“Did he [Joseph Smith, Jr.} really think he was translating? If so he was acting in good faith. But was he really translating? If so, it was by a process which quite escapes the understanding of the specialists and lies in the realm of the imponderable....
“Today nobody claims that Joseph Smith got his information through ordinary scholarly channels. In that case one wonders how any amount of checking along ordinary scholarly channels is going to get us very far.”
(Dr. Hugh Nibley, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1968, page 101)
“Today nobody claims that Joseph Smith got his information through ordinary scholarly channels. In that case one wonders how any amount of checking along ordinary scholarly channels is going to get us very far.”
(Dr. Hugh Nibley, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1968, page 101)
So here we have Nibley explaining as best he can the means by which Joseph Smith gleaned the revelation of the Book of Abraham from an egyptian burial scroll. He basically says that Smith didn't really translate the scroll as much as he used the scroll as a "point of contact" for whatever revelation God might have for him. God could've revealed to him the plans to build a 747 passenger jet just as well as the history of the origins of the earth and man's pre-existence. So really the scroll was just a means of revelation, not the content of the revelation itself.
Fair enough, but this simply leads to more questions...
What is this called in the Bible? Divination, sorcery, spiritism. (See Deuteronomy)
Why would a prophet of God resort to a pagan practice such as divination?
Why does God contradict Himself in what He revealed to Moses and what He revealed to Joseph Smith?
Under such circumstances, which prophet do you favor? The one who came first? The one whose prophecies have been documented as coming true? Biblically this is the standard approach.
But where does that leave Joseph Smith?
High and dry.
His prophecies had about the same chance of fulfillment as MY prophecies, and Deuteronomy tells us that if he tanks on just one prophecy then he qualifies as a FALSE PROPHET.
Something to think about, all you Latter Rain - Dominionist - Word of Faith-ers.
Do you really want to be in the same camp as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young?
