The Bible and the BOM

[ApologiaPhoenix]

The bible is a witness to itself, and to the Book of Mormon. This is admission seems strange coming from a Christian, but please bear with me on this, and you will see how true that really is.

According to the BoM storyline, two tribes of Israel (c. 600BC) traversed together the entire Arabian Peninsula, like Moses did many years before (about 1000) and sailed from a port on the western or southern Arabian peninsula, and rounded Africa, sailing the treacherous waters of the Antarctic Sea. Seventy-foot waves are common in that sea, and the pilgrims navigated both the Southern and Northern Atlantic oceans to land somewhere in North, Central of South America (please permit this slight anachronism for the sake of clarity).

Because the Bible does not record that event, I submit that Biblical silence is a strong testimony against that event. Normally, I would not posit an argument from silence, for that is weak, and speculative. My adage is that “silence on an issue proves nothing except silence on that issue”.

However, if there is found any parallel situations in Scripture, where the Israelites did act to preserve the tribal structure of the nation, I submit that is strong evidence against something like that from happening.

Second, I submit that absence of any mention of the purported historical event by the historical writers, especially Nehemiah and Ezra are strong indicators that the event stated in the BoM did not happen.

Third, both the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets who wrote after that 600 BC date provide another strong evidence against the transmigration of the two tribes of Israel.

Fourth, the mentioning of all the 12 tribes in the NT is a prima facie indication, coming 600 years after the "event" that there are no "lost tribes".

Here are the details, and history that verifies these assumptions above.

The book of Joshua is a history of many gruesome events in “Israel” before there were kings, that is why they had judges who ruled over them. The end of the book clearly states that “Everyone did that which was right in their own eyes” and the nation was essentially a lawless backwater. God approved of almost nothing in that book, and the 20th chapter of Judges gives a history of a civil war between two tribes, and in that war, all the male soldiers of the tribe of Benjamin were killed.

That left no posterity for the tribe, and the victors felt remorse for destroying an entire tribe of Israel, the Benjaminites. That is in chapter 21. Rather than explain it further, I ask the readers to read those chapters, and it they are relatively short.

So what I am saying, is that the very act of destroying, and the subsequent restoring of the tribe of Benjamin indicates via a positive, pro-active action. That demonstrates the mindset of the Israelites to restore the entire tribe, is a concrete evidence of the bond that they had among themselves, so the purported b0yu the BoM loss of one or two tribes who went on a trip around the world would not be taken easily, and the entire Jewish mindset would rebel. The loss of so many people would have been recorded, but Scripture is silent on that issue. That is a strong assertion that it did not happen as the BoM states.

SECOND MAJOR POINT
The historical writers of Nehemiah and the Priest Ezra do not mention any sort of lost tribe. That is significant because the cup bearer to the King Artaxerxes in Shushan, he clearly mentions his mourning for the city of Jerusalem, and the nation conquered, then dispersed in 586 BC, the event known as the Babylon Captivity. The first chapter details how depressed he was, and details the conditions of the former inhabitants of the city.

Significantly absent is any mention of the event mentioned by the BoM in his laments to the King, and since Artaxerses reigned c 444 BC the event would be over 150 years old, then, but there is no mention of the event. What IS most significant in this book is that the work of rebuilding the wall was assigned to each of the twelve tribes, to build a specific portion of the wall. If there were any missing tribes, they could not have been assigned a work place on the wall.

Also, the priest Ezra did not mention it in his book . I cut this short for the sake of brevity

THIRD MAJOR POINT
None of the prophets alive after 600 BC mention it, that is after the captivity of Israel in 720 BC, and before the Babylonian Captivity in 586 BC. That means that the major Prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel would know about this event .

Likewise, the Minor prophets, Hosea, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (originally written in Italian!).

Most telling about the purported BoM events is the book of Lamentations. Written by the "Weeping Prophet" Jeremiah, it is a series of laments, or sorrows of the prophet, and the heart of God for all the tragedies that befell Jerusalem and Judah. It is utterly inconceivable that such a book would omit such a happening that two entire tribes of Israel would suddenly disappear, and leave the land, as the BoM states.

FOURTH MAJOR POINT

In the NT, neither Jesus, nor the genealogies of the Synoptic Gospels mentioned in Matthew of Luke mention that, for the event would also be in the lore of the Jews. The entire twelve tribes are mentioned in various times and in various situations so as to absolutely preclude any possibility of any “missing tribes”.

Therefore, by the fact that so many independent Prophets, Apostles, Disciples and Jesus Himself all attest by stating the positive, that twelve tribes existed in their VARIOUS lifetimes, writing in so many VARIOUS places, all knowing of the same events, could state negatively (via silence) and positively (by mentioning all the twelve tribes) THE Bible does indeed testify to the veracity of the BoM.

IT IS A LIE

This one really had me going until the end. Well-written and humorous.

[Kelp]

Nice!