So What's the Difference by Fritz Ridenour

Author:Fritz Ridenour [Ridenour, Fritz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christianity and other religions, Christian sects
ISBN: 9781441266996
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

IS THE BOOK OF MORMON CORRECT?

The BOM covers the history of two great civilizations, the most important of which is supposed to have arrived in America from the Middle East around 600 B.C. These Jewish people are reported to have become two great nations, the Nephites and the Lamanites, who fought intermittently over many centuries.

Most of the BOM was allegedly put down on gold plates by Mormon, commander in chief of the Nephites. After completing his part of the account, Mormon gave the plates to his son, Moroni, who hid them in the Hill Cumorah after adding a few words of his own. The Nephites then fought the Lamanites to the death and all were killed. The Lamanites went on to become the “principal ancestors of the American Indians.”16

The Mormon Church has gone to incredible lengths to justify the BOM, coming up with its own archaeological theories and justifications for its authenticity. But non-Mormon archaeologists and biblical Christians look askance upon the BOM for many reasons. For example, the BOM speaks of at least 38 “mighty cities” built by the Nephites and Jeredites (people in the first migration around 2200 B.C.). No trace of these cities or any other archaeological evidence reported in the BOM has ever been found.17

In summary, there is no institution of higher learning in America except Brigham Young University (pride of the Mormon educational system) that tries to substantiate or support the BOM. Even some Mormon professors have admitted the weakness and, in some cases, fallaciousness of Mormon attempts to find archaeological support for the BOM.18

Despite its numerous problems, Smith claimed the BOM to be the “most correct of any book on the earth.”19 The LDS firmly maintain the Book of Mormon is the inspired Word of God and they make this same claim for Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, two other books produced for the most part by Joseph Smith. While Mormons claim absolute accuracy and full inspiration for their three “standard works,” they see the Bible as inspired only so far as it is “translated correctly.”20 LDS apostle Orson Pratt said he doubted even one verse of the New Testament had escaped pollution or conveyed the same sense now as it did in the original manuscripts.21 This comment is interesting in that the BOM contains some 27,000 words copied, often verbatim, from the King James Version of the Bible (compare, for example, 2 Nephi 12—24 to Isaiah 2—14).

Mormons ignore modern textual studies22 that consistently confirm the validity of the Bible and dwell instead on establishing reliability for the BOM, yet they have no manuscripts for the BOM whatsoever. According to Joseph Smith, the gold plates were taken back by the angel Moroni, and Mormons simply rely on his “word as a prophet.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.