Ether — 2024

Description

This is a commentary on the book of Ether for 2024. We are set to study it from November 11 to December 1 in Come, Follow Me.

The Book of Ether is remarkable. In many ways it is my favourite part of the Book of Mormon. It has important doctrine and practical lessons for our times. It has a lot of possibilities for ponderings. We will also have some fun in it. Mark Twain’s comment that the Book of Mormon was chloroform in print was likely a little punny joke based on the name of this book. It’s evident from his comments that he never read the Book of Mormon. This common omission in information gathering has never handicapped nor given pause to most adversarial commentators on the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon in general would have been a challenge to write in 1829, the book of Ether presents an even more complex problem for those whose theory is that Joseph Smith wrote it from his fertile imagination.

The text consists of two broad sorts of material—sometimes more than two thousand years removed from each other. It is culturally very different from the rest of the Book of Mormon, and even more different from our world. The book of Ether is an account doubled in on itself. It reveals the rise of an ancient nation and its fall through the eyes of its last prophet, and then the last prophet of a later fallen nation summarised the travails of the first prophet and his nation’s fall. It brings a lost nation to our eyes while simultaneously illuminating Moroni’s thoughts and personality for us as it simultaneously gives us a troubling but clear view of our current times. It undoubtedly revealed much about Moroni to Moroni as he wrote it. Hopefully we’ll see ourselves and our societies in it as we read it. It is a very dense and intricate work that richly repays a close and careful reading. pp.213