JoeB131
Diamond Member
Then where are they? Oh, that's right. God took them back.Milton didn't use much of the Bible. No, Joseph Smith didn't lie about the plates and Urim and Thumim.
I agree that had Joseph Smith read or even heard of the book prior to receiving the plates from the Angel Moroni that he could have come up with his own story. However, a big difference between the two was their education. I've seen computer programs that have identified that there were many different writers and each book within the Book of Mormon were different writers as well. Just the patterns in which they are written shows that. I'm sure that the Bible books when first written were not as well written as they are now because of the same lack of education of many of the Prophets. Moses would have been different as he learned in Pharaoh's home. Also, the writers of what I posted make sense.
Actually, quite the contrary, the overuse of phrases like "Exceedingly" and "It came to pass" shows that the BoM was written by one guy who plagiarized whole sections of the KGV. the fact the BOM lifts entire passages from the KJV with all the mistakes in translation remaining is proof it was written by one guy. Of course, few people bother to read it outside the Mormon Cult because as Mark Twain said, it was "Ether in printed form."
Satan and Hell are constructs of the Old and New Testament. Both Dante and Milton read the Bible. So, that's where they were influenced to write what they did. The Gospel of Jesus Christ today in its fullness with our Books of Doctrine from the Lord have more than what is left in the Bible from when books and letters were lost or left out. This is the restored Church and the important doctrines concerning our eventual outcomes in the resurrection have been restored. Many of which were lost or simply not understood and missing the saving ordinances like baptism for the Dead (1Cor. 15:29)...
Actually, Hell (and Heaven) are entirely constructs of the New Testament. The Hebrews didn't believe in an afterlife. (I'm not entire sure what Jews believe about an afterlife because they are all over the map on the subject.) God for the Hebrews was just every force of nature they didn't understand and constantly needed to be appeased.