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The Introduction The Book of Mormon The Introduction The Book of Mormon

The Introduction The Book of Mormon - PowerPoint Presentation

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The Introduction The Book of Mormon - PPT Presentation

Name that Book Famous first lines I am Sam Sam I am It was the best of times it was the worst of times One fish two fish Red fish In the beginning The Wimmicks were small wooden people ID: 637896

mormon book evidences joseph book mormon joseph evidences writing time smith ancient challenge history god read christ page translation names correct record

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Slide1

The Introduction

The Book of MormonSlide2

Name that Book

Famous first lines

I am Sam. Sam I am…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

One fish, two fish. Red fish….

In the beginning…

The

Wimmicks

were small wooden people….

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small

unregarded

yellow sun.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy...

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump…

A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Mr. and Mrs.

Dursley

, of number four, Privet Drive…

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter

Wherefore it is an abridgement of the record of the people of Nephi…Slide3

The Book of Mormon

Turn to the Introduction

Pair up, rock off, and introduce the Book to their new non-member friend. ‘Loser’ has to tell the Joseph Smith story and how he got the Book of Mormon.

Read the Introduction

Read the Title PageSlide4

You have 60 seconds to explain how the Book of Mormon came to be…Slide5

“Spiritual understanding rarely comes from a lecture. Spiritually, the classroom of faith becomes less like a lecture hall and more like a fitness center. Students do not get stronger by watching someone else do the exercises. As students learn and then participate, their spiritual strength increases. Invite students to teach and to share; encourage them to act in faith and to report on what they are learning.”

(Elder Neal L Anderson, 28 February 2014

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Time is up!Slide8

You have 30 seconds to explain how the Book of Mormon came to be…Slide9

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Time is up!Slide15

“Spiritual understanding rarely comes from a lecture. Spiritually, the classroom of faith becomes less like a lecture hall and more like a fitness center. Students do not get stronger by watching someone else do the exercises. As students learn and then participate, their spiritual strength increases. Invite students to teach and to share; encourage them to act in faith and to report on what they are learning.”

(Elder Neal L Anderson, 28 February 2014

Evenimg

with a General Authority).Slide16

The Book of Mormon

“The title-page of the Book of Mormon is a literal translation, taken

fromthe

very last leaf, on the left hand side of the … book of plates,

whichcontained

the record which has been translated, … and … said title

pageis

not by any means a modern composition, either of mine or of any

otherman

who has lived or does live in this generation” (in History of theChurch, 1:71).Slide17

The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is “the most correct of any book on earth.”

In what way is the Book of Mormon the most correct book?

How can we draw “nearer to God?”

(“by abiding by its precepts.” - not simply reading it!

With each new edition of the Book of Mormon since the first, the Church has included corrections of spelling and typesetting errors. How could the Book of Mormon be the most correct book if it contained these kinds of errors?

Book of Mormon mistakes – Alma 24:19 and Alma 43:38. Slide18

Hugh

Nibley

The Book of Mormon CHALLENGESlide19

The Book of Mormon challenge

Write a history of ancient Tibet covering a period from 600 B.C. to 450 A.D. Why ancient Tibet? Because you know no more about Tibet than Joseph Smith knew about ancient America.

Your history must be written on the basis of what you now know. There was no library that held information for Joseph Smith. There is to be no research of any kind.

Your history must be 531 pages and over 300,000 words in length. Slide20

The Book of Mormon challenge

Other than a few grammatical corrections, you must have no changes in the text. The first edition as you dictate it to your secretary must stand forever.

This record is to contain the history of two distinct and separate nations. You must describe their religious, economic, political, and social cultures and institutions. Cover every phase of their society, including the names of their coins.

Change your style of writing many times. Many ancient authors contributed to the Book of Mormon, each with his own writing voice. Slide21

The Book of Mormon challenge

You must include in you book fifty-four chapters dealing with wars, twenty-one historical chapters, fifty-five chapters on visions and prophecies.

You must have your record agree meticulously with the Bible. You must write twenty-one chapters on the ministry of Christ, and every thing you claim He said and every testimony you write in your book about Him must agree absolutely with the New Testament.

Slide22

The Book of Mormon challenge

Included in your narrations will be authentic modes of travel; description of their clothing, crops, mourning customs, and types of government. You must invent about 280 new names that will stand up under scrutiny through the years as to their proper derivation.

You will have to properly use figures of speech, similes, metaphors, narrations, exposition, descriptions, oratory, epic lyric, and parables.

You must invite the ablest scholars and experts to examine the text with care, and you must strive diligently to see that your book gets into the hands of those eager to prove it a forgery, and who are most competent to expose every flaw in it. Slide23

The Book of Mormon challenge

The book must not contain any absurd, impossible, or contradictory statements. Your history must not contain any statement that will contradict any other statement elsewhere in the volume.

Many theories and ideas as to its origin must arise, and after discovering and examining the facts, they must fail.

You have claimed that your knowledge had come from divine origin, and this claim continues to stand as the only possible explanation. The strength of this explanation must not decrease as time passes, but actually increases to the point where it becomes the only logical explanation. Slide24

The Book of Mormon challenge

Over (85,000) competent salesman must be so sold on your book that they gladly give up two or more years of their lives to take it to all parts of the world for distribution. They not only pay their own way during these years, but return bearing testimony that the time spent will remain as one of the highlights of their lives. They receive nothing in return for their efforts but the joy of having shared your book with others. Slide25

The Book of Mormon challenge

For the next 20 years you must watch those that follow you, your family, and the dearest of your loved ones be persecuted, driven from their homes, beaten, tortured, starved, frozen and killed. Tens of thousands must undergo the most extreme hardships just because they believe your claims concerning the origin and content of what you have written on ancient Tibet.

You must gain no wealth from your work, but many times lose all that you have. And finally after 20 years of this, give your own life in a very savage and brutal manner, for your testimony concerning your history book. Slide26

The Book of Mormon challenge

Start right now and produce this record which covers 1,000 years of history, doing it, not in the peaceful atmosphere of your community, but under the most trying of circumstances including being driven from your home several times and receiving constant threats upon your life.

Please have your book completed (and talk a friend into mortgaging his home and farm to raise money to have it printed)- all in 60 days. Slide27

“[

It] puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.”Slide28

“[In addition to Joseph Smith], the Lord provided for eleven others to see the gold plates for themselves and to be special witnesses of the truth and divinity of [the Book of Mormon].”Slide29

“We invite all men everywhere to read [the Book of Mormon], to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true…”Slide30

“The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, and the

keystone

of our religion” (Introduction to the Book of Mormon). 

Ephesians 2:19-22 “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but

fellowcitizens

with the saints, and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief

cornerstone

.”Slide31

“On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay [the plates], deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth…”Slide32

“I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived…”Slide33

“No sooner was it known that I had them than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually…Slide34

“The ancient record brought forth from the earth as the voice of a people speaking from the dust, and translated into modern speech by the gift and power of God as

attested by Divine affirmation

, was first published to the world…”Slide35

“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].”Slide36

The Book of Mormon

Maybe it’s not true – maybe Joseph Just wrote it???Slide37

Joseph Smith’s Education

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide38

There is no evidence at all that Joseph Smith did any scholarly research, or even that he read very much, before the Book of Mormon appeared. He may not even have owned a Bible at the time of translation (See John Gee’s discussion in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6, no. 1 (1994): 99–101) Joseph Smith had spent the bulk of his time as a youth cutting trees, burning brush, clearing rocks, and plowing. He had received at most a few months of formal schooling. His mother later recalled that, even into his late teens, “he seemed much less inclined to the perusal of books than any of the rest of our children.” His wife Emma reports that Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well worded letter, let alone dictate a book like the Book of Mormon. … During no part of it did Joseph Smith have any [manuscripts] or book of any kind from which to read or dictate except the metallic plates which I knew he had.” “If,” she said, “he had had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from me.” 

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide39

“I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, he would dictate to me hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read back to him. For one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply impossible.”

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide40

Word Print Analysis

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide41

Researcher John Hilton and non-LDS colleagues at Berkeley, who "went to great pains to immunize the methodology from criticism" through the use of control tests. The Berkeley Group first used a variety of control tests with non-disputed authors (e.g. works by Mark Twain) in an effort to demonstrate the persistence of

wordprints

and to demonstrate that

wordprints

were not obliterated by translation.

John Hilton concluded that, if

wordprinting

is a valid technique, then this analysis suggests that it is "statistically indefensible" to claim that Joseph, Oliver, or Solomon Spaulding wrote the 30,000 words in the Book of Mormon attributed to Nephi and Alma. There is a roughly 1 in 15 trillion chance of Nephi and Alma having the same author; Hilton rightly terms this "statistical overkill".

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide42

Grammar

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide43

Several critics have pointed to grammatical errors in the Book of Mormon and made the argument that because the first edition of the Book of Mormon contained hundreds of grammatical errors (removed in later editions), the book was therefore fabricated by Joseph Smith and not divinely inspired (page numbers from 1830 edition):

"Adam and Eve, which was our first parents" (p. 15)

"They did not fight against God no more" (p. 290)

“thou

remembereth

” (page 27)

"and I have not written but a small part of the things I saw" (page 35)

"now the object of these lawyers were to get gain" (page 251)

"O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! ... if you should render all the thanks and praise...." You is the object form of the second person plural pronoun; ye is the subject form, but the object form is incorrectly used in subject position here and also in dozens of other places throughout the text.

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide44

President George Albert Smith responded to this issue thus: "...[when] the Lord reveals anything to men He reveals it in language that accords with their own. If any of you were to converse with an angel, and you used strictly grammatical language he would do the same. But if you used two negatives in a sentence the heavenly messenger would use language to correspond with your understanding, and this very objection to the Book of Mormon is an evidence in its favor." (quoted from Journal of Discourses, 12:335)

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide45

Translation Process

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide46

Emma Hale Smith, who gave her account of the translation method in 1856: “When my husband was translating the Book of Mormon, I wrote a part of it, as he dictated each sentence, word for word, and when he came to proper names he could not pronounce, or long words, he spelled them out, and while I was writing them, if I made any mistake in spelling, he would stop me and correct my spelling although it was impossible for him to see how I was writing them down at the time. Even the word Sarah he could not pronounce at first, but had to spell it, and I would pronounce it for him. Martin Harris (as quoted by Edward Stevenson in the Deseret News in 1881) described the translation process as follows:  “By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet... when finished [the Prophet] would say "Written," and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was

engraven

on the plates, precisely in the language then used.”

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide47

ANCIENT WRITINGS

Book of Mormon EvidencesSlide48

Ancient Writing in Mesoamerica

Roller Stamp from Tlatilco, Mexico, ca. 900 BC

Stamp ImpressionSlide49

Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque.

First examples of Mayan writing appear at 50 BC on ceramic vessels.

Like Hebrew in that there are no vowels.

Like Egyptian in that the writing system is pictorial.

Ancient Writing in MesoamericaSlide50

Ancient Writing in MesoamericaSlide51

The Book of Mormon

But it doesn’t matter – the Spirit is the best witness you could ever have.

Who has received a witness that the Book of Mormon is true?

Fill in the blanks- “IF THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE (WHICH IT IS), THEN…”Slide52

The Book of Mormon

“The major mission of the Book of Mormon, as recorded on its title page, is ‘to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.’

“Over one-half of all the verses in the Book of Mormon refer to our Lord. Some form of Christ’s name is mentioned more frequently per verse in the Book of Mormon than even in the New Testament.

“He is given over one hundred different names in the Book of Mormon. Those names have a particular significance in describing His divine nature” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Come unto Christ,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 83).Slide53

The Book of Mormon

VIDEO: Jesus Christ Is the Way (5:02)

Our Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and show us the way to live according to God's plan.Slide54

The Introduction

The Book of Mormon