1 Nephi 9:1-6; “And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak, as he dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel, and also a great many more things, which cannot be written upon these plates. 2 And now, as I have spoken concerning these plates, behold they are not the plates upon which I make a full account of the history of my people; for the plates upon which I make a full account of my people I have given the name of Nephi; wherefore, they are called the plates of Nephi, after mine own name; and these plates also are called the plates of Nephi. 3 Nevertheless, I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people. 4 Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry; and the other plates are for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions of my people. 5 Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. 6 But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the fulfilled prophecies in the BoM and I’m wondering how it was that some went overboard with pinpoint accuracy. As I looked over some of these I compared Joseph’s reverse engineering schemes with our Witnessing Tip of the Day series and as the old saying goes, ‘something’s fishy in Denmark’.
As we all know the OT prophecies concerning Jesus were delivered well before His birth and there’s little doubt those who prophesied about the coming Messiah had little to no idea how God was going to fulfill their words.
Today we’re wondering where the historical foundation of these BoM prophecies are from and what they mean for Mormons today.
Over the next few weeks or so we’ll be looking at some of the BoM prophecies and I pray that as you read them, you’ll use them to witness to the Mormon people. Our objective isn’t to mock or bash Mormons, rather, it’s provided to give factual, historical information about the Church so they can determine what’s godly and what isn’t.
In today’s example we see that Nephi who lived c BC 600 had a lot to say about the plates of Nephi. This prophecy is actually referring to the Lost 116 Pages of the BoM that we just looked at not long ago.
Think about this scenario for a moment…
Martin Harris loses the first 116 pages so Joe and friends are left with starting over. After the pages are lost, the ‘new’ plates reveal this would happen so God had Nephi write another set of plates.
Really?
Another other item of interest in this passage isn’t about a prophecy, but the vocabulary Nephi employed. It’s hard to believe this is God inspired, i.e., ‘these plates are for the more part of the ministry’.
Furthermore, why is Nephi using Greek in BC 600? Greek wasn’t a language until BC 323 or later and even then it wasn’t used by the general public for several years after that. By and large, only royalty and rulers spoke Greek.
And lastly, Joseph Smith stated there was neither Greek nor Latin on the plates so this too proves he was a false prophet.
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