A new apologetic technique has arisen in recent years of trying to prove the Book of Mormon true by proving all naturalistic theories false.
RFM analyzes this methodology and shows it to be fundamentally flawed in a number of ways.
Brian Hales, the current proponent of this apologetic, isn’t going to like this episode!
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I’m going with RFM’s theory. In support of this argument I would also suggest listening to Mormonism Live’s episode #111 with Dr Bell’s new research and arguments.
One of the perpetual irritants with virtually all Mormon-themed podcasts is the nearly universal confusion about the difference between hypothesis and theory. There’s no such thing as a theory in Mormonism. It’s all either hypothesis, wild ass guess, or bald faced assertion. Nothing in Mormonism rises even halfway to the threshold of theory. For God’s sake, stop talking about apologetic theories, use correct terminology, and call them apologetic hypotheses.
Sidney Rigdon knew the owners of the printing shop whe Soloman Spaulding had taken his manuscript to be printed. The owner stated to Solomon his positive impression of the attention and wide readership it would have.
Sidney Rigdon was friends with the printer, and was said to be a real lounge lizard that liked to go down and hang out at the printing office. One day after Rigdon had been there, the manuscript was missing.
Later on at the Rigdon home, Sidney’s wife observing him repeatedly taking the manuscript our and then returning it back to its hiding place underneath their bed, asked Sidney about it.
He a swerved her and stated that one day this would be one of if not the most well read book in the world. Stating it’s monumental importance.
In an effort to didpell this story the manuscript was put down as not having anything in common with the Book of Mormon. However, Solomon Spaulding wrote a number of manuscripts. Including both “Manuscript Found” and “Manuscript Lost.”
At one point a homosexual member of the Smith family, who had been an embarrassment to them, was sent on a specific assignment to Hawaii to meet with a certain Mr. Rice, who stated he had the manuscript. When Smith went to Hawaii and met with Rice it had nothing in common with the Book of Mormon, which he reported to the Brethren in Salt Lake.
This report was then used to down play the momentary excitement of members of the Church, who were both interested and concerned about this piece of fiction.
I have long believed that Solomon Spaulding’s other document was in fact the primary source of the Book of Mormon. He had discussed this work with his friend, Ethan Smith, who Solomon had known in seminary school. From their shared communication, Ethan wrote View of the Hebrews, which preceded the Book of Mormon, and was said to have a number of similarities to it.
Friends of Solomon, as well as family members, recollected how Solomon would reenact stories from his manuscript by their evening fireside time together. They were held spellbound. They recalled the names of the characters and places, as well as the narrative of crossing the ocean, and the battles, and plot being almost entirely the same as the Book of Mormon with perhaps fewer religious undertones.
Had Solomon not left his document to find funds for it being printed, we may have had an entirely different history as pertains to the Joseph Smith story.