So if the Book of Mormon is all we have to go with we need to focus on its contents and how Joseph Smith either did or didn’t write it on his own.
Regards,
MG
Something like that, I guess. But, I'm not too concerned with how much or how little Smith had help fabricating the stories contained in the overall book, moreover he began with the 116 lost pages, rambled off to Harris. But Smith forgot how many days it took for Lehi to sail to Delmarva because the second telling through Oliver does not say. I want to know how many days were recorded in Nephi's log when he took over and Smith had to ditch the Book of Lehi and shift over to Nephi's viewpoint. Not even Oliver knew the number of days!
Do you know what I mean? I've given it a lot of thought. Indeed.
Yeah Shulem, I really don't see the missing hole issue to be that much of a pinch for the Morms. I mean, the easy answer is that the hole and stones were sacred and therefor must be kept secret. Its location then going to the grave with Jaysmith.
What I find to be more of a bind for church apologists is to explain why the Book of Mormon needed to be introduced to the world at the same time as the restoration of the great gods pyramid program. (ggpp) To explain why this history of the descendants of Lehi has any more relevance to the one true gospel of god than a story of the Moon Quakers or the lost people of Atlantis.
Does the theological aspects of the Book of Mormon bring anything more to the table that wasn't already here with the Bible - and especially in regards to the specifics of the one true ggpp? The specifics that actually came later with the introduction of the scrolls of Ra.
On my mission we were taught to teach the principles of the dispensations. How the one true way was given to Adam but was lost. Reestablished with Abraham, lost. Brought back with Moses, lost. Returned with Jesus, lost. Restored with Jaysmith.
So, this one true story, the all important one path to top heaven, which was on the earth approx. one percent of the time and available to one percent of the people was brought back each time by gods go-to guy with great grandeur and miracles ... except for the last time where god decides to just go with the all convincing evidence of - Jaysmith must be the guy as he isn't smart enough to have done it himself.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever. - Lee Marvin/Monte Walsh
I tell you, trying to locate actual, solid, intellectual evidence for the-so-called-church is like trying to figure out what matter is made of, the closer one looks the less one finds.
Evidence as to the prophet status of J. Smith - The Book of Mormon. Evidence of the Book of Mormon - the plates. Evidence of the plates - the witnesses. Evidence that the witnesses weren't duped or in-on-it - Zero. Empty space.
Of the eleven, eight were not shown the plates by any accompanying angel/supernatural event. So, how do they know the plates they saw and handled weren't made the night before? Since the technology existed at that time for someone to fabricate an ancient appearing artifact, pre-describe it and then present it to a set of hand picked dupes, how would they know the diff.
Of the three that had an angel hand it to them, two later suggested they actually saw the angel with their spiritual eyes.
And so that leaves Oliver. A man with the believability of Trumps Giuliani.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever. - Lee Marvin/Monte Walsh
