Lately, Greg and I have had the opportunity to go out with the sister missionaries to help facilitate lessons with investigators. I've enjoyed going to these lessons because I get to strengthen my testimony and meet new people. We've meet with this really awesome investigator who is reading the Book of Mormon, practiced the Word of Wisdom, and has occasionally attended church. When I asked him how he felt about reading the Book of Mormon, he says, "I really just want like a timeline or background history of this area as well as a map to help me visualize the locations of these places in America."
As someone who studied the Bible extensively for school, I laugh a bitter laugh at this statement. Several scholars and I understand how he feels only we want to know where to locate routes and places mentioned in the Biblical world, and when exactly certain events took place...
Examples of things we are kind of unsure of:
Mount Sinai and the Route of the Exodus: We don't know which way they went up from Egypt to Canaan, and we have a few well-educated guesses as to the location of Mount Sinai and other locations mentioned. We also don't know how the Israelites settled in Canaan: did they settle peacefully or battle it out with the locals? We don't even KNOW when they left Egypt!
We don't know where the city of Ur that Abraham hails from is located.
If Jeroboam I built two golden calf altars at Dan and Bethel, how come we can only find the site at Tel Dan? What did the golden calves really mean to the kingdom of Israel?
I think it is difficult to read any book and not have questions about the details. Recently, I've read through Harry Potter and I've been thinking about them a lot. I love the story, and when I read it, I gobble it up. But sometimes, I wonder about the fine details. What kind of society is the wizarding society?What happened to Harry's grandparents? What happens to Harry and Dudley when they are grown up? How many people know about wizards because of their relationships to wizards and witches? But sometimes, when I get too caught up in the all the questions, I lose sight of the point of the story the author is trying to make. When we are reading a book about God and those who believe in God, I think that sometimes we allow those fine details overshadow the ideas of faith that are also mentioned in the book. Yes, sometimes we don't know everything, and sometimes we will never find out in our lifetime all the answers we have questions to, and yes it is good to talk about the details, but when we allow these details to overrule our faith, we can lose sight of what's really important. From the scriptures, we can study the lives of believers and learn from their examples. The scriptures help strengthen my belief in God. I know that because of the scriptures, prophets of old and modern times, prayer, and answers to prayer that God is real and that He loves us.
So, we don't know everything about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I could say that perhaps those who were writing them didn't include all the details because they were writing about things they knew and understood. Doesn't Mormon say that he is making an abridgment of the history of his people? We know that the Bible is a combination of the Torah or the law, prophets, and writings of the Jews. So having a combinations of different types of literature makes it difficult to pin-point details such as history, geography, etc. The authors wrote things were (hopefully) inspired to write, and the redactors or those who abridged were trying to keep to the important themes, messages, and ideas. We know that the Deuteronomistic historian (DtrH) had plenty of material to write a history because he/she/they referenced other books like the chronicles of the kings of Israel occasionally (1 Kgs 15:31). I'm sure they wrote the important messages down to the best of their abilities. And don't the authors of the Book of Mormon often say that they hope that they are writing useful things, and they recognize their imperfections, and then don't they ask for us to overlook them? What we should remember is that scriptures are the testimonies of others, and they give examples of the relationships people had with God, and these people who wrote them were imperfect like us. I like what Elder Holland said in conference a while ago. "Except in the case of His Only Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating for Him, but He deals with it. So should we." Do we need to be more charitable to these authors and redactors? Yes.
Anyway, my point is don't let the small things get in the way of the big picture. Have faith. Get understanding of the important things like the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "What we know will always triumph what we don't know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith."- Jeffrey R. Holland
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