When Mormon missionaries come to our door, they would like to leave us with a copy of the Book of Mormon and ask us to pray for God to tell us if it is true. The goal is to have a confirming “burning in the bosom.” But what is this book they’ve handed you, this “Second Testament of Jesus Christ” as they call it?
The book itself is a story of two bodies of Old Testament Jews who travelled to the Americas. The first group left just before the time of the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. and sailed, it is supposed, to the west coast of South America. The second group led by a man named Nephi, left about 600 b.c., just before the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, and perhaps landed on the east coast of North America.
When Nephi died, his group split into two tribes, the Nephites and the Lamanites, who grew to great civilizations and who fought with one another until about 400 a.d. when the unrighteous Lamanites wiped out the Nephites. The last surviving Nephite, Moroni, was the last of a series of historians who had written all this down on gold plates. Moroni buried these plates on a hill known as Cumorah in modern day New York. To punish the Lamanites for their ungodliness, God turned their skin dark and they are ancestors of Native Americans.
In 1823, this same Moroni, now as an angel, supposedly came to Joseph Smith in his bedroom to tell him of the gold plates and where they were buried which happened to be near Smith’s house. Joseph went to the location and dug finding the plates. Moroni would not allow Joseph to take them, though, for another three years.
Then Joseph allegedly translated these plates he said were written in Egyptian into the Book of Mormon. Remember, in the early 1800s Egyptian culture and language was of great interest throughout the world. The Rosetta Stone from which we discovered how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics, was discovered in 1799. Hieroglyphics were very much a mystery to most of the West then. Egyptian could be represented as saying anything the “translator” wanted them to say. The story that the angel Moroni took the plates back after Smith “translated” them helped keep any doubters from proving Smith wrong.
How he did the “translation” is interesting, but first we need to know Joseph Smith had, by this time, a reputation as a treasure hunter using a seer stone, a stone which was placed in his hat, he would then place his face into the hat and divine where the treasure might be by observing the stone.
Here is a description of how Joseph “translated” the Book of Mormon from an eyewitness of the time:
“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.” (David Whitmer, – An Address to All Believers in Christ )
Why is this important?
You might ask who David Whitmer was and how can he make stuff like this up. If you have a copy of the Book of Mormon handy, you’ll find Mr. Whitmer listed as one of the Three Witnesses who testified to the genuineness of the Book of Mormon and that it is true. He was one of the early movers and shakers in the Mormon movement and was quite well aware of how the Book of Mormon was produced.
Is this how the Bible was produced, by someone putting a hat over their face and looking into a stone for translation? of course not. The Bible was written in known languages still handed down today. The civilizations and geographical locations found in the Bible are found and still being found. There are no artifacts in the Americas supporting the Book of Mormon, quite to the contrary. The Hill Cumorah, the site where Smith claimed the gold plates had been buried is also the sight of the final and greatest battle between the Nephites and Lamanites. Millions of men supposedly died in these battles, yet no artifacts have been found there, in the surrounding area, or any area for that matter to support the claims of the Book of Mormon. The Smithsonian has actually prepared a form letter for all those inquiring about the historicity of the book. Nothing which supports the Book of Mormon has ever been discovered.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 