{"id":88247,"date":"2020-09-22T22:16:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T04:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=88247"},"modified":"2020-09-24T00:13:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T06:13:52","slug":"b-h-roberts-and-the-book-of-mormon-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/b-h-roberts-and-the-book-of-mormon-again.html","title":{"rendered":"B. H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon. Again???"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Brigham<\/a>
Elder B. H. Roberts, of the Seventy (ca. 1901)
A great and pathbreaking Latter-day Saint intellectual, Elder Roberts compiled the so-called \u201cDocumentary History of the Church,\u201d in multiple volumes, and authored the multi-volume \u201cComprehensive History of the Church\u201d as well as many other significant works.
(Public Domain, from Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My late friend Bill Hamblin and I sometimes fantasized about starring someday in an autobiographical film entitled Bill and Dan\u2019s Excellent Adventure in Anti-Mormon Zombie Hell<\/em>.\u00a0 So many oft-repeated arguments against the claims of the Restoration were demolished generations back but just keep coming at us.\u00a0 They\u2019re rather like undead zombies who\u2019ve been shot between the eyes but don\u2019t falter even a step in their slow though brainless advance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly thirty-five years ago, perhaps a little more, a bit of a controversy ensued when some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> claimed that Elder B. H. Roberts (1857-1933) had lost his faith in the historicity of the Book of Mormon at least a decade before his death.\u00a0 This is far and away not the silliest and most obviously bogus argument advanced against the Restored Gospel.\u00a0 If true, indeed, it would be something of a big deal, since Elder Roberts was both one of the premier writers and intellectuals in the history of the Church and, from 1888 until his death, one of the seven presidents of the Seventy, its third highest leadership quorum.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought that we were completely done with that issue decades back.\u00a0 The claims about Elder Roberts weren\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the matter has apparently burbled up again in at least certain circles, as if it were completely fresh and new.\u00a0 As Ecclesiastes 1:9 so aptly puts it, \u201cThe thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, though, the charge is not only that Elder Roberts lost his faith but that, since other General Authorities were familiar with his reasons for rejecting the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon, Church leaders have known full well for at least a century that its truth claim are bogus.\u00a0 They have, in other words, been lying<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let me respond, first, to that last assertion:\u00a0 It has been my privilege, for quite a few years now, to have occasional personal dealings with many members of the Church\u2019s presiding quorums.\u00a0 Some I\u2019ve known very well, for a long time.\u00a0 If I have even the slightest capacity for reading people, these men are sincere.\u00a0 They are genuinely committed believers.\u00a0 The claim that they all \u201cknow\u201d the Church and its claims to be false strikes me as flatly ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the specific claim that B. H. Roberts came to reject the historicity of the Book of Mormon, here are two recent statements on that topic:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cB. H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon: Exhumation and Reburial\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cB. H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon: An Addendum\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, for that matter, here are two easily accessible earlier responses to the general issue:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

McKay V. Jones, \u201cEvasive Ignorance: Anti-Mormon Claims that B.H. Roberts Lost His Testimony\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cB.H. Roberts and the Book of Mormon\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There has been considerably more published on this question.\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ll need to trot it out yet again.\u00a0 And, if we feel so inclined, we may have still more to say.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 Sigh. \u00a0 My late friend Bill Hamblin and I sometimes fantasized about starring someday in an autobiographical film entitled Bill and Dan\u2019s Excellent Adventure in Anti-Mormon Zombie Hell.\u00a0 So many oft-repeated arguments against the claims of the Restoration were demolished generations back but just keep coming at us.\u00a0 They\u2019re rather like undead zombies […]<\/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":[1038,56,16723,14759,1809,933,2905,1815,14823,55,16726],"class_list":["post-88247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-b-h-roberts","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-brigham-h-roberts","tag-brigham-henry-roberts","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-john-dehlin","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-lds","tag-mormon-stories","tag-mormonism","tag-shannon-caldwell-montez"],"yoast_head":"\nB. 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