Another Book of Abraham thread - what are believers fighting for?
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:09 pm
Hello everyone,
As a non-believing, but self-identifying Mormon, I used to post on FAIR a bit, but now mostly just lurk here and there. With all the fur flying over the Book of Abraham lately, I had a thought that brings me out of lurking mode for a moment. Maybe this is already obvious to everyone else, but it just hit me that the issue has everything to do with the messenger and NOTHING to do with the Book of Abraham itself.
What does the Book of Abraham say that is really of any use to anyone and would make it worth fighting over? Of course, it's really fighting over Joseph Smith rather than Abraham. The only scripture that I think anyone really cares about on the believing side is the 2 verses in Ab 3. Even the facsimiles which often drive the debate are effectively pointless in current mormondum. Accepting the recent official/non-official definition of doctrine as whatever LDS think it is based on recent talks and correlated material - When was the last time anyone here heard LDS point out anything of any theological/moral/practical importance from the facsimiles? It is "doctrinal" in the sense it was canonized, but not-doctrinal in the sense that no one really talks about or believes it much. I remember as a kid getting excited about the "astronomy" in the facsimile - I loved science, but even then, very few other people I knew were willing to put much investment in the implications of Obilish, Enish-go-on-dosh and the ruling planetary system. And it seems the book is only becoming progressively more marginalized with time. The part about lineage of Ham is kind of embarassing and most of the rest is redundant with Genesis (and we might as well use that since we're Christian, after all). So I fail to see much worth fighting for from a believing standpoint *except* the issue of whether the author/translator was inspired by God to write this stuff that isn't currently paid much attention.
I guess where I'm going is that I don't see the Book of Abraham doing anything for even fully TBM in much of any meaningful sense other than as existing as a testament to Joseph Smith. If the words of a prophet aren't all that useful, why should I bother with them whether I think they are inspired or not? Fighting over mostly useless words because of who the author is, unfortunately gets dangerously close to cultish behavior (messenger over message). Would it even be possible to have a discussion on the attractiveness of believing the Book of Abraham on its own merits. I have my doubts, since it has even less to offer than the Book of Mormon on that score, but I would love to hear thought on that if anyone has any.
I am leaving town for a week, so unfortunately won't be able to check back on this until then, but I felt like I should post this before it leaked out of my head, anyway.
As a non-believing, but self-identifying Mormon, I used to post on FAIR a bit, but now mostly just lurk here and there. With all the fur flying over the Book of Abraham lately, I had a thought that brings me out of lurking mode for a moment. Maybe this is already obvious to everyone else, but it just hit me that the issue has everything to do with the messenger and NOTHING to do with the Book of Abraham itself.
What does the Book of Abraham say that is really of any use to anyone and would make it worth fighting over? Of course, it's really fighting over Joseph Smith rather than Abraham. The only scripture that I think anyone really cares about on the believing side is the 2 verses in Ab 3. Even the facsimiles which often drive the debate are effectively pointless in current mormondum. Accepting the recent official/non-official definition of doctrine as whatever LDS think it is based on recent talks and correlated material - When was the last time anyone here heard LDS point out anything of any theological/moral/practical importance from the facsimiles? It is "doctrinal" in the sense it was canonized, but not-doctrinal in the sense that no one really talks about or believes it much. I remember as a kid getting excited about the "astronomy" in the facsimile - I loved science, but even then, very few other people I knew were willing to put much investment in the implications of Obilish, Enish-go-on-dosh and the ruling planetary system. And it seems the book is only becoming progressively more marginalized with time. The part about lineage of Ham is kind of embarassing and most of the rest is redundant with Genesis (and we might as well use that since we're Christian, after all). So I fail to see much worth fighting for from a believing standpoint *except* the issue of whether the author/translator was inspired by God to write this stuff that isn't currently paid much attention.
I guess where I'm going is that I don't see the Book of Abraham doing anything for even fully TBM in much of any meaningful sense other than as existing as a testament to Joseph Smith. If the words of a prophet aren't all that useful, why should I bother with them whether I think they are inspired or not? Fighting over mostly useless words because of who the author is, unfortunately gets dangerously close to cultish behavior (messenger over message). Would it even be possible to have a discussion on the attractiveness of believing the Book of Abraham on its own merits. I have my doubts, since it has even less to offer than the Book of Mormon on that score, but I would love to hear thought on that if anyone has any.
I am leaving town for a week, so unfortunately won't be able to check back on this until then, but I felt like I should post this before it leaked out of my head, anyway.
