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On Mormonism.
The Book of Mormon.


Rex Banks







Introduction

  1. In the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we are told:

    "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." (Article 8)

    Now the first part of Article 8 sounds reasonable enough. After all most Christians recognize that there is no such thing as a perfect translation. However we need to take a closer look at LDS writings to see what actually lies behind this innocuous sounding statement. In the Book of Mormon we read:

    "And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away...." (1 Nephi 13:26, [emphasis mine])

  2. This teaching that much spiritual truth vanished from the earth because of apostasy permeates Mormon writings. For example under the heading The Restoration of Major Doctrines through Joseph Smith: The Godhead, Mankind, and the Creation, Donald Q.Cannon, Larry E. Dahl and John W. Welch write in the LDS publication Ensign:

    "With the apostasy and the loss of many plain and precious truths that were once part of the gospel the true knowledge of God was lost. The surviving fragments of truth were subsequently interpreted into mystery, and those who continued to believe in the basic truths about God were denounced as heretics. By the fourth century A.D., little remained of mankind's original understanding of God." (Ensign (Jan. 1989, [emphasis mine])

  3. In similar vein Ray L. Huntington and Camille Fronk wrote in an article entitled Latter-day Clarity on Christ's Life and Teachings:

  4. "Nephi prophesied that 'many plain and precious' truths would be removed from the Bible. It is not surprising, therefore, to see that such doctrines as the premortal life of Jesus Christ, the significance of events on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the more complete meaning of some of the Lord's discourses are only vaguely taught in the King James Version (KJV) of the New Testament." (Ensign Jan 1999)

    So there you have it. Many parts that are "plain and most precious" were taken away from the Bible, along with "many covenants of the Lord," the result being that certain important doctrines are only "vaguely taught" in the KJV, and "little...(remains) of mankind's original understanding of God." In fact according to our Mormon friends, the Biblical record is so corrupted that it took latter day revelation to restore the true gospel and the true church to the earth. Huntington and Camille Fronk explain:

    "Fortunately the Lord has made known the 'plain and precious things' taken from the Bible through 'other books,' which include the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (JST). Thus, when we use these latter-day scriptures with the New Testament, we gain a fuller understanding of the life and mission of Jesus Christ." (ibid)

  5. Joseph Smith and Mormons of succeeding generations have emphasized the centrality of the Book of Mormon to the "restored gospel." Smith wrote:

    "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 any other book." (History of the Church 4:461 [emphasis mine])

  6. Under the heading A New Witness for Christ, we have the following in Ensign Magazine of Nov 1984:

    "Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated, 'Men can get nearer to the Lord, can have more of the spirit of conversion and conformity in their hearts, can have stronger testimonies, and can gain a better understanding of the doctrines of salvation through the Book of Mormon than they can through the Bible. … There will be more people saved in the kingdom of God - ten thousand times over - because of the Book of Mormon than there will be because of the Bible.' " (President Ezra Taft Benson, Address at Book of Mormon Symposium, Brigham Young University, 18 Aug 1978 [emphasis mine])

  7. A little earlier McConkie (who belongs to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) wrote in Ensign, Nov. 1983:

    "Ponder the truths you learn (from the Book of Mormon [Rex]) and it will not be long before you know that Lehi and Jacob excel Paul in teaching the Atonement; that Alma's sermons on faith and on being born again surpass anything in the Bible; that Nephi makes a better exposition of the scattering and gathering of Israel than do Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel combined; that Mormon's words about faith, hope, and charity have a clarity, a breadth, and a power of expression that even Paul did not attain; and so on and so on." (What Think Ye of the Book of Mormon? [emphasis mine])

  8. These are bold claims indeed, and they make it clear that we are not going to impress our Mormon friends by protesting loudly "A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible" (2 Nephi 29:3). Our friends have a ready answer for us: "Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words" (2 Nephi 29:10). Nor is the divine assurance that "the word of the Lord abides forever," (1 Pet. 1:25) going to be adequate for anyone who believes that he can "gain a better understanding of the doctrines of salvation through the book of Mormon" than through the New Testament. McConkie states the matter plainly:

    "If the Book of Mormon is true - if it is a volume of holy scripture, if it contains the mind and will and voice of the Lord to all men, if it is a divine witness of the prophetic call of Joseph Smith - then to accept it and believe its doctrines is to be saved, and to reject it and walk contrary to its teachings is to be damned...

    Either the Book of Mormon is true, or it is false; either it came from God, or it was spawned in the infernal realms. It declares plainly that all men must accept it as pure scripture or they will lose their souls. It is not and cannot be simply another treatise on religion; it either came from heaven or from hell. And it is time for all those who seek salvation to find out for themselves whether it is of the Lord or of Lucifer." (ibid)

  9. This Mormon leader is clear and forthright, and hopefully I will be able to explain with equal clarity and forthrightness why I believe the Book of Mormon to be a fraudulent document which threatens the spiritual lives of all who are misled by its spurious claims. McConkie affirms that "the Book of Mormon withstands all attempts to disprove it or to lessen its inspiring effect on the people who gain a testimony of it." (ibid) In my view the opposite is true, and there is abundant evidence that the Book is the work of a fallible human being. McConkie claims that "scholarly study of the Book of Mormon continues to reveal the book's consistencies and bear witness of its veracity"; (ibid) I am convinced on the other hand that the Book does not stand up under critical examination. The good news is that in recent years many former members of the LDS church have had their confidence in the Bible restored, and frequently this is the result of their having become aware of the many inconsistencies, contradictions and inaccuracies in the Mormon documents. The irony is that we have far more evidence today for the essential reliability of the text of the Bible than was available in Joseph Smith's day, while conversely, problems with the Mormon documents have multiplied year by year.

  10. In the paragraphs which follow, we will drawn attention to just a few of the serious difficulties confronting LDS apologists with respect to the Book of Mormon, but it needs to be emphasized that in doing so we are not motivated by hatred or contempt, but rather by the sincere desire to restore faith in the gospel of Christ. In fact some influential Mormon leaders have invited critical investigation of their beliefs. Back in 1853, Mormon apostle Orson Pratt wrote:

    "(C)onvince us of our errors of doctrine, if we have any, by reason, by logical arguments, or by the word of God, and we will be ever grateful for the information, and you will ever have the pleasing reflection that you have been instruments in the hands of God of redeeming your fellow beings from the darkness which you may see enveloping their minds." (The Seer, pp.15,16)

  11. Not long after having obeyed the gospel, I came across a small library of material produced by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, ex-Mormons who specialize in the reproduction and critical examination of LDS documents. Operating as the Modern Microfilm Company, the Tanners have made available many out-of-print or suppressed documents relating to Mormon history and doctrine, and the volume and quality the of material is very impressive. I have collected and made use of the Tanner's books over the years, and I have depended heavily upon that material in this study. Their materials are available through Utah Lighthouse Ministries, P.O. Box 1884, Salt Lake City, Utah. 84110. Let's consider just a few of the many problems confronting those who defend the inspiration of the Book of Mormon.



Archaeology And The Book of Mormon



  1. Strong evidence exists that certain materials mentioned in connection with Book of Mormon civilizations did not exist in the New World within the time frame of the Book. For example iron and steel are mentioned in various places (1 Nephi 4:9, 16:18; 2 Nephi 5:15) and as Mormon professor Raymond T. Methane points out: "In refining ores and then bringing these to casting and true metallurgical processes is another bit of technology that leaves a lot of evidence." Methane explains that "when you have a ferrous metallurgical industry, you have these evidences of the detritus that is left over." He adds:

    "You also have the fuels, you have the furnaces, you have whatever technologies that were performing these tasks, they leave solid evidences. And they are indestructible things. No evidence has been found in the new world for a ferrous metallurgical industry dating to pre-Columbian times. And so this is a king-size problem, it seems to me, for so-called Book of Mormon archaeology. The evidence is absent." (1984 Sunstone Theological Symposium. p.23)

  2. Anachronistic references to animals, plants and crops are also found in the Book of Mormon. For example in Ether 9:18-19 we read of "all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other animals which were useful for the food of man. And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man; and more especially the elephants and cureloms cumoms." (cf 1 Nephi 18:25; 3 Nephi 3:22, 18:25; Mosiah 5:14, 12:5; Alma 18:9) We also read of grain, wheat, barley and flax/linen and silk (Mosiah 7:22; 9:9; 1 Nephi 13:7; 2 Nephi 13:23; Alma 1:29)

    In the Smithsonian Institute letter (above) we read that "none of the principal Old World domesticated food plants or animals (except the dog) occurred in the New World in pre-Columbian times. American Indians had no wheat, barley oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels before 1492." (Evidently a form of barley was found in the pre-Columbian period, but it was not domesticated Old World barley). Some Mormon apologists have suggested that Old World names may have been applied to native New World animals, so that (for example) Book of Mormon horses are in fact deer, but context rules out such "explanations" (e.g. Book of Mormon horses are domesticated animals, kept in stalls and mentioned in connection with chariots).

  3. No Book of Mormon cities, towns, landmarks or names have been located. Mormon writer Fletcher B. Hammond has said:

    "(T)here does not yet appear any artifact that we Latter-day Saints can present to the world - and prove by any scientific rule - that such artifact is conclusive proof of any part of the Book of Mormon. The lack of certainty in book of Mormon land marks justifies the conclusion that there must have been extensive land changes in Mosoamerica during the last 1500 years; and such appears to be factual." (an address given March 25 1964, BYU p.5) (quoted in Archaeology and the Book of Mormon p.10)

    The fact is that not a single city has been located using the Book of Mormon. Mormon archaeologist Dee Green says bluntly:

    "Biblical archaeology can be studied because we know where Jerusalem and Jericho were and are, but we do not know where (Book of Mormon cities) Zarahemla and Bountiful (nor any location for that matter) were or are (emphasis added). It would seem then that a concentration on geography should be the first order of business, but we have already seen that twenty years of such an approach has left us empty-handed." (Dee Green, [then Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Weber State college] Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1969, pp.76-78) - (quoted in Archaeology and the Book of Mormon p.65)

    The utter failure of Book of Mormon archaeology in this area is impossible to ignore, but Mormon leaders have tried to explain it away. For example in the Church Section of the Deseret News of July 29, 1978, we read:

    "The geography of the Book of Mormon has intrigued some readers of that volume since its publication. But why worry about it...

    Efforts to pinpoint certain places from what is written in the book are fruitless because the record does not give evidence of such locations in terms of modern geography...

    Attempts to designate certain areas as the Land Bountiful or the site of Zarahemla or the place where the Nephite city of Jerusalem sank into the sea 'and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof' can bring no definitive results. So why speculate..."

    But this simply will no do in light of the fact that the location of certain Book of Mormon events and places is described in detail. For example allegedly millions of warriors died in battle on Hill Cumorah, near Palmyra, New York (Ether 15:2, 11 [read entire chpt]; Mormon 6:11-15 ). Joseph Smith claimed to have found the bones of one such warrior with "the stone point of a Lamanitish arrow" between his ribs in Illinois (History of the Church, June 3, 1834, 2:79-80) so the remains of many others should be located at Hill Cumorah, but despite the great number of warriors involved in the battle, there have been no artifacts such as stone arrow heads, axe heads, gold silver, iron steel or copper items discovered at the site. Again in the History of Joseph Smith we are told that the Book of Mormon city Manti was located in Huntsville, Randolph County Missouri, (Vol. 16, p.296) and in the Index we are told that the land of Manti was "the most southerly land of Nephites." Despite these details Manti remains undiscovered and this is true of all other Book of Mormon cities as well.

  4. Christian Civilization in the Americas? In 4 Nephi we are told that the Nephites and Lamanites "upon all the face of the land" (v.2 cf v.23) were converted to Christ, and that they "did build cities again where there had been cities burned". (v.7) Peace and prosperity prevailed for a period of 200 years. Now clearly the existence of a uniform Christian civilization over two continents for some 200 years would leave traces behind, but as Mormon critic M.T. Lamb said more than a century ago, there is an abundance of evidence that "a Christian civilization has never existed in central America, not even for a day." Lamb points out:

    "The people of Central America, as far back as their record has been traced (and that is centuries earlier than the alleged beginning of Nephite history), have always been an idolatrous people, as thoroughly heathen as any which the history of the world has described, worshipping idols the most hideous in form and feature that have ever been found upon earth, and accompanying that worship by human sacrifices as barbarous as the annals of history have recorded....

    For more than three thousand years... (the history of Central America) was one unbroken record of superstition and human slaughter... The entire civilization of the Book of Mormon, its whole record from beginning to end is flatly contradicted by the civilization and the history of Central America." (The Golden Bible; or, The Book of Mormon. Is It From God?, New York, 1887, pp.284-289 as quoted in Mormonism, Shadow or Reality, Jerald and Sandra Tanner)

  5. Reformed Egyptian? In 1 Nephi 1:2 and Mosiah 1:4 we are told that Lehi used the Egyptian language, and from Mormon 9:32, 33 we learn that the hieroglyphics upon the Book of Mormon plates were "Reformed Egyptian." Just how Jews living in the city of Jerusalem and their descendants came to be speaking Egyptian is incapable of satisfactory explanation, as is the fact that the plates contained reformed Egyptian, but leaving these matters aside, let's consider the following question: "Has the archaeologist's spade uncovered any evidence in support of the Book of Mormon claim that something called reformed Egyptian was in general use by the inhabitants of the Americas during the period in question?"

    The answer is that there is no evidence of the use of "reformed Egyptian" in the Americas. In the Smithsonian letter (see above) we read:

    "Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, and other Old World writings in the New World in pre-Columbian contexts have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines, and sensational books. None of these claims has stood up to examination by reputable scholars. No inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 except for a few Norse rune stones which have been found in Greenland."

    In his Mormon Claims Answered Marvin Cowan points out:

    "It is incredulous to believe that multitudes of Israelites lived in America speaking Egyptian and writing in 'Reformed Egyptian' yet, never left a single trace of their language! The only early Native American written language ever found is the Mayan in Yucatan. Archaeologists have found many ancient inscriptions throughout the Americas, but no 'Reformed Egyptian', pure Egyptian, or Hebrew! Were all of the 'Nephites' and 'Lamanites' illiterate - except the B. of M. scribes?"

    In their Archaeology and the Book of Mormon the Tanners record the following comment by Mormon scholar Dr John L. Sorenson, then Assistant professor of Anthropology at BYU:

    "I do not believe that any neutral-but-interested jury would be convinced today by any evidence at hand that ..any Egyptian writing has been found in the New World, (or) that any Semitic language has been found in the New World..." (Book of Mormon Institute, Dec 5, 1959 pp.6-27)

  6. Origin of the Indians. In Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith we read: