One of the older criticisms of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith is that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized, or at least inspired, by the 1825 book View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith…hey, they’ve even both got the last name! One more suspicious circumstance… From Wikipedia: View of the Hebrews is an 1823 … Read more
Mormons have frequently been decried as racists. These claims seem to come from three sources: 1. Apparently racist statements from the 2nd President and prophet of the Church, Brigham Young. 2. The policy of the LDS Church excluding blacks from holding the Priesthood until 1978. 3. Passages from the Book of Mormon regarding two peoples, … Read more
This question was recently put to me by a reader DMT on this website: In 2 Nephi 3:24 it reads: “And there shall rise up one mighty among them”.. The Book of Mormon today has in the footnote for this verse “Joseph Smith” as being the one who will rise up, however, earlier versions of … Read more
There’s an interesting story in the Deseret News entitled A simple explanation works best for the Restoration. I’ve included the first bit here, but read it in its entirety and let me know what you think. We left off last week with the notion that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from a manuscript written … Read more
There are many who believe the Book of Mormon is true. There are many who believe it is false. Most people have never heard of it or don’t care one way or the other. If you fall into one of the latter two camps of thought, I’d be interested to know your opinion on what … Read more
I’ve carried on a few rather extensive conversations on this blog regarding the matter of a testimony of what the LDS Church teaches to be true. Some of the people with whom I’ve been discussing this topic are former members of the LDS Church who have left. Similarly, I’ve had family members, friends, and friends … Read more
Ugh, if you’ve ever tried to tell a Mormon they don’t believe in the Bible, you know how frustrating it can be. The main problem, of course, is that they think they believe it! Getting past this can be a real challenge. You tell them they don’t believe it, they say they do, you tell … Read more
Does anyone know how much anti-Mormon material is out there? When I was a missionary back in 1995, I taught a man in a remote city in Brazil. He had been looking for “the right religion” to join for years. He had gone to every church he could find, even the one that drank something … Read more
The award-winning Broadway play called “The Book of Mormon”, created by the minds behind the extremely funny and raunchy animated show Southpark, has put an additional spotlight on Mormons when there would already seem to be enough, given that there are two Presidential candidates who are Mormon. So how do Mormons feel about the Broadway … Read more
From Jeff Lindsay’s site, where he asks the question “If the gold plates never existed, how did Joseph get numerous witnesses to stand by their stories until their dying day, even when some of them later became angry with Joseph and left the Church?” This is a common question asked by Mormons, but I have … Read more