In defense of the Book of Abraham

SUBJECT: In defense of the Book of Abraham

Blayne,

Thanks for saying something about this.  There are so many levels that everything can be read. 

Joseph Smith had a gift of translation whereby he could extract paragraphs of meaning from a single letter.  I can relate to this gift as I have done the same in my alphabetics word-number studies.

Furthermore, a funeral ceremony to the Egyptians was no small deal.  In Egyptian culture, everything seems to have been focused around burial and proper passage.

In our culture, to say something was a mere burial rite sound boring.  What a slam for the Book of Abraham.  Not so to the Egyptians.  It was to them what the temple endowment ceremony is to the Mormons  -- the very heart of their culture.

A tourist sees a flower, takes a whiff and moves on.  A Botanist spends his life studying the universe inside that flower.

It's all a matter of perspective.

As for the fruits of the Book of Abraham, I love that book for what it has taught me about God(s) and the plan of salvation.  Even if it was purely a creation of Joseph Smith's imagination (which I don't believe it was) it is an amazing document.

Sterling

-----Original Message-----
From: hawkiye <hawkiye@uswest.net>
To: David's Outcasts <davids_outcasts@listbot.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: (888) DZs Testimony

David's Outcasts - http://www.GreaterThings.com/OpenForum/Davids_Outcasts.htm

May I submit that those who intellectually analyze the B of A have missed the message of it. May I suggest a book by Joe Sampson called: Written by the finger of God. Joe I believe has discovered something in and the B of A that no one else has because of their intellectual posturing.

Weappel7@aol.com wrote:

> David's Outcasts - http://www.GreaterThings.com/OpenForum/Davids_Outcasts.htm
>
> In a message dated 10/19/99 11:59:21, hereigns4@juno.com writes:
>
> <<This gets really obvious when you come to the book of Abraham which was
> "translated" from Egyptian funerary documents. >>
>
>     Until just this weekend I wouldn't have known enough about this whole
> Abraham/PofGP dispute to know what to say. But I just finished a book called
> "Dry Bones" (after the Ezekiel reference of bones which will yet see the life
> of resurrection) on the subject of the hypocephalus (facsimile #2) wherein
> the author shows how those who've derided the JS translation don't hold water
> themselves.  The author then goes on to show how correct the JS translation
> and understanding is.  All is documented profusely.
>     Like the book of Isaiah which for so long beckoned me to understand but I
> could not until Gileadi's works came out, the hypocephalus has so beckoned
> me.  In this subject as like the book of Isaiah I cannot claim to understand
> fully all therein, but now I have an excellent bead of the subject matter.
>     As for those who choose to believe the modern Dr Charles Anthons' over
> the testimony of truth and will do so without at least getting a fair 'story'
> from both sides first, they shall dwindle in unbelief.
>     The bad news is that the book is out of print.  The good news is that the
> printer/publisher is a close friend.  If any of you are interested, email me
> privately and I'll see what I can do.
>     Oh yeah, the celebrity status of the book was such that even though only
> 300 were printed it drew a personal check for purchase from the late Spencer
> W. Kimball (my friend saw it) and the Tanners dropped most all of their
> "anti-JS by bashing Book of Abraham" stuff.
>
>     Walt
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> To unsubscribe, write to davids_outcasts-unsubscribe@listbot.com
> Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/


--
Love Blayne

Luke 17:21, Eph. 3:17-18

From: Weappel7@aol.com <Weappel7@aol.com>
To: davids_outcasts@listbot.com <davids_outcasts@listbot.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: (888) DZs Testimony

I fully agree with your comments on the intellectual vs the spiritual.  I read Joe Sampsons' book recently and loved it.  Although it too only scratches the surface!   Between the two books and their discussion of the many elements of the hypocephalus including planetary data, the plan of savation and the position and "job description" of God and many other things that are contained on that disc, I am toying with the notion that the statement of "all things can be circumscribed into one eternal round" may well be ascribed to that disc.  Indeed it would seem to be the "nutshell" of "everything". 

Walt