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by Paul Sumner
According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days, the Book of Mormon is a translation of records containing the history of two ancient civilizations in Central and South America, to whom Jesus appeared following his resurrection. The records were originally inscribed in what church tradition calls "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphs on golden tablets by a prophet named Mormon (AD 31-385). In 1827 Mormon's exalted son (now an angel named Moroni) appeared to Joseph Smith and told him where to find the tablets, buried outside a small town in New York state. Using a pair of "supernatural spectacles," similar to the Urim and Thummin used by the high priest in ancient Israel, Smith then translated Mormon's historical records into English. In 1830 Smith published The Book of Mormon as a divinely inspired and untainted document from God. That's the official story. But the claim that the Book of Mormon came directly from God is challenged by the fact that it quotes and alludes to 1 John 5:7 from the King James Version of the English Bible, dated 1611. The problem is that biblical historians have shown that this passage is not authentic but was inserted into a few Greek texts of the New Testament by Roman Catholic scribes sometime in the 14th to 16th centuries. [See the full story and evidence in 1 John 5:7]
The fact that the Book of Mormon contains this spurious passage gives us further reason to doubt the book's authenticity as coming directly from God. In truth, it suggests that Joseph Smith had a KJV at hand when composing the Book of Mormon. (We note as well that his translation is couched in educated Elizabethan English of the 17th century, not American English of the early 19th century.) Paradoxically, Mormons have traditionally rejected the orthodox Christian doctrine of the Trinity. And yet the Book of Mormon itself contains explicitly trinitarian statements that are as orthodox as any Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant creeds. Perhaps Mormon authorities can explain why their church apparently departed from its own foundation Text.
Following are representative passages from the 1830 edition of The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon Upon Plates Taken From the Plates of Nephi. Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, no date). In the introduction to the book is a short document entitled "The Testimony of Three Witnesses." This is an affidavit signed by Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris, saying that the three had "seen the plates which contain this record" [the Book of Mormon]. Their oath ends with the statement: "And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen."
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." [King James Version, 1611]
2 Nephi 31:21b
Alma 11:44b
3 Nephi 11:27, 36
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1 John 5:7
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