Christianity vs. Mormonism (Part 9)

Translation of the Book of Mormon

Supposedly the gold plates were hidden in a hill (told this by an angel) and held the record of the Book of Mormon and he was to translate them by the power of God. However, from his story and those around him, the method he used to translate the Book of Mormon was actually a magical stone that he already possessed before he got the plates and he used this magical practice to decipher supposedly the translation off the plate.

Paul said, in Galatians 1:6, if ANYONE preaches to you another Gospel, whether it be me, someone else, or even an angel from Heaven, let them be accursed! (accursed means set apart for destruction)

The very sub-title of the Book of Mormon is “ANOTHER Testament of Jesus Christ”.

This issue is, if what Joseph said conflicted with what the Bible says, then he wasn’t getting inspiration from God.

Kinderhook Plates

These were found on April 23^rd, 1843. Six bell shaped brass plates covered with decipherable engravings were “unearhed” near Kinderhook, IL – 70 miles south of Nauvoo. After their discovery, Joseph Smith was asked to translate them. He said, “I have translated a portion of them and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of Heaven and earth.”

The plates were later tested by an LDS History Professor, Stanly B. Kimball, in 1980 and found to be fake. It was created to help lure Joseph Smith into making a translation of ancient-looking characters that had been etched into the plates.

In 1879, Wilber Fugate admitted to making the plates, along with Robert Wiley and Bridge Whitton. It was a hoax to test Joseph Smith. He obviously failed.

False Writing

Introduction Page

• The introduction page in the Book of Mormon says after thousands of years all were destroyed except the Lamanites and they are the principle ancestors of the American Indian. The Lamanites are described by Joseph as ancestors to the Isrealites inhabiting al of North and South America from sea to sea.

Proverbs 30:5-6 says, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

DNA testing has proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the American Indians were not descendants of he Lamanites and Joseph Smith has perpetrated a gigantic fraud in the very book HE claimed was inspired by God; the Book of Mormon. NO ONE outside of Mormonism is debating this, it’s a “non-issue”. No one in the scientific realm is debating whether or not the Native Americans came from the Isrealites because it has been proven false.

Bottom Line: In order to be a Mormon, one must “trust” in those stories of Joseph Smith. If these stories can be proven to be untrue or fabricated, then the very foundation of their faith is erroneous.

The Book of Abraham

For generations, scholars have shown irrefutable evidence that the Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price are fallible, faulty documents. The not only contradict each other, but contradict the Bible.

Joseph Smith claimed the Book of Abraham was translated from an Egyptian language on papyrus and it has been well documented to be completely false. There is not and has not been ONE non-LDS Egyptologist who supports his translation. If his translation were correct, he would have been translating it at a time before anyone could even translate Egyptian. However, they will tell you the Book of Abraham never said anything he said it did. The papyrus does not depict Abraham getting ready to be sacrificed by a priest on an altar, but is in reality a depiction of a common funeral many centuries after Abraham’s time. Egyptologists uniformly agree with this conclusion, destroying Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Abraham.

Conclusion: This book was an elaborate fraud by Joseph Smith.