The Book of Mormon: Is it the word of God?

The Book of Mormon: Is it the word of God?

The book of Mormon is a book that claims to tell the history of 3 groups of people from ancient America, two groups, the Nephites and the Lamanites, that came from the city of Jerusalem around 600bc before the Babylonians destroyed the city. The third group, the Jaredites supposedly came from the tower of Babel after God confused the languages. Interwoven in this book is the supposed personal ministry and appearances of Jesus Christ to the inhabitants of America after His resurrection and ascension in ad34.

In September 1823, Joseph Smith was supposedly visited by a heavenly messenger named Moroni. Moroni informed Joseph that God had a work for him to do and told him that a record of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent was buried in a nearby hill. He stated that the record contained the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith later retrieves these gold plates and translates them into English by the inspiration of God. (remember this point for later)

David Whitmer, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, made this statement about how the book of Mormon was translated:

"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." [1]

Oliver B. Huntington recorded in his journal that in 1881 Joseph F. Smith, who became the sixth President of the Mormon Church, taught that the Lord gave Joseph Smith the exact English wording and spelling that he should use in the Book of Mormon:

"Saturday Feb. 25, 1881, I .... Heard Joseph F. Smith describe the manner of translating the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith the Prophet and Seer, which was as follows as near as I can recollect the substance of his description. Joseph did not render the writing on the gold plates into the English language in his own style of language as many people believe, but every word and every letter was given to him by the gift and power of God. So it is the work of God and not of Joseph Smith, and it was done in this way ... . The Lord caused each word spelled as it is in the book to appear on the stones in short sentences or words, and when Joseph had uttered the sentence or word before him and the scribe had written it properly, that sentence would disappear and another appear. And if there was a word wrongly written or even a letter incorrect the writing on the stones would remain there. Then Joseph would require the scribe to spell the reading of the last spoken and thus find the mistake and when corrected the sentence would disappear as usual.” [2]

Just one more quote; this one from Joseph Smith himself:

“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.” [3]

Are these claims about the book of Mormon true? Is it the word of God? If so, we would expect it to be in perfect harmony with the bible, which they claim it is, and that there would be no mistakes within it if it was translated word for word by the inspiration of God from the original language of reformed Egyptian into English. Is this the case?

DOES THE BOOK OF MORMON CLAIM TO BE INSPIRED?

There are many places in our bible where the writers by the Spirit claimed to be writing the words and commandments of God. Is this how the book of Mormon is? Does it speak with the authority that our scriptures do? I believe that it does not, and I have 7 verses from the Book of Mormon to show this:

1 Nephi 1:1 “And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.”[4]

1 Nephi 19:6 “Nevertheless, I do not write anything upon the plates save it be that I think it be sacred. And now, if I do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse myself because of other men, but because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would excuse myself.” [5]

Jacob 1:2 “And he gave me, Jacob, a commandment that I should write upon these plates a few of the things which I considered to be most precious...” [6]

Jacob 7:26 “...and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge...” [7]

Ether 5:1 “And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory; and I have told you the things which I have sealed up...” [8]

Mormon 8:12 “And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these...” [9]

Mormon 9:33 “...and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfections in our record.” [10]

Internal evidence from the authors shows that they were not writing for god, but for their selves from their memories (with mistakes) Not quite a claim of divine origin.

Even the introduction of the Book of Mormon claims that it has mistakes! READ

Have any changes been made to the book of Mormon since it’s original writing in 1830?

I don’t have enough time to share with you all of the changes that have been made in the book of Mormon since it was supposedly translated by the power of God. Over 3000 names, words, and places have been changed since the original writing in 1830. Some of these do and do not change the meaning of passages. I’ll just mention one change that was made. In Mosiah 21:28, the original edition speaks of a man named King Benjamin. The interesting thing is that he actually died 15 chapters earlier in the book of Mosiah! It was changed in the 2nd edition to King Mosiah.[11] Which edition was right, was it the original one that was translated by the power of God, or was the change right?

Does the book of Mormon contradict the bible? It does in many texts.

In Alma 7:9-10, the book of Mormon reads: “...the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. And behold, He shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem, which is the Land of our forefathers (Emphasis added).”[12] A prophecy, dated at about 83bc in the book of Mormon claims that Jesus would be born in Jerusalem! Where does the bible say Jesus was born? Bethlehem. Mormons look at the word “at” and say that it means “near” or “around.” But the context shows that this is not the case. Alma, who was a Nephite, wrote in 1 Nephi 1:4-5 that the land of their forefathers was the CITY of Jerusalem, which is what the text in question says of Jerusalem. Alma 7:9-10 is clearly saying that Jesus was born in Jerusalem. This is false.

1 Nephi 19:45; Heleman 14:27 Says that there were three days of darkness in Israel when Jesus died? The Bible says in , “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.” There were only three hours of darkness. Which one is right?

Mosiah 18:17 (pg 182) The Church of Christ already in 147 bc? That’s about 180 yrs too early!

Alma 27:27 (pg277) People have a firm faith in Christ in 90-77bc?

Alma 46:11-21 (pg 323) Christians in 73bc. Christians were so called first at Antioch (, aprox. 40ad)

Contradiction to common sense:

Ether 15:30 “And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz.” (DECAPITATION) “And it came to pass that after he had smitten off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised up on his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died.”[13]

The claim of Joseph Smith that the book of Mormon is the greatest and most correct of any book ever written has no evidence to back it up. After over 150 years after the writing of the book of Mormon, no city named in the book of Mormon has been found, no names from the book of Mormon have been found in New World inscriptions from archaeology. No ancient copies of the book of Mormon have been found. Considering that this book was copied during its’ supposed writing in between 600bc and 400ad, we would think that we would find older copies in the Americas. There is not one bit of archaeological evidence that proves the book of Mormon is true.

Joseph Smith, the Mormon church, and the book of Mormon clearly teach a different gospel than the one delivered by the Apostles. They teach something very different from the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” ().

[1] An Address to All Believers in Christ, by David Whitmer, 1887, page 12

[2] Journal of Oliver B. Huntington, page 168 of typed copy at Utah State Historical Society

[3] History of the Church: Joseph Smith, Vol. 4, p. 461, November 1841

[4] Smith, Joseph. The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1921. Print.

[5] ibid.

[6] ibid.

[7] ibid.

[8] ibid.

[9] ibid.

[10] ibid.

[11]http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon/Textual_changes/%22Benjamin%22_changed_to_%22Mosiah%22

[12] Smith, Joseph. The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1921. Print.

[13] ibid.