Three Types of Book of Mormon Evidence: Internal

In Hugh Nibley's "The Prophetic Book of Mormon", we find three types of evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon: internal, external, and circumstantial. This and the next few posts will quote from Nibley's book and enumerate some of many evidences of these types.

Internal Evidence. Imagine that a Book of Mormon has been dropped from a helicopter to a man stranded on a desert island, with instructions to decide on its reliability. On the first page the man would find a clear statement of what the book claims to be, on the following pages a story of how it came into existence, and finally the testimonies of certain witnesses. Here are three astonishing claims—all supernatural. Has the man on the island enough evidence in the contents of the book alone—no other books or materials being available to him—to reach a satisfactory decision? By all means. Internal evidence is almost the only type ever used in testing questioned documents; it is rarely necessary to go any further than the document itself to find enough clues to condemn it, and if the text is a long one, and an historical document in the bargain, the absolute certainty of inner contradictions is enough to assure adequate testing. This makes the Book of Mormon preeminently testable, and we may list the following points on which certainty is obtainable.

1. The mere existence of the book, to follow Blass, is a powerful argument in favor of its authenticity. Without knowing a thing about LDS Church history, our stranded islander can immediately see that someone has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to make this book. Why? If the author wishes to deceive, he has chosen a strange and difficult way to do it. He has made the first move; he has magnanimously put into our hands a large and laborious text; in the introductory pages of that text, he gives us a clear and circumstantial account of what it is supposed to be and invites us to put it to any possible test. This is not the method of a man out to deceive. We must credit him with being honest until he is proved otherwise.

2. Before he has read a word, our islander notes that the book in his hand is a big one. This is another strong argument in its favor. A forger knows that he runs a risk with every word he writes; for him brevity is the soul of success and, as we have seen, the author of such a long book could not have failed to discover what he was up against before he proceeded very far. In giving us a long book, the author forces us to concede that he is not playing tricks.

3. Almost immediately the castaway discovers that the Book of Mormon is both a religious book and a history. This is another point in its favor, for the author could have produced a religious book claiming divine revelation without the slightest risk had he produced a Summa Theologica or a Key to the Scriptures. If one searches through the entire religious literature of the Christian ages from the time of the Apostles to the time of Joseph Smith, not one of these productions can be found to profess divine revelation aside from that derived through the reading of the scriptures. This is equally true whether one inspects the writings of the apostolic fathers, of the doctors of the Middle Ages—even the greatest of whom claim only to be making commentaries on the scriptures—or more modern religious leaders who, though they claimed enlightenment, spoke only as the Scribes and Pharisees of old, who, though they could quote and comment on scripture on every occasion, never dared to speak as one having authority. This writer never falls back on the accepted immunities of double meaning and religious interpretations in the manner of the Swedenborgians or the schoolmen. This refusal to claim any special privileges is an evidence of good faith.

4. Examining the book more closely, the islander is next struck by its great complexity. Doesn't the author know how risky this sort of thing is? If anyone should know, he certainly does, for he handles the intricate stuff with great understanding. Shysters may be diligent enough, in their way, but the object of their trickery is to avoid hard work, and this is not the sort of laborious task they give themselves.

5. In its complexity and length lies the key to the problem of the book, for our islander, having once read Blass, remembers that no man on earth can falsify a history of any length without contradicting himself continually. Upon close examination all the many apparent contradictions in the Book of Mormon disappear. It passes the sure test of authenticity with flying colors.

6. Since the author must in view of all this be something of a genius, the lonely critic begins to study his work as creative writing. Here it breaks down dismally. The style is not that of anyone trying to write well. There is skill of a sort, but even the unscholarly would know that the frequent use of "it came to pass" does not delight the reader, and it is not biblical. Never was writing less "creative" as judged by present standards: there is no central episode, no artistic development of a plot; one event follows another with equal emphasis in the even flow of a chronicle; the author does not "milk" dramatic situations, as every creative writer must; he takes no advantage of any of his artistic opportunities; he has no favorite characters; there is no gain in confidence or skill as the work progresses, nor on the other hand does he show any sign of getting tired or of becoming bored, as every creative writer does in a long composition: the first and last books of the Book of Mormon are among the best, and the author is going just as strong at the end as at the beginning. The claim of the "translator" is that this book is no literary creation, and the internal evidence bears out the claim. Our critic looks at the date of the book again—1830. Where are the rich sentimentality, the incurable romanticism, and the lush but mealy rhetoric of "fine writing" in the early 1800s? Where are the fantastic imagery, the romantic descriptions, and the unfailing exaggerations that everyone expected in the literature of the time? Here is a book with all the elements of an intensely romantic adventure tale of far away and long ago, and the author turns down innumerable chances to please his public!

7. For the professional religionist, what John Chrysostom called "the wise economy of a useful deception," i.e., religious double-talk, has been ever since his day a condition of survival and success. But there is little of this in the Book of Mormon. There are few plays on words, few rhetorical subtleties, no reveling in abstract terms, no excess of esoteric language or doctrine to require the trained interpreter. This is not a "mystic" text, though mysticism is the surest refuge for any religious quack who thinks he might be running a risk. The lone investigator feels the direct impact of the concrete terms; he is never in doubt as to what they mean. This is not the language of one trying to fool others or who has ever had any experiences in fooling others.

8. Our examiner is struck by the limited vocabulary of the Book of Mormon. Taken in connection with the size and nature of the book, this is very significant. Whoever wrote the book must have been a very intelligent and experienced person; yet such people in 1830 did not produce books with rudimentary vocabularies. This cannot be the work of any simple clown, but neither can it be that of an able and educated contemporary.

9. The extremely limited vocabulary suggests another piece of internal evidence to the reader. The Book of Mormon never makes any attempt to be clever. This, says Blass, is a test no forger can pass. The Achilles' heel of the smart impostor is vanity. The man who practices fraud to gain an ascendancy and assert his superiority over others cannot forego the pleasure of enjoying that superiority. The islander does not know it, but recent attempts to account for Joseph Smith claim to discover the key to his character in an overpowering ambition to outsmart people. Why then doesn't he ever try to show how clever he is? Where are the big words and the deep mysteries? There is no cleverness in the Book of Mormon. It was not written by a deceiver.

10. Since it claims to be translated by divine power, the Book of Mormon also claims all the authority—and responsibility—of the original text. The author leaves himself no philological loopholes, though the book, stemming from a number of nations and languages, offers opportunity for many of them. It is a humble document of intensely moral tone, but it does not flinch at reporting unsavory incidents not calculated to please people who think that any mention of horror or bloodshed should be deleted from religious writing.

Next up: External Evidences

Blogging the Bible

In 2006 I began following the blog of David Plotz, a writer for Slate.com, as he explored the Bible from his point of view as "an ignoramus" (his words) .  It now appears that Plotz has written a book based on that experience.

I heard about the book through a personal email he sent out to everyone who had responded in the comments section of his blog on Slate.com.  Given that the email had such a personal tone to it, I decided to respond to a few questions that Plotz had not been able to resolve in his first read-through of the Bible.  I'm posting the questions and answers here in case they're helpful to anyone else.

David,

Congratulations on your new book. I followed your posts and am glad to see that you were able to learn so much from your first reading of the Bible.  I would urge you to read it a second time to obtain even more revealing insights.  This time, instead of a straight-through, face-value reading, try to tie together the various stories with their thematic interrelationships.  

Do this after reading the below answers to some questions you posed.

Q: Why would anyone want to be ruled by a God who's so unmerciful, unjust, unforgiving, and unloving?
A: What leads you to believe that God is the one who was unmerciful, unjust, unforgiving, and unloving?  Is it God's job to force us to be merciful, just, forgiving, and loving?  Or is it our job to conform to His will through the gift of agency He gave us?  It is as disingenuous to say "God made me do it" as it is to say "the devil made me do it".  God gave the Israelites a simple choice on Mt. Sinai: 1) Keep two simple commandments to become a merciful, just, forgiving, and loving people and I will make you a nation of priests like the City of Enoch that was caught up into heaven because of its righteousness.  Everyone who observes you will never attack you for the fear they have of your righteousness in God.  The remainder will simply want to join you in peace. or 2) Break two simple commandments and, as long as you refuse to repent, you'll be left to the far-reaching and devastating consequences of your own choices.  Forgetting God will cause you to forget that you are a brother to all other men, women, and children.  Withholding love from one another will lead to murdering one another.  You will needlessly struggle to get out from under a waterfall of blood, greed, and hatred all because you stubbornly disobey two simple commandments.

Q: Why would He kill the innocent Egyptian children? And why would He delight in it? 

A: Simple answer: God did not kill innocent Egyptian children, nor did He delight in it.  God sent the plague of the Passover to further demonstrate that He was God to a willful and stubborn Pharaoh (as if Pharaoh needed further convincing after all the previous plagues) and that Pharaoh's brutal enslavement of his earthly brethren was abominable.  Pharaoh had plenty of opportunities to conform to God's commandments, but he chose to shake his fist at God in defiance.  When a man becomes that hardened and stiff-necked against God, there is only one way to humble him...take away that which he most values (his son) and/or which gives him earthly power (his heir).  Pharaoh was responsible for the death of  his own son through his pride and disobedience.  He had every opportunity to reverse that outcome by simply letting the Israelites go in peace, but he chose not to.  God never delights in the death of children and I can't imagine how you came to that conclusion.  Please elaborate.

Q: What wrong did we do Him that He should send the flood?

A: It wasn't so much what they did to God directly...it was what they were doing to Him through the scope and breadth of their injustices to each other.  The flood was a drastic response to a world gone completely mad and into self-destruction mode.  It was a situation that could only be corrected by a baptism of the whole earth (to wash away the sin it mankind had spread over its face).  If anything, God was doing each person a favor by sending them back to the spirit world before they heaped even more sins and murders on their own heads.  Read what Peter says about this and the wonderful blessings that were able to come to the ante-diluvian people when Christ taught the prisoners in the spirit world after His resurrection.  Also, read this vision of the prophet Enoch (who lived before the flood), as revealed to and recorded by Moses, to understand God's true character and feelings towards His children.

Q: Which of His Ten Commandments do we actually need?

A: Two.  Jesus answered this question when the Pharisees asked it in an effort to trick Him into saying something contrary to the Law of Moses.  The last verse can even be seen as a clever play on words on Jesus' part.  "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."  (Their fathers hung/killed the prophets in direct opposition to this teaching...just as Christ would hang from a cross because of it.)

LDSWhy.com Tells Youth Why...

Got Youth?  Point them to LDSWhy.com with the questions they won't ask you but that you know they have.  I give this site points on the engaging design alone.  It's eye-candy and fun to fiddle around with on its own.  But the value it carries is priceless when you consider how many LDS youth are ashamed or afraid to ask simple questions about what they learn in Seminary.  Why?  Fear of what peers will think of them for asking and/or fear of knowing God will expect them to live up to a higher standard while everyone around them seems to be striving to live the lowest standards possible.  Just move your mouse over the numbers and it spins like a jukebox of inquiries of eternal import.  Your question isn't there? Ask it in the form to the top right.  Answers appear in the excellently put together blog.  There are other resources on the top left.  Of course, there's a book you can buy, as well as an official Facebook page.

Improvements at American Testament

You may have noticed some changes to the American Testament blog.  For one, we're experimenting with Google's AdSense to display LDS-relevant advertisements under each post. One hundred percent of the monetary proceeds of people clicking on these ads will go toward funding improvements for LuckyHill Orphanage near Accra, Ghana.  So, spread the word! :)

If you see an ad that seems out of place for the theme of the blog, please bear with me. I'm trying to tweak which sites are allowed to display their ads here.  Needless to say, if you see ads selling "Discounts on LDS Garments!", chances are you're not going to find what you're looking for there.  That's because so many advertisers target keywords and just slap them together with their boilerplate ad text on the off chance that you're looking for an item to buy described by that keyword.

We've also added a custom search engine to further enhance the value of the site.  It's the search box on the top right of the page.  With this search engine, you can simultaneously search the multiple LDS Web sites for content.  This helps people who want to do research into the LDS Church and doctrinal topics, but don't want to be exposed to anti-Mormon propaganda, salacious rumors, adult web sites, and incomplete or outright deceptive "research".  Here are the sites (in no particular order of importance) the search currently covers.

• fair-lds.org 
  
• maxwellinstitute.com 
  
• mormon.org 
• lds.org 
  
• ldscatalog.com 
  
• deseretbook.com 
  
• americantestament.blogspot.com
  

If you wish to see others included, please provide a URL in the comments.

A Recounting of Jewish History (2 Nephi 6)

Jacob, the younger brother of Nephi, was given the role of teacher and priest to the people.  In this chapter, he tells the people how concerned he is for their salvation and education in their history and their future.  He turns to Isaiah for this instruction.

The words he quotes are about all the house of Israel (all 12 tribes).  He first emphasizes Isaiah's teaching that the Gentiles would become a support to Israel in the last days.

  7 And ^akings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that^bI am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that ^cwait for me.

Next, Jacob reminds them that Israel was under condemnation when they left Jerusalem over 50 years before and tells them that it has been revealed to him by an angel that Jerusalem was conquered as prophesied by Lehi.  The good news is that those who were carried away captive would return in the future.  Jesus Christ would come to them, but unfortunately they would crucify him.  This treatment of their King would result in many more years of affliction and scattering for the Jews.  But, when they turn back to the Lord, they will be gathered again and saved from their enemies.

Jacob then pronounces a blessing on the Gentiles for their repentance and support of Israel, and for not becoming part of the organizations and churches set up to tear down the Church of God.

Christ, unlike with his first advent when he was born as an infant and later scourged, mocked, and crucified, will then come to show Himself in all His glory.  He will destroy all of Israel's enemies by fire, tempest, earthquakes, bloodshed, pestilence, and famine, and preserve all of those who believe on Him.  At that time, everyone will know that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the Redeemer, and the Mighty One of Jacob (father Israel).

Why Are There So Many War Stories in the Book of Mormon?

While preparing a lesson for Church today, I came upon this excellent video of a talk given by John Bytheway (yes, that's his real name...by the way), who was earlier known for his brand of "squeaky clean comedy", but later became a Church Educational System instructor.  The linked talk was given during BYU Education Week, August 18, 2003.

John states that because the principal compiler and abridger of the Book of Mormon was Mormon, who was a military man at the end of the days of the Nephite people, naturally many things he included from the Nephite record were from his perspective as a warrior.  Moroni, who was Mormon's son and the final writer on the plates, saw our day and reinforced what he saw by confirming what his father said about our potential destruction should we choose to follow in the same, wicked path as the Nephites of his day.

In the war-torn world of today, it is entirely and absolutely relevant and fair for the Book of Mormon to focus on one of the most desperate conditions of humanity, including what leads to it and how it can be resolved.  Perhaps the righteous Captain Moroni, who lived centuries before Mormon, was Moroni's namesake because Mormon recognized in Captain Moroni the qualities of a man of God who also knew that God abhored war and only allowed it as a last resort when the life, liberties, and happiness of righteous people was threatened by an external show of force upon the righteously obtained territories of God's people.

I've always felt that world peace would come if people in power would just read the New Testament and the Book of Mormon together and hopefully choose to become sincere and submissive to God.  It is incumbent upon all of us to spread the message of the Book of Mormon as far and as wide as possible so that eventually the world's leaders can't help but be influenced by its teachings.

Online Gospel Art Picture Kit Statistics - LDSMediaTalk.com

I usually try to keep my posts about the Book of Mormon, because that is, after all, the title of this blog.  However, given my recent encounters with individuals who believe that Mormons worship Joseph Smith or that we treat the Book of Mormon with more weight than we do the New Testament, I had to share something telling from LDSMediaTalk.com.

The Gospel Art Picture Kit is a collection of paintings and photographs used by Primary (children's Sunday school) teachers to illustrate concepts of the lessons they teach.  It contains themed illustrations and photos from all the Standard Works (Old/New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price), plus some Church history and ancient Middle-Eastern items.

You can tell a lot about what a church truly believes by what it teaches its children.  With the many, many images available in the Gospel Art Picture Kit, and with the assumption by many that we "aren't really Christians" or that we teach more about Joseph Smith and the restoration than we do about Christ, one would think that the most popular of the online versions of these pictures would be about Joseph Smith and the restoration.

Instead, we see these numbers.

Most Popular Items in the Gospel Art Picture Kit in 2008
Picture Name	Page Views
208 John the Baptist Baptizing Jesus	23,670
240 Jesus the Christ	22,638
239 The Resurrected Jesus Christ	18,753
201 The Nativity	16,543
227 Jesus Praying in Gethsemane	16,323
403 The First Vision	15,916
216 Christ and the Children	13,502
238 The Second Coming	12,973
608 Christ and Children from around the World	12,192
212 Sermon on the Mount	11,144

Even "The First Vision", which is arguably a restoration theme, is Christ-centered because, of course, it was God the Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith.

So, with the idea gone that Mormons don't teach their children about Christ, it appears that, ultimately, the only theological difference "mainstream" Christians (as they're called today) should have with Mormons is whether we worship the "right" Jesus.  And that is proof of the necessity for a restoration if ever I saw one.

Simile Oaths/Curses in the Book of Mormon

In these videos, I discuss the significance of Simile Oaths/Curses in the Book of Mormon and other ancient Near Eastern documents. 

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Ancient Texts in Support of the Book of Mormon

In this new series, I discuss an article written by John A. Tvedtnes and published in 2002 that gives an overview of some of the ancient texts in support of the Book of Mormon. 

**Note: I apologize that there is no video for this series. I am having problems with my audio/video syncing on my editing software. I am working hard trying to fix this problem, and hopefully by next time I will have it working.** 

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Linguistic Evidence for the Book of Mormon

Brian Stubbs (PhD in Near Eastern Languages, University of Utah) is a linguist who working on the development of the Uto-Aztecan and other languages. He had this to offer at the 2006 FAIR Conference. He discussed the evidence for a Semitic influence on the Uto-Aztecan language and his findings regarding his research in this field. An excellent supplement to this presentation can be found in Mike Ash's two books Shaken Faith Syndrome[1] and Of Faith and Reason[2].

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

[1]: Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One's Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 2008) pages 185-187

[2]: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith (Cedar Fort, Inc. 2008) page 122