First I want to start with a question. How long does it take to move from one apartment to another? If you had asked me that question last week, I would have said 1-2 days. I definitely would not have said 1 month. Well here is the little moving adventure that has consumed our lives for the first 3 weeks of July.
I moved out of my old apartment on 30 June. Patricia helped me move into our new apartment 2 days before. While I was packing boxes, Patrícia was cleaning. I could hear Patricia grumbling and giving me an occasional disgusted look. She said that my apartment was too dirty. She made it clear that our new apartment would remain clean from day 1. I won't argue that my apartment was spotless but it was not that bad. We packed everything in 16 hours on Saturday and moved everything to the new place on Monday. On Monday we just had to mop the floors in my old place and I could turn over my keys. Patrícia was quite the trooper and did most of the cleaning, while I packed everything.
Our new apartment is a large one-bedroom apartment with a carpeted living room and the rest is tile. The kitchen is rather large, which is a must for me. Also it has a balcony facing east for good plant growing. I plan on first putting my orchids there and starting a small herb garden. The place was furnished, which needless to say helped us out a lot. Patrícia said that she wanted to first clean the place before unpacking. I thought this was unnecessary as the place is usually cleaned when one moved out. Nonetheless Patrícia wanted to clean everything. I thought that we could give a quick clean and start unpacking the same day. Much to my sadness, the other tenant moved out the day before and did not clean the apartment well, though it was not filthy and definitely not to Patricia's standards. It only took a few hours to pack all the boxes and furniture and move it all into the new place. However, it took a week to unpack one box. First we scrubbed down the kitchen, which took 6 days. I was up until 1-4am every night cleaning, fixing stuff, and recaulking the sinks in the bathroom and kitchen. Both sinks were leaking, so I recaulked them. After doing that I decided to recaulk the shower too because it was in need, too. Man, it was hard to stay awake in my leadership meetings the next morning after sleeping only a few hours.
After cleaning the kitchen we moved on to the closets that we all in need of a good dusting. The dust here is not like Western dust. It looks like lint and is sticky. It only comes off after scrubbing. None of this dusting with feathers. One closet was full of our landlady´s stuff, which I had to repack because it was so horribly packed. Thankfully the condominium has storage available where we were able to store her stuff to free the closet space. I still think that it is rather discourteous of a landlady to leave personal belongings in the house she is renting out. We are renting a full apartment, not a part of an apartment. After clearing out and cleaning the bathroom, closets and bedroom that are all tile, we started to mop the floor. Mopping is defined at me on my hands and knees with a scrub brush and a bucket. I was in this position for nearly 4 hours. My legs, back, and arms were so tired and sore. The slightly beige, spectacled tile turned out to be pure white… go figure.
We are now in Brazil but we still have not unpacked everything. We still have to finish unpacking odds and ends and clean the living room, which has become a staging area. The place is looking really nice, and I hope that it will only take another week to unpack. I have never taken so long to unpack, but I am glad for Patricia's meticulous nature because I appreciate a clean house.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
New evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon
Here are some notes that I took during a talk the mission president of Ft Lauderdale, Pres. Reynolds (former director of FARMS) gave. The talk showed physical evidence that the Book of Mormon is legitimate. The evidence consists of Herbraisms, chiasmus, wordprinting, and geography.
Hebraisms are fossil references left over from Hebrew that do not translate well to English. For example Moroni 10:4 says "ask God if these things are not true". In English one does not ask if something is not true if it is true. However, this negative style of expression makes sense in Hebrew. Another example is the English usage of "if, then" in comparison to the Hebrew usage of "If, and" as seen in Helaman 12:13-21. Another example is plates of brass in Hebrew but brass plates in English.
Chiasmus is a style of writing that starts and ends in a parallel style and the main point is in the middle. Basically an ascent to a climax or focal point then a descent to the end of the story. By the predictable nature of the chiasmus the reader knows exactly what the principal point of the story is. Nephi loved chiastic writing style and used in all his writings. Other Book of Mormon writers did not use them. First Nephi is one large chiasmus made up of several large internal chiasmus. Nearly all stories written by Nephi are chiasmus. First Nephi chapter 1 is one long chiasmus & chiasmus answers questions that the words alone don't answer. Many ancient cultures use chiasmus. In Yugoslavia bards used chiasmus to remember oral histories. Also the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew cultures frequently used them. In the Old Testament there are many. However, chiasmus writing style was only discovered in 1850, while the Book of Mormon was published in 1830. Some non-Nephi examples are in 2 Nephi 29:13, Alma 36, and Mosiah 3:18-19. There is no better example of chiasmus writing than the Book of Mormon, and this writing is ancient.
Wordprinting is a statistical calculation to distinguish different writing styles and therefore different writers. Because writers have specific writing styles, what words are used and how they are used creates statistically detectable patterns. This statistical method is accepted in the scientific community. It was used to detect different writers of the Federalist Papers and the collection of the English philosopher Hobbs' work. The research found that the work attributed to certain Federalist Papers writers does indeed match their writing style. All of the writings attributed to Hobbs were separated from works published with his. Wordprinting identified 7 distinct writers in the Book of Mormon, but none of them match Joseph Smith or any of his associates.
Geography of the Book of Mormon is probably the best evidence. No one at time of JS believed that Arabian peninsula had inhabitable oases & mountains. Now it is known to be like Book of Mormon says. Three places found mentioned by Nephi have been found on the Arabian peninsula. First is the camp where Lehi first camped. The route Nephi followed was the only route one can follow because mountains border the beach. The traditional path used by Arabs and merchants in the spice trade was the trail on the east side of mountains. At this place Lehi described a small perennial stream (named the river of Laman by Lehi) in a huge, solid valley (named the valley of Lemuel by Lehi). This stream was said not exist because no streams empty into the Red Sea. Recently a small stream was found that does empty into the Red Sea because too small, so it goes underground when it reaches the beach. However it is perennial stream as explained by Lehi (1 Nephi 2:6, 8, 10).
Nephi said that Nahum was where Ishmael was buried. It was a place where their route went from south south east to directly east. French archaeologists found a large cemetery at this exact spot before WWII. They hypothesized that the cemetery was a common burial site that was used to bury people who died along the route. People were not buried in the sand along the way because the burial site would never be found again. That would explain why Ishmael was buried here. However this place did not have the name Nahum nor did any city in Arabia have this name. An Arabian tribe in the area for last 100's years called this place by name of name Nahum. In the mid-1990's archeologists found 3 altars (made during Lehi's time) at exactly the right place that have the name Nahum written on them several times. Archeologists say this is better evidence than all other evidence of the authenticity.
Bountiful, another place mentioned where Nephi built ships to go to the Americas, has mountains went all the way to the beach (1 Nephi 17:6), has running water, high quality iron ore (1 Nephi 17:7) is found in the mountains (1 Nephi 17:7). This place was found in Oman on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The area meets all of the criteria. Though the mountains and lowland areas are no longer forested because of deforestation and intensive goat-grazing, both the mountains and the marginal lowlands at the base of the mountains were forested. Today all are deforested and not allowed to regrow because of extensive goat-herding.
All these evidences leave the places where the Lehi's family crossed the Arabian Desert very clear. Along with the names Lehi, Alma, Nahum, and others, the story of Lehi appears ever more true by hard physical evidence.
Numerous speculations both published and unpublished have surfaced over the years to explain where the Nephite/Lamanite lands were located. At least 80 theories have been published. Some said that the lands north and south of the Isthmus of Panama is the Nephite land. Others thought bigger thinking that the land to the north was North America and the land to the south was South America and the narrow strip of land was Mexico and Central America. One far fetched idea put the Nephite lands were in the Great Lakes region. Even Joseph Smith speculated on their location after book by Stephenson & Cartwood about the recently found Mayan ruins on Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala was a good place to start.
Any valid theory must include the descriptions found in the Book of Mormon. Any theory must have a narrow strip of land with the annihilated civilizations of the Nephites (600BC-400AD) & Jaredites (2,000 BC – 300 BC) to the north and Lamanite civilization (600 BC - longtime) to the south. Contrary to popular Mormon belief the Hill Cumorah is not where the golden plates were buried. It was the location where all plates that Mormon used were stored (Mormon 6:6). Also it is absolutely conceivable that Moroni walked to upstate New York in the 36 yrs from time he received plates from his father till time he buries plates in New York (In Mormon 6:6 Mormon gives the gold plates to Moroni in 385 AD and Moroni 10 was written about 421 AD).
As a side note, the story of Joseph & Oliver seeing Mormon's Cumorah in vision comes from 6 3rd- and 4th-hand stories of this experience. It appears that they saw the room in vision. The Book of Mormon promises we will receive all of these records in the last days. Also contrary to popular belief Moroni brought the sword of Laban and several other things, but the stone box only had the gold plates and Urmmim and Thummin.
A book written in 2000 called Mormon's map by John L. Sorenson calculated the distances between Nephite cities to determine the size of the Nephite/Lamanite nations.
1. Nephi to Zarahemla - max 180 miles
2. Nephi to narrow neck 340 miles max
3. Nephi to Cumorah 400 miles max
4. Max size Nephite/Lamanite lands 500 miles length & 200 miles width
Only one location fits description, and it was found 2-3 yrs ago. Olmec civilization is the first city- building civilization in the Americas and dates to the start of the Jaredites civilization and ends precipitously approximately 400 BC. The Highland Maya (pre-classic Maya) dates from 600BC to 400AD and disappeared suddenly. The Lowland Maya (pre-classic Maya) occurred during the same time and was large and had tribute kings (Lamanites had tributary kingdoms, e.g. Lamoni was a tributary king under his father, Limhi was tributary king under the Lamanite king). Also approximate population size of Olmec and Highland Maya civilizations as discovered from the ancient records and archeological findings matches neatly with the population size of the Jaredite and Nephite civilizations. The evidence that these civilizations were the Nephite/Lamanite lands is overwhelming. Pres. Reynolds then said that it is time to quit debating the location of the Book of Mormon lands and accept the fact that they are found.
President Reynolds (former director of FARMS) still had another hour of talk left when he decided to end because he was losing his voice and he had already talked for 1 hour and 15 minutes. He still had genetic information about the Native Americans and many other things that were unknown that have now been discovered (FAIR has a good article on this). As with anything that is authentic, time is on its side. As we learn more, the Book of Mormon will be proven by more and more evidence to be an authentic book of an ancient American people and that Joseph Smith translated the book as he testified and was not its author. Of course, the fact that it is scripture depends on the spiritual witness that everyone can and will only receive through the Holy Ghost.
Hebraisms are fossil references left over from Hebrew that do not translate well to English. For example Moroni 10:4 says "ask God if these things are not true". In English one does not ask if something is not true if it is true. However, this negative style of expression makes sense in Hebrew. Another example is the English usage of "if, then" in comparison to the Hebrew usage of "If, and" as seen in Helaman 12:13-21. Another example is plates of brass in Hebrew but brass plates in English.
Chiasmus is a style of writing that starts and ends in a parallel style and the main point is in the middle. Basically an ascent to a climax or focal point then a descent to the end of the story. By the predictable nature of the chiasmus the reader knows exactly what the principal point of the story is. Nephi loved chiastic writing style and used in all his writings. Other Book of Mormon writers did not use them. First Nephi is one large chiasmus made up of several large internal chiasmus. Nearly all stories written by Nephi are chiasmus. First Nephi chapter 1 is one long chiasmus & chiasmus answers questions that the words alone don't answer. Many ancient cultures use chiasmus. In Yugoslavia bards used chiasmus to remember oral histories. Also the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew cultures frequently used them. In the Old Testament there are many. However, chiasmus writing style was only discovered in 1850, while the Book of Mormon was published in 1830. Some non-Nephi examples are in 2 Nephi 29:13, Alma 36, and Mosiah 3:18-19. There is no better example of chiasmus writing than the Book of Mormon, and this writing is ancient.
Wordprinting is a statistical calculation to distinguish different writing styles and therefore different writers. Because writers have specific writing styles, what words are used and how they are used creates statistically detectable patterns. This statistical method is accepted in the scientific community. It was used to detect different writers of the Federalist Papers and the collection of the English philosopher Hobbs' work. The research found that the work attributed to certain Federalist Papers writers does indeed match their writing style. All of the writings attributed to Hobbs were separated from works published with his. Wordprinting identified 7 distinct writers in the Book of Mormon, but none of them match Joseph Smith or any of his associates.
Geography of the Book of Mormon is probably the best evidence. No one at time of JS believed that Arabian peninsula had inhabitable oases & mountains. Now it is known to be like Book of Mormon says. Three places found mentioned by Nephi have been found on the Arabian peninsula. First is the camp where Lehi first camped. The route Nephi followed was the only route one can follow because mountains border the beach. The traditional path used by Arabs and merchants in the spice trade was the trail on the east side of mountains. At this place Lehi described a small perennial stream (named the river of Laman by Lehi) in a huge, solid valley (named the valley of Lemuel by Lehi). This stream was said not exist because no streams empty into the Red Sea. Recently a small stream was found that does empty into the Red Sea because too small, so it goes underground when it reaches the beach. However it is perennial stream as explained by Lehi (1 Nephi 2:6, 8, 10).
Nephi said that Nahum was where Ishmael was buried. It was a place where their route went from south south east to directly east. French archaeologists found a large cemetery at this exact spot before WWII. They hypothesized that the cemetery was a common burial site that was used to bury people who died along the route. People were not buried in the sand along the way because the burial site would never be found again. That would explain why Ishmael was buried here. However this place did not have the name Nahum nor did any city in Arabia have this name. An Arabian tribe in the area for last 100's years called this place by name of name Nahum. In the mid-1990's archeologists found 3 altars (made during Lehi's time) at exactly the right place that have the name Nahum written on them several times. Archeologists say this is better evidence than all other evidence of the authenticity.
Bountiful, another place mentioned where Nephi built ships to go to the Americas, has mountains went all the way to the beach (1 Nephi 17:6), has running water, high quality iron ore (1 Nephi 17:7) is found in the mountains (1 Nephi 17:7). This place was found in Oman on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The area meets all of the criteria. Though the mountains and lowland areas are no longer forested because of deforestation and intensive goat-grazing, both the mountains and the marginal lowlands at the base of the mountains were forested. Today all are deforested and not allowed to regrow because of extensive goat-herding.
All these evidences leave the places where the Lehi's family crossed the Arabian Desert very clear. Along with the names Lehi, Alma, Nahum, and others, the story of Lehi appears ever more true by hard physical evidence.
Numerous speculations both published and unpublished have surfaced over the years to explain where the Nephite/Lamanite lands were located. At least 80 theories have been published. Some said that the lands north and south of the Isthmus of Panama is the Nephite land. Others thought bigger thinking that the land to the north was North America and the land to the south was South America and the narrow strip of land was Mexico and Central America. One far fetched idea put the Nephite lands were in the Great Lakes region. Even Joseph Smith speculated on their location after book by Stephenson & Cartwood about the recently found Mayan ruins on Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala was a good place to start.
Any valid theory must include the descriptions found in the Book of Mormon. Any theory must have a narrow strip of land with the annihilated civilizations of the Nephites (600BC-400AD) & Jaredites (2,000 BC – 300 BC) to the north and Lamanite civilization (600 BC - longtime) to the south. Contrary to popular Mormon belief the Hill Cumorah is not where the golden plates were buried. It was the location where all plates that Mormon used were stored (Mormon 6:6). Also it is absolutely conceivable that Moroni walked to upstate New York in the 36 yrs from time he received plates from his father till time he buries plates in New York (In Mormon 6:6 Mormon gives the gold plates to Moroni in 385 AD and Moroni 10 was written about 421 AD).
As a side note, the story of Joseph & Oliver seeing Mormon's Cumorah in vision comes from 6 3rd- and 4th-hand stories of this experience. It appears that they saw the room in vision. The Book of Mormon promises we will receive all of these records in the last days. Also contrary to popular belief Moroni brought the sword of Laban and several other things, but the stone box only had the gold plates and Urmmim and Thummin.
A book written in 2000 called Mormon's map by John L. Sorenson calculated the distances between Nephite cities to determine the size of the Nephite/Lamanite nations.
1. Nephi to Zarahemla - max 180 miles
2. Nephi to narrow neck 340 miles max
3. Nephi to Cumorah 400 miles max
4. Max size Nephite/Lamanite lands 500 miles length & 200 miles width
Only one location fits description, and it was found 2-3 yrs ago. Olmec civilization is the first city- building civilization in the Americas and dates to the start of the Jaredites civilization and ends precipitously approximately 400 BC. The Highland Maya (pre-classic Maya) dates from 600BC to 400AD and disappeared suddenly. The Lowland Maya (pre-classic Maya) occurred during the same time and was large and had tribute kings (Lamanites had tributary kingdoms, e.g. Lamoni was a tributary king under his father, Limhi was tributary king under the Lamanite king). Also approximate population size of Olmec and Highland Maya civilizations as discovered from the ancient records and archeological findings matches neatly with the population size of the Jaredite and Nephite civilizations. The evidence that these civilizations were the Nephite/Lamanite lands is overwhelming. Pres. Reynolds then said that it is time to quit debating the location of the Book of Mormon lands and accept the fact that they are found.
President Reynolds (former director of FARMS) still had another hour of talk left when he decided to end because he was losing his voice and he had already talked for 1 hour and 15 minutes. He still had genetic information about the Native Americans and many other things that were unknown that have now been discovered (FAIR has a good article on this). As with anything that is authentic, time is on its side. As we learn more, the Book of Mormon will be proven by more and more evidence to be an authentic book of an ancient American people and that Joseph Smith translated the book as he testified and was not its author. Of course, the fact that it is scripture depends on the spiritual witness that everyone can and will only receive through the Holy Ghost.
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