We visited with our
protestant friend again last Thursday. Sister Anderson and I thought it was one
of our better visits. I had prepared a number of questions for him just to get
a better understanding of him and why he thinks and believes the way he does.
He shared some things about his childhood that were very interesting. He was
born into a family of 12 children with alcoholic parents that traveled with a carnival
show. He shared some of the challenges he experienced growing up.
He shared his experience
of attending a tent revival meeting when he was 12, and his experience of “being
saved”. I found it all very interesting, and it also raised some questions in
my mind.
As we discussed the role
of the Holy Ghost, I mentioned to him that I was teaching the Gospel Principles
class on Sunday and the lesson was on the Gifts of the Spirit. We invited him
to church and thought he might come. He asked what people wear to church, so I
thought maybe he was getting serious about coming.
On Saturday we saw him
at the clubhouse as we stopped in as we were completing our walk around the
golf course. He mentioned to me that he saw a You Tube video on the Book of
Abraham and asked me if I had seen it. I could tell that it was one of those
anti-Mormon videos on the Book of Abraham. He did tell me during our
conversation, that he had read the Pearl of Great Price. Unfortunately my sense
is that he thought the video he saw was fairly compelling. He didn’t make it to
church, but his comments did cause me to do a little research on the Book of
Abraham and questions being raised in You tube Videos on the Internet.
I came away thinking
that Mormon Apologetics have done a good job of responding to the questions
being raised by those watching You Tube videos on the Book of Abraham. I also
learned several things that I was not aware of.
Joseph Smith seems to have translated more of the Book of Abraham
than is available to us now –early saints claimed that the Book of Abraham
contained information on the Book of Mormon, the lost tribes, gathering, end of
world, judgment, and more, which is not currently in our Book of
Abraham
Also Oliver Cowdery in his description talks not only of the
writings of Abraham but also of Joseph.
Oliver's
description, which is part of a long letter he wrote is as follows:
"Upon the subject
of the Egyptian records, or rather the writings of Abraham
and Joseph, and may I say a few words. This record is
beautifully written in papyrus with black, and a small part, red ink or paint,
in perfect preservation. The characters are such as you find upon the coffins
of mummies, hieroglyphics and etc., with many characters or letters exactly
like the present, though perhaps not quite so square form of the Hebrew without
points.
It seems that Joseph
Smith had plans to translate more of the papyrus. Unfortunately Joseph smith
was martyred and it is believed that the papyrus he was translating from was
burned in a Chicago Museum fire.
