Friday, March 27, 2009

How many People?

2 Nephi 5:34
“And it sufficeth me to say that forty years had passed away and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren. “
Six families on one ship make it to the land of promise, presumably North America. Forty years later they have enough people to build a temple of the same construction of that of Solomon. Even so that one took forty six years and thousands of people just to restore. “Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." [20] The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" [21] But he was speaking about the temple of his body.” (John 2:19-21 (ESV) It took Solomon a good amount of time building it too, even after his father, David, save up all the material needed.
And we already had wars and contentions with our brethren. Contentions I can believe. Even some battles if you will. But wars? What are we calling a war? How many people are there here? And America is a big land. I mean if you aren’t getting along, just go to the other side of the Rockies. Why fight a war? Just move on.
So I am a skeptic. A Mormon the other day accused me of not wanting to know the truth about the Book of Mormon. Accused me of being afraid to know it. I suppose because I don’t want to join the ranks of an evil and adulterous generation in asking for a sign, Matthew 16:4 (Burning Bosom) when I already have the sign of Jonah, the resurrection. But to say I don’t want the truth is really unfair. You can search for the truth with feelings all you want. I find them to be misleading. They come and go, and fade. And they are often inappropriate. Not to mention that demons are capable of producing them. No when it comes to the Book of Mormon, I will test it with what God has given me to test it with, his sure and certain word. So far it has not passed muster.

2 comments:

Nancy said...

Praise God we have the Book that contains the Old and New Test-o-meters!

Steve Martin said...

Well, Bror.

From everything that you are commenting on (in the BOM)I'd have to say not "pass muster", but rather "pass the mustard, please."

As when one has a hot dog at a circus.

A circus where the machinations of man seem to take center ring on each and every page.

The Bible contains within it's covers all I need to know about God and what He has done to save me, and why I need saving in the first place.