American Testament: The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible and is a record of God's dealings with His chosen people in the New World. The main purpose of the Book of Mormon is "to the convincing of Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations." (Book of Mormon Title Page) It was written by ancient American prophets for our day (Mormon 8:35) and is an American testament of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

First mention of suffering Messiah on stone tablet from before 1 A.D.

To anyone who has been told that not one shred of evidence exists that the Jews knew anything about a Messiah who would suffer, die, and be resurrected prior to Christ's birth and ministry, there is now evidence to the contrary literally written on stone.

This has been a favorite argument of anti-Mormons since they began to rail against Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Joseph must have made it all up because the Jews had no concept of a suffering, dying, resurrecting Messiah until after it was taught to them by Christ's disciples in the New Testament from Acts onward. Right?

Wrong.

More debate and study is sure to follow, and not everything on the tablet is legible, but a number of experts are quite certain that this tablet, discovered 10 years ago in the Zurich home of an Israeli-Swiss collector, says, in part:

"In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you."

and that statement is addressed to "Sar hasarin," or prince of princes.

Read more in the article to get the full balance of the scholars' take on this discovery.

1 comment:

Robert BoylanJuly 11, 2008 at 3:42 PM
The concept of an expiating Messiah figure is one view of the Messiah among certain sects of Jews contemporary with Jesus, most notably the Melchizedek Scroll in the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QMelch). This was discussed, alongside other examples, by John Tvedtnes in a chapter in his 1999 book, *The Most Correct Book: Insights from a Book of Mormon Scholar*. John has also worked on another book, *Christ before Christianity* that discusses this issue in more detail, among other issues.

While not overwhelming evidence for antiquity, such ancient texts and concepts add to the verisimilitude of the Book of Mormon volume.
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