Book of Mormon, Part 36 – Harvest F

Heart of the Matter Broadcast

Location: SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology., where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity, face to face. Show 11 BOM 41 Harvest F March 13th 2012

And I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your host. We praise the True and Living God for allowing us to participate in this ministry. May He be with you (and us) tonight.

Sundays and Bible-Centered Church

SUNDAYS? We hold a Bible-Centered Church. 10am is Milk 2:30 is Meat Join us. Go to www.c-a-m-p-u-s.com for more information.

One of the things that makes CAMPUS unique is our music. No, it is NOT hyper appealing in the Christian Worship sense. But what it is is the Word of God . . . put to music as a means to bring the Word into the forefront of our hearts and minds. Now we supply people who come to CAMPUS with a CD of these numbers but we also want to make them available to you: Take a listen:

(PLAY PROMO VIDEO OF “In His Words” HERE)

If you would like to learn the Word (at least seventeen verses of it) that has been put to music – go to www.hotm.tv and get your CD now. Alright . . . Also on Sundays at 1pm Heart of the Matter replays on AM 820 The Truth. Love that station all week . . . but tune in Sunday’s at 1pm to hear replays of Heart.

Book Releases

Couple of items I’d personally like to quickly highlight tonight: First, we have produced three books for your reading pleasure and outreach efforts. I am personally very proud of all of them as they do their best to address the purpose for their being written.

The first book is Born-Again Mormon (show black and white) which in the third printing became “I was a Born-Again Mormon.” (show color copy). This is perhaps the best book to give to an LDS seeker. Gentle, from my heart of hearts, and it explains what it means to be in a relationship with God verses in a system of religious observance.

Our second book (hold it up) is titled “If My Kingdom Were of this World Then My Servants Would Fight.” This short book is my personal favorite as I was able to freely express how I believe that much of modern Christianity has gotten lost in the minutia of empty causes and bogged down in the quagmire of national politics. This book WILL challenge you because it will prove to you that Christianity is NOT about solving, curing, or fighting social evil, but sharing Jesus in love to everyone.

Finally, we have what appears to be our best written work ever produced (SHOW HARDBACK). I say “best” because it has been refined (edited, formatted and designed, even oddly illustrated, and put in a hardback with a dust-cover) but more importantly serves both as an in-depth resource AND an easy-to-read, chocked full of logical, biblical arguments present in the Mormon/Christian debate.

www.hotm.tv

Ministry Operations

You know, in the spirit of offering these books to our growing audience, which involves sales (to put it bluntly) I have had a number of people asking about how much our National Tour is going to run us. Let me explain how our ministry has operated from the get go.

First, we will find ourselves impressed with an idea – to write a book, establish a website, launch a new show, do a tour. We ponder on the action. Pray. Consult the Lord. And wait. Watch. See where the desire goes. If still inclined, we then set forth to put the idea into action – I have started and outlined no less than eighty books in the past ten years.

If God blesses the initial action by opening doors and preparing the way, in making the action FLOW, we proceed. If the action is cumbersome, at odds with His Spirit, or just doesn’t come naturally, it is usually shelved (I say usually because I have proceeded with some things that were not right . . . and in retrospect I am able to see where I erred). But typically, if God closes enough doors, makes the action untenable, or we begin to see ourselves as spinning our wheels, we cut the action off no matter what.

Now, most people do things differently. They save up, they get everything right, and then they proceed. When people ask me, “How much is this tour running you?” or say, “you guys must be in the chips to travel all over the nation,” they have

Faith and Trust: A Journey Without a Safety Net

The process all wrong. The notion came to our heart. We prayed. We’ve taken steps. Tested the water. We did not have one dime saved to fund it any more than we have money set aside before we write a book. We live by faith and trust in Him. We insist on this model. In the national tour we do not have ANY appointments set. But we know and trust that if God wants what we have to say heard, appointments will come. So will the funding. It ALWAYS has with things that are right.

But along the way we do our part – and in this that is letting everyone know our intentions. All this being said, if the Lord puts it on your heart to help support the Tour, take note of the following and let people know we’re going to be in your area. If you don’t care, and God doesn’t open doors, we don’t care, and won’t try and kick them in.

Therefore, if inclined, grab a paper and pen and take note of when we will be in your part of the country.

(SHOW CLIP of New and Improved Clip here)

www.C-A-M-P-U-S.com

PLAY “IN HIS WORDS” PROMO HERE

(GRAPHIC here) www.hotm.tv

(GRAPHIC) AM 820

(No book graphics as I will be holding a hard copy of each.)

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(SHOW National Tour Clip with Jack White)

Community and Support Along the Way

Couple more things: We traveled the Wasatch front last Saturday and were blessed to participate in a number of Open Water Baptisms. It was also great to meet up with so many supportive Christian brothers and sisters along the way – people who just turned out because they love the Body. With the exception of one individual, everyone who was baptized had at one time or another been an active Latter-day Saint. All have come to a saving faith in Jesus and Jesus Christ alone.

From Logan that morning all the way down to Provo that night we were able to see people at every location profess their faith in the Lord and submit to water baptism as an outward symbol of an inward saving faith. We’re so grateful for the fast-growing Alpine Church in Logan and pastor Chad for his hospitality. If you live in the Cache Valley I think Alpine church located at:

395 South Main Logan Utah

The Alpine church in Riverdale was made available to us and this is about the second or third year they have done this. We thank Pastor Bill for his open door policy of supporting the body. If you live in the Riverdale area, give Alpine Riverdale a try. They are located at:

5050 South 1275 West Riverdale Utah

Here in Salt Lake City, The Church at Liberty Park (pastored by Dave Springer) was more than hospitable with the pastor setting up ambient music, overhead slides, and a font full of water. A number of people were baptized there.

662 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah

We ended the day utilizing the facilities of Provo Baptist Church, located at 100 North 700 West in Provo Utah and led by Pastor Neil. We highly recommend anyone that in Utah Valley check out what’s going on there at Provo Baptist as Pastor Neal is the real deal (and he’s quite genteel).

Now, some of you might be thinking (or even saying) out loud: “Well goodness me, ole Shawn only recommends churches that support him and his ministry!” Well, I’ve got news for you – you’re absolutely right. But NOT – NOT for the reasons you might think. I believe that in the Body everyone ought to support anyone who is a believer – whether we agree with them on every point of doctrine or not.

Collaboration Among Believers

When a church is willing and open to help support a brother or ministry who they might not even entirely agree with in terms of methods or appearance or whatever, that is a church I feel very comfortable recommending because that is a church that cares about the “weightier matters.” Notice the Pastor’s of these specific churches didn’t try and take ownership of the baptisms, didn’t require names of those baptized, nor did they require a single penny from us to use their facilities? Notice we did not need to belong to their little group, or ministry, or denomination?

Did you know I am only personal friends with one of the four pastors involved – so this wasn’t a buddy deal between us nor have any of them ever come to us to be highlighted on the air?

Do we endorse and promote churches who are open – like Good

Open Approach to Serving the Body of Christ

Shepherd Lutheran, and Sandy Ridge, and Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City (and these four I’ve named tonight) to serving the Body of Christ openly and without conditions. Because if they treat controversial ministries who bring people out of darkness with love and respect, they are certain to treat controversial, imperfect people the same way. Get it? Life is far too short to maintain a club, or elitist, or exclusionary mentality.

If you have never heard your church mentioned here on Heart, ask your leadership why, not me.

GRAPHIC OF ADDRESS OF ALPINE IN LOGAN

GRAPHIC OF ADDRESS OF ALPINE IN RIVERDALE

GRAPHIC OF ADDRESS OF THE CHURCH AT LIBERTY PARK

GRAPHIC OF ADDRESS OF PROVO BAPTIST CHURCH

Reflections on Religious Transitions

Since I’m on my soap-box tonight, let me say one more thing that ought to be apparent to your Latter-day Saints out there but for some reason seems to escape most of you. I know that our traveling up and down the Wasatch Front and baptizing people who were formerly of your faith is repugnant to you.

But I’d like you to reflect upon your reaction. For starters, you claim (today) that you are Christian, or at least a segment of Christianity. If this is the case, why do you get angry that we are bringing people out of your religion and into a direct, non-denominational relationship with Jesus Christ? Notice that all the other pastors from all the other churches never worried about who the people were or where they would attend church later when they let them get baptized in their church? How come? Because all of those men of God know that it is the relationship a person has with Jesus and NOT the religious expression they embrace that matters.

But see, Latter-day Saint, you DON’T believe this. YOU think someone has to be Mormon. That only YOU are true. That only YOU have the right and authority to do anything on this earth that is Christian. You can argue that this is not true but we have your doctrine and teachings to prove it. Also, you and your missionaries have NO problem going into the homes of people and taking them away from their religious affiliations do you?

So you get angry and repulsed and send us emails telling us we are doing something evil by getting people to leave Mormonism but you do the very same thing and think it’s okay! The onus of this falls completely on your back, not ours. See, we don’t care where a person chooses to worship so long as they are worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth. You say people MUST – MUST – MUST – MUST be a Mormon to be with Heavenly Father. And this is just one reason why Mormonism is NOT part of the Body of Christ.

Insights into the Book of Mormon Production

Well we’ve touched on some things that would cause anyone who opens an original copy of the Book of Mormon to say, “Huh?” Tonight we’re going to step back to the space in time where Joseph Smith has finished his “translation” and is now looking to get the book printed. But Joseph was not free to just print a bunch of copies up. Because of his storytelling and other circumstances, he had to take care of a few loose ends as a means to cover his tracks. If Joseph was anything, he was a man who (in the name and errand of God) would blaze a trail, see the error of his way, and then, while blazing another simultaneously work to wipe away his tracks on the former path.

First he had to address the possibility that the first 116 pages stolen from Martin Harris would not pop back up and prove that he had not translated anything concrete from his plates but that he merely provided an extemporaneous narrative created from his mind and possibly some notes. So what did he do? He included the following which was only in the first Edition of the Book of Mormon. Now, in addition to what Joseph says to protect himself from the 116 pages proving he was a con, observe two other things:

First, listen to the way Joseph composes this preface – it SOUNDS just like it belongs IN the BOOK of Mormon – but it is merely Joseph providing a pre-emptive defense against the stolen 116 pages proving his con. Additionally, why does Joseph write using King’s English when he is only explaining something to the reader?

The Preface and Its Implications

This preface? The answer is because Joseph could speak with a “Scripture voice” without a problem – or maybe even compulsively. Finally, notice how Joseph signs this preface. Ready? Here is the word for word preface that was included in the first edition of every Book of Mormon:

“As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which said account, some person or persons have stolen from me, notwithstanding my utmost exertions to recover it again – and being commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over again, for Satan hath put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words, that they did read contrary from that which I translated and caused to be written; and if I should translate the same over again, they would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive this work: but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing: therefore thou shalt translate from the plates of Nephi, until you come to that which ye have translated, which ye have retained; and behold ye shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words. I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the Devil. Wherefore to be obedient unto the commandments of God, I have, through his grace and mercy, accomplished that which he hath commanded me respecting this thing. I would also inform you that the plates of which hath been spoken, were found in the township of Manchester, Ontario county, New York. The Author

Controversy of the Lost Pages

According to this, after Joseph translated the first 116 pages of his Book of Mormonion, they were stolen and those who took them were influenced by Satan to alter the pages so when Joseph produced the same pages again those who stole the original 116 pages would have altered them and thus it would seem like the second translations were different than the first. And Joseph would be made to look like a fraud.

What most LDS people don’t ever stop to think about is how impossible it would be to alter any of those original 116 ink written papers. It’s not like those “evil people under Satan’s control” could have taken the 116 pages and whited words and phrases out or written over them. I mean it was 1829 – the best they could do would try and reproduce all 116 pages in Joseph Smith’s hand, but even that would be easy to detect. In other words, what Joseph Smith said God protected him from was an impossibility to pull off.

Witnesses and Authenticity

In the end, Joseph’s supposed attempt to protect himself from a fictitious attack was actually Joseph’s attempt to conceal the fraud he was trying to pull off on the world. Joseph apparently thought he had taken care of this problem by including this in the preface of all first edition Books of Mormon.

His next obstacle to overcome was going to take a bit more manipulation and planning. You see, in order to give his new book some sort of authenticity, Joseph knew he would have to somehow prove some golden plates actually existed. Had he gone to print and not had one single person actually see the plates, nobody – or very few people – would have accepted his story that the book had ancient origins. In other words, Joseph needed corroborating witnesses to give his book legs.

Now I strongly suggest that there were NO golden plates ever or whatsoever. However, there may have been some type of plates Joseph made up in his father’s barrel-making shop (called a Cooper’s shop) where they would be skilled at cutting tin and other metals to produce reinforced bands which were used to keep their wooden barrels intact.

Now, Joseph ensured that nobody would ever try and take a sneak-peak at his manufactured

Joseph Smith and the Plates

In the back-wooded environs of religious hyperbole, which surrounded Smith and his family, the warning of an immediate GodSmack seemed to carry a lot of weight. I mean, it even kept his own wife Emma from peeking under a cloth at the supposed ancient metal record. Nevertheless, a number of people did say they were allowed to actually heft the box in which the plates were held. These people estimated that their weight in the box was somewhere between 30 and 60 pounds. (If the plates were actually gold, they would have weighed somewhere between 160 and 200 pounds). But having a set of dummy plates around for his wife to finger or for strong men to heft would not suffice in giving Smith the authenticity required.

If nobody ever actually saw the plates Joseph claimed he translated the book from, then far too many potential converts would be lost to reasonable doubt. Pulling from his experience of scrying, peepstoning, and supposedly seeing buried treasures guarded by spirits, Joseph knew the value of having other people testify of having seen what he claimed existed.

The Witnesses

So where did he get his witnesses? As we’ve said before on the show, if Smith was really concerned about truth and honest witnesses, he would have gone to the most respected men and women of his day – Judges and landowners, physicians and educators, to serve as his witnesses. But that is not who Smith recruited. Instead, he pulled all – ALL of his witnesses from his own family and a family that shared in the Smith’s world-view of visionary magic and treasure hunting – the Whitmers.

Now, going back in an earlier discussion about the witnesses, you might remember that I strongly suggested that both the Smith Family and the Whitmer family were in on this venture. And they were in search of a mark (or someone to con) who possessed in equal amounts money to invest and religious gullibility. Joseph found this mark in a local man of means by the name of Martin Harris.

The Teams of Witnesses

Now, Smith devised two teams of witnesses – one consisting of three witnesses and the other consisting of eight. Without Martin Harris the mark being present, the teams of Joseph’s witnesses looked like this:

1. First Team of Witnesses
   Oliver Cowdery (cousin to Smith)
   David Whitmer

2. Second Team of Witnesses
   Joseph Smith, Senior
   Hyrum Smith
   Samuel Smith
   Christian Whitmer
   Jacob Whitmer
   Peter Whitmer, Jr.
   John Whitmer

Witnesses to the Book of Mormon

Hiram Page (married to a Whitmer)

The only one outside these two families (who were thick as . . . thieves) was Martin Harris. This is how to first begin looking at the witnesses and their claims. And it is with this information that we can begin to understand why there were two teams of witnesses and not just one. Keep all that with you . . . we’ll pick it up next week.

Contact Information

Right now let’s go to the phones:

(801) 973-8820
(801) 973-TV20

We really want seekers – LDS seekers and agnostic or atheistic seekers. And first-time callers.

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