The Interpreter Foundation has released a new short video entitled “Martin Harris Returns”. We hope you enjoy it and, if you do, share it with friends and family. Please help us spread the word and raise awareness of the docudrama. Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormonfrom which they were taken.
An important educational illustration first published in 1884. (Wikimedia CC) Antimormonism has made tremendous progress since that primitive early attempt. Contemporary antimormonism, for example, makes extensive use of computer technology and the Internet, which was far less common in 1884.
Maurine Proctor writes in Meridian Magazinepresents an important new article: “Revealing the Truth: The Real Story Behind the CES Letter”
The article itself, written by Michael W. Peterson (no relation) and Jacob Z. Hess, can be accessed here: “Were These Ever the Sincere Questions of a Serious Truth Seeker? Ten Lines of Evidence Documenting the True Origins and Purpose of the ‘CES Letter.'”
It’s good that there is now this new and more honest account of the creation and development of the CES Letter. Of course, it took a while because, as Mark Twain probably didn’t say, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still in the making.
Of course, I am fully aware that some will react to the research of the Peterson brothers and Hess by describing it as ad hominem and ignoring the actual issues raised in the CES Letter. But this would itself be a deceptive attempt to divert attention from something else; the issues raised in the CES Letter have been raised many times before. Maurine Proctor actually lists several of them. (Hell, even I set out to investigate the matter—on which the story hangs. But my investigation was deeply vexing: so many errors, so little time!) And investigating the biographical background of the author of a text or theory or composition is perfectly legitimate. (To compare a small thing with much larger things, we are richer for having the lives of Mozart and Einstein and Austen and studies of the genesis of Darwin’s theory of evolution and the novels of Hemingway and the compositions of Handel. That is intellectual history.)
And those who insist on disclosing what they believe to be the true circumstances of the appearance of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and debunking the false claims associated with it can hardly object when others seek to better understand the true circumstances of the appearance of a relatively influential attack on the Book of Mormon and the Restoration by debunking the seemingly false claims associated with it.
Hugh W. Nibley (born March 27, 1910; died February 24, 2005) Public domain image on Wikimedia Commons
Newly published today on the Interpreter Foundation website: Hugh Nibley noted: Funeral service for Hugh W. Nibley, speech by then Elder Dallin H. Oaks:
“I have known Hugh Nibley for over 50 years. He was my teacher at BYU in the winter of 1954. I cannot remember why I took Hugh Nibley’s Rise of the Western Church to A.D. 600, but his influence on my intellectual horizons was enormous. Professor Nibley was the first eccentric I ever met, and his example gave me a lifelong appreciation for the wonderfully diverse ways in which our Creator distributes talents and spiritual gifts. While I experienced his incredible brilliance and knowledge, I also noticed his humble indifference to appearance and other worldly matters. He sometimes came to class wearing mismatched pants and coat, and he often wore the two-buckle combat boots that were standard issue for the foot soldiers of World War II, which had just ended. As I got to know him better in later years, I realized that he was the epitome of the Book of Mormon teaching: “Spent not money upon things that have no value, neither labor for that which giveth not satisfaction” (2 Nephi 9:51).”
This article is part of our reprint series of book chapters and originally appeared in Hugh Nibley notededited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. For more information, see https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/hugh-nibley-observed/.
Brigham Young, ca. 1850
Brent L. Top, former professor of church history and doctrine and dean of religious education at Brigham Young University, is convinced, as are several other scholars, that Brigham Young had at least one near-death experience, possibly more than one. One notable experience of this kind may have occurred shortly before the Latter-day Saint pioneer force entered the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. He spoke quite frequently about the spirit world, and perhaps he did so because he had seen it:
“Here we are constantly plagued by diseases and sufferings of all kinds, … but in the spiritual world we are free from all these and enjoy life, fame and intelligence.”
“I will not stop learning while I live, nor when I go to the spirit world. There, however, I will learn with greater ease.”
“I would say to you, my friends and brethren, that if we could see things as they are, and as we shall see and understand them, this dark shadow and this valley would be so insignificant that we would turn around and look into it, and when we have passed through it, we would think that this is the greatest advantage of my whole existence, for I have passed from a state of worry, sorrow, grief, misery, pain, anguish and disappointment to a state of being in which I can enjoy life to the fullest, as far as is possible without a body.
“My spirit is free, I no longer thirst, I no longer want to sleep, I no longer hunger, I no longer get tired, I run, I walk, I work, I go, I come, I do this, I do that, whatever is asked of me, nothing like pain or tiredness, I am full of life, full of strength and I enjoy the presence of my Heavenly Father through the power of His Spirit. I want to say to my friends, if you live your religion, live in such a way that you are filled with faith in God, that the light of eternity will shine upon you, you can see and understand these things for yourself” (Deseret News, biweekly28 July 1874, 1).
“As to parting from our friends, and our own departure, I may say that I was near enough to understand eternity, and that I had to have far more faith to want to live, than I ever had to have to live in all my life. The brightness and glory of the next room is indescribable. It is not so cluttered that, as we grow older, we must trudge along, taking care not to fall. We even see our youth frequently stubbing their toes and falling. But yonder, how different! They move with ease, and like lightning. If we want to visit Jerusalem, or this place, that place, or that place—and I suppose we shall be permitted to do so, if we will—then we are there, looking at the streets. If we want to see Jerusalem as it was in the Saviour’s day; or if we want to see the Garden of Eden as it was when it was created, we are there, and see it as it existed spiritually, for it was created first spiritually and then temporally, and spiritually it is still there. And when we are there, we can view the earth as it was at the beginning of creation, or visit any city that exists on its surface. If we want to understand how they live here in these western islands or in China, we are there; indeed, we are like the light of the morning. … God has revealed some little things concerning His movements and power, and the action and movement of lightning furnish a beautiful illustration of the abilities of the Almighty (Speeches by Brigham Young380, Teachings of Brigham YoungChapter 38).”
“Behind the veil we have more friends than on this side, and they will greet us more joyfully than you ever were greeted by your parents and friends in this world; and you will be more glad to meet them than you ever were to see a friend in this life; and then we shall go on from step to step, from joy to joy, and from one intelligence and power to another, and our happiness will become more and more sublime and tangible as we advance in the words and powers of life” (Speeches by Brigham Young379-380, Teachings of Brigham YoungChapter 38).
There is still a significant amount of water on the planet (like here in the Amazon), so abstaining from alcohol or even cola products is not necessarily fatal, nor does it have to leave you completely thirsty. (public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)
Nothing illustrates the oppression of humanity by theistic belief better or more clearly than the prohibition of the consumption of wonderful alcoholic beverages by some particularly toxic faiths. Here is an article on this subject from the ever-overflowing Christopher Hitchens memorial ceremony “How religion poisons everything”™: “Studies disprove alcohol’s health benefits: Experts say no amount of alcohol is ‘safe,’ but the risk depends on many factors. For some, death begins with one drink.”
