A VOLCANIC ERUPTION AND THE BRINGING FORTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON

I am not sure where I first saw this, but I mentioned it in a class and everyone looked at me with a blank stare.  I thought it was common knowledge that the Lord basically allowed a volcano to explode, causing a young family to be forced to move from the cold state of Vermont to "warmer" climes of upstate New York where they could possibly eke out a subsistence living more easily - and where a young boy would go to a glacially-formed hill to be shown a record that had been deposited there by an ancient people that had previously inhabited the land.  The greatest factor in the climate change that led to the dawning of this last dispensation, was the eruption of Mt. Timbora.  Here is a detailed account from wikipedia:

Year Without a Summer

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Year Without a Summer
1816 summer temperature anomaly with respect to 1971–2000 climatology
Volcano	Mount Tambora
Date	April 10, 1815
Type	Ultra Plinian
Location	Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia 8°15′S 118°0′E / 8.25°S 118°E / -8.25; 118
VEI	7
Impact	Caused a volcanic winter that dropped temperatures by 0.4 to 0.7 °C worldwide

The Year Without a Summer (also known as the Poverty Year, Year There Was No Summer, and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death^[1]) was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities caused average global temperatures to decrease by about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F),^[2] resulting in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.^[3][4] It is believed that the anomaly was caused by a combination of a historic low in solar activity with a volcanic winter event, the latter caused by a succession of major volcanic eruptions capped by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), the largest known eruption in over 1,300 years.
Historian John D. Post has called this "the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world".^[5]

Description

The unusual climatic aberrations of 1816 had the greatest effect on the northeastern United States, Atlantic Canada, and parts of western Europe. Typically, the late spring and summer of the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada are relatively stable: temperatures (average of both day and night) average about 68 °F (20 °C) and 77 °F (25 °C) and rarely fall below 41 °F (5 °C). Summer snow is an extreme rarity.
In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in the northeastern US. The fog reddened and dimmed the sunlight, such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog". It has been characterized as a stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil.^[6]
In May 1816,^[1] frost killed off most of the crops that had been planted, and on 4 June 1816, frosts were reported in Connecticut, and by the following day, most of New England was gripped by the cold front. On 6 June 1816, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine.^[7] Nearly 12 inches (30 cm) of snow was observed in Quebec City in early June, with consequent additional loss of crops—most summer-growing plants have cell walls which rupture even in a mild frost. The result was regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic,^{[clarification needed]} and increased mortality.
In July and August, lake and river ice were observed as far south as Pennsylvania. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) to near-freezing within hours. Even though farmers south of New England did succeed in bringing some crops to maturity, maize and other grain prices rose dramatically. The price of that staple food, oats,^[8] for example, rose from 12¢ a bushel ($3.40/m³) in 1815, equal to $1.52 in today's purchasing power to 92¢ a bushel ($26/m³) in 1816, equal to $12.6 today. Those areas suffering local crop failures had to deal with the lack of roads in the early 19th century, preventing any easy importation of bulky food stuffs.^[9]
Cool temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in Britain and Ireland as well. Families in Wales travelled long distances as refugees, begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, oats, and potato harvests. The crisis was severe in Germany, where food prices rose sharply. Due to the unknown cause of the problems, demonstrations in front of grain markets and bakeries, followed by riots, arson, and looting, took place in many European cities. It was the worst famine of the 19th century.^[7][10]
In China, the cold weather killed trees, rice crops, and even water buffalo, especially in northern China. Floods destroyed many remaining crops. Mount Tambora’s eruption disrupted China’s monsoon season, resulting in overwhelming floods in the Yangtze Valley in 1816. In India the delayed summer monsoon caused late torrential rains that aggravated the spread of cholera from a region near the River Ganges in Bengal to as far as Moscow.^[11]
In New York City, the temperature dropped to −26 °F (−32 °C) during the ensuing bitter winter of 1817. This resulted in a freezing of New York's Upper Bay deep enough for horse-drawn sleighs to be driven across Buttermilk Channel from Brooklyn to Governors Island.^[12]
The effects were widespread and lasted beyond the winter. In eastern Switzerland, the summers of 1816 and 1817 were so cool that an ice dam formed below a tongue of the Giétro Glacier high in the Val de Bagnes. In spite of the efforts of the engineer Ignaz Venetz to drain the growing lake, the ice dam collapsed catastrophically in June 1818.^[13]

Causes

It is now generally thought that the aberrations occurred because of the 1815 (April 5–15) volcanic Mount Tambora eruption^[14][15] on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia (then part of the Dutch East Indies, but under British rule during Napoleon's occupation of the Netherlands), described by Thomas Stamford Raffles.^[16] The eruption had a Volcanic Explosivity Index ranking of 7, a super-colossal event that ejected immense amounts of volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere. It was the world's largest eruption since the Hatepe eruption over 1,630 years earlier in AD 180. That the 1815 eruption occurred during the middle of the Dalton Minimum (a period of unusually low solar activity) may also be significant.^{[citation needed]}
Other large volcanic eruptions (with VEI at least 4) during the same time frame are:

• 1812, La Soufrière on Saint Vincent in the Caribbean
• 1812, Awu in the Sangihe Islands, Indonesia
• 1813, Suwanosejima in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan
• 1814, Mayon in the Philippines

These other eruptions had already built up a substantial amount of atmospheric dust. As is common following a massive volcanic eruption, temperatures fell worldwide because less sunlight passed through the atmosphere.

Effects

As a result of the series of volcanic eruptions, crops in the above-mentioned areas had been poor for several years; the final blow came in 1815 with the eruption of Tambora. Europe, still recuperating from the Napoleonic Wars, suffered from food shortages. Food riots broke out in the United Kingdom and France, and grain warehouses were looted. The violence was worst in landlocked Switzerland, where famine caused the government to declare a national emergency. Huge storms and abnormal rainfall with floodings of the major rivers of Europe (including the Rhine) are attributed to the event, as was the frost setting in during August 1816. A major typhus epidemic occurred in Ireland between 1816 and 1819, precipitated by the famine caused by "The Year Without a Summer". It is estimated that 100,000 Irish perished during this period. A BBC documentary using figures compiled in Switzerland estimated that fatality rates in 1816 were twice that of average years, giving an approximate European fatality total of 200,000 deaths.
New England also experienced great consequences from the eruption of Tambora. The corn crop was grown significantly in New England and the eruption caused the crop to fail. It was reported that in the summer of 1816 corn ripened so badly that no more than a quarter of it was usable for food. The crop failures in New England, Canada and parts of Europe also caused the price of wheat, grains, meat, vegetables, butter, milk and flour to rise sharply.
The eruption of Tambora also caused Hungary to experience brown snow. Italy experienced something similar, with red snow falling throughout the year. The cause of this is believed to have been volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
In China, unusually low temperatures in summer and fall devastated rice production in Yunnan province in the southwest, resulting in widespread famine. Fort Shuangcheng, now in Heilongjiang province, reported fields disrupted by frost and conscripts deserting as a result. Summer snowfall was reported in various locations in Jiangxi and Anhui provinces, both in the south of the country. In Taiwan, which has a tropical climate, snow was reported in Hsinchu and Miaoli, while frost was reported in Changhua.^[17]

Cultural effects

Hong Kong sunset c. 1992 after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

High levels of ash in the atmosphere led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, a feature celebrated in the paintings of J. M. W. Turner. It has been theorised that it was this that gave rise to the yellow tinge that is predominant in his paintings such as Chichester Canal circa 1828. Similar phenomena were observed after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa and on the West Coast of the United States following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.
The lack of oats to feed horses may have inspired the German inventor Karl Drais to research new ways of horseless transportation, which led to the invention of the draisine or velocipede. This was the ancestor of the modern bicycle and a step toward mechanized personal transport.^[18]
The crop failures of the “Year without a Summer” may have helped shape the settling of the "American Heartland", as many thousands of people (particularly farm families who were wiped out by the event) left New England for what is now western and central New York and the Upper Midwest (then the Northwest Territory) in search of a more hospitable climate, richer soil, and better growing conditions.^[19]

Chichester Canal circa 1828 by J. M. W. Turner

According to historian L.D. Stillwell, Vermont alone experienced a drop of 10,000 to 15,000 people, erasing seven previous years of population growth.^[5] Among those who left Vermont were the family of Joseph Smith, who moved from Sharon, Vermont, to Palmyra, New York.^[20] This move precipitated a series of events which culminated in the publication of the Book of Mormon and the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[11]
In July 1816 "incessant rainfall" during that "wet, ungenial summer" forced Mary Shelley, John William Polidori, and their friends to stay indoors for much of their Swiss holiday. They decided to have a contest to see who could write the scariest story, leading Shelley to write Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and Lord Byron to write "A Fragment", which Polidori later stole and rewrote as The Vampyre^[21] — a precursor to Dracula. In addition, Lord Byron was inspired to write a poem, Darkness, at the same time.
Justus von Liebig, a chemist who had experienced the famine as a child in Darmstadt, later studied plant nutrition and introduced mineral fertilizers.

Comparable events

• Toba catastrophe 70,000 to 75,000 years ago
• The 1628–26 BC climate disturbances, usually attributed to the Minoan eruption of Santorini
• The Hekla 3 eruption of about 1200 BC, contemporary with the historical bronze age collapse
• The Hatepe eruption (sometimes referred to as the Taupo eruption), around the year 180 CE
• Climate changes of 535–536 CE have been linked to the effects of a volcanic eruption, possibly at Krakatoa.
• An eruption of Kuwae, a Pacific volcano, has been implicated in events surrounding the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
• An eruption of Huaynaputina, in Peru, caused 1601 to be the coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere for six centuries (see Russian famine of 1601–1603).
• An eruption of Laki, in Iceland, caused thousands of fatalities in Europe, 1783–84.
• The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 led to odd weather patterns and temporary cooling in the United States, particularly in the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. An unusually mild winter and a warm, early spring were followed by an unusually cool, wet summer and a cold, early autumn in 1992.

Here is more on the explosion - what a massive bang; four times the size of Krakatoa!!

         

VIDEO DETAILS OF THE UNDERWATER MAYAN CITY OFF THE COAST OF CUBA

Thought this was worth sharing. I have been waiting for this to come out since I first posted the BBC article years ago.

CLICK LINK

The Book of Mormon talks of sunken cities, etc. My money was always on the narrow neck of land running through what is now Cuba, PR and the DR and all the other islands that run down into what is now Venezuela. I think the archealogy backs it and this is just one more little piece of the puzzle.

ENJOY!

WOW - THE PROGENY OF NOAH SPELLED OUT

I haven't got the time now to go thru this - but will study it in depth as time allows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Noah

Interesting stuff in here - and how the peoples spread out after leaving the ark in the MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT; not Mt. Ararat.....

When we understand we all came off the same boat, we lose our prejudices and preconceptions and just become children of the Most High God. Nothing more, nothing less. One of the adversary's greatest triumphs has been in re-writing history in order to confuse and blunt that basic message. Divide and conquering he and his minions go - but soon to be bound through our personal righteousness as a Zion people - and then finally cast out into outer darkness..... What a day that will be! Lets be part of the solution - not the problem by choosing this day that we will serve the Lord of Hosts.

Happy reading!

A SHIFT TO GRADUALISM WITHIN THE CHURCH - JOINING THE HERD IN THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE

A NICE EXPOSE BY ANTHONY E LARSON ON WHY CATASTROPHISM HAS BEEN ERODED FROM OUR CHURCH'S PSYCHE IN THE LAST 150 YEARS. I CAN'T STAND GRADUALISTS AND AM LOOKING QUITE FORWARD TO THE TIME WHEN THEY ARE SITTING ON THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE FENCE....(IF THEY SURVIVE THE MASSIVE COMING SHAKING/LIQUEFACTION). EVEN DOLTS WITHIN THE CHURCH WHO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON, AND PROFESS BELIEF IN IT, DENY CATASTROPHISM - ABSOLUTELY WAY TOO MUCH FOR ME TO COMPREHEND - REALLY. I HAVE AN EASIER TIME COMPREHENDING THE INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF A M12.5 EARTHQUAKE THAN I DO OF OUTRIGHT INDOLENCE AND STUPIDITY....


Thursday, July 31, 2008
Children of the Light?
Latter-day Saints' opinion on the subject of potential planetary near impacts, past and present, differs little from that of the general public. Sadly, most Mormons seem as indifferent to this concept as their secular and sectarian contemporaries. Yet, it probably should not be so.

Joseph Smith clearly held a catastrophist view of history and prophecy that included disasters originating in the heavens, which would have had devastating effects here on Earth. Speaking of the Second Coming, he said, "It is not the design of the Almighty to come upon the Earth and crush it and grind it to powder . . . ." (History of the Church, 5:337.) These words are not those of a gradualist or uniformitarian. They bespeak a catastrophist point of view. It is well established by this author that Joseph Smith's teachings on past and future events are patently catastrophist. (See The Prophecy Trilogy, Vol. 3, Ch. 1.) Given that fact, why are so many Latter-day Saints loath to accept this interpretation of history and prophecy? For the answer to that question, we will have to examine history.

Abandoning our roots

The restoration of the gospel began at the same time as a revolution in geology and biology. Popular opinion in Joseph Smith's day held that the Creation and Noah's Flood had largely shaped the world. Today they would be called creationists. Geologists like Hutton and Lyell disputed that view, noting that a rational interpretation of the geologic record argued for a very old planet altered only by slow processes over eons of time. They were gradualists.

In Joseph Smith's day, the gradualists were a minority, but by the latter half of the 19th century, the scientific and academic communities had spurned creationism and catastrophism to embrace gradualism completely. The general public was somewhat slower to shift opinion. Still, by the turn of the century, gradualism dominated the thought of the general public since it was, by that time, the only way the subject was taught in almost all academic settings.

Mormons in flux

This ideological shift presented a problem to Mormons who were in the process of trying to integrate with the larger American culture. Historically, the church and the government had been at odds, as any student of early church history knows. The Saints' exodus to the Great Salt Lake Valley originally put them outside the confines of the United States. However, they eventually found themselves once again within its boarders due to the westward expansion of the nation. This left the Saints with a difficult decision: move yet again, just as they had left Jackson County and then Nauvoo, leaving behind another city and temple erected from raw land, or accommodate the laws and cultural standards of the United States so they could keep their new desert home. The decision to remain and conform prevailed, and the Saints undertook the daunting task—-as history records that painful adversarial process—-of qualifying for statehood and citizenship.

To diminish tension and facilitate the process, Mormons sought to emphasize cultural similarities with the rest of America and suppress dissimilarities in hopes of reducing the antagonism of earlier days. This, they trusted, would help avoid further confrontations—-like the Johnston's Army incident, for example—-and ease tensions so that the church could finally put down permanent roots and better carry out its revealed mandate to preach the gospel.

Like the larger American population, the Mormons eventually embraced gradualism and for much the same reasons. Even though the position of the Prophet and early church members had been catastrophist, Mormons eventually found the idea of gradualism irresistible.

As a result, a new generation of Mormons did not entirely share their forefathers’ worldview because of the pressures from the greater society around them to conform to the common precepts taught by almost all educational institutions, including gradualism.

This ideological reversal on the Saints' part produced the desired effect. It opened doors to Mormons in American society that had formerly been closed, allowing them to pursue careers in politics, science and education; some eventually even attained tenure in prestigious institutions. There was now one less difference between Mormons and their American contemporaries.

A split personality

Yet, all this progress came at a price. The Saints' ideological shift to gradualism created an intellectual dichotomy in the 20th century. Their scriptures—-especially those new revelations that came with the restoration—-tell of a catastrophic Earth history. They also proclaim, emphatically and dramatically, a catastrophic future. Yet, the cultural beliefs Mormons had adopted to "fit in" with the rest of the Americans precluded such notions, categorically denying any such possibility.
This produced an intellectual dichotomy in the Saints’ worldview, creating a spiritual and academic scotoma that has only grown larger in the many years since.

This resulted in church members shifting ideological gears on a consistent basis. In a religious setting, they read and mouthed an ideology with catastrophist underpinnings; in a secular setting, such as the public and private educational system, they espoused the opposite ideology of gradualism. This has endured, strangely, to the present. It has become institutionalized, resulting in a sort of intellectual and religious schizophrenia.

In addition, there may have been one other, even more profound loss: Mormons no longer understood their scriptures as they were meant to be understood. While Joseph Smith's interpretation of prophecy and history may not seem essential to our salvation, it performs a vital function in our interpretation of revealed knowledge. Revelation regarding past or future events comes from a perspective that acknowledges the role of planetary catastrophes in Earth's past, present and future. The language of the prophets is steeped in it. So, if our paradigm does not include this perspective, we have no frame of reference with which to completely understand the revelation.

This is what the Apostle Peter meant when he wrote, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:20,21.) If the parties involved in any exchange do not share a common understanding—if one is a gradualist and the other a catastrophist—there will be a fundamental misunderstanding in the exchange of information. They do not share a common view, background or experience. Therefore, they do not interpret the data, information or truths, in the same way. Hence, there can be no "private interpretation" of the scriptures or prophecy. Both parties must have the same frame of reference. The fallible "will of man," or opinion of man, will only lead to misunderstanding.

To correctly understand the scriptures, prophecy or revelation itself, one must have the same frame of reference as the text itself, which is catastrophist. Thus, it may be that this paradigm shift in the last century left Mormons incapable of properly interpreting what had been given them by revelation regarding historic and prophetic events.

A systematic method of interpretation

The systematic method for interpreting historic and prophetic events, given us by Joseph Smith, is based on symbolism. (See The Prophecy Trilogy, Vol. 1, Ch. 3, for a list of such metaphors and their origins.) This puts the prophet squarely in the center of ancient prophetic tradition. In both the revelations he communicated to us and in the sermons he gave, Joseph used these symbols correctly and consistently.

For example, history speaks of water turning to blood, of stars falling from the heavens, of migrating seas and oceans. Knowing what has occurred in the past to give birth to such descriptive metaphorical phrases, one can determine what is meant by the same metaphor in another context—-prophecy, for example. That knowledge allows a consistent system of interpretation, rather than the extravagant guesswork and speculation engaged in by most scriptural exegetes. It also acknowledges a celestial origin for most religious iconography, ritual and metaphor.

The two faces of symbolism

Such symbolism has two aspects or facets: one literal, the other metaphorical. The literal aspect in the water-turned-to-blood example refers to a time in the past when Earth's waters were polluted by exogenous, ferriferous dust. Its use in prophecy refers to a repeat of this phenomenon. Its metaphorical aspect is simply a rhetorical, poetic representation of a physical event or phenomenon. The water does not turn into anything, much less blood. Such is the nature of all metaphor.

This aspect is also a reflection of the ancient mind that turned to dramatic imagery in order to describe the inexplicable. This does not imply that the ancients were somehow less intelligent, that they could not discern the reality in what they saw. Indeed, some—-Plato, for example, or Mormon—-clearly grasped the true nature of catastrophic events and so described them. (See Helaman 12: 8-17.) However, the extraordinary nature of the events ensured that most of the time they would be characterized in symbolic terms, as opposed to analytical terms. The colorful nature of metaphor is always more dramatic and appealing than cold, dispassionate analysis. In any case, the imagery of past catastrophes captured the imagination of the masses, leading to its widespread adoption and use.

The past is the key

It is vital that one have a firm grasp of the events and conditions in antiquity that produced gospel symbolism. The Lord alluded to that fact when he revealed that ". . . truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come." (Doctrine & Covenants 93:24.) The intimate relationship between past, present and future events implied here must be recognized in order to correctly understand the truth when it is presented. This tripartite concept (past = present = future) is often repeated in the scriptures, especially in prophecy.

Undoubtedly, one of the functions of the School of the Prophets, if not the primary function, was educating the brethren in the many prophetic metaphors and symbols employed anciently, their variations, elaborations, their proper application and interpretation. By teaching the systematic interpretation of scriptural metaphors, religious rituals and iconography, the prophet ensured that the priesthood brethren understood their proper use and interpretation. They could interpret this symbolism wherever they came across it and not be misled by doctrinal distortions.

Equipped with this knowledge, any Latter-day Saint can also see that temple and religious iconography is the physical counterpart to rhetorical metaphor. That is to say, the metaphor reflects the meaning of the icon and the icon reflects the meaning of the metaphor. Those things depicted in religious art, architecture, rite and ritual, can also be found in religious rhetoric.

Knowledge: a key to discernment

Indeed, this is one of the keys used to discern a false prophet in a day and age when the meaning of these symbols and metaphors is largely unknown. Because a false prophet is not schooled in the knowledge of these things, he or she lacks the ability to properly use and interpret such symbolism and metaphor. Thus, the pretender's "revelations" and teachings lack these elements. They fail to properly employ the time-honored literary devices known to all true prophets because they are ignorant of the iconography of antiquity. Hence, they interpret prophecy no differently than any run-of-the-mill evangelical exegete.

For much the same reason, the apostate who has turned against the true religion can be a threat. Once intimately schooled in this knowledge of symbolism, the perpetrator has the power to do tremendous damage because he or she can deceive even the "elect," or those who know these symbols and their proper use.

This, too, is an excellent test for a true prophet: He will employ this symbolism properly and in a manner consistent with ancient tradition. While only the whisperings of the Spirit can completely confirm a prophet's claim to revelation, this is additional, intellectual confirmation, if you will. A true prophet will easily and correctly employ traditional, scriptural symbolism in his teachings, and that symbolism will certainly be present in all revelation he passes along to the Saints. In this respect, as in every other, Joseph Smith passed the test successfully.

Left to their own devices

Once the Saints had abandoned Joseph Smith's symbolism-based interpretation of scripture and prophecy, a vacuum appeared in their theology. They no longer had a yardstick or touchstone for interpreting most gospel symbolism. Since nature abhors a vacuum, a ready replacement was soon found in the eschatological thinking of sectarian Christianity. Mormonism, therefore, has largely adopted the prophetic interpretation of sectarian Evangelism, epitomized today by the writings of Hal Lindsay in his book, The Late, Great Planet Earth, or the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, a popular millennialist and radio evangelist of the 1950s, in his radio program, "The World Tomorrow." One can see evidence of this when comparing the views of the aforementioned evangelists with those of recent Mormon writers Cleon Skousen and Dwane Crowther. As one aphorism has it, "There ain't a dimes bit of difference between 'em."

Hence, we find Mormons generally interpreting prophetic utterances, ancient and modern, in remarkably similar ways to their evangelical, Christian cousins: metaphor is made literal and symbol is made modern. This leads to gross distortions in the interpretation of prophecy. For example, consider the unfounded interpretation of the year 2000 as the date for the second coming or the obsession with the number 666. It also leads to the creation of fictitious characters such as the Antichrist and fictitious events such as the Rapture. It seems apparent to this author that we may have allowed harmful sectarian notions to find their way into our catechism, just as Elder McConkie repeatedly warned before his death.

Time to reevaluate

Given all the recent discoveries coming out of the sciences regarding impacts and the prophetic warnings that repeatedly forewarn us of spectacular celestial events before the Second Coming, would it not be prudent for Latter-day Saints to reexamine our views? Would it not be wise for us to acknowledge, as modern science already has, that such things may happen? Should we not want to return to our roots in catastrophism, given us by Joseph Smith? If it was once our desire to conform to a trend that led us to abandon our catastrophist base, then why not conform to the newest trend of science, neocatastrophism, in order to return to our former beliefs?

Signs, ancient and modern, in the heavens

When we consider the magnitude and import of seeing the Shoemaker/Levi comet impact giant Jupiter in our own time, one wonders if this astronomical visual aid might not have been God's way of making a point. Was it done merely to amaze or amuse us? Was it done to keep the astronomers, scientists and scholars busy? Or was it, indeed, a sign, meant to awaken us from our apathetic complacency about the times we live in and the planet we live on? Should not Latter-day Saints be the first to recognize this?

The Nephites were given a sign of the Savior's birth. “. . . for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; . . . . And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been given. . . .

“And it came to pass also that a new star did appear, according to the word.” (3 Nephi 1:15, 19,21.)

Thus, we see that God used the heavens, a celestial canvas, upon which to paint the sign of his Son's advent.

Recent history has given us a rather remarkable sign of our own. “On July 16, 1994, the first fragment of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 entered Jupiter's stratosphere traveling at the speed of 60 kilometers per second—-that's about 134,000 miles per hour. Seconds later it exploded. A plume of shock-heated cometary material mixed with hot gases from Jupiter's atmosphere soared more than two thousand miles above the tops of Jupiter's clouds. As material from the plume fell back into the stratosphere of Jupiter, it left a large, crescent-shaped dark spot partly surrounding a smaller intense dark cloud that formed along the entry path of the comet.

“Two days later, Fragment G hit Jupiter with such force that its plume was, in some wavelengths of observation, fifty times brighter than the entire planet. By the end of impact week, Jupiter was bruised with the markings of 21 impacts, dark scars larger than Earth. Not in the 400-year history of the telescope has any planet displayed such dramatic new features. Nine months after the impact ended, Jupiter's southern hemisphere was graced with a belt of dark material, still easily visible through small telescopes.

“We are only now beginning to grasp the magnitude of what has happened.” (Cosmic Collisions, pp. 6, 7, from the foreword by David H. Levy and Carolyn & Eugene Shoemaker.)

Was the impact of a comet with Jupiter in our time any less of a sign than that given to the Nephites? The intent of that sign was to verify that, as Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied, the Son of God had been born. Could it be that the Shoemaker/Levi event was a demonstration to a disbelieving world—-Mormons in particular—-that such things can happen—-indeed, will happen—-to us?

Certainly, it was a verification of assertions by this author, the scriptures, the prophets and a multitude of modern catastrophists that such things do happen; that we live in an uncertain solar system that has seen numerous cosmic disasters in historic times; that old assumptions about a steady-state Earth wherein ". . . all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . . ." (2 Peter 3:5.) are flawed; that we have been "willingly ignorant" in this enlightened, modern age, of the truths that the ancients sought to preserve in ritual and stone; that ". . . the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the Earth, which are now . . . are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment . . . ." (Ibid. 3:5, 6.)

As Latter-day Saints who have been given the restored gospel, we have a greater obligation to recognize and receive these things than does the rest of the world. Are we not designated as the “children of the light?”

© Anthony E. Larson, 2003

DEBUNKING ELENIN - AND PROVING THAT ITS A LARGER MASS OBJECT THAN THEY ARE REPORTING

This stuff kills me:

ELENIN DEBUNKING VIDEO

This guy tries to debunk Elenin as a simple snowball in space and he ends up proving that it probably has the mass of Jupiter (or more) by showing all of the Jupiter-Earth-Sun alignments that produced M6+ earthquakes in the past few decades before Elenin was within range to have any kind of effect on us. Facts and data - something Jupiter sized messes with our earth's tectonics due to stresses created from a gravitational trough in the fabric of space's gravitational fields.

He then states (in Feb 2011 - before the Japanese mess) that there IS no Jupiter-Earth-Sun alignment slated for the middle of March and that all these people claiming to have knowledge of something big happening in that time frame are full of doo-doo.... And then we have one of the biggest earthquakes this earth has ever seen precisely when he says we can't based on the fact that there is no planetary alignment, except for Elenin being lined up in an Elenin-Earth-Sun alignment.

Let me recap in case you missed it - he says the only thing that can provide this kind of large-scale disruption to our earth's balance is a Jupiter-sized event lining up in our skies - and he proves it with NASA/JPL data. When Elenin is about the same distance from earth that Jupiter is - and Jupiter is not lined up with us in our ecliptic plane - but Elinin is, we have a monster that just about wipes the east coast of Japan out. In my mind, there is extreme coincidence here, or he just proved that the mass of Elenin is similar or larger than that of Jupiter..... I am telling you, this kind of stuff is killing me. It is the vain/proud side of me, but I love to rub peoples' faces in it.

IF this thing is the size of Jupiter, or larger and IF it continues to track along the path it is on and comes within 10% of the distance it was from us the last time we aligned with the sun, we are in for one heckuva ride. Hate to say it folks - this will be off the charts. In the previous post, I featured a random post of a guy who must have had some kind of gift and who predicted a M12.5 shaker on the west coast on the exact date of the next Elenin alignment. Um folks, this scale is logarithmic - so this shaker would have 1500 times the energy of the last one over in Japan.... To put that in perspective, lets just say that what happened in the Alaska EQ of 1964 or the Madrid quake on the Mississippi fault line that shook bells on the East coast, will be NOTHING!!!!!

I have a really strong imagination as you can imagine by reading some of these posts - and I cannot even wrap my mind around that kind of destruction. The only things that get me close are the images that are conjured when reading what happened in the Book of Mormon when Christ came to the Nephites on the American continent 2000 years ago. BTW, a friend of mine (Kim) who owns a resort on Yucatan and runs tours to the Mayan ruins inland from his place says that all of the old BC cities there are 12 degrees off true north. All cities built after around 33AD are aligned true north and that trend continued in all subsequent city building up until the European invasion. Fact is, they always built their cities aligned with true north until a cataclysmic event moved the entire Yucatan peninsula 12 degrees around the time of Christ and the coming of the great "white bearded God" after the overwhelming destruction. That is catastrophism at its most raw folks..... Facts and data. See my other posts about underwater Mayan cities and catastrophism on a scale that we are probably about to witness....

Now for confession time.... I, in an admittedly very sick and twisted way, am excited beyond belief for this thing (if it happens as predicted) because the good stuff in the next thirty years then happens and then we can settle into our relationship with Christ and pursue a millennial peace and glory. No more war, no more sin, crime, hatred - just love, peace and good juju. Count me in. In the meantime, stay above 3000 feet elevation, stay away from fault lines, big volcanoes, alluvial soils, oceans and other large bodies of water and practice your yoga to stay flexible enough to be able to kiss your keister good-bye if you got it wrong....or didn't have a couple years food storage because "that stuff only happens to other people - and besides, I am too righteous anyway...". And don't forget to enjoy the ride. What else are you going to do?

JOSEPH SMITH AND RADICAL PLANETARY CONFIGURATIONS

Well, most of the stuff on this blog is just quotations and thinking from other people who are way ahead of me on certain topics. Here is yet another person that I think very highly of, Brother Anthony E. Larson. He is a follower of Velikovsky's thinking (and so am I) and I think Larson's work is 99% on and quite brilliant. I read the following blog article and have always wanted to put it together - but there is little else that I could add - and only half as eloquently....

Hope you enjoy:

http://mormonprophecy.blogspot.com/2008/11/gospel-connection.html

All of this goes along with my thinking of how diamond plumes are formed in the earth. Our geologists and scientists have done a pathetic job of explaining how they are formed - quite disappointing really. One more example of the wise and the learned rejecting the simple, plain and precious things. But that is another blog topic for another time.

INTERESTING VISION OF ALMA ERICKSON - STRANGE THINGS AFOOT??

Well, this stuff is at my limit of understanding - but then, most of the stuff on this blog is. You be the judge - I am just putting it out there for your perusal:

Vision of Alma D. Erickson - Early 1930s PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 09 March 2008 17:13

The voice of warning crying unto me, concerning the great and dreadful day of the Lord and the destruction of the wicked, which shall shortly come to pass.



The voice of the Great Spirit does reveal these things unto me, even the Holy Ghost that does bear witness of the Father and the Son. Therefore, I call unto all to repent of their wrong doings and their wickedness, and join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



It is essential that ye be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that ye may receive instructions and be taught the truth by the Spirits which are in Heaven.



Thus declareth the voice of the Great Spirit which is within me, even the Holy Ghost. For thus saith the Spirit unto me, it is your burden and responsibility that these things made manifest unto you shall be made known unto the world.



Prophesy unto this people, for their sins have come up unto me, and they are not of me. He who will not hearken unto the Law of My Word, shall sink into unquenchable fire. Therefore, I extend a warning unto all who will hear the word of their Great Creator, to repent of their sins and evil doings, lest God's judgment come upon them and destruction overtake them.



All these things I make known unto you concerning the Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord, and the destruction of the wicked, which shall shortly come to pass, and is even now at our doors.



Behold, this people, they esteem one another according to their possession of wealth, and not according to the value of the soul. They look upon the wonders of the earth and marvel, but fail to see the poor people who suffer in want around them and among them.



The whole earth is now ripe for destruction, and it shall shortly and speedily come upon the inhabitants of the earth, for God shall hasten His work, and great destruction shall quickly overtake the evildoers, and who is there among them that can escape God's holy law and His chastening hand?



I see our church represented by a high building, and we are in the top thereof, or the most recently constructed portion, which is very shakey; and I perceive that this last constructed portion is going to fall, and we must get down to the lower part of this great structure, which rests solidly upon its foundations. And while I am thus viewing it, the top, or last part built, does crash with a loud and fearful crash.



I see sheep grazing in the valley and on the mountain side. My Master tells me to watch them and not let them graze too far away from camp, because the sky gathers blackness and a bad storm is drawing near. I call three times, and the last time they hear me and come swiftly toward camp.



And thus does declare the Holy Ghost unto me: Beware, lest ye be destroyed with the wicked, for these things shall shortly come to pass.



Poverty and starvation shall sweep the land, and there shall be large masses of destitute people, masses of humanity starving. And as a witness to this truth, you shall see large headlines in the newspapers declaring starvation and hunger; and pictures of masses of humanity but a short way off who are starving. I warn you all to look to God; call on the Mighty One, even your Heavenly Father. Keep His commandments and lay up supplies against this time.



Starvation shall sweep the country, and in certain places, people will even harvest cactus and prickly pears, and prepare food for themselves and to sell. And I see that food becomes so scarce that soldiers are stationed to guard the plates of those who are eating, that the hungry may not steal their food.



Because of the wickedness of this people, they are brought down into bondage, and their money which they have prized so highly, becomes increasingly worthless. I see the time when a cheap room in a hotel will cost $9.00. Then I see a law passed declaring U.S. money is of no value; and the rich bemoan the loss of their great piles of money. I see silver coins lying around in the dirt, and I look around and see still more of them, and in certain places, they are in piles on the dirt. Greenback bills become worthless scraps of paper, and have no value. And thus it shall be that U.S. money becomes worthless.



I see industries collapse. The gasoline and oil industry is symbolized to me by a great pipeline that extends out of the earth a mile or so into the sky, thence a mile to the north, and thence down to the earth. Then I see this great man-made structure is leaking badly at the south, and then it springs a leak at the north, and then it falls northward with a mighty crash.



Thus it shall come to pass that the gasoline and oil business shall first fail in the south, and it shall spread to the north, until there is a complete oil and gasoline failure. And none shall be hauled over the rails because of the great failure. Traffic and industries shall cease because of the want of oil and gas, and great consternation shall seize upon man.



And it shall come to pass that wickedness shall increase, and many women in general shall partake of whoredoms for hire, for women shall exceed the men in number. And I see many men turning to robbery, and to liquors and strong drink, and their children are deprived of the teachings of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.



The Lord God shall send forth flies extra early, and they shall attack the evil doers, the children of the devil, and fear shall fall upon the wicked, insomuch that they shall not move out of their places.



But the more righteous shall flee unto Zion. And I see large crowds coming to Utah in such great numbers that they have to be handled in masses, or in herds like cattle.



And again, I see this same fly as it is revealed to me by the Great Spirit. It is quite a large and fiery red or brass colored fly sent to attack the wicked. Pestilence shall spread from its bite, insomuch that the flesh shall fall from off the bones, and the eyes from the sockets, and the tongue shall not speak. I also saw a dog and a gray bitch wolf, and the wolf is exceedingly heavy with pups to be born. They shall increase in numbers, and shall be ravenously hungry, and they shall not hesitate to attack man; and because of their great numbers, they shall overpower and devour him. Man shall try to tame these beasts, but to no avail. Their purpose is to destroy.



And tornadoes shall come right here in our own west; and I see a dark colored rainbow appear in the Southern sky, followed by another great sign across the whole sky like a checkerboard, and the Lord God shall speak with a mighty voice of fierce and sweeping winds, and buildings, automobiles and people shall be swept away. And I see also that written words shall appear in the sky as a sign and a warning of great destruction.



High winds shall spread over the country with tornadoes and cyclones in various places. Houses shall be blown to pieces and some carried up into the air. The government will issue tents to the homeless. I see a great storm that shall come suddenly, sweeping up glass and causing it to rain down on many, causing much bloodshed. Fire and smoke shall spread over the land and many strange sights shall be seen.



The ocean shall become exceedingly rough in the winter months, and a fear shall arise in the hearts of the people for the safe return of their relatives and friends and those who must go to sea; for it becomes impossible to cross in the winter months, and all must cross by or before the last ship of the season, or wait until the next season when the ocean calms. And at this time, the ocean shall be out of its bounds, or regular water levels, and shall rise up and wash away many towns along the seashores. And afterwards, other people will come in and reinhabit these towns, bringing with them food that is not produced in the ocean-swept country. And I see the water mark on the side hills, high above the towns.



I look up above the eastern horizon and see a woman dressed in a white robe, which also encloses her head, excepting her face; and she is sitting at the foot of a great white cross, which has golden stars in it. As I look upon this scene, it moves toward the north, and I am told to write of great and bloody wars to come.



Again the vision of my mind is opened and I see two emblems through dark clouds; they are the emblem of the American Legion and the American flag. And as I look at them, they appear to be on a government building. They begin to fade away until they have completely vanished from my sight. I see only the government building without either of these emblems.



And I see a crowd of people looking at this great wonder in the sky, and they are somewhat afraid, but not enough that they repent of their wickedness. And I see one man make an effort to pray to the Lord when he sees this great sign, but he makes a failure or mockery out of it, and everyone at the gathering breaks up and leaves in confusion.



I see that the judgments of the Lord are poured out upon all flesh, and it is shown to me that this great sign and wonder marks the time when great signs and wonders shall appear in the sky; and this is the time when the wicked shall be destroyed.



Then I see the U.S. flag with all its bright colors in the northwestern sky; and then it disappears and another flag appears in its stead, which is plain and without colors; but made up of many different parts. And the meaning of it is made clear, that the people of the U.S. will disagree and divide up and split up, forming many separate organizations, until the central government is completely overthrown, and the nation is in civil chaos--without civil administration or leadership.



And it shall come to pass, that the French nation shall bomb the eastern seacoast of the U.S. with a deadly poison gas, and it shall spread over the land like a blanket of thick heavy smoke of a dirty white or a light yellow color; and it does spread over the land with wind and carries with it to all it touches.



A war shall come in this land, for I see a war in the west. I see a mighty gun that shoots from the mountains of the Lord toward the east, drops of rain, as it were, each drop carrying death wherever it hits. First a beam of light comes out of the west and extends across the sky towards the east, and then I see two lines of clouds come out of the west following along each side of the beam of light. And I see them in the east fortifying themselves against these raindrops of death.



Salt Lake County shall be colored red with many light snows, and northern lights shall come in these times, and be seen out of their regular bounds, and shall show in regions where they have never been seen before. And in that day, the sun shall lose its brightness, and darkness shall fall upon the face of the earth; but it shall come to pass that in certain places of the more righteous, the countryside shall be lighted by a miracle line unto a beautiful lamp in the sky, for it is the will of the Lord that certain crops of the righteous shall not fail, and the interior of rooms shall be lighted by a miracle, and even the inside of buildings and mines.



I see hay come down out of the sky like manna from heaven to feed hay-eating animals, and many haystacks of the righteous increase of themselves by the power of God.



But upon dense populations of the wicked, smoke and vapor and dampness and a dark cloud shall settle down and encompass their houses, and shall not rise. When these low clouds appear, there shall be lightning and explosions in the air, the worst that have ever been heard. I see these rapid swirling clouds moving swiftly close to the ground, causing great friction and noise; but to the west, they play out, and toward Utah the sky remains clear.



And thus it shall be when the Lord begins to hasten His work in the destruction of the wicked. There shall be a great sign and all shall see it, for low clouds shall be seen floating low to the ground.



And the Great Spirit or the Holy Ghost declared unto me, Alma Erickson, that the very time of these low clouds is the time appointed by the Lord when the wicked shall not stand. Therefore, know ye that when these low clouds shall come, the wicked of the earth shall be destroyed; and the sun shall lose its brightness, and the earth shall become cooler as a result; causing more clouds to form and come low to the ground, indicating the beginning of the Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord.



And I see these low clouds coming down over the hills and moving with the wind, causing intervals of dimmer sunshine and cooler temperatures. And I begin to hear thunderings and see tornadoes coming over the hills and across the valleys.



And when the temperatures of the earth have fallen because of the low clouds, people will be obliged to go into one room of their houses, and to huddle about their heater to keep warm, and cold and hunger shall come upon man, for this is the time when the wicked shall be destroyed from off the face of the earth.



The word of the Lord came to me, saying that books containing the word of our Heavenly Father and Savior and the Holy Ghost, shall be speedily transferred to Zion, just before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.



It is revealed to me by the Holy Ghost that in a deep narrow gorge, in a southeasterly direction from Salt Lake, hidden records are concealed. This gorge is newly made, geologically. (Relief Mine after the earthquake?)



And it shall come to pass that the climate will not follow its proper seasons, and the leaves shall fall from the trees in the spring. I see a mighty hail storm coming, and it shall come upon the ungodly and destroy the crops of the earth. A frozen hail stone is shown to me of enormous size, it being several feet thick.



And in that time, rain shall beat against houses with fierce and sweeping winds. Thunder will roar continually, and lightning shall flash with blinding streaks. Quick moving clouds shall appear, and giant hail stones raining down from the sky shall pierce big holes through buildings and automobiles; and the hearts of men shall be filled with fear.



People's bodies are now charged with downward flows of electricity instead of upward flows. The downward flows have a destructive influence upon their bodies, while the upward flows have a good influence. For this reason shall great distress be caused among the people.



I see carrots brought in out of the field freshly dug, yet they are wilted and become soft, having lost their freshness and good flavor, because of the wrong charge of electricity.



The sun shall be seen to fail to follow its true course, and the earth shall be thrown out of its regular way, and the hills shall crumble down and rocks shall fall from their places, and the whole earth shall tremble and shake. I see the sun, and it is sinking low in the northeast, and I see two kinds of clouds, those that are split up by conflicting currents of air, and those that travel with the wind. I see bright sunshine and then dust comes in whirlwinds over the ground. Then darkness suddenly comes and I see the stars, and some appear like they are falling. Thus a great darkness shall come in the daytime, and it shall cause great confusion to many. Cities will be without light, and so great shall be the darkness that many caught away from home shall not be able to find their way back.



Water shall spring forth out of the ground with much pressure, and shall rush down over cliffs and down canyons in increasing volume until it floods the lower lands. And the ground shall cave in with deep and wide cavings, and water shall rush into them; and fire and smoke shall be seen.



I am shown, and I look up into the sky and see another planet slightly towards the north or in a northerly direction; and I see that it is similar to our own earth. I see that it is a land of green vegetation, and streams, and creeks of water like unto our own planet. As I look upon it, I see that it is close enough to our earth that its clouds and the clouds of our earth come together and mix and pass by one another. I see a dark strange cloud with whitish smaller clouds around it, and it comes down low over the hills leaving a white snow covered strip of country underneath it and behind it.



And now after this time, I see a lowland country in the region of the North Pole, and it is overshadowed and surrounded by mountains of ice, excepting one outlet where the ice is melted away. I see that this land is warm, that it is cultivated and its vegetation is abundant, and that it is inhabited by many of the Lost Tribes. See http://www.ourhollowearth.com/



I see the last of many dwellings finished in Salt Lake Valley, and I see the water rising up until the buildings are submerged and the people are forced to leave. I even see the great Temple of the Lord half under water, and the water still rising. Later on, the water subsides, and the valley is reoccupied.



After the time of desolation, the same land that was desolate shall now become rich in vegetation, and I see the whole land luxuriant with vegetation, trees and undergrowth, which before was desert wasteland.



I see Salt Lake in the near future with her habitation numbered by the mile, or miles, instead of blocks. I also see around about a new beautiful country of choice vegetation, especially of fruits and food stuffs, growing rank, large and rich, with no noxious weeds.



I suddenly see the Lord Jesus Christ come in a cloud out of the Eastern Heaven with great brightness. I am taken up suddenly from those around me to meet Him, not even having time to tell them that the Lord is coming to redeem the earth. I see that He has come surprisingly quick, and that this time is shortly before us. I see that He is wearing about a four-inch red stripe over His shoulder and down across His breast, and that the rest of His robe is very white. I see that His coming is very soon, and that because of the suddenness of His coming, many of us will not have the time to properly dress ourselves to meet Him. Thus is the glorious coming of Christ to rule and reign on the earth for a thousand years as King of Kings, Lord of Lords.



I see immortal people walking forth from low clouds. I shake hands with them and recognize them as of many nationalities. I see many resurrected women, some with babies in their arms who were taken from them by death, but now are theirs again to raise to maturity.



The Indians or Lamanites shall become a white and delightsome people. They will move north into Canada where they will have more range for their cattle. I see three generations; a grandmother who is quite dark, a mother who is not quite so dark, and a daughter who is white.



A new and different kind of airship shall come that shall have no wings and no gasoline motors, nor carry fuel of any kind; its shape being something like a ball which carries within itself the necessary electrical instruments which control the power of gravity over it so that the ship may be maneuvered through the air at a snail's pace or very swiftly as preferred. And I see many finer ships come after it with many new improvements, but of the same flying principles. These are heavier than air machines and very commonplace.



God has given some men double the brains of others, to develop and increase in knowledge. To some He has given seven-fold, with sufficient periods of time for development; and unto others He has given more, and unto others less. And this He has given unto them before they were born into the world.



I see ancient men compared with our present-day men, and the ancient man is far superior to our present-day man in faith, in truth, and in the ways of God.



I see an old gray headed man who has the mind of a 16-year-old; he has patterned his life after his own ignorant desires. I also see another man who is around 90 years old, or a hundred, who is not gray, but looks young. He has kept the commandments of God and obeyed the word of wisdom in all things.



And now I, Alma, do declare unto you my brothers and sisters, that these things are all true, and shall shortly come to pass according to the Word of God, for they are made known unto me through the Holy Ghost, which does bear witness of the Father and the Son. And now, do not thank me for these things, but thank God, your Father in Heaven. Even so, Amen.


(Visions of the Latter Days, pp. 121-134)

BOOK OF MORMON AND THE DNA EVIDENCE LIES

I dedicate this read to my former Scoutmaster who decided to leave the church over DNA evidence - oh, and then decided to leave his wife for another woman. OR did I get that wrong?? Sorry, it was commit adultery and then use the whole hokey DNA thing as a convenient excuse to make a clean escape from the truth.....without the searing conscience eating away at you quite so hard - at least until the final smackdown at the judgment bar.
Sometimes, you can just see through people....
I would have some pity or compassion on the guy - but it was a complete and total coup by the lefties and something-for-nothing-throw-your-hands-in-the-air-say-Jesus-I'm-saved-while-ravishing-the-neighbors-wifie BACs- but-that's-okay-cuz-I-found-Jesus.... types that I grew up with. My former Scoutmaster was so well known (and liked by all in the community) that the damage to the Church due to his "defection" was quite far reaching (on a local scale). It could forseeably take decades for the effects to completely wear off. Not unlike William W. Phelps apostasy that ended up with far-reaching consequences for the Prophet Joseph and his incarceration in the oxymoronically-named "Liberty" Jail.....
Here is a great teaser from the attached expose which is going in the blog (and I watched the Nova special on this and came to the same conclusion about the age of our ice sheets/earth and the whole DNA thing, in general - before I read this). Why is it, the more I find out about these supposed global warming 'scientists' and their associated ilk, that I feel I need to take a shower. For the most part - they are complete idiots and goons - oh, and then there is Al Gore.... Who can blame Tipper?? But I digress; read the whole thing and you will know why I feel the way I feel:

For several years scientists have been drilling ice core samples in the arctic regions of the world. The ice accumulating in areas such as Greenland and Antarctica are often several thousand feet deep. There are an alternating series of light and dark rings found every few inches on these ice core samples pulled up from the ice. Scientists believe these rings are are laid down annually. They believe the light rings are indications of winter when the ice accumulates, and the dark rings are indications of summer when the top layer of the ice slightly melts. They have counted hundreds of thousands of these rings in the ice, which they believe proves the earth is at least hundreds of thousands of years old.
The scientists have used these rings to predict global climate changes from the past stretching back what they believe is hundreds of thousands of years. By measuring the thickness of the ice layers, they believe they are able to predict periods of warm and cold periods throughout the earth's history. DNA researchers have used this data in conjunction with their own DNA data to predict migration patterns of people, based upon when they believe "ice ages" occurred.
Many scientists and Christians have gone so far as to say this evidence irrefutably proves the earth is at least hundreds of thousands to millions of years old. Unfortunately for these scientists and Christians, there is a remarkable story, that is now sixty years in the making which completely disproves the entire ice core theory.
During the second world war, an entire squadron of p-38 aircraft en-route from the United States to Europe had to make an emergency landing while over Greenland. The flight crews were rescued, and the planes have been sitting intact on the ice ever since.
Fifty years later, in 1992, a group of individuals thought they could retrieve the aircraft, and restore them. They launched an expedition to Greenland to retrieve the aircraft. When they finally located the planes, they were surprised to find that they were under 263 feet of ice. They then set up camp and bored a hole down through the ice and brought one of the planes up piece by piece. While they bored the hole they found hundreds of these ice rings above the planes. If these layers were annual rings as suggested by the scientists, then there should not have been more than fifty layers of ice above the planes. But there were hundreds of layers. They could not possibly be considered annual layers. In the twelve years since this recovery, an additional sixty feet of ice, and dozens more ice rings have accumulated over the level of their camp in 1992. The layers do little more than count the number of storms that hit the area. These are not tree rings we're counting.
Yet, thousands of scientists have devoted their entire lives toward studying these layers of ice. Uncounted numbers of theories concerning the earth's history have been formulated in part from using this mis-interpreted data. For years, atheists have been beating creation scientists over the head with this ice core theory. Yet now the tables are turned, the atheists now deliberately ignore this evidence promoted by the creation scientists.
The fact that so many scientists could so badly bungle evidence as simple as counting ice rings, does little to bolster one's confidence in other scientists ability to interpret far more complex data such as DNA samples. The more complex the data, the greater the potential for error. The greater the potential for error, the more elaborate a web one must weave.

HERE IS THE ENTIRE POST:

Does DNA evidence Disprove the Book of Mormon? DNA Experts, and Christians Attack the Bible as Well as the Book of Mormon.

Introduction:
One of most basic tenets of the LDS faith maintains that the Book of Mormon is a literal history of the ancestors of the present day American Indian peoples. The Book of Mormon teaches that the ancestors of the present day American Indians were led out of Jerusalem by the wisdom and power of God to live here in this land - the Americas. The Book of Mormon plainly teaches that this land is given unto the present day American Indian peoples for their inheritance. The Book of Mormon teaches that the present day American Indians are the literal descendents of Abraham, that they are a remnant of the House of Israel, and they are God's Covenant people, whom God will redeem in the last days, and they shall be a righteous people.
Joseph Smith said that:
"The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians; having been found through the ministration of an holy angel, and translated into our own language by the gift and power of God, after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years, containing the word of God which was delivered unto them (the ancestors of the American Indians). By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and the land of America is a promised land unto them, and unto it all the tribes of Israel will come, with as many of the Gentiles as shall comply with the requisitions of the new covenant." (History of the Church, volume 1, page 315)
There can be no question as to what Joseph Smith and all the early Church leaders plainly taught concerning who the Native American peoples really are. The American Indians will be the principal builders of the City of New Jerusalem, which will be built here on this continent. There can be no question as to what the Book of Mormon plainly teaches and prophesies concerning the American Indian people, who were anciently called Lamanites. Joseph Smith also emphasized that any man in the church who teaches a Doctrine different than what he taught would be cursed. Yet, in spite of all this, over the last several years, we have been witnessing a remarkable change taking place in the LDS Church; where the learned men in the Church, including B.Y.U. professors and the Church leaders themselves have begun to deny the American Indians as the covenant people of God.
Recently, much attention has been given to the latest attacks against the Mormon religion by certain DNA experts, who claim the American Indians are not descended from the House of Israel as the Book of Mormon teaches, but they allege that they originated from Eastern Siberia. Genetic researches have tested the DNA of several tribes in Eastern Siberia and found them to be related to American Indian tribes. Scientists have formulated a theory that tens of thousands of years ago, there must have been a land bridge which enabled people to travel from Asia to America, and when this land bridge somehow disappeared under water, the people in Asia and the Americas were seperated with no further contact. They have attempted to hold this as proof that the Native Americans have originated in Asia.
Many Christians have celebrated this so-called "DNA evidence" to refute the Book of Mormon. Some Christian ministries have spent large sums of money spreading and promoting this idea among the Mormons. If these Christians came to the realization that their efforts are also attacking the Bible, would they stop doing this and begin looking at the reasons that refute this argument? Or are these people part of a growing "Christian" movement who believe that the Bible is merely an inspirational "story", and not a factual history of the world?
Likewise, the many learned defenders of the Mormon faith, have attempted to reconcile this new DNA evidence into their faith; by claiming the Book of Mormon history only took place in a small area of Central America, and did not involve the entire continents and people as the Book of Mormon teaches. These scholars now say that Joseph Smith was wrong, when he taught that the present day American Indians are the direct descendants of the Lamanites mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Many Mormon scholars now believe the Lamanites merely blended in over the generations with the Siberian "immigrants" who "already" populated the Americas. These learned scholars say this explanation best fits in with the "evidence" provided to us by the geneticists, and they have adopted it as their belief, in spite of it's many contradictions with the Mormon religion. Many LDS Scholars have gone so far as to say the Book of Mormon is not a historical record, but merely an inspirational story written by Joseph Smith.
This rationalization and many other "stories" currently being promoted within the LDS Church, have caused many of the Mormons who are not knowledgeable in the basic precepts of their faith, to lose what little testimony they have left, and turn against their religion.
For years, these prominent men in the LDS Church have been contradicting the teachings of Joseph Smith, and all of the other early Church leaders, who clearly taught that the American Indians truly are of the House of Israel, as taught in the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, to our knowledge, there is now absolutely no one in the LDS Church who is defending the original teachings of Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon on this matter. Not one single Mormon do we know of, is remaining true to their beliefs.
Not many years ago, the church was filled to overflowing with people who believed the American Indians were Lamanites. They believed that not only was Joseph Smith a true prophet of God, but the principles he taught were the literal truth. As for today, one can travel from one end of Mormondom to another, and scarcely find a truly believing member. The vast majority have now come to believe in the opinions of the genetic researchers, BYU professors and Church leaders who teach a totally different doctrine than what Joseph Smith taught. Where did all the true Mormons go? Why did they change?
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Contents:
1. The historical record has always indicated Siberians and American Indians are very similar people, who have been trading and intermarrying with each other for centuries. So what does DNA evidence tell us we shouldn't already know? These theories that American Indians migrated from Siberia to the Americas, rely heavily on "ice age" and "land bridge" theories which requires the earth to be at least hundreds of thousands to millions of years old. For all the Christians who have lauded these theories, how do they reconcile them with their belief in a young earth according to Genesis?
2. The Bible declares that the wisdom of the wise will perish at the coming of the Lord. If Christians realize this then why do they constantly use the theories of men in an attempt to disprove the Book of Mormon?
3. Many geneticists have claimed that they can trace certain genetic markers back through thousands of generations, or tens of thousands of years. They claim through their studies that there are no significant relationships to be found between Jews and American Indians If some Christians do believe in a young earth, and believe we are all descended from one family just over four thousand years ago, how do they reconcile this belief with the theories of the Geneticists? Don't these DNA theories attack the Bible just as much as the Book of Mormon?
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The historical record has always indicated Siberians and American Indians are the same people. So what does DNA evidence tell us we shouldn't already know? These theories that American Indians migrated from Siberia to the Americas, rely heavily on "ice age" and "land bridge" theories which requires the earth to be at least hundreds of thousands to millions of years old. For all the Christians who have lauded these theories, how do they reconcile them with their belief in a young earth according to Genesis?
These genetic researchers have treated the obvious relation between Native American and the Siberian tribes as some sort of revolutionary discovery that no one ever considered before. They claim that during an "ice age" tens of thousands of years ago, a land bridge existed which connected Siberia and Alaska which enabled the Siberian tribes to migrate into the new world. The ice then subsided, filling the oceans with more water and submerging this "land bridge." Over the next thirty thousand years, these now isolated Siberian tribes in Alaska eventually populated the Americas. They claim their DNA research proves that these Siberian tribes are the ancestors of all American Indians. And they say their research from annual ice ring layers taken from ice core samples proves the existence of an "ice age" tens of thousands of years ago. These scientists believe that the Siberian and American tribes have been "isolated" from each other since the loss of this land bridge so many tens of thousands of years ago after this "ice age" receded.
But recorded history tells us a far different story than the one laid out by these so-called scientists. History tells us that the tribes in Siberia, and North America have been trading and intermarrying with each other for many centuries. Whaling boats from the tribes in the Northwest from California to Alaska have been known to travel hundreds of miles across the sea on their hunting trips. Native American tribes have colonized hundreds of remote islands throughout the Canadian Arctic. Some of these islands are accessible only by hundreds of miles of journey by boat. Islands which are far more remote and difficult to reach than Siberia, which is only a journey of about fifty five miles from Alaska. Relative to this, a thousand years ago, the Viking colonists in Greenland encountered Native American tribes already living in the region. Yet Greenland is much more remote and harsh than Siberia.
During the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, when the Russian Empire expanded it's boundaries eastward into Siberia, the Russian army engaged in armed conflicts with the native tribes in Siberia. It is a story that is strikingly similar to the plight of the American Indian tribes in the United States, during the same time period.
The major case in point is the Chukchi tribe in Eastern Siberia. Much of their traditional coastal lands in Eastern Siberia lie within a short few hundred miles of the American Indian tribes in Alaska. This is the tribe that is most often quoted by geneticists as being the ancestors of the American Indians, that they believe were cut-off and "isolated" by the receding of the land bridge.
At one point during the Chukchi war against the Russian army during the eighteenth century, the entire tribe consisting of some ten-thousand members fled across the Bering straits by boat to spend the winter in Alaska with their Eskimo cousins. They regrouped, and many returned again back to Siberia the following spring to continue their war against the Russians.
One website at http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/chukchis.shtml gives a short history of the chukchi people in Siberia. This website describes how the the Eskimos, Itelmens, Evens, Kereks, and other tribes were long accustomed to traveling to Chukchi lands in Siberia to speak in the Chukchi language and carry on extensive trading with them. It describes how many of the people in these Alaskan tribes even became Chukchis. It describes how there has always been a lively trade between all the peoples. This website also says that if the Russian government did not enter into a peace treaty with the Chukchis when they did, all the wayward Chukchis would have ended up in Alaska.
The assumptions and theories of these scientists could not contradict the historical record more! All the arctic peoples have been freely traveling, trading and intermarrying with each tribe in both Siberia and North America for more centuries than anyone can possibly know. Their numerous colonies stretch across an enormous arctic region from Siberia to Greenland. There should little doubt in any reasonable person's mind that all of these tribes from Siberia to Greenland, and even across most of the Western Hemisphere are very similar genetically, and are basically all the same people.
It is a very interesting but shocking display of ignorance on the the part of these scientists to suddenly come along and study the DNA of these people in Eastern Siberia, and "discover" that their DNA is similar to the American Indians living across the Bering Straits. It is interesting how they treat this as "evidence" which somehow "disproves" the Book of Mormon.
It is interesting to note how these "scientists" draw an imaginary line down the Bering Straits between Siberia and Alaska, and then ignorantly conclude that that this narrow body of water has kept the sea faring tribes on both sides of the straits in "isolation" from each other since the loss of this supposed "land bridge." This concept of "isolation" is a very important point for these scientists. In order for them to say that American Indians came from Siberia, they must maintain that the Siberian and American tribes have been living in isolation from each other for a very long time. Without this very important point, their theory simply does not hold water.
Everyone reading this article should seriously ask themselves how absurd it is to label the tribes on the west side of the straits as "Siberian" or "Asian," and then treat them as if there is some sort of distinction from the American Indian tribes living on the east side of the straits who are for the most part, the exact same people.
Several times during the twentieth century, dog sleds have even successfully traveled across the Bering Straits when it is frozen in the winter. On a clear day, Siberia can be seen from Alaska.
It is simply a fallacy to believe as these scientists do, that the American and Siberian tribes have remained genetically isolated for tens of thousands of years. It is not reasonable to believe that seafaring American Indians could reach as far as Greenland, yet, never colonize into Siberia. There is absolutely no valid evidence a land bridge ever existed between Alaska and Siberia. The people who made up this land bridge theory had to have a reason for how the American Indians came to be on this continent, and they considered the ancestors of American Indians too primitive and inept, to figure out how to build a boat. In a way it is quite insulting to the intelligence of the Native American People. It was totally unacceptable to them to entertain the idea that they arrived by boat, because it might also provide evidence to support the Book of Mormon. They decided there had to be some connection by land which enabled them to arrive on this continent. Hence the land bridge theory was born. The historical record plainly contradicts the strange beliefs of these scientists. We know for an absolute certainty, that nearly all the Native Americans living in coastal and river regions from Alaska to Peru, had the complete ability to travel by water craft. It is long overdue that this land bridge theory be put to rest.
Mormons should not be surprised and shocked to learn that there are tribes of American Indians living in Siberia any more than they should be surprised and shocked to learn there have been tribes of American Indians living in Greenland. This does absolutely nothing to refute the Book of Mormon in any way.
Scientists have found that the deeper into Asia they go, the less related the people become to American Indians. How did these so called "experts" come to the conclusion, that they originated in the mostly uninhabited areas of eastern Siberia, and then migrated across a "land bridge" to Alaska, then built a huge civilization in Central America thousands of miles away? How did they rule out that it was not the other way around? That they originated in Central and South America, where the bulk of population clearly has it’s base, and then migrated north into North America, and eventually into Eastern Siberia, and mingle with the people there? The Arctic regions of the world are harsh, and for the most part, uninhabitable. There have been mysterious catastrophes there in the past which has destroyed all life in the region. How have the geneticists reversed logic, and rule out that migrations did not begin in the major population centers in Central and South America, and eventually reach as far north as the uninhabited areas of eastern Siberia?
The "ice age" theories also do not hold up to the facts. A member of an anti-Mormon "Christian" ministry wrote to us that the earth is at least four hundred thousand years old, based on ice core evidence.
For several years scientists have been drilling ice core samples in the arctic regions of the world. The ice accumulating in areas such as Greenland and Antarctica are often several thousand feet deep. There are an alternating series of light and dark rings found every few inches on these ice core samples pulled up from the ice. Scientists believe these rings are are laid down annually. They believe the light rings are indications of winter when the ice accumulates, and the dark rings are indications of summer when the top layer of the ice slightly melts. They have counted hundreds of thousands of these rings in the ice, which they believe proves the earth is at least hundreds of thousands of years old.
The scientists have used these rings to predict global climate changes from the past stretching back what they believe is hundreds of thousands of years. By measuring the thickness of the ice layers, they believe they are able to predict periods of warm and cold periods throughout the earth's history. DNA researchers have used this data in conjunction with their own DNA data to predict migration patterns of people, based upon when they believe "ice ages" occurred.
Many scientists and Christians have gone so far as to say this evidence irrefutably proves the earth is at least hundreds of thousands to millions of years old. Unfortunately for these scientists and Christians, there is a remarkable story, that is now sixty years in the making which completely disproves the entire ice core theory.
During the second world war, an entire squadron of p-38 aircraft en-route from the United States to Europe had to make an emergency landing while over Greenland. The flight crews were rescued, and the planes have been sitting intact on the ice ever since.
Fifty years later, in 1992, a group of individuals thought they could retrieve the aircraft, and restore them. They launched an expedition to Greenland to retrieve the aircraft. When they finally located the planes, they were surprised to find that they were under 263 feet of ice. They then set up camp and bored a hole down through the ice and brought one of the planes up piece by piece. While they bored the hole they found hundreds of these ice rings above the planes. If these layers were annual rings as suggested by the scientists, then there should not have been more than fifty layers of ice above the planes. But there were hundreds of layers. They could not possibly be considered annual layers. In the twelve years since this recovery, an additional sixty feet of ice, and dozens more ice rings have accumulated over the level of their camp in 1992. The layers do little more than count the number of storms that hit the area. These are not tree rings we're counting.
Yet, thousands of scientists have devoted their entire lives toward studying these layers of ice. Uncounted numbers of theories concerning the earth's history have been formulated in part from using this mis-interpreted data. For years, atheists have been beating creation scientists over the head with this ice core theory. Yet now the tables are turned, the atheists now deliberately ignore this evidence promoted by the creation scientists.
The fact that so many scientists could so badly bungle evidence as simple as counting ice rings, does little to bolster one's confidence in other scientists ability to interpret far more complex data such as DNA samples. The more complex the data, the greater the potential for error. The greater the potential for error, the more elaborate a web one must weave.
There is no historical evidence in existence, that the earth is older than six thousand years. Many Creation scientists have proven that not only are many of the theories of contemporary science wrong, and totally unsupportable; but they have provided sufficient evidence that these theories were concocted for the express purpose of destroying Christianity. Christians have clearly documented the overwhelming bias against religion in the halls of academia. They provide numerous cases of scientists and professors losing their jobs because they expressed a belief in the Bible, and questioned the validity of the atheists’ theories. These geneticists trying to disprove the Book of Mormon are hardly the unbiased, open minded intellectuals they try so hard to portray themselves as. These geneticists simply have an agenda, and they diligently search for any "evidence" or statistics that can be manipulated to support their agenda.
These geneticists are also making the claim that humans and Chimpanzees are 99.9% the same genetically and should be classified as the same species. They say that humans are nothing more than a sub-species of chimpanzees. How do these Christians honestly reject the geneticists argument on the one hand, and then openly accept and support their posturing against the Book of Mormon on the other hand.
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The Bible declares that the wisdom of the wise will perish at the coming of the Lord. If Christians realize this then why do they constantly use the theories of men in an attempt to disprove the Book of Mormon?
It is written in the Bible that the wisdom of the wise shall perish at the coming of the Lord. The Doctrine and Covenants states that all knowledge shall pass away, save that knowledge which comes from God.
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1 Cor. 1:18-21.
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Many geneticists have claimed that they can trace certain genetic markers back through thousands of generations, or tens of thousands of years. They claim through their studies that there are no significant relationships to be found between Jews and American Indians If some Christians do believe in a young earth, and believe we are all descended from one family (Noah's) just over four thousand years ago, how do they reconcile this belief with the theories of the Geneticists? Don't these DNA theories attack the Bible just as much as the Book of Mormon?
For anyone who literally believes the Bible to be an accurate and inspired history of the world, both of the Christians and of the Mormons; the claims of these geneticists presents a number of challenges to them. The Bible teaches that the Earth was created about six thousand years ago, and Adam and Eve were our first parents. The Bible teaches us that these were the first two people on the Earth, and there were no other people prior to this time. Adam and Eve had many children, and over the next two millennia the entire earth was populated with people. The Bible also teaches that about 4,000 to 4400 years ago, there was a great flood of water that covered the entire surface of the earth, and every one on earth was drowned save Noah and his family, who were preserved in the ark. After the flood, Noah’s children replenished the earth with people. The Bible teaches that every person now living on the earth, without exception is directly descended from Noah.
The Book of Mormon teaches that about 2600 years ago, God led a number of Israelite people out of Jerusalem, prior to it's destruction and captivity of the Jews by the Babylonians. Led by Lehi, these Israelites came to the Americas, and eventually populated the entire Western Hemisphere with their descendants. These people were the direct descendents of Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and who was the brother of Judah, who is the father of the Jews. The Book of Mormon teaches that the present day American Indians are the direct descendants of these Israelites, who are of the tribe of Manasseh and that great blessings are promised to them in the last days by God.
In contrast, these geneticists maintain that the American Indians migrated into the Americas from Siberia thirty thousand years ago. This attack against the Book of Mormon should be of great concern to any Bible believing Christian, because it attacks the validity of the Bible as well. The geneticists say that certain DNA markers pass from father to son with little change. They claim they can trace these DNA markers back for tens of thousands of years, and thousands of generations, far longer than the Bible teaches how old the earth is. The geneticists claim there is no significant relationship or common ancestry between all the races of people on the earth going back these tens of thousands of years, long before the time of Noah. Yet it is the Christian ministries themselves who are some of the prime supporters and promoters of this so called "evidence."
The Bible records in Genesis Chapter 11, 1 Chronicles Chapter 3 and Matthew Chapter 1, most of the generations between Noah and Christ. Probably around 60 to 80 generations. If we assume that the average generation span in the two thousand years since Christ is about 25 to 35 years, then there is only an additional 60 to 80 generations until the present day. That leaves a total of only about 120 to 160 generations between Noah until the present day. People cannot honestly lay claim to a belief in the Bible, without also believing that all the races and wide variations of men, are directly descended from one family about 4000 years ago.
In spite of this DNA research which many "Christian" ministries now believe in, some Christians still hold the Genesis account in the Bible to be the infallible word of God. All the early Mormon Church leaders considered this account in Genesis to be the gospel truth as well. On the other hand, many atheists do not believe in the Bible, and have carefully crafted their own philosophies with the purpose of refuting the Bible, and destroying many peoples belief in God. As everyone is aware, there has been a war going on for quite some time now between those who believe in God, and those who try to destroy that belief. The fields of science have been one such battleground.
If we believe the Bible is true, that everyone now living on the earth is descended from one man 4,000 years ago, and if we take the claims of these DNA experts to their logical conclusion, then DNA research should be able to prove a common DNA heritage to every man in the world. If they make the claim that they can trace heritage back tens of thousands of years, because certain genetic markers remain little changed over that period of time, then every male in the world should have elements of a common father from four thousand years ago. But there is a very diverse variety found in all the races of people today. This makes the beliefs and motives of the Christians who support these geneticists' theories, contradictory and confusing.
It is no doubt true that certain genetic markers do remain little changed and can be traced from parent to offspring. But given the extremely numerous variations of people present in the world today, using such means to accurately trace a person’s heritage over thousands or even hundreds of generations is a claim that is highly questionable,
If every man in the world has a common father from four thousand years ago, and these genetic markers remain little changed over this length of time, then why are there so many variations in the people that allows them to find distinctions in every race in the world? Why are Christians supporting these geneticists claims that there is no relation between American Indians and other races of people for tens of thousands of years, if everyone in the world had a common father in Noah 4000 to 4400 years ago? What is the Christian's explanation for how the people of the earth have come to be so varied over the generations, and so "unrelated" by geneticists standards?
Lehi came to this continent 2600 years ago, only about 1400 to 1800 years removed from Noah, which is not very long at all by geneticists standards. His children who are now the population of American Indians have remained mostly isolated from the rest of the world ever since. This makes American Indians about the most isolated population in the world. Assuming all these uncountable variations of people in the world today came from one man four thousand years ago, and assuming that variations increase from generation to generation as fast as the Bible suggests it does; then would it not be reasonable to assume that the American Indians so isolated would have developed traits unique to the world, over the past 2600 years?
It is most unfortunate that the Christians proudly point to the work of these geneticists, in an effort to disprove the Book of Mormon, knowing full well what these same geneticists beliefs are concerning the Bible. These geneticists do not believe in the Bible. In order for their theories to work, they cannot accept that every person in the world has a common father in Noah, just over four thousand years ago. In order for their theories to work, they must put their faith in the dubious claim that they can accurately trace the genetic markers of people back tens of thousands of years.
These DNA researchers must completely disregard the account in Genesis; because the Bible records Abraham was born 292 years, and only 9 generations after the flood. Abraham was 58 years old when Noah died, and may even have known Noah personally. One of the basic premises of these DNA theories against the Book of Mormon is that Abraham could not have been related to the rest of the world. The reason being is because these geneticists claim that the present day Jews have a common genetic makeup which is traceable from son to father through the Y-chromosome all the way back to their father Abraham who had his own unique DNA from the rest of the races then living in the world. Yet, if the Bible is true, and Abraham was only nine generations after Noah, then Abraham would still be closely related to everyone then living on the earth.
The Book of Mormon records that Lehi is a descendant of Joseph, while the Jews are descendants of Judas who were both great grandsons of Abraham.
If the Bible is true, it would not be possible for the world to "unrelate" itself by geneticists standards in the approximately 300 years or 9 generations between Noah and Abraham, and then according to geneticists standards maintain a common relation or heritage for each of the 120 to 160 generations of the past 4000 years. In order for the DNA experts' theory to work, the Bible must be thrown out the window alongside the Book of Mormon, and the history of the World must be thrown back tens of thousands of years, in order for the world to "unrelate" itself to the point that would fit the geneticist theories. How do the Christians reconcile this, because the very claims the geneticists are making attempts to disprove their own beliefs in the Bible as well?
For all of you Christians who have bought into this DNA argument in your lifelong attacks against the Book of Mormon, you better be aware of just what you are doing, because you are unwittingly attacking the Bible with your arguments, and contradicting your own beliefs. You either believe the Bible, that the earth was flooded 4400 years ago or you don’t. There is a world of evidence that the flood really happened, you can’t prove there wasn’t a flood. That overwhelming evidence for a worldwide flood blows a major hole in the geneticists’ theories. So if you are a Christian who has bought into the fairy tale that there were nomadic tribes of people wandering the earth 30,000 years before Adam and Eve, and say the Bible is not really history, but was just mythology written down, you better start honestly asking yourself why you even bother to call yourself a Christian.
Likewise the Mormons who have bought into this DNA argument, and are attempting to reconcile these DNA posturings into the fabric of their religion, should take a history lesson from B.H. Roberts. Mr. Roberts tried to reconcile the theory of evolution into the fabric of L.D.S. church doctrine, because he considered evolution too overwhelming to ignore. He eventually lost his testimony in the Church, and became an apostate over the issue. Evolution seems like a foolish reason to reject the Church; considering how preposterous the theory of evolution has come to be regarded by honest people. We are told in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to not put our trust in the arm of flesh, but to trust in God only, so our doctrines may be sound, and we are not cursed. The Book of Mormon is a precious gift from God, which the world rejects with the same enthusiasm as when the world rejected the Messiah when he walked the earth. There is no known provable fact, no unalterable scientific law which conflicts in any way with anything written in the Book of Mormon. But the Book of Mormon conflicts with petty opinions and philosophies of nearly everyone alive, including most Mormons.
Everyone reading this article should honestly ask themselves which religion is more reasonable and logical, and which is more absurd and contrary to the facts. You can choose to believe in the religion that says humans are descended from chimpanzees millions of years ago, and crossed an imaginary land bridge between continents 30,000 years ago if you want, but don't expect honest people to take you seriously for much longer. The wisdom of the wise will truly be confounded, very shortly.
The American Indians truly are a branch of the House of Israel, and the day is soon coming that the American Indians will be convinced of the truth, which has already gone forth among them, as prophesied in the Book of Mormon. The time will soon come when the hearts of the American Indians will turn to their fathers in the Book of Mormon who prayed so hard for their children of these last days. With so many Mormons now turning themselves away, and rejecting the truth of their religion; the American Indians remain the greatest hope for the future of the Mormon Church.
(page created 02/22/04)