Author: Jonathan Neville

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Book of Mormon populations

Thirteen years ago, John A. Tvedtnes wrote a thoughtful article titled “Book of Mormon Population Statistics.” Here’s the link:

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-1641/

He begins the article with this observation.

Readers of the Book of Mormon sometimes think of Nephite and Lamanite populations in terms of millions. In fact, only the Jaredites are ever said to have numbered in the “millions,” and only at the end of their history, when we read that nearly two million men had been slain with their families (Ether 15:2).

Two million men is an enormous number. The total of all wartime deaths of Americans from the Revolutionary war through the present (over 200 years) is only around 666,000. It does not seem plausible that two million Jaredite men were “slain by the sword” in any short period of time.

I prefer the interpretation that Coriantumr was reflecting on the cumulative total of his people who “had been slain by the sword” up to that time; i.e., from the beginning of their chronological history. It makes more sense in context, given the continual stream of prophets warning the people, followed by wars and destruction. This interpretation flows naturally from a careful reading, although of course other interpretations are also possible. 

Ether 7 records several times when one group “gave battle” to another. Often these battles were preceded by prophetic warnings.

23 And also in the reign of Shule there came prophets among the people, who were sent from the Lord, prophesying that the wickedness and idolatry of the people was bringing a curse upon the land, and they should be destroyed if they did not repent. (Ether 7:23)

In Ether 8, there are more battles and destruction. 
In Ether 10, we read that “Shez did remember the destruction of his fathers.” (Ether 10:2) But soon enough, “there began to be war again in the land.” (Ether 10:8)
Chapter 11 has many prophets prophesying about the destruction of the people, followed by wars and contentions, “insomuch that there was a great destruction, such an one as never had been known upon the face of the earth.” (Ether 11:7)
We know about this history only because records were kept, which Moroni abridged. Those records undoubtedly included details about how many people died.
Chapter 12 introduces Ether. “And Ether was a prophet of the Lord; wherefore Ether came forth in the days of Coriantumr, and began to prophesy unto the people, for he could not be restrained because of the Spirit of the Lord which was in him. For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance lest they should be destroyed, saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled— “ (Ether 12:2-3)
Years later, after more wars and destruction, we read:

1 And it came to pass when Coriantumr had recovered of his wounds, he began to remember the words which Ether had spoken unto him.

2 He saw that there had been slain by the sword already nearly two millions of his people, and he began to sorrow in his heart; yea, there had been slain two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children. (Ether 15:1–2)

This looks to me like Coriantumr was reflecting on what Ether had told him. Looking back over the history of his people, Coriantumr saw how many times the prophesies had been fulfilled, and how many of his people had been slain by the sword as a result. Over the 33+ generations of history in the New World, accumulated battle deaths of two million are not only plausible, but realistic in light of human experience in other parts of the world.

What were the words Ether had spoken to Coriantumr?
2 For behold, they rejected all the words of Ether; for he truly told them of all things, from the beginning of man; and that after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof. (Ether 13:2)
Ether rehearsed the entire history of the Jaredites, which explains why Coriantumr would be reflecting on that history.
20 And in the second year the word of the Lord came to Ether, that he should go and prophesy unto Coriantumr that, if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people—
21 Otherwise they should be destroyed, and all his household save it were himself. And he should only live to see the fulfilling of the prophecies which had been spoken concerning another people receiving the land for their inheritance; and Coriantumr should receive a burial by them; and every soul should be destroyed save it were Coriantumr.
22 And it came to pass that Coriantumr repented not, neither his household, neither the people; and the wars ceased not; and they sought to kill Ether, but he fled from before them and hid again in the cavity of the rock. (Ether 13:20–22)
Despite Ether’s warning, the wars continued for several years, culminating in the week-long battle at Cumorah.
But even there, at Cumorah, if we extrapolate backward the numbers given in chapter 15, the total number of people involved is fewer than 10,000, which corroborates what Oliver Cowdery wrote in Letter VII. He said “thousands” of Jaredites died there.
_____

The article helpfully includes all the passages from the Book of Mormon that relate information about population size. Tvedtnes reaches this reasonable conclusion: “In none of these instances can one make a case for millions of people calling themselves Nephites or Lamanites.“

In his last paragraph, Tvedtnes explains that “Prior to the time of Mormon, the largest numbered army in the Book of Mormon comprised 10,000 soldiers, in the time of Helaman. Only during the last Nephite-Lamanite wars do we read of armies numbering 30,000 and more. It is possible that some of the earlier “numerous hosts” comprised tens of thousands of men, but this cannot be ascertained from the information given. In no case is there any evidence of “millions” of either Nephites or Lamanites.”

Even in the days of Mormon, his largest enumerated army was forty and four thousand. And this was after gathering the people together.

6 And we marched forth and came to the land of Joshua, which was in the borders west by the seashore.

7 And it came to pass that we did gather in our people as fast as it were possible, that we might get them together in one body….

9 And now, the Lamanites had a king, and his name was Aaron; and he came against us with an army of forty and four thousand. And behold, I withstood him with forty and two thousand. And it came to pass that I beat him with my army that he fled before me. And behold, all this was done, and three hundred and thirty years had passed away. (Mormon 2:6–7, 9)

This was in the year 330. Fifty-four years later, in the year 384, after a continual retreat from the Lamanites and scenes of blood and carnage, Mormon says they again “gathered in all the remainder of our people,” this time “unto the land of Cumorah.” (Mormon 6:5)
Some people think the text says 230,000 Nephites died at Cumorah. Maybe so. Maybe despite the warfare, destruction, and retreat, the Nephites managed to grow their population to support an army five times as large as Mormon managed to assemble when he gathered the people together 54 years earlier.
But that does not seem plausible to me and it is not what the text requires.
In my view, Mormon wrote his final words in a state of reflection comparable to Coriantumr’s, thinking back over his lifetime as a military leader and all the soldiers who died under his command, with their respective leaders.
In the following passages, Mormon explains that he could see the “ten thousand” of his people led by him, plus the “ten thousand” led by Moroni. We cannot tell if these were literal numbers or “ten units” or “ten squads” of men, which could be the case if the plates had a term similar to the Hebrew word which means both a specific number and a military unit.
Oliver Cowdery, in Letter VII, said there were tens of thousands of dead bodies in the valley, presumably meaning both Nephites and Lamanites. That’s consistent with the text when we realize the distinction Mormon made between describing what he saw (did behold, beheld) and what he reflected upon (behold). In the following passage, “did behold” and “beheld” are past tense forms of the verb “behold” meaning “see” or “view.”
But the term “behold” in verse 13 is an interjection, meaning a word used to express strong emotion. Mormon used that term many times to mark a lesson drawn from history. 
11 And when they had gone through and hewn down all my people save it were twenty and four of us, (among whom was my son Moroni) and we having survived the dead of our people, did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, the ten thousand of my people who were hewn down, being led in the front by me.
12 And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni.
13 And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst.
14 And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each.
15 And it came to pass that there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even all my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a few who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.
(Mormon 6:11–15)
When read this way, we have 20,000 people killed (or the people in 20 military squads or units, however many that was) in the valley west of Cumorah. The other enumerated 210,000 (or 210 units) were killed elsewhere, earlier in Mormon’s lifetime during the carnage he described leading up to the final battle at Cumorah.
This interpretation of the text is consistent with the prior statements in the text about the size of the Nephite population. It is plausible in light of the archaeology and anthropology of western New York. And it fits Letter VII, which explains that there were tens of thousands killed at Cumorah, including Lamanites and Nephites, not hundreds of thousands.

Source: Letter VII

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Patrick Mason on social trust

Erasing Church history for ideological reasons, the way our Church historians and our M2C citation cartel does, is just as destructive to the pillar of social trust as Hoffman’s effort to create new history through forged documents.

Censoring actual history is the mirror image of forging historical documents.

Both produce a distorted understanding of history that undermines social trust. They just take different routes to get there.

In a comment on the Mark Hoffman Netflix series, Patrick Mason wrote this great insight:

The evilest thing Hofmann did was to kill two innocent people in cold blood. But perhaps the second most sinister thing he accomplished was to undermine our collective confidence in facts. Hofmann was a master forger, yes, but even more deeply he was a master manipulator of one of the pillars of social trust — the ability to agree on what the facts are. When that pillar begins to crumble, it’s not just the Saints and the nerds who have reason to worry.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2021/3/9/22315949/murder-among-the-mormons-netflix-review-reaction-mark-hofmann-latter-day-saint-history-scholars

That concept of “social trust” expresses my disagreement with Book of Mormon Central and the rest of the M2C citation cartel, including the current correlated history that has been edited to accommodate M2C.

People can’t make informed decisions when they don’t have all the relevant information. 

As Patrick Mason pointed out, everyone interested in Church history should at least agree on what the facts are.

But Church members can’t agree on the facts when they don’t even know the facts.

It’s one thing to have debate and discussion about the facts. That’s healthy and, despite bias confirmation, can eventually lead to people making informed decisions.

It’s something else entirely when scholars decide what they want people to believe and then manipulate the facts to lead people to reach the desired conclusions. 

Maybe, if the scholars were always correct, that would be acceptable in some cases. People don’t have time to study and ponder everything. Some deference is appropriate and even necessary.

That’s why we have medical doctors, experts in physics and engineering, etc. 

But when it comes to Church history and Book of Mormon historicity, the evidence supports multiple working hypotheses.

What justification can there be to censor legitimate, authentic documents from Church history (not to mention censoring the teachings of the prophets), merely to promote M2C?

And if there is no legitimate justification, why does Book of Mormon Central and the rest of the citation cartel continue to do it?

I discussed this in more detail on my saintsreview blog.

https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2021/03/saint-and-crumbling-pillar-of-social.html





















Source: About Central America

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The "Become" page

This is one of the best resources I’ve seen. If you’re involved with missionary or reactivation work, consider using this website:

https://become.comeuntochrist.org/present 

There are some quirks in the interface, especially if you’re using a computer instead of a phone/tablet, but the path metaphor is effective.

Here’s how twitter introduced it:

When it comes to developing your spirituality, it can be hard to know where to begin. The Become experience helps you grow through simple, engaging activities. Visit Become.org to get started. #ComeUntoChrist

Source: Book of Mormon Concensus

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Pre-Columbian horses in North America

An article in Indian Country Today discusses horses in North America.

https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/yes-world-there-were-horses-in-native-culture-before-the-settlers-came?fbclid=IwAR2FEO_vNg6PfoLn1mn4gHMRFJwqEFFtRgIlRQRN9gCBzE1Lt-UN4wKHDhI


The article links to several papers on this topic on this page:

https://www.sacredwaysanctuary.org/publications

Her specific article is here:

https://app.box.com/s/zhfcqgrwr4gyquq66206cwa9u3873qtm

Here’s an excerpt from her Abstract:

This research project seeks to deconstruct the history of the horse in the Americas and its relationship with the Indigenous Peoples of these same lands. 

Although Western academia admits that the horse originated in the Americas, it claims that the horse became extinct in these continents during the Last Glacial Maximum (between roughly 13,000 and 11,000 years ago). This version of “history” credits Spanish conquistadors and other early European explorers with reintroducing the horse to the Americas and to her Indigenous Peoples. 

However, many Native Nations state that “they always had the horse” and that they had well established horse cultures long before the arrival of the Spanish. To date, “history” has been written by Western academia to reflect a Eurocentric and colonial paradigm. The traditional knowledge (TK) of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, and any information that is contrary to the accepted Western academic view, has been generally disregarded, purposefully excluded, or reconfigured to fit the accepted academic paradigm. 

Although mainstream academia and Western science have not given this Native TK credence to date, this research project shows that there is no reason – scientific or otherwise – that this traditional Native claim should not be considered true. The results of this thesis conclude that the Indigenous horse of the Americas survived the “Ice Age” and the original Peoples of these continents had a relationship with them from Pleistocene times to the time of “First-Contact.”

Source: About Central America

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Discerning accurate Church history

The Mark Hoffman saga is in the news because of the Netflix documentary. 

In response to the Hoffman events, President Oaks delivered a detailed, masterful address, which you can read here:

Here are excerpts from that talk (in blue), along with my commentary (in red).
What interested me most was the fact that these forgeries and their associated lies grew out of their author’s deliberate attempt to rewrite the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that so many persons and organizations seized on this episode to attempt to discredit the Church and its leaders. [emphasis added]

Deliberate attempts to rewrite the early history continue, but now it’s the Church History Department doing the re-writing.

For many years, certain LDS historians have sought to rewrite the early history of the Church. Richard Bushman explained:

“The downside of that is that there is developing in the scholarly world a view of church history. It’s out of kilter with the church version, what’s told in Sunday school class. All sorts of things that don’t fit together such as the seer stones in the hat, or many, many other things.”


Now the problem has reversed. Correlated Church history, such as the Saints books, is “out of kilter” with authentic historical documents and events. Why? So far as I can tell, the only reason is to promote modern narratives, including M2C and SITH. 

Yesterday I showed specific examples regarding Cumorah. The Saints book, volume 1, quotes Lucy Mack Smith’s histories 127 times, but it deliberately omits every one of her references to Cumorah because the M2C citation cartel rejects the New York Cumorah. We see the same careful re-writing of Church history in the Gospel Topics Essays.


There is a revolving door between the Church History Department and the M2C citation cartel (including BYU Studies and Book of Mormon Central), so naturally they work together and reinforce these narratives. That’s what makes it a cartel.

Consequently, well-meaning but uninformed Latter-day Saints don’t know that when Moroni first visited Joseph Smith, he identified the hill where the plates were concealed as Cumorah, even though this was widely known during Joseph’s lifetime and informed everyone’s writing and understanding at the time. By omitting Cumorah from the historical record, our LDS historians have distorted Church history and created a new version that (i) accommodates M2C but (ii) contradicts the historical record. This leads to preventable confusion among new, former, and prospective members.  

The same thing has happened with the discrepancies between the Urim and Thummim and seer (or “peep”) stone accounts. (SITH=stone-in-the-hat.) Like the Gospel Topics Essays, the Saints book deliberately omitted Lucy Mack Smith’s accounts of Joseph using the Urim and Thummim. Instead, it cites much later accounts from David Whitmer and Emma Smith, both of whom had ulterior motives for promoting SITH (i.e, refuting the Solomon Spalding theory). 

For example, Saints merely says “Another letter informed David that it was God’s will for him to bring his team and wagon to Harmony to help Joseph, Emma and Oliver move to the Whitmer home in Fayette, where they would finish the translation.”

However, Lucy explains that they made the request because Joseph received a commandment through the Urim and Thummim to do it. 
“an intimation that was given through the urim and thumim for as he one morning applied them to his eyes to look upon the record instead of the words of the book being given him he was commanded to write a letter to one David Whitmore [Whitmer] this man Joseph had never seen but he was instructed to say him that he must come with his team immediately in order to convey Joseph and his Oliver [Cowdery] back to his house which was 135 miles that they might remain with him there untill the translation should be completed for that an evil designing people were seeking to take away Joseph’s life in order to prevent the work of God from going forth among the world”
“Not far from this time, as Joseph was translating by means of the Urim and Thummim, he received instead of the words of the Book, a commandment to write a letter to a man by the name of David Whitmer, who lived in Waterloo; requesting him to come immediately with his team, and convey them [3 words illegible] (Joseph & Oliver) to Waterloo; as an evil designing people were seeking to take away his (Joseph’s life), in order to prevent the work of God from going forth to the world.”
Saints omits these and related passages because they contradict the currently fashionable narrative that (i) Joseph merely dictated words that appeared on the seer stone in the hat (SITH); (ii) Joseph didn’t even use the plates, which remained concealed under a cloth the entire time; and (iii) Joseph didn’t really translate anything anyway.
And, of course, Saints completely omits the account of David, Joseph and Oliver meeting the messenger on the road to Fayette. In his knapsack, the messenger had the abridged plates that Joseph had given him in Harmony. He declined a ride to Fayette, explaining he was taking the plates to Cumorah. Joseph identified him as one of the Nephites. 
But instead of relating these detailed historical accounts, Saints elaborated on the sketchy account of the same messenger showing the plates to David’s mother Mary. To make it worse, Saints concocted a fake quotation! 
“My name is Moroni,” he said.
Except that is a fictional quotation and contradicts what Mary Whitmer herself said, that the messenger identified himself as “Brother Nephi.” It also contradicts Joseph Smith’s identification of the messenger as “one of the Nephites,” an identification he made more than once.
David Whitmer, who actually conversed with both this messenger and Moroni on separate occasions, clearly differentiated between the two individuals, but Saints changes Church history to portray the resurrected Moroni as capable of changing his appearance, age, and physical size for unknown reasons. Obviously, that raises important questions about the doctrine of the resurrection.
In a sardonic sense, it’s funny to see how the historians manipulated the history to reach this result. For example, in note 16 (page 595), they cite David Whitmer Interviews, 26-27. That book is long out of print and difficult to obtain, but I have a copy. On page 182 of the same book, which Saints does not reference, David says “Joseph looked pale almost transparent & said that was one of the Nephites and he had the plates of the Book of Mormon in his knapsac.” 
Why deprive Church members of this interesting and relevant information?
Recall, this was the messenger who said he was going to Cumorah before going to Fayette. Because the M2C citation cartel insists Cumorah cannot be in New York, our historians decided we should not be informed about this event. They must accommodate M2C at all costs. I’ve shown before how the book Opening the Heavens went so far as to deliberately falsify this same history.
Which brings us back to President Oaks’ talk.


The Church operates under a divine mandate to acquire and preserve the documents and artifacts that show its history…

We are deeply indebted to the Joseph Smith Papers project to preserve our history. Despite the notes and annotations that, in some cases as I’ve discussed, seek to promote M2C and SITH, at least we have the actual documents that the historians cannot change. 

The historians can and do omit relevant documents from correlated materials such as the Gospel Topics Essays, Saints, and lesson manuals, but anyone can go to the original documents and see for themselves what Joseph Smith and his contemporaries said, did and thought, as much as the historical record can reveal.

It seems to me that the mandate is not only to acquire and preserve the documents, but also to accurately convey them to Church members and the world as a whole. When it comes to M2C and SITH, though, that does not seem to be the case. 

In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love. In that kind of atmosphere, they fail to detect a few deceivers, but that is the price they pay to increase their effectiveness in counseling, comforting, and blessing the hundreds of honest and sincere people they see. It is better for a Church leader to be occasionally disappointed than to be constantly suspicious.

Here, President Oaks gives us an exceptionally important insight. I agree that Church leaders should be able to trust the Church historians and scholars to be open and honest in their portrayal of Church history. 

But when we see the type of omissions we see in Saints, and no effort to correct those omissions when pointed out, it is difficult to continue to trust those historians who are promoting an agenda instead of accurately reporting history. 

It’s even worse with the Gospel Topics Essays, as we’ve discussed many times. Fortunately, some of those have been edited (albeit without notification) from time to time to correct mistakes, but they still reflect specific agendas of the scholars who wrote them. There is a long way to go to making those essays reliable and credible.   

I observed that “historical and biographical facts can only contribute to understanding when they are communicated in context.” This is the work of the scholar. We would all be better informed about history if historical impressions came from the articles and books of mature and objective scholars rather than through the often sensational and always incomplete “stories” of journalists.

Sound historical work takes time, but patience is rewarded.

This is another important point. My basic life philosophy is that eventually, the right thing happens. A lot of Latter-day Saints are impatient with the revisionist Church history we are expected to believe, even though it contradicts the historical record and the teachings of the prophets. 

Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that these things will be corrected and revised over time. In the meantime, we can read the original sources ourselves and see how the writings of both critics and correlated materials vary. 

Fortunately, the actual history is the most faith-affirming of all. 


When it comes to naivete in the face of malevolence, there is blame enough to go around. We all need to be more cautious. In terms of our long-run interests in Church history, we now have the basis, and I hope we have the will, to clear away the Hofmann residue of lies and innuendo. With that done, we should all pursue our search for truth with the tools of honest and objective scholarship and sincere and respectful religious faith, in the mixture dictated by the personal choice each of us is privileged to make in this blessed and free land.

I bolded that last sentence because it epitomizes my approach to all of this. I strongly favor and encourage people making informed decisions. That’s why I don’t accept the revisionist history designed to accommodate M2C and SITH. That’s also why I disagree with the censorship-based editorial policies of the M2C citation cartel. 

I don’t expect LDS scholars to vary from their dogmatic enforcement of M2C and SITH. Book of Mormon Central, for example, has M2C embedded in its logo. After decades of promoting M2C, it is probably impossible, psychologically, for the scholars to become open to alternatives to M2C, let alone change their minds.

But their intellectual rigidity doesn’t matter to those who, as President Oaks says, “pursue our search for truth.”

the end

Source: Letter VII

Uncategorized

Hoffman, Church history, Saints, and President Oaks

The Mark Hoffman saga is in the news because of the Netflix documentary. 

Let’s look at some parallels between the Hoffman problem with fake documents and the ongoing suppression of Church history designed to promote M2C and SITH.

In response to the Hoffman events, President Oaks delivered a detailed, masterful address, which you can read here:

Here are excerpts from that talk (in blue), along with my commentary (in red).
What interested me most was the fact that these forgeries and their associated lies grew out of their author’s deliberate attempt to rewrite the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that so many persons and organizations seized on this episode to attempt to discredit the Church and its leaders. [emphasis added]

Deliberate attempts to rewrite the early history continue, but now it’s the Church History Department doing the re-writing.

For many years, certain LDS historians have sought to rewrite the early history of the Church. Richard Bushman explained:

“The downside of that is that there is developing in the scholarly world a view of church history. It’s out of kilter with the church version, what’s told in Sunday school class. All sorts of things that don’t fit together such as the seer stones in the hat, or many, many other things.”


Now the problem has reversed. Correlated Church history, such as the Saints books, is “out of kilter” with authentic historical documents and events. Why? So far as I can tell, the only reason is to promote modern narratives, including M2C and SITH. 

Yesterday I showed specific examples regarding Cumorah. The Saints book, volume 1, quotes Lucy Mack Smith’s histories 127 times, but it deliberately omits every one of her references to Cumorah because the M2C citation cartel rejects the New York Cumorah. We see the same careful re-writing of Church history in the Gospel Topics Essays.


There is a revolving door between the Church History Department and the M2C citation cartel (including BYU Studies and Book of Mormon Central), so naturally they work together and reinforce these narratives. That’s what makes it a cartel.

Consequently, well-meaning but uninformed Latter-day Saints don’t know that when Moroni first visited Joseph Smith, he identified the hill where the plates were concealed as Cumorah, even though this was widely known during Joseph’s lifetime and informed everyone’s writing and understanding at the time. By omitting Cumorah from the historical record, our LDS historians have distorted Church history and created a new version that (i) accommodates M2C but (ii) contradicts the historical record. This leads to preventable confusion among new, former, and prospective members.  

The same thing has happened with the discrepancies between the Urim and Thummim and seer (or “peep”) stone accounts. (SITH=stone-in-the-hat.) Like the Gospel Topics Essays, the Saints book deliberately omitted Lucy Mack Smith’s accounts of Joseph using the Urim and Thummim. Instead, it cites much later accounts from David Whitmer and Emma Smith, both of whom had ulterior motives for promoting SITH (i.e, refuting the Solomon Spalding theory). 

For example, Saints merely says “Another letter informed David that it was God’s will for him to bring his team and wagon to Harmony to help Joseph, Emma and Oliver move to the Whitmer home in Fayette, where they would finish the translation.”

However, Lucy explains that they made the request because Joseph received a commandment through the Urim and Thummim to do it. 
“an intimation that was given through the urim and thumim for as he one morning applied them to his eyes to look upon the record instead of the words of the book being given him he was commanded to write a letter to one David Whitmore [Whitmer] this man Joseph had never seen but he was instructed to say him that he must come with his team immediately in order to convey Joseph and his Oliver [Cowdery] back to his house which was 135 miles that they might remain with him there untill the translation should be completed for that an evil designing people were seeking to take away Joseph’s life in order to prevent the work of God from going forth among the world”
“Not far from this time, as Joseph was translating by means of the Urim and Thummim, he received instead of the words of the Book, a commandment to write a letter to a man by the name of David Whitmer, who lived in Waterloo; requesting him to come immediately with his team, and convey them [3 words illegible] (Joseph & Oliver) to Waterloo; as an evil designing people were seeking to take away his (Joseph’s life), in order to prevent the work of God from going forth to the world.”
Saints omits these and related passages because they contradict the currently fashionable narrative that (i) Joseph merely dictated words that appeared on the seer stone in the hat (SITH); (ii) Joseph didn’t even use the plates, which remained concealed under a cloth the entire time; and (iii) Joseph didn’t really translate anything anyway.
And, of course, Saints completely omits the account of David, Joseph and Oliver meeting the messenger on the road to Fayette. In his knapsack, the messenger had the abridged plates that Joseph had given him in Harmony. He declined a ride to Fayette, explaining he was taking the plates to Cumorah. Joseph identified him as one of the Nephites. 
But instead of relating these detailed historical accounts, Saints elaborated on the sketchy account of the same messenger showing the plates to David’s mother Mary. To make it worse, Saints concocted a fake quotation! 
“My name is Moroni,” he said.
Except that is a fictional quotation and contradicts what Mary Whitmer herself said, that the messenger identified himself as “Brother Nephi.” It also contradicts Joseph Smith’s identification of the messenger as “one of the Nephites,” an identification he made more than once.
David Whitmer, who actually conversed with both this messenger and Moroni on separate occasions, clearly differentiated between the two individuals, but Saints changes Church history to portray the resurrected Moroni as capable of changing his appearance, age, and physical size for unknown reasons. Obviously, that raises important questions about the doctrine of the resurrection.
In a sardonic sense, it’s funny to see how the historians manipulated the history to reach this result. For example, in note 16 (page 595), they cite David Whitmer Interviews, 26-27. That book is long out of print and difficult to obtain, but I have a copy. On page 182 of the same book, which Saints does not reference, David says “Joseph looked pale almost transparent & said that was one of the Nephites and he had the plates of the Book of Mormon in his knapsac.” 
Why deprive Church members of this interesting and relevant information?
Recall, this was the messenger who said he was going to Cumorah before going to Fayette. Because the M2C citation cartel insists Cumorah cannot be in New York, our historians decided we should not be informed about this event. They must accommodate M2C at all costs. I’ve shown before how the book Opening the Heavens went so far as to deliberately falsify this same history.
Which brings us back to President Oaks’ talk.


The Church operates under a divine mandate to acquire and preserve the documents and artifacts that show its history…

We are deeply indebted to the Joseph Smith Papers project to preserve our history. Despite the notes and annotations that, in some cases as I’ve discussed, seek to promote M2C and SITH, at least we have the actual documents that the historians cannot change. 

The historians can and do omit relevant documents from correlated materials such as the Gospel Topics Essays, Saints, and lesson manuals, but anyone can go to the original documents and see for themselves what Joseph Smith and his contemporaries said, did and thought, as much as the historical record can reveal.

It seems to me that the mandate is not only to acquire and preserve the documents, but also to accurately convey them to Church members and the world as a whole. When it comes to M2C and SITH, though, that does not seem to be the case. 

In order to perform their personal ministries, Church leaders cannot be suspicious and questioning of each of the hundreds of people they meet each year. Ministers of the gospel function best in an atmosphere of trust and love. In that kind of atmosphere, they fail to detect a few deceivers, but that is the price they pay to increase their effectiveness in counseling, comforting, and blessing the hundreds of honest and sincere people they see. It is better for a Church leader to be occasionally disappointed than to be constantly suspicious.

Here, President Oaks gives us an exceptionally important insight. I agree that Church leaders should be able to trust the Church historians and scholars to be open and honest in their portrayal of Church history. 

But when we see the type of omissions we see in Saints, and no effort to correct those omissions when pointed out, it is difficult to continue to trust those historians who are promoting an agenda instead of accurately reporting history. 

It’s even worse with the Gospel Topics Essays, as we’ve discussed many times. Fortunately, some of those have been edited (albeit without notification) from time to time to correct mistakes, but they still reflect specific agendas of the scholars who wrote them. There is a long way to go to making those essays reliable and credible.   

I observed that “historical and biographical facts can only contribute to understanding when they are communicated in context.” This is the work of the scholar. We would all be better informed about history if historical impressions came from the articles and books of mature and objective scholars rather than through the often sensational and always incomplete “stories” of journalists.

Sound historical work takes time, but patience is rewarded.

This is another important point. My basic life philosophy is that eventually, the right thing happens. A lot of Latter-day Saints are impatient with the revisionist Church history we are expected to believe, even though it contradicts the historical record and the teachings of the prophets. 

Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that these things will be corrected and revised over time. In the meantime, we can read the original sources ourselves and see how the writings of both critics and correlated materials vary. 

Fortunately, the actual history is the most faith-affirming of all. 


When it comes to naivete in the face of malevolence, there is blame enough to go around. We all need to be more cautious. In terms of our long-run interests in Church history, we now have the basis, and I hope we have the will, to clear away the Hofmann residue of lies and innuendo. With that done, we should all pursue our search for truth with the tools of honest and objective scholarship and sincere and respectful religious faith, in the mixture dictated by the personal choice each of us is privileged to make in this blessed and free land.

I bolded that last sentence because it epitomizes my approach to all of this. I strongly favor and encourage people making informed decisions. That’s why I don’t accept the revisionist history designed to accommodate M2C and SITH. That’s also why I disagree with the censorship-based editorial policies of the M2C citation cartel. 

I don’t expect LDS scholars to vary from their dogmatic enforcement of M2C and SITH. Book of Mormon Central, for example, has M2C embedded in its logo. After decades of promoting M2C, it is probably impossible, psychologically, for the scholars to become open to alternatives to M2C, let alone change their minds.

But their intellectual rigidity doesn’t matter to those who, as President Oaks says, “pursue our search for truth.”

the end

Source: About Central America

Uncategorized

BYU/CES students kept uninformed

I’m continually amazed that so many BYU and CES students passively accept the slanted information they get from Book of Mormon Central and other members of the M2C citation cartel.* 

I’m equally amazed that other BYU and CES students passively accept the slanted information they get from MormonStories, CES Letter, etc. But, regrettably, the success of these critics is understandable, because the critics can easily demonstrate that LDS intellectuals continue to suppress and censor important information, purely to protect their own theories.

Students would all be far better off thinking for themselves by making fully informed decisions. 

That’s why on this blog we constantly encourage people to make informed decisions. 

We completely embrace President Nelson’s observation that “good inspiration is based upon good information.”

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives?lang=eng

The more informed people are, the more they realize the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah not only make sense, but are consistent and corroborated by external evidence.

But because they repudiate the teachings of the prophets, our M2C citation cartel resorts to censorship of (i) historical information, (ii) textual interpretations, and (iii) external evidence that supports the teachings of the prophets. This only makes students more vulnerable to the claims of MormonStories, CES Letter, and other critics.

Many leading LDS intellectuals currently model and exemplify and even encourage students not to make informed decisions.

These intellectuals seem more determined to have their students and followers accept their intellectual theories than to encourage their students and followers to pursue truth.

_____

Book of Mormon Central (BMC) actively defies the Church’s position of neutrality by (i) promulgating M2C and (ii) suppressing alternative interpretations of the text and relevant evidence. BMC’s very logo declares to the world that they reject the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah. 

It doesn’t seem to occur to these students that when powerful people (such as their BYU/CES teachers) silence opposing evidence and arguments, they’re really controlling you, keeping you from making up your own mind. 

We’re happy to refer people to BMC because we want people to know what the M2C citation cartel teaches. We think openness is the best approach. 

Even if you choose to trust the intellectuals in the M2C citation cartel, you should at least verify what they tell you.

Just as you should verify the equally manipulated information in MormonStories, CES Letter, etc.

_____

A good example is the correlated Church history in Saints, which omits Church history that contradicts M2C.

Saints quotes or cites Lucy Mack Smith’s history 127 times, but it omits the following “inconvenient” passages that contradict the editors’ preferred theories, including M2C and SITH.

The editors claim Joseph never identified the hill as Cumorah. Yet here, Lucy says Moroni identified the hill as Cumorah during his first appearance to Joseph Smith. She could only have gotten this information from Joseph directly.

Now Joseph beware or when you go to get the plates your mind will be filled with darkness and all manner of evil will rush into your mind. To prevent you from keeping the commandments of God that you may not succeed in doing his work and you must tell your father of this for he will believe every word you say the record is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place remove the Grass and moss and you will find a large flat stone pry that up and you will find the  record under it laying on 4 pillars of cement— then the angel left him.

In early 1827, after Joseph returned home late at night from a trip to Manchester, he said he’d been severely chastised. His father wanted to know who did it. Lucy related Joseph’s response.
“Stop, father, Stop.” said Joseph, “it was the angel of the Lord— as I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel met me and said, that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; 

We won’t read these passages in Saints (or in the Come Follow Me manuals or any other correlated materials) because they contradict M2C. The M2C citation cartel won’t highlight or even discuss them, except to say Lucy was “confused” or “wrong” or “speculating” when she dictated her history.

It’s the same situation with SITH. The passages in Lucy’s history that contradict SITH have all been omitted from Saints, the Gospel Topics Essays, and other correlated curriculum.
Fortunately, we have the original documents in the Joseph Smith Papers, so the efforts of LDS intellectuals to control our beliefs through censorship will ultimately fail.
Now it’s just a question of whether each individual will assume responsibility to become informed enough to make informed decisions.
_____
*M2C is the “Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs” theory. The cartel includes Book of Mormon Central, the Interpreter, BYU Studies, Meridian Magazine, and other groups and individuals, including BYU professors, who insist that (i) the Book of Mormon took place in a limited area of Mesomerica, (ii) Cumorah is in southern Mexico, and (iii) Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and everyone else who reaffirmed what they taught were all speculators who misled the Church with their erroneous “opinions” about Cumorah being in New York.

Source: About Central America

Uncategorized

Blair Hodges and the Maxwell Institute

I’ve mentioned before the Blair Hodges is one of the best, if not the best, podcast interviewers anywhere. If you haven’t been listening to the Maxwell Institute podcasts, you’ve missed some wonderful content.

https://mi.byu.edu/mipodcast/

Blair announced he had taken a new job. He will be greatly missed at the Maxwell Institute, but I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job in his new position.

BHodges

Yellow heart

@LifeOnaPlate

I’ve been hired as the Director of Communications at the Utah chapter of Volunteers of America. Focusing on homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. I’ll deeply miss my work and friends at the Maxwell Institute but after seven years I’m ready for more challenges!

https://twitter.com/LifeOnaPlate/status/1366914678471942148

Source: Book of Mormon Concensus

Uncategorized

emotional maturity

 from twitter:

https://twitter.com/EdLatimore/status/1364706129369047043

Ed Latimore
@EdLatimore

Disagreement doesn’t warrant disrespect. You shouldn’t treat someone as less of a person just because they don’t have the same opinion as you. This sign of emotional maturity is the ability to separate how you feel from how you think.

If you take someone’s disagreement as a personal offense, the problem is with you, not them.

“…your issues are irrelevant.” Classic finish

https://edlatimore.com/signs-of-maturity/

6 signs of mental and emotional maturity

How do you become more mature and improve your quality of life? Here are 6 major signs of mental and emotional maturity that you can start to follow.


Source: Book of Mormon Concensus