The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

“The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ”

By Connie Raddon

The October 2011 Ensign magazine is dedicated entirely to the Book of Mormon.  One article is called, “The Book of Mormon: A Witness with the Bible”

I will test the Book of Mormon as a “witness”, as this article claims that it is.  The introduction to the Book of Mormon begins, “The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible.”

In this article, I am going to take a look at the evidence for both the Bible and the Book of Mormon being witnesses of Christ.  Like in a courtroom, we will place them both on the stand and examine their evidence.  You are the judge.

Color Code:

Book of Mormon statements in blue

Bible statements in red

Questioner:  If you claim to be a witness of Christ, you must be accurate.  What proof do you have that you have been copied accurately?

Bible: My Old Testament can be compared to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back nearly to the time of Christ.  They contain the entire Old Testament with the exception of the Book of Esther.  Over 98% of today’s Bible is consistent with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The inconsistencies are very insignificant, and don’t change words or meanings. 

My New Testament has more written manuscripts, earlier manuscripts, and more accurately copied manuscripts than any other book in the ancient world.  Since early forms of paper are not very durable, there are no complete individual copies of my entire New or Old Testaments, yet there are over 5,500 fragments that have survived and contain the totality of the New Testament. (The second book in the running is Homer’s Iliad, having 643 copies within 500 years of the original.)  If an error took place in copying one of those manuscripts, it would stand out like a sore thumb among all the other manuscripts. 

Book of Mormon: Unfortunately, there are no original manuscripts.  The plates that I was translated from are back in heaven.  The first publication was in 1830.  Since then there have been over 3,000 changes.  Only a few change the meaning of the text significantly. 

(The Book of Mormon was published in 1830. However in the next printing, in 1837, thousands of words were changed. While most of these changes were to correct spelling or grammar, a few definitely affected the meaning of the text.

In four places the phrase "the son of" was added to verses speaking of God.   For instance, on page 25 of the first edition is a prophecy of the coming Messiah: "the virgin which thou seest, is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh." This was changed in 1837 to read, "... Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God" (1 Nephi 11:18), thus altering the concept of God from Modalism to a more traditional Trinitarian view.)

(Additional changes have been made since Smith's death. In 1981 a change was made to obscure the racial teachings in the Book of Mormon. In the Book of Mormon story the Israelites who came to the Americas divided into Nephites (the followers of God) and Lamanites (those in rebellion against God). The Lamanites were given a "skin of blackness" due to their rebellion,  but in 2 Nephi 30:6 they were promised that at some future time, when they repented, they would become "a white and delightsome people." This verse was changed in 1981 to read: "a pure and delightsome people."   However, the book still retains its racial position of dark skin as a mark of God's displeasure.)

utlm.org/newsletter/116

Questioner:  If you claim to be a witness of Christ, your stories must be true.  Can you prove the geography of your stories?

Bible: Yes!  Today you can visit cities and rivers that existed when I was written.  For example, the Jordan River, Sea of Galilee, Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Jericho, and Bethlehem are all still in the same place.  Just look at all the maps in the back of any Bible.  I can show you exactly where the Land of Canaan was, where Jesus was born, lived, and died, and where Paul and the other apostles travelled. 

Book of Mormon: The LDS Church takes no official position on the geography of the Book of Mormon.

(I would like to point out that the general membership of the Church believes the Book of Mormon stories took place in Central America.  Many paintings, illustrations, and films produced by the LDS Church  show scenes from the Book of Mormon with Mayan temples, clothing, and artifacts that give the impression of the scene taking place in Central America.)

Questioner:  If you claim to be a witness of Christ, the people you speak of must have existed.  What proof do you have that you have they did actually live?

Bible: Many of my people still exist today – the Jews, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks.  There is much archeological evidence, as well as the written records left from these Empires. 

Book of Mormon: God promised that the Jaredites would become the greatest nation on earth.   Ether 1:43 “And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation.  And there shall be none greater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth.”

(This verse is God speaking to Jared and his brother [Hebrew descendents], promising to send them to a promised land, which is the Americas.)

(In Ether chapter 15, the Jaredite nation is utterly destroyed – one a man named Coriantumr remains.  So the Jaredites did NOT become the greatest nation on earth)

Questioner: The DNA evidence proves that the American Indians are actually from Asian descent, and NOT Hebrew like you claim. 

Book of Mormon: You shouldn’t worry about those scientific or historical facts.  Just read my pages and pray to know if I’m true.  If you get a good feeling from the Holy Ghost, then you will know that I am true. 

Moroni 10:4-5 “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, 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.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things.”

Questioner:  Tell me about the plants and animals that are recorded on your pages.

Bible: There is reference to lions, sheep, cows, doves, donkeys, and whales.  As for plants, there were palm trees, olive trees, and fig trees.  All the animals and plants can be proven to have existed at the time and place I said they did by evidence outside the Bible.  

Book of Mormon: My people also have cows, sheep, ox, and horses.  And my pages mention many plants - including grains like wheat and barley that my people used for food.

  Questioner:  Book of Mormon, horses did not exist on the American continent when you claim to have taken place.  They came much later when the Europeans arrived in America.   Neither was wheat or barley found there. 

  Book of Mormon: It’s really more important that you pray sincerely to know if I am true than it is to worry about animals and plants.

Questioner:  Are there any outside sources that make any kind of reference to the people or places found in your stories?

Bible: Absolutely.  The history of the Greeks and Romans mention Jesus, Pontius Pilate, and several of the King Herods.  

Book of Mormon: No.  There are no other writings of Jaredites, Nephites, or Lamanites.  Unfortunately, there is ZERO manuscript evidence of my truthfulness because the gold plates were never copied – only translated from Reformed Egyptian by Joseph Smith, and then returned to heaven. 

Question:  Wait, you said “gold plates”.  There was no technology available then to make plates of metal.  There was no mining done prior to the Spanish conquest.   Also, linguists today have never heard of such a language as “Reformed Egyptian”.

(In 1 Nephi Chapter 3, the story is claimed to take place in Jerusalem.  That would mean that these records of the writings of the Holy Prophets were part of the Jewish records, which we have still with us.  There are NO Jewish records, written on metal, as any part of the Royal (official) record, they are always, 100% of the time called scrolls).

Question:  Both of you have stories of great battles taking place.  Is there any evidence to support those stories?

Bible: Yes.  On the sites where these battles have taken place many arrowheads have been found from both the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires.  Also, many skeletal remains have been found.  The remains of horses and chariots are found in the Red Sea which supports the account found on my pages of the Israelites leaving Egypt.

Book of Mormon: No.  Millions died in a great battle on Hill Cumorah.  The LDS Church owns that site, and doesn’t want to excavate it for trinkets.  It’s a beautiful landscape. 

(There is no evidence to support the claims of a Hebrew family leaving the Holy Land and populating the Americas.)

So now I turn to you, the reader.  You be the judge.  Based on the evidence of places, people, materials, weapons, plants, animals, language, records, technology, and culture, is the Book of Mormon “a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible”? 

Is the Book of Mormon a credible “witness with the Bible”?

Are you willing to base your salvation on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon’s witness of Christ?

God gave you a mind to search these things out. 

If you are interested in more information, I would recommend this one hour documentary on “The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTtq62XQ4jw

On May 18, 1873 (as recorded in the Journal of Discourses, Vol. 16 p. 46), Brigham Young issued a challenge:  “Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter Day Saints with it, and see if it will stand the test.”

I have accepted that challenge from Brigham Young.

In the October 2011 issue of the Ensign, the LDS religion FAILS this test.

I sincerely thank my research partner, Art Haglund. 

September 2010 - Is Jesus Christ Enough?

Is Jesus Christ Enough?

  

John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The Bible teaches over and over that the only way to salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. The Old Testament shows how God led His people under the law. They needed priests to atone for their sin. The New Testament shows how Christ fulfilled the law, and become our one and only high priest, doing away with the need for any other intercessors between us and God. We have all of God’s Word in the Bible, and it contains all we need to know for God’s truth and salvation. It is the plumb line we use to determine truth.

The LDS church leads people away from salvation by teaching that Jesus Christ is not enough. It teaches that we must rely on our own strength and willpower to obey the commandments – then Christ’s grace can make up the difference. It has minimized grace and put its members back under the bondage of the law by teaching them that they must obey laws and ordinances to have salvation. This is in direct opposition to what the Bible says: Gal. 3:24-25 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

The LDS church also emphasizes study of the Book of Mormon over the Bible. Again, leading its members away from God’s Word where they can find salvation and peace.

These are examples found throughout the September 2010 issue of the Ensign.

These first quotes are from the “First Presidency Message”:
THE BOOK OF MORMON AS A PERSONAL GUIDE
By President Henry B. Eyring, First counselor in the First Presidency

•  “He [God] gave us the gift of His Beloved Son as our Savior to provide the path and to teach us how to follow it”. pg 4 (Henry B. Eyring, Sept 2010 Ensign)
  

The Savior’s purpose was not to provide a path that we then needed to follow. He lived a perfect life – a path that is impossible to follow. The purpose of Jesus Christ was to redeem us sinners and justify us before God. John 3:16-17 “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

The Bible does not say that ‘whosever believeth and follows the path provided by him…”. Nor does it say that ‘the world, by following His teachings might be saved.”

The teaching of Henry B. Eyring is that we must follow the path by our own strength. We do the work, (obeying the commandments), following the example of Christ.

The teaching of God, however, is that we must completely surrender our own strength, wisdom, and effort to Jesus Christ. He, then, transforms us from inside our heart, living through us – by no strength of our own. He did so much more than provide a path. Using the “path” analogy – Christ showed us the path, paved it, and then picks us up a carries us the full length of the path, because we are unable to walk it without constantly stumbling.

•  “The Prophet Joseph Smith was inspired to translate the record of prophets that is the Book of Mormon. It is our sure guide on the way home to God.” pg 4 (Henry B. Eyring, Sept 2010 Ensign)

Eyring just explained that the Savior provided the path. If the Savior provided the path, why is the Book of Mormon ‘our sure guide’? The LDS church teaches that the Savior is not enough. They teach that the Book of Mormon is the sure guide on the way home to God. This is not what the Bible teaches. John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” It doesn’t say ‘no man cometh unto the Father, but by me, and future books and prophets that I have yet to send.”

The Bible teaches that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone – and not additional sources.

•  “Joseph Smith said of that precious book, ‘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 could get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book.’” pg 4

Here is a link to an article by Sandra Tanner that shows the 3,913 changes that have been made to the Book of Mormon. http://utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm The way Joseph described translating the golden plates, every single word was perfect before he moved on to the next word. When I was Mormon, I was not aware that there had been ANY changes. Most of these changes are grammatical changes. (But if Joseph confirmed every word to be perfect, it doesn’t make sense that even simple changes in spelling and grammar could occur.) There were also some very significant changes. The following is quoted from the article mentioned,

“One of the most significant changes was made in 1 Nephi 13:40. It was stated in this verse that the purpose of the Nephite records was to make known that Christ is the Eternal Father. In the first edition we read as follows:

"... These last records ... shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Savior ... " (Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, page 32)

In the 1964 edition it reads as follows:

"... These last records ... shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior ..." (Book of Mormon, 1964 edition, 1 Nephi 13:40)”

Here are more ways Eyring reinforces the unbiblical doctrines of 1) relying on ourselves, and
2) books outside the Bible as God’s word. (pg. 4-5) (Henry B. Eyring, Sept 2010 Ensign)

•  “The precepts of the Book of Mormon are the commandments of God we find in it. Some are direct commands from the Savior through His prophets as to what we are to do and what we are to become." 
• “The Book of Mormon gives us the Savior’s example to increase our faith and determination to obey His command to follow Him.” 
• “The book is filled with the doctrine of Christ to guide us.”
• “…can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?”
• “The book makes plain that we must receive the Holy Ghost as a baptism of fire to help us stay on the strait and narrow path.” 
•  “Wherefore, IF ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.” (2 Nephi 31:20) 
•  “When our natures are changed by the power of the Atonement and through our faithful obedience to the commandments, we will be filled with the love of God.”  
• “The Book of Mormon also gives us confidence that we can become so purified in this life that we have no more desire to do evil.”

The Book of Mormon is mentioned 23 times in this issue of the Ensign.

The Bible, only once.

Here are some more examples of how the LDS church teaches to rely on ourselves, our own works, and the Book of Mormon in addition to Christ and the Bible. These examples are found in the rest of the articles in the September 2010 Ensign.

•   “I thank God for the matchless gift of His divine Son and for that beautiful experience of learning of Him and trying to become more like Him.” (pg 9)
•  “His message was one of peace, love, and obedience to God’s commandments…He also taught that ordinances such as baptism, are necessary for us to return to our Heavenly Father.” (pg 10)
•  “Marriage between a man and a woman is essential to His eternal plan and our eternal possibilities.” (pg 15)
•   “When we cross a line and engage in immoral behavior… we lose that influence of the Holy Ghost in our lives…” (pg.16)
•  “…we must be pure in heart to have the guidance of the Holy Ghost.” (pg. 16)
•   “Teach them [youth] to focus on the temple and on being worthy to make and keep covenants.” (pg. 20)
•   “…true joy comes from obeying…” (pg.25)
•   “Focus sisters on increasing their faith and personal righteousness.” (pg. 35)
•   “HOPE in the ordinances of the gospel” (pg 36)
•   “I’ve tried to live my life this way [doing the Lord’s work]. I think that’s why the Lord has blessed me so much.” (pg 49)
•   “But we knew that if we were faithful and paid tithing, doing what the Lord required, somehow things would work out.” (pg 51)
•  “But it was also our commitment to studying the Book of Mormon and fasting that changed our lives.” (pg 51)
•   “Sacrifice Brings Forth Blessings” (pg 52)
•  “The scriptures, prayer, my journal, and the temple became my primary links to daily strength.”(pg 60)
•   “… and I promised to live as close to the Spirit as I could so I would be worthy of His guidance and wisdom.” (pg 61)
•  “I know Heavenly Father keeps His promises when we obey His commandments with all our heart.” (pg. 70)

On May 18, 1873 (as recorded in the Journal of Discourses, Vol. 16 p. 46), Brigham Young issued a challenge: “Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter Day Saints with it, and see if it will stand the test.”

  

I have accepted that challenge from Brigham Young.

In the September 2010 issue of the Ensign, the LDS religion fails this test.