Copyright AMP (Anti-Mormon Press)

Presenters at the FAIR seminar in Salt Lake City, Utah today made a surprising new claim for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Since the publication of what Mormons consider scripture in 1830, controversy over its validity has swirled, with arguments on both sides ranging from wordprint analysis, examination of ancient Hebrew beliefs, and Joseph Smith’s own credibility. At a presentation entitled, "Middle Eastern Parallels to Book of Mormon Events," Mormon scholars gave a new twist to its arguments for authenticity. According to David Peterman, a well-known Mormon apologist and professor of Dentistry and Ancient Studies at Brigham Young University, recent beheadings by Islamic terrorists show that the Middle Eastern culture, which, Peterman claims, has changed little in 2000 years, supports the veracity of a well-known Book of Mormon story, the beheading of an Israelite merchant named Laban by ancient Mormon prophet, Nephi.

"Every Mormon Primary student knows the fabulous story of how God, through the Spirit, commanded Nephi to behead Laban in order to get hold of a set of the Brass Plates, a repository of ancient Hebrew scripture," said Peterman. Further, "the beheadings of various individuals in Iraq over the past few months show that decapitation is a relatively accepted and practiced form of murder in Semitic culture." According to Professor Peterman, "this cultural similarity shows anti-Mormons, who have long argued that God would not order the beheading of anyone, that decapitation has been the murder of choice for millennia in that part of the world. Thus, the events of the Book of Mormon as described in the Laban story perfectly fit the cultural milieu in which the Holy Book was written."