—————— 9 ——————
“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
– Joseph Smith[1]
“All Scripture [Bible] is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
–
2 Timothy
3:16
The Book of Mormon is one of three books the RLDS consider to be sacred scripture. It is purported to be a history of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and spans the time period from 2200 BC to 42l AD. In addition to the historical accounts it contains teachings of a religious nature.
The preface to the Book of Mormon claims the following reasons for its existence:
1. To convince both Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ
2. To educate the American Indians regarding their origins, and to reveal to the American Indians the covenants of the Lord
Most Latter Day Saints consider the Book of Mormon to be more trustworthy than the Bible because it was “translated” only once, and with divine assistance at that. They believe because the books of the Bible have been translated many times since they were first written, that many of the plain and precious truths originally contained in those writings have been lost. They believe these truths may be found in the pages of the Book of Mormon. Thus, they declare, it contains the fullness of the gospel.
The Book of Mormon saga, which begins at the time of the Tower of Babel and ends 2600 years later, relates the stories of three different groups of people who migrated from the Near East to the Americas.
The first group consisted of several families who left from the region of the Tower of Babel approximately 2200 B.C. The leader, known only as “the brother of Jared” led his followers to the seashore where he was commanded by God to build barges for an ocean journey to the New World. After a rough sea voyage that lasted almost a year, the Jaredites landed on the American continent and established a vast civilization. Over a period of 1,600 years, numerous civil wars erupted, climaxing in a final battle in which more than two million people were slain. The history of the Jaredites was recorded by the prophet Ether and then translated by members of the second migration, the Nephites.
The story of the Nephites makes up the major portion of the Book of Mormon. It begins with Lehi, a Jewish prophet of the tribe of Manasseh, who was prophesying in Jerusalem of the impending destruction of the city. Because he confronted the people concerning their iniquity, they sought to destroy his life and God warned him to flee out of the land. He, his wife, and four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi, journeyed three days into the wilderness near the Red Sea. Here the Lord instructed Lehi to send his sons back to Jerusalem to the house of Laban to obtain some plates of brass, upon which were engraved the record of the Jews and the genealogy of their forefathers.
In obedience to God’s command the sons went back to Jerusalem. Nephi records the following events.
“As
I came near unto the house of Laban, I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the
earth before me, for he was drunken with wine…. I found that it was Laban….
And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me…Slay him, for the Lord hath
delivered him into thy hands.… Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit,
and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own
sword. And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the
garments of Laban and put them upon mine own body…. And as I went forth toward
the treasury of Laban, behold I saw the servant of Laban, who had the keys of
the treasury. And I commanded him in the voice of Laban, that he should go with
me into the treasury; and he supposed me to be his master Laban, for he beheld
the garments” (I Nephi 1:107-126). (Apparently the decapitation, severing two
main arteries in the neck, did not bloody Laban’s clothing since Nephi’s
appearance did not alarm Laban’s servant).
After obtaining the brass plates of Laban, the four sons returned to their father’s tent, accompanied by Laban’s servant Zoram and a man named Ishmael, along with his wife and daughters. Lehi’s followers then continued their journey and arrived at the ocean shore where they built a ship and embarked on a journey to the “promised land” in the Americas.
Soon after their arrival, strife between Lehi’s sons became so severe they divided into two rival factions. Laman led the rebellious group, known as the Lamanites, which were cursed by the Lord with a skin of blackness, because of their wickedness. They supposedly are the ancestors of the modern American Indians. Nephi led the light-skinned righteous group, who became known as the Nephites. In 545 B.C. the Nephites built a temple in which they observed the Law of Moses and practiced Christianity at the same time (2 Nephi 11:45). They steadily grew to become a great nation.
The third and smallest migration, the Mulekites, left Jerusalem several years after Lehi’s departure in 600 B.C. Mulek, whom the group was named after, was allegedly one of the sons of Zedekiah, King of Judah.[2] Upon arriving in the Americas, they established the city of Zarahemla where they were eventually discovered by the Nephites and united with them.
Bloody wars between the Nephites and Lamanites were frequent throughout the next 600 years. The story climaxes with the visit of Jesus to the American continent after his resurrection. Jesus’ appearance was accompanied by great earthquakes, fires and violent storms which he sent to destroy all the wicked people, leaving only the “more righteous” alive.
During his visit, Jesus taught the Nephites essentially the same message he had preached in Jerusalem, but included a promise that a “New Jerusalem” would be established in America by the descendants of the tribe of Joseph (i.e., the American Indians).
Following Jesus’ return to heaven, the Nephites enjoyed 200 years of peace before gradually drifting into wickedness. This resulted in their destruction by the Lamanites in a battle near present-day Palmyra, New York. The lone Nephite survivor, Moroni, a leader of the Nephite army, inscribed the history of his people on gold plates and buried them in a hill (later to be called Cumorah), in upstate New York. Fourteen hundred years later, this same Moroni (who had now become an angel), revealed the plates to Joseph Smith. (Note: Many RLDS, and others as well, believe that humans become angels when they die, but this is a myth. wo distinct creations.)
The transformation of the golden plates into the Book of Mormon is described in the following excerpts from the official RLDS Church History account.
“The
twenty-first of September [1823]…while I was thus in the act of calling upon
God…a personage appeared at my bedside…. He called me by name, and said unto
me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name
was Nephi.[3]
That God had a work for me to do…. He said there was a book deposited, written
upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent,
and the source from whence they sprang.[4]
He also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it.
Also that there were two stones in silver bows, and these stones fastened to a
breastplate constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim, deposited with the
plates…and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the
book…. (Book of Mormon 4:100). [I] went to the place [on September 22] where
the messenger had told me the plates were deposited…. I made an attempt to
take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger…. He told me that I should
come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there
meet with me (Every year for the next 3 years Joseph was required to return to
the same place on the same date, September 22, to meet with the angel)…. At
length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim and the
Breast-plate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred
and twenty-seven … the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me.”[5]
Lucy Smith, Joseph Smith’s mother, tells of Joseph’s struggle to get the plates home safely after retrieving them from an old birch log where he had hidden them. She recalls that as he started through the woods a man came up from behind and gave him a heavy blow, knocking him to the ground. Joseph then knocked the man down and began “running at the top of his speed.” This occurred a total of three times while he was carrying the gold plates[6] (that weighed approximately 235 lbs).
With the plates safely in his house Joseph began translating them from ‘reformed Egyptian’ into English. The resulting book was published as the Book of Mormon in March of 1830.
Considering Joseph’s previous occultic activities, for which he was arrested in 1826, it is important to note that the dates of September 21 and 22, the time of the autumnal equinox, are very significant days in the world of the occult. D. Michael Quinn, a former Mormon historian who holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, explains the occult connection in Joseph’s l823 vision.
“Smith
began praying late Sunday night on 21 September 1823. According to astrological
guides, Sunday night was the only night of the week ruled by Jupiter….
Smith’s ruling planet, the most prominent astrological symbol on the Smith
family’s golden lamen [occultic parchment], for summoning a good spirit.
Pseudo-Agrippa’s Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy also specified that ‘the
Lord’s day’ was the occasion for man ‘to receive an Oracle from the good
spirits’…. Oliver Cowdery [a Book of Mormon Witness] wrote that Smith began
praying earnestly that Sunday night
[September 21] about ‘11:00 or 12:00’ in order ‘to commune with some kind
of messenger.’ ” [7]
At a church conference held in 1831 Joseph Smith declared that “it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.”[8] Joseph did however, give the following brief explanation which he related in the Elder’s Journal of July 1838.
“I
obtained them [the plates] and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of
which I translated the plates and thus came the Book of Mormon.” In March l842, in response to a letter from John Wentworth, editor
of the Chicago Democrat, Joseph stated, “With the records was found a curious
instrument which the ancients called ‘Urim and Thummim’ which consisted of
two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate.
Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift
and power of God.”[9]
There are also several recorded eyewitness accounts of the translation
process. Below are the testimonies of individuals who acted as scribes for
Joseph or were closely associated with him during this time.
1. Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, related the following to her son.
“In
writing for your father, I frequently wrote day after day…he sitting with his
face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with
nothing between us…. He had neither manuscript nor book to read from…. The
plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment wrapped in a
small linen tablecloth.”[10]
Emma’s testimony differentiates between the stone and the Urim and Thummim as seen in the following statement: “Now the
first that my husband translated was translated by the use of the Urim and
Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, [the 116 pages], after
that he used a small stone…rather a dark color.”[11]
(According to Emma’s testimony the entire
Book of Mormon was translated with a seer stone, not the Urim Thummim as Joseph Smith claimed.)
2.
William Smith, brother of Joseph, recalls: “The manner in which
this [translation] was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was
placed in a hat to exclude the light (the plates lying nearby covered up), and
reading off the translation which appeared in the stone by the power of God.”[12]
3.
Isaac Hale, Emma Smith’s father wrote, “The manner in which he
[Joseph] pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the
money diggers, with the stone in his hat and his hat over his face, while the
book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods” [13]
4. Michael Morse was married to Trial Hale, one of Isaac Hale’s daughters, and sister of Emma Smith. In an l879 interview with W. W. Blair of the Reorganized Church, Morse stated that when Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon, he [Morse] “…had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph’s placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating, word after word, while the scribe–Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other, wrote it down.” [14]
5. Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon said,
“The prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he
was enabled to translate, as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for
convenience he then used the seer stone…. By aid of the seer stone, sentences
would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when
finished he would say, ‘Written’ and if correctly written that sentence
would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it
remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on
the plates, precisely in the language then used. Harris said…that the seer
stone differed in appearance entirely
from the Urim and Thummim that was obtained with the plates, which were two
clear stones set in two rims.”[15]
Martin
Harris also said, “Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason
Chase…. It was by means of this stone he first discovered these plates”[16]
(Note: If Martin Harris’s statement is true, then there was no need for the
angel Moroni to inform Joseph where to find the plates!)
6.
Oliver Cowdery, another of the “three witnesses” to the Book of
Mormon, and scribe to Joseph Smith, stated, “I have sometimes had seasons of
skepticism in which I did seriously wonder whether the prophet and I were men in
our sober senses when he would be translating from plates through the Urim and
Thummim and the plates not be in sight at all.”[17]
7. David Whitmer, the third of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon stated,
“I will now give you a description of the manner in
which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone
into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to
exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece
of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the
writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the
interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver
Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated
to see if it was correct, then it would disappear and another character with the
interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift
and power of God.”[18]
In an interview granted to the Kansas City Journal, Whitmer stated that Joseph, did not use the plates in the translation.[19] He also stated, “after the translation of the Book of Mormon was finished, early in the spring of l830, before April sixth, Joseph gave the stone to Oliver Cowdery and told me as well as the rest that he was through with it, and he did not use the stone any more.”[20]
In
another interview which appeared in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, October 17, 1886,
David Whitmer, speaking of the Urim and Thummim said, “This unpardonable
carelessness [Martin Harris losing the first 116 pages] evoked the stormiest
kind of chastisement from the Lord, who took from the prophet the Urim and
Thummim and otherwise expressed his condemnation. By fervent prayer and by
otherwise humbling himself, the prophet, however, again found favor, and was
presented with a strange, oval-shaped, chocolate-colored stone, about the size
of an egg…which, it was promised, should serve the same purpose as the missing
Urim and Thummim.”
Some logical questions arise from these testimonies.
· With the exception of Joseph Smith, all of the above eyewitnesses agree that the Book of Mormon was translated from a stone buried in a hat, not from gold plates. If the plates were not needed in the translation, why were they preserved for hundreds of years?
· Why did the Lord bother to prepare special instruments to be used in translating the Book of Mormon if Joseph was going to use a stone that was found in his neighbor’s well? (Book of Mormon 4:100)
· According to David Whitmer’s testimony, there would be no room for error in the translation process. This being the case, why were there over 3,000 changes made in the Book of Mormon between the first and second editions, many of them substantive? [21]
· Why did Joseph Smith state that he only used the Urim and Thummim while translating, when David Whitmer, Martin Harris and Emma Smith all testified that he used both the Urim and Thummim and a seer stone?
·
How could the Urim and Thummim, as described by Joseph Smith (two
transparent stones set in the rim of a bow and fastened to a breastplate), fit
into a hat?
As the above questions illustrate, there are obvious problems with
the translation accounts. More difficulties appear below.
A common argument for the validity of the Book of Mormon is the testimony of witnesses who claimed they actually saw the gold plates Joseph Smith used while translating. However, Martin Harris, David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, never actually saw the gold plates “except in vision,” according to their own testimony.[22]
When Mr. John H. Gilbert, Esq., the printer who set the type for the Palmyra edition of the Book of Mormon, asked Martin Harris if he saw the plates with his naked eyes, Harris told him no, that he only saw them with his “spiritual eyes.”[23] He related to some church members in Ohio that, “…he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David and also that the eight witnesses never saw them and hesitated to sign that instrument [testimony of the eight witnesses] for that reason, but were persuaded to do it”[24]
Stephen Burnett, an elder, was among the church members who heard Martin Harris’ public statement. On April l5, l838, while lamenting over the deplorable conditions in the church, Burnett wrote a letter to Lyman E. Johnson in which he stated,
“I
have reflected long and deliberately upon the history of this church &
weighed the evidence for & against it–loth to give it up–but when I came
to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his
natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also
that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument
for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my
view our foundations was sapped & the entire superstructure fell a heap of
ruins…. I therefore…renounced the Book of Mormon with the whole scene of
lying and deception. I was followed by W. Parish, Luke Johnson & John
Boynton all of who concurred with me.”[25]
William Smith, Joseph Smith’s younger brother, said that Joseph Sen., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel H. Smith only saw the gold plates when they were covered with a cloth. He told E. C. Briggs in an interview published January 13, 1894, that he had not seen the plates uncovered, but handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a frock and when asked if any other of the family saw them, he replied, yes…father and my brother Samuel saw them as I did while in the frock…so did Hyrum and others of the family.”[26]
Governor Ford of Illinois was well acquainted with several of Joseph’s key men. After these men became disaffected and left the church they told Governor Ford that Joseph had assembled the eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon in a room and produced a box, which he said contained the treasure.
“The
lid was opened; the witnesses peeped into it, but making no discovery, for the
box was empty, they said, ‘Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates.’ The
prophet answered them, ‘O ye of little faith! How long will God bear with this
wicked and perverse generation? Down on your knees, brethren, every one of you,
and pray God for the forgiveness of your sins, and for a holy and living faith
which cometh down from heaven.’ The disciples dropped to their knees, and
began to pray in the fervency of their spirit, supplicating God for more than
two hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking again into the box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates.”[27]
(Emphasis added)
Upon completion of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith instructed Martin Harris to take a sample of the characters copied from the plates, along with the translation, to Professor Charles Anthon of Columbus University in New York. Martin Harris records that Professor Anthon examined the characters and pronounced them a “correct translation” and said the language consisted of Egyptian, Chaldean, Assyrian and Arabic and that they were true characters.[28]
But according to the Book of Mormon, Professor Anthon could not have pronounced the translation correct because he didn’t have the means for deciphering an unknown language (reformed Egyptian). The Book of Mormon states, “The Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language…therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof”(Book of Mormon 4:100).
When the story reached Professor Anthon that he had pronounced the translation correct, he wrote a letter refuting the claim, “The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be ‘reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics’ is perfectly false…. I well remember that the paper contained anything else but Egyptian hieroglyphics.” (This entire letter is reproduced on the following page).
These claims are made in the Book of Mormon:
1. The brass plates Lehi’s family obtained from Laban’s house (containing the five books of Moses, Lehi’s genealogy, and many prophecies), were written in “reformed Egyptian.”[29]
2.
Lehi’s son Nephi, was a
Jew who was raised in Jerusalem. Upon his arrival in the Americas he began
writing a history of his family’s proceedings in reformed Egyptian.
In light of these statements the following questions need to be answered by those who believe in the Book of Mormon.
· Who translated the Hebrew Pentateuch which Laban possessed, into reformed Egyptain and why?
· If a reformed Egyptian language was so commonly used in Palestine in 600 B.C. why is there no Biblical record of it?
· Why would any Hebrews, whose language was very sacred to them, write their history in the language of their enemies, the Egyptians?
· Why was the Book of Mormon written in reformed Egyptian when the Book itself says that the Hebrew language is superior to the Egyptian language? Bemoaning the fact that his record was imperfect, Moroni who was abridging the record wrote, “And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also: and if we could have written in the Hebrew, behold ye would have had no imperfection in our record.” [30] (Emphasis added)
· Since the Nephites were able to read and write both Hebrew and Egyptian, and their record would have been perfect had it been written in Hebrew, why didn’t these men choose to write in the superior language?
· Does it seem likely, that God would allow His sacred book to be written in a language that would leave an imperfect record simply because of a lack of space?
· Why didn’t they make larger plates?
· Why didn’t they write smaller?
One theory Mormons give for Nephi and other Book of Mormon scribes writing in Egyptian, was that they were descendants of Joseph who had lived in Egypt. While this is true, it is also true that the entire nation of Israel lived in Egypt for over 400 years, yet they did not speak or write in Egyptian, but Hebrew. Moses, who himself was trained in all the culture of the Egyptians, wrote in Hebrew not Egyptian. [31]
It
is interesting to note that while the origin of ancient writings could be
determined in the 1830’s it wasn’t until the 1860’s that the science of
Egyptology had advanced to the point where it could be used to test Joseph
Smith’s ability as a translator. Therefore, Joseph felt ‘safe’ in saying
that he made his translation from reformed Egyptian. But although the Nephites
supposedly recorded their history in reformed Egyptian, there is absolutely no
trace of that language anywhere in the new world, and in fact, no place in the
entire world!
The contradictory accounts of the eye-witnesses and the fact that the Book of Mormon was written in a non-existent language, creates serious doubts as to its credibility. In part two we will look at sources Joseph Smith may have used to write the Book of Mormon.
A traditional argument against Joseph Smith being the author of the Book of Mormon was the claim that he was an unlearned fourteen-year-old farm boy who could not have made up the story. But long before the gold plates were ever heard of, Joseph’s mother recorded the following.
“During
our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most
amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient
inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelling, (sic) and the
animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every
particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he
would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with
them.”[32]
In addition to Joseph’s creative imagination, several other resources
appear to have been utilized in the production of the Book
of Mormon. The reader will notice undeniable similarities to the Book of
Mormon in each of them as they are presented in some detail below.
View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith, was first published in 1823 in Poultney Vermont, seven years before the Book of Mormon was printed. This was the same small town in which Oliver Cowdery lived until 1825, when he moved to New York State near his distant relatives, the Joseph Smith Sr. family. It is likely that Oliver was aware of this publication before becoming Joseph Smith Jr.’s scribe for the Book of Mormon. Ethan Smith produced this work of fiction to expound his theory that the American Indians were of Hebrew origin. Following are but a few of the many similarities between his story and the Book of Mormon.
both tell of an ancient book hidden in a hill
both tell of prophets inspired by God
both speak of the Urim and Thummim, a breastplate and High Priests
both tell of numerous wars in which the more civilized faction is eventually exterminated by the more barbaric group
both quote extensively from the book of Isaiah in the Bible
both speak of a great gentile nation to be raised up in America
both tell of a mysterious visitor to America who preached peace, possessed immortality and promised to return someday
both claim a form of Egyptian hieroglyphics was used by the ancient Americans to record their histories
both speak of the destruction of Jerusalem
both speak of the conversion of the Jews to Christianity
An unpublished novel, The Manuscript Story, written by the Rev. Solomon Spaulding about 1812, is believed by some to have been a source in writing the Book of Mormon. Spaulding died in 1816 but his widow made the following observation about the Book of Mormon, which was published in 1830.
“After
the Book of Mormon came out, a copy of it was taken to New Salem…the place
where the…[Spaulding’s manuscript] was written. A Mormon preacher…repeated
copious extracts from the Book of Mormon. The historical part was immediately
recognized by all the older inhabitants, as the identical
work of Mr. Spaulding in which they had been so deeply interested years
before.”[33]
Vernal Holley, a former Mormon, believes Joseph Smith used the Spaulding Manuscript in writing the Book of Mormon. He spent more than 3000 hours in over 12 years researching the Book of Mormon–Spaulding connection and has discovered many compelling similarities between the two works.[34] Listed below are examples of these similarities.
|
THE
SPAULDING MANUSCRIPT |
BOOK
OF MORMON (RLDS Version) |
|
Crying with a loud voice. p. 80 |
cried with a loud voice (Alma 12:169) |
|
Determined to conquer or die, p. 91 |
Determined to conquer…or die (Alma 26:18) |
|
All…who fell into their hands, p. 97 |
…who fell into their hands (Alma 12:30) |
|
By…wild ferocious beasts, p. 7 |
by wild and ferocious beasts (Mos. 9:23) |
|
an immense slaughter, p. 101 |
an immense slaughter (Alma 21:174) |
|
Mourning and lamentation, p.84 |
mourning and lamentation (Mos. 9:148) |
|
The place of his nativity, p. 32 |
the land of his nativity (Hel. 3:2) |
|
Maintain our holy religion, p. 15 |
maintain our religion (Alma 25:10) |
|
Their dogs…mangled, p. 36 |
mangled by dogs (Alma 11:16) |
|
Band of murderers, p. 108 |
band of…robbers and…murderers (Hel. 1:47) |
|
Had a plenty of provisions, p. 22 |
had also a plenty of provisions (Alma 26:76) |
|
Being thus prepared, p. 19 |
being thus prepared (Alma 21:156) |
|
Something whispers me, p. 98 |
it whispereth me (Words of Mormon 1:10) |
|
Fair and nearly as white, p. 10 |
fair and white (I Nephi 3:53) |
|
Dark, dreary swamp, p. 12 |
in a dark and dreary waste (I Nephi 2:46) |
|
They surrendered themselves, p. 117 |
they had surrendered themselves (Alma 26:86) |
In his research, Vernal Holley plotted the “land northward” and the “land
southward” on a map which includes Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania. It is
amazing how many of the modern place names are virtually identical to those
found in the Book of Mormon. In looking at these maps, it seems likely that the
person who wrote the Book of Mormon knew the modern areas well and wrote a
fictitious account based on this geographical setting. (For further information
on the Book of Mormon/Spalding connection, see the website of Dale Broadhurst, www.solomonspalding.com).
Joseph Smith
Sr.’s 1811 Dream
Joseph Smith Sr.’s dream as recorded by his wife Lucy Smith,[35] parallels nearly exactly Lehi’s vision in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 2:43-92). Note the similarities.
|
Joseph
Smith’s Sr. dream – 1811 |
Lehi’s
vision printed in 1830 |
|
1.
He was traveling |
1.
He was traveling |
|
2.
Had a guide |
2.
Had a guide |
|
3.
There was a stream of water |
3.
There was a stream of water |
|
4.
Shown a tree – compared to world |
4.
Shown a tree-compared to world |
|
5.
Tree bore fruit white as snow |
5.
Tree bore fruit white as snow |
|
6.
Ate the fruit |
6.
Ate the fruit |
|
7.
Found fruit delicious |
7.
Found fruit delicious |
|
8.
After eating fruit, experienced joy |
8.
After eating fruit, experienced joy |
|
9.
Wanted their families to partake |
9.
Wanted families to partake |
|
10.
Saw spacious building filled with people |
10.
Saw spacious building filled with people |
|
11.
Building was extremely high |
11.
Building was extremely high |
|
12.
People in building pointed finger of scorn |
12.
People in building pointed finger of scorn |
|
13.
People were finely dressed |
|
|
14.
Two family members not present |
14.
Two family members not present |
|
15.
Building falls-implies pride caused fall |
15.
Building falls-implies pride caused fall |
|
16.
Mentioned a field |
16.
Mentioned a field |
|
17.
Field compared to the world |
17.
Field compared to the world |
|
18.
Broad Road |
18.
Broad Road |
|
19.
Narrow Path |
19. Narrow Path |
The King James Version of the Bible was not published until 1611. However, significant portions of it are found in the Book of Mormon, supposedly written hundreds of years earlier.[36]hat Joseph Smith borrowed from the New Testament of the King James Version is indisputable. The following examples are taken from Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s book, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality, with RLDS references.
1.
KJV: he that endureth to the end shall be saved (Matthew 10:22)
BOM: he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved (2 Nephi 13:20)
2.
KJV: O wretched man that I am (Romans 7:24)
BOM: O wretched man that I am (2 Nephi 3:31)
3.
KJV: the sin which doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1)
BOM: the sins which doth so easily beset me (2 Nephi 3:33)
4.
KJV: death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them (Revelation
20:13)
BOM: death and hell must deliver up their dead (2 Nephi 6:28)
5.
KJV: that old serpent which is the Devil (Revelation 20:2)
BOM: that old serpent who is the Devil (2 Nephi 1:104)
6.
KJV: the wind ceased and there was a great calm (Mark 4:39)
BOM: the winds did cease … and there was a great calm (I Nephi 5:210)
7.
KJV: he that is righteous let him be righteous still (Revelation 22:11)
BOM: they who are righteous shall be righteous still (2 Nephi 6:38)
8.
KJV: cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:10)
BOM: cast into a lake of fire and brimstone (Alma 10:56)
9.
KJV: to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life
(Romans 8:6)
BOM: to be carnally minded is death and to be spiritually minded is life (2
Nephi 6:74)
10.
KJV: till I shall dig about it and dung it (Luke 13:8)
BOM: and I have digged about it … and I have dunged it (Jacob 3:102)
11.
KJV: thy faith hath made thee whole (Matthew 9:22)
BOM: thy faith hath made thee whole (Enos 1:11)
12.
KJV: the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)
BOM: the thoughts and intents of his heart (Mosiah 3:l7)
13.
KJV: a leathern girdle about his loins (Matthew 3:4)
BOM: a leathern girdle about their loins (Mosiah 6:38)
14.
KJV: this mortal shall have put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:54)
BM: this mortal shall put on immortality (Mosiah 8:83)
15.
KJV: stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free
(Galatians 5:1)
BOM: stand fast in this liberty wherewith ye have been made free (Mosiah 11:14)
16.
KJV: and then will I profess unto them I never knew you (Matthew 7:23)
BOM: and then I will confess unto them that I never knew them (Mosiah 11:135)
17.
KJV: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again (John 3:7)
BOM: marvel not that all mankind… must be born again (Mosiah 11:187)
18.
KJV: gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity (Acts 8:23)
BOM: gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity (Mosiah 11:191)
19.
KJV: Every tree that
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire (Matt. 7:l9)
BOM: therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down
and cast into fire (Alma 3:90):
20.
KJV: the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29)
BOM: the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world (Alma 5:25)
21.
KJV: lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt (Matthew 6:20)
BOM: laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven where nothing doth corrupt (Helaman
3:63)
22.
KJV: take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink?
or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (Matthew 6:31)
BOM: taking no thought for themselves what they should eat or what they should
drink or what they should put on (Alma 16:118)
23.
KJV: and woe unto them that are with child (Matthew 24:19)
BOM: and wo unto them which are with child (Helaman 5:88)
Note
how many of the above statements contain the exact words of Jesus and the
Apostle Paul long before they were born! [37]
The legend of Enoch originated in France in the l700’s. It was brought to America and found its way into the Royal Arch degree of Masonry by 1802. The legend relates that in the pre-existence there was a secret doctrine that God gave to Adam. This information was handed down until it came to Enoch who was warned in a vision that the world was about to be destroyed by a flood. Wanting to preserve this secret doctrine, he inscribed it upon a gold plate, hid it up in a hill and covered it with a stone.
Hundreds of years later, while Solomon was building his temple on Mt. Moriah, the cavern with the hidden gold plate was discovered and opened by three masons who were working for Hyrum Abiff, the foreman. A wicked man slit the throat and cut off the head of Hyram Abiff. [38]
There are many similarities between the Legend of Enoch and the story of Joseph Smith, his gold plates and the Book of Mormon story. A few are mentioned below.
1. Both accounts tell of messages recorded on gold plates.
2. In both accounts the sacred messages were concealed in a hill and covered with a stone.
3.
The Legend of Enoch and the Book of Mormon both speak of preserving
the true knowledge of God from the foundation of the world.
4. Both Enoch and Joseph Smith were given a vision about hidden knowledge that was to come forth in which they would play a part.
5.
In both stories the man with the knowledge of valuable records, had
his head cut off.
Interestingly enough, Joseph Smith’s brother Hyrum was a member of the
Masonic Lodge in Palmyra in 1826.The name of the lodge was Mt. Moriah, the very
same name as the place where Enoch hid his gold plates according to the Masonic
legend. When a copy of the hieroglyphics that Martin Harris took to Professor
Anthon is carefully examined, several of the characters very closely resemble
the secret Masonic ciphers. It is very possible that Joseph Smith, through his
brother Hyrum, acquired some inside information about Masonry. This may have
stimulated his imagination, giving him a basic story line for the Book of
Mormon.[39]
There are many indications that Joseph Smith used the Apocrypha as a
source in his Book of Mormon story. The name Nephi is used extensively in the
Book of Mormon. While the name is not found anywhere in the Bible, it is found in the Apocrypha. II Macabees l:34, 36, states, “Then
the king, enclosing the place, made it holy…. Many men call it Nephi”.
Gerald and Sandra Tanner have listed thirty-two parallels between material used
in the Apocrypha (I and II Macabees and Judith) and the Book of Mormon.[40]
In light of the above information, it seems plausible that Joseph Smith
utilized numerous sources in his creation of the Book of Mormon.
In part three we will examine the logical reasons why Christians cannot
accept the Book of Mormon as “inspired scripture.”
The reasons Christians cannot accept the Book of Mormon as scripture are as simple as A, B, C, D, E.
One of the most irrefutable proofs that the Book of Mormon is not authentic scripture is the abundance of anachronisms—things occurring at other than their proper time in history.
Numerous New Testament teachings are found in the Old Testament time period of the Book of Mormon. The Bible refers to these New Testament teachings as “mysteries” meaning they had never before been made known to any people until Christ came.
“Before
Christ came, no one knew God’s great purpose. It was a secret [mystery] hidden
from everyone…. God has revealed His purposes through Jesus, who was crucified
and raised by God…. The Spirit takes the message of Christ and makes it come
alive for the church, revealing the hidden purpose of God.”[41]
Examples
of Book of Mormon anachronisms are found below.
The
Book of Mormon records this New Testament teaching hundreds of years too soon.
Book
of Mormon
(Approx. 592 B.C.):
“And it shall come to pass that if the Gentiles shall hearken unto the
Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself unto them in word and
also in power, in very deed…. They shall be numbered among the seed of thy
father: Yea they shall be
numbered among the House of Israel” (I
Nephi 3:20l-202).
Bible.
The Apostle Paul states, “In reading this then, you will be able to understand
my insight into the mystery of Christ, which
was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s Holy Apostles and Prophets. This
mystery is that through the gospel the
gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members
together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus”
(Eph. 3:4-6, cf. Rom.16:25). Paul further states, “And you [gentiles], also
were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation” (Eph. 1:11-13). This verse shows plainly that the disciples were
living in a “unique day,” the day of the Messiah, which Old Testament
prophets and kings longed to see but were not permitted to do so. Paul
continues, “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this
grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which
for ages past was kept hidden in God. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made
known.” (Eph. 3:8-10).
Book of Mormon (Approx. 550 years B. C.): Nephi
said, “… by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water…yea,
then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 13:16-17).
Bible:
“John answered, saying unto them all, ‘I indeed baptize you with water;
but one mightier than I…. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire’”(Luke 3:16). “Jesus said, ‘Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By
this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up
to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been
glorified” (John 7:38-39). In John 16:7, Jesus said, “But I tell you the
truth…unless I go away, the Counselor
will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” Acts 2:1-4 KJV
clearly teaches that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost was not given until
Pentecost, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come…they were all
filled [baptized] with the Holy Ghost.”
Book
of Mormon (Approx. 559 B. C.): Nephi wrote: “For we labor
diligently…to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ
and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after
all we can do and notwithstanding we
believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses” (II Nephi 11:43-45).
Bible:
Jesus said, “ ‘Lo, I come to do thy will Oh God.’ He taketh away the first
[law of Moses] that he may establish the second [Grace] (Heb. l0:9). “The Law
and the Prophets were proclaimed until
John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being
preached” (Luke l6:l6).
Book
of Mormon (147 years B. C.): Alma said, “Helam, I baptize
thee, having authority. from Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered
into a covenant to serve him until you are dead…. And may he grant unto you
eternal life, through the redemption of Christ” (Mosiah 9:44). In 559
B.C. Nephi said, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall
follow the Son with full purpose of heart…repenting of your sins, witnessing
unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by
baptism: yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water.…
Then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 13:16).
Bible: Christian baptism was not practiced before Christ began his ministry. John the Baptist
told the people, “to believe in the one coming after him. On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the
Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:4-5). Baptism
in the name of Jesus Christ, is strictly a New Testament teaching, yet in the
Book of Mormon this rite was being practiced hundreds of years before Christ was
born.
Book
of Mormon (l22 B. C.): “And it came to pass that King
Mosiah granted unto Alma, that he might establish churches
throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and
teachers over every church” (Mosiah
11:97).
Bible
(Matt. l6:l8): “Jesus said…I
will build my Church.” The Christian Church had its birth on the day of
Pentecost in the New Testament era.
Book
of Mormon (73 B. C.): “Yea, all those who were true
believers in Christ, took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ, or
Christians, as they were called, because of their belief in Christ” (Alma
21:45). Christ did not have followers before he was born.
Bible:
“And the disciples were called Christians first
in Antioch” (Acts 11:26).
Book
of Mormon: 2 Nephi 14:4 (559 B. C.) Nephi declared,
“Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon
the words of Christ; for behold the words of Christ will tell you all things
what ye should do.” It would be impossible to feast upon the words of Christ
before he was born.
Christ is a Greek word that is not found in the Old Testament of the
Bible and yet it is recorded in the Book of Mormon more than 500 years B.C. (2
Nephi 7:5). Also, Joseph Smith stated emphatically that, “There was no Greek
or Latin upon the plates from which I translated the Book of Mormon.”[42]
If David Whitmer’s testimony is to be trusted concerning the translation of
the Book of Mormon, there would have been no
possibility for error such as quoting the Greek term Christ (see David
Whitmer’s testimony, page 134.)
Wesley Walters, noted scholar and researcher on the subject of Mormonism, calls anachronisms the “final blow” against the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. In the tract entitled, Whatever Happened to the Book of Mormon?, he observes,
“Perhaps the most damaging of all is the way the book [Book of Mormon] confuses the Old and New Covenants. The book stresses that before the coming of Christ the faithful kept the Law of Moses, yet they also established churches, taught and practiced Christian baptism, and were conversant with New Testament doctrines and events. The gradual unfolding of theological themes so evident in the Bible is completely lacking in the Book of Mormon. In the Bible the Old Covenant is taken away to establish the new…. The Book of Mormon disrupts this divine pattern and intermingles the covenants and their ordinances…. This makes the Book of Mormon seem plainer than the Bible to one who has little acquaintance with God’s Holy Scriptures. However, a careful autopsy of this book…discloses that it is really a piece of early American fiction.”[43]
The
following examples show unmistakable similarities between certain Biblical
events and those found in the Book of Mormon.
(Acts 9:1–27 v. Mosiah 11:159–207)
· Both had a history of vigorously persecuting the Church
· Both were on a mission of persecution the day of their conversion
· Both fell to the ground, as well as the other people present
· Both heard a voice, which asked them why they were fighting against the work of the Lord
·
Both traveled about preaching God’s Word after their conversion
(John 11:1–145 v. Alma 12:123–142)
· Of both it was said, they “sleepeth”
· Of both it was said, he “stinketh”
· Loved ones of both were told their men would “rise again”
·
Both arose
(Daniel
5:4–5 v. Alma 8:1–2)
·
Both
Daniel and Abinadi interpreted handwriting on the wall of a temple, written by
the hand of God
(Judges 21:22–24 v. Mosiah 9:108–112)
· In both the Bible and Book of Mormon women gathered together to dance
· In both cases men laid in hiding to watch them
·
In both cases the men rushed out of their hiding place, seized the
women, and carried them off
(Matt. 14:11 v. Ether 3:78–82)
· Both danced and pleased men in positions of power
· In both cases a plot was involved
· Both daughters asked for the head of a man as a reward for their dancing
·
Both designated men were beheaded
(Acts 16:40 v. Alma 10:35–83)
Both pairs were attacked by angry crowds
Both pairs were severely beaten
Both pairs were thrown into prison
In both cases there was a violent earthquake and their bands (chains) fell off
Both pairs walked out of prison unharmed
(Daniel 3:21–26 v. 4 Nephi 1:35)
Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the disciples of Christ in the Book of Mormon were cast into a fiery furnace and came out unharmed.
(Daniel 6:16 v. 4 Nephi 1:35)
· Just like Daniel, the Book of Mormon disciples of Christ were thrown into a den of wild beasts, and came out without a scratch.
Note: None of these
“coincidences” by themselves prove Joseph Smith took his stories from the
Bible, but when taken all together his source becomes obvious.
Christians consider the Bible to be the inspired, authoritative Word of God. When Book of Mormon teachings are compared with Biblical teachings many contradictions between the two books become obvious as shown in the following examples.
There are two
unalterable facts concerning the Law of Moses, 1) the tribe of Levi was
inseparably connected with tabernacle/temple worship, and 2) no one could serve
as a priest or high priest unless they belonged to the tribe of Levi and were
direct descendants of Aaron (2 Chron. 35:14, Ex. 28:39–43, 29:1–45, 31:10). To
disobey these divine instructions meant certain death! The
Lord, speaking to Aaron, declared,
“I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the Tent of Meeting [later the temple], but only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain…anyone else who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.” (Num. 18:6–7)
In the Bible, when the Northern and Southern kingdoms split, Jeroboam became king over the ten northern tribes. He perverted God’s commandment concerning the priestly tribe of Levi by appointing priests from other tribes and consequently lost his kingdom.
“Jeroboam
did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high
places from ‘all sorts of people.’ Anyone who wanted to become a priest he
consecrated…this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall
and to its destruction from the face of the earth.” (1 Kings 13:33–34)
The Nephites in the Book of Mormon committed the same sin as Jeroboam! They were supposedly devout Jews, who, six hundred years before Christ, came to the Americas and built a temple like Solomon’s in order to keep the Law of Moses. They appointed priests and high priests from the tribe of Joseph to perform the temple work, “For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests…of this people by the hand of Nephi” (Jacob 1:18). Jacob and Joseph did not descend from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Joseph. In fact there was not one Nephite in the Book of Mormon who belonged to the tribe of Levi. They all descended from the tribe of Joseph. (See Mosiah 11:17, 9:2; 1 Nephi 1:164–165; Alma 3:3, 11:6).
The Book of Mormon violates God’s clear-cut commandment concerning the
consecrating of priests. If it was inspired scripture, the Nephites would have
come under the same judgment as Jeroboam. This glaring contradiction of God’s
commandment concerning priesthood gives abundant proof that the Book of Mormon
could not be “inspired scripture” as Joseph Smith claimed. (It should also
be pointed out that God would not have commanded the Nephites to build a temple,
because the only place designated for the
building of a temple was in Jerusalem).
The Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible on the number of high priests serving at one time. The Bible teaches that only one high priest, a Levite in the family line of Aaron, could serve at a time under the Law of Moses (Lev.16:32, 35:28, Num. 35:38), and only upon his death did another one take his place.[44] In the Book of Mormon many high priests served at the same time (Alma 9:70-73, 11:6, 16:21-27) contradicting the Biblical pattern (see foot note 28, p. 184).
The RLDS have taken many Bible verses out of context in an effort to
prove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Below are four scriptures they
commonly use.
Joseph Smith’s interpretation of Isaiah 29: Verse four of Isaiah 29, I.V. reads, “Her speech shall be low out of the dust; and her voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and her speech shall whisper out of the dust.” This verse supposedly refers to the gold plates which Joseph Smith took out of the ground (dust) and later published as the Book of Mormon.
In the Book of Mormon, this verse is elaborated on. Nephi, prophesying to his people who would later “dwindle in unbelief” and eventually all be destroyed, promised they would not be forgotten. He prophesied that in the last days the record of their history would be brought to light “out of the ground.”
“And
after they [Book of Mormon inhabitants] shall have been brought down…the words
of the righteous shall be written…. For those who shall be destroyed shall
speak unto them [Gentiles] out of the ground [Book of Mormon] and their speech
shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit” (2 Nephi 11:83–85).
Joseph Smith apparently did not understand what a ‘familiar spirit’
was or he would not have used the term in a favorable light. The Bible states,
“there shall not be found among you any one…that useth divination…or an
enchanter, or a witch…or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer” (Deut. 18:10–11). The term familiar spirit here refers to the spirit of a dead person with whom
mediums claimed they could communicate. The Israelites were forbidden by God to
consult familiar spirits. This act was so serious that those who did participate
were put to death.[45]
Note: In
his Inspired Version of the Bible, Joseph Smith added over 600 words to verses
11 and 12 in Isaiah 29 (KJV). In this expanded account recorded in the Inspired
Version, “the learned” (which refers to a Professor Anthon according to RLDS
teaching), was asked to read the characters that Joseph Smith had copied from
his gold plates, but he [Anthon] answered, “I
cannot read it.”[46]
Yet, in the Church History account of this event, when “the learned” was
asked to read the characters he did,
and then stated, “the translation was correct, more so than any he had before
seen translated.”[47] Interestingly enough, the
Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 11:136-142), records this event in Isaiah 29 in the same
way as the Inspired Version, both of which contradict the RLDS Church History
account.
The Biblical interpretation of Isaiah 29. The
context of Isaiah 29 is speaking of God’s judgments on the nation of Israel
for their obstinate and rebellious hearts. The prophecy was addressed primarily
to Ariel, or Jerusalem. Isaiah prophesied that the Lord was going to humble His
people to the dust because they had trusted in their many sorceries and
witchcrafts instead of Him. God’s divine message to Israel was like a book
which the wise could not read due to spiritual blindness.
Joseph Smith’s interpretation of Ezekiel 37:15-17 reads,
“Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it,
‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take
another stick of wood, and write on it, ‘Ephraim’s stick, belonging to
Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ Join them together
into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.”
Joseph
Smith taught that the stick of Ephraim referred to the Bible and the stick of
Joseph referred to the Book of Mormon, and these two “sticks” were to be
joined together as complementary scriptures in his Mormonism movement.
The Biblical interpretation of Ezekiel 37. The Bible is its own best interpreter. Vs. 19 and 20 read, ”I am going to take the stick of Joseph – which is in Ephraim’s hand – and of the Israelite tribes associated with him [the northern tribes], and join it to Judah’s stick [the southern tribes], making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.” These verses are talking about people and nations not about books or scrolls. When taken in context they are clearly speaking of the time when the northern and southern kingdoms (the twelve tribes of Israel) would again be joined together and become one nation.
Joseph Smith’s interpretation of John 10:16. Christ
said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring
and they shall hear my voice.” The phrase “other sheep” is interpreted by
RLDS to mean the Nephites of the Book of Mormon, who heard Jesus’ preaching
when He visited the American continent after his ascension into heaven (3 Nephi
5:13). Note: After His ascension Jesus did not
go back and forth from heaven to earth several times preaching on other
continents as the Book of Mormon claims (3 Nephi 4:74, 5:13, Acts 1:11, 2:34).
The Biblical interpretation of John 10:16. Bible scholars agree that the phrase “other sheep” in John 10:16 refers to the Gentiles which the Apostle Paul declared were to be joined with the House of Israel. Also, the Bible teaches that once Jesus ascended into heaven he was to remain at the right hand of God, until His enemies were made his footstool (Heb. 10:12–13).
Believers in the Book of Mormon have been taught that it supplements the Bible and is in total agreement with it. However, a careful study reveals multiple contradictions between the two books. For RLDS who value ‘truth more than tradition,’ and ‘facts more than feelings,’ the following chart will be of interest.
|
Book
of Mormon |
Bible |
|
“Adam
fell that men might be.” This verse teaches that Adam had to fall before
children could be born (2 Nephi 1:115). |
God
told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply before
the fall (Genesis 1:28). |
|
Jesus
was born at Jerusalem (Alma 5:19). |
Jesus
was born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:5-7). |
|
At
the time of the crucifixion of Christ the earth became dark for three days |
At
the crucifixion of Christ the earth became dark for three hours (Luke
23:44). |
|
The
plates of brass Lehi brought from Jerusalem, contained the writings of
Moses and were written in reformed Egyptian |
There
is no historical evidence that the Hebrew people ever recorded their
writings in the Egyptian language. Reformed Egyptian, according to
scholars, is a non-existent language. |
|
The
language of the Jaredites was not
confounded at the tower of Babel |
The
Lord confounded all languages at
the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:8 ) |
|
We
are saved after all we can do. |
We
are saved by God’s Grace, not by works. (Ephesians 2:8-9). |
|
The
Nephites preached in synagogues |
Synagogues
were established during the Jewish exile. The Nephites would not have
known about synagogues because they left Jerusalem before their existence.
(The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, p. 817-819). |
|
Those
who believe the Bible is the only book of sacred scripture are called
fools! |
The
Bible is complete, inspired and
totally sufficient (2 Timothy 3:16). |
|
Alma,
of the tribe of Joseph, was High Priest (Alma 3:3, Mosiah 9:2, I Nephi
1:164-165). |
Only
Aaron’s descendants of the tribe of Levi could be High Priests (Numbers
Ch. 3). |
|
Melchizedek
reigned under his father |
Melchizedek was without father or mother and without
genealogy (Hebrews 7:3). |
|
The
land of America is the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph (3 Nephi
7:13-14). |
Jerusalem (middle-east) is the inheritance of all twelve
tribes (Ezekiel Ch. 37). |
|
The
Nephites practiced the Law of Moses and Christianity at the same time (2
Nephi 11:45). |
The
Law of Moses became obsolete when Christ was crucified (Hebrews 8:13,
10:9). |
|
The
plan of salvation was known long before the time of Christ (Jarom 1:3-4). |
The
plan of salvation was not known before Christ came (Ephesians 3:4-6). |
|
Mulek,
the infant son of Zedekiah, was brought to the Americas (Helaman 3:56). |
Zedekiah’s
sons were all killed before his
eyes (Jeremiah 39:6). |
|
The
Holy Ghost was given hundreds of years before the Day of Pentecost (2
Nephi 13:16) |
The
Holy Ghost was not given until the Day of Pentecost (John 7:39, Acts 2:4) |
|
The
promise of Gentiles becoming one with Jews is given 600 years before
Christ (I Nephi 3:20l-202). |
The
teaching that the Gentiles would become joint heirs with the Jews to form
one body, was not made known until it was revealed to the Apostles
after Jesus’ death and resurrection (Eph. 3:1-9). |
|
The
brother of Jared was redeemed from the fall in 2,000 BC because “Christ
showed himself to him” (Ether 1:76). |
We
are redeemed from the fall by Jesus blood he shed on the cross (1 Peter
1:18-19). |
|
The
ancient inhabitants of the Americas speak through the words of the Book of
Mormon as voices that have “familiar spirits” |
“Familiar
Spirits” are always related to the occult, “There shall not be found
among you…an enchanter, or a witch or a charmer, or a consulter with
familiar spirits…for all that do these things are an abomination unto
the Lord” (Deut.18:10-12 KJV). |
|
The
Jews will be gathered back to the land of their inheritance (Israel) after they come to a knowledge of their redeemer (2 Nephi 5:29). |
The
Jewish people became a nation in l948 and continue to gather to their
homeland of Jerusalem by the hundreds of thousands in fulfillment of Bible
Prophecy. The majority of these Jews, have not yet come to a knowledge of
their redeemer (Ezekiel 36, 37). |
|
The
Book of Mormon prophesies that Joseph Smith was to be “great like unto
Moses” to bring forth God’s word in the Latter Days |
Jesus,
not Joseph Smith, was the one like Moses, (Acts 322) “In the past God
spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and various
ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2). |
|
“For
I [God] command all men, both in the east, and in the west, and in the
north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea … and I shall
also speak to the other tribes of the house of Israel … and … all
nations of the earth: and they shall write it” (2 Nephi l2:65-69). |
“What
advantage is there in being a Jew…much in every way! First of all, they
have been entrusted with the very words of God” (Romans 3:1-2) Only the
Jews had the distinction of receiving and preserving the words of God
which are found in the Holy Bible. There is no evidence of these numerous
writings the Book of Mormon mentions. |
|
Approximately
550 B.C. Nephi announced that the Messiah’s name would be Jesus |
The
Angel Gabriel was the first to announce that the Messiah’s name was
Jesus (Luke l:3l) |
|
Ninety
years B.C. a woman servant cried out “O Blessed Jesus, who has saved me
from an awful hell … have mercy … ” (Alma 12:170). |
Only
after Jesus came could anyone call upon His name for salvation (Acts
2:21-22). |
|
Jesus
said to the Nephites, “So great faith have I never seen among all the
Jews … neither have they heard so great things” |
Jesus
said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know
his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for
everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you”
(John 15:15). |
|
The
New Jerusalem (Zion) will be established in America, (specifically
Independence, MO) by the Lamanites (American Indians) with the help of the
gentiles (3 Nephi Ch. 9-l0). |
The
New Jerusalem is in heaven waiting to be revealed in the last times (Rev.
21:2). |
|
“And
baptism cometh by faith, unto the fulfilling of
the commandments; and the fulfilling of the commandments bringeth
remission of sins…” (Moroni 8:29). |
It
is Christ’s blood that provides forgiveness of sin, not baptism. “But
now he [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do
away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Heb. 9:26) “…and
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22). |
Both the LDS and the RLDS churches have made the claim that
archaeological evidence backs up the historicity of the Book of Mormon. However,
reputable institutions and scholars of the ancient history of the Americas find
it impossible to support this claim.
“It
can be stated definitely that there is no connection between the archaeology of
the new world and the subject matter of the Book of Mormon…. We know of no
authentic cases of ancient Egyptian or Hebrew writings having been found in the
New World…thus far no iron, steel, brass, gold and silver coins, metal,
swords, breastplates, arm shields, armor, horses and chariots or silk have ever
been found in pre-colonial archeological sites…it was not until after the conquest of the New World that these materials
appeared…. Furthermore, cattle, sheep, swine, horses and asses, such as we
know them were introduced in the New World in post-Columbus times…there are no
archaeological sites that have been identified with the name of cities mentioned
in the Book of Mormon.”[48] (See letter on following
page)
It is interesting to note in comparison, the official statement of the Smithsonian Institute concerning the archaeology of the Bible.
“Much
of the Bible, in particular the historical books of the old testament,
are as accurate historical documents as any that we have from antiquity and are
in fact more accurate than many of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Greek
histories. These Biblical records can be and are used…in archaeological work.
For the most part, historical events described took place and the peoples cited
really existed.”[49]
In Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s book Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, we find the following statement.
“The
National Geographic Society has been asked several times whether The Book of
Mormon has been substantiated by archeological findings. We referred this
question to Dr. Neil M. Judd, a noted archeologist at the Smithsonian Institution.
His reply follows: ‘Neither representatives of the National Geographic Society
nor, to my knowledge, archeologists connected with any other institution of
equal prestige have ever used the Book of Mormon in locating historic ruins in
Middle America or elsewhere.’ ”[50]
Dr. Michael Coe. Michael Coe, was a professor of anthropology at Yale University. As an authority on the archeology of the New World, he made the following observation:
“Let
me now state uncategorically that as far as I know there is not one
professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any
scientific justification for believing the [Book of Mormon]…. Nothing,
absolutely nothing has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would
suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by
Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants
to our hemisphere.”[51]
Dee F. Green. Dee F. Green, was a former professor of Anthropology at Weber State University. He was also at one time deeply involved in archaeological work at Brigham Young University and from 1958-61 he served as editor of the University Archaeological Society Newsletter. Green admitted that Book of Mormon archaeology is conspicuously absent. In an article for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, he stated,
“The
first myth we need to eliminate is that Book of Mormon archaeology exists….
Biblical archaeology can be studied because we do know where Jerusalem and
Jericho were and are, but we do not know where Zarahemla and Bountiful (nor any
other location for that matter) were or are.”[52]
Thomas Stuart Ferguson. An ardent defender of the Book of Mormon, Thomas Stuart Ferguson received a $250,000 grant from the Mormon Church to establish the New World Archaeology Foundation for the purpose of accelerating the search for artifacts to prove the validity of the Book of Mormon. He stated that there was no doubt in his mind the evidence would be forth-coming. However, after years of excavating he came to the conclusion that instead of proving the Book of Mormon true, the organization he founded was actually disproving it. Discouraged, he wrote,
“You can’t set Book of Mormon geography down
anywhere—because it is fictional and will never meet the requirements of the
dirt-archeology. I should say what is in the ground will
never conform to what is in the book.”[53]
Ferguson confessed to Jerald and Sandra
Tanner, highly regarded researchers of Mormon History, that he, “…had not
only given up the Book of Abraham, but that he had come to the conclusion that
Joseph Smith was not a prophet and that Mormonism was not true. He told them he
had spent twenty-five years trying to prove Mormonism, but had finally come to
the conclusion that all his work in this regard had
been in vain. He
said that his training in law had taught him how to weigh evidence and
that the case against Joseph Smith was absolutely devastating and could not be
explained away.”[54]
Dr. Raymond T. Matheny. Brigham Young University professor Raymond T. Matheny concluded, that after working in the area of Mesoamerican archaeology for twenty-two years, scientific evidence did not support the theory of a New World setting for the peoples and events chronicled in the Book of Mormon. He reached the conclusion that the Book of Mormon contains many major historical and cultural anachronisms.
Matheny declared, “I have felt that
Mormons…have been grasping at straws for a very long time trying to thread
together all these little esoteric finds, out of context, and [they] really
don’t have much meaning when they’re isolated.” Matheny’s overall
assessment of the evidence amounts to a blunt denial that archaeology offers any
support for the historicity of the Book of Mormon: “I would say in evaluating
the Book of Mormon that it has no place in the New World whatsoever.”
[55]
1. If the American Indians were all descendants of Lehi a Jew, why in the wide diversity of the American Indian languages is there no trace of the Hebrew language?
2. The Book of Mormon says that Lehi found horses when he arrived in America. The horses described in the Book of Mormon (as well as many other domestic animals) did not exist in the New World before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors.
3. Nephi is stated to have had a “bow of steel.” Jews did not have steel in 600 B.C., or the knowledge to smelt iron for the production of steel.[56] Nor did this knowledge exist in the Americas at that time.
4. The Book of Mormon frequently mentions “swords and cimeters.” Cimeters were unknown until the rise of the Moslem faith after 500 A.D. (The Book of Mormon story concludes in 421A.D. one hundred years prior to this time.)
5.
The Book of Mormon says that Nephites possessed silk. Silk did not exist
in America in pre-Columbian times.
Roberts took these questions to the general authorities of the Mormon Church. When he could get no satisfactory answers he became more and more disillusioned with the Book of Mormon and finally admitted that he had spent a lifetime defending a book that was a fraud. Dejectedly he wrote, “Is all this sober history…or is it a wondertale of an immature mind, unconscious of what a test he is laying on human credulity when asking men to accept his narrative as solemn history?”[57]
Two months before his death, Roberts told his friend, Wesley P. Lloyd, former dean of the graduate school of BYU that, “the defense the brethren made for the Book of Mormon might ‘satisfy people who didn’t think, but [it was] a very inadequate answer for a thinking man.’”[58]
In summary, specific claims made in the Book of Mormon which are not validated by archaeology include the following.
|
Book
of Mormon |
Archeological Evidence |
|
1.
Coinage: senines, seons, shums, limnahs of gold, senums, amnors, ezroms,
ontis of silver and others (Alma 8:56-58). |
None:
“Thus
far no…gold and silver coins…have… been found in pre-colonial
archeological sites.”[59] |
|
2.
Synagogues (Helaman 2:13). |
None: Synagogues
did not come into existence until after the Jews were taken into captivity
(586 BC).[60]
This occurred after Lehi’s group left Jerusalem. |
|
3.
Silk and fine twined linen (Alma
1:44) |
None:
No
silk has been found in pre-colonial archaeological sites.[61]
Flax for linen was introduced by the British |
|
4.
Weapons: steel swords, shields, axes, cimeters[62] |
None:
“No
iron, steel, metal, swords, breastplates, arm shields or
armor have been found.[63] No
evidence has been found in the New World for a ferrous metallurgical
industry [ability to manufacture iron] dating to pre-Columbian times” [64] |
|
5.
Agriculture: wheat, honey, sheum, neas grew in abundance [65] |
None:
“There is no evidence that wheat, ever grew in abundance
until modern Europeans brought it to the Americas. If
Neas and sheum were prominent food plants that grew in abundance, why have
they not survived?”[66] |
|
6.
Animals: cows, horses, sheep, swine, oxen, asses, goats, elephants, cureloms,
cumons, dogs[67]
|
None: “Cattle,
sheep, swine, horses and asses, such as we know them were introduced in
the New World in post-Columbus times. Elephants, dogs and goats were
non-existent during the book of Mormon period.” [68]
No civilization has ever identified
animals such as Cureloms and Cumons. |
|
7.
Cities: Bountiful, Jerusalem, Judea, Shem, Jordon, Aaron, Noah, Shilom,
Zarahemla, etc. |
None: “There
are no archaeological sites that have been identified with the names of
cities mentioned in the Book of Mormon.”[69] |
|
8.
Battles: Hundreds of thousands killed in battle on Hill Cumorah[70] |
None: No
armor, weapons, skeletons, nor artifacts of any kind have been found on
Hill Cumorah to prove a battle of this magnitude ever occurred. |
There is no archaeological evidence that the Nephites ever existed
There is no evidence that the ancient inhabitants of this continent had Christian beliefs
There is no evidence indicating Book of Mormon cities
No evidence of any Book of Mormon coins
There is no evidence that any domesticated animals mentioned in the Book of Mormon existed in America before Columbus arrived
Finally, there is no evidence of any artifacts to indicate that the Book of Mormon is actual history.[71]
John Ankerberg and John Weldon note:
“As
archaeological expertise and data grow…we are once again faced with a critical
contrast between the Christian Scriptures and the Mormon scriptures…. The
antithesis between the Bible, which is accepted as a reliable archaeological
guide by reputable archaeologists, and the Book of Mormon, which is accepted by
none, is striking.”[72]
The Book of Mormon is replete with incredulous statements that challenge the reader’s intelligence. Below are some examples.
1. Arabia is described in 1 Nephi 5:62-68 as a land of bounty with “much fruit and also wild honey.” However, that region of the world has only been known for its petroleum, sand, and heat since ancient times.[73]
2. Genealogy was very important to the Jewish people. Yet, Lehi, supposedly a devout Jew and a prophet of God who had lived in Jerusalem all of his life, did not know which tribe he belonged to until he arrived on the American continent (1 Nephi 1:3, 164-165).
3. A great battle is described in the Book of Mormon, with only one surviving warrior on each side, Shiz and Coriantumr. The final scene is described as follows.
“And it came to pass that when they had all fallen by the sword save it were Coriantumr and Shiz, behold Shiz had fainted with the loss of blood. And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword…[and] rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz. And it came to pass that after he had smote off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised upon his hands and fell: and after that he had struggled for breath [without a head] he died” (Ether 6:103-105).
4. The Book of Mormon Jesus told the Nephites that because they had more faith than his disciples in Palestine, he was able to do greater miracles among them. He allegedly said, “So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not shew unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief” (3 Nephi 9:35).
The miracles that Jesus performed while with his disciples in Palestine include: changing water into wine, raising the dead, feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, opening deaf ears and blind eyes, causing the dumb to speak, healing every kind of disease, walking on water, casting out demons, retrieving money from the mouth of a fish, and walking out of his own tomb alive. What Book of Mormon miracles can top these!?
5. The Book of Mormon tells of a temple that was built by the Nephites after the manner of the temple of Solomon. “And I Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon, save it were not built of so many precious things for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple.” (2 Nephi 4:22-24). Verse twenty-one, just previous to the above verse, reads,
“And I did teach my people to build buildings, and
to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of
steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores which were in great
abundance.”
In one verse the precious ores were in great abundance, yet in the next verse they were not to be found in the land! To construct a temple like Solomon’s would have been a monumental task for just a handful of people. It had been approximately thirty-one years since two families, and a man named Zoram, left Jerusalem, and during that time they had split into two groups. The smaller of the two groups called the Nephites, (possibly five couples and their children) built the temple. In contrast, Solomon used 30,000 laborers, 70,000 carriers, 80,000 stone cutters (highly skilled craftsman) and 3,300 foremen (I Kings 5:13-18).
6. The Book of Mormon describes one battle where 2,060 young men called striplings, fought wars over a period of four to five years without one of them being killed (Alma 24:74 - Alma 26:101).
7. The Book of Mormon uses the French word adieu (Jacob 5:48). However, the French language wasn’t developed from Latin until approximately 700 AD, 300 years after the Book of Mormon records were supposedly completed and buried.
8. In 6 B.C., Helaman is quoted as saying, “we read”[74] and then cites John 5:29 from the King James Version of the Bible. The King James Bible was published in 1611 A.D., over 1000 years after Helaman made his statement.
9. Alma speaks of burying swords in the earth to keep them bright. Yet, burying metal swords in the earth would speed the rusting process, not prevent it.
10. Approximately 559 BC, Nephi quoted Malachi the prophet, yet Malachi did not begin prophesying until 150 years after Nephi quoted him.
11. The Book of Mormon (Ether l:42-60), gives a description of the barges that brought the Jaredites from the tower of Babel across the ocean to the American continent. According to this account, there were eight small barges, about the length of a tree, which were light upon the water (like a bird). The top and bottom were tight like a dish. There was a hole in both the top and bottom in case they suffered for air. The barges could not have windows because they would be dashed to pieces. (Note: Joseph Smith did not know that the Phoenicians had not yet invented glass in 2200 B.C.) Picture the following! Eight “small barges” were manned and loaded for an ocean journey of approximately one year.
Men, women and children (Jared and his family, the brother of Jared and his family and twenty-two friends with their children (probably 40 people or more)
Herds of cattle, herds of horses, herds of swine, herds of sheep and herds of goats
Swarms of bees, seeds of every kind, fowls of the air, and varieties of fish
Several tons of food, bedding, clothing
A year’s supply of water for families
Sewage disposal system for families and animals
In their year’s ocean journey in “eight small barges”, imagine what would happen to these forty or more people, herds of cattle, horses, swine, sheep, goats, swarms of bees, fish, food, water supplies and waste products, when the Lord caused “a furious wind to blow upon the face of the waters… and they were tossed upon the waves of the sea…and were many times buried in the depth of the sea” (Ether 3:6-7).
It has been estimated that even if the barges only moved 10 mph (with the furious wind blowing), the distance traveled in one year would have been 82,560 miles, or enough for more than three trips around the world. Amazingly, all eight barges landed at the same time and in the same place and began building a new civilization.
12. According to the Book of Mormon message, the dark skin of the American Indians was a curse put upon them by God for their rebellions against Him. The purpose of the curse was: 1) so that they wouldn’t be enticing unto the righteous (white) people (2 Nephi 4:35), and 2) That the righteous whites would not mix with the dark skinned people and believe their incorrect traditions (2 Nephi 4:35, Alma 1:106-113). The curse took place immediately on violators, and extended even to those who would marry them. The curse was, “from this time henceforth and forever, except they repent of their wickedness and turn to me, that I [the Lord] may have mercy upon them” (Alma 1:113-114). When any portion of the Lamanites repented and turned to God, “the curse of God did no more follow them” (Alma 14:20) and their skin became white within one year! (3 Nephi 1:48-53).
Question: If the Book of Mormon is true, why do the American Indians, who have repented and joined the RLDS Church, still have dark skin and why doesn’t the skin of white people who marry non-believing Indians turn dark?
13. The Book of Mormon teaches that the Nephites were devout Jews who kept the law of Moses, yet there is no mention of the Passover. The importance of the Passover to the Jewish people cannot be over-emphasized. The Nephites should have celebrated this event hundreds of times during the 600 years in America before the coming of Christ, yet there isn’t one mention of it being observed. In contrast, the Passover is mentioned over seventy-five times in the Bible.
14.
Important Jewish feasts recorded in the Bible are the Feast of First
Fruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Feast of Tabernacles, etc. These
religious feasts were of utmost importance and it is inconceivable that they are
not mentioned even once in the Book of
Mormon, a book purporting to be a history of Jewish people. Also, Jerald and
Sandra Tanner state the following concerning the various Jewish offerings.
“In the King James Version of the Old Testament we find the following: trespass offerings, meat offerings, drink offerings, wave offerings and peace offerings (see Exodus, chapter 29; Leviticus, chapters 2-5; Numbers, chapter 29; Chronicles, chapter 29). The computer showed that these offerings were mentioned 519 times in the Bible. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, does not have a single place where any of these important offerings are mentioned!”[75]
15. Some of the distinctive teachings of Mormonism include the following.
· Three glories in heaven
· Two priesthoods—Aaronic and Melchizedek
· Pre-existence
· Chance for salvation after death
· Baptism for dead
None of these doctrines are found in the Book of Mormon, which Joseph claimed was the most perfect book on earth and which, he claimed, contained the fullness of the Gospel.
16. Joseph Smith claimed that the American Indians (Lamanites in Mormon teachings) are descendants of Jews who escaped to the Americas from Jerusalem before the Babylonian captivity in 600 B.C. This premise is contradicted by a. fifty-year global study of population genetics recently published by Princeton University Press. The research was confined to groups that were in their present locations as of 1492 to provide, “a genetic snapshot of the world when Columbus sailed for America.” This study indicates that in the Americas, the native tribes were of Mongoloid extraction, not Semitic.[76] The following contrasts underscore these findings.
|
Mongoloid · Scant facial hair · Straight, black coarse hair ·
red skin tones |
Semitic · thick beards · thick curly hair · brown skin tones |
Dr. Thomas Key, Professor of Biology, states,
“Genetics authorities found in the Smithsonian Institution, medical centers, scientific research centers, and universities around the world overwhelmingly agree that when we compare the DNA and hereditary traits of Native American Indians and Mediterranean Jews with the Mongoloid, Negroid, and Caucasoid races, that it is perfectly obvious that Native American Indians are distinctly and typically Mongoloid and most definitely not of Jewish origin![77]
17. Concerning the reproduction rate in the Book of Mormon, Dr. Thomas Key, (Ph.d., Sc.D., Ed.D. (Biology), notes that it is astronomical. He states,
“The
story starts in 600 B.C. and extends to 421 A.D. It involves a mere handful of
people who supposedly travel from ‘the land of Jerusalem’ to the Promised
Land of America. Every four or five years or so there are devastating wars that
kill many thousands of people…For this to be so it would be necessary for each
couple to have scores of children, and for them to reach maturity in three or so
years throughout the supposed period between 600B.C. and 421 A.D.”[78]
18. The meaning of names was very important to the Jewish people. One has to wonder then, why a prominent male character in the Book of Mormon was named Alma, which in Hebrew means a “betrothed virgin maiden.”
The Book of Mormon borrows sizable portions of text directly from the
Bible, and often uses a Biblical vocabulary. However, it actually proclaims
itself an enemy of the Bible, and teaches significantly different doctrines.
Consider the following.
The most dangerous aspect of the Book of Mormon is its attack on the reliability of the Bible. The Book of Mormon not only claims that “many plain and precious things” have been removed from the Bible (1 Nephi 3:171), but that everyone who believes the Bible to be sufficient scripture is a fool, “Thou fool that shall say, a bible, we have got a bible and we need no more bible” (2 Nephi 12:53).
In another verse the Book of Mormon casts further doubt on the sufficiency of the Bible and claims there are multitudes of other scriptures.
“Wherefore,
because that ye have a Bible, ye need not suppose that it contains all my words,
neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written…. For I
command all men, both in the east, and in the west, and in the north, and in the
south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I
speak unto them…. For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall
write and I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I
shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led
away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the
earth, and they shall write it.” (2 Nephi 12:64-70)[79]
The RLDS church continues to promote the idea of an insufficient Bible and to teach that extra-Biblical scriptures are necessary. This is made plain in the following statement by F. Henry Edwards, former member of the First Presidency.
“Latter Day Saints believe that the scriptures include much more than the Old and New Testaments…. Biblical scholars do not speak with a united voice. Their testimony is divided and confusing. Because of this, our Heavenly Father inspired men living on other continents to write their spiritual experience and to preserve their record for our enlightenment.”[80]
Unfortunately, once a person is convinced the Bible has been corrupted, they have no standard with which to measure truth and they fall prey to “every wind of doctrine,” which is exactly what happened to Joseph Smith.
The gospel found in the Book of Mormon is at best confusing. It teaches we are saved by grace, “after all we can do.” However, we can’t be saved by grace which is a free gift, and earn our salvation at the same time, “At the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6)
The
Jesus of the Book of Mormon, who allegedly appeared to the Nephites after His
crucifixion, was a vengeful being who killed thousands of people and left only
the “more righteous” alive (3 Nephi 4:16-42).
This is in stark contrast to the Jesus of the Bible who came to save lost
sinners. (For a more detailed description of the “other Jesus” portrayed in
the Book of Mormon, see chapter 12).
RLDS come to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon is true, not because they have compared its teachings with the Bible, but because they feel it is true. Their ultimate test for truth is a ‘feeling’ or a ‘spiritual experience.’ Many times in their prayer meetings you will hear variations of the following. “I know the Book of Mormon is true because I had a ‘burning of the bosom’ ” or “the Holy Spirit flooded me as I was praying about it” or “I was shown in a dream or vision that it was true.” The Book of Mormon promotes this unbiblical method of testing truth. It presents the reader with the following challenge.
“And
when ye shall receive these things, [Book of Mormon] I would exhort you that ye
would ask God … in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; And if ye
shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he
will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Moroni
10:4–5)
Many RLDS couple this verse with the following verse in the Doctrine and Covenants in order to receive answers to prayer.
“I
[the Lord] say unto you, that you must study it [prayer request], out in your
mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel
that it is right; but if it be not right, you shall have no such feelings,
but you shall have a stupor of thought.” (Doc.
and Cov. 9:3)
This subjective method of seeking God’s will is very dangerous as a person’s eternal destiny could be at risk. Paul Trask explains,
“Joseph
[Smith] taught that the human heart was the place where truth was to be
evaluated. This is a most significant concept. Mormons and RLDS alike talk about
the ‘burning in their bosom’ as a
fail-safe confirmation of spiritual guidance. How different this is from the
warning of the prophet Jeremiah, ‘The
heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?’ (Jeremiah
l7:9). The thing which Jeremiah says is ‘deceitful above all things’ is the
very thing which Joseph Smith says we should use to evaluate spiritual truth.
Since Joseph himself had been deceived in this way it was understandable that he
would lead his followers in his own footsteps.”[81]
The Bible gives us an objective way to test truth that is far more trustworthy. The Apostle Paul said, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what the Apostle Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11–12).
The
Bereans would not even take the Apostle Paul’s word as truth without first
testing it by their scriptures, and the Lord commended them highly for doing so.
If the RLDS would use this objective method for testing the Book of Mormon, they
would discover that without a doubt, that it is a book of fiction and not a true
historical record.
Mormonism insists that the Book of Mormon is necessary because the Bible is an insufficient source of Scripture. Joseph Smith taught that whereas the Bible was a corrupted book, the Book of Mormon contained the fullness of the gospel.
However, as we discovered in Chapter five, the Bible has been proven to be reliable based on manuscript evidence, archaeology, fulfilled prophecy and statistical probability as well as many other criteria. In addition, the Bible is already accomplishing the stated purpose of the Book of Mormon, which is to convince both Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, “Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22, see also 17:3, 18:28).
Book of Mormon believers would do well to consider the sufficiency of the Bible, and the promises it offers:
· The Bible contains the fullness of the gospel. The Apostle Paul said, “I have fully proclaimed the gospel” (Acts 5:20, see also Rom. 15:19; Col. 1:25). The abundance of manuscript evidence proves that the gospel Paul preached 2,000 years ago is the same one recorded in our Bibles today. This gospel was being preached in Joseph Smith’s day, and is still being preached around the world today, changing and healing broken lives.
· The Bible tells us clearly that when we have a relationship with Christ, everything we need for life and Godliness is found in this relationship, and that we are complete in Him with fullness of joy! Something that is complete and full does not need anything added. No further ‘revelations’ or books of purported scripture are necessary.
·
All who believe the Biblical gospel and accept by faith Christ as
their Savior, are saved and
have eternal life. The Apostle John said, “He who has the Son has life, he
who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you
may know that you have eternal life.” (I John 5:12–13)
What can the Book of Mormon possibly offer more than these promises? Absolutely nothing! In the final analysis it is the Book of Mormon which lacks the “plain and precious things” that are found in the Gospels, Romans, Hebrews, Ephesians, Galatians, Timothy, Peter, Corinthians, the Revelation, etc. Even considering the false teachings and Biblical contradictions found in the Book of Mormon, its greatest fault is not what is in it, but what is left out!
Gordon Fraser, founder of Southwestern School of Missions, writes,
“One
could wish that Joseph Smith, who had such potential, could have spent his years
from fifteen to twenty-five studying his Bible. Without creeds (which he
abhorred) or instruction by ministers of the Gospel (whom he mistrusted), the
scriptures would have been able to make him “wise unto salvation.’ ”[82]
When we read the following words from the apostle Peter, we cannot help but think of Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon, “In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2 Peter 2:3, Prov. 13:13).
[1] Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194.
[2] Book of Mormon, Hel. Ch. 2, vs. l29, Hel. Ch. 3, vs. 56,57. The Bible gives no hint that one of King Zedekiah’s sons was taken to the Americas. All of his sons were killed before his eyes (Jeremiah 39:6).
[3] RLDS Church History Vol. l, p l2. Joseph later changed the angel’s name to Moroni, See Doc. & Cov.26:2 110:20.
[4] Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, said Joseph used his peep stone to find the gold Plates: “Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason Chase…. In this stone he could see many things…. It was by means of this stone he first discovered these plates” as cited in Tiffany’s Monthly, 1859, pp. 163-169.
[5] RLDS Church History, Vol. l, pp. I2-17.
[6] Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations, (Liverpool: Published for Orson Pratt by S. W. Richards, 1853, pp. 107-108.
[7] D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism, pp. 120-121, as cited in Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Mormonism, John Ankerberg and John Weldon, p. 234.
[8] The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, Vol. 3, l983, p.5l, See also Far West Record, p. 13.
[9] Times and Seasons Vol.3, #9, p. 707, March 1, 1842.
[10] Saints Herald, October 1, 1879, p. 289.
[11] Letter by Emma Bidamon, written from Nauvoo to Mrs. G. W. Pilgrim, March 27, 1879, p. 2. This letter is in the library of the Reorganized Church in Independence, Missouri.
[12] William Smith, William Smith On Mormonism, 1883, pp. 10-12.
[13] Saints Herald, “By the Gift and Power of God,” November 15, 1962, p. 17.
[14] Saints’ Herald, Vol. 26, No. 12, June 15, 1879, pp. 190, 191.
[15] Millennial Star, Feb. 6,1882, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp. 86- 87, see also Saints Herald, Mar. 15, 1962, p. 17.
[16] Saints Herald, By the Gift and Power of God, Nov. 15, 1962, p. 17.
[17] Ibid. p. 17.
[18] David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, p. 12.
[19] Kansas City Journal, June 5, 1881, as quoted in Saints Herald, Nov. 15, 1962, p. 16.
[20] David Whitmer, Address to All Believers, p. 32.
[21] Richard Howard, Restoration Scriptures, (Independence, Mo. Herald Publishing House, 1969), p. 41.
[22] RLDS Church History, Vol. l, p. 46.
[23] Wilford C. Wood, Joseph Smith Begins His Work, Vol. 1, 1958 (Preface).
[24] From the Joseph Smith Collection of diaries, letter books, correspondences, etc., dating from 1827 to 1844 in the L.D.S. Church Archives, Salt Lake City. Letter Book April 20, 1837-Feb. 9, 1843, pp. 64-66.
[25] The original letter of Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson dated April 15, 1838, was copied on May 24, 1838, onto pages 64-66 of a Letter Book which contained copies of Joseph Smith’s letters and others from April 20, l837 to Feb. 9, l843 with a few for other years. This Letter Book is among the Joseph Smith Collection in the L.D.S. Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, Box 2, folder 2. A microfilm copy is in the RLDS Archives. Letter copied with spelling and punctuation as it is in the original. (cited in the Independence Examiner, Sept. 5, 1981).
[26] Zion’s Ensign, Jan. 13, 1894, p. 6.
[27] History of Ill. Chicago 1857, p. 257.
[28] RLDS Church History, Vol. 1, p.19.
[29] Book of Mormon, Mosiah l:6, I Nephi 1:159-162, Book of Mormon 4:98.
[30] Book of Mormon, Book of Mormon 4:99.
[31] Anthony Hoekema, The Four Major Cults, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963, reprinted Nov. 1988), pp. 77-87.
[32] Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith and His Progenitors for many generations, p. 92.
[33] Matilda Spaulding Davison, New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette May 6, 1839. See Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? Wayne L. Cowdrey, Howard A. Davis & Donald R. Scales, (Santa Ana, California, Vision House Publishers, 1977), p. 45.
[34] Vernal Holley, Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look, (Ogden, Utah, Zenos Publications, 1983), p. 32.
[35] Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? pp. 86-87.
[36] Complete chapters from Isaiah, (King James English), are included in the Book of Mormon.
[37] This list is based on the research of Jerald and Sandra Tanner in their book, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality, with references from the RLDS Book of Mormon. See also H. Michael Marquardt’s booklet, The Use of the Bible in the Book of Mormon and Early Nineteenth Century Events Reflected in The Book of Mormon, Published by Personal Freedom Outreach, St. Louis, Mo., 1979.
[38] Wesley Walters, Magic, Moneydigging, and Masonry, Tape WW-68.
[39]
Ibid.
[40] Jerald and Sandra Tanner, “Joseph Smith’s Use of the Apocrypha”, Salt Lake City Messenger, #89 Dec. 1995, p. 6.
[41] Annotation, NIV Study Bible, I Cor. 2:9-14.
[42] Times and Seasons, Vol. 4, p. 194.
[43] Eternity Magazine, May 1980.
[44] Lev. 16:32, Num. 35:28, 2 Chron. 35:14, Ex. 28:39-43, 29:1-45, 31:10.
[45] Lev. 20:6. See also Zondervan Pictorial Dictionary, p. 275.
[46] Joseph Smith, Inspired Version of the Bible, Isaiah 29 vs. 2l (corresponding vs. in KJV is 11).
[47] RLDS Church History, Vol. 1, p. 19.
[48] Official statement by the Smithsonian Institute concerning the Book of Mormon.
[49] The Bible as History, Information from the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560.
[50] Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, (Salt Lake City, Utah, Modern Microfilm Company, 1969), p. 3.
[51] Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 4. No. 2, Summer, 1973 pp. 41-46.
[52] Ibid. Summer 1969, pp. 77-78, cited in Tanner, Shadow or Reality, p. 125.
[53] Letter from Thomas Stuart Ferguson to Mr. & Mrs. H. W. Lawrence, Feb. 20, 1976 as cited in Ferguson’s Manuscript Unveiled, 1988, p. 7, introduction by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, (available from Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Salt Lake City, Utah).
[54] Ferguson’s Manuscript Unveiled, (quote is found in the introduction by Jerald and Sandra Tanner), p. 3.
[55] Sunstone, 1984, Theological Symposium in Salt Lake City. A typescript is located in Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Most of the anachronisms discussed by Matheny are also cited in a 1973 article by Michael Coe, a leading (non-Mormon) Mesoamerican archaeologist, in, “Mormons and Archaeology: An Outside View,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer 1973), pp. 40-54. This information is cited in the Mormon Monograph Series, “Does Archaeology Support the Book of Mormon?”, published by the Institute for Religious Research.
[56] Although the KJV of the Bible uses the phrase “bow of steel” in the Old Testament, the NIV correctly interprets this phrase to read “bow of bronze.”
[57] B. H. Roberts, A Book of Mormon Study, pt. 4. p. 17.
[58] Jim Spencer, B. H. Roberts Mormon Apologist, cited in Saints Alive in Jesus Journal, Summer 1986, pp. 5-6.
[59] See Smithsonian letter concerning the Book of Mormon.
[60] The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, states, “No specific mention of a synagogue occurs in pre-Christian writings with the possible exception of Psalm 74:8 (KJV). This is a late psalm, possibly belonging to the Persian era (539-333 B.C.) p. 8l7.” Some Book of Mormon supporters argue that since Asaph was the author of the Psalm it had to have been written in David’s time, which was before Lehi’s group would have left Jerusalem. However, further comment in Zondervan’s Dictionary states, “…it seems as though there must have been two Asaphs, centuries apart, who wrote psalms… Psalms 74,79 and perhaps 83 belong to the Captivity.” p. 75. The Abingdon Bible Commentary, gives the following information concerning the date of Psalm 74: “It is very difficult to fix the exact date of this Psalm or the occasion which gave rise to it. Some hold with Kirkpatrick (Cambridge Bible, p. 440) that it originated in the Babylonian Exile, perhaps between 586 and 566 B.C…The whole atmosphere and expression, however, would best be suited to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, probably between 168 and l65 B.C.
[61]
Smithsonian Letter.
[62] Mosiah 6:19, Alma 23:4l, Enos l:32, Ether 3:46.
[63] Smithsonian Letter.
[64] Dr. Raymond T. Matheny, Former Brigham Young University anthropology professor, Sunstone Conference in Salt Lake City, August 25,1984, p. 23.
[65] Mosiah 6:12, I Nephi 5:62.
[66] Thomas D. S. Key, Ph.D., Sc.D., Ed.D., (Biology) A Biologist Examines the Book of Mormon, Nov. 1995, p.14.
[67] Ether 4:20-2l, Mosiah 7:49.
[68] See Smithsonian Letter, Key, A Biologist Examines the Book of Mormon, pp. 45-53.
[69] See Smithsonian Letter.
[70] Book of Mormon, Book of Mormon 3:11-18.
[71] Archaeological support, which should be
overwhelming for such vast civilizations as those the Book of Mormon
describes, does not exist. In comparison, there is a great amount of
archaeological evidence to support the existence of the Israelites in the
Holy Land. Numerous cities have been identified. Many ancient inscriptions
mentioning the Israelites have been found, along with names of kings and
other significant people mentioned in the Bible. Furthermore, portions of
every book of the Old Testament, except for the book of Esther, were found
in the Dead Sea Scrolls, written at the time of Christ or before.
[72] Ankerberg and Weldon, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Mormonism, p. 289.
[73] Key, “A Biologist Examines the Book of Mormon, p. 20.
[74] Helaman 4:72-73.
[75] Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Salt Lake City Messenger, Feb. 1990, p. 11.
[76] Sribala Subramanian, “The Story in Our Genes,” as cited in Time Magazine, January 16, 1995, pp. 54-55.
[77] Dr. Thomas Key, A Biologist Examines the Book of Mormon, p. 19.
[78] Ibid. p.26.
[79] Those who believe the Book of Mormon need to explain where these massive amounts of scriptures are located.
[80] F. Henry Edwards, Fundamentals, pp. 254-258.
[81] Paul Trask, Part Way to Utah: The Forgotten Mormons, p. 164.
[82] Gordon Fraser, What Does the Book of Mormon Teach? p.117, 2 Tim. 3:15.