Question: Are the major thematic elements of the Spalding manuscript similar to those in the Book of Mormon?

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Spalding manuscript parallels

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Questions

== Critics claim that the major thematic elements between the extent Spalding manuscript (also known as the Obelin manuscript) and the Book of Mormon are same.

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]

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Detailed Analysis

== We examine parallels between the Spalding manuscript and the Book of Mormon in the following sections.

Claim: Both works refer to an ancient record that was found under a stone which was removed by a lever

Relevant excerpts from the Spalding manuscript:

Near the west bank of the Coneaught River there are the remains of an ancient fort. As I was walking and forming various conjectures respecting the character, situation, & numbers of those people who far exceeded the present Indians in works of art and ingenuity, I hapned to tread on a flat stone.....

With the assistance of a leaver I raised the stone....

I discovered that its ends and sides rested on stones & that it was designed as a cover to an artificial Cave. ....

I prepared myself with necessary requisites for that purpose and decended to the Bottom of the Cave. ....

Here I noticed a big flat stone fixed in the form of a doar. I immediately tore it down and Lo, a cavity within the wall presented itself it being about three feet in diamiter from side to side and about two feet high. Within this cavity I found an earthen Box with a cover which shut it perfectly tite. The Box was two feet in length one & half in breadth & one & three inches in diameter. ....

When I had removed the Cover I found that it contained twenty-eight rolls of parchment -- & -- that when - - - appeared to be manuscrips written in eligant hand with Roman letters & in the Latin Language.

Claim: Both works refer to seer stones.

Claim: Both works are about an ancient white race

Claim: Both works refer to a group that traveled across the ocean in a boat

Claim: Both works refer to ocean travelers running into a storm which subsided because of their prayers

Claim: Both works refer to groups that came to the americas and started 2 major civilizations

Claim: Both works refer to a great religious leader who came and taught them great wisdom

Claim: Both works describe the two civilizations fighting battles and wars until they were almost destroyed

Claim: Both works contain similar grammatical mistakes and nomenclature.