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I have two or three times before heard a story about BH Roberts where he came to the church with a bunch of problems regarding the Book of Mormon and was told to bug off. Is there a source for this? It would be cool to read about. I realize some people would love to point to an instance where the church actively began a directed and conscious effort to launch a coverup campaign and preserve the status quo. From what I have studied, I don’t believe that to be the case, but I do believe there have been small cases here and there of knowledgeable leaders keeping information at bay. I have been wondering if this is such a case, does anybody know? RichDunn, it also may be useful to note that BH operated from a view at that time that current Native Americans and the ancient inhabitants of BOM were all common ancestor. Similarly, BH operated from the the premise that actual geography of the BOM covered much more of the new world than the approx 300×100 mile radius surmised today (partly from closer study of the BOM itself) and to no fault of his own, these were the faulty grandiose assumptions made by some early church leaders and scholars…. Just thought a little background may help here. Thanks for the link. Since posting, I found a thread here about BHR that was very helpful too. I find this man very interesting and can’t wait to read more on him. Another source is Studies of the Book of Mormonby B. H. Roberts, published by Signature Books. It’s the direct source for what you’re looking for, I think. richdunn wrote:Thanks for the link. Since posting, I found a thread here about BHR that was very helpful too. I find this man very interesting and can’t wait to read more on him.
Some of my favourite LDS quotes come from this guy. An early “liberal Mormon” in leadership.
Quote:Mental laziness is the vice of men, especially with reference to divine things. Men seem to think that because inspiration and revelation are factors in connection with the things of God, therefore the pain and stress of mental effort are not required; that by some means these elements act somewhat as Elijah’s ravens and feed us without effort on our part. To escape this effort, this mental stress to know the things that are, men raise all too readily the ancient bar-“Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther.” Man cannot hope to understand the things of God, they plead, or penetrate those things which he has left shrouded in mystery. “Be thou content with the simple faith that accepts without question. To believe, and accept the ordinances, and then live the moral law will doubtless bring men unto salvation; why then should man strive and trouble himself to understand? Much study is still a weariness of the flesh.” So men reason; and just now it is much in fashion to laud “the simple faith;” which is content to believe without understanding, or even without much effort to understand. And doubtless many good people regard this course as indicative of reverence-this plea in bar of effort- “thus far and no farther.”…This sort of “reverence” is easily simulated, and is of such flattering unction, and so pleasant to follow- “soul take thine ease”- that without question it is very often simulated; and falls into the same category as the simulated humility couched in “I don’t know,” which so often really means “I don’t care, and do not intend to trouble myself to find out.” Elder B.H. Roberts, The Seventy’s Course of Theology, vol. V (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1912), pg. v –
(Partial reference)
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=2&sourceId=078046581c79b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=024644f8f206c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD#footnote10 http://www.withoutend.org/questioning-mormonism/#sthash.BdrV8xR1.ZgWYoDsm.dpuf BH Roberts full book that this is quoted from is here:
Quote:“While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is established for the instruction of men; and it is one of God’s instrumentalities for making known the truth yet he is not limited to that institution for such purposes, neither in time nor place. God raises up wise men and prophets here and there among all the children of men, of their own tongue and nationality, speaking to them through means that they can comprehend. … All the great teachers are servants of God; among all nations and in all ages. They are inspired men, appointed to instruct God’s children according to the conditions in the midst of which he finds them.”
B.H. Roberts
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/08/a-latter-day-saint-perspective-on-muhammad?lang=eng Quote:The question of advancement within the great divisions of glory celestial, terrestrial, and telestial; as also the question of advancement from one sphere of glory to another remains to be considered. In the revelation from which we have summarized what has been written here, in respect to the different degrees of glory, it is said that those of the terrestrial glory will be ministered unto by those of the celestial; and those of the telestial will be ministered unto by those of the terrestrial”that is, those of the higher glory minister to those of a lesser glory. I can conceive of no reason for all this administration of the higher to the lower, unless it be for the purpose of advancing our Father’s children along the lines of eternal progression. Whether or not in the great future, full of so many possibilities now hidden from us, they of the lesser glories after education and advancement within those spheres may at last emerge from them and make their way to the higher degrees of glory until at last they attain to the highest, is not revealed in the revelations of God, and any statement made on the subject must partake more or less of the nature of conjecture. But if it be granted that such a thing is possible, they who at the first entered into the celestial glory”having before them the privilege also of eternal progress”have been moving onward, so that the relative distance between them and those who have fought their way up from the lesser glories may be as great when the latter have come into the degrees of celestial glory in which the righteous at first stood, as it was at the commencement. Thus: Those whose faith and works are such only as to enable them to inherit a telestial glory, may arrive at last where those whose works in this life were such as to enable them to entrance into the celestial kingdom”they may arrive where these were, but never where they are.
B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God 1:391-392.
Quote:The question submitted to me was, “Is the Catholic church the church here referred to–the church of the devil ? ….
“Well,” said I, in answer, “I would not like to take that position, because it would leave me with a lot of churches on my hands that I might not then be able to classify.” So far as the Catholic church is concerned, I believe that there is just as much truth, nay, personally I believe it has retained even more truth than other divisions of so-called Christendom; and there is just as much virtue, and I am sure there is more strength in the Roman Catholic church than there is in Protestant Christendom.
I would not like, therefore, to designate the Catholic church as the church of the devil. Neither would I like to designate any one or all of the various divisions and subdivisions of Protestant Christendom combined as such church; nor the Greek Catholic church; nor the Buddhist sects; nor the followers of Confucius; nor the followers of Mohammed; nor would I like to designate even the societies formed by deists and atheists as constituting the church of the devil. The Book of Mormon text ought to be read in connection with its context — with the chapter that precedes it and the remaining portions of the chapter in which it is found — then, I think, those who study it in that manner will be forced to the conclusion that the Prophet here has in mind no particular church, no particular division of Christendom.”
B. H. RobertsDefense of the Faith and the Saints, Vol.1, pp. 26-34
http://emp.byui.edu/WightmanG/Bom_121/Class_Articles/Church_of_the_Lamb.html I love BH Roberts. His writings have inspired me for a long time. He was a pioneer in so many ways – and I believe his issue wasn’t with the Book of Mormon, necessarily, as much as it was with the incorrect assumptions the membership as a whole (including the leadership) had about it.
That first quote from BH Roberts is AWESOME! I want to put it on a huge billboard or something.
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