Rivers

I read through the thread on General Conference rumors. Apparently there isn't anything too exiting being rumored. But what about speculation? What kinds of topics do we anticipate the GA's will address? I expect to hear some talks addressing some of the big stories going on in the news. Probably more COVID-19 stuff. I imagine we'll have a talk or two addressing racism. Maybe all the rioting will be addressed. As far as big announcements, I really don't see them making any.

The fact that there is a consistent and coherent geography found within the Book of Mormon is something I find impressive. That is when one takes into account the witness accounts of Joseph Smith dictating the whole thing with his face in a hat. Joseph Smith must of had a photographic memory.

Kerry Muhlestein did a BOA presentation at the FAIR conference a few days ago. Did anyone here have a chance to see it?

Are the Mayans in the Book of Mormon? Did the Mayans assimilate to BOM peoples’ civilization or the other way around? Or did the Maya live in their own separate cities from BOM people? Were the Maya actually called Maya or is that name given to them later on?

Joseph Smith, W. W. Phelps, and others had a fascination with ancient languages. So they attempted to decipher the Egyptian language. They clearly were engaging in pseudo-19th century scholarship. Can Joseph be both a prophet and a bad scholar?

If the BOM is historical, Reformed Egyptian was real written language. There’s no way it would have been translated without revelation.

How so?

The Facsimile explanations. The KEP

I just saw this on Facebook from David Bokovoy. I have yet to see a satisfying apologetic response to this problem. Not one that is satisfying to me anyway. Maybe I’ll never get one. But I thought I’d try asking for one again. Any volunteers?

I went and listened to some of Ritner's Mormon Stories interview. I also re-watched Terryl Givens' interview with Kerry Muhlstein. I like how Givens points out that Egyptologists were ripping the Book of Abraham to shreds over a hundred years ago. And here we have Robert Ritner ripping the Book of Abraham to shreds now in the year 2020. Maybe we should take the same approach that Latter-day Saint scholars took all the way back in 1913: Joseph Smith obviously couldn't translate Egyptian but the product we ended up with is somehow inspired. Maybe Gee's approach isn't the right way to go

Terryl Givens has actually pointed out this sentiment. He has recently discussed the fact that long before the rediscovery of the Joseph Smith papyri in the 60's, there were critics pointing out the problems with what we already had. Church leaders were also responding to the criticisms. This whole Book of Abraham controversy has been going on for a long time. I remember reading the Book of Abraham as a kid and finding it very odd that we had symbols from an ancient pagan religion in one of our standard works. I never understood why all these Egyptian symbols had Jewish/Christian me

Jeff Lindsay was my very first exposure to Latter-day Saint apologetics clear back in the early 2000’s before my mission.

The Nahom thing is the most impressive evidence of which I am aware. But is it possible Joseph Smith saw it on a map somewhere?

Got it. Thanks!

I just looked on the JSPP website. There are three BOA manuscripts from 1835 and two from 1842.