[This post was originally withdrawn because we learned that “the Temple Department owns the rights and access to what is recorded on the temple grounds during groundbreaking, open house, and dedication.” We are reposting it because we have now received...
read moreReaders may be interested in a recently published peer-reviewed study appearing in Forensic Science International: Genetics, the journal of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. The article, entitled “Resolving a 150-year-old paternity case in Mormon...
read moreAs this review demonstrates, the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon is riddled with misinformation, misrepresentation, special pleading, and a host of additional dubious and erroneous claims. These many problems are not simply innocuous mistakes. They represent an egregious disregard for the even the most basic standards of scholarship. ...
read moreOne of the foundational claims of Rod Meldrum for his "heartland" model of Book of Mormon geography is that modern science has verified a genetic link between native peoples of North America and those of the Middle East. Meldrum uses this evidence to bolster his argument that the events described in the Book of Mormon took place around the Great Lakes region of the United States and that the remnant of Lehi's seed can be identified with specific North American Indian tribes....
read moreAt its most basic definition, "parallelomania refers to a phenomenon (mania) where authors perceive apparent similarities and construct parallels and analogies allegedly without historical basis." In literary criticism, including biblical criticism, parallelomania has been described as "that extravagance among scholars which first overdoes the supposed similarity in passages and then proceeds to describe source and derivation as if implying literary connection flowing in an inevitable or predetermined direction."...
read moreThe Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (AEBOM) appeals to the geographical footnotes added by Orson Pratt in the 1879 edition of the Book of Mormon as evidence for the Heartland model. Similarly, the editors of the AEBOM repeat the claim that Zarahemla is known by revelation to be on the Iowa side of the Mississippi river opposite of Nauvoo, Illinois....
read moreOn April 8, 1844 during a Church conference the Prophet Joseph Smith announced a revelation that all America was Zion. The Manuscript History of Joseph Smith records the following......
read moreLatter-day Saints who accept the historicity of the Book of Mormon have long sought external archaeological verification for ancient Nephites and Lamanites....
read moreWhen we were young, my wife Kathleen and I were — and still are — different in so many ways. I grew up in a large family of sometimes very noisy siblings; she grew up in a quiet home with one brother. I love camping; she got more than her fill of camping as a small...
read moreWhile working on a recent project, I asked Rodrigue Kabuya Kabamba, a member of the Church in Kinshasa, DR Congo, to help me on some graphic designs. This isn’t the first time he has bailed me and others out — his work has been an important part of several other...
read more[Note: This video is from the talk “The Ezekiel Mural at Dura Europos and the Mysteries of Aaron, Moses, and Melchizedek” given at the BYU Studies 50th Anniversary Symposium (Brigham Young University, Provo, UT) by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and David J. Larsen on March 13,...
read moreI am grateful for the responses to my series reviewing the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon. They have come to me both as public comments on different posts in the series and as personal communications (both online and in person). They have given me an opportunity for reflection and have confirmed to me that there is considerable interest among Latter-day Saints for the subjects discussed in my review....
read moreThe Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon features a number of small miscellaneous errors that are evidently the result of either editorial or typographical carelessness....
read moreThe Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon makes a number of unsubstantiated claims and arguments that are meant to either preclude a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon or reinforce a North American setting for the same. ...
read moreIt would be no exaggeration to say that Zelph—or, more properly, the incident involving the recovery and identification of his remains—is an important tentpole in arguments attempting to situate the Book of Mormon in the "heartland." ...
read moreIn addition to restricting the location of the Book of Mormon's "choice land" to the United States, the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon attempts to erase or diminish the Lamanite identity of indigenous American populations outside of the "heartland."...
read moreThe Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormonquotes nineteenth century Latter-day Saint sources speaking of “this land,” “this country,” or “this continent” of America being the location of Book of Mormon events. The obvious aim of this endeavor is to create the impression that these statements can only be referring to the “heartland” of the United States, and not possibly Central or South America. ...
read moreReview of David R. Hocking and Rodney L. Meldrum, eds., Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Utah: Digital Legend Publishing, 2018). 583 pp. $69.95 (hardcover). ...
read moreIn this segment, we trace the unusual courtship of Athanase Ngandu and Jocy Katukumbani and the extraordinary conversion story of Athanase’s parents Souzane BIDILUFIKA and Paul KASONGA — both stories culminating in temple sealings. A Tale of Two Sealings (English,...
read moreIn a presentation at the 2018 FairMormon Conference,[1] I shared stories of some of the faithful Saints in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa). In this series of presentations, I would like to speak from a more personal perspective, reflecting on the...
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