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turinturambar wrote:
I believe the BofA is 19th century pseudepigrapha–i.e., an inspired story about Abraham written by a 19th century mystic. I don’t think Joseph knew anything about hieroglyphics, Egyptian culture, history, or religious beliefs. I think he saw the papyri, and like a jazz musician, “riffed” on the themes he saw and knew from the Biblical record. I am becoming an amateur Egyptologist. The more I learn about Ancient Egyptian language, writing systems, history, religious beliefs, and practices, the more uncomfortable I am with the party line about the BofA. If it weren’t for the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and the facsimiles, I might tend more toward literal belief, but as it is, I am currently leaning toward the ‘inspired literature’ interpretation.
^^^This. A big “me, too.”
Doesn’t mean I don’t value it or learn from it, just means I perhaps view it differently than a TBM might.
I am currently having HUGE issues with BoA. I have no problem with the message or anything, but the historic truth claims.
In my brain, it doesnt work out to say yes to BoM and no to boa. I currently just cant grasp that idea. I can easily believe that JS and everyone else is a human being. I can even tolerate polygamy because i simply believe it wasnt inspired and that JS was a very flawed man. I can tolerate peepstones and changes in doctrine.
-But boa is a very big deal for me these days – to the extent that i think about it all the time and it makes my head spin….
I havent really come across any things that could solve the problems concerning tBoA.
Geeeez – just when i thougth i was out of my faith crisis!!!!!!!!!!!:crazy: Quote:to the extent that i think about it all the time
Find something else to think about. Seriously. If it’s having that effect, let go of it. It’s not healthy, even if you believed it passionately and were thinking about it all the time to understand it better.
I don’t know if you have compulsive-obsessive tendencies, so I don’t know how easy or hard my advice is, but, especially in cases like this, the only good solution in the short term is to let go and stop thinking about it.
Bear wrote:-But boa is a very big deal for me these days – to the extent that i think about it all the time and it makes my head spin….
We each have our different bugaboos, which is not dismissive in any way. It is interesting that somethings that are just “no big deal” to you, will equally make someone else’s head spin.I think how you work through the BOA issues, will be precisely what you need to learn about God.
Quote:If our religion is something objective, then we must never avert our eyes from those elements in it which seem puzzling or repellant; for it will be precisely the puzzling or the repellant which conceals what we do not yet know and need to know….the truth we need most is hidden precisely in the doctrines you least like and least understand. Scientists make progress because scientists instead of running away from such troublesome phenomena or hushing them up, are constantly seeking them out. In the same way, there will be progress in Christian knowledge only as long as we accept the challenge of the difficult or repellant doctrines.
-CS Lewis, The Weight of GloryQuote:I think how you work through the BOA issues, will be precisely what you need to learn about God.
Thank you SO much for the lines above. It actually brought me to tears (tiny ones of course!!
Thank you so much for responding. You and this forum rock!
The BOA is a complex issue for many, but if we just look at the evidence and ignore the mystical claims for a moment it becomes rather obvious Joseph just made it up, and the papyri had no connection at all to the character Abraham. Many scholars are not even sure if there was an Abraham. Whether he got his information from an active mind or God is moot because there is no way to know for sure short of God showing up and clearing the matter up. So until then I will stick with the simplest answer that it was the meandering of an active mind. It is interesting the one piece of evidence we do have to verify the translation capability of Joseph does not begin to measure up. I think that is an indication of his claims in general.
Perhaps there is some value in the information contained in the BOA, but I think that is up to the individual. I personally would not put much stock in its description of the working of the universe.
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