When I ‘vanish’ I’m actually moving on to things of greater enjoyment and purpose than living on this board. Summer is here! Yesterday I went and swam laps in our pool and soaked in some rays in the afternoon. I spent time with my wife in the evening.
Now THAT’S living.
THEN you are a far better man than Nephi Joseph Smith! I have to think that had it been YOU arriving in Bountiful with your family, you would have immediately set up camp and started a fire for you dear ole mother and your beloved wife so that they may properly bathe and have a hot meal. I trust you would have besought the Lord in your heart that he can wait a little while longer as you attend to your family's needs before you run off into the mountain, somewhere, to pray and learn more about your super-duper destiny in life. The Lord can wait. He's patient, right?
Unlike Nephi Joseph Smith who couldn't care less about his family's immediate needs, he wandered off into the mountain with two stones in his pocket while he selfishly sought visions of grandeur and was willing to put his family last. Reminds me of Joseph Smith and how he used to cheat on Emma. Yeah, Smith treated his wife like chattel. Wouldn't you say?
Shulem, you bring up some particulars in which I have neither the background or knowledge to adequately answer. I am neither a theologian or an expert at anything. Just a regular guy who spent his career in teaching kids in elementary school and who also did, and continues to do, a lot of reading on various subjects when I can discipline myself to set my fiction reading aside.
Well, I'll just say that I AM an expert on the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon and that you can learn more from me than you can from all the apologists combined. I never could have become an expert had I not shunned the apologists and avoided their poison as much as possible. I think you will see the DELMARVA theory really taking off soon. You should know that the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon read like silly novels invented by one who had passion in telling stories. The bit about how Joseph Smith assigns Egypt's making through Ham's family (2,200 BC) is far worse than anything I've read in the Book of Mormon. Smith's Egyptian chronology is utterly false and defies EVERYTHING we know and understand about ancient Egypt. It really is a disgrace. The Book of Abraham is a horrible, horrible lie. I have a new thread in the Celestial forum about Anubis. You might want to check that out when you find the time.
I suppose if one was supporting the story it could be proposed that God miraculously had a group of logs from India blow across the ocean and pile up on the beach in question. It is the sort of miracle which fits the events portrayed in the story.
That would tie in nicely with how the barges were blown around the oceans. Logs at sea miraculously finding their way at a lagoon in Arabia.
The Jaredite voyage is a nightmare for apologists. It would however make a great LOONEY TUNE cartoon!
The gospel is a gift. I accept gifts as given with a thankful heart without having to KNOW EVERYTHING about how the gift was given and/or arrived in my lap.
Although, I do find speculative diggings to be interesting and enjoyable.
In other words you're fully vested and since you've given everything to it you might as well go to the end, even if it's a bitter end. How can you quit now? Think of your family. Retirement would become a lonely place.
You might as well stick with it. But don't be a stranger around here. You probably have figured out that we have a certain inside scoop. And we do. So at least you have that. You can keep one foot in one door and one foot in the other. Fun!
Ah, you got to D.C. a year after that BYU doctoral student taped the back door to the Watergate Hotel open as part of his internship. Probably had a distinguished career at Church HQ after that.
I suppose if one was supporting the story it could be proposed that God miraculously had a group of logs from India blow across the ocean and pile up on the beach in question. It is the sort of miracle which fits the events portrayed in the story.
That would tie in nicely with how the barges were blown around the oceans. Logs at sea miraculously finding their way at a lagoon in Arabia.
The Jaredite voyage is a nightmare for apologists. It would however make a great LOONEY TUNE cartoon!
The gospel is a gift. I accept gifts as given with a thankful heart without having to KNOW EVERYTHING about how the gift was given and/or arrived in my lap.
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Why did Nephi have to go through all the business of making tools by mining and smelting ore, purifying the slag-rich product, hammering tools to shape, hardening the working edge, and so on - when he could simply have bought or been given the tools like he bought or was given all that timber?
Yep. That's where I'm at too. Why have Nehi go to all that trouble when he could just procure the tools at some point before they left civilization.
Unless, * trope warning * God is actually Amish.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever. - Lee Marvin/Monte Walsh
