Common Sense is far Greater than Proof- Newark Holy Stones

Hebrews in North America

Common sense is far greater than proof of scientific fact. I believe there is very little the scientific community has come up in the past 100 years that has established a new LAW. Yes we have the Law of Gravity, The Law of Physics, the Law of Motion, etc. We don’t have the Law of Climate Change, the law of Evolution, and the theory of Einstein, is still just a theory and not a law. Laws must be provable in a lab with evidence.

Thus common sense, the Spirit of Christ, personal revelation, and conscious are far more valuable than some “experts” opinion on what he and a group of similar group thinkers believe in. On geography I believe Joseph and Oliver and Lucy Mack, Benson, Monson, and Nelson about geography as they have said about the Book of Mormon geography.

I believe there are many Hebrew artifacts, earthworks, and writings that tell me the Hebrews and the Nephites and Mulekites came from the Old World to North America. You may believe what you would like but that doesn’t mean I am wrong. It means I am biased just as you are. But, what makes sense, and more importantly what do you believe about personal revelation?

President Nelson said, “You don’t have to wonder about what is true. You do not have to wonder whom you can safely trust. Through personal revelation, you can receive your own witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that this is the Lord’s Church. Regardless of what others may say or do, no one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true.

I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives by President Russell M. Nelson

There is no need to argue with others, but simply be open minded and consider all possibilities and then search and pray and the Spirit or your conscious will tell you what to believe.

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Universal Model

“Q: Why is the Universal Model not written or published from within the scientific establishment?

A: Today, most people submit their new scientific theories and papers to the scientific establishment to conduct a rigorous review process wherein establishment-trained peers decide whether the content is worthy for publishing, and that it falls within the confined views of its respective field. In the past, large-scale changes in science come from outside the establishment from individuals with an outside perspective, unfettered by widely accepted dogma. We noticed that new theories and papers within the establishment, which build on old theories written to well-schooled peer groups who hail to the old theories, come in the form of complicated explanations and tech-no-speak, that lies beyond the grasp of the average person. The Universal Model is not about complicated theories; it is about simple models that demonstrate Nature’s laws that all can observe and experience. This is how scientists inquired and how they conducted their study centuries ago.” UM Dean Session Vol 1 page 22

Expert So-Called Scientists

“In November of 1860, David Wyrick of Newark, Ohio found an inscribed stone in a burial mound about 10 miles south of Newark. The stone is inscribed on all sides with a condensed version of the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, in a peculiar form of post-Exilic square Hebrew letters. The robed and bearded figure on the front is identified as Moses in letters fanning over his head.

The inscription is carved into a fine-grained black stone that only appears to be brown in the accompanying overexposed color photographs. It has been identified by geologists Ken Bork and Dave Hawkins of Denison University as limestone; a fossil crinoid stem is visible on the surface, and the stone reacts strongly to HCl. It is definitely not black alabaster or gypsum as previously reported here. According to James L. Murphy of Ohio State University, “Large white crinoid stems are common in the Upper Mercer and Boggs limestone units in Muskingum Co. and elsewhere, and these limestones are often very dark gray to black in color. You could find such rock at the Forks of the Muskingum at Zanesville, though the Upper Mercer limestones do not outcrop much further up the Licking.” We therefore need not look any farther than the next county over to find a potential source for the stone, contrary to the previous assertion here that such limestone is not common in Ohio.

The inscribed stone was found inside a sandstone box, smooth on the outside, and hollowed out within to exactly hold the stone. Click here to view the stone box.

The Decalogue inscription begins at the non-alphabetic symbol at the top of the front, runs down the left side of the front, around every available space on the back and sides, and then back up the right side of the front to end where it begins, as though it were to be read repetitively.” Click for additional views of the decalogue stone. Printable alphabet chart. Chart courtesy Beverley H. Moseley, Jr.

David Deal and James Trimm (1996, referenced below) note that the Decalogue stone fits well into the hand, and that the lettering is somewhat worn precisely where the stone would be in contact with the last three fingers and the palm if held in the left hand. Furthermore, the otherwise puzzling handle at the bottom could be used to secure the stone to the left arm with a strap. They conclude that the Decalogue stone was a Jewish arm phylactery or tefilla (also written t’filla) of the Second Temple period. Although the common Jewish tefilla does not contain the words of the Decalogue, Moshe Shamah (1995) reports that the Qumran sect did include the Decalogue in their tefilimot.

Cyrus Gordon (1995), on the other hand, interprets the Newark Decalogue stone, like the Los Lunas NM Decalogue inscription, as a Samaritan mezuzah.

The Decalogue stone measures 6-7/8″ (17.5 cm) long, 2-7/8″ (7.3 cm) wide, and 1-3/4″ (4.2 cm) thick (as measured from cast).” Ohio State University J. Huston McCulloch, Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers vol. 21 (1992): 56-71. https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/mcculloch.2/arch/decalog.html

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There is no amount of evidence sufficient to convince those that refuse to accept Truth

Here we provide some additional information on the Newark Decalogue Stone, currently on display at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, OH.

Just like almost any information that might support the claims of the Book of Mormon – or any truth for that matter – there will be those that both agree and disagree with whatever evidence is brought forward.  There is no amount of evidence sufficient to convince those that refuse to accept a particular position and there are those that believe something no matter what evidence there is to refute it.  Much of what you might read comes down to confirmation bias, so one has to look at the potential bias of those both supporting and refuting the information.

We readily agree with the many non-Mormon experts who have actually conducted an analysis of the stone and it’s accompanying Keystone, Stone Bowl and the related Bat Creek Stone, and have provided strong evidence that these are all part of an ancient culture that knew a form of Hebrew language unknown at the time of their discovery, known today as Monumental or Block-Style Hebrew.  This form of Hebrew wasn’t known to exist when these stones were discovered, but were later found in Israel.  This forms one of the first difficulties to explain if one believes the stones to be a hoax.  It would be like asking someone today to write the Ten Commandments… in Klingon!  Since no one knows what Klingon looks like, how would one even begin to make a forgery of it?  In order to make a forgery, you have to have something authentic to forge from.  There were no authentic Monumental or Block-style Hebrew writings known to exist in 1860’s when these stones were recovered.

When you add this fact to the historical documentation that David Wyrick, the man who discovered the stone in an Indian Burial Mound, never recanted his story, was a well respected surveyor for the county and city, and was unable to make an accurate wooden replica of the stone (he attempted this to safeguard the original stone while allowing the characters to be studied by other professionals and interested parties) which would be orders of magnitude easier than creating it in stone, and that he made many attempts to have the stone verified by competent professionals seem to favor the idea that he did not create the stone or was trying to hoax anyone.

Contrary Beliefs

While Wyrick did apparently believe in the idea that the Ten Lost Tribes had somehow made it to America, and this stone and others like it could certainly be used to bear this out, this was an idea that permeated the American culture at the time.  It was not unique to Wyrick. However, there were also those that were determined to refute any claim of Israelite descent for the Native Americans, believing that to accept such an idea Indians would then necessarily have to be given the same rights and respect given to other European peoples.  This would fly in the face of the growing American Manifest Destiny Doctrine wherein it was being touted that the Indians were less evolved people who didn’t deserve the same respect and treatment as their more evolved cousins, therefore they could be classified as ‘ignorant savages’ and denied the right to own land, vote, etc. Thus, there was a powerful motive to ignore, erase or attack any evidence that would suggest European ancestry for the Native Americans.

Scientific Analysis

Experts today disagree on the authenticity of the stones.  Some claim that the language on the stones can’t be authentic, that David Wyrick faked them for some unknown purpose (usually forgers do so for money or fame, Wyrick received neither, but rather was mercilessly attacked for his discovery), and therefore the stones are a hoax.  Other professionals have determined to use scientific methodologies in their pursuit of the truth.  The ONLY scientific analysis of the stones has been done by Scott Wolter, a self-proclaimed atheist who owns American Petrographic Services in Minnesota and is a Forensic Geologist, meaning that he does forensics type work on rock and minerals, both commercially and for the government.  He is a highly respected, no-nonsense kind of person who has no reason to try to advance the authenticity of the stone.   Using some of the latest scientific technologies he has completed analysis on several of the stones in question with Hebrew characters inscribed into their surfaces and of the Decalogue Stone he claimed “Geologically, I don’t see any problems here that would make these things obvious hoaxes.  The evidence seems clear, there’s no reason not to accept these as genuine, legitimate artifacts.”  This, from a professional geologist using scientific methodologies that showed conclusively that the stones could not have been faked during the time-frame of Wyrick.

Within the Church there are a small group of scholars who have been systematically promoting the theory that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica.  There is a complete lack of any evidence for Hebrew-based language or characters anywhere in their preferred geography of Mesoamerica. The Mayan civilization had a written language that covered their buildings, walls, ball courts and to an extent, their entire civilization’s buildings, but experts know that this glyph system of writing originates from the Far East, and has no connection to Hebrew whatsoever.  They seem to forget that the Nephite language in the Book of Mormon was specifically mentioned as being primarily Hebrew, but the plates themselves were written in a ‘reformed Egyptian’ language, neither of which has ever been found in Mesoamerica.  Not even a potential hoax has been found there!  They also seem to ignore that fact that the Nephite authors wrote that the hatred of Lamanites caused them to destroy any evidence of their existence, and they would destroy anything the Nephites left in the way of written language, thus they had to hide the plates and records in the depository of records in the Hill Cumorah.  The Lamanites had many years to erase the remaining evidence of their former enemies.

Those associated with promoting the Mesoamerican theories to church members are loathe to accept any evidence that might suggest a Book of Mormon setting outside of their theories. They, along with those proclaiming these stones to be fakes and hoaxes on the basis of their assumption that Hebrews were never in ancient America, are, of course, opposed to these stones being authentic as it would undermine their theories.  They created organizations long ago that were set up to convince members and leaders of the church that the setting of the Book of Mormon was in Mesoamerica and they convinced some former General Authorities to sit on their boards to give further authority and credence to their theories.  However, Church leadership has maintained neutrality on the subject which overrides even the opinions of a couple of General Authorities who have become caught up on their theories.  We feel that they ignore or are not aware of the clear teachings of the scriptures and prophets regarding the United States being the nation spoken of in the Book of Mormon… a mighty Gentile nation above all other nations, a land of liberty, security and prosperity where the ‘Marvelous Work and a Wonder’ would occur and where the ‘New Jerusalem’ will be built, neither of which is speculation, but historical and revelatory fact.

They have used their organizations to launch attacks against any geography theories contrary to their own. It is sad to think that they would attack and undermine the ONLY viable evidences of the Hebrew language mentioned in the Book of Mormon in the Americas solely because these evidences fall outside of their theorized geography.  But unfortunately that is exactly what they are doing in order to continue with their promotion that Guatemala is the Promised Land and the Book of Mormon occurred there, which, by the way, has now been shown to have originated within the church by three apostates back in the days of Joseph Smith.  For more information on that historical account, please read the book The Lost City of Zarahemla or the blog posts by attorney Jonathan Neville on the subject.

So, in conclusion, it is safe to say that these stones, like many aspects of the gospel, are controversial and you’ll need to do as the Lord has indicated throughout history, the scriptures and prophets… you’ll need to read the relevant material, study it out in your mind, and then ask God for an answer.  That is the most powerful and wonderful way to know the truth of anything. As our friend Wayne May says, We Report, You Decide! 

The following article has links to many additional sources and information.