Bogus Brazilian Book of Mormon

I got an email inquiring about the “record coming out of Brazil” that claims to unseal the Book of Mormon’s missing parts. In response I sent this reply:

I usually do not comment on claims others make about visitations, angels, etc. I let every person decide for themselves about such claims.

What I understand of the claims are that Moroni delivered the plates to a fellow in Brazil. That seems to be inconsistent with the record and known history of the restoration.

In a post titled Nephi on December 10, 2013 and again in a post titled The Angel’s Identification on December 15, 2013 (among other places) I’ve shown, using the historical record, that Joseph Smith originally and consistently identified the angel who delivered the plates as “Nephi” not “Moroni.” Therefore, it seems like the claim to have “Moroni” deliver the plates is inconsistent with my understanding of history and accountability over the plates.

Once the plates were given to Joseph, he became the custodian. He was responsible for sealing and hiding up the plates when his work was completed. In the New Covenants, 2 Ne. 11: 20, Joseph Smith was given direction about what he was to do with the plates when he finished translating the portion to be published: “Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee and obtained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again and hide it up unto me that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of men.”

Because he was the successor responsible for sealing and protecting the records, Joseph followed those directions. I’ve studied Joseph’s life enough to know he would not have violated that trust. Nor would he have given the responsibility to seal and hide the plates to someone else. And Joseph Smith never set foot in Brazil.

There is also the notion of the “the economy of heaven” where angels do not do for humans what humans can and ought to do for themselves. For example, the angel did not bring the plates to Joseph, instead Nephi required Joseph to go to the place and engage in the labor to recover the buried object. Angels do not become errand boys relieving us of work devolving upon us.

If these Brazilian claimants knew more about church history, they would have been able to make a more plausible claim. As it stands, I do not think their claims can be credited because they identify “Moroni” as the custodian when they ought to have used the correct identify of “Nephi.” They make the claim that the plates Joseph Smith sealed and hid up were located in Brazil where Joseph Smith could not have hidden them up to the Lord. They invoke work on an angel to do what mankind is responsible to do. The angel “Moroni” was not resurrected (because he died after Christ’s death and therefore would not have been among those who rose with Christ). Nephi would be resurrected, since he died prior to the resurrection of Christ and would be a candidate for physically handling the object. It is unlikely that a disembodied spirit would transport the plates.

Given how inconsistent the claims are with my understanding of the history and the Book of Mormon’s direction to Joseph Smith, I’ve not troubled the Lord with an inquiry about the matter.

Conference Announcement

The organizers of the upcoming conference have asked that I post their announcement, which I have copied and pasted below:

Teaching Our Children to Honor God through Service

 An Invitation to all Fellowships

Preparation for the 2018 Fall Conference

In order to actively participate in the theme of the 2018 Fall Conference, “Preserving the Hope of Zion, by Teaching our Children to Honor God, we are inviting all fellowships to plan and participate in a community service project.  As followers of Christ all over the world we invite you to prayerfully organize and participate with your children in a service project that is needed in your area.

For those fellowships that feel inspired to participate with their children, please document the service projects with pictures and short video clips.  You can upload your documentation in the Google Drive link below.  Email the conference committee at preservingthehopeofzion@gmail.com to let us know about your project.  Please provide a brief description of what you did.  These projects will be shared at the main Sunday conference session.  This effort is not meant to brag, or to let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.  We hope that the children will be reminded of the joy they feel in serving their community, and be uplifted in viewing the projects of other youth around the globe.  In the spirit of charity for others, we desire to strengthen our connection to the Lord and to one another.

“And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God”.  (Mosiah 1:8, New Covenants)

We look forward to sharing in your experiences and discussing the joy of service to God with each other at the conference.  Please plan on participating and sending in your pictures and short video clips by August 20, 2018.

“Yea, a man may say, I will show you I have faith without works.  But I say, show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”  (Epistle of Jacob 1:11, New Covenants)

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1X60G2fQ1omNAgziNfl8PtSuwGtAXHtcM

  1. Click on the Google Drive Link.
  2. Right click in the middle of the screen, select (add) + New Folder to create a new folder for your fellowship group and service project.
  3. Right click to Upload Picture/Videos of your service project/event.
  4. After uploading photos/videos, email preservingthehopeofzion@gmail.com and notify the conference committee of your contribution to the volunteer service project for the fall 2018 conference.

We look forward to gathering and fellowshipping with you this coming September.

Have a beautiful summer!

God bless,

The Wasatch Front Planning Committee

 

Unable To Take It In

I got an email asking about the phrase describing a revelation that the recipient was “unable to take it in.” I responded:

When God reveals vast amounts of information, truths or visions from a higher order, or material that exceeds our framework of thought, it does not become immediately understood. I have said there are three different stages involved with the greatest revelations:
First, to receive it.
Second, to understand it.
Third, to be capable of teaching it.

Just because it has been received, that does not mean it is understood.

Just because it has been received and understood, that does not mean the recipient is capable of teaching it to others in an understandable or coherent way. It can be a very difficult struggle to move to the point that a person can begin to teach these things to others.

Joseph relentlessly labored and meditated on how to grasp the things opened to his view. That was why he was able to continually teach new truths.

How can Zion come from this?

I responded to an email posing the question of how Zion would result from what is presently happening and who is presently involved. I responded by explaining these ideas:

Any solution could be imposed quickly and would result in stabilizing everything–just by adopting a central command structure to compel order. Everyone is already conditioned to accept authority and obey it. But that step would bring peace at the price of altogether losing the hope for Zion. For now it must be this gentle way.

Don’t think about this as a time to gather but as a time to prove.

Continue reading “How can Zion come from this?”

Question About Covenant

I have been asked about two statements: one in the opening remarks at the Boise Conference which did not mention reading the Prayer for Covenant and another one in the note of section 158 saying that the prayer is to be read with the covenant. The opening remarks included this:

I have been given authority from God to deliver His covenant this day. Every formality required from the days of Adam until now for establishing a covenant has been kept and met. Once the covenant is established, those sustained by seven women (or a man inside his own family) who receive it also have authority to administer the ordinance to others who want to be numbered among God’s people. To administer to others, repeat the ordinance. Read aloud the Lord’s Answer and the words of the Covenant. Ask them to stand and say, Yes, and they will become one of the Lord’s covenant people. Do not change the words of the covenant, for to change an ordinance is to break it. (Isa. 24:5.)

The note at the beginning of Section 158 explains:

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Every Man’s God

One person believes his understanding of God can control what God is able to do or not do. Another person believes anything new that conflicts with what she thinks about God must be false. They limit what God is able to accomplish with them because they doubt God can be other than they imagine Him to be. It is puzzling to think people with such different views of God assume they will see God’s promises fulfilled:

And it shall come to pass in the last days — when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it — many people shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.  O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord; yea, come, for you have all gone astray, everyone to his wicked ways. Therefore, O Lord, you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east and listen to fortune-tellers like the Philistines (OC Isa. 1:6-7, emphasis added.)

It is puzzling for people to wish to be “one” when they have such diverse versions of God:

Continue reading “Every Man’s God”

Our Divine Parents

A pdf version of yesterday’s talk in Phoenix is now up on the “Downloads” part of this website. The talk (paper) is titled Our Divine Parents.

Unfortunately, when converted to pdf the first footnote was cut off. I will reconvert it to pdf and repost it this evening. The first footnote should read this way:

“This is a term used twice by Alman the Younger in his instruction to his son Corianton, recorded in New Covenants Alma 19:13 (hereafter “NC”); Alma 42:8, 16. Joseph Smith referred to this plan as “eternal progression.”

Scriptures Completed

All volumes of the scriptures are now complete and available for order on Amazon.

The first volume is titled the Old Covenants, and contains the Joseph Smith version of the Old Testament.

The second volume is titled the New Covenants, and contains both the Joseph Smith version of the New Testament and the most accurate version of the Joseph Smith corrected Book of Mormon. Joseph intended to publish the New Testament and Book of Mormon in a single volume. This is the only project that has honored Joseph’s intentions.

The third volume is titled Teachings and Commandments.  It contains the original, most accurate version of the revelations to Joseph Smith, the Lectures on Faith, several complete letters written by Joseph Smith (like the Wentworth letter and Liberty Jail letter), and an expanded Joseph Smith History as he originally published it while editor of the Times and Seasons. It also includes some modern material approved through conference and on-line voting as an act of common consent.

These three volumes will remain in print continually. After at least six months of review, a high quality, leather-bound version will be printed. During the review period, if there are print mistakes discovered, you can send comments to this email: restorationscriptures2017@gmail.com

We are hoping for public input to catch and correct those print errors before the high quality leather-bound version is printed.

“Fruit”

Christ said a man is known by his “fruit.” Matthew 6:14 Christ explains how to measure “fruit.”

Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by the fruit. And Jesus said, O you children of vipers, How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, brings forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things. And again I say unto you that every idle word men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment: for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.

Christ determined that the test for “fruit” is the words we speak. But how should “words” be measured? Anger, conflict, violence, war and division amongst families were just some of the the results of the words Christ spoke. If Christ’s words were measured by how people were affected by them, then Christ produced bad fruit. Therefore, the reaction people have to words cannot be an accurate measure of “fruit.” It must be the substance, the truth, or the independent value of the words–separate from how people respond to a man’s words.

Prophets and righteous individuals have been arousing anger, provoking violent reactions, and being called anything from foolish to vile because of their words, and that does nothing to diminish the goodness of their fruit.

Re-Baptism Required

When a new dispensation of Christ’s gospel occurs, re-baptism is required. The Jews were practicing baptism before John the Baptist. But first John, then Christ taught that re-baptism was necessary to accept God’s new work.

This is from the New Covenants, Matthew 4:10:

Then said the Pharisees unto him, Why will you not receive us with our baptism, seeing we keep the whole law? But Jesus said unto them, You keep not the law. If you had kept the law, you would have received me, for I am he that gave the law. I do not receive you with your baptism because it profits you nothing, for when that which is new has come, the old is about to be put away; for no man puts a piece of new cloth on an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved.

Joseph Smith’s edit of the passage makes it clear the topic that led to the new cloth-old garment, new wine-old bottles comparison by Christ was re-baptism.

Continue reading “Re-Baptism Required”

Cast His Eyes

Throughout the Book of Mormon, the phrase “cast his eyes,” or some derivative of those words are used to describe briefly looking in a direction. When Nephi looked for his family, he said that he “cast my eyes round about” trying to see where they were. (1 Ne. 8:13.) When Alma described healing that occurred by looking at the bronze serpent Moses fashioned, he asked if they wouldn’t “cast about their eyes” to be rescued. (Alma 33:21.) When Nephi and Lehi were liberated from prison by a great earthquake, and the Lamanites had fallen to the ground, they “cast their eyes about” to see what had happened and they saw Nephi and Lehi encircled by a pillar of fire. (Helman 5:43-44.) When God introduced His Son to the Nephites gathered in Bountiful with a still, small voice that the people could not understand, they “cast their eyes round about” to try to locate who was speaking. (3 Ne. 11:3.) When Christ had finished preaching to the group gathered in Bountiful, He “cast his eyes round about upon the multitude” and saw they had tear-filled eyes. (3 Ne. 17:5.)

Continue reading “Cast His Eyes”

Turned Out of Synagogues

I was struck with what the Lord said in this passage from the New Covenants, Matthew 3:35: “And again I say unto you, Go into the world and do not care for the world, for the world will hate you and will persecute you and will turn you out of their synagogues. Nevertheless, you shall go forth from house to house teaching the people, and I will go before you.”

When the Lord tells us to expect to be “turned out of their synagogues,” I pondered over who would do that casting out. It can only be done by those who own buildings, who control houses of worship, and who expect believers to come to their religious buildings to worship God. It can only be done by those who think they have the right to enforce their religious ideas by compulsion, demanding conformity and suppressing ideas they dislike.

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