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Recovery to Mormonism
Book of Mormon
Translated by Joseph Smith from golden plates, the Book of Mormon is a keystone of the Mormon religion. It is a religious book written by prophets in ancient America. And some people, particularly anti- and ex-Mormons, will have you believe that Joseph Smith made it up. After all, the story’s preposterous and the book itself doesn’t stand up to scholarly scrutiny . . . or does it?
Read on. Our purpose isn’t to prove the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon’s main purpose isn’t to be a historical text, any more than that’s the purpose of the Bible. But we would like to show that a lot of the “inaccuracies” of the Book of Mormon really aren’t inaccurate at all.
Why are there grammar errors in the Book of Mormon? Why does Nephi say the Book of Mormon was written in Egyptian? Did people in the Book of Mormon believe God was a spirit without a body? Did Joseph Smith plagiarize from the bible? (Read Q&A)
Did Joseph Smith mess up? He did, after all, know nothing about early American cultures. Did he assume they had things that they’d have no way of having? Be they certain animals or certain weapons? Curiously, the more that archeologists know about Mesoamerica, and the ancient world in general, the more plausible the Book of Mormon’s “errors” become. (Read more)
Would the Book of Mormon peoples who lived before Christ really call themselves Christian, baptize people, or have churches?
Isn’t the Book of Mormon a too blatantly Christian book from the beginning? If Lehi’s family came from Jerusalem and their descendants therefore adhered to Mosaic law, why is there so much talk of Christianity and Christ? If Joseph Smith was going to write up a fake account of an Jewish people in America, why didn’t he even bother to research the Jewish faith? But the anti-Mormons and ex-Mormons are taking a rather simple view of the matter. Even far more reasonable critics may be missing a few very important things. (Read more)
Does DNA prove that the Native Americans were not descended from Israelites?
Some say that population studies show that Lehi’s family couldn’t have that many descendants. Does science prove the Book of Mormon false? The thing is . . . the Book of Mormon never says that the Book of Mormon peoples were the only inhabitants of the Americas. The blessings the Lord gives to the Lamanites are extended to all American Indians—but the book never states that every inhabitant was a descendant of Lehi. There could have been other people on the continents. Many others. Even if these charges are completely true (and the DNA one in particular is problematic), they do not disprove the book. (Read more)
Aren’t temples like the “secret combinations” condemned in the Book of Mormon?
The fact about Satan is that he is jealous of God. Therefore, on Earth, Satan sets up counterfeits of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He tempts his followers to make false gods and gain fake rewards. He tries to make it look like something of God out of jealousy and a need to deceive those looking for truth. (Read more)