The Bible and the Book of Mormon

On the LDS website is an entire page dedicated to the subject of the relationship between the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We’re going to cut this up into 2-3 parts so it’s not so long.  The information they put on this site is very important and I truly believe it’s worth our time to search these things out to see what our Lord has to say about it – so here we go!

Another thing to consider for breaking this up into a few parts is how the Church works to confuse. They’ve used scriptures from various areas of the Bible that have absolutely nothing to do with what they’re trying to prove and therein lies the problem. They do this so you can’t keep track of where you’re at in their story. It’s like you’re in a bad episode of Alice in Wonderland. 

The extent to which the Church will go stopped surprising me awhile back and this time their statements just made me roll my eyes…let’s take a look at what they said and see if it matches up with what their statements are from the past.

Underneath a large picture of the Bible it says;

“The Miracle of the Holy Bible…The Bible literally contains within its pages the converting, healing Spirit of Christ, which has turned men’s hearts to God for centuries.”

How I wish my blog had sound effects!!  I’d put up a picture of a little car screeching to a stop!!!!  Now if the Church really believed this there is no way they can justify their claim of a major collapse of Christianity! According to Joseph Smith the world sat in utter darkness for centuries, thus the need for Joseph…ah hem…

What about the words of Joseph Smith in his vision when God told him every church on the face of the earth was the whore of Babylon? Also see 1 Nephi 14:10 and the words of Orson Pratt. What Christian ever referred to the body of Christ as a whore, hatched in hell or corrupt as hell?  When was the last time you did that if ever?

Christian Churches on Earth for Centuries, None

Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 18:172; “But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be. They say, “We have built chapels unto the name of the Lord; we call our Churches Christian Churches, they are called the Church of Christ, St. John’s Church, St. Paul’s Church, St. Peter’s Church, and after others of the ancient Apostles;” and one who had never studied the pattern which God has given of the Christian Church would almost really believe that they are Christian Churches.” – Salt Lake City, March 26, 1876

Or the prophet John Taylor:

Christianity Corrupt as Hell

John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 6:167; “There is not nation now that acknowledges that hand of God; there is not a king, potentate, nor ruler that acknowledges his jurisdiction. We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect pack of nonsense. Men talk about civilization; but I do not want to say much about that, for I have seen enough of it. Myself and hundreds of the Elders around me have seen its pomp, parade, and glory; and what is it? It is a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol; it is as corrupt as hell; and the Devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work that the Christianity of the nineteenth century.”

Or the Doctrine and Covenants:

Christian Churches

D&C 112:23; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face.”

Also see what Brigham Young had to say;

Christian Churches Hatched in Hell

Journal of Discourses 6:176; “Brother Taylor has just said that the religions of the day were hatched in hell. The eggs were laid in hell, hatched on its borders, and then kicked on to the earth.” – Brigham Young

And there’s another prophet, Wilford Woodruff…

No Christians on Earth 

Journal of Discourses 2:196-197; “I do not wish to be understood that we are now living in a dark age of the world, but for the last fourteen hundred years the world have been enveloped in darkness, in which wickedness has ruled, and the powers of darkness have prevailed among the children of men, and the nations have been bound down by false traditions, and incorrect principles, but the day has now dawned, the dark clouds have now broken up and soon will pass away, and the sun of righteousness will arise in its glory, and show forth the light of heaven; and for that I am thankful…” – Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, February 25, 1855

The reason I posted so many examples is to show this wasn’t the theory of only one or two of their leaders. It is the entire reason the Mormon Church exists!  And then here we go…under the Bible picture is the meat of their message.  So let’s take a good look at the meaning of the bible verses below to see if they match up with the claims. They said;

“What is the relationship between the Bible and the Book of Mormon?

What does the Bible say about the Book of Mormon?

Isaiah 29:4, 11-18; Ezekiel 37:15-17; John 10:16”

First of all the passage in Isaiah was directed to the Israelites who were practicing witchcraft. God was warning them He was getting ready to punish them.  During this time it was all the rage to speak to your dead relatives and find out what they could tell you about the future. By going to those who were looking into glass balls for direction the Israelites had gotten themselves into a fair amount of trouble. The witches tricked people into believing they were receiving messages from dead people by making chirping noises that sounded like voices who would utter these special messages.

The term “familiar spirit” is the word “ob” in Hebrew and means to prattle from the ground. They’d use half filled wineskins and jiggle them around to promote an echoing sound.  God was telling the Israelites they were about to meet their doom for worshipping other gods. Necromancy, which was highly forbidden, is what they were practicing at this time.

Why the Mormons would glob onto this particular passage in scripture is a wonder indeed.

The passage in Ezekiel was something I wrote about not long ago so I’m going to paste part of the article here and provide the link. The LDS Church loves to talk about the sticks of Judah and Joseph and believe the “Joseph” from the bible in this story is actually referring to Joseph Smith. Oh his pride never wavered…

This prophecy from God through Ezekiel was telling God’s children there would be a re-uniting of the two kingdoms.  No more would there be any feuding as had been going on since the days of Jeraboam.  All the years of Judah’s jealousy over Ephraim and Ephraim’s taunting Judah were going to be done and over with.  They would come together in brotherly love.

The people took immediate notice of the writings on the two sticks.  They understood this was referring back to God’s words from Numbers 17:2;

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod.” 

One of these two rods in Ezekiel’s hand said “For Judah” which included Benjamin as well as Levi and the other “For Joseph”.  The meaning of the two sticks is that “Judah and Israel should become one in the hand of God”.  See Matthew Henry and Charles Spurgeon as well as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown’s Commentaries for further insight in these two passages of Isaiah & Ezekiel.  I’ve also used Vine’s Expository, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Holman Bible Dictionary and Easton’s Bible Dictionary for transliterations and insight. 

Children would play with sticks and being always inquisitive they’d naturally ask questions of everything.  Writing on these sticks caused the adults to ask Ezekiel what he was doing with those sticks and what was meant by it for them – they were inquisitive with a child’s heart.

They knew God had a message for them.  Remember during this time Jerusalem had been sacked by the Babylonians and the northern kingdom had already been devastated by the Assyrians during the time of Isaiah’s prophetic words some one hundred years earlier.

And finally we come to the passage in John when our sweet Jesus was teaching the disciples about the Holy Spirit and how God the Father wasn’t going to abandon them. But in this one verse they pulled out of context has absolutely nothing to do with people living in the Americas! This one verse is introducing that Jesus was going to save the Gentiles too! If there were Gentiles in the Americas at the time then sure, He’d save them too but this isn’t what He was talking about my friends!

God in His infinite grace would save those who simply believed.  His message of salvation wasn’t exclusively for the Israelites…”for God so loved the world”…  Oh how the mysteries of God were coming to light for the people! No one could’ve imagined such a thing before! But look at what God did in the New Testament.

He gave Peter the vision while he sat on the roof in Joppa and showed him that He would save everyone. (Acts 10:10-36) And what about Paul? How do you explain the rest of the New Testament and his letters if Jesus’ statement in John 16 isn’t about the Gentiles?

Below are the three passages we touched upon here and our next article will be looking at some of their other claims regarding what the Book of Mormon says about Jesus and the Bible.

Isaiah 29:4, 11-18; “And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.  11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. 13 ¶ Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: 14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? 16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? 17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? 18 ¶ And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.”

Ezekiel 37:15-17; “The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: 17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.”

John 10:16; “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”