long ago ideas

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago." - Friedrich Nietzsche. Long ago, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery conquered false claims that the Book of Mormon was fiction or that it came through a stone in a hat. But these old claims have resurfaced in recent years. To conquer them again, we have to return to what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

BYU Studies: Full M2C

BYU Studies has a new editor, but it looks like the journal is going to stay full M2C. It's not surprising, of course; the new editor was heavily involved with the Saints book that created a false historical narrative present to accommodate M2C.

Mary Whitmer and Moroni? Seriously?
The cover tells you everything you need to know. This is the wonderful painting that tells a false story. It's titled "Mary Whitmer and Moroni," but this beautiful painting depicts "Brother Nephi," not Moroni.

I've discussed the problem with this painting before, since it represents the false account related in the Saints book (see here), but to summarize, Mary Whitmer herself referred to the man who showed her the plates as "Brother Nephi."

Her son David said it was the same man he met on the road when he was bringing Joseph and Oliver from Harmony to Fayette. This was the messenger who was taking the Harmony plates to Cumorah. Joseph Smith identified him as one of the three Nephites.

David Whitmer described the man this way:

"an aged man about 5 feet 10 heavey Set & on his back an old fashioned Armey knapsack Straped over his Shoulders & Something Square in it." 

On another occasion, David described him this way:

"While on the return journey from Palmyra, David noticed a somewhat aged-looking man who approached them on the road. He had a very pleasant face, about which, however, there seemed something peculiar, and he carried a knapsack on his back fastened with straps which crossed his breast. David asked him to take a ride, but he declined, saying: 'I am going over to Cumorah,' ... Shortly afterwards, David relates, the Prophet looked very white but with a heavenly appearance and said their visitor was one of the three Nephites to whom the Savior gave the promise of life on earth until He should come in power."

Nephi was one of the twelve disciples from whom the Three Nephites were chosen. We also know that the other nine were promised that at age 72, they would die and return to the Lord. See 3 Nephi 28. We can infer that the Three Nephites were changed at the same age, which explains why "Brother Nephi" was "aged-looking."

The M2C intellectuals disbelieve these accounts because their whole M2C theory falls apart if there is one Cumorah and it is in New York, as the prophets have taught.

Notice how, to perpetuate their beliefs, the M2C intellectuals want us to accept the magical thinking that Moroni can appear both as a glorious resurrected being and as an old, 5'10" heavy-set farmer lugging the plates in a knapsack to the hill Cumorah--in Mexico.

Here is part of Oliver Cowdery's description of Moroni:

"The stature of this personage was a little above the common size of men in this age; his garment was perfectly white, and had the appearance of being without seam."

This is how artists have always depicted Moroni, with good reason.




___

The cover photo isn't the only problem with this issue of BYU Studies. The first article is titled "Time the Translation of the Book of Mormon." This is essentially the presentation made earlier in 2018 that deliberately omits the account of the messenger taking the plates to Cumorah.

I've discussed that here: http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/12/opening-heavens-but-censoring-history.html

No comments:

Post a Comment