I'm from a different denomination of Christianity but I love how accessible your team makes LDS. Thank you!

am I the only one who thinks Don looks like an older version of Justin?! This episode is SO awesome btw, can't wait for part 2!!

I was not expecting the parallels between the Hebrew OT & the BoM, fascinating! Years ago I noticed the BoM index entry for Ishmael noted that he was an Ephraimite . I could NOT find this identifying info anywhere in the BoM nor D&C. So how did the BoM editors know this? Years later I learned (from a BoM institute manual for 1 Nephi 7:2) that the 116 pages revealed that Ishmael was an Ephraimite!

This was so interesting, loved this episode. I'm glad the Lord is the same always and forever.

Just so awesome! I have watched a few of these and this episode is by far my favorite! Thank you so much Don!! (Coming from an ex-Mormon, but I am sure, not for long!)

I just ordered this book today on Amazon.

I enjoyed this episode so much.

Dang, I need to get my hands on Bradley's book! Or just wait until this April when President Nelson gives us the rest of the golden plates . . .

dude this was amazing

Love the insights in this episode. Thanks for posting.

Holy cow! that was an incredible episode. I have to rewatch this a few times over. That was amazing.

Definately one of my favorite episodes. And I watched almost all of them!

This guy is good to listen to. Needs a podcast or something

I thought the first 116 pages was the book of Lehi and if that is the book of lehi didn’t he die before mosiah was around

Oh boy am I ready to hear this.

Can't wait for the part 2! Hahaha

Its interesting... I actually came across the book he wrote on Amazon... didnt realize it was a Book of Mormon scholar who wrote it! Definitely need to get it now

Love this video❤️

Awesome!! Impressive knowledge and ability to interpret the symbolism. Thanks Don!

There is a blog called the Millennial Star that I used to read. A contributor, Meg Stout, had done research on the animal skin thing. She found that the skin had to be from a water animal like a beaver. Joseph's hat contained beaver skin. This led me to wondering if this water skin involved some kind of energy conduction that enabled Joseph to interpret the plates through the stone without having to actually look at the plates. It may seem far fetched, but it's a thought.

Is that Tom Holland?

does the church know or have ideas if the lost pages still exists

How similar is the ability to see what's on the seer stones to how we can't see screen of our iPhones out in the light so its better in a darker environment, which ought to give people the understanding in our own day and times.

Speaking of relics... any else ever wonder if the Liahona is like a royal orb / globus cruciger that you always see kings and queens hold?

Where is the conversion story of this man?

Threesome interview. Can you change the seating? The interviewers one one side facing at a cantor with the one being interviewed on the other side. That way we can see your faces snd the one being interviewed doesn’t have to keep turning his head so much to share your attention. Great subject! Enjoying this very much.

I am grateful that the 116 pages are not in the BofM, it is a long enough book as it is & tells the story well enough. We never needed Lehi's information to make the book complete & those pages helped Joseph get good at the translation & also served a valuable lesson to listen to the Lord first & not trust other men, if told not to, no matter how well intentioned. Keniving men would have altered the 116 pages & brought them forth after to create dis-belief. It was for Joseph to learn several lessons from & was known & prepared for him ahead of time. Moses had tablets with the law & when he saw that the people would not live it, he shattered it & went back up & got the lesser law to bring down & that is what we have now. Lessons learned.

Don is an inspired genius.

well, the 116 had alotta bible references. goes to show if youre commanded rely not on your own wisdom but heed the commandment

Im gonna get his book

The covering of animal skin idea, if you think about it, is also a parallel of our spirits being "housed in skin" as well. Our bodies are a temple.

Guys thank you for this! My mind was blown!

Might this be a connection to the animal skins of Adam and Eve who were clothed with light before the fall?

Love hearing Don's insights and research.

Wow,that guy is impressive

Why did God have Jospeh translate 116 pages and then have them be stolen?

I am not a Mormon (I’m Lutheran in fact), but I’m honestly fascinated by the history of the Mormon church. I’m a bit of a history nerd, and the time of Joseph Smith and others are neat to look into.

The lost 116 pages are available on Amazon so is the unsealed portion.

part two.....

Interesting

Oh how about reading Rough Stone Rolling and getting a bit of a different perspective on the motivations for not re-"translating" this section...

I'm skeptical.

The history of God's dealings with his children from The Old Testament, Book of Mormon, and New Testament is the epic story of all time. And we are living in it. GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN CONTROL. I can't wait for more people to discover this glorious history.

Lost pages? There are no pages at all! How can there be lost pages?

It sounds to me that after the 116 pages were lost, they couldn’t re-write it and that’s why later on came a different approach from a different Angel. The Ten Commandments were destroyed once and the prophet was able to get them back exactly like the first ones. That even has always bug me, why this prophet could not translate it exactly the same? Sorry, is like a rock in my shoe

Having a hat made of animal skins would not have been that hard for Joseph to have gotten -- a leather hat would be cowhide.

The missing 116 pages are likely written from Lehi's perspective and explain how he was a prophet. Only David kills a giant of a man in honourable combat in a holy war whereas Nephi killed a drunk rich man in the street and then robs his house.

Crazy

He refuses to make eye contact with the pretty lady. Many guys have this fear of the pretty girls :)

Wow! I only had anti-Mormon suggestions in my KZfaq feed now I found about five or six pro Mormon channels. I love it :-)

You guys lost me with the hat. JSH and other doctrinal scriptures state Joseph Smith used the Urim and thumin to translate, not seer stones put inside a hat.

i'm surprised they weren't aware the BOM is built around the Babylonian invasion. must not have read the old testament

The BOM has the same tropes and sub-themes as the OT. Such as an exodus, use of animal skins. AFAICT, that can either be taken as prooof the bom's authenticity or in-authenticity.

I love Don. But the person on the left and the right are a bit over-enthusiastic. maybe it's an american thing. but it is kind of annoying.^^

A testimony should be in Christ only, which leads to conversation. This stuff just makes some sense of restoration oddities

No offense no anyone who truly believes, and if you don't have enough faith you shouldn't reads this as it could sway you away. When you see see this from another perspective this is all coincidence and grasping at straws (like the animal skin thing). It resembles the stories from the bible because JS used the bible (we knew he read it so many times) as a base so of course there were gonna be parallels. He never attempted to re write the lost pages because he was afraid if he did it the lost pages could appear and contradict the first attempt and would prove it was a scam, I say this with the knowledge that he was dictating a story he had been preparing and writing in his mind for several years but had no clear form, so small details and barely used names would escape his mind and couldn't possibly remember them to make another copy of the 116 pages, he would contradicted himself and everyone one would've seen what a conman he was. Another thing he should have come across while researching this stuff is that TBOM wasn't written chronologically, after the 116 pages were lost he started dictating mosiah trough the end, after that he started with finished with nephi to before mosiah, so he wrote what was supposed to be the start at the end, when the first books of bom have prophecies that later came true, its because he wrote what happened first and the he wrote the before times with a prophecy of what he already knew were gonna happen

Animal skin covering goes back to the garden...

Judah = Utah

I'll blow your mind. The stolen 116 pages have not been seen by public eyes since they've been recovered. Yes recovered. A young native american boy heard about the theft of some writings about his ancestors. Sneaks into the house of the guy who purchased the manuscripts both original and altered version, and steals then. He then takes them to the elders of his tribe and to this day they are still in possession of both manuscripts.

What is...

He doesn't even acknowledge the lady, just stares at and talks to the dude. So rude.

When looking at the Book Of Mormon does anyone also consider the book "view of the Hebrews" written about the same time as The Book of Mormon? The Book "View of the Hebrews" was about the history of the Hebrews in America. The author's name was Ethan Smith . . .

Well, why didn't Smith rewrite those lost pages since he supposedly had the power of a seer and prophet? Why didn't he re-translate the pages from the Golden Plates (BOM)? Truth is he didn't remember what he previously wrote. And so since, he didn't want to get caught in a lie what did he say: D&C 10 1. He claims to have temporally lost his power, for the Lord punished him for giving up those pages. "And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened." vs 2 So he could not re-translate those pages. Humm 2. O wait, he is then, in the next verses, given back his powers to translate the "rest" of the BOM. vs 3 "Nevertheless, it is now restored unto you again; therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun." 3. He is worried that if he re-translates the words, the lost pages will show up and incriminate him as a false seer. So he blames it on others by saying if he re-translates it and it doesn't match the lost pages then it is becasue someone altered the words. "10 And, behold, Satan hath put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated, which have gone out of your hands. 11 And behold, I say unto you, that because they have altered the words, they read contrary from that which you translated and caused to be written; 12 And, on this wise, the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, that he may destroy this work; 13 For he hath put into their hearts to do this, that by lying they may say they have caught you in the words which you have pretended to translate. How to fix the problem? Just say the next part, Nephi, will be an abridgement of what was in the lost pages (book of Lehi). 39 Yea, and you remember it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these things upon the plates of Nephi. 40 And now, because the account which is engraven upon the plates of Nephi is more particular concerning the things which, in my wisdom, I would bring to the knowledge of the people in this account- 41 Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi, down even till you come to the reign of king Benjamin, or until you come to that which you have translated, which you have retained; Smith a true seer? Nope.

Righ'

when you converse with two people, you look at them alternately. he only looks at the guy most of the time. that's actually rude

Logic and science have no place here

So if Joseph had the "gold plates" and the 116 pages of the translation were lost, why not just go back to the plates and render another translation which, would have proved Joseph was a prophet. The plates weren't lost, only the translated pages. The reason he couldn't was because he was a false prophet and, the BOM is a book of fiction.

Did he lose 116 pages? That's okay, it's just the BOM -- just don't give him anything important to keep track of. I think it's under the Seer Stone, next to his Jupiter Talisman and Mars Dagger. They keep all those things in the "Filthy Evil Powers of Darkness" room, don't they?

LOL -- Is this for real?

Seriously guys? 116 pages of the the one true gospel where “stolen” and instead of reproducing verbatim with divine & magical characters being projected from river stones inside a hat? And those characters wouldn’t go away until Joseph understood them correctly? Couldn’t god just hit reset of the Book of Mormon book-on-tape program? It’s just so obvious that if this was divinely inspired then the lost portion could be reproduced easily, rapidly & 100% accurately for such an important book to literary all of humanity. Instead, we get a dog-ate-my-homework excuse and now we are all just bad little girls and boys so we are not worthy of getting back the missing pages. So…here is a pieced together outline of what the entire lost section was. Almost like someone had thought-out this outline once before and then iterated a more detailed version. However, now said person (who is Joseph Smith - for those who are playing along at home) apparently isn’t able to produce the detailed version as before so now the goalpost changes and you get this. Don’t let religious, government & whatever else institutions sell you on this garbage justification of a situation for what it is. Joseph created the narrative (divinely inspired or otherwise) and couldn’t reconstruct it in a convincing manner so he made this excuse up. Sadly people believes it, which may be understandable for his day but not now for all that we know. In the end, this isn’t meant to be mean but more of a recognition that there are SERIOUS issues here and all throughout Mormonism. I grew up Catholic, and even in this sect this issue of people ignoring the problem is disgusting in manner. From putting the accused in Rome into red-hot furnaces alive during medieval times, to the abuse and mass murder of indigenous Canadian school children buried in mass graves and discarded as trash, to finally the Catholic priest that rape children within their very own churches. The Catholic Church knows that AT LEAST 10% of Catholic priests have sexual abused/raped children within their church. This is a known quantity, and they shuffle them around parishes to hide these crimes and weaken the testimony of the abuse so that they will stay silent as no one would believe their claims against a “holy” priest. We all deserve to be treated with respect and our valid questions answered and not just hand-waved away. After all, this is your eternity right? Don’t let some child rapist make you feel like crap about yourself and convince you of some afterlife that enslaves you to suffering and only benefit the institution through your blind obedience. Let’s rise above this together. 🕊️

There is a better explanation for this on South Park

How convenient