Episode 18: 3 Nephi 8-11
Ben and Shiloh tackle really interesting and difficult chapters in the Book of Mormon where the sign of Christ’s death comes to the Americas. Most Book of Mormon scholars conclude that a possible volcano is what caused every mentioned calamity from the mist of darkness, to the lightning, the geographic upheaval, the liquefaction of cities into the sea, fire from heaven and consuming cities, cities being covered with earth, etc. There are a few lack-of-congruence issues in the text concerning Samuel’s prophecy of the signs of Christ’s death and the interpretation of events of those who lived through it. A few ideas are discussed on how to resolve the congruence issues, as Ben formulates a completely different, rather bold, and shocking possible explanation of Jesus Christ’s seeming destructive nature in chapters 8-10 that requires us to re-engage the text in a completely new way and to see both the events and Mormon (as the compiler of the story) in a new way. Neither Shiloh or Ben make any claim that any of these ideas are actually “the way” things happened, but it was a rather enjoyable exercise in looking for patterns in the scriptures to and trying to shake new ideas loose to see what possibly appears.
