SkipCaptcha
108
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 42:
Line 42: − + + + + + + + + + + + + + Line 73:
Line 85: − + Line 82:
Line 94: + + Line 111:
Line 125: − +
Filled in the section "Theology of the Book of Mormon"
==Theology of Book of Mormon==
==Theology of Book of Mormon==
''To be supplied''
In contrast to later Mormon doctrine, the Book of Mormon teaches the following regarding the nature of God: 1) He has existed from eternity to eternity.<ref> Moroni 8:18: “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.”</ref> 2) His nature is unchanging.<ref>Moroni 8:18: “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.” Mormon 9:9: “For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is a shadow of turning, then have ye imaged up to yourselves a god who is not a god of miracles.”</ref> 3) He is the only God.<ref>2 Nephi 2:14: “for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.” Mormon 9:11: “But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.”</ref>
The doctrine of the Trinity is expressed clearly in 2 Nephi 31:21: “And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end.” Also Mormon 7:7: “. . . unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state of happiness which hath no end.” This clear teaching, however, is compromised by Mosiah 15:1–5, Mormon 9:12, and Ether 3:14. These passages present the sub-Christian doctrine of modalism wherein Jesus is the Father and the Holy Ghost; the three are just modes of appearance of the one God. Such confusion and contradiction of an essential doctrine in the Book of Mormon is evidence of either more than one author of the book or, if one author wrote all these passages, he was sorely lacking in theological understanding and insight.
That salvation comes by believing in Christ and that he died for our sins seems fairly well expressed by Mormon 7:5: “Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.”
There are many other theological doctrines of a somewhat lesser importance that are addressed in the Book of Mormon. These include the mode of baptism, whether baptism was necessary for salvation, whether infants should be baptized, the “Restoration” idea that Christianity needed to return to its roots in the New Testament, and the doctrine of Universalism (false according to Alma 1:4). One of the leaders of the Restoration movement was Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciples of Christ and a contemporary of Joseph Smith. Noticing that the hot issues under discussion in America in the 1820s and 1830s seemed to be all addressed in the Book of Mormon, he wrote:
<blockquote>This prophet Smith, through his stone spectacles, wrote on the plates of Nephi, in his Book of Mormon, every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last ten years. He decided all the great controversies:—infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement . . . and even the question of free masonry, republican government and the rights of man.<ref>Alexander Campbell, cited in Fawn Brodie, ''No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), pp. 69–70.</ref></blockquote>
As explained at some length in what is probably the best-known biography of Joseph Smith, Fawn Brodie’s ''No Man Knows My History'', discussions of Freemasonry were much in the news at the time the Book of Mormon was written.<ref>Brodie, ''No Man Knows My History'', 63–66.</ref> In September of 1826 the owner of a printing press who was preparing a book that exposed the secret rites of Freemasonry was abducted from Batavia, New York. He was given a mock trial by Mason vigilantes and taken to Fort Niagara on the Canadian border, after which no more trace was found of him. When five prominent Masons were tried for the abduction, three were acquitted and the other two received sentences of less than a year. The public was outraged at this injustice, “and the Masons became the standing theme of conversation in field and tavern. . . The Democrats were appalled to count nineteen anti-Masonic conventions within twelve months and began to wonder if they might lose the election because their beloved Andrew Jackson was a Mason of high rank.”<ref>Ibid., 64, 65.</ref>
The controversy was introduced into the Book of Mormon in the form of the Gadianton Band, an evil group who had “their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant. And thus they might murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country, and also the laws of their God.”<ref>''Book of Mormon'', Helaman 6:22, 23. See also Helaman 8:1–4; 3 Nephi 6:28–30, and Ether 8:15¬¬–16, 22–26.</ref> The Book of Mormon therefore took its stand on the burning question of the late 1820s: It declared that secret lodges were inherently evil and a threat to society. This is of particular interest because it was only a few years later that Joseph Smith, contrary to what was written in the book he had introduced, joined the Masons and introduced secret words, secret rites, and secret ceremonies to his followers, practices that are observed to this day in Mormon temples throughout the world.<ref>Michael W. Homer, ''Joseph’s Temples: The Dynamic Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism'' (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014).</ref> This is one of the many areas where the LDS leadership, starting with Joseph Smith, diverged from the doctrines of their sacred book. Other examples are discussed in the [[Book of Mormon#Conflict of the Book of Mormon Doctrines with Later LDS Doctrines|"Conflict of the Book of Mormon Doctrines with Later LDS Doctrines"]] section.
In recognition of the fact that the Book of Mormon addresses theological and political issues that were at the forefront of debate in the early nineteenth century, some Mormon apologists have presented this as an example of God’s foreknowledge: God planned it so that the writers who wrote the original “Reformed Egyptian” text did not know it, but the issues they were writing about would be relevant to the society that would see the translation of their texts in a book to be published hundreds of years after the last chapter of their text was written and the plates were buried in Hill Cumorah.
== Polygamy ==
== Polygamy ==
<TR><TD>ONLY ONE CREATOR GOD. 2 Nephi 2:14: “for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.” Mormon 9:11: “But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.”</TD>
<TR><TD>ONLY ONE CREATOR GOD. 2 Nephi 2:14: “for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.” Mormon 9:11: “But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.”</TD>
<TD VALIGN="top">Plural gods in creation. ''Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham'', chs. 4 & 5.</TD></TR>
<TD VALIGN="top">Plural gods in creation. ''Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham'', chs. 4 & 5.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>GOD IS UNCHANGING. Moroni 8:18: “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.” Mormon 9:9: “For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is a shadow of turning, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god wo is not a God of miracles.” </TD>
<TR><TD>GOD IS UNCHANGING. Moroni 8:18: “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.” Mormon 9:9: “For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is a shadow of turning, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.” </TD>
<TD> God “was once a man like us:” Joseph Smith, in his King Follett Sermon, also taught by Brigham Young.</TD></TR>
<TD> God “was once a man like us:” Joseph Smith, in his King Follett Sermon, also taught by Brigham Young.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>DEATH SEALS MAN’S FATE. Mosiah 2:38, 39: “Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God . . . that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.” Also Alma 18:32–33.</TD><TD VALIGN="top"> Chance after death. D&C 76:106–112, 88:99. </TD></TR>
<TR><TD>DEATH SEALS MAN’S FATE. Mosiah 2:38, 39: “Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God . . . that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.” Also Alma 18:32–33.</TD><TD VALIGN="top"> Chance after death. D&C 76:106–112, 88:99. </TD></TR>
<TR><TD> AGAINST PAID MINISTRY. 2 Nephi 26:31: “But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish.” Mosiah 27:5: “Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support.”</TD>
<TR><TD> AGAINST PAID MINISTRY. 2 Nephi 26:31: “But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish.” Mosiah 27:5: “Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support.”</TD>
<TD VALIGN="top"> For paid ministry. D&C 42:71–73; 43:12–13; 51:13–14.</TD></TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"> For paid ministry. D&C 42:71–73; 43:12–13; 51:13–14.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>AGAINST SECRET SOCIETIES AND THEIR OATHS. The Gadiantons had “their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother . . . and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country, and also the laws of their God.” Also Helaman 8:1–4; 3 Nephi 6:28–30, and Ether 8:15–16, 22–26.</TD>
<TD>Secret oaths, garments, and handshakes adapted from Freemasonry are a part of Mormon Temple ceremonies.</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</TABLE>
Despite all the attestations from persons involved in the translation process that the wording of the original Book of Mormon was divinely supervised, a comparison of the present editions of the Book of Mormon with the original 1830 edition shows almost 4,000 changes.<ref>Tanners, ''3,913 Changes''.</ref> Most of these changes are matters of spelling or grammar, which itself is inconsistent with the supposed supernatural supervision over all details of the translation process that was just described. Some changes, however, are more significant. An example of a change dealing with an error in the essential narrative is the change that was made in Mosiah 21:28, where the name of the king was changed from Benjamin (1830 edition) to Mosiah. The reason for the change was that, according to the Book of Mormon’s chronology, King Benjamin would have been dead at the time of Mosiah 21:28, and so this was corrected to give the then-current king, Benjamin. Modern LDS interpreters acknowledge the mistake, saying the error was in the original “Reformed Egyptian” from which the English translation was made. This raises the question: Why did not the divine agent who was supervising the translation process make the correction? Also, it is somewhat difficult to understand how Mosiah, the supposed writer of the original, would have been confused about who was a king in his time. A more logical explanation is that the nineteenth-century AD writer of this complicated narrative got temporarily confused in his cast of characters.
Despite all the attestations from persons involved in the translation process that the wording of the original Book of Mormon was divinely supervised, a comparison of the present editions of the Book of Mormon with the original 1830 edition shows almost 4,000 changes.<ref>Tanners, ''3,913 Changes''.</ref> Most of these changes are matters of spelling or grammar, which itself is inconsistent with the supposed supernatural supervision over all details of the translation process that was just described. Some changes, however, are more significant. An example of a change dealing with an error in the essential narrative is the change that was made in Mosiah 21:28, where the name of the king was changed from Benjamin (1830 edition) to Mosiah. The reason for the change was that, according to the Book of Mormon’s chronology, King Benjamin would have been dead at the time of Mosiah 21:28, and so this was corrected to give the then-current king, Benjamin. Modern LDS interpreters acknowledge the mistake, saying the error was in the original “Reformed Egyptian” from which the English translation was made. This raises the question: Why did not the divine agent who was supervising the translation process make the correction? Also, it is somewhat difficult to understand how Mosiah, the supposed writer of the original, would have been confused about who was a king in his time. A more logical explanation is that the nineteenth-century AD writer of this complicated narrative got temporarily confused in his cast of characters.
More serious are the changes that were thought necessary to some statements in the original 1830 version about the essential nature of God. Although the Book of Mormon sometimes presents the traditional Christian understanding of God’s Trinitarian nature, with three divine Persons who are one in their divinity but distinct in their personalities, the original edition of the Book of Mormon contradicts this doctrine (and itself) in other places.<ref>Examples are 1 Nephi 13:40 in the 1830 edition, “the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Savior” that has been changed to “the Lamb of God is '''the Son of''' the Eternal Father, and the Savior” in current editions. First Nephi 11:21 originally read “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!” This has been changed to “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even '''the Son of''' the Eternal Father!” Contrast this confusion of the Divine Persons with the correct understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity in 2 Nephi 31:21: “And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end.”</ref> If the Book of Mormon was so important to mankind that God supervised its original writing in a miraculous way, and then after many centuries had it revealed in a miraculous way to Joseph Smith, and in a further miracle supervised its translation into English, then we would not expect that God would do all these signs and wonders in order to reveal his truth to mankind if the “revelation” that was the object of the mulitple miracles was misleading and self-contradictory in a topic as important as the very nature of God. Such confusion is more compatible with the theory that the Book of Mormon is the product of a nineteenth-century AD author or authors who had general knowledge of biblical themes but whoever supplied its doctrinal tenets was deficient in their understanding of the most basic tenets of the historic Christian (and biblical) faith.
More serious are the changes that were thought necessary to some statements in the original 1830 version about the essential nature of God. Although the Book of Mormon sometimes presents the traditional Christian understanding of God’s Trinitarian nature, with three divine Persons who are one in their divinity but distinct in their personalities, the original edition of the Book of Mormon contradicts this doctrine (and itself) in other places.<ref>Examples are 1 Nephi 13:40 in the 1830 edition, “the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Savior” that has been changed to “the Lamb of God is '''the Son of''' the Eternal Father, and the Savior” in current editions. First Nephi 11:21 originally read “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!” This has been changed to “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even '''the Son of''' the Eternal Father!” Contrast this confusion of the Divine Persons with the correct understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity in 2 Nephi 31:21: “And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end.”</ref> If the Book of Mormon was so important to mankind that God supervised its original writing in a miraculous way, and then after many centuries had it revealed in a miraculous way to Joseph Smith, and in a further miracle supervised its translation into English, then we would not expect that God would do all these signs and wonders in order to reveal his truth to mankind if the “revelation” that was the object of the multiple miracles was misleading and self-contradictory in a topic as important as the very nature of God. Such confusion is more compatible with the theory that the Book of Mormon is the product of a nineteenth-century AD author or authors who had general knowledge of biblical themes but whoever supplied its doctrinal tenets was deficient in their understanding of the most basic tenets of the historic Christian (and biblical) faith.