{"id":98607,"date":"2023-02-10T21:32:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=98607"},"modified":"2023-02-11T17:44:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-12T00:44:40","slug":"two-very-distinct-prophets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/02\/two-very-distinct-prophets.html","title":{"rendered":"Two Very Distinct Prophets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Teichert,<\/a>
\u201cAn angel appears to Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah\u201d
(Minerva Teichert, ca 1950-51; LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happy weekend!\u00a0 Two new articles appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cAccording to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophecy\u201d: Alma2<\/sub>\u2019s Prophetic Warning of Christ\u2019s Coming to the Lehites (and Others),\u201d<\/a> written by Matthew Scott Stenson<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong> Some students of the Book of Mormon have felt that while the coming of the Lord to the Lehites was clearly revealed to and taught by Nephi1<\/sub>, those prophecies having to do with the subject may not have been widely circulated or continuously preserved among the Nephites, while others have argued for continuity of knowledge about Nephi1<\/sub>\u2019s prophecies among writers and their contemporary audiences. Reexamination of the Book of Mormon in light of these issues reveals that the teaching that Christ would appear among the Lehites was actually taught with some consistency by Alma2<\/sub>\u00a0and was, it would seem, common knowledge among the Nephites. It appears that the predicted coming was well established, even if the nature of it was not. Specifically, I argue that Alma2<\/sub>\u00a0often taught of the coming of Christ to the Lehites but in context with other events such as Jesus\u2019s coming to the Jews and to others not of the known fold. To make this case, I concentrate on Alma2<\/sub>\u2019s writings, especially those in Alma 5 (borrowing liberally also from Alma 7, 13, 16, 39, Helaman 16:4\u20135, 13\u201314, and 3 Nephi 8\u201310). Alma 5 houses many prophetic statements that urgently point to the coming of the Lord to the Nephite church. The value of this approach is to attempt to demonstrate that Alma 5 contains more than has been supposed and, in effect, challenges claims for discontinuity in the middle portion of the Nephite record. This approach should tend to renew our interest in the other nuanced teachings of the prophet Alma2<\/sub>\u00a0and others.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: The Limitations of Discontinuity\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

This post is a summary of the article \u201c\u201cAccording to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophecy\u201d: Alma2<\/sub>\u2019s Prophetic Warning of Christ\u2019s Coming to the Lehites (and Others)<\/a>\u201d by Matthew Scott Stenson in Volume 55 of\u00a0Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. An introduction to the Interpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>\u00a0series is available at\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0 Stenson uses Alma 5 (among other examples) to argue for a middle ground between those who argue for a continuity in the use and awareness of prophecies of Christ\u2019s coming in the Book of Mormon, and those who argue for a break in that continuity, suggesting that Alma\u2019s allusions to the small plates meant that later Nephites had at least some knowledge of Nephi\u2019s prophetic tradition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BY,<\/a>
Brigham Young, in an unsourced photograph from ca. 1850
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In connection with the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s \u201cSix Days in August\u201d film project, which is in its very opening phase, I\u2019ve lately begun to re-read Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith\u00a0<\/em>(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).\u00a0 Here is a passage that caught my attention with regard to his integrity.\u00a0 I doubt that anybody potentially decades later and back in New York really expected, or even thought of the possibility, that Brigham Young would remember and seek to pay off his old debts.\u00a0 And, pretty certainly, nobody could realistically have sought to enforce them.\u00a0 Nevertheless, he sought to do the right thing:<\/p>\n

Although he worked hard, Young incurred a number of debts while in Port Byron and Mendon, largely in his effort to keep his family afloat.\u00a0 He was unable to repay many of these debts until emigrating to Utah years later, though he did keep track of the notes he had signed.\u00a0 Later in life, he would send his son, John W. Young, and his friend, William W. Riter, at times to repay them with simple interest at 7 percent.\u00a0 Commenting on one such visit from John W. Young, the Auburn Advertiser Union noted:\u00a0 \u201cBrigham is honest in some things, but rather slow.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brigham Young and his wife, the former Miriam Angeline Weeks, joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> on 9 April 1832, just three days past the Church\u2019s second birthday.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Miriam was afflicted with what was then called \u201cconsumption\u201d (a wasting disease, most likely pulmonary tuberculosis).\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty much de rigeur<\/em> in some circles to think of Brigham, and to portray him, as a callous, uncaring misogynist.\u00a0 So this short little passage seems to me worthy of note:<\/p>\n

To Brigham\u2019s profound grief, Miriam succumbed to the same disease that had killed his mother and sister.\u00a0 During the last weeks of her life, Young cared for her while he worked to support the family.\u00a0 He reportedly got up early, fixed breakfast for the family, carried Miriam to a seat near the fireplace, and left for work.\u00a0 In the evening, he prepared a meal, cleaned up, and carried her to bed.\u00a0 After her death on September 8, 1832, Brigham, Elizabeth, and Vilate Young moved in with Heber and Vilate Kimball.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tom Alexander is a friend.\u00a0 He is also a respected historian, a careful and scrupulous scholar, and a believing Latter-day Saint.\u00a0 So I appreciated this passage from<\/p>\n

In several previously published articles I have argued that objectivity<\/em> \u2014 as scholars generally use the term \u2014 is impossible.\u00a0 Every person carries some cultural baggage that no amount of scholarly detachment or persistence can overcome.\u00a0 Historian Charles Beard called the idea of objectivity a Noble Dream.\u00a0 I believe that those who profess to be objective are self-deluded. . . .<\/p>\n

I have argued and still believe that honesty<\/em> is the most important virtue historians can seek to achieve.\u00a0 Any written history consists of a text written by weaving together evidence found in clearly fragmentary and often messy documents with prose that links the evidence together in a story or narrative.\u00a0 All too often, historians allow rhetoric and supposition to substitute for evidence. . . .<\/p>\n

I have tried, as diligently as possible, to write an honest biography.\u00a0 In the text that follows, I have recognized Brigham Young\u2019s failings, especially in his Indian policy, the Mormon Reformation, and the United Orders.\u00a0 Some of his doctrinal views are clearly unorthodox.\u00a0 At the same time, I have also tried to treat his successes as a missionary, family man, businessman, church leader, and colonizer.\u00a0 I would like to have known him personally.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the only paths available to explore his life are documents and narratives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 Happy weekend!\u00a0 Two new articles appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0 \u201c\u201cAccording to the Spirit of Revelation and Prophecy\u201d: Alma2\u2019s Prophetic Warning of Christ\u2019s Coming to the Lehites (and Others),\u201d written by Matthew Scott Stenson Abstract: Some students of the Book of Mormon have felt that while the coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2538,7281,26321,56,292,34164,1356,1809,34161,24374,2905,1812,1815,7113,29914,7179,788,55,1667,5262,1637,1917,27702,27696,27699],"class_list":["post-98607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advent","tag-alma","tag-alma-the-younger","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-brigham-young","tag-brigham-young-and-the-expansion-of-the-mormon-faith","tag-christ","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-coming","tag-kyler-rasmussen","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-latter-day-saints","tag-lds","tag-lds-church","tag-matthew-scott-stenson","tag-messiah","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-mormons","tag-prophecy","tag-prophet","tag-prophets","tag-thomas-alexander","tag-thomas-g-alexander","tag-tom-alexander"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Very 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