Is the Book of Mormon History?
LINKS:
http://mormonscripturestudies.com/
http://www.realmormonhistory.com/
http://www.help4rlds.com/
Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the Mormon founder, claimed to have had golden plates
given to him by an angel. To back up this extraordinary claim, he had to have
witnesses to silence people who thought that the plates never existed. He chose
three witnesses who said they saw the plates as an angel turned the leaves for
them to have a look. They testified also that Smith's miraculous translation of
the plates was correct. Then he chose eight witnesses who said that they saw the
plates close up. This testimony led to the foundation of the Church of Christ
which later became the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The
translation is called the Book of Mormon.
HISTORICAL ERRORS
In 1 Nephi 16 we are told that Nephi and his companions began to starve because
their bows and arrows became useless for hunting in the wilderness. He complains
that it is exceedingly hard to get food until it occurs to him to make new bows
and arrows. Is this believable?
2 Nephi 5 says that there was a huge abundance of precious metals in the land
where Nephi and co landed in America. It says that a temple was built but which
was not as grand as Solomon’s for not enough precious things were found for it.
This seems to be a contradiction.
Mormons explain that there was a great abundance but not enough for the temple
or not enough was accessible. Nephi says that the temple was like that of
Solomon which does not mean that it was necessarily the same size as Solomon’s.
But maybe it did contradict itself? The solutions are just speculation. There is
no evidence that the solutions were intended therefore at worst there is a
contradiction and at best we don’t know if there is one or not which undermines
credibility. When God could not manage to be clearer and avoid this imperfection
it shows that there probably is a contradiction for the account is purely
man-made.
There is a problem with a few men arriving in America making swords on the basis
that it takes a lot of work to make them. Mining, smelting, fluxing, forming and
grinding require hard work and a lot of equipment.
The story is implausible for the swords were not needed. Mormons reply that they
needed the swords because the Lamanites were beginning to separate from the
Nephites making both sides enemies (2 Nephi 5:14). This still makes no sense.
Didn’t they hear of clubs? Besides we still have only a small number of people
here.
Presumably God gave them the equipment to make the swords. But the story doesn’t
say that. If we assume miracles all the time to explain contradictions or
implausibilities we will not be able to see contradictions when they are staring
us in the face. It’s an irrational thing to assume miracles for miracles by
nature must be very improbable. Christians agree that they are improbable and
that that is why they are called miracles.
Some Mormons say it is easier to assume that the swords were crude metal ones so
the long process of making them wasn’t needed. But they still needed to mine for
the metal and that is hard work. Why go to all that trouble? Was America not
big enough for the Nephites to get away from the Lamanites?
The Liahona was the compass the Nephites used to reach the Promised Land long
before Jesus was born. But compasses didn’t exist before Jesus and not for
centuries after. Mormons say this would not be an anachronism if there is a God
for he would know how to make a compass before man would find out. Again this is
assuming miracles something that even God cannot ask us to do.
And Mormons may then say that the Liahona was able to point the Nephites to the
places where food was to be found in the wilderness therefore it was not a real
compass for a compass works by magnetism. This was a ball with magic pointers in
it and not a compass. But the Book of Mormon calls the device a compass (2 Nephi
5:12).
Mormons will then answer, “Some have a problem with this. But say the Nephites
called it a pointer there would be nothing wrong if Smith or God chose to
translate it as compass a modern word for that is what it is.”
At the same time, anybody could write a holy book full of anachronisms and cover
up the errors by saying that God knows all things and all about science so the
things existed thanks to him before they were invented. The Mormon answers may
appear as if they get the book out of charges of having made errors but they
leave us very unconvinced. It is easier to believe the Book makes errors than to
believe in miracles to solve the errors.
In Jacob 4, the writer says he cannot write much for it is hard to engrave on
metal plates and then he says that we labour hard to do engraving for it is so
important! A complete contradiction for with all that help he could have got
more written!
The Book of Mormon has a theology of the devil as a fallen angel which it claims
was fully developed in Old Testament times in America. But this theology did not
develop in the Church until New Testament times. The Old Testament gives no hint
of the existence of a personal devil.
Alma 12 discusses the atonement made by Christ and understands it in exactly the
same way as St Anselm who was born in 1033 AD did, the idea of God being
infinite and Jesus being God so anything he did was infinite in merit and he
offered his life on the cross which was infinite in merit to pay for our sins in
our place. The problem is that Anselm was the first to teach this theology and
before that the common view was that Jesus paid the atonement to the Devil.
Alma 56:56 says that in a bloody battle with the Lamanites no Nephites at all
were killed. The Mormon Church says that there had been a battle before and the
Lamanites were tired and the Nephites defeated them through a surprise attack.
But tired or not there had to have been some Nephite casualties. The Church is
lying because it can read that the Nephites fought with miraculous strength that
was never seen before. This miracle would not have been necessary had the
Lamanites been that tired. The Nephites would be tired as well and why not war
when both sides are tired?
In Mosiah 2:7 we are told that since the people were too numerous to hear King
Benjamin’s sermons he had to have a tower built to shout from. Not surprisingly,
this did not help much and he had to get his sermons written down and the
transcripts handed out. What makes this story so absurd is that he would have
known that the tower would be no help from the start. We are told that he began
to speak from the tower and the people could not hear. How dumb was he? No
wonder he told them that anybody who dies in sin goes to burn in Hell forever
and ever (Mosiah 2:38,39).
There were no silkworms or mulberry trees for their larvae to live on in America
until Cortez brought them there in 1522. Yet 1 Nephi 13:7; Alma 1:29; Ether
9:17; and 10:24 say that the Nephites made silk. The Mormon answer is that what
the Nephites made was like silk but was not silk. Then why could God not say
that? Why did he call it silk? What other words in the Book of Mormon cannot be
taken literally if God talks like that? God speaks of cumons and we don’t know
what they are so why could he not use the Nephite word for this substance that
was like silk? The episode indicates that there is no supernatural agency behind
the words the Mormons say show knowledge of ancient languages that Smith would
have known nothing of.
Mormons say that Helaman 12 which cites John’s gospel before it was written
could have come from a book that Lehi had and John used the same book when
writing the gospel. Or they say that God dictated the Bible as well as the Book
of Mormon and so similarities were inevitable. But there is no evidence for such
a book and besides Lehi and John were continents and centuries apart and copies
were rare. It is too unlikely and when the Book of Mormon was translated
centuries later it is easier to believe that somebody familiar with John put the
verse in during this translation.
Mormons believe that God wrote the Book of Mormon like he wrote the Bible and so
are not bothered about the fact that the book shows great knowledge of the New
Testament which it would have known nothing about. Jesus dictated the Sermon on
the Mount as it was in the 1611 King James Bible so he might have dictated what
he intended the gospellers and co to write before it was written so Mormon was
influenced by what he dictated. It is only right to accept all this if you can
find evidence that the book is from God. If you can’t then you must believe that
whoever wrote the book stole from the King James Bible to compose it. Textual
evidence is the strongest evidence for it is physical. It is not just testimony
or anything like that. So when you see a book written in 1611 being cited in a
book that claims to have been finished in 421 AD you know that speculation that
this does not refute antiquity is no good for the strongest witness says it is
not ancient.
There are many absurd super-miracles in the Book of Mormon. Mormons would not
see them as silly so we must show them absurdities of a natural kind.
The scenario of thirty-two people following Shiz battling to near extinction
with the twenty-seven followers of Coriantumr (Ether 15:35) is sheer madness.
Coriantumr and his band should have fled. Shiz and his cronies were too
diminished to be worth fighting any more.
Ether 5:6 has Moroni saying we will be able to judge if he made up the Book of
Ether and his own writings. This was spoken to people living from 1829 to now.
But we have no evidence that the book is true. Moroni was proven to be a false
prophet by this statement. Appealing to a spiritual testimony is no use for what
if a book as good as Ether was written? Many would claim a similar testimony.
The resurrected Jesus Christ appears to all the people of Nephi when he only
appeared to a handful in Palestine. They all go and touch his wounds and his
side. Suspect. It should have taken them days and days to do it but it didn’t
take long.
The Book of Mormon is full of miracles that were not seen in Smith’s day. He
couldn’t do any miracles even though he was supposed to be the best prophet of
them all.
CONCLUSION
The Book of Mormon is not history but fiction. Mormons use lies and distortion
to cover up its errors and that it is not the word of God. When a major world
religion that is so respected is so full of untruth and whitewash and
exploitation, what does that say about other world faiths such as Catholicism
and Jehovah’s Witnesses? Mormonism is not the only religion known to have
deployed serious deception.
BOOKS CONSULTED
A GATHERING OF SAINTS, Robert Lindsay, Corgi, London, 1990
A MARVELLOUS WORK AND A WONDER, LeGrand Richards, Deseret Books, Utah, 1976
AN ADDRESS TO ALL BELIEVERS IN CHRIST, David Whitmer, Board of Publications of
The Church of Christ with the Elijah Message, Lacy Road, Independence, Missouri
ARE THE MORMON SCRIPTURES RELIABLE? Harry L Ropp, IVP, Illinois, 1987
ASK YOUR BISHOP, Ira T Ransom, 317 W 7th South, Brigham City, UT 84302
CHANGES IN JOSEPH SMITH’S HISTORY, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, 1965
CHANGING OF THE REVELATIONS, Apostle Daniel McGregor, Church of Christ,
Independence, Missouri
GOD’S WORD FINAL INFALLIBLE AND FOREVER, Floyd C McElveen, Gospel Truth
Ministries, Grand Rapids, 1985
CONCISE GUIDE TO TODAY’S RELIGIONS, Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Scripture
Press, Bucks, 1983
HOW TO ANSWER A MORMON, Robert A Morey, Bethany House Publishers, Minnesota,
1983
JOSEPH SMITH AND MONEY DIGGING, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, 1970
JOSEPH SMITH’S BAINBRIDGE NY COURT TRIALS, Wesley P Walters, Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, Salt Lake City, 1977
LARSON’S BOOK OF CULTS, Bob Larson, Tyndale, Wheaton, Illinois, 1988
MORMONISM SHADOW OR REALITY? Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry,
1972
MORMONISM, AA Hoekema, Paternoster Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978
MORMONISM, MAGIC AND MASONRY, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, 1988
MORMONISM, MAMA AND ME, Thelma Geer, Calvary Missionary Press, Arizona, 1983
MORMONISM, THE PROPHET, THE BOOK AND THE CULT, Peter Bartley, Veritas, Dublin,
1989
NEW LIGHT ON MORMON ORIGINS, Rev Wesley P Walters, Utah Christian Tract Society,
1967
NO MAN KNOWS MY HISTORY, Fawn M Brodie, Vintage, New York, 1995
SOME MODERN FAITHS, Maurice C Burrell and J Stafford Wright, IVP, Leics, 1988
THE BIBLE UNEARTHED, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, Touchstone
Books, New York, 2002
THE BOOK OF COMMANDMENTS, Church of Christ, Temple Lot, Independence, Missouri,
1995
THE BOOK OF MORMON, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Deseret
Enterprises Ltd, Manchester, UK, 1972
THE CASE AGAINST MORMONISM, VOL 2, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, 1968
THE FACTS OF MORMONISM ARE STRANGER THAN FICTION, Charles Crane and J Edward
Decker, Christian Information Outreach, Kent, 1982
THE HUMAN ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, Wesley P Walters, Ex-Mormons for Jesus,
Florida 1979
WHY THE CHURCH OF CHRIST WAS ESTABLISHED ANEW IN 1929?, Church of Christ with
the Elijah Message, Independence, Missouri
THE WEB
THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES
www.exmormon.org/file9.htm
Excellent refutation of the claims of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon
Barry R Bickmore
www.geocities.com/Athens/parthenon/2671/EC.html
MORMON SCHOLARSHIP, APOLOGETICS AND EVANGELICAL NEGLECT, Carl Mosser and Paul
Owen,
www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/cpoint10-2.html#mosserowen
BOOK OF MORMON QUESTIONS
www.lds-mormon.com/bookofmormonquestions.shtml
MORMONISM UNVAILED: MORE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS TRUE. Christian Apologetics and
Research Ministry
www.carm.org/lds/unveiled_defended.htm
THE ABRIDGEMENT OF D&C 137
www.saintsalive./com/mormonism/falseprophetjs/htm
THE BOOK OF MORMON: ONE TOO MANY M’S Stephen Van Eck
www.infidels.org/library/modern/stephen_eck/toomany.html
EGYPTIAN CHARACTERS
www.mormonstudies.com/seer2.htm
This shows that when Smith translated the book of Abraham he invented
hieroglyphics where there was a piece missing from the papyri. The characters
Smith added make no sense to translators. Yet he translated these imaginary
hieroglyphics! His mother and close associate David Whitmer spoke of Joseph
copying characters of the gold plates of the Book of Mormon before he translated
and that like the Book of Abraham Smith often produced two lines in the
manuscript with the translation of a single character which shows that the whole
Book of Mormon thing was a hoax.
MORMON FARMS
www.xmission.com~country/reason/farms_1.htm
by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Gathers evidence that indicates that it was
possible that Smith was insane and had manic depression.
DR CHARLES ANTHON RE AUTHENTICITY OF WRITING SAMPLES ALLEGEDLY COPIED FROM THE
GOLDEN PLATES
www.mormonism-web.com/anthon.htm
INTERVIEW OF MARTIN HARRIS
www.xmission.com/~research/about/docum4.htm
COMMENTS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES: A RESPONSE TO JERALD AND SANDRA TANNER
www.mormons.org/response/bom/witnesses_Roper.htm
A ridiculous rebuttal that has been taken into account for this book and
refuted.
FACTS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES, PART 1
www.irr.org/mit/bomwit1.html
Excellent refutation of the reliability of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon
THE STOLEN MANUSCRIPT
www.utlm.org/onlineresources/bom_early_problems/goldenbible_stolenmanuscript.htm