1. Background Perhaps the most problematic issue undermining the Church is the Book of Abraham. In July of 1835, a traveling showman named Michael Chandler brought an exhibit consisting of four Egyptian mummies and papyri to Kirtland, Ohio, then the home of the Latter-day Saints. The papyri contained Egyptian hieroglyphics, which intrigued Joseph Smith. Joseph…
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Three weeks ago, I was a true believer. I wasn’t the best at church attendance, but I would look forward to the days I could go and I would sit, rapt and eager, listening to the lessons and talks. I read the scriptures. I have a large library of Nibley, Talmage, etc… things considered “deep”…
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The Church makes many specific claims about matters of history (both its own, and that of other peoples), the migration of people from one continent to another, the translation of ancient documents, etc. These are perfectly legitimate subjects to be examined using the tools and logic of Science. I do recognize that some claims the…
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I had previously been able to convince myself that the reason we don’t have the gold plates is because Joseph Smith, Jr would have been hunted to an even earlier death if he had kept them. Still, I, and I think every member, has a secret wish that the Lord would decide it was time…
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Facsimile 3 is described by Joseph Smith as “Abraham sitting upon Pharaoh’s throne, by the politeness of the king, with a crown upon his head, representing the Priesthood, as emblematical of the grand Presidency in Heaven; with the scepter of justice and judgment in his hand.” Once again, this is not about Abraham at all, but is…
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Facsimile 2 is actually a representation of a “hypocephalus”. Egyptians would put these under the head of mummies, like a pillow. Here are lots of real hypocephali as they are in abundance: You’ll notice that I’ve circled certain sections. Go back and study what’s inside the red circle first. Four ram heads, right? Now go…
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This is Facsimile 1, located at the front of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. Joseph Smith described this scene as “The idolatrous priest of Elkenah attempting to offer up Abraham as a sacrifice,” meaning, the man with the knife is a priest of Elkenah and the man on the altar…
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The majority of members don’t know where the Book of Abraham (found in the Pearl of Great Price) comes from. Here is a brief history from Wikipedia: Several papyri and eleven mummies were discovered in Thebes by Antonio Lebolo between 1818 and 1822. Sometime between 1822 and his death on February 19, 1830, Lebolo arranged…
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Quoted Isaiah Scriptures Scholars divide the book of Isaiah into three parts. There is very little disagreement about this fact. Here are the three parts and when they were written: Chapters 1 to 39 (First Isaiah, Proto-Isaiah or Original Isaiah): the work of the original prophet Isaiah, who worked in Jerusalem between 740 and 687 BCE.…
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I will go into this in more depth at some time, but until just recently (2006), the introduction page in the Book of Mormon said all of the people chronicled in the book “were destroyed, except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” The new introduction reads much the same,…
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