Latter Day Saints bring a giant Book of Mormon to campus on Thursday

Central Michigan Life.com ^ | March 20, 2009 | Maryellen Tighe

[Colofornian]

A group of Mormons visited Central Michigan University's campus Thursday afternoon as part of a mission calling.

Part of their mission on campus is to explain rumors about the Mormon beliefs, said Elder Josh Price, 21 of Arizona.

"We want to dispel misconceptions, like 'Mormons' have a million wives,'" he said.

The group walked through campus around noon with a giant Book of Mormon replica, stopping briefly in the Pierce Hall plaza.

They were fulfilling part of a mission that has taken them around the United States, and some of them around the world.

The replica was made by missionaries in the area a few years ago and has since gone to many campuses.

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement.

It was written in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr., translated from golden plates that Smith discovered in 1823 buried in a hill near his home in Manchester, New York.

"We aren't asking people to make a decision, just to pray and see if the spirit moves them," Price said.

Price is wrapping up his two years in the Lansing Mission. This mission covers all of lower Michigan, with the exception of the Detroit and thumb area.

Price's travels have taken him through much of Michigan, from Traverse City to Jackson, though he says the two years have gone by fast.

Gunter came from much further away. She, like other women, will only spend 18 months in the mission field. She spent the past eight months serving in Utah and will spend her next ten serving in the Lansing Mission.

This particular group has been to several near by campuses in the last week, including Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and Ferris State University.

[Colofornian]

Uh, yeah. (If you thought thousands of "it came to passes" and "exceeding" was hard enough to digest, just wait til you oversize these references a-thousand fold!)

From the article: ...explain rumors about the Mormon beliefs... [some "rumors" are true]

From article: "We want to dispel misconceptions, like 'Mormons' have a million wives,'" he said. [Yeah, set the exaggeration high enough that tho the principle be true, the figure isn't -- and you can dismiss against the principle based upon the exaggerated figure]

[Tennessee Nana]

“We want to dispel misconceptions, like ‘Mormons’ have a million wives,’” he said.
______________________________________________

I think it was BY who kinda set the number at 999...

[xjcsa]

"We want to dispel misconceptions, like 'Mormons' have a million wives,'" he said.

These days seven or eight is usually sufficient.

[PetroniusMaximus]

“just to pray and see if the spirit moves them,”

Pretty subjective criteria for determining truth if you ask me.

How might you distinguish that from indigestion?

[freeplancer]

Wow, a college newspaper article possibly written by someone who is not even an adult yet. Classy.

[Tennessee Nana]

“THURSDAY, APRIL 5th, 1894.... I met with the Quorum and Presidency in the temple.... President Woodruff then spoke ‘...In searching out my genealogy I found about four hundred of my femal[e] kindred who were never married. I asked Pres. Young what I should do with them. He said for me to have them sealed to me unless there were more that [than?] 999 of them. the doctrine startled me, but I had it done,...’ “ (”Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” April 5, 1894, vol. 18, p. 66-67; original located at the Brigham Young University Library)

Supposing that I have a wife or a dozen of them, and she should say, “You cannot be exalted without me,” and suppose they all should say so, what of that? ... Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the spirit world, but that I have been a good, faithful man ... do you think I will be destitute there. No, the Lord says there are more there than there are here ... there are millions of them, ... we will go to brother Joseph and say, “Here we are brother Joseph; we are here ourselves are we not, with none of the property we possessed in our probationary state, not even the rings on our fingers?” He will say to us, “Come along, my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?” “They are back yonder; they would not follow us.” “Never mind,” says Joseph, “Here are thousands, have all you want” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p.209)

“I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this Church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not, shall be damned, I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that.” (Joseph F. Smith; Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, p. 28-31)

[MHGinTN]

Check the sacred underwear?

[mkjessup]

" Latter Day Saints bring a giant Book of Mormon to campus on Thursday"

OK, that covers the needs of giants, what about dwarfs? Is there a dwarf Book of Mormon?

[reaganaut]

Sad thing is that if a group did that with a Bible, there would have most likely an outcry against it.

[vladimir998]

True.

[svcw]

"We want to dispel misconceptions, like 'Mormons' have a million wives,'" he said.

Great technique, exaggerate what is believed and laugh it off, then when the belief is exposed it doesn't seem as bad. Really doesn't matter what the issue, it works (for the majority of people anyway.)

[P-Marlowe]

"We want to dispel misconceptions, like 'Mormons' have a million wives,'" he said.

They have a million gods.

[SkyPilot]

Did they dispel these "rumors."

1. Changes. In writing the Book of Mormon, Smith claimed it was inspired of God, yet it has been edited, changed, and re-edited many times (2,000 times in 131 years) to try and take out all contradictions in the various writings of Smith.

2. Language. Smith claims the plates were in Reformed Egyptian characters, written by Mormon, a Nephite general and buried in Palmyra, New York. There is no evidence of this language through any history. ( In Mormon 9:32, 34, it states that the language was "reformed Egyptian" and that no other people knew their language.)

3. The Urim and Thumin. (Numbers 27:21 & I Samuel 28:6) were mentioned as a means of ascertaining God's will in judicial matters, not to translate plates.

4. Archaeology. The Book of Mormons claims of vast civilizations, animals, etc., there cannot one shred of evidence be found to substantiate its claim. When people dig for worms in the Holy Land, they make discoveries The Bible has been proven by archaeology, cities, places, coins, clothing, swords, etc., have been found, but not one single place mentioned in the Book of Mormon has ever been identified. There are still people in the LDS Church who believe that archaeology has proven, at least to a degree, the Book of Mormon. Some missionaries are still using slide presentations of ruins from Mexico and South America, implying that they prove the Book of Mormon. But they are from an entirely different time period. They are ruins of idol worshipers who offered human sacrifices.

5. Botany. a 1 Ne. 17:5 talks about fruit and wild honey being products of Sinai desert (called Bountiful). Not possible.... b Wheat, barley, olives, etc., are mentioned, but none of these were in the Americas at that time. c North America had no cows, asses, horses, oxen, etc. Europeans brought them hundreds and hundreds of years later. North America had no lions, leopards, nor sheep at that time. Horses, asses, and elephants were not here either. d Honey bees were brought here by Europeans much later. e Ether 9:18, 19, lists domestic cattle, cows and oxen as separate species! They did not even exist in the Americas at that time. f Ether 9:30-34 talks about poisonous snakes driving sheep to the south. The Book of Mormon tells that the people ate the snake-killed animals, all of them! (v. 34). Jewish people could not have eaten animals that were killed that way, since Mosaic law forbids it! g Ne. 20:16 and 21:12 talk about lions as "beasts of the forests." Lions do not live in forests or jungles, and they never lived in the Americas. No silk and wool clothing (nor moths) existed, as 1 Ne. 13:7; Alma 4:6; Ether 9:17 and 10:24 indicate, at that time either. Butter is also mentioned, but it could not possibly exist, since no milk-producing animals were found in the Americas at that time.

6. Plagiarism. from the King James Bible: a. A comparison of the following shows that Joseph Smith made free use of his Bible to supplement the alleged revelation of the golden plates. · Moroni 10 with I Corinthians 12:1-11 · Nephi 14 with Isaiah 4 · II Nephi 12 with Isaiah 2 · Mosiah 14 with Isaiah 53 · III Nephi 13:1-18 with Matthew 6:1-23 b. The Mormons claim that when Christ allegedly appeared on the American continent after His resurrection and preached to the Nephites he quite naturally used the same language as recorded in the Bible. c. They also maintain that when Nephi came to America he brought copies of the Hebrew scriptures, which account for quotations from the Old Testament. ( It is quite miraculous how these plates on which the scriptures were inscribed, somehow or another, under translation, came out in perfect King James English without variation approximately 1,000 years before the 1611 KJV was written.)

I also like how Mormons went from this........

...........to this fantasy in the "looks" department.................

Why not go all the way and claim this is what he looked like?

[Elsie]

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement.

[reaganaut]

Is that first pic really JS? I do not know that I have ever seen it (which surprises me).

[Old Mountain man]

Well, gee, since we are only allowed to be married “legally and lawfully” and since the laws in these United States are pretty universally one wife and one husband, I suspect it would be an outright lie to claim that we have plural wives. I certainly do not. I do not know anyone who does. I have not heard of any living person who is a member in good standing that does.

Perhaps you could provide some names so that they could be reported to the local police? Otherwise, it can be assumed you are promulgating rumors and misstatements of fact.

[NoRedTape]

Joe Smith was one funny dude. Too bad he wasn’t a more cautious comedian. Too many errors in too many writings.
Dude is hilarious though. Bummer for him for attempting to escape from jail.