Posted on 10/20/2009 6:50:56 AM PDT by Colofornian
Church members from Utah and abroad gathered on Friday to hear some Book of Mormon stories their teachers have never told them.
The lessons centered around Mesoamerica, including Mexico and Guatemala, as the most likely setting for Book of Mormon peoples and events at the 7th annual Book of Mormon Lands Conference at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City.
The conference drew 280 attendees — the conference’s biggest crowd ever — as a result of key speakers such as Dr. John L. Lund, Joseph Allen and Jerry L. Ainsworth, said Stephen L. Carr, senior vice president of the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum.
Lund spoke about Joseph Smith and his contributions to the pioneer publication, Times and Seasons. It was Joseph Smith as editor of the publication who suggested the Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica, Lund said.
Although critics have tried to discount Smith, claiming he never wrote about the Book of Mormon’s location in the Times and Seasons, Lund presented evidence to the contrary.
The goal of the Book of Mormon Archaelogical Forum is to provide an open forum to discuss theories such as Lund’s, Carr said.
“We are a group that promotes the understanding of the culture and the geography of the Book of Mormon,” Carr said. “We base our ideas on the fact that they took place in Mesoamerica.”
Members of the church don’t hear about the theories of the Book of Mormon’s settings in Sunday School or Institute because they are the opinions of researchers, and not endorsed by the church, Carr said.
“Most Latter-day Saints don’t have a clue what the [geographical references in the Book of Mormon] are,” said Doug Christensen, a member of the BMAF board of directors, from Twin Falls, Idaho. “We mostly focus on the stories and skip the travel and wars.”
Kirk Magleby stressed the need for church members to come to a consensus on where the Book of Mormon events took place. He called the current lack of consensus “of particular delight to Satan and to the critics of the church.”
“If we can’t agree on where [the Book of Mormon] took place, how can people take us seriously?” he said.
There are specific conditions the BMAF has outlined for a geographic region to be considered a Book of Mormon land.
For example, the region must be a “narrow neck of land surrounded by seas,” with a major river flowing from north to south. It must also have had a highly literate society and an agricultural base that was capable of supporting millions of people.
All of the requirements come from the Book of Mormon’s text and only Mesoamerica fits all the criteria, according to the organization’s Web site.
“If we can’t agree on where [the Book of Mormon] took place, how can people take us seriously?” he said.
Yup. (That's quite an uphill climb there)
From the article: Stephen L. Carr, senior vice president of the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum...The goal of the Book of Mormon Archaelogical Forum is to provide an open forum to discuss theories... "We are a group that promotes the understanding of the culture and the geography of the Book of Mormon,” Carr said.
Well, that's an interesting personal revelation. Carr says the focus of this "archaelogical" group is...
(a) "Book of Mormon culture" -- in effect literary gleaning...
(b) Reading some historical claims by Joseph Smith in Times & Seasons -- so basic 19th century Mormon U.S. History of a very select document
(c) "Book of Mormon...geography" -- on the one hand, what would be simple, pure elementary level education in a Christian school were this the Bible...but there's no maps in the Book of Mormon, are there? So, instead, it's more of a mix between "Where's Waldo?" and "Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego?" -- only there's not only absolutely no concensus where Waldo or Carmen SanDiego is...but the church has gone on record so many times showing no consideration for MesoAmerica that Waldo or Carmen SanDiego could NOT be in Guatamala or Southern Mexico.
Simply put, I thought archaeology was primarily about having real archaelogical finds you can hold...like coinage...similar to what we have for both the Old and New Testaments...It's surprising that most Christians could easily purchase Old and New Testament archaelogy such as coinage relatively cheaply on e-Bay...
Instead...what is masquerading as "archaelogy" before BYU students -- who are being recruited to join an association majoring in...
...Book of Mormon literary skimming?
...And 19th century U.S. history of select Times & Seasons quotes?
...And mapless Book of Mormon geography reviews that wouldn't pass an elementary school level publishing standard for religious educators?
Shouldn't archaelogy forums being doing real archaelogy in real places with real finds?
um... wasn’t this written by a guy here in US of A not long ago?
Where did he live? that’s not too hard, is it?
“wasn’t this written by a guy here in US of A not long ago?”
No, the Book of Mormon was not written by Joseph Smith; he interpreted it.
Got a question for you: Whatever happened to the Mayans? No one knows. To this day, it’s a mystery. If you read the Book of Mormon, you might get a clue.
Got a question for you: Whatever happened to the Mayans? No one knows. To this day, it’s a mystery.
The Mayans are still there.
Or reach Antarctica...
There be dragons?
(Or Cureloms)
Dude!
Ya gotta see this one!
But it is, it has to be! Because if it's not we can't steal the Mayan culture and use for our BYU archeology reports!
My son married a Mayan. She was born in Guatemala.
Wow...
Take an Archeology class and bring that up. I bet they will bring in a Mayan to talk to you about it. the ancestors still roam the very lands they rules many years ago.
Antiquities theft is a crime.
The LDS keeps grabbing cultures. First it was in Northern America, and when that did not pan out they went west. Now it's all headed south.
In 50 years you guys will be telling us they landed in Antarctica and the ruins are buried under tones of ice and snow so we can't see them.
**Sarcasm On***Who are those people I ran into in the central Highlands of Guatemala?***Sarcasm Off***
THEY WERE NEPHITES!
(Or Jaredites or Lamanites or Hobbits)
They just did not know it and no one told them Jesus had come to town a few centuries earlier...
Ping
The conference drew 280 attendees — the conference’s biggest crowd ever
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Supposedly 13 Million members and only 280 can be persuaded to attend a conference on a basis of their religion ???
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mormonism doesnt seem as important to its members as Joey Smith said it would be...
Millions of Christians go to Israel every year...
Millions of Moslems make a pilgrimage to Mecca every year...
Only 280 mormons turn up to a conference on the bom lands ???
I think there might be a “revelation” in the future...
“Yea and it came to pass, all good mormons are to and it came to pass, go forth to the and it came to pass conference, yea and it came to pass, yearly”...D&C 100001:200002
It was Joseph Smith as editor of the publication who suggested the Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica
_______________________________________
If joey smith said it it must be so...
However of 13 million mormons,...
12,998,720 dont seem to believe him...
Hey them 3 Nephites who are still around must live in the area...
Tour guides for the bom...
wasn’t this written by a guy here in US of A not long ago?
________________________________________________________
Yes, Joey Smith...
He was a “glass looker”.. a fortune teller who lived on his scams...
He came from a family of gypsy type fortune tellers..
He was lazy and did not like to work...
He thought himself above the common working man...
He thought every woman or young girl of 14 was for his pleasure...
Even if they were married to some other man..
He and some other guys made the so called “book of mormon all up...
They were hoping to make a lot of money from the sale of it...
And Joey Smith did make a fortune from his “followers”..
Some of the book was plagerized from other peoples books, and some of has whole long passages copied from the Christian Bible...
Joey Smith was a murderer, thief, convict, conman, occulist, child rapist, adulterer, abortionist, rable rouser, wife abuser, who boasted he was greater than Jesus and made up his own religion to cover his evil activities and had himself crowned king of the world...
He violated some mens Constitutional rights and put an Amerticvan town under martial law to cover up his own crimes, got arrested and put in jail, got drunk while in jail, and murdered 2 men shooting his way out....
Someone fired back and Smith got himself killed...
He had a pagan Jupiter talisman on him when he did...calling on his Masonic friends and not on God to help him...
Now days he would have been arrested for his bank scams etc but he skipped town and managed to stay away from the earthly justice...
However he never escaped God’s justice...
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