The Trouble with the Book of Mormon

27 April

Despite 4,000 changes, Mormons maintain it is still the most correct book ever written – including the bible.

This article will cover many of the changes to the Book of Mormon illustrating the ever-evolving theology of the Mormon Church. We present the following evidence:

We felt that it was important to start with what Mormons say about a particular change rather than have us do that.

Therefore, don’t take our word for it, listen to how Mormon scholars explain away changes to the BoM while maintaining that it is the most correct book ever written:

1. “Born of a Virgin” Change – as told by FAIR

“In 1837 Joseph Smith made several editorial changes in the Book of Mormon. Many are relatively innocuous, but one of them is much more substantial. In the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, the verse we know as 1 Nephi 11:18 reads:

And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh.

For the 1837 edition, Joseph inserted “the Son of,” so that the verse has read ever since:

And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.

There is no way to know just what was on Joseph Smith’s mind when he made that change, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of people from trying.

However, when we focus on the fact of the change, we inherently begin to ask the wrong questions. Several authors have discussed this change as evidence of an evolving LDS theology of God. That very question implicitly supposes Joseph Smith as the author of the Book of Mormon by assuming that the Book of Mormon is evidence of Joseph’s early thought. If we believe the Book of Mormon, it isn’t. The Book of Mormon doesn’t represent Joseph’s theology–it represents Nephite theology.”

To read the complete text please go to FAIR LDS.

We at Life After Ministries wish to thank Mormons like Brant Gardner who wrote the preceding “defense” of his faith. We also wish to thank “FAIR” for publishing it on their site. We are happy to see Mormon Scholars so willing to give Joseph Smith, the proprietor of Mormonism, the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, we call on FAIR to act in a manner consistent with its name, and instruct all Mormons, via its website, to be as pragmatic about judging the intentions of early Christian theologians as they are about the judging the intentions of their own.

Moreover, we are shocked that scholars from an organzation calling itself by the name of FAIR would start with a conclusion that the Book of Mormon is necessarily true and then reverse engineer the data to meet that conclusion (please note the underlined text above). Instead, we call on all Mormons to start with a hypothesis of “The Book is Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ” and research forward, letting the data prove or disprove the hypothesis of their theories.

In The Final Analysis

It would seem that sometimes the Church of Latter-day Saints is its own worst enemy. By making such unsubstantiated claims that “the Book of Mormon is the most correct book ever,” they leave themselves completely open to criticism. It’s almost as if the Mormon Church invites the criticism, likes the criticism, and is more comfortable playing the victim rather than facing the obvious and confounding issues that dog the country’s 4th largest denomination.

Instead, time after time, it has been our experience, whether we’re dealing with members, missionaries or leaders of the Mormon Church, that despite the “prophetic” claims from their founder that they would confound their enemies, the Mormon church as a whole, runs away from defending their faith despite the claim they are “true church.” We should think members of the ‘true church’ could do as much. But such is not the case leaving themselves open to criticism.

The Book of Mormon is just another one of many examples. It has many problems. Any person willing to take a close enough, critical look at the BOM, or the Church and its doctrines for that matter, can find the serious doctrinal problems with Mormonism. However, the Mormon Church preys on ignorance. It prefers that its members only look as deep as they are told to. It’s part of the indoctrination process to keep its members where they are–safely within the church’s control. If the Church member begins to look deeper and form their own conclusions, and in essence face the facts themselves, the entire illusion quickly unravels because any discerning follower of Mormonism quickly finds themselves in a deeper sea of questions rather than in a deeper sea of faith.

Therefore, in its haste to make sure all the doctrine lines up in the Church of Latter-day Saints, the Church has changed, tweaked and excused (as you have seen above) its countless alterations to the Book of Mormon as mostly grammatical fixes while at the same time it blasts Christians on charges that the Bible is flawed because of its many translations. It matters not in the least to the LDS Church that their hypocrisy is fully exposed when they deny, if you follow their line of reasoning, that the Book of Mormon, after being translated in Spanish is somehow less reliable than its English counterpart. What’s more, major portions of the Book of Mormon are copied directly from the Bible, particularly from the book of Isaiah. It begs the question in that sense, “How can something so vile and polluted like the Bible as Mormons claim it is, be poured into something so correct, like the Book of Mormon, and not remain unpolluted itself?” Does it not stand to reason that if we have a a glass of dirty water and pour it into a glass of pure water, does not the pure water become polluted?

Furthermore, if the Book of Mormon is the most correct book ever written, why would the LDS Church tell its missionaries to leave behind the Bible? Is this not the least bit curious to the average Mormon that they would not leave behind something other than “the most correct book ever written?”

In what is a classic example of finger pointing, Mormons continue on this crusade about the Book of Mormon and its perfection. Any discussion about the book will eventually lead to its “sacredness” despite what we have discussed here.

So we thought it would be helpful to point out some of the changes to the BOM and also show where the Bible, in the Mormon’s eyes, gets a bum rap.

More will follow on this subject soon and we’ll examine the specific charges on both sides in the weeks to come.

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3 Responses to “The Trouble with the Book of Mormon”

  1. ART February 3, 2012 at 12:09 am #

    I have met the missionaries and they did have a bible with them. They said read the bible and the book of mormon.
    Also out of every religion that I have encoutered these people are the only ones that i know that walk the talk and glow with faith in Crist.
    I am not Mormon or Anything with God. Im just a person.

  2. CamdenC February 3, 2012 at 2:34 am #

    Hey ART – Please don’t be fooled by the missionaries carrying a Bible and saying that they read it. In their own “Articles of Faith” they claim that “We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly. We believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God”.

    The LDS position on the Bible is that they claim “many precious and important things pertaining to the gospel have been lost or mis-translated”.

    That is how they can reason their strange and heretical teachings.

    Just remember that no religion, organization, set of rules, or any man can make you “right with God”. We become righteous only by a relationship with Jesus. Jesus said that the 2 greatest commandments are; Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

  3. Johnothan June 22, 2016 at 11:04 pm #

    Like all religions or theologies, there are those who are noble representatives. The problem is that most are ignoble reps. This applies to all, not just this particular variety. The best thing to live by is simple. To live life, live it to the fullest extent possible and try to do something with it that is worth leaving behind in an epitaph. As Tim Mc Graw once wrote, live like you were dying so you can appreciate life more deeply. If you do the opposite, then you are focused on extinction or you are just floating along the stream, which may be ok. Personally it would be better to be the extreme evil, if that is what you believe your purpose to be rather than just sitting on the sidelines of life. After all, somebody has to, since the Universe is Dichotomous and that is just the way it is. No moral attachments to that. Regardless of your choice or path, how you face things thrown at you are under your control even if everything else isn’t. So live and let live. Or is it, “To be or not to be?” For any proof, just look at the action. Words mean nothing unless the actions mirror them… Just remember love never judges, hate always does and most people or should I say almost all things reside somewhere between these poles and likely no one can ever reside too close… Life can be awesome, or it’s opposite. What matters is what you choose to do with it.

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