Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, tied four aspects of the temple veils to these four elements. Notice what happens to the various cities that were destroyed – some were covered by earth, some were burned with fire, some sunk into the depths of the sea, and some were carried away in the whirlwind. In the cosmology of the ancients, the four elements of creation are Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. , not burned by fire,” and “not carried away in the whirlwind” (3 Nephi 10:12-13). It is most interesting to note that the exact reverse is true for those who are righteous and “received the prophets and stoned them not.” They were not “buried up in the earth,” “not drowned in the depths of the sea. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand. In a prophecy regarding the Savior’s Second Coming, Doctrine and Covenants 88:88-90 reads:Īnd after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people. It is as if the Lord is preaching through the instrument of nature. As the great storm approaches, perhaps the Lord is saying, “Try to ignore this sign!” We hear in verses 8-10 the words – “storm … tempest … thunder … lightnings.” In 3 Nephi 8:4, Mormon mentions that the people were beset with “great doubtings and disputations,” despite the “many signs” they had been given. This is another significant internal evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. If someone were fabricating the record, why would they invent such a meticulous detail? If a person were making up this history, he could insert any dates he wanted. As a historian, he wants to make sure his record is accurate. Apparently, this is Mormon’s only source, because the government has dissolved into tribes, and no national records have been kept. In 3 Nephi 8:1 he verifies that “we know our record to be true,” because it was kept by a “just man” who could perform miracles. It is significant that the historian Mormon is attempting to be very careful about assigning dates. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, 258.) According to the Nephite calendar system, the Savior was crucified “in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month.” (3 Nephi 8:5.) Although we are not certain when the first month of the Nephite calendar would occur, if the Nephites were using the same calendar system as the Hebrews, the first month would be in the spring of the year sometime between about the middle of March and the middle of April. The Book of Mormon not only substantiates this account, but also provides us with an exact date of the crucifixion. The New Testament account of the crucifixion of Christ would seem to indicate that the Savior was crucified the very week he became thirty-three years of age.
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