Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

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annotatedbom
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Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by annotatedbom » Sun Dec 29, 2019 1:56 pm

Get prepared for Sunday School with this Annotated Book of Mormon (A-BoM). Don't rely on the arm of flesh for your preparation. Follow the evidence and reason to wherever they may lead.

If you have corrections or suggestions for the A-BoM, let me know. You can use the Contact Us page for input, if that's convenient for you.

If you feel so inclined, please link to the A-BoM from your website. My understanding is that outside links like that will add to the visibility in search engines.

By the way, type in even a slightly incorrect file name (like this). I think you NOMies might get a chuckle from the 404 Error Page that you get.

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Corsair
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by Corsair » Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:01 am

This is amazing and quite a magnum opus. Thank you for the reference to New Order Mormon in your list of URLs.

I started on the text and went through a few pages before I realized the gravity of this work. You appear to have the entire text of the Book of Mormon along with commentary. I hope that your doctoral thesis adviser gave you full support on this monumental endeavor. Since I will be surrounded by fervent family and friends wanting everyone to read the Book of Mormon this year, this will be a valuable addition and counterbalance.

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annotatedbom
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by annotatedbom » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:34 pm

Corsair wrote:
Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:01 am
This is amazing and quite a magnum opus. Thank you for the reference to New Order Mormon in your list of URLs.
First of all thank you for your kind words!

No need to thank me for referencing NOM. I used to post on NOM in the old days before this site (was it newordermormon.org?). Then I made my way on to this new site as many of you did (all while under a different name). NOM has been a kind and gentle place for validation and support, generally while being respectful of believers, and I think that respect helped me deal better with important people in my life. If anything, my reference to NOM is just a small token of my appreciation for what you all have done for me.

Thank you all!

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deacon blues
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by deacon blues » Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:16 am

Dear Annotated, I just began reading your work, and judging from the "Agency" and "About the Author" sections, I am very impressed. It's going to take a lot of time time read and process, but I believe it will be worth the effort. Thanks so much.
God is Love. God is Truth. The greatest problem with organized religion is that the organization becomes god, rather than a means of serving God.

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deacon blues
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by deacon blues » Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:17 pm

I have a question about one thing. 1st Nephi 11:25 speaks about a fountain of living water: "And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God."

1st Nephi 12:16 Speaks of a fountain of filthy water. "And the angel spake unto me saying: Behold the fountain of filthy water which thy father saw; yea even the river of which he spake; and the depths thereof are the depths of hell.

Which is it, or, are there two fountains. Or, did Joseph forget which it was and mix up his images. This definitely seems a little confused, or is it just me?
God is Love. God is Truth. The greatest problem with organized religion is that the organization becomes god, rather than a means of serving God.

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annotatedbom
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by annotatedbom » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:03 pm

deacon blues wrote:
Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:16 am
Dear Annotated, I just began reading your work, and judging from the "Agency" and "About the Author" sections, I am very impressed. It's going to take a lot of time time read and process, but I believe it will be worth the effort. Thanks so much.
Deac,

Sorry, somehow I lost track of this thread. Thank you for your encouraging preliminary feedback. Please remember to let me know somehow if you find any problems with my annotations. You can even do that anonymously at my contact page.

Also, I hope your saw I responded to your question about the fountains here. I’m afraid my answer isn’t very definitive.

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deacon blues
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by deacon blues » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:51 pm

Annotated, I saw the post. Thanks a lot. I remember bringing up "the two different fountains" in a Sunday school class once, and got a lot of blank stares. I think it's a least possible that Joseph Smith confused the details of Lehi's and Nephi's dream, and no one has ever brought it up, but it's just one of those hinky little things in the BOM. :roll:

1st Nephi 15:27 is an explanation that isn't really an explanation. "And I said unto them that the water my father saw was filthiness, and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water. This still doesn't explain 1st Nephi 11:25.
Last edited by deacon blues on Thu Jan 16, 2020 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
God is Love. God is Truth. The greatest problem with organized religion is that the organization becomes god, rather than a means of serving God.

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RubinHighlander
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by RubinHighlander » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:55 pm

Wow! I just browsed a few chapters. I love how you can tie the BOM concepts and ideas together, things mentioned in earlier chapters that would contradict things mentioned later. Also, just the logic in a lot of it that one would not otherwise think about, like the distance from the Red Sea or that Babylon would have already occupied Jerusalem.
Wouldn’t an all-powerful God be able to provide other solutions?
This is a big one. Why would God require Nephi to do his dirty work and make him break his own very important commandment? If Laban was that drunk on his back he could have just aspirated on his own vomit and bam! Done! Nobody would be suspicious he was murdered. But chop off his head and I would think the police would be all over that, putting the crazy preaching Lehi prophet's family at risk (not that they had CSI skills to figure it out, but..). It feels like a one up on Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, but Joe failed to see that God stopped that from happening at the last second, but didn't happen here. We see a lot of oneupsmanship throughout the BOM to make it's events bigger, badder, greater and stronger than the bible stories.
“Sir,' I said to the universe, 'I exist.' 'That,' said the universe, 'creates no sense of obligation in me whatsoever.”
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annotatedbom
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by annotatedbom » Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:00 pm

RubinHighlander wrote:
Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:55 pm
Wouldn’t an all-powerful God be able to provide other solutions?
If Laban was that drunk on his back he could have just aspirated on his own vomit and bam! Done! Nobody would be suspicious he was murdered. But chop off his head and I would think the police would be all over that, putting the crazy preaching Lehi prophet's family at risk
Well done. Why didn’t I think of this possibility? I won’t beat myself up over it though, because the whole point is that there are endless possibilities for an all-powerful God to use that would have allowed Nephi to follow the commandment to not kill (murder) and yet accomplish all the purposes listed to justify the beheading of an unconscious drunk.

I’m blown away that I’ve had the faithful justify it with something like, “Maybe this was to help Nephi grow in faith.” First of all, they’re just making this up. Nothing in the text suggests this. It’s a post hoc rationalization. Secondly, is it really a good argument when it’s suggesting faith is being promoted in a God by said God having one of his sons behead another son? Faith in such a God would not bring me comfort, but maybe I’m there crazy one for that?

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deacon blues
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by deacon blues » Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:42 am

Dear Annotated, I thought the comment on 1st Nephi 13:10 was especially apt, considering the recent idea by apologists that there were gentilesalready on the American continent; which idea is used to explain the missing Near-eastern DNA among today's native Americans.
God is Love. God is Truth. The greatest problem with organized religion is that the organization becomes god, rather than a means of serving God.

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annotatedbom
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Re: Just in time to study for the first Book of Mormon Sunday School class of the new year!

Post by annotatedbom » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:10 pm

deacon blues wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:42 am
Dear Annotated, I thought the comment on 1st Nephi 13:10 was especially apt, considering the recent idea by apologists that there were gentilesalready on the American continent; which idea is used to explain the missing Near-eastern DNA among today's native Americans.
Yeah, like, it’s always so important to understand the context of the book, except when it’s more helpful to ignore it, right?

This is just one example of what almost seems like an endless list of the apologists ignoring the full context of the Church’s sacred text or assertions of fact by prophets. I remember this kind of apologetics helping me to resolve concerns about some BoM anachronistic item years ago. But, when I was ready to really dig into the Church’s claims with critical thinking rather than trying to prove myself right, the apologetic argument so often missing the salient points actually were one of the strongest factors leading me so quickly out of the Church.

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