My Defense of the Book of Mormon
2 Nephi 33:11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye--for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness. 3 Nephi 23:12-3 And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded. Mormon 8:12 And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you. I would be a poor lover of the Book of Mormon if I hadn't scrutiized the arguments you laid out, become familiar with the original manuscripts and printings or noted the changes. In the old days, the only folks I had to defend the Book of Mormon before were people like the Tanners, the Dekers and the Martins. I have viewed and heard a growing tendency among LDSaints to attack the Book of Mormon because it clearly confounds the false doctrine they teach. I hear all the time (you have read it on Quora) that "we believe the Book of Mormon as far as it is translated correctly". I believe this new hostility is very related to the Church's insistance on the use of "Mormon". As they emphisize the supremecy of Living Oracles over the Book of Mormon, there is a disconnect coming. People confuse the teachings of the Book of Mormon with what the Living Oracles preach and so reject the Book of Mormon. They imagine that if the Book of Mormon tells us there is a Mother in Heaven, that secret ceremonies in houses made with hands are neccessary, funny underware, polygamy, and massive amounts of money, than they want nothing to do with it. I believe that the Book of Mormon has not come forth yet and this disassociation is a step in that direction. My heart sings at the thought that Church will make such an effective separation that the children of God on earth will finally not even associate the Book with the Church that they will love it and commence begin the gathering of Israel. The Mother of Harlots has not changed her tactics. "the most plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, which is the mother of harlots" (1 Nephi 13:34). Why would we suspect she would change her ways? "After the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God" (v.28). That is why the Bible is so important. We must compare any teachings afoot with the teachings of the combination of the Bible and Book of Mormon as the only standard to judge, 1 Nephi 13 40. And the angel spake unto me, saying: These last records, which thou hast seen among the Gentiles [Book of Mormon], shall establish the truth of the first, which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb [Bible], and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved. 41. And they must come according to the words which shall be established by the mouth of the Lamb; and the words of the Lamb shall be made known in the records of thy seed [Book of Mormon], as well as in the records of the twelve apostles of the Lamb [Bible]; wherefore they both shall be established in one; for there is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth. The plain and precious parts are obtained by the Book of Mormon and Bible, not by Living Oracles. Sorry. The words of the Living Oracles are to be judged by the Bible and Book of Mormon, and not the other way around. There is one shepherd and that shepherd is not a Living Oracle. It must be noted before I move on that it is the plain and precious parts of the "Gospel" that was to be kept back. This does not mean Bible verses were removed. Plain and precious parts of the Gospel can be clearly printed in the Bible, but they can be so wrested and ignored and untaught that plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb has been kept back by that abominable church. A prefect exmple is that it is as clear ans can be written so that no man may err that there is one God: Alma 11 26. And Zeezrom said unto him: Thou sayest there is a true and living God? 27. And Amulek said: Yea, there is a true and living God. 28. Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? 29. And he answered, No. Very clear. Yet the Living Oracles write: Doctrine and Covenants 132:18 when they are out of the world it cannot be received there, because the angels and the gods are appointed there, by whom they cannot pass You can see that plain and precious parts are still printed, but that principle has been removed from the gospel by that abominable church. So, how are doctrines that are confounded by the Bible and Book of Mormon to be accepted? Well, for two centuries LDSaints would simply answer that they believed the Bible as far as it is translated correctly. Anything could be rejected with the simple "oh, that wasn't translated correctly". That seemed to work for them. These days, as we approach the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the Church is using the same tactic with the Book of Mormon which they used to believe was translated by the gift and Power of God. Only God's hand has brought that about. And that is exiting! YOUR CITATIONS STUDIED So lets go through the verses you put forth to show that the Book of Mormon wasn't translated by the gift and power of God and see if they support your contention that the Nephite prophets mad mistakes. MORMON 8:12, 16-7 And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you. And blessed be he that shall bring this thing to light; for it shall be brought out of darkness unto light, according to the word of God; yea, it shall be brought out of the earth, and it shall shine forth out of darkness, and come unto the knowledge of the people; and it shall be done by the power of God. And if there be faults they be the faults of a man. But behold, we know no fault; nevertheless God knoweth all things; therefore, he that condemneth, let him be aware lest he shall be in danger of hell fire. An important clause is "we know no fault". That is a bold statement! But he testifies that "God knoweth all things". The absolute amazing thing is that Jesus looked at all that was writen by the Nephite prophets and edited them! 3 NEPHI 23 6. And now it came to pass that when Jesus had said these words he said unto them again, after he had expounded all the scriptures unto them which they had received, he said unto them: Behold, other scriptures I would that ye should write, that ye have not. 7. And it came to pass that he said unto Nephi: Bring forth the record which ye have kept. 8. And when Nephi had brought forth the records, and laid them before him, he cast his eyes upon them.... They neglected to include an important event. He told them to write it in. That is all that he edited! Everything else got Jesus' approval. 13. And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded. 14. And now it came to pass that when Jesus had expounded all the scriptures in one, which they had written, he commanded them that they should teach the things which he had expounded unto them. Therefore, he that condemneth, let him be aware lest he shall be in danger of hell fire. MORMON 9:31-3 Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been. He wasn't refering to what he wrote. He was refering to the way he and the Nephites lived. And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record. Obiviously the Hebrew would be more expressive and percise. The more words one knows, the more percise ones communication. For example, there are many words in italian that expresses a dead body, as in English. All describe the same thing but they are better not used in various circumstances. Bones, body, cadaver, carcass, corpus, corse, relics, remains, stiff. Imagine if you were in Italy and the only Italian word you knew to express the remains of a widow's husband was "stiff". "Sister Bocca", you say at the funeral, "can we dedicate the grave where you will lay the stiff to rest?" As you can see, the meaning is understood, but the words aren't the best. I suspect that the Prophets knew Hebrew well but they were limited when it came to Reformed Egyptian. ETHER 12:23-28 And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them; And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me--the fountain of all righteousness. Here we see the diffent abiblity to communicate between writing and speaking. Some people can preach up a powerful storm but if they sat to write a book they would lose some of the "umph". The Prophets felt this as indicated by the above. The Lord assures them that He will supply the "umph" to the meek. The Prophets are not indicating that they made mistakes. "then will I make weak things become strong unto them". TITLE PAGE And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ. As explained above, there are no faults. However, I will make a giagantuous speculation: if there were faults that were the mistakes of men on the plates, they were corrected in the translation process. It makes no sense that the Lord would not make corrections rather than allow errors to be translated by the Gift and Power of God. 1 NEPHI 19:6-7 Nevertheless, I do not write anything upon plates save it be that I think it be sacred. And now, if I do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse myself because of other men, but because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would excuse myself. For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet. Yea, even the very God of Israel do men trample under their feet; I say, trample under their feet but I would speak in other words--they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels. Nephi worried for nothing. As noted above, Jesus looked at his writings when with the Nephites and left them just as they were. Nephi knew, apparently, that at some future date a man claiming to be a prophet woud say "These books mean nothing [naught] to me" As Far As It Is Translated Correctly. A Device Of The Devil Once one accepts that what they are reading may be a mistranslation or error, there is no end to false doctrine unmoored from the scriptures. I have pointed out that there is one God. "Well", says one who has put their trust in the arm of a fleshy Living Oracle, "we know that there are all linds of gods". This verse must be one of those mistakes. If only we had the plates which would allow us to translate it more accurately! Good thing we have, in addition to Living Oracles, the writings of the early church fathers to determine that Amulek was making one of those mistakes." The Book of Mormon teaches that those who die in their sins will remain in darkness and torment UNTIL the resurrection. Alma 40:14 Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, UNTIL the time of their resurrection. Alma 40:21 But whether it be at his resurrection or after, I do not say; but this much I say, that there is a space between death and the resurrection of the body, and a state of the soul in happiness or in misery UNTIL the time which is appointed of God that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works. Moroni 10:34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite... "But wait one moment", says a follower of Living Oracles. "There are so many errors here! All those prophets said the Book of Mormon was full of errors. Here are many! Living Oracles say that the soul is the union of body and spirit (Doctrine and Covenants 88:15 And the spirit and the body are the soul of man). These erronious verses say that there are "souls" between death and the ressurection. The Living Oracles tell me that the wicked are in spirit school. But these verses tell me they are in "a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God...in misery". What kind of school is that? Living Oracles tell me that people can pass from hell to paradise once they accept the Gospel there and repent. These mistranslated verses say the souls will remain in that state UNTIL the ressurection! Its a good thing I have Living Oracles to make these corrections. I am going with them"! And so the blind lead the blind and they all fall into the ditch. They are blind because, judging anything in the Book of Mormon can be an error, a bad translation, something that can only be understood by someone who understands their culture, something that can't be confirmed by early church fathers, they keep ntheir eyes shut tight. As a final note, Joseph Fielding Smith's son wrote: The early "apostate fathers" did not think it was wrong to tamper with inspired scripture. If any scripture seemed to endanger their viewpoint, it was altered, transplanted or completely removed from the biblical text. All this was done that they might keep their traditions. Such mutilation was considered justifiable to preserve the so-called "purity" of their doctrines. We learn those early apostate fathers are accused of changing scripture to teach their false doctrine, the original manipulators of the plain and precious parts, and the guys you so often and enthusiastically quote. Sadly, as stated above, the devil continues to apply this device.