Kevin Hinckley
General Petraeus at BYU
10 Reasons BYU Students make good soldiers
10 — They have already been on many a mission.
9 — Army chow is no problem for folks accustomed to
eating green Jell-o and shredded carrots.
8 — It's not a problem if they don't know what rank
someone is, they just refer to them as Brother or
Sister so-and-so.
7 — They never go AWOL.They just call it being less
active.
6 — They will seize any objective swiftly if you tell them
refreshments will be served.
5 — They know how to make things happen. In fact if
you ever need a base built quickly in a barren
wasteland, stride out to where you want them to
start, plant your walking stick down and say in a
loud voice, "This is the place.“
4 — They have innovative ideas for handling insurgents
— like assigning them home teachers.
3 — They always have a years' supply of provisions on
hand.
2 — They are the world's most reliable designated
drivers.
1 — They understand how far Iraq has come over the
last seven years, and they think that Iraq's old spot
in the "Axis of Evil" can now be filled by the
University of Utah.
In Search of Truth
Critic Logic
If you show me, I
will believe
Lord’s Logic
If you believe, I will
show you
The Dilemma of the Book of
Mormon
Critics of the Church
Attack Joseph Smith and
church history
….But how to explain the
Book of Mormon?
- ‘written’ in just 63 days
- by an uneducated boy
who ‘couldn’t even write a
coherent sentence’
- in isolated, 19th century
upstate New York
Three ‘Proof’ Examples
1- The 3 Witnesses
David Whitmer
Unto all Nations, Kindreds, Tongues and People,
unto whom these presents shall come:
"It having been represented by one John Murphy,
of Polo, Caldwell county, Missouri, that I, in a
conversation with him last summer, denied my
testimony as one of the Three Witnesses of
the Book of Mormon.
"To the end, therefore, that he may understand
me now, if he did not then; and that the world
may know the truth. I wish now, standing as it
were, in the very sunset of life, and in the fear
of God, once for all to make this public
statement:
"That I have never at any time denied that
testimony or any part thereof, which has so
long since been published with that book, as
one of the Three Witnesses…
And that no man may be misled or doubt my
present views in regard to the same, I do again
affirm the truth of all my statements as then
made and published.
Three ‘Proof’ Examples
1- The 3 Witnesses
2- Hebrew-isms in the
Book of Mormon
Hebrew Parallelism or
Chiasmus
Psalms 124:7
Alma 34:9
A. We have escaped as a bird
B. From the snare of the
fowlers
B. The snare is broken
A. And we have escaped.
A. For it is expedient that an atonement
should be made;
B. for according to the great plan of
the Eternal God there must be an
atonement made,
C. or else all mankind must
unavoidably perish;
D. yea, all are
hardened;
D. yea, all are
fallen and are lost
C. and must perish
B. except it be through the atonement
A. which it is expedient should be made.
Three ‘Proof’ Examples
1- The 3 Witnesses
2- Hebrew-isms in the
Book of Mormon
3- Book of Mormon
Geography
Book of Mormon Geography
1) A Major River flowing from South to North
2) A Major River originating from a mountainous narrow strip of
wilderness…
3) Two High Civilizations with Kings and Priests and City-States …
4) The area of the northern culture must contain evidence of
many cities made out of cement.
5) Two Highly Literate (Written Language) Societies living adjacent to but
separate from each other between 550 BC and 200 BC…
6) A small, narrow neck of land dividing the land Northward from the
land Southward
7) Multiple, functional Calendar and Dating Systems
8) A Merchant Class Using Weights and Measures tied to gold, silver
and grain
9) Engineers to Build Temples,Towers, and Highways, using Cement
10) Highly-skilled Craftsmen - working with Precious Metals,
Stonework
11)A Warrior Society - Great Battles, Structured Armies, Sophisticated
Fortifications
12) Legends of a White and Bearded God
13) Must be in the Western Hemisphere
14) The winter climate must be bearable enough for Lamanite
combatants to wear loin-cloths and shaven heads
15) The land must show evidence of susbstantial gold and silver
16) An Agricultural Base to support several millions of people,
17) Columbus visited the area.
The Template
Book of Mormon Geography
Ruins of cement houses
Evidence of civilization
from 1600 BC to 400
AD
Evidence of kings with
smaller kingdoms
Evidence of Biblical
teachings
Mystery of Popol Vue and
The Title of the Lords of
Totonicapan (1554)
Popul Vue? The Mayan story of
Creation
http://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=O9O7
gnMLsyk
The Title of the Lords of Totonicapan
Written in 1554
Ancestors came from
beyond the sea
Given, by the Gods, a
Sacred Bundle of seeing
stones, called the GironGagal that showed them
the way
The Giron-Gagal
Temple of the Cross
Mayan Writings- Listing Olmec King
who ruled in 933 BC
“...and Kish reigned in his stead. And it came to pass that Kish passed
away also, and Lib reigned in his stead.”
(Ether 10:17-18)
the Egyptian Grain God, Nepri (also
spelled Nepi,Nepr, or Nepra), may be
the origin of the name Nephi.[1]
Joseph Smith, 1842
Times and Seasons
The city of Zarahemla, burnt at the
crucifixion of the Savior, and rebuilt
afterwards, stood upon this land . . .
.”
“. . . the ruins of Zarahemla have been
found where the Nephites left
them . . . .”
“We are not agoing (sic) to declare
positively that the ruins of Quiriguá
are those of Zarahemla, but when
the land and the stones, and the
books tell the story so plain, . . . .”
“It will not be a bad plan to compare
Mr. Stephens’ ruined cities with
those in the Book of Mormon.” (Times
and Seasons, Vol. 3, No. 23, October 1, 1842, page 927)
Quirigua
Land
Northward
Most common phrase in the Book
of Mormon?
One Last One….
1 Nephi 16:34 "Ishmael died, and was
buried in the place which was called
Nahom."
Jeddah (Mecca)
President Hinckley
The evidence for its truth, for its validity in a
world that is prone to demand evidence,
lies not in archaeology or anthropology,
though these may be helpful to some.
It lies not in word research or historical
analysis, though these may be confirmatory.
The evidence for its truth and validity lies
within the covers of the book itself.
The test of its truth lies in reading it. It is a
book of God. Reasonable people may
sincerely question its origin; but those who
have read it prayerfully have come to know
by a power beyond their natural senses that
it is true,
that it contains the word of God, that it
outlines saving truths of the everlasting
gospel, that it “came forth by the gift and
power of God … to the convincing of the
Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ”
Ensign, 2004, p. 6