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The Relevance and Effectiveness of Four Book of Mormon Prophets and Their Teachings

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The Relevance and Effectiveness of Four Book of Mormon Prophets and Their Teachings Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1974 The Relevance and Effectiveness of Four Book of Mormon Prophets and their Teachings David Earl Perry Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Perry, David Earl, "The Relevance and Effectiveness of Four Book of Mormon Prophets and their Teachings" (1974). Theses and Dissertations. 5033. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5033 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. godAOO L THE RELEVANCE AND effectiveness OF FOUR BOOK OF MORMON PROPHETS AND THEIR TEACHINGS A dissertation presented to the department of ancient scripture brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree doctor of philosophy by david earledaledwl perry april 1974 this dissertation by david earl perry is accepted in its present form by the department of ancient scripture of brigham young university as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of doctor of philosophy 7 A montenteante S nyman comfnitroe7cammicommi ttciataciattclachairmanCia ftp itprobert J k5thewsmatchersmatchewsMat chews colnftecortimtteeie membermemder KX gary andeanderonn cbcbmmttteetedtee member fy 9- 133 7 F laz&4gaj&4aA rL date Smehtemdhtete S nyman actinactingdepartmentActing91epartmentDepartment chaichalchairmanman typedTyped by sondra and bob jones n acknowledgments to lehi nephi alma and mormon the writer of histhisI1 study desires to express deep and profound gratitude for the months and years of close companionship which they have afforded him their personalities and teachings were found to be singularly relevant and effective in his own life this project provided a glimpse choice indeed into heaven and the lives of those who there enjoy celestial joy the mortals who have aided in this endeavor include my sister in law luan burk whose timely aid during two summers greatly assisted the work my honored parents rolland and miriam perry whose constant encouragement numerous hours of careful proofreading and valuable suggestions regarding the entire project served to bring the work to completion and my most revered wife francis who had full enthusiasm for the project and who wisely stimulated the writer to set proper limits to its scope appreciation is likewise tendered the many writers whose efforts paved the way for this work particularly does the writer feel indebted to william E berrett for his written words and perrperzpersonalonatonal1 encouragement although serving only briefly on the advisory comitcommitteetee russell R rich andindcand H donldonipeterson provided excellent hethelhe LJ Vwhich sas sincerely appreciated finally to the chairman and members ofcr therhe committee as finally constituted may the writer extenextendda appreciatiinapprecialienappreciation illlit11 i iv for the friendliness of their help the wisdom of their suggestions and the patience of their endeavors to train him to research and write the experience was pleasant a 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS page acknowledgments hiiiiliilil LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF abbreviations 0 0 0 0 0 x PART ONE introduction chapters 1 howKOWNOW PERTINENT WERE THE FOUR PROPHETS TO THE PROBLEMS OF THEIR TIMES 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 0 0 0 3 RESEARCH DESIGN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 AND 2 definition OF TERMS REVIEW OF literature 0 0 0 21 definition OF TERMS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 REVIEW OF RELATED TO STUDY literature THIS 0 0 0 0 36 SUMMARY a a a 0 a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 IV 0 44 PART TWO FOUR PROPHETS THEIR personalities T AND TEACHINGS 3 lehlLEHI PROPHET HISTORIAN PIONEER AND PATRIARCH 46 I1 AN introductory LOOK AT LEHI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 47 THE PROBLEMS OF A PIONEER MINISTRY 0 47 SUMMARY 0 0 82 4 NEPHI SON OF LEHISEERlehlLEHI SEER HISTORIAN RULER AND GENERAL 0 88 v VI chapter page AN OVERVIEW OF HIS LIFE 88 THE PROBLEMS OF FOUNDING A NATION 90 SUMMARY 146 5 ALMA THE YOUNGER SEER HISTORIAN 9 JUDGE AND GENERAL 153 A SHORT SUMMARY OF ALMAS LIFE 0 0 0 153 THE PROBLEMS OF converting A NATION 155 SUMMARY 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 193 6 MORMON DISCIPLE HISTORIAN AND GENERAL 0 9 0 0 0 0 198 A SYNOPSIS OF MORMONS LIFE 0 0 0 0 0 0 198 THE PROBLEMS OF ministering TO A DYING NATION 201 MORMONS MINISTRY TO MODERN TIMES 263 SUMMARY 9 0 0 0 274 PART THREE conclusions 7 evaluation AND SYNTHESIS OF EVIDENCE REGARDING THE TWO MAJOR hypotheses 284 MAJOR hypothesis I1 284 MAJOR kiluthesishypothesisluluthedisTHESIS II11 288 recommendations FOR FURTHER STUDY 290 B 1 1 bibliographyI BL I OGRAPHY 40 0 0 9 0 292 appendixes 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 298 APPENDIX A contemporary WRITINGS pertaining TO THE MINISTRY OF FOUR PROPHETS a 299 APPENDIX B TEACHINGS emphasized BY LEHI TO HIS contem- poraries 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 301 APPENDIX C TEACHINGS emphasized BY NEPHI TO HIS contemporaries 0 0 305 viivil chapter page APPENDIX D TEACHINGS emphasized BY ALMA TO HIS contemporaricontemporariescontemporaryES & a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 313 APPENDIX E TEACHINGS emphasized BY MORMON TO HIS contemporaricontemporariescontemporaryES 0 0 328 a LIST OF TABLES table page 1 major and minor hypotheses 19 2 some major purposes of the book of mormon 20 3 lehidatalehilehldata summary on minor hypotheses 85 40 summary n 4 149 4 nephidatnephi datdataa 0on minor hypotheses 0 0 0 0 5 summary 0 0 0 195 almadataalnaatnaalma data on minor hypotheses it 606 mormondamormon datada ta summary on minor hypotheses 279 7 teachings emphasized by lehi to his contemporaries 301 8 teachings emphasized by nephi to his contemporaries 305 9 teachings emphasized by alma to his contemporaries 313 10 teachings emphasized by mormon to his contemporaries 328 viiivm LIST OF FIGURES figure page I11 years mormons abridging methods ratio of pages to 0 0 246 i x LIST OF abbreviations names and order of books in the book of mormon name abbreviation first book of nephi I11 nephi second book of nephi 2 nephi book of jacob jacob book of enos enos book of jarom jarom book of omni omni the words of mormon words of mormon book of mosiah mosiah book of alma alma book of helaman helaman third nephi 3 nephi fourth nephi 4 nephi book of mormon mormon book of ether ether book of moroni moroni x PART ONE introduction chapter 1 HOW PERTINENT WERE THE FOUR PROPHETS TO THE PROBLEMS OF THEIR TIMES vast numbers of people today question the value and relevance of religion prophets and old fashioned scriptures in their lives the causes of this perennial phenomenon are numerous for indeed it is not a new situation religious writers throughout history have recorded their observations regardingtheseregarding these questioners one such antichristanti christ named korihorKor ihor stated his views this way 0 ye that are bound down under a foolish and a vain hope why do ye yoke yourselves with such foolish things why do ye look for a christ for no man can know of anything which is to come behold these things which ye call prophecies which ye say are handed down by holy prophets behold they are foolish traditions of your fathers how do ye know of theitheltheirr surety deholbeholdd ye cannot know of things which ye do not see therefore ye cannot know that there shall be a christ ye look forward and say that ye see a remission of your sins but behold it is the effect of a frenzied mind andzuidauld this derangement of your minds comes because of the traditions of your fathers 5 which lead you away into a belief of things which are not sojsosop this project sought to portray in detail some of the intri- cacies of the problem analyzing its fascinating characteristics in the book of mormon salt lake city the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints 1956 alma 3013163013 16 hereafter cited by names of books for a list of abbreviations of books therein see p x 2 3 relation to the book of mormon OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY the major intent of the research phase of this dissertation 0 was to analyzetheanalyze the personalities and teachings of the prophets 2 in the book of mormon to determine how effective they were in coping with the problems of their times it likewise looked at the ques- tion of how relevant these prophets teachings were to the then current issues this dual approach yielded as a byproductby product an in- vestivestigationgation into the value of religion prophets and the scriptures in the lives of certain ancient american civilizations knowledge of these issues might well suggest some possible replies to the inquiries posed by men today regarding the pertinency ofoffofe prophets to the present problems of the modern era statement of the problem this research closely scrutinized two particular aspects of the religious record known as the book of mormonthatmormon that is its pro- phets and its teachings the intent was to discover the characte- ristics preproprobjefnsblelsbeels and teachings of the prophets and then to analyze the effect which the prophets and their teachings had upon certain peoples of ancient america asee 1seesee definition of terms p 21 this report does not challenge the claim by the church of jesus christC ristofkristofof latterlatterdayday saints regarding the divine origin of the book
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