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.” 

AACEPT AT FACE VALUE, OR TEST?

The Mormons list several “witnesses” to support their claims about the Book of Mormon’s divine origin. However, the scriptures cautions us: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (John 4:1 NLT). Following the solid Biblical directive, let’s see what we find out.

TESTING THE BOOK OF MORMON

One problem right off the top that we can see with the Book of Mormon is that the cover of the LDS Church editions since the 1980’s 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). God’s Word, the Bible, needs no supplementation.

Although many Mormons have a bound edition containing their four main sacred texts, namely, (1) the KJV Bible, (2) the Book of Mormon, t(3) he Pearl of Great Price, and (4) 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”, period, case closed; whereas “the Bible is the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly”. According to the Mormons, what is, and is not, “translated correctly” is determined solely by the Mormon hierarchy, and not the original Greek text which underlies Bible translations, such as the KJV.

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, and, therefore, needs no supplementation.

CONCLUSION

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).