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Epigraphic evidence of the Book of Mormon or the lack thereof

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And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee; so will I destroy thy cities.

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And behold, the city of Gadiandi, and the city of Gadiomnah, and the city of Jacob, and the city of Gimgimno, all these have I caused to be sunk, and made hills and valleys in the places thereof; and the inhabitants thereof have I buried up in the depths of the earth, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them.

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And except ye repent ye shall perish; yea, even your lands shall be taken from you, and ye shall be destroyed from off the face of the earth.

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I did send down fire and destroy them, that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face,

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But behold, if it were not for the righteous who are in this great city, behold, I would cause that fire should come down out of heaven and destroy it.

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And now behold, saith the Lord, concerning the people of the Nephites: If they will not repent, and observe to do my will, I will utterly destroy them, saith the Lord

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Yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof; and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face

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And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

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For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the waters; yea, and especially upon these waters.

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Originally Posted by ute4ever (Post 315920)

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Are you saying because of all the destruction, we should be finding stuff, or we shouldn't be finding stuff?

There's a 1000-year gap from Moroni to Columbus. Much can change during a millennium, for example scientists have examined what would happen if people suddenly disappeared, and how quickly nature would consume man-made cities. Have you seen this series? Now let us suppose that in America's 1000-year gap, God gave nature a head start through a combination of man pillaging every person, place and thing via war, and God "destroying" other communities via natural disasters.

God has said that he will have a faithful people, and you all know Hebrews 11:1.

Faith is substance and evidence. Do you believe things for no reason? Fortunately, there is solid evidence the BOM is an authentic Ancient Near Eastern record even though we haven't found anything in America.

But the BOM doesn't claim to be an ancient near eastern record.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "solid evidence." If that were the case, then I think significant numbers of neutral experts would be able say exact that: "there is solid evidence." And I don't think that is the case.

I have taken a recent interest in epigraphy after watching a documentary about the epigraphy of the Mayan hieroglyphics.

Mike's statement is more accurate than Chino's.

I don't recall if it was Brigham Young or whom, who essentially said that even if the golden plates were on display, people still would doubt their authenticity because they couldn't read them. The point is, what kind of hard evidence does a person need to find in the Americas, in order to "believe?" A preserved title of liberty, neatly stored in a clay jar in a cave?

Assuming the golden plates existed, if they were of Semitic origin, there is a decent chance some sense could be made out of them.

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Originally Posted by MikeWaters (Post 315951)

But the BOM doesn't claim to be an ancient near eastern record.

I should have said authentic document written by people with an ancient near eastern origin.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say "solid evidence." If that were the case, then I think significant numbers of neutral experts would be able say exact that: "there is solid evidence." And I don't think that is the case.

I have taken a recent interest in epigraphy after watching a documentary about the epigraphy of the Mayan hieroglyphics.

I wouldn't say that. Experts are not going to buy angels and gold plates even if you can show them solid evidence.