Author: Jonathan Neville

Readers here know that I have lots of old books that I refer to from time to time. I also like replicas of old books.

When I taught at the LTM (MTC) years ago, I used to ask the missionaries for their favorite verse from the Book of Mormon. Then I photocopied that verse in a page from the original 1830 edition and laminated it for them as a bookmark for their scriptures. (No one had digital scriptures back then.)

I still prefer the original (pre-1879) editions of the Book of Mormon because they are easier to read, although certainly the verses make it easier to refer to specific passages. I think Orson Pratt made some mistakes when he created today’s chapters and verses, but overall he did a fine job. However, it’s always nice to read the text the way Joseph originally had it typeset.

Not long ago we visited Dartmouth, where the library has an original 1830 edition (with the Kirtland index at the back) that they let visitors handle. On another occasion, a friend of mine showed me his original 1830 edition. I opened the cover to see that his grandchildren had scribbled in crayon all over it. He said his grandchildren were more important than an old book, and of course I agreed with him.
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Yesterday I saw the best replica of the 1830 Book of Mormon I’ve ever seen. If you’re interested in this type of thing, you can check it out at this website:

https://www.cumorahlandpress.com/product-page/1830-book-of-mormon-replica

I like this one best of all the ones I’ve seen because of its look and feel, and the people who created it pay a lot of attention to detail and authenticity.

They have replicas of other early LDS books that are worth considering, as well.

I didn’t mention this yesterday, but one of the best examples of two movies on one screen is the ongoing discussion about volcanoes. (I discussed volcanoes last year here.)

Everyone can read the text of the Book of Mormon and see it never mentions volcanoes. 

In a rational world, everyone would look for an area that fits this description; i.e., a place where people could live for 1,000 years without experiencing or even knowing about an actual volcano, so they never wrote about them.

However, a core belief among M2C theorists is that the Book of Mormon does mention volcanoes. They must believe this to justify M2C; i.e., Mesoamerican cultures have lots of experience with volcanoes, so the Nephites/Lamanites must have also experienced volcanic activity.

Because they need volcanoes, the M2C intellectuals “see” them between the lines of the text. They infer that the text describes volcanoes. They have persuaded themselves that the natural events described in 3 Nephi 8 could only have been produced by volcanic activity.

Those who see a different movie recognize that those same identical events have actually occurred in the Mississippi River valleys as the result of massive earthquakes (mainly the New Madrid fault).
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Here’s a summary from comments on a recent blog:

I just checked 3 Nephi 8 and there is no mention of a volcano, as the authors of the Interpreter article contend. Also, it is not apparent that the author in the Book of Mormon was witness to the events described in the section, as the authors assert.

In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi

I’ve previously explained how two people can look at the same facts and reach completely different conclusions.  Today I’ll restate the concept giving some specific examples.

The idea has been explained by the metaphor of watching two movies on one screen. I discussed this previously here. I’ve also demonstrated it as analogous to watching a 3D movie, when each eye looks at the same screen but sees a different image because of the filters in the lenses of the glasses.

The red and blue lenses filter the two projected images so only one image enters each eye.

(Note: obviously in this case there are actually two different images on the screen. This is a conceptual metaphor, not a literal one.)

Because our physical perception is heavily influenced by our belief system and past experience, it is a common psychological phenomenon for two people to see the exact same image but interpret it completely differently.

One reason for this is cognitive blindness; i.e., the two people don’t see the same facts the same way because each person is blind to what the other person sees.

Another term for this is perceptual or inattentive blindness, explained this way: “When it becomes impossible to attend to all the stimuli in a given situation, a temporary “blindness” effect can occur, as individuals fail to see unexpected but often salient objects or stimuli.”

The mostly subconscious choice about what is salient is related to bias confirmation. People see what they expect and want to see.

Look at this BYU map of the Book of Mormon as an example. CES uses a similar map in Seminary and Institute classes.

Movie 1. This is an internal map that (i) matches the geography descriptions in the text as closely as possible, (ii) is neutral on questions of real-world geography, and (iii) helps students understand the relative locations of Book of Mormon events.

Movie 2. This is a fantasy map that (i) is based on a Mesoamerican interpretation of the text, (ii) represents a repudiation of the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, and (iii) teaches students to think of the Book of Mormon in a fictional fantasy context.

If you think one of these movies is “right” and the other is “wrong,” you are experiencing cognitive blindness to the other movie.

This is the psychology behind different political parties, religious affiliations, beliefs about science, and much more.

It is very difficult to see both movies at the same time. We may not even be able to choose which movie to watch because we usually aren’t aware there are two movies. We “can’t unsee” our own movie, and we “can’t understand” why other people see the movie they do.
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I’ve explained many times that I’m not trying to persuade anyone of anything. All I do on this blog and in my books and presentations is explain how I understand the facts and how things make sense to me.

I’ve seen both movies regarding Book of Mormon geography. For decades I accepted the M2C movie. I can still see it if I make the effort, but because of what I’ve learned since I accepted M2C, it is more and more difficult to watch that movie.

At this point, I think most members of the Church accept the M2C movie only because they are blind to the other movie that’s on the screen.

And the M2C citation cartel (Book of Mormon Central, BYU Studies, the Interpreter, FairMormon, etc.) continue to use censorship and obfuscation to keep members of the Church blind to the other movie.

Here are some examples.
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1. Teachings about the New York Cumorah.

(you can see these here: http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html)

Movie 1. All these statements about the New York Cumorah consist of the sincere but mistaken beliefs of those involved. Even members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference can express their own opinions and testify of their truthfulness, yet be mistaken.

Movie 2. All of these statements about the New York Cumorah originated with Joseph and Oliver, who knew from personal experience that Cumorah was in New York. Repudiating their teachings, as well as the teachings of subsequent prophets, undermines faith.

2. Visit to the Nephite repository.

Movie 1. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, David Whitmer and others said Oliver told them about occasions when he (Oliver) and Joseph visited the repository of Nephite records inside the Hill Cumorah. Oliver must have been speaking of visionary experiences because the Hill Cumorah is a drumlin that could not contain a natural cave such as Oliver described.

Movie 2. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, David Whitmer and others said Oliver told them about occasions when he (Oliver) and Joseph visited the repository of Nephite records inside the Hill Cumorah. They were familiar with the area and emphasized the physical reality of Oliver’s description. Kimball reported visiting Cumorah and seeing the embankments around it. Oliver never said it was a natural cave, and photos of an actual room in the hill show walls built up with cut stones.

3. Teachings about Central America.

Movie 1. In 1842, the Times and Seasons published articles about ruins in Central America and identified them as Nephite ruins, the site for Zarahemla, etc. Joseph Smith was identified as the editor, printer, and publisher of the Times and Seasons during 1842, so he wrote, edited, or at least approved of these articles.

Movie 2. In 1842, the Times and Seasons published anonymous articles about ruins in Central America and identified them as Nephite ruins, the site for Zarahemla, etc. Joseph was listed as the nominal editor, printer and publisher, but he didn’t actually edit the paper any more than he actually printed it. Based on the content and prior practice, the articles were written and edited by Benjamin Winchester, W.W. Phelps, and William Smith; Joseph had nothing to do with them. At any rate, these articles said nothing about the New York Cumorah.

4. The golden plates.

Movie 1. Moroni put the golden plates into the stone box in the hill in New York. This was the only set of plates, and it included both the abridged records of the Nephites and Lamanites, and the original plates of Nephi (the small plates). Joseph translated part of the record in Harmony, and part in Fayette. The witnesses described the plates differently because of differences in their own perceptions.

Movie 2. Moroni put the “original” Book of Mormon into the stone box in the Hill Cumorah. This contained the abridged records of the Nephites and Lamanites as explained in the Title Page, but did not include any original plates of Nephi. Joseph translated these plates in Harmony. Before leaving Harmony, he returned these plates to a divine messenger, who took them back to the depository in Cumorah. From the depository, the messenger picked up the small plates of Nephi and took them to Fayette, where Joseph translated them. The witnesses described the plates differently because they saw different sets of plates; i.e., the 3 witnesses saw the original plates, while the 8 witnesses saw the small plates of Nephi.
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There are many examples of the two movies, including different interpretations of passages in the text of the Book of Mormon and D&C, different explanations for the teachings of the prophets, etc.

Most people want to know, how can we decide which movie is correct (or more likely to be correct)?

Appeals to authority and other logical fallacies are useful mainly to confirm one’s bias.

Citing additional facts is not persuasive because of cognitive blindness.

One solution is to use the different movies as predictors and then see which is more accurate. For example, does the BYU map help persuade students that the Book of Mormon is a literal history, or does it help persuade students that the Book of Mormon is fictional (or allegorical)?

The book The Next Mormons includes data showing that younger generations are less likely to believe the Book of Mormon is a literal history. Causation and correlation are not the same thing, of course, but it seems obvious that teaching the Book of Mormon using a fictional map would lead students, even if only subliminally, to conclude the book is fiction. More data could help determine causation here.

Overall, though, the best way for people to decide which movie is correct is for each person to have a chance to see each movie.

This is why the ongoing censorship by the M2C citation cartel is so corrosive and, ultimately, counterproductive.

Yesterday we looked at the obvious problem that, in many places, the growth of the Church has stalled. IMO, this is due, in part, to obstacles constructed by modern intellectuals.

Today we’ll look at one of the obstacles being created by revisionist Church historians. This obstacle is the new narrative about the translation process. I address all of this in far more detail in my upcoming book, but this post discusses the key issues.
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Traditional depictions of the translation

Regarding the translation of the Nephite plates, there are many accounts that boil down to two lines of evidence:

1. Joseph and Oliver (and the Book of Mormon and the revelations in the D&C) always said Joseph translated the engravings on the plates by the gift and power of God, using the Urim and Thummim (also called interpreters) that Moroni put in the stone box with the original set of plates (the Harmony plates that contained the abridged record).

2. Others said that Joseph translated by reading words that appeared on a seer stone Joseph put in a hat.

Can these two separate categories be reconciled?
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Here is a table in my upcoming book (which delves into this topic in detail, with an appendix containing all known statements about the translation).

For decades, Church leaders have reaffirmed what Joseph and Oliver taught; i.e., that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim to translate the plates, as established by Witness Category 1 (and the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants).

The evidence from Witness Category 2 was long known, but mostly ignored.

In recent years, though, some Church historians have revisited the evidence. They have sought to reconcile the two disparate categories of evidence, giving equal weight to both.
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There have been three basic approaches toward reconciliation. Below I’ll propose a fourth approach that I think makes the most sense.

1. Joseph and Oliver were accurate and complete; the others were wrong (lying or mistaken).
2. Joseph and Oliver were wrong (lying or mistaken); the others were right.
3. Joseph and Oliver used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to both the Nephite interpreters Moroni put in the stone box and the seer stone Joseph found in a well.

UT=SS – Joseph translating without looking at the plates

Approach #3 (Urim and Thummim = Seer Stone, or UT=SS) has been widely adopted by Church historians and is now being disseminated throughout the Church as the mainstream view. It’s not unreasonable, on its face. But it causes a serious problem, which is why I consider it a serious impediment to missionary and reactivation work, as I’ll explain below.

UT=SS has been published in the Ensign, the Gospel Topics essay and the Saints book. It is depicted in the new Church movies about Harmony and Fayette. It is depicted at the Priesthood Restoration site and will soon be in more visitors centers, if it isn’t already.

The Saints book describes it this way:

UT=SS – Joseph translating by staring at a stone in a hat

The obvious problem with UT=SS is that it contradicts what was taught by Joseph, Oliver, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

Do you recognize that pattern?

It’s the same principle taught by the M2C intellectuals; i.e., the prophets were wrong about the New York Cumorah because they were ignorant (or negligent) speculators who adopted a false tradition and thereby misled the Church.

Once one accepts that principle (the “distrust the prophets” principle), it’s easy to also conclude that Joseph, Oliver and the scriptures were wrong about the translation because they, too, were negligent, imprecise or just didn’t want people to know the truth about the seer stone.

I consider this “distrust the prophets” principle inexcusable in both cases because it undermines faith and is not required by the evidence.
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Joseph, Oliver and the scriptures all teach that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon with the Nephite interpreters called the Urim and Thummim prepared for that purpose. Moroni put the interpreters in the stone box specifically so Joseph could use them to translate the plates.

For example, Joseph explained that it was Moroni himself who used the term:

He told me also of a sacred record which was written on plates of gold. I saw in the vision the place where they were deposited. He said to me the Indians were the literal decendants of Abraham. He explained many of the prophecies to me; one of which I will mention, which is in Malachi 4th chapter. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh <​(&c​> He also informed me that the Urim & Thummim was hid up with the record, and that God would give me power to translate it with the assistance of this instrument; he then gradually vanished out of my sight or the vision closed. 

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/125

Oliver explained:

These were days never to be forgotten—to <​sit​> assist under the voice 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, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites should have said, [“]Interpreters,”32 the history, or reccord, called “the book of Mormon.[”]

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/49

It’s true that the Book of Mormon does not use the term Urim and Thummim for the interpreters, but in these quotations, Joseph and Oliver both equated the terms. Neither of them mentioned a “seer stone,” let alone a seer stone that Joseph found in a well long before he removed the plates and interpreters from Moroni’s stone box.

We wonder, what led the UT=SS intellectuals to conclude that Joseph, Oliver and the scriptures didn’t mean what they said?

What led them to equate the Urim and Thummim with the seer stone?

The UT=SS intellectuals note that the first published use of the term “Urim and Thummim” in connection with the translation appeared in an article written by W.W. Phelps in 1833. They conclude that all other references to the “Urim and Thummim” are based on the Phelps article; i.e., that Joseph, Oliver, and the revelations in the D&C adopted Phelps’ idea retroactively.

Here is the article.

https://archive.org/details/EveningAndMorningStar18321834/page/n57

From the grammar here, it’s easy to see why the UT=SS intellectuals think Phelps was the first to apply the term “Urim and Thummim” to the Nephite interpreters. They assume Joseph and Oliver were loose with the facts anyway (which is one reason why they reject the New York Cumorah), and they view everything through that filter.

There is another obvious interpretation of the Phelps article. Phelps was writing to a non-LDS audience, explaining the Book of Mormon to the world. If Phelps knew from Joseph and Oliver that Moroni had identified the interpreters as the Urim and Thummim (as Joseph claimed in the excerpt above), he would have introduced the idea to his non-LDS readers just the way he did in this article.

IOW, we can read the Phelps article to be consistent with what Joseph and Oliver taught, or to be inconsistent with what they taught.

The UT=SS intellectuals choose to interpret the article to be inconsistent with what Joseph and Oliver taught; i.e., that it was not Moroni who first described the interpreters as the Urim and Thummim, but instead it was Phelps himself who came up with the idea.

And that’s fine, so far as it goes. That, by itself, does not create the impediment.

The problem is when these same UT=SS intellectuals take the next step of equating the Nephite interpreters with the seer stone.
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The UT=SS intellectuals have created a narrative that is depicted in the common Internet meme shown here.

Although intended as ridicule, the meme focuses specifically on the logical endpoint of the stone-in-the-hat theory.

Imagine being a youth in the Church, or an investigator, and reading the Saints book, the Gospel Topics essay, etc.

Even if you don’t know that UT=SS contradicts the plain teachings of Joseph, Oliver, and the scriptures, how could you not wonder to yourself exactly what this meme depicts?

In my view, UT=SS is a major impediment to accepting the Book of Mormon.

The idea of an angel appearing to Joseph Smith and directing him to the golden plates is difficult enough for many people to accept at first. Translating them with interpreters prepared for that task makes sense once you accept the idea of the angel and the plates.

But the idea that Joseph translated by looking at a stone in a hat undermines the credibility of the entire experience Joseph and Oliver described.

I realize there are plenty of accounts in Church history that support the stone-in-the-hat idea, which is why I propose a fourth reconciliation method (below).

UT=SS contradicts the basic narrative that the interpreters were prepared by the Lord for the translation of the plates, that Moroni put them in the box for that purpose, and that Joseph used them for that purpose.

UT=SS undermines one of the most basic foundations for the Book of Mormon itself.

I urge everyone involved to reconsider the UT=SS path because of the ramifications it is having and will continue to have in the future.
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Reconciliation approach #4.

4. Joseph used the seer stone in the hat to demonstrate, but not to actually perform, the translation of the plates.

I explain this in more detail in the book, but there are two key points.

First, I think most of the people involved were simply relating what they observed. They weren’t lying.

Second, I think what they observed was a demonstration, not the actual translation.

When you look at the accounts of Joseph translating by reading words off a stone in a hat, none of them relate exactly what words Joseph was dictating.

Think of the situation Joseph was in. Most of the accounts are from Fayette, where he and Oliver were translating the Fayette plates (the plates of Nephi) upstairs in the Whitmer home. The Whitmers were curious. Their neighbors were curious. People were coming by all the time asking about what was going on.

Joseph had been commanded not to show the interpreters or the plates to anyone. How could he satisfy the curiosity so he and Oliver could finish the work in peace?

Naturally, he would perform a demonstration. David Whitmer explains that they arranged chairs around a table so everyone could watch. Joseph came downstairs and showed a stone (whether it was a functioning seer stone or not doesn’t matter) and put it in a hat and dictated words to a scribe (presumably Oliver Cowdery).

It would be consistent with Joseph’s character to let the audience think he was translating the Book of Mormon, even without claiming he was doing so. [I give similar examples of this in the book.]

The demonstration would solve two problems: it satisfied the curious crowds, and left him and Oliver to work on the translation in relative peace.

[This also explains why Joseph gave the seer stone to Oliver when they finished the translation; he didn’t need it any longer because he wouldn’t need to do any further demonstrations.] 

The accounts from Martin Harris and Emma Smith have similar explanations that I don’t have time to explain for now.
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The bottom line: The historical evidence is consistent with Joseph Smith translating the entire Book of Mormon with the Urim and Thummim that Moroni put in the stone box.

The stone-in-the-hat meme is the product of an understandable effort by some Church historians to reconcile inconsistent accounts from Church history, but it creates impediments for missionary and reactivation work because it contradicts the teachings of the prophets and the scriptures.

There are a lot of new readers here so this week I’m going to restate the obvious and offer some simple solutions.

People generally prefer fun and nice topics, but we run the risk of deluding ourselves when we flinch from reality. Richard P. Feynman (physics professor) made a key point: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

On this blog, we like to deal with reality.

Another famous quotation to consider, this one from George Orwell. “We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”
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There are a lot of awesome things happening in the Church, and in the world as a whole. But there are also serious–and obvious–problems that we generally don’t like to think about.

We’ve seen before that conversion rates are declining significantly. I think one reason is the influence of the intellectuals in the Church, including employees at CES, BYU, and COB, who are teaching the youth (and investigators) to disbelieve the prophets regarding such fundamental points as the translation of the Book of Mormon and the Hill Cumorah. They are changing (and censoring) Church history to accommodate the M2C* intellectuals. Groups such as Book of Mormon Central are raising and spending millions of dollars to promote M2C around the world.

It’s a serious problem that has real-world ramifications.

As Elder Uchtdorf pointed out in General Conference, “before we bake a cake, throw confetti, and congratulate ourselves on this remarkable success, we would do well to put that growth into perspective.

There are roughly seven and a half billion people in the world, compared to some 16 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a very small flock indeed.”**

By most estimates, activity rates in Church are around 30%. I’ll post more detail on that later this week. This means there are around 5 million active members in the world, most of whom are concentrated in the western U.S.

Last summer, Elder Pearson gave an address at the FairMormon conference. He indicated there are about 1 billion people in the world who have heard of the Church, and half of them have unfavorable impressions.

These statistics indicate there are 500 million people in the world who have a favorable (or neutral) impression of the Church. 

Yet last year, only 234,332 converts joined the Church. That is less than 0.05% of those who have a favorable (or neutral) impression of the Church.

For every 100,000 people in the world who have a favorable (or neutral) impression of the Church, only 47 of them joined.

We’re grateful for every one of them, of course, but there are over 65,000 missionaries working full time to share the gospel and bring people into the Church. The statistics show 3.5 converts per missionary, but we all know of convert baptisms in part-member families that may or may not have involved the missionaries.

Here in New York, they are consolidating missions. I’m told missionaries can go weeks between teaching appointments.
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What barriers prevent people from accepting the Gospel as taught by the Church?

Every individual is different, of course. But we do have statistics, and one of the biggest barriers is disbelief in the historicity and divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

We’ve seen that only 50% of Millennials in the Church believe the Book of Mormon is a real history, and that percentage is declining. 

BYU’s fantasy map

That is the entirely predictable result of:

1. Repudiating the consistent and persistent teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah and

2. Teaching the Book of Mormon to students in CES (Seminary, Institute, and BYU) by using a fantasy map, as we’ve discussed before, such as here.

As bad as this situation is for the youth of the Church, it is even worse for investigators, as I’ll discuss in upcoming posts.
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Last week we were in New England and we passed a full-size LDS church that was up for sale. We asked some friends in the area and they said two small wards had combined, leaving the chapel as surplus. (The listing price was a little over $900,000.)

I looked into this more and discovered that last year (2018), 10 states, plus the District of Columbia, had declining LDS membership. (These are the states in orange and red on the map.)

No state had membership growth over 2%.

This is the first time in many decades that no state had membership growth above 2%, according to this outstanding blog.

Overall, Church membership in the U.S. last year grew 0.60%

The U.S. population as a whole grew 0.71%.

IOW, even in the U.S., which is the strongest base of the Church, overall population growth rates exceed the growth of the Church.

Throughout the world, most of the growth of the Church is in areas that don’t speak English and/or don’t have easy access to the Internet. That strikes me as unsustainable.

It’s not uncommon in the U.S. for a ward to have around 500 members with weekly attendance of only 100-150. In some countries, there are wards with over 1,000 members on the records, of whom only around 100 attend regularly.

Recently Elder Bednar addressed this problem in a talk you can see on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1932664923676655

He offered an interesting suggestion: leave the meeting and go get someone you know who is inactive and bring them to Church.

Most of us have had the opportunity to bring someone back to Church, or to bring someone into the Church. But, according to the statistics, this is not a regular occurrence.

At a time when the Church should be expanding and “filling the earth,” instead the statistics show stagnation and even decline in some areas.

I don’t think it makes a difference what programs are developed, what ads are produced, or even how many temples are built, when the fundamentals that distinguish the Church from other Christian churches are being so deeply undermined by the intellectuals who promote M2C and revisionist Church history.
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This week I’ll focus on specific issues of Church history and Book of Mormon historicity that have become impediments to missionary and activation work.

In my view (and my experience) these problems are becoming more serious, but there are simple remedies.

(Those who want me to continue the series on The Illusion of Scholarship will have to wait a little longer. There is much more coming on that topic, but this series of posts is urgent.)
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*M2C is the acronym for Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory. This is the theory that the Hill Cumorah in New York is not really the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

The M2C theory was developed by scholars in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS) in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the time, the RLDS were sending missionaries to Utah to convert the “Brighamites” (those who accepted Brigham Young as the Prophet). The RLDS scholars began teaching that the real Cumorah was in Mexico. It was part of the competition between the two churches because President Joseph F. Smith was reaffirming the New York Cumorah and working toward purchasing the hill for the Church.

Later, over the objection of LDS Church leaders, some LDS intellectuals in Utah adopted the RLDS teaching.

By the 1980s, the RLDS teaching of M2C prevailed over the teachings of the LDS Church leaders, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

Now M2C is a basic part of the curriculum in Seminary, Institute, BYU and Church visitors centers, media, etc. You can read about it here:

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/12/yes-they-do-teach-two-cumorahs-theory.html

The teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah have all been censored. The latest example is the book Saints, as we’ve discussed here:

https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html

You can still find these teachings in the Joseph Smith Papers (Joseph had the foresight to have Letter VII copied into his personal history so the revisionist historians cannot censor it completely) and in the General Conference reports.

You can see a compilation here:

http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html
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**The footnote to Elder Uchtdorf’s talk is this:

The great prophet Nephi saw in vision that even though the Church of the Lamb of God would spread “upon all the face of the earth,” because of wickedness in the world its overall “numbers [would be] few” (1 Nephi 14:12; see also Luke 12:32).

1 Nephi 14:12 reads:

And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.

I’ve heard Church members cite this verse as a reason to be satisfied with the current progress of the Church, as if “all is well in Zion.” (2 Ne. 28:21).

If we interpret the term “few” literally, then 16 million is already far more than “few.”

This suggests the term should be interpreted as a relative description; i.e., “few” in the context of 7.1 billion people. Even with ten times as many members of the Church as there are today, the number would be “few” compared with the 7 billion people on earth.

Nephi attributes the smallness of the number to the wickedness of the great whore, and that makes sense, but there can also be a separate element, as Joseph Smith suggested:

D&C 123:12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—

The phrase “all sects, parties and denominations” does not exclude LDS. It seems to me that the teachings of certain intellectuals constitute “the subtle craftiness of men” and prevent the honest in heart from finding the truth.

When you know the truth, you are confident, serene, and generous.

But the same is true when you believe a hoax. Reality and confirmation bias look like the same thing to us.

So how do we tell whether what we believe is the truth or a hoax?

That’s what prophets are for.
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Every member of the Church knows, or should know, these two things:

1. The prophets have consistently and persistently taught that the New York Cumorah is the hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

(Those who don’t know these teachings need to review the BYU packet, here:
http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html)

2. The M2C intellectuals teach that the prophets are wrong about Cumorah (M2C is the acronym for Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory taught by employees at CES, BYU, COB and the M2C citation cartel, led by Book of Mormon Central).

We trust people to make good decisions when they have good information. If they don’t agree with us, that’s fine, so long as they are making informed decisions.
_____

M2C intellectuals don’t trust members of the Church to make informed decisions.

Book of Mormon Central censors the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah because they know most members of the Church would follow the prophets if they knew what the prophets have taught.

Censorship does not work in the long run. It disrespects people and deprives them of agency. Here’s a relevant example about America’s Founders from a WSJ article:

America’s Founders rested the legitimacy of government on the will of the people, mediated through institutions such as the Senate and the Electoral College. They knew voters could be ignorant, gullible or manipulated by demagogues. To mitigate those concerns, they recommended education and free expression, so that false or dangerous claims could be exposed or refuted. They did not prohibit foreigners access to the American press. Soon enough, they were dealing with propagandists and would-be dictators, foreign and domestic, such as Aaron Burr and Napoleon. But whatever the drawbacks of the electorate and of a free press, they reposed their trust in the people to come to their own conclusions.

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-memes-didnt-steal-the-election-11556146111

Those of us who still believe the prophets also trust people to come to their own conclusions, so long as they have good information.
_____

I previously discussed the phenomenon that people who have the same information still reach different conclusions. If you haven’t seen that, or don’t remember it, review it again:

https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2018/02/getting-real-about-cumorah-part-5b_7.html
___

Much of the discussion and debate about Book of Mormon geography involves different interpretations and assumptions about the text. To the extent that these discussions extend beyond sharing information, they are pointless because semantic debates can never be resolved with finality.

Plus, you’ll often see employees of Book of Mormon Central making arguments on behalf of their boss. You can’t change the mind of an employee who wants to keep his/her job.

I retweeted this comment recently:

A simple strategy that will save you so many headaches: don’t care about winning trivial arguments.

Someone says something you don’t agree with? Smile, nod, and move on to more important things.

Life is short. Not caring about having the last word will save you so much time.
_____

Some people are wondering why I’ve been focusing on Mormon’s Codex as an example of the illusion of scholarship published by M2C intellectuals.

One reason: Mormon’s Codex has imprinted M2C on the minds of intellectuals throughout the Church.

The M2C citation cartel usually follows the example of Mormon’s Codex by assuming an outcome that supports M2C, thereby creating a bias. Then they write articles to confirm that bias.

This is the antithesis of scholarship, although it’s nicely dressed up with citations and some form of “peer review” that seems designed mainly to make sure the publication also confirms the M2C bias.
_____

The latest example appeared the other day in our favorite M2C journal (delightfully named The Interpreter). The article is titled “Joseph Smith: The World’s Greatest Guesser (A Bayesian Statistical Analysis of Positive and Negative Correspondences between the Book of Mormon and The Maya).”

Readers have asked me about it, so I’m commenting a little in this post.

I really, really wanted to like this article because, on its face, it appears to be a new approach to important questions. 

The authors are wonderful scholars, working in important fields, making tremendous contributions to society, etc. I greatly respect and admire their work in their professional work and everyone should acknowledge that work and thank them for it.

I hoped the article would live up to its own scientific premise and ideals.

Sadly, though, the authors have been taken in by the M2C hoax. 

They accepted Mormon’s Codex on its face, apparently without noticing that the entire book (and M2C generally) is an exercise in circular reasoning and bias confirmation, designed to persuade members of the Church that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah and that we should follow intellectuals instead of the prophets.

Consequently, the authors wrote over 100 pages (plus footnotes) to validate M2C. The M2C citation cartel now has another citation they can insert in their citation loop.

The article purports to apply Bayesian statistics to evidence cited in Dr. Michael Coe’s book titled The Maya. It sounds great. But when we read the actual article, we find a highly subjective interpretation of 131 pieces of evidence that support the Book of Mormon vs. 18 pieces of evidence that don’t.

M2C intellectuals try to persuade members of the Church that the prophets are wrong about Cumorah because their interpretation of the Book of Mormon describes Mayan society, not the society of the Hopewell and Adena civilizations in what is now the Midwestern and Eastern U.S.

This article purports to provide statistical support for the M2C hoax, but instead it is just another example of the circular reasoning and bias confirmation typical of the M2C citation cartel.

As a result, in my view, this article contributes to the censorship and obfuscation practiced by the M2C citation cartel.
_____

You can read the original article here.

https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/joseph-smith-the-worlds-greatest-guesser-a-bayesian-statistical-analysis-of-positive-and-negative-correspondences-between-the-book-of-mormon-and-the-maya/

Much of the article features the illusion of scholarship. We have credentials. We have citations. We have source checking, editing, and all the rest.

We even have peer review, as verified in one of the commentsL I can assure you that both Mesoamericanists and statisticians provided peer review on the article.

Those with long experience reading the work of the M2C citation cartel, going back to FARMS and its intellectual progeny, including the Interpreter, Book of Mormon Central and FairMormon, are long accustomed to this type of peer review.

It’s merely peer approval. 

This is the type of peer approval that led me to discuss this article on my InterpreterPeerReviews blog, which you can read here:

https://interpreterpeerreviews.blogspot.com/2019/05/joseph-as-guesser.html

Another reason why I discussed the article there is that the authors’ primary response to critics is their assertion that the critics haven’t read the article. At my review, you can see I not only read the article but commented directly on their own language.
_____

This excerpt from the article looks promising, doesn’t it?

These practices of cherry-picking or overweighting/underweighting evidence cannot be allowed in scientific enquiry. They are neither rational nor honest. We must consider all relevant evidence if we hope to make honest, rational decisions. Also, no piece of evidence has infinite weight. There are always limitations on the strength of any individual piece of evidence. Assuming a piece of evidence has infinite weight is equivalent to saying the question is already decided and is therefore beyond the scope of further rational, honest enquiry.

Sounds great. Finally, a piece of rational, honest inquiry published in the Interpreter.

However, the entire article is based on the preliminary assumption that the question of Book of Mormon geography is already decided, because… Mormon’s Codex!

On p. 80 (5th full paragraph of the article), the authors write this:

There are strong reasons for suspecting ancient Mesoamerica as the physical location of Book of Mormon events in the New World.8

Footnote 8 cites exactly one reference.

8. John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City: Desert Book, 2013).

With Mormon’s Codex as the foundation, it’s no surprise that the M2C peer reviewers signed off on this article.

Typical of M2C publications, this article contradicts the authors’ own standards. It is not merely cherry picking; it is orchard picking.
_____

If the article had merely engaged in the predictable M2C confirmation bias, I would ignore it. By now, we all know what we get when we read material published by the M2C citation cartel:

– It will censor, ignore, or explicitly repudiate the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

– It will resort to a series of logical fallacies that please and comfort fellow M2C intellectuals and their followers.

– It will persuade exactly no one but it will fortify those who still believe in the M2C hoax.
_____

The difference with this article is the claims they made about the North American setting (as opposed to the Mesoamerican setting).

Readers here know that I don’t reject any theory of geography that has Cumorah in New York because the prophets have explicitly, persistently, and consistently taught only two things:

1. Cumorah (Mormon 6:6) is in New York.

2. We don’t know for sure where the rest of the events took place.

The M2C intellectuals and their followers have attempted to confuse people by conflating these two teachings, but both points are crystal clear.

I’m fine with people believing whatever they want. I just want them to make informed decisions, which is why I oppose the censorship practiced by the M2C citation cartel.

(I also happen to think the Mesoamerican theory is unlikely and that the North American setting, which I described in Moroni’s America, is the best fit for the text. I think the New York Cumorah is consistent with archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc. But I don’t claim prophetic or church support for my ideas; instead, I seek to support what the prophets have taught.)

_____

With laudable candor, the authors explained some of their bias in one of the comments:

This is a predictable M2C claim, but it contradicts the evidence.

Ethan Smith published View of the Hebrews in 1823. Most readers here know the history of that book and its connection to the Book of Mormon.

The issue of Book of Mormon geography boils down to the point that the M2C scholars follow Ethan Smith, not Joseph Smith.

M2C is based on View of the Hebrews and the anonymous articles in the Times and Seasons.

The Pratt brothers (Orson and Parley), along with Benjamin Winchester and others, got their ideas of Book of Mormon geography from Ethan Smith. This is the line of thinking the M2C intellectuals have chosen to follow, as modified and restricted to a “limited geography” in the late 1800s by RLDS scholars.

The M2C intellectuals and their followers reject what Joseph taught. When he wrote the Wentworth letter in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA, Joseph explicitly deleted all of Orson Pratt’s speculation about the descendants of Lehi in Latin America and replaced it with the declaration that the remnant are the Indians who now inhabit this country.

Joseph never once taught or implied that the Book of Mormon took place anywhere but in what is now the United States. That makes sense, given the New York Cumorah.

But View of the Hebrews taught that all the indigenous people in the Americas were Israelites.

For example, View of the Hebrews referred to Humbolt (Alexander Humboldt) by writing “Our author proceeds to describe the pyramids of New Spain,–those signal Indian antiquities.” p. 179. The book describes Cholula, a Mayan site occupied during Book of Mormon time frames, and then quotes Humboldt: “If it be allowed to compare with the great Egyptian monuments, it appears to have been constructed on an analogous plan.”

Next, the book explains the connection. “Various authors unite, as will appear, in stating the great similarity between those Mexican pyramids, and those of Egypt. And our noted author M. Humbolt exclaims; ‘We are astonished to see, in regions the most remote, men following the same model in their edifices.’ This is here claimed as a great argument in favour of the Israelitish extraction of those Indians…. He [Humboldt] says; ‘We have examples of theocratic forms of government in South America.’… this theocratic, partriarchal government must well accord with Israelitish tradition.”

It’s also true that View of the Hebrews describes the ancient works in North America. The authors of this article, however, misrepresent what Ethan Smith actually wrote. Of the ancient works in Ohio, for example, Ethan Smith wrote “These works have evinced great wars, a good degree of civilization, and great skill in fortification.”

If you’re interested in a more detailed analysis, see my review on the other blog.

end

Today in Sunday School here in Palmyra we discussed John 7.

15 And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?

Bible commentaries point out that

The Jews taught their law and tradition in celebrated schools. As Jesus had not been instructed in those schools, they were amazed at his learning.

In our day, the M2C intellectuals who teach people to disbelieve the prophets make a similar argument. It goes like this:

How could Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery know the location of the Hill Cumorah, having never learned from scholars about all the “correspondences” between Mesoamerica and the M2C interpretation of text?
_____

We can’t help but notice how things never change.

Today we have intellectuals in the Church telling us to disbelieve the prophets because they were not adequately trained.

Here I’m referring specifically to the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, including Letter VII. But the principle extends beyond that specific topic.
_____

These M2C intellectuals expect “ordinary” members of the Church to defer to their expertise.

They insist people have to be “trained in the ministry” to understand the Book of Mormon.

They resort to intellectual bullying by creating the M2C citation cartel that censors what the prophets have taught about Cumorah.

They seem determined to wrestle the Book of Mormon out of the hands of the “common people” and make everyone dependent on them, the experts, to understand the text.

But we are not beholden to these intellectuals.

We can see for ourselves what the prophets have taught, such as here:
http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html
_____

Preliminary note: From time to time, people still contact me about things that employees of Book of Mormon Central (BMC) write on the BMC web page (the Kno-Whys), on their blogs, or on other social media.

Here’s my take. These are all fine young scholars, but they’re employees. Book of Mormon Central is the most sophisticated and best-funded advocate of M2C the world has ever seen. They work hard to persuade their readers that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.

You’re not going to change their minds.

Think of it this way. If you’re interacting with an employee of the Republican National Committee, are you going to persuade him/her to support Speaker Nancy Pelosi? If you’re interacting with an employee of the Democratic National Committee, are you going to persuade him/her to support President Trump?

That’s the level of commitment and devotion you’ll find among employees of Book of Mormon Central. Don’t waste your time trying to change their minds. Facts are just as irrelevant to them as are the teachings of the prophets.

We love our M2C brothers and sisters. There is no need to contend about any of this. There no point to contending, anyway. From a purely intellectual perspective, we can all see that M2C is a hoax. They can’t. And we can’t expect them to. It’s basic psychology 101.

Focus your efforts and conversations on simply sharing the teachings of the prophets with your friends, family, and associates, along with the evidence that supports those teachings. We are happy with whatever people want to believe. We just want them to be able to make informed decisions.

That’s why I write this blog.
_____

In 1990, the author of Mormon’s Codex, Brother John Sorenson, wrote a book titled The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book. It was published by FARMS with the M2C logo that Book of Mormon Central still uses (upper left corner).

You can read it here:

https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/bookchapters/Geography_of_Book_of_Mormon_Events/Sorenson-%20The%20Geography%20of%20Book%20of%20Mormon%20Events,%20A%20Source%20Book,%20lo-res.pdf

The Source Book contains much of the intellectual ancestry of M2C as set forth in Mormon’s Codex.

A more accurate title would be: The M2C hoax: A Source Book, including methodology and dogma.
_____

The introduction, page 2, claims “The first task I have set is to examine everything substantive that has been written by Latter-day Saints on the subject [of Book of Mormon geography]. There is no use ‘re-inventing the wheel.’ If answers to questions of the geography of Book of Mormon events already have been found, we might as well acknowledge and take advantage of them. If reliable answers have not come forth, we at least need to know what ground has been plowed.”

One would think that, because Joseph and Oliver had unambiguously established the New York Cumorah as a fact, and because all of their successors as prophets, seers and revelators have (so far) affirmed that teaching, the New York Cumorah is an “answer” that has already “been found,” so there is “no use re-inventing the wheel” about the location of Cumorah.

But no.

Brother Sorenson, like the rest of the M2C citation cartel, doesn’t even want readers to know “what ground has been plowed” if that ground involves the New York Cumorah.

While they acknowledge some of the teachings of the prophets, they ignore them. They characterize them as the uninformed and uninspired teachings of men.

The Source Book dismisses the teachings of the prophets, apparently because they are not “substantive.” Instead, the Source Book relies only on the words of intellectuals, mingled with the infamous 1842 Times and Seasons articles and comments by Orson Pratt, who plays the role of the General Authority foil for the superior intellectuals.
_____

The Source Book relegates to the Appendix some of the teachings contained in my proposed BYU Packet appear in the Source Book.

(BYU packet: http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html)

[Note: This section contains a lot of detail, so feel free to pass over it if you’re in a hurry.]

🙂

If you look carefully at Appendix A, starting on p. 371, you notice some key omissions. And the way these statements are edited here evinces an effort to discredit them as confused, inconsistent speculation by uniformed and unqualified people.

For example, Brother Sorenson quotes part of Letter VII, but omits the key phrase “the fact that.” The M2C citation cartel always frames Letter VII as the theory of an ignorant speculator, but President Cowdery stated it was a fact. (Oliver explained that all eight of the essays he and Joseph wrote were based on facts.)

To be fair, when Brother Sorenson wrote the Source Book in 1990, some of the material in my BYU Packet was unknown or difficult to access. For example, he didn’t mention that Joseph had his scribes copy Letter VII into his personal history, but not a lot of people knew that back in 1990.

Yet that’s no excuse for deleting “the fact that” from the excerpt.

Parley P. Pratt’s statement that it was Moroni who anciently applied the name Cumorah to the hill in New York is missing.

Brother Sorenson provides this editorial comment to D&C 128:20: “It is clear that by the date of this revelation, Joseph Smith, and seemingly his readers generally, commonly recognized the term Cumorah to refer to the hill in New York.“

Seemingly?

Joseph’s readers knew that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 was the same one from which Joseph got the plates because the Times and Seasons republished Letter VII just a year before it published D&C 128:20.

The Source Book devotes considerable space to the infamous and anonymous 1842 Times and Seasons articles. It attributes these articles to John Taylor or Joseph Smith, neither of whom had anything to do with the articles.

(The M2C citation cartel attributes these articles to Joseph Smith not to support their accuracy or veracity, but to cast doubt on Joseph’s other teachings; i.e., they say he changed his mind about Cumorah, even though the articles say nothing about Cumorah and were published in the same issue of the Times and Seasons that contained D&C 128:20.)

The Source Book includes a paraphrase of the early 1827 incident in Lucy Mack Smith’s history when Joseph came home late and explained that as he was passing by the Hill Cumorah, the angel chastised him. But then it editorially refers to the 1878 statement of David Whitmer, “which seems contradictory.”

On p. 384, when the Source Book provides the 1878 statement (the messenger taking the Harmony plates to Cumorah), Brother Sorenson inserts this bizarre editorial comment.

“If his mother’s biography of Joseph is correct, the name Cumorah would not have been new to Joseph at this time. The two sources contradict each other enough that one wonders about the soundness of this detailed recollection after fifty years had passed and given Whitmer’s advanced age. Of course, Lucy Mack Smith’s statement was itself a recollection after eighteen years.”

We can all read David Whitmer’s statement for ourselves and see that this was David’s statement, not Joseph’s. The name Cumorah was new to David, not to Joseph. There is no contradiction between David’s statement and Lucy’s statement. To the contrary, the two statements corroborate one another.

Why would Brother Sorenson make such an obvious mistake?

The M2C intellectuals recognize that David’s encounter with the messenger going to Cumorah exposes the M2C hoax. Their treatment of the event demonstrates this.

Sometimes they simply censor it, the way the Saints book did.
https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html

Other times they falsely paraphrase it, as we see here:
http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/12/opening-heavens-but-censoring-history.html

The historical record shows that David Whitmer reported this incident multiple times. There is evidence that it was not a late recollection, as I discussed here.
http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/05/note-on-cumorah-david-whitmer-and-zina.html

When we look at the entire historical record, we see that Joseph gave the plates to the messenger before leaving Harmony. Joseph, David and Oliver met the messenger on the way to Fayette. The messenger explained he was going to Cumorah. Joseph said he was one of the Three Nephites. The messenger later brought the plates of Nephi to Fayette so Joseph and Oliver could translate them.

The accounts are completely consistent and authentic. They are additional corroboration of Letter VII.

Which is why the M2C intellectuals have to undermine, dismiss, and censor the account.
_____

Back to the Appendix.

On p. 388, the Source Book cites President Ivins’ General Conference address from April 1928, discussing the acquisition by the Church of the Hill Cumorah.

But it selectively edits his address to convey the impression that the teachings about the New York Cumorah are merely opinions. Anyone can read the full address and see that President Ivins was reaffirming the New York Cumorah as the same one Mormon refers to in Mormon 6:6.

The most blatant M2C editing, however, consists in the censorship of the General Conference addresses of President Marion G. Romney and Elder Mark E. Peterson in 1975 and 1978, respectively. Both leaders specifically and unambiguously reaffirmed the New York Cumorah. Yet they are omitted from the Source Book. 
_____

Orson Pratt appears prominently in the Source Book, but Brother Sorenson doesn’t mention that Joseph edited out Orson Pratt’s hemispheric theory when he composed the Wentworth letter and replaced it with the unambiguous statement that the remnant of Lehi’s posterity are “the Indians that now inhabit this country.”

To his credit, Brother Sorenson does include that key passage from the Wentworth letter in the Appendix. He just ignores it as irrelevant.

Of course, most Church members don’t know what Joseph taught because the Curriculum and Correlation Departments censored it from the Joseph Smith manual, as I showed here.

Censorship has become standard practice for the M2C citation cartel and their followers.

Here, we need to point out that some of the M2C citation cartel, such as FairMormon, do not completely censor the teachings of the prophets. Like the Source Book, they acknowledge some of those teachings.

They just ignore them and attribute them to the uninspired teachings of men.
_____

With the teachings of the prophets censored or dismissed as irrelevant, the field is white and ready to harvest.

Page 3 summarizes the approach: “To anticipate my conclusion, the upshot is that the existing literature goes in so many directions that no solution stands out as sufficiently persuasive to rally consensus behind it. As a consequence I conclude (in Part 3) that the task must start over with the basics. The following parts then present a set of tools to move students toward a consensus.”

From this we see how and why the M2C intellectuals veered so far off base.

Once you reject the teachings of the prophets as not substantive, not relevant, and incorrect anyway, you’re free to promote whatever you want.

We’ll look at more of the Source Book in upcoming posts, but for now I want to leave with this incredible piece of irony.

On page 10, Brother Sorenson explains why the early Saints, including Joseph, Oliver and their contemporaries, were so naive and ignorant.

This is a perfect description of today’s M2C citation cartel.

Today, the M2C intellectuals are still few in number, all known personally to each other, and are concerned with unity, not alternative views. 

Within their cartel, there is still no source of nor room for variant points of view, let alone criticism.

But there is one major difference between the early Saints and today’s M2C intellectuals.

Among the early saints, “no one would have thought of questioning Joseph Smith.”

Among today’s M2C intellectuals, no one believes Joseph Smith.

The early Saints relied on what the prophets taught. They knew Joseph and Oliver personally. They knew these two men had personal experience with Moroni, the Three Nephites, and the depository of Nephite records in the Hill Cumorah in western New York.

The early Saints recognized that when he wrote Letter VII, Oliver Cowdery was the Assistant President of the Church. He was an ordained prophet, seer and revelator. He had the mantle. A few months later he, along with Joseph, received Priesthood keys in the Kirtland temple from Moses, Elijah, and Elias. The Savior Himself appeared to them and accepted their work.

Today’s M2C intellectuals cavalierly teach that Oliver was ignorant, that his mantle was meaningless, and that he misled the Church about the New York Cumorah.

The early Saints recognized that Joseph Smith helped write the essays that were published as letters, including Letter VII. They knew Joseph fully endorsed Letter VII by having it copied into his personal history as part of his life story. They knew Joseph had encouraged, even directed, the republication of these essays in every Church-related newspaper during his lifetime.

They knew Letter VII was republished by Joseph’s brother William in New York City just two days after the martyrdom.

And they knew that all of Joseph’s contemporaries and successors endorsed Letter VII.

Most of the early Saints had never lived in western New York, but a few did. President Heber C. Kimball visited the Hill Cumorah. He reported that he observed the embankment around the hill still standing.

Today, it has been mostly plowed under, so our M2C intellectuals say it never existed.
_____

We can’t overemphasize this.

Brother Sorenson and the rest of the M2C citation cartel look at the early Saints with disdain partly because, as he wrote here, “no one would have thought of questioning Joseph Smith.”

Today, all they do is question Joseph Smith.

And that’s why the M2C intellectuals find it so hard to recognize, let alone admit, that M2C is a hoax.

_____

The last section of that passage is a nice example of what passes as “scholarship” among the M2C intellectuals.

Notice how Brother Sorenson asserts his subjective interpretation of the Book of Mormon, derived from circular reasoning designed to support his M2C theory, makes a Missouri location for Manti “out of the question.” 

As we’ll see in upcoming posts, the entire M2C hoax is based on the premise that what the prophets have taught is “out of the question.”