This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Madd-the-Sane: The page is a good start, but it sort of glosses over many parts. When I get the time, I might write some more, specifically the parts of the Book of Alma, which is over 63 chapters long!
Obadiahthe Slim: Umm, there is no archeological evidence to support the book of mormon. Why do you think the Smithsonian has made statements comdeming the Book of Mormon as a scientific guide.
- slb1900: Nor does the church use it as a scientific guide. And stating that there is no archaeological evidence to support it is not true; horse fossils, pre-dating Columbus and Cortes, were found in the La Brea tar pits. However, the Church doesn't try to prove the book's validity using scientific evidence, inviting people to instead pray to God to find out the truth for themselves.
Anotheruser: Does this article need such a huge spiel at the front? Compare the Bible article, which is lengthy, but nowhere near as long. While an introduction is needed, perhaps a whole plot synopsis is a bit much - I'm thinking the focus should be on the tropes...
Anotheruser: Anyone? I'm still thinking the intro needs cutting down, but as this is a relaxed place don't want to step on toes.
Anotheruser: Ok, I've cut it down considerably, so it's far more succint. Hopefully noone minds. I'm putting the original here, so it's recoverable.
Quoted Text: 4: "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you to ask God, the Eternal Father in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." 5: "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." Moroni- Chapter 10: verses 4 and 5
The Book of Mormon is a piece of scripture used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Nicknamed "The Mormons" for this reason.) It is intended as a companion to The Bible, but it has a fairly long and complicated history that forms the backbone of the Mormon faith. In the 1980's the name was changed to include a vital subtitle, meaning its full name now is The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
The claims given by the church is that it was written by ancient prophets and holy men of God much like The Bible, but these people were from a culture based in the American continent (commonly believed to be primarily Central America). It is a compilation of many other scriptural records that was organized and condensed into a book written on gold plates by the prophet Mormon, who became the books' namesake. The compiled book was then handed to his son Moroni, who added additional writings of his own and the Book of Ether and then buried the Gold Plates in the ground.
In 1820, Joseph Smith, a 14-year-old boy living in upper New York state, had stirred up his neighborhood talking about a vision he had of God and Jesus Christ. In 1823, Smith received another vision of the same Moroni as mentioned earlier, but he was now an angel in the service of Christ. He told Smith of the Gold Plates which were not buried far from where he lived. Smith was instructed for four years on what his purpose would be with translating the plates and in 1827, he was allowed to take them. Buried with the plates were a set of "seer stones" that were to aid his translation entirely by prophetic inspiration. Even still, with Smith's poor living conditions he was unable to finish the translation until late 1829 and the book was published in March 1830. The church was organized on April 6, 1830.
The above story can be considered difficult to understand or believe, but members of the church are quick to state that the Book of Mormon itself is the best evidence they could have. Converts to the church are required to have a belief in the book and if that is the case then Joseph Smith was a prophet. In its current publishing state, the Book of Mormon is 531 pages long.
Of course with such wild claims there are many detractors of the book, many of whom are leaders and adherents of other faiths. Most dismiss it as a product of Smith's imagination or assert that he copied or took inspiration from more talented authors and incorporated popular beliefs of the time it was written (e.g. Native Americans were descended from a lost tribe of Hebrews). A big subject of debate is, of course, the doctrine contained therein, but others look to archaeological evidence.
The Book of Mormon itself has a large story to tell, the bulk of which covers about 1,000 years of history.
The story begins with a young man named Nephi who tells about his father, Lehi, being a prophet in Jerusalem, a contemporary of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. Lehi was given a vision of Jerusalem being destroyed and was told by God to leave with his family. Nephi trusted in his father but he had older brothers, Laman and Lemuel, who were less inclined to believe. Leaving Jerusalem, they took with them records of the Jews and another family who were friends of theirs. Eventually they were instructed to travel across the ocean to a new "Promised Land", where they were capable only with spiritual guidance from God. After arriving at the promised land, they began to build a new civilization. But after Lehi died of old age, Laman and Lemuel had a large dispute with Nephi, leading to a schism between the new societies. Hereafter the two cultures were segregated into the Lamanites and the Nephites. Although there are mentioned a number of diffrent ethnic groups and nations, the Nephites and the Lamanites and the peoples associated with the two are the main focus.
Nephi was instructed to write down the history of his people on two sets of records, one to focus on the historical account and another to contain the prophecies and religious teachings. The religious record stayed with the High Priest while the historical record stayed with the Kings. Before Nephi died of old age, he passed the record to his brother Jacob, who then passed the records on to his son and this pattern continued for several hundred years.
At this point the compiler Mormon gives a brief editorial, saying that everything so far was verbatim from the religious record, but from now on he would be adapting both the religious and historical records into one, for sake of reducing the space in the Gold Plates he was writing on. This means that the narration before was in the first person, but unless quoting an individual Mormon would now be the author.
After this, Mormon explained about the Nephites encountering another group of people and merging their societies together. After some time the Nephite King, Mosiah, instituted a new form of government later called the reign of the Judges. Instead of having an all powerful King, the people would be in control and would chose who would issue laws over them. Interspersed with many additional stories of prophets were the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites. There was primarily two focuses on the society, the religious state they were in and the wars and other contentions they had. The greatest amount of detail is given in the Book of Alma, containing over 63 chapters. It is mainly about the wars and stratagem used by both sides.
Mormon makes frequent commentaries on how religious faithfulness usually accompanied safety and protection in their wars. Also of note is where he outlines "Secret Combinations" of people working against the good of society. But this society called the "Gadianton Robbers" ended up uniting the Nephites and Lamanites against a common enemy, which ended the animosity between them. After time the reign of the Judges came to an end because of how divided the people were, and they separated into tribes. The people were still relatively good, but not united.
During this time the prophets started proclaiming signs that the coming of Jesus Christ was at hand, which started some divisions between the believers and unbelievers. But the signs prophesied were irrefutable. Many years later, there was a massive disaster where earthquakes sank cities and massive storms and lightning spread over the land. After all this had finally died down, they recorded that Jesus Christ himself visited them, descending from a pillar of light. He ministered and talked to the people, explaining doctrines and performing miracles very similar to what he had done recorded in The Bible. It was explained that this visit was immediately following his resurrection and ministry in the Holy Land. This united the people like never before, and Christ set up an organization similar to the Apostles of Jerusalem.
After Christ left their presence, the people remained a unified group for hundreds of years. But after time some returned to the old practices of the Gadianton Robbers and it wasn't long before the people were divided into the Nephites and Lamanites again. At this point, neither society was particularly good. It was in this time that Mormon was given charge of the records, and fearing for his death and the destruction of all the believers in Christ, he set out to write this book as a condensed form of all the other records.
After a massive and devastating battle in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed, Moroni took up the record after his fathers death. This time his message is entirely to those who would read the book, and he gives a charge that if the book is true then it is of God. Moroni bid farewell to the reader and tells them he is going to bury the record, hoping some day it will come to the world.
There are also portions of the book dedicated to discovering an earlier society, which had a similar cycle of a people starting off in righteousness and then falling away from God. It is a quick downpour of information concerning about a thousand years of history condensed into about 15 chapters. This constitutes the Book of Ether as written by Moroni.
The main theme of the Book of Mormon is that the people blessed by God are capable of sinning and losing those blessings, but those who have sinned are equally capable of repenting and receiving those blessings again.
Anotheruser: Ok, that's done. If there's a problem, please say so.
Madd-the-Sane: Hmm… maybe have a seperate page for a plot summary?
