The Seventy's Course in Theology, First Year: Outline History of the Seventy and A Survey of the Books of Holy ScriptureRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
The Seventy's Course in Theology, First Year: Outline History of the Seventy and A Survey of the Books of Holy Scripture
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Referring again to the work of the noted Archaeologists mentioned
above, with others, Mr. White goes on to say that they "have deciphered
a multitude of ancient texts, especially the inscriptions found in the
great library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, and have discovered therein
an account of the origin of the world identical in its most important
features with the later accounts in our own book of Genesis. These
men have had the courage to point out these facts and to connect them
with the truth that these Chaldean and Babylonian myths, legends,
and theories were far earlier than those of the Hebrews, which so
strikingly resemble them, and which we have in our sacred books; and
they have also shown us how natural it was that the Jewish accounts
of the creation should have been obtained at that remote period when
the earliest Hebrews were among the Chaldeans, and how the great
Hebrew poetic accounts of creation were drawn either from the sacred
traditions of these earlier peoples or from antecedent sources common
to various ancient nations." (A History of the Warfare of Science with
Theology in Christendom, Vol. 1, p. 20.)
There can be no doubt but what the accounts of creation found in these
Assyrian and Egyptian sources are earlier than those written by Moses,
or that they are similar in import, but because of these facts is it
necessary to discredit either the Mosaic authorship of the five books
of the Bible accredited to that Prophet, or doubt the inspiration of
these accounts? And yet this has been the result of these discoveries
on many minds. The truth is, that the outlined facts of the creation
have been known by our race from earliest times, from the days of Adam
in fact. They were matters of common knowledge among the antediluvian
patriarchs, and through the family of Noah were preserved for the
families and races of men subsequent to the flood; and variously
distorted these creation facts were preserved by all people. But all
this did not prevent the Lord from revealing the creation history to
Moses, nor does it require us to doubt the inspiration which rested
upon him and that enabled him to weave into splendid coherent form
the fragmentary truths held among the ancient Egyptians and Assyrian
peoples. That there were pre-Mosaic documents containing accounts of
creation and the history of God's hand-dealings with ancient peoples,
we have abundant proof of in the Book of Abraham, which so strangely
came into the possession of the Prophet Joseph Smith (See Church
History, Vol. II, pp. 235-6, 348-350). Also that the Lord revealed
the creation facts, and also the early history of our race to Moses,
is confirmed by revelation to the Prophet of the nineteenth century,
Joseph Smith (See Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses, pp. 1-48, also
History of the Church, Vol. I, 98 et seq.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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