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Job 38:4, 18 “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.”
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It’s almost embarrassing whenever Smith and company think out loud.
Oliver Cowdery was quoting from a book written in 1830 by Thomas Dick. The book, The Philosophy of the Future State, was a treatise on the idea that matter is eternal and couldn’t have come about through the creation ex nihilo. And yes, Smith owned a copy of Mr. Dick’s work.
Once again Smith took a little from here and there to invent Mormonism. Oliver Cowdery just so happened to be a parishioner of Ethan Smith’s congregation from 1827-1828. Ethan Smith authored View of the Hebrews which was a story of American Indians being a lost tribe of Israelites. Coincidence?
To cast further doubt on the legitimacy of Smith’s calling as a prophet we also have LDS Scholar Klaus Hansen who publicly admitted that Smith’s “revelations” and the ideologies in Dick’s book was more than coincidental – see Mormonism and the American Experience, pp. 78-80.
Ask the Mormon you know if it seems odd the BoM would resemble so many other books and let them know you’re praying for them.
With Love in Christ —
Michelle ✟