{"id":29786,"date":"2016-01-07T21:46:31","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T04:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=29786"},"modified":"2016-01-07T21:47:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T04:47:17","slug":"bom-1-nephi-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/bom-1-nephi-13.html","title":{"rendered":"BOM 1 Nephi 13"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Columbus's<\/a>
The tomb of Christopher Columbus, in the Cathedral of Seville, Spain
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is much, very much, that could be discussed in the comparatively long chapter of\u00a01 Nephi 13<\/a>. \u00a0But, mercifully constrained by the life-saving, self-imposed requirement that I be brief, I\u2019ll limit myself to passing mention of two items.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in this chapter that we meet Nephi\u2019s famous \u201cgreat and abominable church.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many Latter-day Saints, at least during my formative years, thought that this phrase clearly referred\u00a0to the Roman Catholic Church. \u00a0(Many probably still do.) \u00a0And I\u2019m certain that such a view was common among the mostly-Protestant converts to Mormonism<\/a>, including its leaders throughout much of its first century.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think, however, that such an interpretation fits the history of Christianity. \u00a0I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s sustainable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We in the West have long labored under a distorted view of Christendom that reduces it to a simple dichotomy between Catholicism and Protestantism. \u00a0(In the Latter-day Saint variant, first comes the pristine original church founded by Jesus; then a brief period of leaderless\u00a0chaos; followed by the rise of the Catholic Church; from which, centuries later, the Protestant churches arise; culminating in the Restoration.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a sense, this privileges Roman Catholic self-understanding, in which Peter was the first Pope, whose successors continued to exercise universal sovereignty over all Christians. \u00a0But it omits Eastern Christianity. \u00a0And Christianity, after all, began in the East. \u00a0Christianity wasn\u2019t founded in Rome, Marburg, or Canterbury, but in Palestine, and its earliest centers were in places like Armenia, Alexandria, Antioch, and, eventually, Constantinople. \u00a0Granted, the Islamic conquests that began in the seventh century (and culminated in the fall of Constantinople in 1453) weakened Eastern Christendom enormously. \u00a0But nothing in subsequent history can erase the fact that all of the seven \u201cecumenical councils\u201d of the ancient Christian church were held in Turkey, that they were essentially Greek speaking, that Rome was often little more than a bit player in them, that the intellectual center of Christendom was in the East for many centuries, and that, during the same period, the Latin West was something of a side show.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here, from a 1988 issue of\u00a0The Ensign<\/em>\u00a0of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, is an alternative way of looking at \u201cthe great and abominable church\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.lds.org\/ensign\/1988\/01\/warring-against-the-saints-of-god?lang=eng<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1 Nephi 13:12, the prophet records that \u201cI looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and\u00a0<\/span>wrought<\/span>\u00a0upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most Latter-day Saints have identified this man as Christopher Columbus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m strongly inclined, in this case, to agree.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, critics say, it doesn\u2019t take much prophetic ability for a book published in 1830 to \u201cpredict\u201d something achieved in 1492. \u00a0Joseph Smith was simply writing an\u00a0ex eventu<\/em>\u00a0prophecy and placing it in the mouth of a fictional character named Nephi set around 600 BC.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, as I tried to point out in\u00a0a book review<\/a>\u00a0way back in 1996,\u00a0the Book of Mormon\u2019s prophecy of Columbus isn\u2019t nearly so easy to dismiss.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I was growing up, Americans still celebrated Columbus Day, but he was seen as a man motivated by ambition and materialism who simply stumbled upon the New World by happy accident. \u00a0Nowadays, he tends to be lamented in certain circles, not celebrated, as an embodiment of Western colonialism and imperialism and as a forerunner of genocide. \u00a0But these images of him are, at best, one-sided and misleading.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nephi\u2019s description of how \u201cthe Spirit of God . . . came down and\u00a0<\/span>wrought<\/span>\u00a0upon the man\u201d turns out to be uncannily similar to Columbus\u2019s own self-understanding:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a hand that could be felt,\u201d he later reflected, \u201cthe Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail, and he opened my will to desire to accomplish the project. . . . \u00a0This was the fire that burned within me. . . . \u00a0Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also of the Holy Spirit . . . using me to press forward?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s much more in his writing along those lines.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clark B. Hinckley published an interesting book on this topic\u00a0entitled\u00a0Christopher Columbus: \u201cA Man among the Gentiles,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>which treats this topic in greater depth and detail.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 There is much, very much, that could be discussed in the comparatively long chapter of\u00a01 Nephi 13. \u00a0But, mercifully constrained by the life-saving, self-imposed requirement that I be brief, I\u2019ll limit myself to passing mention of two items. \u00a0 1. \u00a0 It\u2019s in this chapter that we meet Nephi\u2019s famous \u201cgreat and abominable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBOM 1 Nephi 13<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    There is much, very much, that could be discussed in the comparatively long chapter of\u00a01 Nephi 13. \u00a0But, mercifully constrained by the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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