Timing of Christ’s appearance to the Nephites

[Anonymous]

Limhah wrote:

I imagine JC could appear to be in several places at once, or jump around back and forwards in time if he wanted to so I wouldn’t try to reconcile his appearances in several widely separated places.

I guess I never thought about him being that supernatural. In fact, I was always taught (and taught as a missionary) that he could only be in one place at a time and likewise the Holy Ghost, however the Holy Ghost’s influence could be felt everywhere, with the comparison being made to the sun (the sun is in one place but we can all receive it’s light and warmth at the same time). If indeed God and Jesus do have “bodies of flesh and bone” as we’re taught I don’t see how they could be in more than one place at the seam time.

Quote:

Easy to count the passage of time if they had hourglasses, water clocks, or candles. In the pre-clock era, candles were often marked with graded notches like a ruler to note approximately how much time had passed based on the shortening of the candle; same thing would work w/a graded oil lamp or wick. Or they could tell by the age of the moon after the light appeared again, if it was so many more days advanced or whatever.

Great apologetics except by the account they couldn’t see anything and even lighting candles did not provide light, so candles and lamps wouldn’t have worked (at least not providing light) and if using something graded they’d have to know that it started off full, etc., AND it wold have to have three days (72 hour) burn time. Not impossible, but not likely either. An hour glass would have to be turned and if you can’t see when it needs to be turned you can’t turn it. Water clocks are similar. The moon idea could work if they knew where it was the night before the 3 days (if there was no light at all as described they wouldn’t have been able to see the moon either) and looked again the fourth night – not impossible but more likely.

All that said, I think the story is much more like a parable/fable/myth – something that didn’t really happen but is meant to illustrate the point – or an example of a “faith promoting story.”

[Anonymous]

DarkJedi wrote:

I guess I never thought about him being that supernatural. In fact, I was always taught (and taught as a missionary) that he could only be in one place at a time and likewise the Holy Ghost, however the Holy Ghost’s influence could be felt everywhere, with the comparison being made to the sun (the sun is in one place but we can all receive it’s light and warmth at the same time). If indeed God and Jesus do “bodies of flesh and bone” as we’re taught I don’t see how they could be in more than one place at the seam time.

Perhaps, but given that, another possibility is, if the time of the appearances doesn’t have to be precisely the same, i.e. if there’s at least a few minutes wiggle room, he could just dislocate temporally and appear at each required spot, not violating simultaneity. (It accomplishes the same thing but still works if you happen to only have one body)

Quote:

All that said, I think the story is much more like a parable/fable/myth – something that didn’t really happen but is meant to illustrate the point – or an example of a “faith promoting story.”

I suspect something along these lines for most of the narratives in scripture

[Anonymous]

Limhah wrote:

Perhaps, but given that, another possibility is, if the time of the appearances doesn’t have to be precisely the same, i.e. if there’s at least a few minutes wiggle room, he could just dislocate temporally and appear at each required spot, not violating simultaneity. (It accomplishes the same thing but still works if you happen to only have one body)

But we also have the BoM itself making a delineation in the time of his appearance – way after the calamity/darkness.

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