{"id":1304,"date":"2004-09-08T17:06:38","date_gmt":"2004-09-08T21:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2004-09-08T17:09:22","modified_gmt":"2004-09-08T21:09:22","slug":"seventies-and-apologetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/09\/seventies-and-apologetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventies and Apologetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not really an apologist (if you want real apologetics, try Jeff Lindsay <\/a>or Ben Spackman <\/a>or Dan Peterson<\/a>), but I just had a short, humorous, quasi-apologetic thought. I’ve seen a claim that the Book of Mormon can’t be true because it requires too many people. I believe the numbers used are generally those from Mormon 6<\/a>:<\/p>\n

And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni. And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst. And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a lot of people — when you add in Mormon’s ten and the other ten in the next verse, over a quarter million. But let me ask you this: Do we have a First Quorum of the Seventy? Yes, we do. And how many people are in it? Err, thirty or so. Maybe forty. Second Quorum of the Seventy? Hmm, another thirtyish. And these quorums have been even smaller in the past. So isn’t it possible that Moroni’s “ten thousand” is about as numerically accurate as the Seventy? I can imagine the conversation now:<\/p>\n

Mormon: Congratulations, son. You’ll be leading a Quorum of Ten Thousand.
\nMoroni: That’s great! Why, with ten thousand men, I could attack their lines, defend this hill, and . . .
\nMormon: Who said anything about ten thousand men? It’s a “Quorum of Ten Thousand.” And all thirty-seven of them will be reporting for duty tomorrow. Have fun!<\/em><\/p>\n

Presto — no more “too many Nephites” problems. (Okay, I’m done, I promise. I’ll go back to my regularly scheduled posts about SSM and abortion, and leave apologetics for those who actually know their stuff.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not really an apologist (if you want real apologetics, try Jeff Lindsay or Ben Spackman or Dan Peterson), but I just had a short, humorous, quasi-apologetic thought. I’ve seen a claim that the Book of Mormon can’t be true because it requires too many people. I believe the numbers used are generally those from Mormon 6: And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni. And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst. And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each. That’s a lot of people — when you add in Mormon’s ten and the other ten in the next verse, over a quarter million. But let me ask you this: Do we have a First Quorum of the Seventy? Yes, we do. And how many people are in it? Err, thirty or so. Maybe forty. Second Quorum of the Seventy? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}