In response to yesterday's post, readers have expressed surprise and concern that the Reference Companion would so blatantly edit out the early reference to Cumorah that undermines the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory.
The General Editor of the book is Dennis L. Largey, a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU since 1985. He has retired, but the following link still lets you contact him directly:
https://religion.byu.edu/dennis_largey
Even though his area of expertise and research is the Book of Mormon, it is possible Brother Largey was merely quoting the Meso scholars and is actually unaware of Letter VII.
As I've pointed out many times on this blog, our BYU/CES faculty takes care to avoid teaching people about Letter VII. They don't want their students, or members of the Church generally, to realize they are openly repudiating the prophets and apostles.
It doesn't matter that Letter VII fits the exact criteria for reliable LDS doctrine, as the Church clarified here:
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/approaching-mormon-doctrine
I explained this, in part, here: http://www.lettervii.com/2017/11/what-is-official-mormon-doctrine.html
And I'll have a follow-up post on that soon.
_____
BTW, you can see the entire Religious Education faculty at BYU here:
https://religion.byu.edu/directory
Many readers know some of these faculty members. Others have students who are being taught by them right now. Every individual on that list is awesome. However, so far as I know, none of them tell their students about Letter VII. Several of them outright claim Letter VII is false. Maybe some of them accept Letter VII, but they aren't open about it if they do.
As always, if I've misstated anything, I expect people to let me know so I can correct the record.
Realize that when I refer to "Letter VII," I don't mean merely the letter itself, but its context; i.e.,
- it was a response by the First Presidency to specific anti-Mormon claims,
- it was republished multiple times, in every official Church publication, while Joseph was alive (and in the Improvement Era later),
-it was copied into Joseph's own history as part of his story,
-it was fully endorsed by the Twelve in Joseph's day, and
-it has been endorsed by subsequent prophets and apostles, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.
In fact, every prophet and apostle who has officially addressed the issue of Cumorah has endorsed Letter VII.
Keep those facts in mind when these scholars tell you to disbelieve Letter VII.
The General Editor of the book is Dennis L. Largey, a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU since 1985. He has retired, but the following link still lets you contact him directly:
https://religion.byu.edu/dennis_largey
Even though his area of expertise and research is the Book of Mormon, it is possible Brother Largey was merely quoting the Meso scholars and is actually unaware of Letter VII.
As I've pointed out many times on this blog, our BYU/CES faculty takes care to avoid teaching people about Letter VII. They don't want their students, or members of the Church generally, to realize they are openly repudiating the prophets and apostles.
It doesn't matter that Letter VII fits the exact criteria for reliable LDS doctrine, as the Church clarified here:
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/approaching-mormon-doctrine
I explained this, in part, here: http://www.lettervii.com/2017/11/what-is-official-mormon-doctrine.html
And I'll have a follow-up post on that soon.
_____
BTW, you can see the entire Religious Education faculty at BYU here:
https://religion.byu.edu/directory
Many readers know some of these faculty members. Others have students who are being taught by them right now. Every individual on that list is awesome. However, so far as I know, none of them tell their students about Letter VII. Several of them outright claim Letter VII is false. Maybe some of them accept Letter VII, but they aren't open about it if they do.
As always, if I've misstated anything, I expect people to let me know so I can correct the record.
Realize that when I refer to "Letter VII," I don't mean merely the letter itself, but its context; i.e.,
- it was a response by the First Presidency to specific anti-Mormon claims,
- it was republished multiple times, in every official Church publication, while Joseph was alive (and in the Improvement Era later),
-it was copied into Joseph's own history as part of his story,
-it was fully endorsed by the Twelve in Joseph's day, and
-it has been endorsed by subsequent prophets and apostles, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.
In fact, every prophet and apostle who has officially addressed the issue of Cumorah has endorsed Letter VII.
Keep those facts in mind when these scholars tell you to disbelieve Letter VII.
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