The Mormons, the Latter Day Saints (LDS), “prophet” Joseph Smith claimed The Book of Mormon to be “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion.” In their 8th Article of Faith, the Mormons state their belief that, “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.” 

One problem right off the top we can see with the Book of Mormon is that the LDS Church editions since the 1980’s on the cover claims that it is “Another Testament of Jesus Christ”. The violates the Bible principle expressed in the last book of the Bible: “I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book” (Revelation 22:18 NLT).

Although many Mormons have a bound edition containing their four main sacred texts, namely, the KJV Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrines and Covenants, Mormonism doesn’t view the Bible and the Book of Mormon equally. The Bible’s status as God’s Word is relativized by the phrase “as far as it is translated correctly.” According to the Mormons, the Book of Mormon is the word of God; the Bible merely contains the Word of God ‘as far as it is correctly translated.’

What is strange is that this ‘most correct of all books’ lifts at least 27,000 words directly from the only Bible version the Mormons accept, the 1769 revision of the King James Version (KJV), that is, according to them, is ‘full of errors’, and that Joseph Smith was revising at the time of his death. The KJV has a number of spurious additions to its text, and the Book of Mormon includes them when quoting from those texts.

Another conundrum is that the Book of Mormon, which was supposedly finished completed in 421 CE,  quotes those 27,000 words from the KJV Bible, which wasn’t even produced until about 1200 years later, in 1611 CE. How can this be? One of the last books in the Bible, Jude, makes this point, “defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people” (Jude 3 NLT). The complete Christian faith, including the sacred scriptures, was delivered to God’s holy people in the 1st century, in its totality.

These, and many other facts, exclude the Book of Mormon from being “the word of God”, because, as Jesus said, “your word is truth” (John 17:17).