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InquiringMind wrote:
Unfortunately, I have never found the BofM to be inspiring, mostly because the book has not been able to answer my questions or solve my problems. It seemed to have a lot of solutions for people who had different problems than me: all of the “repent of your whoredoms, and your lasciviousness, and your strife, and your envyings, and your covetings, and you adulteries, etc.” would be helpful for people who had those problems, but is not helpful for me. …… Much of the BofM also has something of a “gloom and doom” tone to it, which I don’t like.
Ignoring that stuff (which I agree with as the downside of the BoM) I think it does give you a general umbrella that points you to doing goOD for others, to strive to be better, and to seek spirituality and direction from God.
For the really annoying problems in my life, the book has only helped me keep trying and persist in solving the problems or point me in a general direction (be patient, be cheerful, be faithful). It does NOT give answers on how to solve highly specific problems, like when my son started showing severe behavior problems years ago. For the real problems — like the ones you describe, it means taking that general direction and then finding good secular and occasionally Deseret publications (few, have been helpful, other than Merilee Boyack’s parenting advice). So, to keep my marriage together, I read
http://www.marriagebuilders.com . To learn how to reduce sibling rivalry, I found books in the library. I learn how to make decisons better, I went into management books on decision-making.To learn how to get over the sting of women rejecting you, go online and read about it — in support of the BoM’s umbrella of achieving inner peace.
I was able to construct a lesson about the initial war chapters in Alma that focused our modern use of war rhetoric and the danger of seeing attacks around every corner and creating enemies where none need exist. It’s there in the Book of Mormon, and it was inspiring for me and instructive for the students in my class. Old-Timer wrote:I was able to construct a lesson about the initial war chapters in Alma that focused our modern use of war rhetoric and the danger of seeing attacks around every corner and creating enemies where none need exist. It’s there in the Book of Mormon, and it was inspiring for me and instructive for the students in my class.
That is inspiring. The implications from a military perspective as well as more importantly I individual living among many non Mormons or nationalities or races and creeds and denominations. The implications that has to us and our neighbors even at home.
Heber13 wrote:doug wrote:I hate to say it, but not really. I can name at least a dozen other books that I get way more inspiration from.
How does it compare to the New Testament for you?
I find I get more inspiration from the NT. That probably says more about me than it does about the BoM or the NT. There have always been issues with the BoM that have concerned me, but until recently I felt an obligation to ignore or discount my reservations and push them away. While that may work for some people, in the long run it didn’t work very well for me. Also, the fact that the NT is the kind of document that can spawn a scholarly critical analysis makes it interesting to me, and thus capable of inspiring me, in a way that a work that cannot spawn such a dialogue cannot do.As sort of an aside, I’ve been wanting to raise the following points. In another thread it was hypothesized that the BoM does not claim to be a historical work, and further, that the “these things” referred to by Moroni in his promise do not necessarily encompass the entire book.
Apart from Nephi conceding that there might be mistakes in the book, I am unaware of anything in the BoM that would give anyone reason to make the claim that the book itself does not claim to be historical. Certainly the introduction, chapter headings, and other appendages (all arguably part of the BoM) as well as a reasonably straighforward reading of the text of the book itsself seem to aver that it is, in fact, historical. This is how it is and has been presented by the organization that owns the copyright to the book. This is what “the members” believe (or in some cases “have faith in”, I suppose). To my knowledge, this has never been a bargaining point with the church. Same goes for Moroni’s promise … “these things” means “these things” … all of them without exception.
Maybe it’s just part of middle-way-ness that I still don’t get, but what I’m hearing here is that I when I find myself at odds with the church’s teachings on any given topic, I can maintain a pretense that there’s not really a problem by claiming that “the church” doesn’t teach or didn’t really say that thing. I agree that in a lot of areas this approach works wonderfully, but not for this one. Wouldn’t it be better to simply agree to disagree?
Quote:In another thread it was hypothesized that the BoM does not claim to be a historical work, and further, that the “these things” referred to by Moroni in his promise do not necessarily encompass the entire book.
I’d like to read the actual statement and see how it is worded. I agree totally that it isn’t meant to be primarily a “traditional history” – but it certainly does claim to be a “historical work”. Can you find it again and excerpt it into this thread?
Having said that, often the best approach is to agree to disagree.
Yes, the Book of Mormon inspires me. “…It always brings meekness and lowliness of heart, sorrow for sin but strength to repent, and courage to act and speak in entirely new ways. In other words, it always brings people to Christ – to accept Him as both judge and friend and to follow His command, in the book, to be like Him.” (Eugene England) The quote made a huge impression on me when I read it – it’s my borrowed “scripture” on scripture. Old-Timer wrote:Quote:In another thread it was hypothesized that the BoM does not claim to be a historical work, and further, that the “these things” referred to by Moroni in his promise do not necessarily encompass the entire book.
I’d like to read the actual statement and see how it is worded. I agree totally that it isn’t meant to be primarily a “traditional history” – but it certainly does claim to be a “historical work”. Can you find it again and excerpt it into this thread?
It was
thisQuote:You guys are too quick for me sometimes
My wife tells me that sometimes, but I don’t think she means what you meant.
😳 😆 :shh: :silent: wayfarer wrote:I find it inspires me. There are embarrassing and difficult parts, but certainly much less so than much of the bible.
Good point, there’s certainly nothing in the BoM as hard to read as the Jewish dietary/purity laws, and the genealogies are reasonably brief.
I love the Book of Mormon – It is where my faith hinges. I think it is much deeper, complicated, and sophisticated then people give it credit for (both in and out of the church) check out my post on GRACE and the scriptures included.
Take a blue paperback copy – then read it through highlighting only the scriptures based on the doctrine of Christ
anything to do with
Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Enduring to the end, Grace, Mercy, Justification, Sanctification, ect….
I believe you will find a book that is much more dynamic then some here feel (just my opinion) While not naive to it’s changes and flaws, I completely understand why Joseph said it was both the keystone to our faith as well as the most correct book on earth.
Cadence wrote:After reading from the post “if BofM is inspired lie, does value and worth increase?” I started wondering exactly what people think about the Book. I am not asking if you think it is true or not, that has been debated for many years. What I am wondering is if you feel something akin to spirituality, or motivation, or something else when you read it. Does it inspire you or do you find it tedious. So setting aside its truth claims what does it mean to you? I guess for this we could try and assume we had never heard of Mormonism, and we found the book on some old bookshelf someplace. The cover and all the introductory pages are missing that explain where it came from. You start reading I Nephi. How would you feel? Would it be so exciting you could not put it down or would you be more like Mark Twain who said it was chloroform in print.
Of course. IMO it is an obviously flawed book but it does invoke something akin to spirituality at the same time. That’s what’s so confusing.
I think it’s fairly obvious that the BoM does inspire many people (not everybody necessarily). While there are plenty of people who say it does to please their family etc, there are also many others who join our church, such as myself who get something out of it. Hercules wrote:Of course. IMO it is an obviously flawed book but it does invoke something akin to spirituality at the same time. That’s what’s so confusing.
It is somewhat confusing.I think it’s because some of the symbols/principles/ideas in the Book of Mormon are spiritually inspiring.
Yet when taking it literally, as so many do, the symbols are obviously “flawed” as in historically untrue.
I also think that what inspires us varies with our perspectives at different times in our lives.
At one time, just the thought of & holding the Book of Mormon comforted me when I felt surrounded by evil.
Now, I see some evil in the Book of Mormon (ie racial prejudice) – but I still appreciate some of the good principles taught (ie: all things will fail except charity, which is the pure love of Christ).
I think there are some good bits of writing in the BoM – in the early section, there are some good stories about traveling through the desert, and the tree of Lehi is also inspiring. However, some bits are overwrought. I think particularly of Jacob’s vineyard allegory, which is far too long, and the over-extension of the hen and its chicks metaphor when Jesus appears. There are wonderful bits of writing such as Enos, the Psalm of Nephi, Jared’s brother seeing the body of God (although I never was big into that theologically), Adam fell that men might be etc.
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