Category: Standard Works
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Lost Book of Lehi
During the summer of 1828, while working on the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith allowed his scribe, Martin Harris, to take 116 pages of the manuscript home to show Mrs. Harris. The manuscript pages disappeared. The lost book of Lehi is still missing; it has never been restored to the Book of Mormon. As the…
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The Bible Through Mormon Eyes
The LDS Church embraces four volumes as scripture: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Following are ten statements from Mormon sources explaining how the LDS Church and its members view the Bible. “I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the…
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Lost Book of Mormon Geography
The dispute over where the events in the Book of Mormon took place continues in a recent Deseret News/Mormon Times article titled, “Raiders of the Lost Book of Mormon Geography.” In the second installment of a two-part article “former CEO of a manufacturing company turned researcher” Rod Meldrum sets his theory against the limited geography…
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The Prophecy of Isaiah is Fulfilled
“You will indeed see but never perceive.” –Matthew 13:14 In March (2008) Boyd K. Packer, president of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke via satellite to Latter-day Saints gathered for a stake conference in Bolivia. Speaking of his love for the Book of Mormon, Mr. Packer related the difficulty he had as a…
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“As Does the Bible”
Since 1981 the Introduction to the Book of Mormon has stated, “The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting Gospel.” Recently the Introduction was…
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The Attempt to Sell the Book of Mormon Copyright
Text of Revelation (link) A Revelation given to Joseph Oliver [Cowdery] Hyram [Hiram Page] Josiah [Stowell] & Joseph Knight given at Manchester Ontario C[ounty] New York Behold I the Lord am God I Created the Heavens & the Earth & all things that in them is wherefore they are mine & I sway my scepter over all…
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Changing the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon has undergone manifold changes since it’s first printing in 1830. Some of these changes have been minor, and some have carried doctrinal impact. When the 1981 edition of the Book of Mormon was published it reflected nearly 100 noteworthy changes from the 1920 edition. Apparently more changes are on the way;…
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James 1:5 — An Appeal to Scripture
I was recently reading in The Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith — History regarding the events leading up to Joseph Smith’s First Vision. As Joseph told the story, he talked about his confusion over which church was correct in the things they taught. Or, he wondered, were they all wrong? Joseph said all the…
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How Did Joseph Smith “Translate” the Book of Mormon?
In the recent PBS special, The Mormons, Daniel Peterson publicly and explicitly admitted that “most of the translation [of the Book of Mormon] was done using something called a seer stone.” Since many Mormons have labeled claims like these “anti-Mormon“, Peterson’s statement is significant because he is a professor at BYU and is considered the…
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Are Ancient Coins Mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
Does the Book of Mormon speak about coins? For many years, the heading to Alma 11 referred to “coins,” which made sense since the chapter described different precious metal measurements upon which the Nephites based their monetary system. Although LDS apologists complained that “coins” were never referenced in this chapter, the LDS Church kept the…
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Was Gamaliel’s Advice in Acts 5:38 Biblically Sound?
By Bill McKeever
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Book Review: Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson’s Archaeological Search for The Book of Mormon
By Stan Larson Reviewed By Eric Johnson
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Faith Alone and the Joseph Smith Translation
By Bill McKeever Several LDS leaders have expressed their distain for the biblical teaching of salvation by grace through faith alone. Joseph Fielding Smith, on page 192 of The Restoration of All Things, stated, “One of the most pernicious doctrines ever advocated by man, is the doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone,’ which has entered…
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Does the Bible Contain Prophecies About Joseph Smith?
Could Joseph Smith be a biblical prophet? Mormons point to Genesis revisions and Elijah’s return in prophecy, but scholars argue these lack evidence, favoring John the Baptist as the true fulfillment.
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The Book of Abraham
By Bill McKeever According to the Documentary History of the Church (DHC) 2:235, it was on July 3, 1835 when Michael Chandler “came to Kirtland (OH) to exhibit some Egyptian mummies.” According to the record, “There were four human figures, together with some two or more rolls of papyrus covered with hieroglyphic figures and devices.”…
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Did Mahonri Moriancumr Discover America?
By Bill McKeever Who was first to reach the New World? Many historians believe it was the Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus, who, on August 3, 1492, set sail across the Atlantic and, three months later, landed on an island in the Bahamas he called San Salvador. Others contend that explorers from the north country, the…
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Nephite Synagogues: Where Did They Originate?
By Edward Mellott It is not unusual to encounter, in literary works, details that are out of place as to their time. Those are called ‘anachronisms’ which are placed by the writer in a time before the objects existed. An example of this is the mention of a clock in the play Julius Caesar by…
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Stela 5 and Lehi’s Vision of the Tree of Life
By Lane Thuet The Book of Mormon claims to be a record of a group of Israelites that traveled to the American continent around 600 BC, as well as the record of another group that settled there at the time of the Tower of Babel. The book speaks of their populating and settling vast areas…
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Headless People Don’t Do Push-Ups – the Story of Coriantumr and Shiz
By Bill McKeever Can a decapitated body lift itself up and gasp for breath? A story in the Book of Mormon seems to say so. The story is found in the Book of Ether and recounts a sword fight between a Jaredite king named Coriantumr (Ether 12:1) and Shiz, the brother of Lib (Ether 14:17).
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Was Jesus Born “at Jerusalem”?
In the early 1990s we wrote two articles and an unpublished manuscript about the mistake that we believe Joseph Smith made in the Book of Mormon regarding the origin of Jesus’ birth. We received immediate feedback from the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), an organization based at Brigham Young University in Provo,…