Comments on: On Re-reading Scripture

By: Larry the Cable Guy

Larry the Cable Guy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:39:31 +0000

Once we start to take the Title Page and several other passages at face value and treat the BoM primarily as an instrument to increase faith in Jesus Christ and to convince both Jew and Gentile that he is the Savior, we have made our study much more meaningful.

You can certainly go overboard trying to parallel each story to something you should be doing in your life.

By: Wm Jas

Wm Jas — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:37:20 +0000

I’ve read the Book of Mormon several times, but not in the past eight years or so. Your post has inspired me to pick it up again and see if it has anything new to say.

By: rameumptom

rameumptom — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:48:53 +0000

I’ve read the BoM over 70 times, and it is still new to me in so many ways. In my various studies, whether learning philosophy, science, politics, etc., I will go into the BoM seeking what it wishes to teach me, and not necessarily try to find what I want to find in it.
When I joined at 16 years of age, the wars and stuff were the exciting stuff I liked to read about. Isaiah was difficult. Now, I find the wars somewhat long and boring, while love the teachings, visions, and prophesies. My testimony of Christ has vastly increased as I study the Book of Mormon and seek to understand the atonement through the Christology within its pages.

Thanks for sharing your witness with us.

By: Jana H

Jana H — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:35:10 +0000

We’re finishing up the BoM here at Jana H. Manor, first time for my recently baptized husband. As I’ve been reading and attempting to approach from the position of an investigator/new member, I’ve been struck quite over the head by the constant (constant, constant) reminders of to repent and believe in Christ.

I think this is one of the reasons why my initially-reluctant husband was convinced to continue reading, even in the early, rougher days when he was mostly reading to humor me.

By: floridagirl

floridagirl — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:03:48 +0000

How timely this post is for me.

I had been dragging me feet about reading the BOM again. I put it off for a couple months. Yet this time, as I read through Nephi, I am finding so many things that have really spoken to my heart. Things I never picked up before, but I’m thinking it’s because I am going through some particular challenges I’ve never faced before, so I guess that’s why. I can really feel his pain in chapter 17 when he talks about all their afflictions, too many for him to write. And I also hope that like for Nephi, the Lord can be my “light in the wilderness.”

Enjoyed your thoughts, thanks.

By: danithew

danithew — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:37:46 +0000

I’m also interested in the ‘humility’ of the Book of Mormon about itself.

It’s interesting that the title page states outright that the book contains abridgements of two sets of records and that if there are faults they are the mistakes of men.

That’s a pretty direct way for the book to say that it doesn’t contain everything and that it isn’t a perfect record – and yet it also warns the reader against dismissing the record.

There is a temptation by some religions with scriptures (Christianity with the Bible, Islam with the Qur’an, etc.) to claim that they have perfect all-inclusive records. From the outset, the Book of Mormon seems to go out of its way to disembowel any such approaches.

One might perceive this as a built-in mechanism against some kinds of textual fanaticism.

By: Ron Madson

Ron Madson — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:08:39 +0000

Natalie,

I also appreciate Nephi’s humility and his transparent use of rationalizing followed by “God made me do it” followed by use of the very scripture that was used to kill Jesus, ie, “better that one man perish than….” In other words, the ends justify the means. Mark could not be more right that one can have twenty different readings of Nephi “getting” aka stealing the plates. The beauty is that the BOM does change it’s meaning for us over time. For forty years Nephi’s courageous act of killing a drunk man was used by myself in teaching to inspire faith and obedience. However, now I see the BOM as a correct book in this regard—that is it correctly outlines the pattern of a birth of a civilization based on a founding murder, the “us against them” narrative which is interrupted by teachings and invitations to follow a new pattern through Christ, including a two hundred year reprieve—- followed by returning to the pattern of destruction.” Mormon offered the most sincere apology—”be more wise” and don’t think, talk and act like we did that led us to this perpetual state of war—which leads inexorably to extinction.
As soon as I began to really liken the scriptures to our time (the “righteous”/leaders even in our faith using their theology/rhetoric to justify wholesale murder in Iraq and Afghanistan) was when my understanding of the BOM dramatically changed—now I take Nephi at his word in 2 Nephi 4 and admire his candor, and the most sincere apology from Mormon who pleads with us “to be more wise” and learn from them by NOT doing what they did rather then imitating what they did.

By: Natalie B.

Natalie B. — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:27:01 +0000

Nice post. I’m intrigued by your discussion of how “humble” the Book of Mormon is as it apologizes for itself. I am so used to hearing it proclaimed as the word of God that I don’t think I fully registered before the authors’ fears of their own mistakes in writing it.

By: Kathryn Skaggs

Kathryn Skaggs — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:06:05 +0000

Lovely post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on personal scripture study.

As a former Seminary teacher, I have found that if I focus my reading on searching for the principles and doctrines that are found throughout the scriptures, and then how these teachings can apply to me personally — my scripture study is deeply enhanced.

Each time I re-read portions of scripture, I too, receive “new” revelation that I had not noticed previously, which is very personal indeed:-)

tDMg