Archaeological and Historical Evidence

I Phil Michel have taken one short trip to Brazil but I have taken no Archeology trips to Israel nor to Central or South America or Mexico and does not claim to be an Archeology expert.

I grew up in Othello and was raised in the Presbyterian Church. My dad Clayton Michel donated the land upon which the Othello Presbyterian Church was built. 

As I enter collage at Yakima Valley Collage as a major of Physics and Chemistry I spent the greatest amount of time studying not school work but studying and investigating different Churches and religions.

I went down the yellow pages in the Yakima telephone book and went to every church denomination that I could go to.  Picking up any and all information and books that were available talking to and asking questions of various Ministers, Priests, Catholic fathers, leaders and teachers, etc. and later interviewing and taping the interview with one of the Catholic fathers in Yakima.

While I was attaining Y.V.C., the following are a partial list of a few of the Churches and religious denominations that he went to, investigating and studying what they taught.  I went to and visited the Assembly of God, Baptist, Catholic, the Christian Science Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Seven-day Adventist, and about five other Churches. Then years later the Jehovah’s Witness Church.

Also included in these studies were the study of various religious leaders such as Billy Graham, and Oral Robert’s.

I also included as far as possible, a limited study of Judaism, Chinese Philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam.   My most extensive study of these believes was when I read 3/4 of a 500-page book called the “Buddha Bible” or what was really the ‘Teachings of Buddha’, written in English.

I also at this time, my freshman and sophomore years at Y.V.C., began studying Archeology and the Bible from such sources as the Yakima Valley College library and the Yakima City Library.  I went to a Bible book store and bought various books like Masada, Bible Handbooks, and Bible Dictionaries. 

After two years at Y.V.C I then a transferred to Central Washington State Collage at Ellensburg Washington and began studying Archeology and the Book of Mormon.  These studies were mostly done at the C.W.S.C. library.

I have read and studied more than 30 books related to Archeology and the Bible and Book of Mormon.  Most of these books were made available through the Othello Washington State public Library and its network system that makes hundreds of Libraries and their books available thought out the United States. 

I have research and read various books that date pre-1830. Some books were so old and rare that they had to be shipped in from Brookland New York City.  One book was an English translation of Christopher Columbus Journal.  In which he, Christopher Columbus, recorded the events of the discovery of the Americas in 1492.   I have read other English translations of other documents on the other 3 voyages of Columbus.
 

Of all the reading that I have done over the years my favorite 580-page book was a 1908 English translation of a book called The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo in the 1560’s AD.  Bernal Deaz del Castillo was a lieutenant for Hernando Cortez one of the few Spanish conquistadors that survived when they entered for the first time the Aztec Nation of Montezuma in Mexico in 1519 AD. This book was published for the first time in English the United States in 1908 A.D. 

In reading this book I was amazed at the correlated information that matches exactly the historical scriptural information recorded in the Book of Mormon. Thus, giving historical supporting evidence that the Book of Mormon is true.