How Many Times Have You Read The Book of Mormon?

[_MCB]

Oh, if only we had those lost 116-pages. It might have had a real attention grabbing beginning.

:( Could have had real potential.

[_Quasimodo]

Step aside all you light weights. I have read the Book of Mormon 1 million times.

love ya tons,
stem

I believe that. You must be very old :).

[_Jason Bourne]

So far I notice I'm the only one who has read it more than 20 times. But I know for a fact that I'm not the only one. Now come on folks - be honest, and vote. Then if you're up to it, please explain why you read "chloroform in print" more than 20 times.

PS: Ah, I just see that Runtu and Jason have replied.

I could be close to 20 but not sure. I know it is more than 10 but not sure how much.

I actually like much of the Book of Mormon still.

Now I have read the NY probably between 5-10 times, the Old Testament all the way through once, the D&C and PoGP probably five times or so.

[_Spurven Ten Sing]

I tried as a teenager once going through a phase of reading most of the religious books. I made it through the Bible (finally, after a few tries). Flew through the Upanishads (loved'em) Painfully slogged through the Qur'an. Tao te ching was a good read.

I put down the Book of Mormon without really getting in to it. Just couldn't finish it.

Just so you know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, THE ETERNAL GOD. Don't feel bad that you missed that. Many people bent on disliking Mormonism do.



Heheheheheh...

[_Quasimodo]

I tried as a teenager once going through a phase of reading most of the religious books. I made it through the Bible (finally, after a few tries). Flew through the Upanishads (loved'em) Painfully slogged through the Qur'an. Tao te ching was a good read.

I put down the Book of Mormon without really getting in to it. Just couldn't finish it.

Just so you know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, THE ETERNAL GOD. Don't feel bad that you missed that. Many people bent on disliking Mormonism do.



Heheheheheh...

You're right, I probably didn't have the required "open heart". My open mind must have messed it all up. :)

[_consiglieri]

What started me on reading the scriptures was a very small experience I had shortly after I joined the church back in 1978.

I had just left a youth family home evening at a friend's house, and upon discovering I had forgotten something, had to go back.

It was dark out. The door was open and only the screen door was closed, so it must have been summertime.

I walked back to the door and was surprised to find my friend, alone in the house, sitting on his couch and reading the Book of Mormon.

I knocked and got the forgotten item and left, but this experience never left me.

It was like I suddenly realized that scriptures were not just a prop for me to take to church each Sunday.

_______________

Another formative experience for me happened in institute class after my mission. There was this girl there who seemed to have an incredible grasp of the gospel and who knew more than the answers to everything. It was an informal setting so I asked her openly in front of the class if there were some special books that she read in order to know so much.

She said, "Yes. The scriptures."

(Didn't even see that one coming.)

Everybody had a good laugh at my expense, but it made an impression.

____________________

I'll stop at the third major formative experience for me, which happened in another institute class, this one less than a year after I got back from my mission. The text was Hugh Nibley's recently released Abraham in Egypt.

We were all assigned to make a presentation of some aspect of the Book of Abraham we found interesting.

I was at a loss, not understanding anything Hugh Nibley was writing about, so came up with something pedestrian and safe.

Another student in the class, older than I, named David Knowlton, did this incredibly thoughtful and insightful presentation on Abraham. I was bowled over. It was like he came up with this stuff through his own reading and ideas. (He did.) I went up to him after his presentation and was effusive in my praise, which I think embarrassed him a bit.

It was from David that I learned the scriptures can be full of new insights for those who read them with an open mind and a desire to learn.

(I think some here may know David. I am sure he has no idea how much of an impact in my life his presentation made. But I am very grateful to him for it.)

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_greentam]

After I clicked on 5 times I realized that the number was probably quite a bit higher. I went and unburied my copy and tried to think about it. Counting all the times I did it because they told us to in church, seminary, and single's ward the number is probably closer to 8-10....

[_Ray A]

My first time, I was so disgusted with it that I threw it across the room. The racism, the murder of Laban, sections from the Bible distorted for a different meaning, anti-Catholicism, that was enough to make me want to give up.

I confess that I actually threw out my long-owned copy of the Book of Mormon several months ago. All those underlined passages gone! My participation on MDB probably helped that decision greatly.

I didn't know that it contains some good stuff starting at about half-way through. I should have started with the little books between Jacob and Mosiah. Not many books start out that bad, and end up having some real strengths.

I'm quite convinced now that the "great and abominable church" does not refer to the Catholic Church, notwithstanding McConkie-ite interpretations, and he was wrong at least once :)

Many years ago I was a great fan of of the television series Kung Fu, and although fiction, and although the main star David Carradine came to an unexpected and untimely end in real life, I was "spiritually fed" by this enchanting series. I loved the idea of Buddhist spirituality, and the grace and aplomb with which Kwai Chang Caine followed his advice from his "spiritual masters". With his blend of spirituality and martial arts - he seemed invincible. A hero to look up to, and although it was all Hollywood fiction, it inspired me.

When I became a Mormon, the Nephi stories inspired me likewise. I now consider both to be "inspired myth", which isn't to say they are valueless. Nephi is a sort of Kwai Chang Caine character, but in terms of real life - just as unrealistic.

To be "in-tuned" with the Book of Mormon, in my opinion, you have to enter a "spiritual realm" which speaks to our "inner being", something that transcends history, but yet speaks to our "inner being". Something about values, morals and ethics, that is, in my opinion, worth preserving.

[_The Dude]

I voted 5 times but it was probably more like 4.

[_bluedream]

When I became a Mormon, the Nephi stories inspired me likewise. I now consider both to be "inspired myth", which isn't to say they are valueless. Nephi is a sort of Kwai Chang Caine character, but in terms of real life - just as unrealistic.

To be "in-tuned" with the Book of Mormon, in my opinion, you have to enter a "spiritual realm" which speaks to our "inner being", something that transcends history, but yet speaks to our "inner being". Something about values, morals and ethics, that is, in my opinion, worth preserving.

I felt the same way when I used to watch Kung Fu.
Could it not be said then that anything that speaks to our "inner being", bears the fruit of truth? Is not the higher-self more adept at truth discernment?

Why do man so often strive over semantic, and seldom moral?

Tolkien's mythology speaks to me on that level, and had I grown up in an environment that promoted belief in its everlasting truth, I very well could be traveling the world as a "Missionary of Arda", handing out copies of The Silmarillion :)

"Inspired myth", however unrealistic, might as well be some fragmented snippet of the fullness of truth.

by the way Ray, I don't usually post too much here, but I do a fair bit of lurking, and you're pretty consistently my most appreciated contributor.