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Over on MAD, the user Ice started a thread titled "The Lord's Challenge to the Critics: Can Man Mimic the Revelations of God?"

The topic was, of course, the challenge established in D&C 67 for a mere mortal to "seek ye out of the Book of Commandments, even the least that is among them, and ... make one like unto it."

This challenge is discussed far more than it is tried; so I decided to give it a go. To avoid offending anyone, I tried to keep the content fairly light while nonetheless employing the 'scriptural' style, and even offering implicit faux doctrinal insight.

I received no feedback on MAD regarding how successful my effort was. Let me know what you think. Can this mortal, with no forethought and 25 minutes of time, successfully "make one like unto" Joseph Smith's revelations or "mimic the revelations of God"?

What say ye?

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Behold, thus saith the Lord unto my servant Ice: You must needs repent, for you have erred in that you have not understood and have taken upon yourself to contend with those who will not believe my words. If they will not believe my words in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, they will not believe them though thou shouldst repeat them an hundred times. My sheep know my voice. Wherefore need they to hear thine? Behold, have I not said that I would fight my own battles?

And it shall come to pass that I shall again speak a word in season unto those who are wise in their own eyes. And if they cannot write the like of them, yet they bow not the knee and confess not that these words are of me and are mine, then shall they be smitten with a scourge, yea, then shall the very hairs of their heads begin to fall out, till they cry out, even as Job. But if they will repent, behold, not a hair of their heads shall be lost.

Behold and lo, I come quickly, to judge the righteous and the wicked according to that which they post. Wherefore, O Ice, look to thyself. Amen.



Don

P.S. My apologies to Dr. Shades for implying that he has been divinely scourged. :-P

Fooled me, Don. That was great.

But I admit I don't have much of a track record for discerning sh** from Shinola.

I've been a Mormon all my life. :(

Not bad, Don, not bad. I give you an A, although you could have gotten an A+ if you had used some cool secret code name like Shibamb or some such. Plus, it would have been a tad more believable had the Lord ordered someone to turn over their land or wife to you. ;)

DonBradley wrote:Over on MAD, the user Ice started a thread titled "The Lord's Challenge to the Critics: Can Man Mimic the Revelations of God?"

The topic was, of course, the challenge established in D&C 67 for a mere mortal to "seek ye out of the Book of Commandments, even the least that is among them, and ... make one like unto it."

This challenge is discussed far more than it is tried; so I decided to give it a go. To avoid offending anyone, I tried to keep the content fairly light while nonetheless employing the 'scriptural' style, and even offering implicit faux doctrinal insight.

I received no feedback on MAD regarding how successful my effort was. Let me know what you think. Can this mortal, with no forethought and 25 minutes of time, successfully "make one like unto" Joseph Smith's revelations or "mimic the revelations of God"?

What say ye?

________________________________________________________

Behold, thus saith the Lord unto my servant Ice: You must needs repent, for you have erred in that you have not understood and have taken upon yourself to contend with those who will not believe my words. If they will not believe my words in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, they will not believe them though thou shouldst repeat them an hundred times. My sheep know my voice. Wherefore need they to hear thine? Behold, have I not said that I would fight my own battles?

And it shall come to pass that I shall again speak a word in season unto those who are wise in their own eyes. And if they cannot write the like of them, yet they bow not the knee and confess not that these words are of me and are mine, then shall they be smitten with a scourge, yea, then shall the very hairs of their heads begin to fall out, till they cry out, even as Job. But if they will repent, behold, not a hair of their heads shall be lost.

Behold and lo, I come quickly, to judge the righteous and the wicked according to that which they post. Wherefore, O Ice, look to thyself. Amen.



Don

P.S. My apologies to Dr. Shades for implying that he has been divinely scourged. :-P

Don, you don't seriously believe this is a good mime, do you? For a start look at how short this is, and it took you 25 minutes to write that? I would say no one replied because it was such a poor imitation. If it was a serious and good imitation you probably would have received responses. The truth is they've dismissed it. Can you write something like Section 76 in one sitting? In the presence of peers who observe you go through it without long pauses?

Here's my challenge to you - produce 521 pages of scripture like the Book of Mormon in just over two months, without notes, with witnesses observing you dictating word after word, resuming after breaks exactly where you left off without reference to notes. After you do this submit it to a publisher, where it will thereafter be published for the world to examine, and be accepted by millions as the word of God. Scholars like Michael Coe must say of your work, "this has never been done before"!

If I don't see your work by October this year, I will presume you've failed the test.

Ray A wrote:Here's my challenge to you - produce 521 pages of scripture like the Book of Mormon

That's not the challenge God gives in D&C 67. He doesn't say write a whole book. He says to try making one little revelation like a sectio nof the D&C (or Book of Commandments at the time).

Oh, and Don. I can't be a fair judge. None of us can. What we really need is for some kind of multiple choice thing where lots of people submit fake revelations with one obscure but true revelation and then we have people try to discern the true one. THAT would be a fair test, but something tells me that such a fair and partially blind test was not offered to those attempting to undertake this activity.

Does that mean God (or Joseph if you insist) was bluffing? I would say no. I think God's point was to show the ones present that they knew something about the prophet Joseph Smith--that they had enough of a testimony to feel the spirit from those revelations God gave him that even an imitation of the language would not be sufficient--grammar mistakes and all (and the Book of Mormon certainly had plenty though some may be the Nephites' fault).

asbestosman wrote:

Ray A wrote:Here's my challenge to you - produce 521 pages of scripture like the Book of Mormon

That's not the challenge God gives in D&C 67. He doesn't say write a whole book. He says to try making one little revelation like a sectio nof the D&C (or Book of Commandments at the time).

That was my challenge - unrelated to the one in Section 67. MY guess is that no one can meet my challenge.

Even so, what Don produced is a poor imitation, and a very short one. He seems to believe that no one replied because they were "stumped". He hasn't received many replies here either. I think even some exmos can see this is not a serious imitation. But then, I'm perhaps being a little too generous in that thinking.

Ray A wrote:Here's my challenge to you - produce 521 pages of scripture like the Book of Mormon in just over two months, without notes, with witnesses observing you dictating word after word, resuming after breaks exactly where you left off without reference to notes. After you do this submit it to a publisher, where it will thereafter be published for the world to examine, and be accepted by millions as the word of God. Scholars like Michael Coe must say of your work, "this has never been done before"!

If I don't see your work by October this year, I will presume you've failed the test.

Assuming he takes the challenge, it might help if his witnesses are a bit more believable than Joseph's are. I'm betting that if Don does this, that the finished product won't need 3000 revisions.

harmony wrote:

Ray A wrote:Here's my challenge to you - produce 521 pages of scripture like the Book of Mormon in just over two months, without notes, with witnesses observing you dictating word after word, resuming after breaks exactly where you left off without reference to notes. After you do this submit it to a publisher, where it will thereafter be published for the world to examine, and be accepted by millions as the word of God. Scholars like Michael Coe must say of your work, "this has never been done before"!

If I don't see your work by October this year, I will presume you've failed the test.

Assuming he takes the challenge, it might help if his witnesses are a bit more believable than Joseph's are. I'm betting that if Don does this, that the finished product won't need 3000 revisions.

in my opinion Don is overqualified. Don has Google and Wikipedia, which he can consult before each session. Furthermore Don is probably alreadly too educated and even too old/mature to really be a fair comparison to what Joseph Smith had. Add to that some huge personal trials. Why, Ray's test almost sounds doable in comparison.

Don, would you put a verse in your holy book of canonized scripture about how you do not practice polygamy and that it is a sin?? Even though you are rolling in the hay with some of the young women from your ward at that time? (after you marry of course)

1835 edition of the D&C Section 101 verse 4:

"Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife; and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again."

Of course, years later when extra wives is the norm, you'd need to edit that out.. just like they did in 1876 edition of the D&C.

But wait... their holy scripture had the above written in it from 1835 to 1876... There were many Mormons who did not follow their own scriptures...