| Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) - An American, James Adair, wrote a book A history of the American Indians in 1775. It attempted to prove that natives had descended from the ancient Israelites. This theme is also found in the Book of Mormon. On P. 377-378 of Adair's book, there is a series of phrases describing Indian fortifications. These are identical to the phrases which describe the construction of defensive forts in Chapters 48-50 and 53 of the Book of Alma. The Book of Alma is one part of the Book of Mormon (1). - Mormon researchers at Brigham Young University completed a computer analysis of the Book of Mormon which concluded that the book was written by at least 24 individual authors. But a multivariate analysis technique conducted by a group of British non-Mormons (2) revealed no such evidence. They concluded that the author of Doctrine and Covenants and of The Book of Mormon was the same person, Joseph Smith. Jerald and Sandra Tanner of Utah Lighthouse Ministry, an Evangelical group knownfor its opposition to the IDS church, performed their own computer study. They searched through the Book of Mormon, the Bible and the Pearl ofGreat Price and concluded that they were all the product of one mind, Joseph Smith. (3 ) - Joseph's three visitations by Moroni recalls afolk belief that if one has the same dream three times in one night, it will surely come true - Smith visited the site of the plates on the Autumn Equinox, an important pagan seasonal day of celebration - The Hill Cumorah where the plates were found does not appear to be a defensive fortification, but rather an Indian burial mound similar to many others in the area. - Joseph Smith was once tried in Bainbridge NY in 1826 for fraud associated with a treasure hunt .for Spanish silver. Court records are ambiguous," the trial was either concluded with a decision that Smith was an impostor or that he should be ushered out of town - The technique that he used to translate the golden plates strongly resemble a popular divinitory method at the time, in which seer stones were placed in a hat and gazed upon Smith is known to have possessed a Seer stone. - Some people believe that if Smith had not been a fraud he would have retranslated the Book of Lehi from the original tablets. - Mormon beliefs about the origins of Native Americans do not agree with findings by archeologists. Natives are most closely related (in terms of blood factors and physical characteristics) to the peoples of Mongolia and elsewhere in Asia, not the Middle East. - The racist revelation received from Moroni that blacks are not worthy of salvation or church membership because they have been cursed by God with the "mark of Ham " appears incompatihle with the rest of the Christian scriptures. - Some Masonic ceremonies have strong similarities to rituals of the Masonic Lodge and were probably derived form the Masons. Mormon References 1. Salt Lake City Messenger, Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Issue 84, 1993-April, P. 5- 7 2. D.I Holmes, A Multivariate Technique for Authorship Attribution and its Application to the Analysis of Mormon Scripture and Related Texts, (article,. book unknown) Oxford University Press. Cited in (3) below. 3. Salt Lake City Messenger, Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Issue 84, 1993-April, P. 9-10 4. Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, Bethany House (1985 ), P. 166-226, P. 10 5. Mather & Nichols, Dictionary ofCults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, Zondervan (1993), P. 186-199 6. James Coates, In Mormon Circles, Addison-Wesley (1990) 7. John Hinnells, A Handbook of Living Religions, Penguin (1984), P. 460 8. See also the principal Mormon texts listed above under Mormon Religious Texts Mormon Resources on the Net D Newsgroup alt.religion. mormon D The following WWW site has an incredible number of links to various LDS resources, including a relay chat network channel, mailing lists, graphics, educational and doctrinal resources, and information on a variety of Mormon religious groups other than the main LDS church (Temple Lot, Bickertonites, Cutlerites, etc), See: http:/ /WWttJ. npl. com/ld,s-irc. htm |
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