Book of Mormon Evidence?

You have a good point, and that point is emphasized by the answers of others who failed to catch your point - that people ignore what we don't know about history and cite large blanks in history as "evidence" that nothing happened back then when in reality, it just means that we don't have a full accounting.

People rush to compare the BoM to the bible without noting that the bible took place in known geography in a desert where you can find lost cities fairly easily in the most excavated and searched are on earth; compared to the thousands of miles of possible locations on the BoM in heavy jungles without historical constants or the researchers.

The more time has gone on, the more plausible the Book of Mormon has become - however ultimately the biggest hidden artifact people miss is the need for faith - when I read it I find a personal relationship with God and come closer to Him; and I never expect to dig up something from the ground to emphasize that point.

At the end of the day these people can look in their hearts rather than point to the ground. I don't believe that God would allow the BoM to be proven from artifacts, doing so would ruin the need for faith, it would lessen the value of the book itself.

How narrow can we be here, really? Only native people of a certain region of this planet are God's children, specifically the Middle East. There are such things on at least 4 continents as the peoples of the time worked to understand Earth, Sky, water and all within or on each. Which is why Faith, remember faith or in simpler terms trust is important to Any belief system. Science does evolve. Does anyone really believe Earth is flat? Gravity doesn't exist? Women are frail dainty, weak, etc? Religion like any premise or theory has it's underlying premises. What is a Day to a human may be and most likely is far different from any omniscient. I don't concede exclusivity to any in this regard, not to one continent, not to this Planet, not to this solar system, nor to this universe. Yes I have the Proclamation to the World on the Family hanging on my wall, my KJV, book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and D&C in 2 rooms of my home. I am LDS and Mormon is a book not who we identify ourselves as being. You want a good perspective www.lds.org/meetinghouselocator come learn what we believe from us not others. Oh and prior to any assumptions, no I'm not a cookie cutter Latter Day Saint or what is commonly coined a "Molly Mormon". By the way if you want a real insight our Fall Semiannual General Conference is this weekend. check www.lds.org for online or a local meetinghouse and learn from our world leaders

Not sure how it fits in, but it does differ somewhat from most typical ancient Native American rock art.

One answer states Missouri has no evidence supportive of the Book of Mormon. But here is a map of ancient cultures of that area: http://www.beloit.edu/logan_online/exhibitions/vir...

In his book, "Exploring the Book of Mormon In America's Heartland," Rod Meldrum presents archaeological and other evidences which do fit the Book of Mormon record. He finds support for the older Adena culture as fitting the Jaredites, the newer but still ancient Hopewell culture as comparable to the Nephites. The Hopewell culture ended about 400 AD, about the time the Nephites were destroyed. He presents evidence of iron smelting, and the inclusion of barley in ancient crops, two things critics of the Book of Mormon deny.

The Hopewell Mound Builders is something to do a browser search on.

It's all just speculation of course, so who knows. This is off topic, but to those saying the notion of ancient Israelites traveling to the New World is ridiculous, there are more than a few ancient mysteries showing evidence of pre-historic interaction between the easter and western hemispheres. Just last night I was watching a television program that touched on ancient Egyptian mummies who showed evidence of cocaine and tobacco use prior to death, substances that were otherwise unknown to the eastern hemisphere until after Columbus discovered the New World. Obviously none of this proves anything, but it does make one think. When it comes to the human history of this earth, we don't know much.

This is very interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-o...

Oh, man! You have GOT to stop drinking that mormon Kool-Aid, kid! It's rotting your brain to the stem!!

Since when does anyone other than a mormon believe anything a UTAH-BASED MORMON OWNED RADIO STATION promotes as "not being straight from the LDS coffin of selective lies"? Come on. Try again, kiddo. Because you ain't foolin' us. Been there, done that, use the T-shirt for... oh, wait! I tossed that rag long ago. It was useless, even when brand new.

Please. Spare us the laughter. We laugh enough without such utter nonsense in our lives. Really! (Are you surprised?)

.... found by the LDS? How very convenient, that. <rolls eyes>

edit @derrie – you said “and learn from our world leaders”

Jesus tells us - “COME TO ME, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME” (Matthew 11:28).

Why learn from men, when you can learn directly from Jesus??

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The History of the Church records an incident from June, 1834 in which JS identified a skeleton found in an Indian burial mound in Illinois: ". . . the visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the Spirit of the Almighty, I discovered the person whose skeleton was before us was a white Lamanite, a large, thick-set man, and a man of God. His name was Zelph . . . who was known from the Hill Cumorah, or eastern sea to the Rocky mountains." (HOC 1948 ed., II: 79-80).

You can't keep changing locations ever time a new site is found. I know you didn't say that its for sure, but still, really??

Kerry finding another civilization in a previous location thought to have never been inhabited is a far stretch to claim as proof for the book of Mormon. They have a history of Missouri being the center of wars and the place of Jesus second coming. Now when they have dug through Missouri trying to substantiate any of the history Joseph Smith relayed from the unseen golden tablets with the unseen magic glasses they have found nothing. The scriptures say that if a prophet speaks in Gods name they have to be 100% accurate lest they die and they also say that no scripture or prophecy is of any private interpretation. So when you get to ideas of the second coming the OT and New both say Jesus will descend and the mount of Olives will split in two and a river will flow year round form Jerusalem and all the nations will be required to come and keep the feast of tabernacles lest they get no rain. Egypt is singled out for this (see Zech 14)

The end times is very detailed in the Bible and the nation of Israel with Jerusalem at the center of geo political tension and a 3rd temple with the outer court given to the heathens is described. The anti christ is supposed to stop the sacrifices that have been resumed and claim himself to be a god. Israel is back the outer court has 2 mosques on it and the Temple institute has replicated everything to resume temple sacrifices and Jerusalem is the center of geo political turmoil. I can give you hundreds of specific prophecies that fall under the rules of a prophet must be 100% right and you cannot make up interpretations that clearly demonstrate Israel is still a huge part in the plan of God. Here are just 2 that pretty much contradict the Mormon view. Amso 3 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.

Jer 31 Thus says the LORD,

​​Who gives the sun for a light by day,

​​The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,

​​Who disturbs the sea,

​​And its waves roar

​​(The LORD of hosts is His name):

​

36 ​​“If those ordinances depart

​​From before Me, says the LORD,

​​Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

​​From being a nation before Me forever.”

​

37 Thus says the LORD:

​

​​“If heaven above can be measured,

​​And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,

​​I will also cast off all the seed of Israel

​​For all that they have done, says the LORD.

​

38 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that the city shall be built for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”

Zech 14​It shall come to pass in that day

​​That there will be no light;

​​The lights will diminish.

7 ​​It shall be one day

​​Which is known to the LORD—

​​Neither day nor night.

​​But at evening time it shall happen

​​That it will be light.

​

8 ​​And in that day it shall be

​​That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,

​​Half of them toward the eastern sea

​​And half of them toward the western sea;

​​In both summer and winter it shall occur.

9 ​​And the LORD shall be King over all the earth.

​​In that day it shall be—

​​“The LORD is one,”fn

​​And His name one.

​

10 All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalemfn shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.

​

11 ​​The people shall dwell in it;

​​And no longer shall there be utter destruction,

​​But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

​

12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:

this is Israel not Missouri...

There is nothing to connect this with the Book of Mormon. At best it is a reminder of how little we know about the previous inhabitants of the Americas.

We've already found the walled cities, towers, temples, highways and thrones discussed in the Book of Mormon; there isn't any reason to keep searching.

That is just one more piece of the puzzle which could link the Book of Mormon record to identifiable historic record. I am particularly fond of a wall painting in Southern Mexico that depicts two peoples living together, one being light skinned and one being dark skinned. The light skinned people appeared to be subservient to the dark skinned people in that painting. I don't know what better evidence you could have to verify the B of M record. Joseph could not have know about such things when he dictated the record.

It has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon. Mormons are grasping at straws when they bring things like this up. Hello Mormons, the Jaradites were not in America 6,000 years ago. Descendants of Paleo-Indians made those paintings.

People built a temple in Turkey 5,600 years before Adam. Mormons, let's see you fit that into your Book of Mormon fairy tale.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-...

Or how about 17,000 year old paintings in Lasaux cave, France?

http://timelifeblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/11...

Mormonism is robbing America's indigenous peoples of the real achievements of their past cultures.