Riding, thoughts on scriptures

Rode another 26 miles to pass the 2000 mark to 2,004 miles so far. It was hard.

Got released from teaching seminary Sunday, and they called Nancy Seal from Bays Mountain Ward to do it, instead. Have mixed emotions. I love the calling, but being off in the summer is nice. Still, three hours a day for nine months wears on one. But it did make me read my scriptures more deeply. So, now without a calling at all I'll have to read them on my own. Started reading the Book of Mormon in preparation for whatever calling I get next. I'm writing my thoughts as I read in a file, and I'll include them here to archive them. This will become my personal journal, I guess.

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From Sunday, June 20, 2010:
Title Page

Mormon says it is written by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation. The angel told John in Revelation 19:10 that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”. Therefore the Book of Mormon is the testimony of Jesus.

The title page also says that the Book of Mormon would eventually come forth to the world by way of the Gentile. If Joseph Smith wrote the book as a fraud and is calling himself a “Gentile” and not part of the House of Israel, in order to lend credence to himself, then he is not a very good con artist. On the other hand, if he is a prophet, then he will acknowledge the truth: that he is a Gentile and that this is merely a translation, albeit by the power of God, that he is only a tool, and not the one to be worshiped.

The page also says “An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven—Which is to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers…”

Which is to say that the Lord did great things for their fathers by not confounding their language at that time.

And last it says that it is written to show the House of Israel, or rather it’s remnant the descendants of the Lamanites, that they are not cast off forever. It is also written to the Jew and Gentile to convince them that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God who shows himself to all nations. No doubt there are written records elsewhere which we do not have at this time.

Last, it never claims to free from errors. Those that appear are mistakes of men, so don’t condemn it because if you do, you are trampling God under your feet. Don’t do it.

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From Monday, June 21, 2010:
Introduction

While this is obviously not part of the original plates translated by Joseph Smith, they contain some very revealing material. For instance, in the first paragraph, it compares the Book of Mormon to the Bible, in that it is holy scripture. It is a record of God’s dealings with his children in the Americas. I have always thought it arrogant or even pathetic that people who claim to believe only the Bible, also claim that God would never actually talk to his other children. Apparently their God is a respecter of persons and treats everyone differently and loved those people in the Old World more than us.

Second, the first paragraph says it “contains, as does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting gospel.” WHAT? Mormons believe the Bible contains the fullness the of the everlasting gospel?! No doubt this galls many anti-Mormons, but it probably shocks many members of the church, too.

A curious statement in the second paragraph is this: “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.” AMONG the ancestors of the American Indians? So the American Indians have other ancestors than the Lamanites. We do know that the Lord brought the Mulekites to the New World around the same time as the Lehites. So, if he can do that, then he can bring anybody he wants here, too. Apparently, he brought others, perhaps even after Lehi and Mulek and maybe much later.

Joseph Smith testified to the priesthood brethren so: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” Nuff said.

The witnesses to the plates were upstanding men in the community, and knew Joseph Smith well and could testify to his character and integrity. Anti-Mormons have claimed that these are not trustworthy witnesses since they are not “impartial”. In a court of law, witnesses don’t have to be impartial. They just have to tell the truth. In addition, some critics have suggested that it would have been more believable for him to have shown the plates to his critics at the time, to turn them, that their testimony would somehow be more credible than his friends’. This is utter nonsense. Who went to Judas to get a testimony of Jesus? It’s like trying to destroy the character of a brutalized rape victim in court by using the testimony of the rapist. Or getting Joran Van der Sloot to testify that Natalie Hollow was a good person who didn’t deserve what he did to her. Not gonna happen.

The invitation to all men to read the book, to ponder it in their hearts, and then to pray to God to know if it’s true, is so simple, many refuse to do it. Like Naaman the leper, they think they need some huge miracle to happen to them before they will believe, or that they are too good to submit themselves to such simple minded tricks. We can show by the Bible that the Book of Mormon was prophesied and that the Lord left open the possibility of other scriptures and that he indeed had other followers elsewhere. But the bottom line is, “Don’t take our word for it. Just ask God.” The answer I’ve often gotten in return is, “I don’t have to ask God, I already know it’s false.” Pity the fools who refuse to pray and will tell God, in effect, “I don’t care what you tell me, I’m not going to believe you, God.”

I personally believe that many of them refuse to read, ponder, and pray, because they MIGHT get an answer and then will be personally responsible for their response to it.