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“The Book Nobody Wants”: Hugh Nibley and the Book of Mormon

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by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

For more information on the book, visit https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/

This is the second of eight weekly blog posts published in honor of the life and work of Hugh Nibley (1910–2005). The series is in honor of the new, landmark book, Hugh Nibley Observed, available in softcover, hardback, digital, and audio editions. Each week our post is accompanied by interviews and insights in pdf, audio, and video formats. (See the links at the end of this post.)

In an eloquently written chapter of Hugh Nibley Observed, Marilyn Arnold highlighted Nibley’s profound disappointment that most people don’t share his deep love for the Book of Mormon:[1]

He alludes to it ironically as “the Book Nobody Wants,” allowing as how the world acts “as if the Book of Mormon were being forced on [it] against its will.” Then he adds an ironic comment that is pure Nibley: “Only the practiced skill and single-minded determination of the learned has to date enabled them to escape the toils of serious involvement with [the Book of Mormon].”[2]

[Read more…] about “The Book Nobody Wants”: Hugh Nibley and the Book of Mormon

Come, Follow Me Week 14 – Easter

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I was raised by two parents who loved science. My father was a biology teacher. He was a favorite at the high school, with lots of silly and whacky exercises that helped the students remember the material. I recall one phone call from a Yale university student who called to thank my dad for his help passing his Yale biology exams. He said that he just had to think back on the play they performed in his high school class when the students acted out the various parts of cellular mitosis. My father did try his hand at teaching college classes as well, but he said it wasn’t as much fun. He claimed he would try to crack a biology joke, but the college students would respond by dutifully writing it into their notes as if it were fact.

My mother was also a teacher. She taught grade school, and then later middle school. Her favorite magazine was Scientific American. Each month, she would read the magazine from cover to cover. She would read every single article. Then she would want to discuss it. Imagine my groan and eye roll as a 13 year old when she would start reading the latest article to me and state how it would change everything. Even as she moved into her 80s, she still read it. When I visited, she would want to talk about dark matter, gene splicing, or some other current science issue. She would also read to us as kids when we went on road trips to the coast, or over to Utah. We live in California. She wouldn’t read novels. No, she would read the latest psychology book, or book on mind science.

I believe every student should study science even if they have no plans to go into it. Science teaches us to ask questions. Asking questions is good. Asking questions is important. Science also teaches us how to evaluate evidence. Understanding how to evaluate evidence is very good, and very important.

How Does Science Relate To My Faith? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 14 – Easter

Come, Follow Me Week 10 – Doctrine and Covenants 20–22

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“Proving to the World”: The Unique Declaration in Doctrine and Covenants Section 20

By Brian C. Hales

This week’s lesson deals with Doctrine and Covenants sections 20–22. These sections contain important messages regarding the restored Church, the performance of sacred ordinances, and the blessings of the priesthood in the lives of individuals and families.

Also tucked within these sections is a divine declaration that is unique to Latter-day Saint scripture. The first ten verses of section 20 present evidence that is proof that God lives and that he calls prophets on earth today. Verse 11 observes that something discussed earlier in the section is “proving to the world that the holy scriptures are true, and that God does inspire men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as well as in generations of old” (D&C 20:11). Nowhere else in scripture does God refer to evidences that are “proving to the world” anything specific. The declaration is unparalleled.

The word “proving” in verse eleven is a strong affirmation. Proving involves establishing the truth or validity of a claim by evidence or logic.[1] Readers may wonder what evidence is presented before verse 11 that could establish the truth of God’s reality? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 10 – Doctrine and Covenants 20–22

FAIR Voice Podcast #29: Don Bradley on The Lost 116 Pages

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Don Bradley, is an author and independent historian of religion specializing in the beginnings of the Restoration. He completed a Bachelor’s in History at BYU and a Master’s in History at Utah State University, where he wrote his thesis on “American Proto-Zionism and the ‘Book of Lehi’: Recontextualizing the Rise of Mormonism.” Don has performed an internship with the Joseph Smith Papers Project working with the earliest Joseph Smith sources. He was the primary researcher for Brian C. Hales’s Joseph Smith’s Polygamy series. He has published on the translation of the Book of Mormon, plural marriage, Joseph Smith’s “grand fundamental principles of Mormonism,” the Kinderhook plates, and early Latter Day Saint understandings of the New Jerusalem. His first book is The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Greg Kofford Books, 2019), and he is currently completing a book on Oliver Cowdery as revelator and translator. He lives in Springville, Utah.

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant on early Latter-day Saint history. Her interests thematically center around sacrifice, magic, and priesthood as it pertains to ancient Judaism, early Christianity, ancient Egyptian religion, and early Restoration history. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.

Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17 (additional post)

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by Mike Hickenbotham

I developed a testimony that Jesus Christ was our Savior and Redeemer at a young age and have had a strong conviction of the reality of his atoning sacrifice every since. My studies in the scriptures have reinforced that testimony to the point today that I can state that I know Jesus Christ is the Son of God and my Savior. He truly died for me and made possible my resurrection and exaltation. I have also gained a testimony of Joseph Smith’s calling as God’s prophet in these last days.

As a teenager, I remember the Joseph Smith story being recited by a returned missionary in Sunday School class exactly as it is contained in our scriptures. At that time, the Holy Ghost witnessed to me that the account I was hearing was true. Through the years my testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and other LDS scriptures has grown, but I knew from the beginning they were true as a result of this initial witness I received. If Joseph Smith was a prophet — and I knew he was — then these other revelations must also be true. To this day I cannot read the Joseph Smith story without receiving a similar assurance that these events actually occurred as Joseph Smith had recorded.

Joseph Smith’s History is the key to the restoration. Either Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and the restored gospel is true, or Joseph Smith was a fraud and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in error. Either he saw God and his Son, Jesus Christ, or he didn’t. There is no gray area of truth. It is either all true or all a hoax. It is my testimony that it is true and that no man could have done what Joseph Smith did without the help and inspiration of God. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17 (additional post)

Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17

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Bringing souls unto Christ

by James Perry, PhD, FHEA

In June 1829, Joseph Smith was residing at the home of Peter Whitmer Snr. in Fayette, New York. Three of Peter’s sons, David, Peter Jnr., and John Whitmer, had gained testimonies of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and had subsequently been baptised.[1] Convinced of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling the three men then sought from Joseph the mind of the Lord regarding what they should do to help with the restoration.[2] Sections 14-16 are the resulting revelations.

Although brief, the three revelations indicate the monumental nature of missionary work and that the time for proclaiming the gospel was at hand. “…the field is white already to harvest,” the Lord declared to David Whitmer, “therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.”[3] This final dispensation was to be one where the gospel of Jesus Christ, being restored to the earth, needed to be preached throughout the earth. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 14–17

Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine & Covenants 14-17 “Stand as a Witness”

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by Dan Peterson

The witnesses of the Book of Mormon pose a real obstacle to any honest person who wishes to dismiss the claims of the Restoration.

Let me first briefly summarize who the official witnesses were and what they claimed to have seen, and then explain why I believe them to represent a significant challenge to disbelief:

The Eight Witnesses—Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel Harrison Smith—not only saw but “hefted” the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated and turned their leaves.  They did so under quite ordinary and mundane circumstances, in broad daylight.

The Three Witnesses—Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer—not only saw the plates but were shown them by an angel in a blaze of light, as well as hearing the voice of God declare them to have been “translated by the gift and power of God.”  Moreover, in addition to the plates themselves, they saw a variety of other exotic objects, such as the Urim and Thummim, the Liahona, and the Sword of Laban. [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 8 – Doctrine & Covenants 14-17 “Stand as a Witness”

Come Follow Me Week 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11 (additional post)

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by Brant Gardner

Section 10 is a new beginning for Joseph Smith. The loss of almost everything that had been translated created a crisis. Doctrine and Covenants 10:2 describes the aftermath of the loss: “And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened.” After what must have been a spiritual feast during the translation, the loss became much more that just the words that were written. The gift itself was lost. The ability to respond to the divine light was lost to darkness. Joseph lived under that weighty cloud for nearly three months.

Section 10 provides a declaration of forgiveness, and this part might have been received in the summer of 1829. With the ability to translate restored, Joseph and Oliver began translating. They started with the small amount of work that had been retained, and continued to the end of Moroni. The rest of section 10 deals with the problem of continuing the translation, of finding a new beginning for what they had translated of Mormon’s record.

Right after the Lord tells Joseph that he may translate again, he is offered sober advice for the remainder of the task, if not for the remainder of his life: “Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end. Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:4–5). [Read more…] about Come Follow Me Week 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 10-11 (additional post)

FAIR Voice Podcast #19: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon

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In a preview to the next episode on the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, Hanna provides background information as well as sharing a favorite General Conference talk and answering your submitted questions. Please submit your questions for Hanna to [email protected]

Hanna Seariac

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She is writing a book on the history of the priesthood and another one that responds systematically to anti-LDS literature. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a producer on a news show. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.

FAIR Voice Podcast #18: Sunday Special on Historicity of Book of Mormon, cont.

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In today’s episode of FAIR Voice, Hanna talks about the imperative for historicity of Book of Mormon and about the necessity of a spiritual witness. Next episode will cover the witnesses of the Book Mormon (those of the 3 and the 8 witnesses) and we will soon talk about General Conference, the Bible, and other exciting topics. Remember the Q&A segment that just started– submit any questions for Hanna to [email protected]

Hanna Seariac

Hanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She is writing a book on the history of the priesthood and another one that responds systematically to anti-LDS literature. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a producer on a news show. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.