Rigdon/Spalding study on Book of Mormon now available for free

[BartBurk]

llc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/fqn040

After reading this study again, I find it to be significant. Dale Broadhurst and others had previously accumulated a vast deal of evidence that suggests Sidney Rigdon may have been involved in the creation of the Book of Mormon. Whatever flaws might be found in the Jocker study, the reality is it does agree with what the earlier evidence suggests. It shows that it is plausible that Sidney Rigdon, using a Spalding manuscript, could have been involved in creating the Book of Mormon. If the study had shown no Rigdon/Spalding signal we could have tossed the theory out. Since it showed such a signal, further study is warranted. I will be interested in seeing what further studies like this show. As for myself I am satisfied there is enough evidence to believe those early witnesses who claimed a Spalding/Rigdon connection to the Book of Mormon were telling the truth.

I guess it comes down to which theory is more plausible. Is it more plausible to believe that an angel of God delivered gold plates to Joseph Smith which he translated or is it more plausible to believe in some other explanation? When we find another explanation which makes sense like the Spalding/Rigdon theory does, do we just toss it out because it doesn’t fit our preconceptions? I used to believe in the Book of Mormon, but with the kind of evidence we have that it is a 19th century document I am unable to stake my eternal life on Joseph Smith’s story.

 

[Jerusha]

I guess in that respect I’m luckier than you.

I was taught from childhood that the BOM tells the story of the Viking invasion of North America, from the point of view of the “Nephites” Now I believe that Solomon Spalding wrote that part of the story as a satire.

Sort of a plot-spoiler, ain’t it?

 

[BartBurk]

I guess in that respect I’m luckier than you.

I was taught from childhood that the BOM tells the story of the Viking invasion of North America, from the point of view of the “Nephites” Now I believe that Solomon Spalding wrote that part of the story as a satire.

Sort of a plot-spoiler, ain’t it?

If you are interested in a longer discussion of this you can go over to mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8100&start=0

Dale Broadhurst is very interesting – he is one of the experts on this topic. I would only express one caution – the Book of Mormon is false no matter how we received it. The Spalding/Rigdon theory is only interesting speculation about how it might have been put together.

 

[BartBurk]

If you want to see a very interesting discussion of this, look here:

mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8100&start=1575

Look especially at the last few pages. There one of the authors of “Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon,” Art Vanick, briefly goes into some of the intimidation they received when trying to publish their information:

In the early 1970’s we visited the UCLA library special collections facility in order to check some rare volumes and found most of them to either have had pages cut out with something like a razor blade, some pages literally torn from books, and yet others marked out with a black felt marker. While my two co-authors were driving down a local freeway, their car was hit in the rear by a bullet from a .357 magnum gun. Someone at the print shop where the 1977 book was being printed was chased and one or both of his rear tires were shot - also with a .357 magnum gun. The editor of the 1977 book was nearly shot while standing in her front room - again with a .357 magnum bullet. The print shop where the book was being printed was hit with some sort of power surge that destroyed the press that was being used for the 1977 book, forcing the book to be printed at a secret location.

During the promotional phase for the 1977 book, a presentation at an auditorium in Southern California was delayed for nearly an hour because of a phoned-in bomb threat.

Probably the most spectacular thing that happened was 20,000 books disappearing while being trucked back East - never to be recovered.

Just before the 1977 book was published, one of the authors and I were driving to work together and were stopped at a light when a car suddenly came screashing up alongside us, someone took a bunch of photo’s of us, and then the car sped across six lanes of traffic, and through a red light.

It quieted down after the book had been out for a while, only to start up again when we started the project that yielded the 2005 book. An office we had in a secure building near us was broken into three separate times, and nothing ever showed on the security tapes. Our book’s editor was chased all over the area by some people in a car but they couldn’t keep up with his motorcycle. After visiting a seminary library to view a special collection, the room which housed the collection was burglarized but nobody could tell whether anything was stolen because the holdings had never been catalogued, so our editor spent about a week or so of his own time and catalogued the holdings. On a trip back East, he visited a library to view some very special documents and found the most important one quite literally torn in half, with the important half missing. The librarian claimed she had no clue how it could have happened.

 

[Cluny]

Which recension of the BofM is this study keyed to?

There are several, you know.

What deceased Living Prophet Joseph Smith called “the most correct book of any on earth” was changed 4000 times since its initial publication.

 

[Jerusha]

1830, of course.

Yes, I heard that people had “liberated” some materials in libraries in the Nauvoo area.

 

[BartBurk]

1830, of course.

Yes, I heard that people had “liberated” some materials in libraries in the Nauvoo area.

I suspect there are quite a few hidden and destroyed materials. I think we can be sure any Spalding manuscript Joseph and Sidney used to help create the Book of Mormon was destroyed. Dale Broadhurst says that a pamphlet he’s interested in written by Lawrence Greatrake has disappeared from special collections in two colleges he’s contacted.