Has anybody read this book? My dad let me borrow it years ago when I was still TBM but I never read it. I moved a few times and kept forgetting to get it back to him. He recently asked for it back and I just got it out of one of my boxes and told him I found his book. Me and my DH havent believed in the church for over a year now, but my parents just think we are inactive and questioning. My dad just text me "That is the best book. If you ever wonder if the book of mormon is true or if joseph smith is a prophet. Read that book." I really dont care to read it, but my dad puts a lot of stock into this book "proving" the religion. But my dad is also an apologetic for the church and a huge consipracy theorist. Theres no getting around his thoughts.
So anyone read it??

No, but if you have the time and stomach for it go ahead and review the book so you can point out to your apologist father all the places where the book is wrong and misleading.

Then when you return the book, include the letter to a CES director inside...

I haven't read it but there's no way it proves the Book of Mormon true or proves Joseph is a true prophet so don't let that scare you :)

You should go ahead and read it but tell him you will only do so if he reads a book of your choosing. I would go with The Changing World of Mormonism. Than follow up with him and make sure he is holding up his end of the bargain. Each read a chapter at a time.

I've read this book, and I used to be excited about it like your dad was. It tries to prove that Joseph Smith really did translate the Book of Abraham by using methods from the Kaballah to find the hidden Hebrew in the Egyptian characters. He also goes over the notes Joseph Smith took to show how he was translating the characters. Joseph Smith did take classes on Hebrew so he had some knowledge of this, but the book only shows a few cases where Hebrew characters are hidden in the scrolls, and leaves you at the end wanting to look and see if the whole thing is like that and if you can translate it using the same method. I couldn't, and figured I wasn't smart enough, like I'm sure every other Mormon who read it thought the same thing. A lot of the stuff in the book was over my head too though. There's a decent review of this book on the FARMS website actually if you want a better critique on it, I'm not as smart as your average bear, but I've always been curious about stuff like this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2013 02:03PM by DonQuijote.

Thanks y'all . Sorry I disappeared, busy day.

I wont have time to read it because my dad wants it tomorrow, but I won't even see him tomorrow when I drop it off, but I know he'll want to talk about it later and I wanted to kind of know what was in it or what others thought about it .

Ill check it out on FARMS as well and see their excuse for it.

Read the book a long time ago. It kind of kept me in TSCC for awhile.

It is very speculative and full of errors. But still pretty fascinating and for me it was actually fun to read, it helps to know some Hebrew. Just reading it will help you in learning some Hebrew.

One big problem - you can find parallels in all kinds of things with kabbalah if you look hard enough. The book doesn't prove anything in the end. I think the FARMS review pretty well destroyed the book.