Question of the hour for Mormons?

Question

How is that Mormons claim that American Indians are descendants of Lamanites (Semitic origin) when anthropologists and those who specialize in genetics consider them to be of Mongolion extraction?

According to Joseph's mother her son composed yarns about the Indians while he was just a teen a log time before any golden plates were found. "Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would descibe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelling, and the animlas which they rode; their cities thier buildings..This he would do with much easeseemingly, as if he spent his whole life with them." Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical sketches of Joseph Smith the prophet, and his progenitors for many generations: Liverpool 1853, 85, reprinted by Dan Vogel, ed early Mormon documents, Salt lake city:signature books 1996, vol 1, 296

According to Joseph's mother her son composed yarns about the Indians while he was just a teen a log time before any golden plates were found. "Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would descibe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelling, and the animlas which they rode; their cities thier buildings..This he would do with much easeseemingly, as if he spent his whole life with them." Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical sketches of Joseph Smith the prophet, and his progenitors for many generations: Liverpool 1853, 85, reprinted by Dan Vogel, ed early Mormon documents, Salt lake city:signature books 1996, vol 1, 296

Sorry about the reprint folks. My internet speed is ultra slow. Needless to say I encounter some unique anomolies whether or not I did something I'm not quite sure.

Moonman I am not sure if you have ever read the original book of Mormon. That would answer yor questions as to Joseph Smith's education. Although he claimed it was the most correct book they had to make over 3000 changes. His grammer was so bad it contained sentences such as "They did not fight against God no more". Also Adam and Eve which was our first parents, Both Alma and Helam was buried in the water, they was angry with me, when they had arriven in the borders of the land, Moroni was a coming against them. What Joseph Smith did have was a great imagination. The book also contained some out of place words such as the Americanized Sam 1 Nephi 2:17 and the French word adieu (Jacob 7:27) which is an odd farewell in a book that originally written in reformed Egyption by the way that scholars say such a language never existed. Also they have Joseph's Israelites leaving Palestine for the new world before the Babylonion captivity and proceed to build synagogues in te Americas

while the Jews in Palestine didn't start building synagogues until after the Bablyonion captivity had begun.

Being a Christian doesn't demand believing Jesus cannot visit other continents however fabricating a story isn't truthful. And hopefully we are all interested in the pursuit of truth not just the promotion of our denomination. And practising polygamy does kind of violate what Jesus had to say about adultery. I know most Mormon's don't practise this any more however they did teach this for some time and in fact that is how Brigom Young was selected as Joseph's successor because he was pro polygamy as was his successor.

Answer 1

Don't confuse them with facts. In addition how come indians and black people do not become white when they become mormons. This was taught early in the mormon church.

Answer 2

We know now that the Lamanites are not the sole ancestors of the Native American Indians. We also know that the Lamanites and Nephites were not the only people here when they got to the New World. However, there is evidence that some of them at least do have some Semitic characteristics.

>>According to Joseph's mother her son composed yarns about the Indians while he was just a teen a log time before any golden plates were found.<<

Actually, yes, he had found the plates, but he didn't have possession of them yet. The stories he was relating to his family were the ones the angel Moroni was relating to him. And if you read that passage by his mother in context, you would know this.

>>Although he claimed it was the most correct book they had to make over 3000 changes.<<

He never claimed it to be the most correct grammer book. He was talking about correct about the gospel. There were no changes made that changed any doctrine. And even if you point to verses that SEEMED to change doctrine, it wasn't doctrine tat was being changed, it was the wording o the verse, to make it line up with the rest of the Book of Mormon. And remember, they translated it in les than two months. By hand. Hardly conducive to perfection.

>>practising polygamy does kind of violate what Jesus had to say about adultery<<

How? How do you commit adultery if you are married to the person you are supposedly adulterating with? Adultery was the men back east who had a wife, and a couple of mistresses and who knows how many little "by-blows", none of whom he provides support for.

Mormon men, however, who practiced plural marriage, MARRIED the woman, provided her with a home, supported their children as a father should, and more.

Answer 3

A few things I might mention, none of which prove a thing. First of all, Lehi was not of the seed of Joseph, not Judah. Second, Lehi's family traveled east for several years after leaving Jerusalem before reaching a land of many waters where they built ships. This means they may have crossed through Asia which provides several explanations for how the skin of Lamanites descendants became darker.

Third, the Book of Mormon never claims that the Nephites and Lamanites were the only people to come to America. Within the book they meet people from at least two other civilizations, so it is likely that there were others around before, during and after they arrived. These people could have been completely Asian.

I just gave you three possible answers, two of which offer good explanations. Now I would like you to show me some evidence that no one every came to the Americas before the vikings who had anything but Asian ancestry. You can't provide that, and you can't explain to me how a 22-23 year old young man who had no more than three years of schooling in his entire life wrote a complex book consisting of three different dating systems, several societies with interaction between the two and correct accounts of this all. Along with many prophesies which were both made and fulfilled in the book without contradiction. I would also like you to explain how Hebrew scholars have been convinced that it was not written by an American, because it contains many instances where structure and diction is not consistent with our speech but with semitic speech, such as chiasmus and word order or phrases. I could go on with more, but I will let you come up with an answer for this first.

If you really want to know if the Book of Mormon is true, read it and pray about it. If you have faith in Christ, He will manifest the truth of it unto you. See Moroni 10:4 in the Book of Mormon.

shjOlds_442: No evidence of such things? There is. There are wall paintings showing what looks to be horses that date to times before Europeans came over. There is also other evidence supporting the existence of other animals. I would think that this is not widely taught in schools, because we do not want to teach our children that ancient societies killed off certain animals and survived just as well; however, the evidence is real.

Answer 4

"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" Gal. 4:16

Professor Threatened for Exposing
Contradictions in the Book of Mormon

Issue Date: January/February 2003

Thomas Murphy, head of the anthropology department at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington has been threatened with excommunication from the Mormon church for questioning the historical accuracy of the Book of Mormon. The threat resulted from an article which Murphy wrote claiming that genetic data discredits the claim that American Indians are descendants of ancient Israelites who migrated to America long before Columbus.

The Book of Mormon claims that a group of people called the Jaredites moved to America from the Middle East about the time of the Tower of Babel. Unfortunately, they eventually all died in wars.

Later, another group from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh was led by a man named Lehi to what was probably Central America. Some of these died and the rest became the ancestors of the Native Americans.

Murphy's article claimed that the American Indians are related genetically to the Siberians, supporting the most common theory that they probably migrated across a land bridge between Russia and Alaska.

Murphy says, "We're told to tell the truth, but not if the truth contradicts church doctrine. I would prefer to tell the truth."

In his book Answers To My Mormon Friends, Thomas Heinze points out: "The Book of Mormon is presented as true history and gives a number of details which we can check out...However, no archeological evidence has been found in the Americas that directly verifies the Book of Mormon.

In fact, Heinze points out that the Mormons have claimed that the Smithsonian Institution officially recognized The Book of Mormon and that it had been used as a guide to almost all of the major discoveries. This generated so many inquires that the Smithsonian had to write a stock answer denying the claim:

"The Smithsonian Institution has never used The Book of Mormon in any way as a scientific guide. Smithsonian archeologists see no connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book... The Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific guide."

Heinze further observes that if the first people to live in the Americas were Hebrew and Egyptian as The Book of Mormon claims, then remnants of their language would show up in the Indian dialects. None can be found as well as no ancient inscriptions have been unearthed that contain Hebrew or Egyptian words or letters.

Another contradiction concerns the native animals. The Book of Mormon claims that the Israelites found abundant populations of cows, oxen, donkeys, horses and goats in the wilderness of America when they arrived supposedly around 589 BC.

However, there is no evidence that any of these animals existed in America before the Europeans brought them after Columbus discovered America. Native animals such as the Alpaca and the Llama are never mentioned in The Book of Mormon.

Answer 5

The book of mormon itself (see book of Ether) suggested the Asiatic origin of some elements at least, of the Indian race and culture - and way before any anthropologists did.
That account (Ether) tells us that nomadic hunters and stock raisers from west central Asia crossed the water--probably the North Pacific--to the New World. It tells us that these people moved about, built imposing cities, etc.

FYI on "reformed egyptian" - you seem to be operating under the false impression that reformed egyptian is used in the Book of Mormon as a proper name, when in fact, the word reformed is used in the Book of Mormon (in this context) as an adjective, meaning "altered, modified, or changed." This is made clear by Mormon, (Mormon 9:32, 34).

The fact that modern linguists do not know of a script known as 'reformed egyptian' is expected, since Mormon tells us that the script was called reformed Egyptian "by us," that is Nephites; they may well have been the only people to use that term.

Answer 6

In case you didn't know, Lehi and his family came from Jerusalem and sailed to the Promised land, aka the america continent. Lehi had 6 sons, one of which was Laman, from where the name lamanite comes from. They ended up as the ancestors of the American indians. THis all makes perfect sense to me. Also, you might have to take some things on faith. Science is not perfect. for example, I know that God created the earth, they did not just come about by evolution or the big bang or something. Yet science cannot comprehend this. Science is not always correct. And yes I am (a 17 year old) mormon.

Answer 7

We dont believe the Book of Mormon is a record of all the peoples that lived in the americas. Just a few groups. Not only was it just a few groups but a large majority of the people of the Book of Mormon killed each other so there werent a whole lot of them left. Mix the blood of the other american descendants and it becomes very hard to tell their genetic orgins if they were indeed part of the people the Book of Mormon spoke of.

And there is indeed evidence that portion of people from the Biblical areas did come to the americas. The pyramids found in the americas have been thought of as influenced from the pyramids in Egypt. I actually did have history teachers go into the theories that people traveled from africa middle east section and they were not mormon.



music
Where exactly does it say that in order to be christian you cant believe Christ visited any other people on the planet and that you cant practice polygamy, in the Bible?????
In the Bible many prophets did practice polygamy. In the Bible Christ specifically said he had other people to visit.
So your criteria first of all makes no biblical sense. And second of all where in the world do you get the idea that you have any authority whatsoever to proclaim who a christian is? Why is your interpretation of the Bible any more valid then mine?

and mormons dont practice polygamy anymore, bytheway

Answer 8

In order for Mormons to be counted as Christians there are 2 things they have to stop doing.

#1 is stop saying that Jesus was in South America. There is no evidence of this anywhere. Nothing in Mayan or Aztec writings. Nada. Zero.

#2 stop polygamy - Read the story of Moses and the 10 Commandments.

Answer 9

I also seen on a special on TV where they mistaked Canaanites but maybe it was just the guy speaking on there, that- descendents of Cane who were punished with black skin and people hated them for the brother's murder in Genesis. Canaanites are descendents of Canaan, the son of Noah- God punished them because Noah got drunk and naked after the flood. They may have been black to begin with and punished with white skin.

Answer 10

I am a Mormon and I'm honestly not quite sure how to answer this. You should be able to find a good answer at www.mormon.org it is a reliable website. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck.