Book review: Book of Mormon

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I recently read the Book of Mormon.

Link to differences in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.


Some things The book says that do not match up with the Bible:
- Jesus telling people they must be baptized to be saved. Not in the Bible.
- Jesus telling the Nephites that they were the "other sheep" mentioned in John 16:10. Common doctrine has these "other sheep" as being Gentiles in general.
- Concept of God's elect being white, while those from iniquity are dark skinned.

Some things that just struck me as a bit off:
- Jesus appointing of disciples and His ministry was very brief, and not filled with the personal connections like in the New Testament.
- Use of  King James English was not quite right. As if written by a rank amateur.
- Certain phrases didn't jive: "stiff-necked" was used once in the Bible and was used over and over in the Book of Mormon. Other phrases, common to 16th - 19th century writing were used. Book of Mormon is supposed to cover 600 BC - 400 AD.
- References to Jesus Christ by name prior to His birth. Don't think that was the Plan.
- There is a book named "Mormon" within the Book of Mormon. 
- The author wasn't very creative with names. Many names were re-used ad nauseum.
- Use of a compass in 600 BC? The first recorded use was in the 11th Century, AD.

Summary
I'm not going to go into detail on the inconsistencies between modern Mormonism and your typical protestant church beliefs. Maybe I'll do that one day, but not here. These are just my thoughts on the Book of Mormon.

This book had a lot of war and strife in it. A lot. That said, glory was given to God at every opportunity. If only other Christians would do that earnestly. And yes, I believe Mormons who give their hearts to Jesus are Christian and will be forgiven as will any other person who earnestly repents.Yes, the Book of Mormon teaches repentance and baptism are needed for salvation, whereas baptism is simply an outward profession of faith... but a person who repents has repented nonetheless.

I also did not come across a single verse of the Book of Mormon that suggested polygamy. In fact, there were a couple condemning it. Goes to show that any written document not only can, but will be taken out of context.

It is my personal belief that somebody (probably Joseph Smith) wrote the Book of Mormon in the 19th century. I do not think it is God's inspired word. But I do not think it wholly wrong, either. If anything, it's just a bit boring and a rehash of parts of the Bible. People write things not much different today, and we call them studies or commentaries on the Bible. Heck, some folks dedicate entire blogs to that. What's the difference?

.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2013 at 12:20 AM

    So you are aware, if you had researched a little, Joseph Smith was born in the year 1805, so he couldn't really have written it in the 16th century...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Recce RiflemanJanuary 21, 2013 at 1:04 AM

    Well aware of the fact that Smith lived from 1805 - 1844 and published this book at age 24 in March of 1830. If you read and re-read the comments carefully, you'll notice that I stated Smith used phrases common to 16th Century writing. I did not claim the Book of Mormon was written in the 16th Century.

    ReplyDelete

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