{"id":35905,"date":"2016-08-14T23:50:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T05:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=35905"},"modified":"2016-08-14T23:51:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T05:51:47","slug":"the-late-war-against-the-book-of-mormon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/the-late-war-against-the-book-of-mormon-2.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Late War Against the Book of Mormon”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
http:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t so much as thought about it for many months \u2014 I\u2019ve scarcely heard or seen it mentioned \u2014 but I was recently reminded that there are some out there who imagine that they\u2019ve found the \u201csmoking gun,\u201d the decisive evidence that proves Joseph Smith (or somebody) to have stolen the Book of Mormon from a previously published modern book.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For some, in other words, this is this generation\u2019s \u201cSpalding Manuscript,\u201d or our time\u2019s designated equivalent of Ethan Smith\u2019s \u201cView of the Hebrews.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if adopted, of course, the suggestion wouldn\u2019t account for the experience of the Three Witnesses, or Nahom, or the presence of Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon, or the many parallels to antiquity amassed over nearly three-quarters of a century by the likes of Hugh Nibley and the old Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), or the multiple authors apparently disclosed by statistical word print analysis, or Grant Hardy\u2019s corroborating identification\u00a0of distinct historiographical methods characteristic of Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni, or many other such things. \u00a0No, each of those aspects needs to be dismissed on the basis of some other specific ad hoc<\/em> justification.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a time, though, the new discovery was hailed and celebrated in several places on the internet as the weapon that would finally bring Mormonism<\/a> down. \u00a0Huzzah!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back in 2013, the ever-valuable Ben McGuire published a response to it<\/a> in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com\/the-late-war-against-the-book-of-mormon\/<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Oslo, Norway<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 I hadn\u2019t so much as thought about it for many months \u2014 I\u2019ve scarcely heard or seen it mentioned \u2014 but I was recently reminded that there are some out there who imagine that they\u2019ve found the \u201csmoking gun,\u201d the decisive evidence that proves Joseph Smith (or somebody) to have stolen the Book […]<\/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-35905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Late War Against the Book of Mormon"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I hadn't so much as thought about it for many months -- I've scarcely heard or seen it mentioned -- but I was recently reminded that there\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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