The Book of Mormon

.:THE BOOK OF MORMON

• The Book of Mormon’s witness of Jesus Christ disagrees with the Biblical witness of Christ.
• The Book of Mormon is historically inaccurate and disagrees with archaeology.
• The Book of Mormon is geographically inaccurate.

THE BOOK OF MORMON – Mormon.org states:

“The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is an actual record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting gospel… The Book of Mormon is a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. It helps us understand His teachings, including those in the Bible.”

WHAT MORMON.ORG DOES NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON

The Book of Mormon’s witness of Jesus Christ disagrees with the Biblical witness of Christ.

• The Book of Mormon’s Testimony concerning Christ disagrees with the Bible.  The following chart illustrates some of the discrepancies between the Book of Mormon’s witness for Christ and the Bible’s witness: 

The Book of Mormon is historically inaccurate and disagrees with archaeology.

Examples of historical and archeological discrepancies found in the Book of Mormon are as follows:

• COMPASS: The earliest form of the compass (magnet floating in water) was invented in China sometime around 1044A.D. A dry form of the compass was invented in Europe around 1300A.D. until it was replaced in the 1800’s by a liquid-filled magnetic version. Yet, Nephi in the Book of Mormon is said to use a compass as early as 589 B.C. (1 Nephi 18:21).

• ANIMALS: The Book of Mormon mentions the cow, horse, ox, ass, and goat as if these animals existed in America between 589 B.C. and 421 A.D. (Alma 18:9; 1 Nephi 18:25; Enos 1:21; 2 Nephi 17:25; 21:7; 30:13; 3 Nephi 3:22; Ether 9:18-19; Mosiah 13:24). Yet, none of these animals have been found in pre-Columbian America. The “curelom” and “cumoms ” animals mentioned at Ether 9:19 in the Book of Mormon are unknown to mankind.
• WHEAT, BARLEY: The Book of Mormon mentions wheat and barley grains (Alma 11: 7, 15; Mosiah 7:22; 9:9) as being cultivated in America around 200 B.C. Yet, these grains are unknown to Pre-Columbian America.
• SILK: The fabric “silk” mentioned at Alma 1:29 did not exist in pre-Columbian America.
• STEEL, BRASS, BELLOWS: Steel mentioned at I Nephi 4:9; 8:25, Brass mentioned at 2 Nephi 5:15, and Bellows (a device used to control the sending of pressurized air to a firey heater) mentioned at 1 Nephi 17:11 were either unknown in Book of Mormon times or did not exist in Pre-Columbian America.
• CIMETERS (SCIMITARS) AND CHARIOTS: The cimeter (curved sword) mentioned at Enos 1:20 and chariots mentioned at Alma 18:9-10 did not exist in Pre-Columbian America.
  
• COINS: Ancient Biblical coins abound in Archeological digs throughout the Middle East, yet not one Book of Mormon coin (senum, amnor, ezrom, onti, seon, senine, shum, limnah, shiblon, shiblum, leah, antion) has ever been found anywhere.
• DNA EVIDENCE: The Book of Mormon claims that Jewish ancestry formed the majority of pre-Columbian inhabitants of America. Yet, 99.4% of the DNA research done on thousands of Native American Indians from over 150 tribes shows a direct link to Asia and 0.6% points to Europe or Africa, not Israel. Thus, there is NO evidence whatsoever to suggest a Jewish or Middle-Eastern migration to America. To excuse away the DNA evidence against this Book of Mormon claim, Mormon apologists have resorted to the idea that the Jewish Book of Mormon immigrants to America (the Nephites and the Lamanites) comprised only a relative small group of ancient inhabitants of America.This argument falls apart when one considers the following explicit passages from the Book of Mormon that assert that no other people existed in America prior to the Book of Mormon migrations. These passages claim that these Book of Mormon Jewish pilgrims grew “exceedingly numerous” to “cover the face” of the “whole” land:
  • 2 NEPHI 1:8: “And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. ”
  • JAROM 1:6: “And they were scattered upon much of the face of the land, and the Lamanites also. And they were exceedingly more numerous than were they of the Nephites…”
  • ALMA 10:3: “And Aminadi was a descendant of Nephi, who was the son of Lehi, who came out of the land of Jerusalem, who was a descendant of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren.”
  • OMNI 1:15-17: “Behold, it came to pass that Mosiah discovered that the people of Zarahemla came out from Jerusalem at the time that Zedikah… And they journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth. And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they had become exceedingly numerous.”
  • HELAMAN 3:8: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. ”

Rather than finding supportive evidence for these Book of Mormon historical claims and artifacts, Mormon scholars have been forced to retreat from traditional interpretations of the words and phrases in the Book of Mormon and have developed unconventional explanations to reconcile these conflicted Book of Mormon texts with ancient Native American artifacts.

The Book of Mormon is geographically inaccurate.

Map adapted from John L. Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, p. 194
(Courtesy of the Institute for Religious Research, Used with permission.)

Map was adapted from John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, p. 37 (Courtesy of the Institute for Religious Research, Used with permission.)

The Book of Mormon is geographically inaccurate. Not one non-Mormon scholar has ever identified the remains and/or locations of any Book of Mormon land, city, river, battleground, or people group. Mormon scholars often point to Aztec and Mayan ruins for evidence, but they disagree among themselves as to the identity of these ancient ruins.

• UNKNOWN LANDS, CITIES, RIVERS, VALLEYS AND PEOPLE:
  • Where is the “river, Laman, that emptied into the Red Sea” (1 Nephi 2:8) or the “valley of Lemuel” (1 Nephi 2:14) in the wilderness of Israel?
  • Where are the ruins of the ancient Nephite people who “had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness, at the head of the river Sidon, from the east to the west, round about the wilderness side; on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful.” (Alma 22:29)? Where is the “land of Zarahemla” (Omni 1:12; 15)?
  • Where is the location of “the land on the northward [that] was called Desolation, and the land on the southward [that] was called Bountiful” (Alma 22:31)?
  • Where are the locations of the Lamanite “land of Ishmael,” “land of Middoni,” “city of Nephi,” “the land of Shilom,” “the land of Shemlon,” “the city of Lemuel” and “the city of Shimnilom” (Alma 23:9-12) who called themselves “Anti-Nephi-Lehi” people (Alma 23:17) and built “many buildings,” “a great tower” (Mosiah 11:13), “synagogues,” “houses,” “temples,” and “sanctuaries” (Alma 23:2).
• HILL CUMORAH: Where is the Hill Cumorah? At Mormon 6:2, the Book of Mormon states that a Nephite general, named Mormon, called his people together to battle the Lamanite people “unto the land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah.” This battled ended with the complete annihilation of the Nephite people and hundreds of thousands slain with the sword (Mormon 6:11-15). Of the Nephite people that remained, it is claimed that only General Mormon and his son Moroni survived the battle to bury the gold plates of the Book of Mormon “in the hill Cumorah” (Mormon 6:6).
  • ETHER 10:20: “And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land.”
• Where is the Hill Cumorah? Joseph Smith claimed that this hill is in upstate New York where he allegedly found the gold plates. However, some Mormon apologists disagree, not only due to the lack of battleground artifacts found on the Hill Cumorah in New York, but also due to the problems with the Book of Mormon’s own geographical claims. Note the following passages:
  
  • ALMA 63:5: “And…he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward.
  • HELAMAN 3:8: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. ”

Many Mormon apologists point to Central America for the location of Book of Mormon lands due to the mention of a “narrow neck of land…where the sea divides the land,” however problems arise when one considers that “the sea south” and the “sea north” are irreconcilable with this limited geographical location for Book of Mormon lands, and the Hill Cumorah would have to be moved from North America to Central America. This limited geographical view for the Book of Mormon lands being in Central America also runs into problems with the Mormon Scripture, Doctrine and Covenants, section 54:8 that claims the “land of Missouri…borders… the Lamanites.” How could the Lamanite lands border “Missouri” in North America if Book of Mormon lands and events were located in Central America?