The Book Of Mormon: The Poison And The Cure
The LDS Church Has Officially Known It Was Fake Since 1922
Mormon Church President and Prophet Ezra Taft Benson once noted, "Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon." (Conference Report, Oct. 1986).
Not that it's any secret to anyone who has least attempted to discover whether the Book of Mormon is fake; it is. It's a scam, a con, a deceit, a fake, a fraud, and an enormous hoax. The Book of Mormon is all of them. And more. And as Mormon Prophet Ezra Taft Benson, among Mormon leaders, has reminded us, if the Book of Mormon is fake, so is everything else. The massive business known as Mormonism, cleverly disguised as a religion, is fake, as is its keystone, the Book of Mormon.
Elder B.H. Roberts, one of the Presidents of the Seventies, wrote in 1922, "If the origin of the Book of Mormon could be proved to be other than that set forth by Joseph Smith; if the book itself could be proved to be other than it claims to be…then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its message and doctrines…must fall; for if that book is other than it claims to be; if its origin is other than that ascribed to it by Joseph Smith, then Joseph Smith says that which is untrue; he is a false prophet of false prophets; and all he taught and all his claims to inspiration and divine authority, are not only vain but wicked; and all that he did as a religious teacher is not only useless but mischievous beyond human comprehending.
…Those who accept the Book of Mormon for what it claims to be may not so state their case that its security chiefly rests on the inability of its opponents to prove a negative. The affirmative side of the question belongs to us who hold out the Book of Mormon to the world as a revelation of God. The burden of proof rests upon us in every discussion…for not only must the Book of Mormon not be proved to have other origin than that which we set forth, or be other than what we say it is, but we must prove its origin to be what we say it is, and the book itself to be what we proclaim it to be — a revelation from God…To be known, the truth must be stated, and the clearer and more complete the statement is, the better opportunity will the Holy Spirit have for testifying to the souls of men that the work is true." [B.H. Roberts, New Witness for God, 2 (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909), iii-vii.]
And so we have it from the horse's mouth, so to speak, that Mormon beliefs and doctrines fall deep into the abyss if the Book of Mormon is false. How concerned as Elder Roberts? Enough, after a lengthy study, that in 1922, a secret meeting was held with the top hierarchy of the Mormon church. Prophets and Apostles and many more. What were Elder Roberts's concerns with the Book of Mormon?
Shannon Caldwell Montez, in her thesis, The Secret Mormon Meetings of 1922, explains,
"The controversial papers consisted of three main documents. The first, "Book of Mormon Difficulties. A Study," consisted of 141 typewritten pages and discussed issues relating to scientific (external) difficulties. External issues included the unfeasibility of the proliferation of Native American languages from a single (Hebrew) source in too short of a time; a lack of archaeological proof to support anachronisms such as horses and other domestic plants and animals, chariots, steel, and silk (unknown in the Americas prior to European contact but mentioned in the Book of Mormon); and archaeological evidence that conflicted with the Book of Mormon narrative (such as evidence that people migrated from Asia and populations were more ancient and less Christian than the Book of Mormon allows)."
"The second document was 284 typewritten pages dealing with internal difficulties and literary criticism. This document examined the likelihood that Joseph Smith was actually the author of the foundational text rather than the translator of an ancient record written by ancient Americans on gold plates, as Smith claimed. In addition to considering Smith's active imagination and interest in ancient Americans, Roberts cited possible source material such as the Bible and A View of the Hebrews, a popular and widely distributed book published in a county adjacent to Smith's in 1823 (seven years before the Book of Mormon was published). In this second document, Roberts criticized the Book of Mormon stories as being overly miraculous and the characters as archetypal and overly simplistic. He questioned: Do we have here a great historical document, or only a wonder tale, told by an undeveloped mind, living in a period and in an environment where the miraculous in "history" is accepted without limitations and is supposed to account for all inconsistencies and lapses that challenge human credulity in the thought and in the easy philosophy that all things are possible with God?"
And later, in 1927, Roberts created another document entitled "A Parallel." Montez explains:
"It was eighteen typed pages showing the uncanny similarities between The Book of Mormon and A View of the Hebrews. A few of the mentioned similarities include the migration of a group of Jewish people from Jerusalem to the uninhabited American continent by boat, a single common (Hebrew) linguistic and ancestral origin for all Native Americans, a division of those people into civilized and uncivilized groups, inspired prophets teaching a monotheistic religion, wars between the two groups resulting in the total annihilation of the civilized portion, and a buried book telling their history written in a form of Egyptian hieroglyphics. This third document was known to have been given to at least one apostle (Richard R. Lyman), and it was copied and surreptitiously passed around intellectual circles between 1927 and 1985, when the B. H. Roberts papers were published in their entirety."
It must be noted that Elder B.H. Roberts's studies and conclusions were not meant to destroy the church but to prepare the Mormon church to defend itself for a time when others would discover similar concerns and lies, thereby creating a defense to avoid its own demise. Elder B.H. Roberts was a respected church authority and intellectual; as Shannon Caldwell Montez notes, "he was both the church's most able defender" and, thereby, "its most dangerous critic." Roberts knew that the Book of Mormon created severe issues about its authenticity, and these serious concerns were shared with Mormon church leadership in Salt Lake City. What did they do? The findings were swept under the carpet, and the paperwork was hidden in the church history department basement until rediscovered in 1972. During that period and later, as Ezra Taft Benson took the role of Mormon prophet, the Book of Mormon was deemed as vital to your life as a member as your heart is in keeping you alive. Except that the Book of Mormon was a hoax, and every Mormon prophet since 1922 has known that. Every Mormon apostle and Presiding Bishop has known that. And every Mormon church historian has known that.
Is that surprising? of course not. Joseph Smith used a magic stone in a magic hat. What did the magical stone and hat reveal? Did Joseph Smith translate what he saw into the language of the 1830s? Of course not; his translation just happened to be in the same language as 200 years earlier, coincidently the language of the King James Bible! isn't that amazing?
Strange that God spoke and wrote in English from the King James Bible time.
The facts are known to anyone who at least attempts somewhat seriously to discover the truth. North Americans are not descended from Israelites. DNA proves it. South Americans too. Still not convinced? Remember Joseph Smith 'translated' Egyptian documents in 1842 as the 'Book of Abraham.' Yes, another hoax. Mormon and non-Mormon scholars have since translated the said documents, and yes, you guessed it, a deliberate deception. And there's much more.
Once a scam artist, always a scam artist. Snake-skin oil salesmen never change. Not in the 19th century and not in the 21st century.
So here's the question. Why would people be fooled by what is a 19th-century hoax? Good question, as I, too, fell victim to the big lie. For many, it is the power of what is called childhood indoctrination. If you are brought up in a family whose beliefs are crazy to most but not to your family or community, it is tough to think otherwise. And as each generation passes, those beliefs remain until such a time those beliefs become the norm. For most of us, the burning in the bosom somehow proved the Book of Mormon an actual document. It is incredible what you can feel when you want something enough. The Mormon leadership encourages feelings as being an indication of truth. They promote this deception even though, for the last 100 years, they have all known the Book of Mormon is a hoax. The Book of Mormon is the poison, and investigating its creation is the cure.
Business is business, and business is all about profits. Profits for Prophets.
© Stephen G. Arrowsmith 2022
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