My Blog

True Origins of the Book of Mormon Revealed Joseph Smith occasionally would meet with an old man that lived near Joseph’s home [1] . In his late teenage years Joseph met several times [2] with this old man who would tell Joseph stories from when he was younger. On at least one of these occasions, he told Joseph about a manuscript that he and his father had been writing [3] . In perhaps a moment of vulnerability the old man confided in Joseph that there had been some delays in finishing the text when his father had died [4] and between that and some other family drama [5] , he had been unable to publish the manuscript [6] . After gaining this old man’s trust, Joseph convinced him to give him the manuscript [7] . In one account, Joseph showed the old man’s manuscript to a group of his family members and close associates, including his father and two of his brothers, and confided in them that he had essentially just copied the text for the Book of Mormon

My Testimony As you read through all of my blog, I hope it becomes apparent where I stand on everything. However, just in case, I want to make it crystal clear where I stand and what I believe. I believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. By "word of God," I mean that I believe it teaches true and correct principles. By following its teachings, we draw closer to God, just as we would by following the words of God given to us through any prophet, whether ancient or modern. I believe the Book of Mormon is a translation of an actual ancient record. I believe that Nephi, Mormon, Moroni, and all the people in between were real individuals, and the Book of Mormon is a genuine history of those people. I believe that Joseph Smith was directed to the plates by Moroni and translated them through the gift and power of God. The Book of Mormon came forth just as Joseph Smith said it did. I believe that the Church is led by honest men who are tryin

Introduction to Book of Mormon Translation Theory A Preface to Part Three of My Book or Mormon Translation Gospel Topics Essay Review The last two posts about the translation of the Book of Mormon were building up to this moment where I review John-Charles Duffy's [1] review of the Church's Gospel Topics Essay about the translation of the Book of Mormon. I was surprised that his essay focused mostly on the translation process and less on the translation tools. I feel like most of the controversy is surrounding the use of the Seer Stone. But in Duffy's essay he essentially says "Good job acknowledging the Seer Stone, but why didn't you talk more about the translation process." For those of you that, like myself, hadn't put much thought into that topic until now let me give you a quick overview of the theories for the translation process. Mini Part 1 As I stated in part one [2] of this series, from what was in the Gospel

The following is a talk I gave in sacrament meeting today. Spiritual Nourishment Today I will be speaking about spiritual nourishment, and I'll be drawing on President Faust's talk from October 2006 [1] for inspiration. In his talk he shared a number of stories of people that found important spiritual nutrients as they followed the teachings of the Savior. Some of the nutrients he focused on were faith, repentance, building a testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and selfless service. Today instead of focusing on a prescribed list of things that we ought to do nourish our spirits, I want to look at some principles that I have found helpful for me in my own nutritional research [2] that I think might be applicable to spiritual metabolism as well. I hope they will help you as you pick out the spiritual food you most need right now in your life. Filled But Not Nourished President Packer once related a story that illustrated an importa

Gospel Topics Essay: Book of Mormon Translation This is part 2 of my perspective of the topic of the Book of Mormon translation : part of my Response to The LDS Gospel Topics Essays: A Scholarly Engagement Objective My purpose in reviewing the Gospel Topics Essays: I want to look over them to see what (if anything) is different from what I was taught growing up in the church. If anything is different I want to explore why it might be different. Finally I want to address if these differences might constitute church leaders hiding the truth from the membership, and if so if there might have been nefarious motives for doing so. I guess I would also address whether or not those nefarious motives (if any) would constitute reason for doubting the divinity of the restoration of the church. Spoiler alert, in the case of presenting the narrative of the how the Book of Mormon was translated, I find it highly improbable that any nefarious or questionable motives