Mormon Central is doing.

Source: Book of Mormon Wars