AboutGene Black Expertise I can answer questions related to LDS beliefs and history as well as doctrinal questions pertaining to the standard works (Bible, Book of Mormon, etc.) I believe strongly in personal revelation and hope that all answers I provide will be carefully considered, and prayed about before being accepted.
Experience I've been a member of the LDS Church all of my life, have served a mission for the Church, have been sealed to my wife in the Washington, DC temple, and enjoy reading books on LDS history and the teachings of the prophets.
Organizations The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Education/Credentials A love for people and a strong desire to seek after the word of God. I try hard to follow the command "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men."
Question QUESTION: how are you Gene,
i am studying the history of BOM and bible, base on the BOM, it record before christ was born, there already have established a lot of church and christian between 600 to 75 BC,they they accept jesus and knows the gospel in advance .is that true ?
God bless you :)
ANSWER: You are correct in the sense that they knew of the company of Christ and had faith in him - do note though that they understood the need to continue to live the law of Moses until the time that it was fulfilled and replaced by the higher laws given by Christ. We also believe that the knowledge of and belief in Christ far predates the time of the peoples in the BoM - We believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ was taught to Adam and from there to his posterity.
How was Adam to have any hope of salvation if he had not been taught concerning the coming of Christ? He knew he had transgressed, he knew he was condemned to die - how could he have hope without knowledge that he could repent?
As Christians we understand that both resurrection and repentance are impossible without the atonement of Jesus Christ.
In your research, you may wish to include the Perl of Great Price which has much more information on this topic - specifically in the book of Moses. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/moses/contents
Also note that in the New Testament we have ample evidence that at least some of the people were anticipating the coming of Christ - which would necessitate that there was some sort of information or prophecy that had proceeded His coming:
Matthew 1:21-23 (note a that it would be done to fulfill prophesy. Compare with Isaiah 7:14
Matthew 2:1-5 (note the wise men somehow knew of the important of the birth of Christ and that a star would mark his birth. In addition, the chief priests of Herod knew that it had been prophesied that Christ would be born in Bethlehem.) Compare with Micah 5:2.
Note the reference in Matthew 2:23 to a prophesy which is apparently missing from the Old Testament.
Matthew 3:3 - This is a reference to a prophecy concerning John the Baptist, but given that John's purpose was to prepare the way for Christ, you can hardly discuss one without the other.
This is just the beginning of Matthew - there are a great many others to be had in the New Testament in addition to these references.
Does this answer your question?
Take care,
Gene
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QUESTION: thanks Gene for your time, my next question is before 1827,did any tribe or Jews also holding the copy of BOM ?compare with bible, we know there have more than 5000 old scripture in difference language to suppose today bible are coming from Jews culture and early church father and christian over thousand yr .
or only JS as the first one who knew what happen in between 600 BC to 421 AD inside the history of BOM ? the history suddenly came from heaven ?
God bless you :)
ANSWER: Well there's a difference between having a copy of the Book of Mormon and knowing of some or all of the material in it. Technically, no one, not even the Nephites, had the "Book of Mormon" until Joseph Smith translated it. What I mean by this is that the "Book of Mormon" as we know it today is only a fraction of the Golden Plates that were revealed to Joseph Smith for translation. Also, if you consider what we do have of the plates, the last writer we know of is Moroni, who was finishing the record at a time when his entire people had been wiped out by the Lamenites. We know that Moroni hid the plates after he finished with them. So, Moroni's writings being part of the present day "Book of Mormon" it's very likely no one saw the entirety of the portion of the plates that were translated until Joseph Smith received them.
Now ignoring the Book of Mormon as an object and considering it's contents for a moment. The Book of Mormon contains information the Nephites gained from what they referred to as the Brass Plates - which would have contained a record of Old Testament history up until that point in time around 600BC. So the Book of Mormon contains some of the prophesies of Isaiah and the such - material the Jews obviously would have had knowledge of. The Book of Mormon people (most of them anyway) belonged to the various tribes of Israel and even came from the general area of Jerusalem so they could be thought of as "Jews" even though they weren't necessarily of the tribe of Judah. They obviously had knowledge of themselves.
We believe Christ made mention of them in the New Testament when he made the statement about having other sheep that were not of this fold (John 10:16). Also, several Old Testament prophets made prophecies that we believe reference the peoples of the Book of Mormon or the coming forth of the Book of Mormon such as Genesis 49:22 (the branches running over the wall), Psalms 85:11 (truth springing out of the earth), Isaiah 29 in several places, Ezekiel 37:19 (stick of Joseph - Nephi was a descendant of Joseph - stick of Judah would be the Bible - stick being a reference to wooden writing tablets). The Jewish people as a whole did not appear to have widespread knowledge of the peoples on the American Continents though as indicated in the Book of Mormon in 3rd Nephi chapter 15 (I _STRONGLY_ encourage you to read this one as I think it hits at the very nature of your question.) This chapter also clearly outlines that there are yet other groups that we do not know of (in detail) such as the "Lost Tribes" of Old Testament times (the remains of the Northern Kingdom that was carried off captive) other places in the Book of Mormon give clear indication that these groups have also kept records and at some point we will have copies of these records as well.
It's also important to remember that the Book of Mormon is VERY VERY FAR FROM A FULL ACCOUNT of what went on during that time period in the Americas. It's easy to make the mistake of thinking of it as the "full story" yet the Book of Mormon itself is littered with indications that it is not such as 3rd Nephi 5:8. A little common sense clearly indicates that it can't be. Consider 3rd Nephi chapter 11 where Christ visits the American continent - What are the chances that all of North and South America gathered together at one point to witness that event? Zero. Without a doubt (and as the Book of Mormon indicates) there was much that went on during that time period we don't have a record of. That's on top of Joseph Smith indicating he didn't translate all of the plates, and Mormon and Moroni indicating they basically abridged or summarized the records they did include and that they had a great many other plates besides the plates that contained the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon, like the Bible, is a very incomplete history at best. Both are still quite valuable for the history they do contain.
Also, if you'd like to consider other possibilities not recorded in Scripture, go read the book "He walked the Americas" - it's a collection of American Indian legends/stories/histories/etc. handed down from generation to generation concerning a prophet of sorts that visited the American Indians. Given, they're oral history, and that sort of thing is very vulnerably to corruption over time, but many believe these to be stories concerning Christ's visit to the Americas. When I read through them myself I get the distinct impression they're actually concerning more than one individual and a personal hunch of mine (not doctrine of the Church - and I could easily be wrong) is that some of these stories may be concerning the Apostle John. It's an interesting read, so if you get a chance you might want to read through it and make up your mind for yourself as to what if anything those stories mean.
Does this answer your question? Sorry to ramble a bit, but I was a bit unsure which direction you were coming from with your question and was trying to make sure you got whichever answers you were looking for. Please feel free to follow up with additional questions if I've missed something of interest to you.
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QUESTION: thank Gene,
one of the point i do not understand ,you said
"How was Adam to have any hope of salvation if he had not been taught concerning the coming of Christ? He knew he had transgressed, he knew he was condemned to die - how could he have hope without knowledge that he could repent?"
you means he did know the gospel or Jesus come to tell him ,can you tell me more about that ?
Answer Adam knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ - how was it that his sons Cain and Able knew that they should offer sacrifice? If Cain and Able were aware of the important of offering sacrifice, then certainly Adam would have been as well. Adam walked and talked with God in the garden of Eden. Given that Cain spoke with God, surely Adam continued to speak with God as well after being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, knowing that through their transgression they were condemned to die and had been cast out of the presence of God, would certainly have been seeking knowledge of some way they could right their wrong - some way they could gain forgiveness so that they could have hope of a resurrection, and once again be able to stand in the presence of God. There can be no hope of this salvation without a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Man knows nothing concerning God unless God reveals the knowledge in some way to man (how else could we possibly get it? Even the scriptures themselves are simply records of God's dealings with man, so to say we can learn about God in some way through the scriptures is still ultimately the same as saying the knowledge needs to be revealed by God.) Then there is personal knowledge as well. It is not enough to read of the accounts of others - perhaps those accounts are true, perhaps they are not. We must come to a knowledge of these things for ourselves. Hence, Paul tells the Corinthians "..no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." (1 Corinthians 12:3).
How does a man say by the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Lord? The Holy Ghost reveals knowledge to man from God - it is through the Holy Ghost and through no other means that a man may receive revelation. Consider John 14:26 where Christ says that the Holy Ghost will "teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.". Whether God, an angel, or a prophet should speak divine truth, if that truth is received and understood it is by the Holy Ghost - it is the Holy Ghost that witnesses that it is true - Acts 5:32, Acts 15:8, Hebrews 10:15, Acts 18:5, etc.
