I testify that this is twoooo....we see it all the time on FR.
IOW -- why bother, Lds missionary, trying to peddle this book door to door?
From the article: Too few Mormons really understand their bedrock book, Bennett says, and many use it merely as a "theological version of Bartlett's," a source of quotes for church talks.
This is an interesting observation from the grandson of an Lds "prophet." But Bennett doesn't explain why this is so...The answer includes the reality that most bedrock Lds distinctive teachings don't come from the Book of Mormon!
Here, their other key book, Doctrine & Covenants says in several places that the Book of Mormon is the "fulness of the everlasting gospel" -- and yet it doesn't teach most of the key Lds "gospel principles."
Baptism for the dead isn't mentioned in the Book of Mormon.
Men becoming gods isn't there.
Nor is god having once been a man who worked his own salvation to eventually become a god.
Nor is there anything about 3 degrees of glory.
Or that you have to be married to earn the highest degree of glory.
Etc, etc., etc.
The other problem with Mormons leading off with the Book of Mormon, then, to non-Mormons -- is that it doesn't reveal what bedrock Mormonism is about. It's actually misleading that an Lds missionary could hand a Book of Mormon to a potential convert, and the convert read it, and actually come to understand what Mormonism is about!
From the article: Bennett "...doesn't have an answer for why Moroni, the last author of the book and the angel who purportedly showed the plates to Smith, would use words about charity that are almost identical to those uttered by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament...
Hmm...supposed "forgery" expert doesn't have an answer for this -- or why Joseph Smith copies two dozen chapters from the King James Bible word for word into the Book of Mormon? (What? Did these gold plates from 600 B.C., etc., only translate into 1611 King James English vocabulary?)
And what about hundreds of phrases and words also lifted word-for-word from the King James Bible?
Well certainly is the truth.
This is what happens when one accepts the bom as true at all costs, regardless of the volumes of evidence that it is the work of man, not God.
ETHER 15:30. And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz.
ETHER 15:31. And it came to pass that after he had smitten off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised upon his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died.
I have a question... and I need help.
What does the bible say about what a father must do if a son (almost of legal age) becomes completely deceived by Mormonism... even to the point of expressing a level of faith that cannot be changed by reason and examination?
Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?: The Spalding Enigma
In a nutshell, the origin of the Book of Mormon is not much different from that of the Koran or Dianetics. It's basically part of a business plan!
I testify that this is twoooo....we see it all the time on FR.
How can a man have time to write a book and still be a **responsible** SENATOR of the United States of America???? Being a senator should be more than a full-time job, if he were doing it it properly.
And I have a challenge for anyone: MORMONs especially:
WHY are NONE of the SACRED rituals performed today in the Temples, NOT found in the BoM??
Throw it away and MORMON doctrine would NOT change a bit!
This book is simply the means for the Senator to preserve himself in office.