This morning, I had one Mormon tell me, online, that he could see the hate in my eyes and another one, who refused to read this blog, label it as “the words of Satan.” I found those criticisms quite funny, because they simply demonstrated what way too many LDS followers are conditioned to do from an early age: label anything even remotely critical as “hate” and “from Satan.” Those accusations are often lobbed at people with no qualifying data to back them up. It’s the height of intellectual laziness and dishonesty. If you can simply label something right out of the gate as “hate,” “anti-Mormon,” or “a lie from Satan,” then it absolves you of the responsibility of looking into what someone is claiming. I’m going to keep writing this blog as I see fit, and I’m not sorry. Now, onto the topic of today.
Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time has probably noticed that I’ll summarize some repetitive verses rather than type them out. I’m not doing that this time. Why? Because the fruits of people’s loins are mentioned 20 times in a chapter with 25 verses, and if I had to read all of them, then so do all of you. Out of the kindness of my heart, I have italicized these phrases so you can also count them and wonder if this was written by a 6th grader with Tourette’s.
2 Nephi Chapter 3
Joseph in Egypt saw the Nephites in vision—He prophesied of Joseph Smith, the latter-day seer; of Moses, who would deliver Israel; and of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. About 588–570 B.C.
1: “And now I speak unto you, Joseph, my last-born. Thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee.”
2:“And may the Lord consecrate also unto thee this land, which is a most precious land, for thine inheritance and the inheritance of thy seed with thy brethren, for thy security forever, if it so be that ye shall keep the commandments of the Holy One of Israel.”
The Americas were not consecrated to ancient Hebrews. This should go without saying. I have already demonstrated and cited research in previous posts that indigenous tribes were in the Americas thousands of years before Nephi and his family supposedly arrived. In “An Implausible Discovery,” I also go into more detail about how the ancient Hebrews only had one promised land. There were no additional ones.
3: “And now, Joseph, my last-born, whom I have brought out of the wilderness of mine afflictions, may the Lord bless thee forever, for thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed.”
4:“For behold, thou art thefruit of my loins; and I am a descendant of Joseph who was carried captive into Egypt. And great were the covenants of the Lord which he made unto Joseph.”
These covenants can be found in Genesis 41:52, 48:21, and 50:24-25.
5: “Wherefore, Joseph truly saw our day. And he obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of darkness unto light—yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom.”
No, absolutely none of this took place. Joseph did not see any visions of any of the people in the Book of Mormon. If this were true, it would have been in in ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament. No such passages exist.
6:“For Joseph truly testified, saying: A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins.”
7:“Yea, Joseph truly said: Thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers.”
That’s right, folks. Not only did Joseph Smith have an unhealthy obsession with other people’s loins, but he uncovered quite the grand prophecy of himself. Written on plates no one ever saw. That only he was able to translate. That an angel conveniently took back to heaven. That have never been seen since.
8: “And I will give unto him a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work.”
9 “And he shall be great like unto Moses, whom I have said I would raise up unto you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel.”
Only an egomaniac of the highest order would write a prophesy about himself and compare himself to Moses.
10: “And Moses will I raise up, to deliver thy people out of the land of Egypt.”
Oh, yeah. That guy. But back to the real star:
11:“But a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins—and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them.
12: “Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of theloins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.”
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
13: “And out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring thee, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.”
14: “And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise;”
15:“And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation.”
Salvation can never be found in a religion that contains so many lies, especially lies about God (see my previous post “Thanks, I Hate it” for more details on that).
16: “Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever.”
The Lord said no such thing.
17: “And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him.”
18: “And the Lord said unto me also: I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it.”
Smith wanted to be Moses so badly that he also wrote a prophecy about his very own Aaron. Most Mormons interpret this to mean Oliver Cowdery, who served as one of Smith’s scribes while writing the Book of Mormon. See Exodus 6:28-7:2 to see what I mean.
19: “And the words which he shall write shall be the words which are expedient in my wisdom should go forth unto the fruit of thy loins. And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust; for I know their faith.”
20: “And they shall cry from the dust; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even after many generations have gone by them. And it shall come to pass that their cry shall go, even according to the simpleness of their words.”
So, this is a prophecy about the Book of Mormon. Written in the Book of Mormon… and nowhere else in history.
21: “Because of their faith their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren who are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenant which I made unto thy fathers.”
22: “And now, behold, my son Joseph, after this manner did my father of old prophesy.”
No one prophesied any of this.
23: “Wherefore, because of this covenant thou art blessed; for thy seed shall not be destroyed, for they shall hearken unto the words of the book.”
24: “And there shall rise up one mighty among them, who shall do much good, both in word and in deed, being an instrument in the hands of God, with exceeding faith, to work mighty wonders, and do that thing which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much restoration unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren.”
Someone certainly had high opinions of himself. See Delusional Disorder for more information.
25: “And now, blessed art thou, Joseph. Behold, thou art little; wherefore hearken unto the words of thy brother, Nephi, and it shall be done unto thee even according to the words which I have spoken. Remember the words of thy dying father. Amen.”
You know what? I’m not even mad at this mess. I can’t take this chapter seriously enough to get upset over it. I think Mark Twain described it best when he declared it to be “chloroform in print.” This delightful description, as well as his other opinions on the Book of Mormon, are found in chapter 16 of his book “Roughing It,” which you can read here: MT on the Mormons.
If I never read the phrase “fruit of thy loins” or any other variation again, I’ll consider it a win.
I would highly recommend reading my previous post, “The Devil is in the Details” before proceeding with this one. The concepts of hell and the devil are also used anachronistically in this chapter, and I delved into those issues at length previously. I see no need to repeat myself, especially when there are new issues that will take us on quite a theological roller coaster. We will see Lehi addressing his son, Jacob, and will catch a glimpse of Joseph Smith’s terribly warped views of the Fall.
2 Nephi, Chapter 2
Redemption comes through the Holy Messiah. Freedom of choice (agency) is essential to existence and progression. Adam fell that men might be. Men are free to choose liberty and eternal life. About 588-570 B.C.
1: “And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of they brethren.”
2: “Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.”
That strikes me as a strange phrase. To consecrate means to set something apart as holy. We know that God can use things for His greater purposes, as Romans 8:28 states: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” While we can see that God can word through afflictions and trials of various kinds, it’s quite different to call the afflictions and trials themselves as set apart for holiness. While there are numerous examples of God bringing good out of evil circumstances throughout the Old Testament, this concept is not plainly stated until the New Testament.
3: “Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brother, Nephi; and thy days shall be spent in the service of God. Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men.”
4: “And thou has beheld in thy youth his glory; wherefore, thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh; for the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And they way is prepared from the fall of man, and salvation is free.”
We know salvation in the Old Testament was possible through faith (Gen 15:6, Isaiah 12:2, Hab. 2:4), but the description of salvation as a free gift was not developed until the New Testament. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 2:8-9 also reinforces this idea: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”
5: “And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever.”
6: “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.”
The phrase “Holy Messiah” is never used in the Bible. We can conclude after the fact that the Messiah is holy because he is referred to as “the Messiah” in the Old Testament (Daniel 9:25-26) and “the Holy One of God,” or just “Holy One” in the New Testament (Mark 1:24, Acts 3:14). However, the combination of those two words is specific to the Book of Mormon.
7: “Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.”
Jesus being our sacrifice to fulfill the law (or, as it is put here, to answer the ends of the law) was another concept not realized until the New Testament. Matthew 5:17-20 states, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” In Romans 10:4, we see that “Christ is the end of the law…” See Galations 3:19-26, 1 Peter 2:22, and Hebrews 10:1-10 for more information.
8: “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.”
It is true the Christ was “made alive in the Spirit,” per 1 Peter 3:18. Romans 8:11 ties this concept neatly into our salvation, stating, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells in you.” The concept of the resurrection of the dead is also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:16. Interestingly enough, this concept is also prophesied about in Daniel 12:2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” See also Isaiah 26:19. This is one of the EXCEPTIONALLY rare times when the Book of Mormon doesn’t contradict the Bible or discuss New Testament concepts in an inappropriate era.
9: “Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.”
Jesus is called the “first fruits of those who are asleep” in 1 Corinthians 15:20. Verses 21-22 go on to say, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” The idea of Jesus being the first fruit has its roots in the Old Testament (Leviticus 23:10-12). When the Israelites entered the promised land, they were to bring the first sheaves of the harvest to the priest to wave before God, symbolizing the dedication of the rest of the harvest to God. Along with this, a 1-year-old male lamb with no imperfections or flaws of any kind had to be sacrificed. This was a foreshadowing of Jesus, a perfect and sinless man who was both fully human and fully God, serving as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and being the first to be raised from the dead in order to pave the way for eternal life for everyone who believes in him.
However, this concept of Jesus as the first fruits wasn’t developed until the New Testament. Jesus as our intercessor is also never mentioned in the Old Testament. See Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25, 1 Timothy 2:5, and 1 John 2:1 for more information.
10: “And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement –“
Final judgment by God was mentioned once in the Old Testament in Ecclesiastes 12:14: “For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” All other references of this event are in the New Testament. See Matt 25:46, John 12:48, 2 Cor. 5:10, Heb. 9:27, and Rev. 20:11-15. The rest of verse 10 is a jumbled mess and I’m unable to fully understand what Smith was trying to convey besides punishment of some sort. I’m not even sure he understood what he was trying to convey.
11: “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn of the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.”
I’m just going to go on ahead and say it: this is insanity; utter, complete insanity. All we have to do is look to the creation narrative in the beginning of Genesis to see there was absolutely goodness and righteousness without the presence of evil in the Garden of Eden. After creating various things, God called them “good.” He did not in turn create things he deemed bad because there needed to be opposition. While it’s true that God created Lucifer, he did NOT create him to be Satan. He did not create His own enemy because He needed opposition or balance. Lucifer chose to become Satan. You can read more about this in Isaiah 14:12-14, Ezekiel 28:12-18, Luke 10:18, and Rev. 12:7-9.
While the capacity for evil was always present, that doesn’t mean evil itself was. And it doesn’t mean God created evil, because he didn’t. People who believe He did often cite Isaiah 45:7, which, in the KJV says, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” The Hebrew word here, however, is “ra’,”which has various meanings and is translated as “calamity” in modern translations. In contrast, Hab. 1:13, tells us, “Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor…” James 1:13 states, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” While I don’t want to get too far off into the woods here, I will say that God is “ruled,” if you will, by His own nature. He cannot act in ways that are outside the realm of logical and natural possibility. Take, for instance, the question, “Can God create a rock so heavy that He can’t lift it?” That is not a valid question, because it is logically absurd. I can say, “God can purple dinosaur triangular silliness.” That sentence, which isn’t actually a sentence at all, does not magically become anything other than illogical gobbledygook just because I affixed the words “God can” in front of it. Thus, a righteous God cannot act against Himself by creating something that He cannot look upon.
12: “Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.”
13: “And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment or misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.”
The only true thing in the midst of that strange verse above is that we wouldn’t be here without a God to create us. The idea that if there is no good or bad in the world then there could be no God is also terribly erroneous. God does not need the world to exist. He does not need opposition, as I stated before. He is completely self-sustaining and doesn’t need anything else in order to exist.
14: “And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them, both things to act and things to be acted upon.”
While I’m already appalled at what I’m reading here, I’d also like to point out something else: not capitalizing “Him” or “He” when speaking about God. Give Him the respect He deserves.
15: “And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.”
He didn’t create the forbidden fruit because there needed to be an opposite of the tree of life. He simply gave Adam and Eve free will to choose to either obey or disobey Him. Love and obedience are neither of those things unless they are freely chosen. He created humans to have a relationship with Him, as evidenced by Genesis 3:8, when Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” If they knew what God sounded like in the Garden of Eden, then that means God visiting them was a regular occurrence, giving a glimpse of the deeply close, personal relationship He had with them.
The phrase “And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man” hints at where this is going, and I don’t like it one bit.
16: “Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.”
17: “And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that an angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God.”
Lehi would not have had access to the Old Testament writings concerning Lucifer’s fall. Chapters 13 and 14 in Isaiah were likely written after Babylon had become the main threat to Isreal, near the end of the 7th century B.C. If Lehi and his family left Jerusalem for the wilderness around 600 B.C. as 1 Nephi 2 purports then arrived in the Americas between 591-589 B.C, then it’s incredibly unlikely, even impossible, that Lehi would have read that passage. See here for more details: First Isaiah → Historical Context – Study Guide – Yale Bible Study He definitely wouldn’t have had access to the Book of Ezekiel, which was written around 590-570 B.C. Biblical literature – Prophecy, Poetry, & Parables | Britannica. This is simply another instance of Joseph Smith trying desperately to convince readers that the Book of Mormon was an ancient text.
18: “And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
See my previous post “The Devil is in the Details” for an in-depth discussion of why these concepts are not appropriate for this time period. He is also not called the “father of all lies” until the New Testament in John 8:44.
19: “And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth.”
20: “And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the earth.”
21: “And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents.”
There is no hint in the Bible that the reason people lived so long in Genesis is because God wanted them to repent. It’s more likely they lived so long because it was so soon after the fall. Sickness, disease, genetic weaknesses, and other physical frailties that lead to death in old age hadn’t taken hold yet. It is also possible that God allowed such long lives so the earth could become more populated. Their long lives also would have solidified the knowledge of the fall and its consequences through oral tradition. There are a lot of different theories discussing these lifespans, none of which make any mention at all of the need for repentance as being a reason. You can read about some of these ideas here: Why Did People in Genesis Live for So Long? | Tabletalk.
22: “And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.”
Yes. And that would have been a good thing.
23: “And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.”
And there you have it, folks: Joseph Smith is glorifying disobedience to God because of his completely false belief that it was necessary in order for humans to exist and live a fulfilling life. It’s quite interesting that he assumed Adam and Eve didn’t experience joy at getting to walk with God in the garden. While I’ve already addressed why evil wouldn’t have been necessary at all for the world, I’d like to now turn my attention to Smith’s bizarre ideas regarding sex and procreation.
Let’s start with the basic premise that God created Eve for Adam. We see this in Genesis 2:18, where God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” We then see in verse 21 and 22 where God caused Adam to fall asleep and fashioned a woman out of his rib. After this, God “brought her to the man.” We see Adam’s delight when he says, in verse 23: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” It is then clarified in verse 24-25: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” As we see, a beautiful, perfect, loving union between a man and a woman was God’s original design for us. There was no sexual shame between Adam and Eve in regards to their nakedness. They were made to enjoy one another on a spiritual and physical level.
We also see how ridiculous Smith’s idea is that they could not have had children without sinning in Genesis 1:28, when God commands Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it…” If the fall was necessary for sex and procreation, God would not have told them to do this until after the fall. Another clear indication of this is in Genesis 3:16 when God lays a curse on Eve, saying, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children…” God’s declaration that he would “greatly multiply” the pain of childbirth after she had sinned means that having children was expected before the fall. Insisting otherwise means viewing sex as inherently sinful when it isn’t. God created it. God does not create inherently bad or wicked things, as I demonstrated earlier in this post.
24: “But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.”
So, God created Adam and Eve so they would disobey Him and sin? He created them and gave them no way to experience joy unless they rebelled against Him? That’s unhinged. And completely blasphemous.
25: Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”
So Adam took one for the team and rebelled against God so we could all be happy? How noble. This chapter hinges on the completely false premise that evil is necessary for good to exist. The God in the Book of Mormon is absolutely not the God of the Bible. The Book of Mormon God created them with no way to experience joy or to know holiness and righteousness without first sinning then being cursed and banished from His presence. That God is quite the diabolical monster, andnot one that I would be remotely interested in serving. I am grateful that that isn’t who He is.
26: “And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.”
Per Genesis 3:22, the knowledge of good an evil was not a positive thing for mankind: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever…” God then banishes them from the Garden of Eden, and therefore the tree of life, and places an angel with a flaming sword to guard the entrance, never to allow man to eat of that fruit again. God is the arbiter of what is good and what is bad. If God does not view the fall positively, then neither should we, no matter how much Joseph Smith thought we should.
27: “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient to man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.”
Well, I’m certainly miserable after having read this flaming dumpster fire of a chapter.
28: “And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit;”
God is never called a mediator in the Old Testament. This is a New Testament concept that conveys Jesus as our mediator. See 1 Timothy 2:5, Galatians 3:19-20, Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, and 12:24 for more information on this.
29: “And choose not eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.”
Hell is not Satan’s kingdom. He rules absolutely nothing there, nor will he. See my post “Satan Isn’t in Charge of Hell. Obviously” for a more in-depth discussion.
30: “I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my probation; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen.”
Theologically speaking, this was probably the worst chapter in the Book of Mormon thus far. I recall a quote by Joseph Smith on the introduction page of this wretched book: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” I have repeatedly demonstrated thus far the massive historical, chronological, and theological issues, rendering it a far cry from “the most correct of any book on earth.” Even worse, the Book of Mormon will absolutely not get you “nearer to God by abiding by its precepts.” It will do the opposite. A well-meaning Mormon friend of mine once stated that the Bible and the Book of Mormon were like study guides for a test. The more study guides you have, the better you’ll do on the test, he reasoned. The Book of Mormon is a faulty study guide. If you rely on it in any way, you will fail the test, and that has eternal consequences. This chapter specifically has told horrible lies about the character of God; ones that you cannot believe in order to be a Christian. Joshua 24:15 states, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” I implore you all to choose wisely.
One interesting thing about working on this blog is that I catch things later on that I missed earlier. Hell and the devil are mentioned in previous chapters of the Book of Mormon, but it wasn’t until this book and chapter that I realized there are issues with these words and concepts in this context. This will be the primary issue addressed in this post. Other problematic themes in this chapter have already been addressed in previous posts. Other sections are simply not particularly noteworthy because they contain conditional prophecies that Joseph Smith easily fabricated, as evidenced by the conditions not being met and the prophecy not coming to fruition. I will give minimal attention to those portions. I will be using my NASB Hebrew-Greek Keyword Study Bible (AMG Publishers) to delve further into the concepts of hell and the devil.
The Second Book of Nephi
An account of the death of Lehi. Nephi’s brethren rebel against him. the Lord warns Nephi to depart into the wilderness. his journeyings in the wilderness, and so forth.
2 Nephi, Chapter 1
Lehi prophesies of a land of liberty. His seed will be scattered and smitten if they reject the Holy One of Israel. He exhorts his sons to put on the armor of righteousness. About 588-570 B.C.
1: “And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of teaching my brethren, our father, Lehi, also spake many things unto them, and rehearsed unto them, how great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem.”
2: “And he spake unto them concerning their rebellion upon the waters, and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that they were not swallowed up in the sea.”
3: “And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained- how merciful the Lord had been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem.”
In my previous post, “An Implausible Discovery,” I go into more detail about how there was only one promised land for the Israelites, not two. God clearly laid out the boundaries for this promised land, and it absolutely did not include the Americas.
4: “For behold, said he, I have seen a vision, in which I know that Jerusalem is destroyed; and had we remained in Jerusalem we should have also perished.”
It is true that the Babylonian captivity and Destruction of Jerusalem took place around 586 B.C. This reported vision would be remarkable if the elusive gold plates were available for examination by scholars and were found to be ancient. As we all know, however, Joseph Smith claimed the plates were taken back to heaven. In light of the fact that no other source on earth records these events and no one else, not even the 11 witnesses, actually physically saw the plates, the only logical conclusion I am left to draw is the Book of Mormon is a fabrication from the mind of someone living in the 19th century. This verse, then, cannot be seen as some sort of divine revelation to Lehi, but as a piece of knowledge known to someone who wrote this book because it had already happened over a couple thousand years prior. For more information on the 11 witnesses, see this: Did the Eleven Witnesses Actually See the Gold Plates? – Mormonism Research Ministry
Verses 5-12 describe Lehi declaring this promised land has been set aside and consecrated for his descendants. He reports that as long they obey God’s commandments, God will keep it hidden from other nations, so they won’t overrun it. However, should they disobey God and abandon Him, other nations will arrive and overtake his descendants. He prophesies wars and bloodshed. In my previous post “The Great and Abominable Church Revisited,” I cite research that affirms there were indigenous tribes in the Americas thousands of years before the events in the books of Nephi were purported to have taken place. So, the assertion that God was keeping this continent hidden from everyone else because it was the promised land for Lehi and his descendants is quite silly.
13: “O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the deep sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.”
14: “Awake! And arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth.”
15: “But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.”
If the LDS church wishes for us to view the Book of Mormon as an adjunct to the Bible, then it is only proper to compare and contrast the word and concept of hell between the two. This is where we will see the shortcomings of the KJV in comparison with more modern translations. The KJV does use the word “hell” in the Old Testament, but more modern translations, based upon more numerous and better-quality ancient manuscripts, use the word “Sheol,” which carries more nuance. Per the Hebrew dictionary of my study Bible, Sheol is “A noun meaning the world of the dead, Sheol, the grave, death, the depths. The word describes the underworld but is most often translated as grave. Jacob described himself as going to the grave upon Joseph’s supposed death (Gen. 37:35; 42:38); Korah, Dathan, and Abiram went down into the ground, which becomes their grave, when God judges them (Num. 16:30,33)… The word means depths or Sheol. Job called the ways of the Almighty higher than heaven and lower than Sheol or the depths of the earth (Job 11:8). The psalmist could not escape the Lord even in the lowest depths of the earth, in contrast to the high heavens (Ps 139:8).” This dictionary also points out that Sheol can also be a place for the wicked and that the righteous were not left in the grave or Sheol (Ps 16:10) but were rescued from it (Ps 49:15-16). By Contrast, the Hebrew word for a literal grave where someone is buried (such as what appears in Ps 88:11 and many other places) is qeber. So, we can see there are differences between these two words and concepts. I promise I’m getting to my point.
On the surface, his use of these words doesn’t appear to be that big of a deal. Joseph Smith made a very bad decision, however, when he employed the phrase “eternal gulf of misery and woe.” Notice the definitions of the Hebrew words that I gave above. Pay very closeattention to what they’re missing: a definition that includes a place of eternal torment. While the KJV uses the word hell, which is the English translation Smith would have had access to at the time, it goes to follow that he would also use that word. What he did not realize, however, is that he misused it in verses 13 and 15. The concept of hell as a place of eternal torment was not introduced until the New Testament.
In the New Testament, the word hell is used in modern translations. You will find its use in numerous verses in the New Testament, such as Matthew 10: 28: “And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 5:22 and 25:41,46 describe it as a place of eternal fire and punishment. These are only a few examples. The Greek word geenna means Gehenna, which is hell, a place of eternal torment and punishment for the wicked. This word has a fascinating history. Per my Greek dictionary, it was derived from the Hebrew word “gey hinnom,” or “Valley of Hinnom,” which was a narrow valley skirting Jerusalem on the south, running westward from the valley of Jehoshaphat under Mount Zion. It was in this valley that the Israelites built statues of Molech and engaged in the barbaric practice of infant sacrifice (1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 16:3; Jer. 7:31). King Josiah broke up the statues and desecrated this place, as reported in 2 Kings 23:10, 14. After this, it became a receptacle for not just garbage and filth, but for carcasses of animals and some humans that were not buried. Fires were burned and constantly stoked to consume the filth and rot. I don’t even want to imagine the smell.
So, there are some things you know now. And now you know why Smith’s use of the word “hell” in this instance doesn’t make much sense. Verses 16 and 17 consist of Lehi telling his sons how much he worries about them not obeying God.
18: “Or, that a cursing should come upon you for the space of many generations; and ye are visited by the sword, and by famine, and are hated, and are led according to the will and captivity of the devil.”
Here, we will see another instance of Smith using a New Testament concept during an Old Testament time period. We will also see the difference between the KJV and modern translations. The word “devil” actually doesn’t appear in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament. The KJV uses this word, but not to describe a singular, cosmic foe of God and humanity. An example of this is Leviticus 17:7: “And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.” By contrast, the NASB states, “And they shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to demons with which they play the harlot…” The Hebrew word used here is “saiyr,” which means, per my dictionary, “a male goat, a buck. Occasionally, the word can be used figuratively to mean a hairy one.” At this point in Scripture, the Israelites were worshipping the goat as an idol. This same word is used in 2 Ch. 11:15. To translate this word as “demons,” then, denotes that the false idols they were worshipping were actually unholy entities.
The KJV uses the word “devils” again in Deut. 32:17: “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.” The NASB again uses the word “demons” instead. In this instance, the Hebrew word is “shed,” which means “a demon, a devil. The primary or typical translation of this noun is demon or demons. This noun is used to describe the recipient of a sacrifice that was not given or directed toward God.” So, again, the instances when “devils” are used are not describing a singular foe.
The Old Testament, however, does use the word “satan,” but not always as a proper noun to describe what we know today as Satan. The Hebrew use of “satan” often appears after the article “the,” so it’s actually “the satan.” In this sense, it means “adversary, accuser,” and can actually include human opponents, as we see in 1 Sa 29:4, 2 Sa 19:22-23, when the Philistines feared David might have acted in opposition to them in battle. A very notable appearance of this word as a proper noun occurs 14 times in the book of Job, when he appears before God and accuses Job of not loving or serving God with integrity (Job 1:6-7, 2:1-7). In this instance, as well as in Zec 3:1-2 and 2 Sam 24:1, we see that a singular, evil, adversarial entity exists who opposes God, but we still don’t know much about him until the New Testament. I will point out that some scholars argue that the proper noun “Satan” never occurs in the Old Testament and English translations have it wrong, while others (including the committee responsible for publishing my study Bible) will support what I have just said here.
In the New Testament, “Devil” is used as a proper noun to describe a singular, specific evil being. It comes from the Greek word “diabolos,” which means “slanderous or false accuser.” The word Satan is also used as a proper noun to denote the same entity and the two are used interchangeably. He is mentioned so many times in the New Testament that it’s impossible for me to list all the references, but a few are Matt. 4:1, John 8:44, 2 Corinthians 11:14. We learn much more about him in the New Testament, and we also learn in Revelation 12:9 that he is who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden: “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
As you can see, while the concept of an adversarial entity was present in the Old Testament, he was not called the devil, and the concept of him as the ultimate evil and foe of God and humanity wasn’t fully developed until the New Testament.
Verses 19 and 20 repeat the conditional prophecy that if they keep God’s commandments, they’ll prosper; but if they don’t, they’ll be cut off and defeated. Obviously, lots of people came from other places to the Americas and did some pretty egregious things to the native populations, so we’re naturally expected to believe that this was a real prophecy that came true. In verses 21 and 22, Lehi again admonishes his sons to obey God.
23: “Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.”
“The armor of righteousness” is another phrase that doesn’t appear until the New Testament. The closest Old Testament reference to something similar is found in Isaiah 59:17: “And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; And he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.” This verse, of course, is a prophecy describing Jesus. Putting on the armor of righteousness or the armor of God is specifically a Christian concept described in the New Testament as believers equipping themselves to face the trials of this world. You can read about this concept in more detail in 2 Cor. 6:7 and especially in Eph. 6:13-18.
Verses 24-30 are basically Lehi demanding his other sons be nice to Nephi and listen to him, or he won’t give them their blessing. 30-32 consists of Lehi specifically addressing Zoram, the former servant of Laban, who came with them to this new land. He tells him that his descendants will also be blessed alongside the descendants of Nephi, as long as they keep God’s commandments.
I hope you all had as much fun with that little linguistics adventure as I did. I will be continuing this journey another day after my little ADHD brain has a proper rest. Till next time.
This is the final chapter of 1 Nephi. I’m going to be thankful that it is much shorter than the Bible, because this is a bigger undertaking than I initially realized. Throughout this journey, I am constantly reminded of the old adage, “If It’s true, it’s not new. If it’s new, it’s not true.” This statement, of course, is a warning against new theologies or new ways of interpreting Scripture. As Christians, we know the Bible is the ultimate authority on spiritual and theological truths. We can do one of two things with teachings that contradict it: 1) ignore them completely, or 2) study them for research purposes only in the hope that we can bring truth to those who subscribe to them. Our ultimate goal should always be to point people to the true Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, which consists of three co-existing, co-eternal, and co-equal persons that make up one God. He is not Satan’s spirit brother. He is not the offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. He is God incarnate. To assign him a status as anything less is heresy.
1 Nephi Chapter 22
Israel will be scattered upon all the face of the earth. The Gentiles will nurse and nourish Israel with the gospel in the last days. Israel will be gathered and saved, and the wicked will burn as stubble. The kingdom of the devil will be destroyed, and Satan will be bound. About 588-570 B.C.
1: “And now it came to pass that I, Nephi, had read these things which were engraven upon the plates of brass, my brethren came unto me and said unto me: What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold, are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh?”
As I clearly laid out in my previous post, Nephi is claiming he read Isaiah 48 and 49 on the brass plates, which is impossible because Isaiah 40-55 hadn’t been written yet. See the post titled “A Chronological Impossibility” for more information. I have cited my research there.
2: “And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet by the voice of the Spirit; for by the Spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh.”
3: “Wherefore, the things of which I have read are things pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual; for it appears that the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among the nations.”
There are numerous prophecies in the Old Testament about the Israelites being scattered throughout the world. These can be found in Deut. 4:25-30, 28:64-67, Hosea 9:1-3, 17, Jeremiah 18:15-17, Amos 9:8-9, and Ezekiel 22:14-15, just to name a few.
4: “And behold, there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea; and whither they are none of us knoweth, save that we know they have been led away.”
This doesn’t match what was happening in the Old Testament during this time period. We know that they were being scattered around the middle east, but not “to and fro upon the isles of the sea.” My speculation is that phrase was added to include Nephi and his family in the Americas. The Assyrians conquered and carried away the Northern Kingdom before Nephi’s departure to the Americas. After a lengthy conflict, King Sargon II defeated the capital city of Samaria around 721 B.C. Many Israelites were slaughtered, while thousands were taken captive and resettled. See for more information: The Ten Lost Tribes – Biblical Archaeology Society and Assyrian Deportation and Resettlement: The Story of Samaria – TheTorah.com.
The remaining tribe of Judah was defeated and taken captive by Babylon around 586 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered the total destruction of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple Solomon had built. He forced King Zedekiah to witness the execution of his sons before having his eyes gouged out. He and thousands of others were marched to Babylon in chains. For more information, see What Was the Babylonian Exile and Why Should I Care? – St. Paul Center. So, this would have happened around the same time Nephi and his family supposedly arrived in the Americas. While the Israelites were certainly scattered, I don’t think we can say it was nearly as widespread across the earth as this passage of Nephi implies.
5: “And since they have been led away, these things have been prophesied concerning them, and also concerning all those who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded, because of the Holy One of Israel; for against him will they harden their hearts; wherefore, they shall be scattered among the nations and shall be hated of all men.”
Nothing particularly noteworthy here. The Old Testament, as mentioned before, has similar prophecies.
6: “Nevertheless, after they shall be nursed by the Gentiles, and the Lord has lifted up his hand upon the Gentiles and set them up for a standard, and their children have been carried in their arms, and their daughters have been carried upon their shoulders, behold these things of which are spoken are temporal; for thus are the covenants of the Lord with our fathers; and it meaneth us in the days to come, and also all our brethren who are of the house of Israel.”
There are most definitely Old Testament prophecies concerning the salvation of Gentiles: Genesis 12:3, 22:18, Deut. 32:43, Isaiah, 2:2-3, 49:6, 56:3-7, Psalm 22:27-28, Zechariah 2:11, Malachi 1:11, and Micah 4:1-2. There are also verses that discuss the Gentiles assisting in bringing Jews back to God. The verbiage in verse 6 here resembles Isaiah 49:22-23, which reads: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” If you recall from my previous post, this was plagiarized and put into 1 Nephi 21, which would be why verse 6 uses similar phrasing. Other verses prophesying the Gentiles’ assistance in bringing the Jews back to God are Isaiah 60:3-11, 66:18-21, and Zechariah 8:23.
7: “And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and confounded, that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land; and by them shall our seed be scattered.”
So, there are conflicting ideas about what this “mighty nation” is. Scripture Central, a very well-known pro-LDS source, insists that it was the Spanish Empire. Their argument is that Spain, at one time, controlled portions of the Americas and enslaved Indigenous peoples and exported them to other regions, such as the Caribbean. The author of that article argues against it being the United States because the US wasn’t a prominent world power in 1830. You can read that article here: What “Mighty Nation among the Gentiles” Would Scatter Lehi’s.
Another well-known pro-LDS source called Gospel Doctrine argues that the “mighty nation” is the United States. That article’s author points to the phrase “even upon the face of this land” as support for this idea and points to the US government’s treatment of the Native Americans as the scattering of the house of Isreal. You can read that article here: 1 Nephi 22 | Gospel Doctrine. It’s important to note that neither of these websites are run by the official LDS church.
I could certainly go down a pointless rabbit hole regarding which of these theories is more plausible, but that would be a complete waste of time, because they’re both absurd. Both of these articles presuppose that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are descendants of ancient Jews. This idea, of course, is ridiculous and is not supported by reality. There is not a single shred of ancient middle eastern or Hebrew DNA in any indigenous populations in America. They were descended from ancient east Asians and North Eurasians that were in the Americas for thousands of years before the events in the Book of Mormon were purported to have taken place. You can read a brief summary of this history here: A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas – SAPIENS. The lack of middle eastern DNA in Native American populations is not new information, as this article in an LDS publication in 2003 points out: Simply Implausible: DNA and a Mesoamerican Setting for the Book of Mormon – Dialogue Journal. Some Mormon apologists, however, still cling to the delusional hope that ancient Hebrew DNA will be found in Native American populations, despite extensive genetic studies. Others insist the data is somehow skewed. In either case, they demonstrate a profound unwillingness to accept reality.
Verses 8 through 12 are expounding upon what has already been said here and contain nothing noteworthy.
13: “And the blood of that great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn upon their own heads; for they shall war among themselves, and the sword of their own hands shall fall upon their own heads, and they shall be drunk with their own blood.”
14: “And every nation which shall war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another, and they shall fall into the pit which they digged to ensnare the people of the Lord. And all that fight against Zion shall be destroyed, and that great whore, who hath perverted the right ways of the Lord, yea, that great and abominable church, shall tumble to the dust and great shall be the fall of it.”
My, Joseph Smith really hated Christians. Not only does he make his absolute disdain known in these verses that label any church but his as “the whore of all the earth,” but he has famously called the teachings of Christianity abominable. In one account of his first vision, he reports the God told him every sect of Christianity was wrong, calling all their creeds “an abomination.” He further described all Christian teachers as corrupt. You can read this quote in verse 19 and his account of his first vision here: Joseph Smith—History 1. He preached heavily against the Trinity, a foundational doctrine of Christianity. He also taught that men could become gods themselves. You can read these heretical quotes and others here: Quotations from Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith – Mormonism Research Ministry. It also bears mentioning again that the word “church” didn’t exist in the Old Testament, because it is a Christian concept that did not come into being until the New Testament.
Out of curiosity and in the interest of fairness, I decided to research what Mormons believe this “great and abominable church” is. In the 1958 edition of his book, “Mormon Doctrine,” Apostle Bruce R. McConkie insisted the church described in these 1 Nephi passages is the Catholic Church, which is what I originally speculated in my post titled “What Have You Got Against Catholics?” McConkie’s teaching, of course, soured relations between Mormons and Catholics, which, let’s be honest, probably weren’t that great to begin with. Rather than apologize, however, he was reportedly rebuked in private, and later editions of “Mormon Doctrine” took a softer approach to defining what constituted the “great and abominable church.” You can view a neat and tidy comparison of the different editions here: Mormon Doctrine: Catholicism – Wheat & Tares.
In the abstract of a paper titled, “Nephi’s Great and Abominable Church,” authored by Stephen E. Robinson, the more acceptable definition is “avoiding a denominational name, Hellenized Christianity.” You can read that abstract here: “Nephi’s “Great and Abominable Church”” by Stephen E. Robinson. What jumped out to me the most in this paragraph is this church “seeks wealth and luxury.” That is quite rich coming from the wealthiest religious organization in the world, according to multiple sources. Its entire wealth is estimated between at least 265-293 billion dollars (per a basic Google search), with a significant portion in a reserve fund managed by Ensign Peak Advisors, the financial investment arm of the LDS church. However, according to the Widow’s Mite Report, an organization that tries to track LDS finances due to their lack of transparency, their estimated net worth in 2025 could be as high as 321 billion. You can read much finer details here: 2025 Update. That report also contains evidence pointing to tax evasion by Ensign Peak Advisors and documentation related to the church’s SEC violations that resulted in a 5 million dollar fine. They essentially tried to lie about how much money they had and attempted to hide a portion of it in shell LLC’s.
I also found it quite amusing that “it is characterized by sexual immorality” was also included in the description of the great and abominable church in the aforementioned paper. I would love to delve into that topic, but I can only go down so many rabbit holes in a single blog post. I am certain I will have ample opportunity to discuss the abhorrent practice of polygamy that started with Joseph Smith. There is indeed a “great and abominable church,” and it isn’t the Catholic one.
Verses 15-28 is more end times prophesy concerning the destruction of the wicked and the protection of those who follow God.
29: “And now I, Nephi, make an end; for I durst not speak further as yet concerning these things.”
Thank goodness.
30: “Wherefore, my brethren, I would that ye should consider that the things which have been written upon the plates of brass are true; and they testify that a man must be obedient to the commandments of God.”
Yes, that’s right. The passages of Isaiah that weren’t written yet were definitely on the brass plates.
31: “Wherefore, ye need not suppose that I and my father are the only ones that have testified, and also taught them. Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day. And thus it is. Amen.”
Well, ladies and gent. One book down. Fourteen more to go.
I’ve heard many a Mormon insist that the Book of Mormon absolutely must have divine origins due to Joseph Smith’s lack of education (which they exaggerate), the short time in which it was “translated” (roughly 65 days), and how cohesive it is (even though it really isn’t, as we have seen thus far). If the Book of Mormon didn’t repeatedly contradict the Bible and documented historical facts, I and many others would probably be more willing to take the claim of its divinity a bit more seriously. However, that isn’t reality, and the fact that it was compiled in such a short time isn’t remarkable when you consider the amount of plagiarism in it and how Smith began telling these tales long before his supposed discovery of the golden plates. Over the course of four years, Smith claimed he was visited by the angel Moroni, and he would tell his family “the most amusing recitals” of ancient civilizations in the Americas. You can read more about this here: A Mother’s Testimony.
1 Nephi Chapter 21
The Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles and will free the prisoners. Israel will be gathered with power in the last days. Kings will be their nursing fathers. Compare Isaiah 49. About 588-570 BC.
1: “And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.”
Actually, this first verse in the KJV reads, “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.” There are several issues with this first verse in 1 Nephi 21. Everything before “Listen, O isles” is fabricated. Mormons will tell you this simply contains missing words from the original Isaiah 49. The problem is that assertion is based on absolutely nothing. No ancient manuscript contains additional phrases written in the Book of Mormon, not even the Dead Sea Scrolls. I think the phrase “that are scattered abroad, who are of my people” was simply added so these fictional Hebrews in the Americas could be included in this address.
Another glaring issue is the word “pastors,” which did not exist in the Old Testament. In fact, that word is only used once in the entire Bible, in Ephesians 4:11. Pastors are a Christian concept, not an ancient Hebrew one. Using New Testament concepts and language in an Old Testament era is an extremely common theme in the Book of Mormon, so we will certainly continue to see this issue.
It’s also interesting to note the timing of these two chapters. As reported in my previous post, most scholars believe Isaiah 40-55 was written during the Babylonian exile, which began around 586 BC. If Nephi wrote this chapter between 588-570 BC, that would mean he was either already in the Americas, on his way there, getting ready to depart, or was at least in the wilderness when the Babylonians carried the Israelites off into exile. He would not have had access to the writings of Isaiah during this time, even though chapter 22 claims these were written on the plates of brass that he decapitated Laban over. That lovely event took place in 1 Nephi, chapter 4, which, according to the introduction to that chapter, took place between 600-592 BC. According to Biblical scholarship, Isaiah 40-55 hadn’t even been written yet, much less engraved on brass plates. For more information on Isaiah, see this: Who Wrote the Book of Isaiah? | Zondervan Academic
8: “Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, O isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
The KJV reads: “Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;”. The phrase “O isles of the sea,” was added, probably to try and emphasize the inclusion of the fictitious Nephi and his descendants. Even if the Book of Mormon was true, that phrase would be redundant. They would naturally already be included in all prophesies by virtue of them being Israelites, and verse 1 in the KJV already addresses the “isles” and “people from far.”
There were quite a few more differences between these two chapters in the form of adding unnecessary phrases, but none of them altered the basic meaning of these passages. It reads more like a kid in junior high who is adding extra words here and there so his teacher doesn’t catch him plagiarizing someone else’s research.
The real smoking gun here is the chronological disaster in regard to when Isaiah 49 was written and when Nephi allegedly read it from the brass plates. It simply could not have happened. This is my first time reading through the Book of Mormon, and I’m writing these posts as I go through it. I initially thought it was presenting this chapter as if Nephi wrote it and it was strikingly similar to Isaiah 49 (as I also believed with the previous chapter). However, I skipped ahead briefly and saw the claim that he read all this from brass plates. That takes this chapter to highly unlikely to impossible.
I recently explained to a Mormon online what the purpose of my blog was. Another chimed in with, “So, you already had your mind made up when you started reading it? Scripture is like a map that tells us how to get closer to Christ. Do you type in an address to Google maps and try to debunk it right away?” This man’s comparison of Scripture to a map actually works quite well. To answer his question, I explained that I don’t debunk Google maps unless it gives me a reason to do so. I’m sure plenty of us are old enough to remember when GPS directions were fairly new. There were too many stories involving people refusing to engage any critical thinking skills at all. They were driving down closed roads, into fast-flowing creeks, and into snowbanks. Their answers were always the same: “Well, that’s where GPS said to go.” When a map is clearly leading you to something dangerous, it is objectively insane to keep following said map. The Book of Mormon is a faulty map. It will not lead you to Christ, but in the opposite direction. Insisting someone read it “with an open mind” then “ask Heavenly Father if it’s true,” is to insist that we ignore historical evidence and Biblical scholarship. If you hold fast to using the Book of Mormon as a map to Christ, well, that’s certainly your decision and I’m not going to try to stop you. My question from the very start of this blog has always been, “Is it Biblical?” The Book of Mormon clearly is not. However, all I can do is present evidence. What you, reader, decide to do with that evidence is entirely up to you.
1 Nephi Chapter 20
The Lord reveals His purpose to Israel. Israel has been chosen in the furnace of affliction and is to go forth from Babylon. Compare Isaiah 48. About 588-570 B.C.
1: “Hearken and hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, or out of the waters of baptism, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, yet they swear not in truth nor in righteousness.”
For this particular post, I will be using the KJV of Isaiah 48. It reads as follows: “Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.” We see here in Nephi that this verse has been altered in several ways, the most prominent being the addition of the phrase “or out of the waters of baptism.” This is significant because the word “baptism” did not exist in the Old Testament. The Christian practice of baptism absolutely has roots in Old Testament cleansing ceremonies, but the word was not used until the New Testament. This is yet another example of Smith’s use of New Testament language during and Old Testament era.
2: “Nevertheless, they call themselves of the holy city, but they do not stay themselves upon the God of Israel, who is the Lord of Hosts; yea, the Lord of Hosts is his name.”
This verse actually reads as follows: “For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is his name.” We see more alterations here in Nephi, the most obvious being the needless repetition for which the Book of Mormon is notorious. We don’t need to read “yea, the Lord of Hosts is his name” because we already read “… God of Isreal, who is the Lord of Hosts.” I even looked at the 1611 KJV, and that phrase isn’t in there, either. See for yourself: ISAIAH CHAPTER 48 (ORIGINAL 1611 KJV)
3: “Behold, I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them. I did show them suddenly.”
“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.” I’m not sure why Smith missed the opportunity to put that something else “came to pass,” a phrase that appears way too many times in the Book of Mormon. I’ve read some sources say it occurs around 2,000 times. Others say it’s around 1,400. No matter which one you believe, it still occurs significantly more than it does in the KJV (around 450). We can also see that Smith used the more modern spelling “show” instead of “shew.”
4: “And I did it because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;”
“Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;” is how the KJV reads. No significant difference here.
5: “And I have even from the beginning declared to thee; before it came to pass I showed them thee; and I showed them for fear lest thou shouldst say– Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them.”
Notice the change from “I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.” It’s strange that the words “for fear” appear before “lest thou.” Psalm 7:11 in the KJV states, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” It hardly makes sense that a God who is angry with the wicked everyday does anything “for fear lest…” This passage in Isaiah is God speaking to Israel and declaring that He showed them things before they happened so they wouldn’t have an excuse to give their idols credit for them.
6: “Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye not declare them? And that I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.”
“Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.” Again, there are no significant changes to this verse. However, the slight changes are beginning to remind me of a junior high kid plagiarizing an essay and changing words here and there to make it look like he didn’t. The rest of this chapter follows this same pattern. There are subtle changes in phrasing and wording, but nothing that alters the meanings of each verse.
What’s odd to me, though, is why this chapter is even included in Nephi at all. It doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of it. According the 1 Nephi narrative, He and his family are all in the Americas now. Why would he be writing down prophesies clearly meant for Israelites who are still on the old continent? The prophet Isaiah lived in the 8th century B.C (see for more information: When Was Isaiah Written: A Comprehensive Guide to the Origin of This Biblical Book – Ministry Voice). Now, chapters 40-55 are sometimes called “Deutero- Isaiah” by some scholars, because they believe it may have been written at a different time and maybe even by a different author than Isaiah. In this theory, that would mean Isaiah 48 would have been written around the Babylonian exile, which would be around 586 BC. If 1 Nephi 20 was written around 588 BC, that means this was supposedly authored either 2 years before or around the same time.
I personally think it looks like Smith simply shoehorned it in in an attempt to legitimize the Book of Mormon. “Look! See? The Book of Mormon MUST be ancient and from God! It has an almost verbatim chapter from Isaiah in it!” The issue here, of course, is that the veracity of the Book of Mormon rests solely on one man who was a known charlatan (see 1826 Trial). There are more than 100 sworn statements, collected by D.P. Hurlbut in 1833, from early friends and neighbors of Smith in the vicinities of Palmyra, New York, and Harmony, Pennsylvania testifying to what scoundrels the Smith family were. You can read some of them in Fawn Brodie’s “No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith” in Appendix A, page 432. You can also view them here: Hurlbut and Isaac Hale Affidavits, Mormonism Unvailed,(Unveiled) Ed Howe, Chapter 17. Mormon apologists dismiss this all as anti-Mormon rhetoric, pointing to the fact that Hurlbut had been excommunicated and openly hostile towards the Smiths before collecting these affidavits at the behest of a committee in Kirtland, OH. You can read an LDS apologist’s thoughts here: The Hurlbut affidavits – FAIR. I have no trouble believing he had an axe to grind with Joseph and his family. I’m not even suggesting that Hurlbut (that’s quite the last name) was a virtuous character. However, the sheer number of statements shouldn’t be so easily discarded. If it were only a handful, then I would suggest taking it with a grain of salt. But over 100? That’s another story. Hurlbut’s personal vendetta does not negate the fact that over 100 people who personally knew the Smith family were willing to attach their names to legal documents testifying to their unsavory character.
There’s also the matter of the banking scandal that took place in Kirtland, OH. Smith essentially opened an “Anti-Banking Company” and lied about how much money they had to fund it. You can read all about that fun little excursion here: Kirtland Bank. In Nauvoo, he also practiced polygamy in secret while telling everyone else that he wasn’t. See this for more reading: Examining Mormonism’s Founder: The What-Did-Joseph-Smith-Lie-About Approach – Mormonism Research Ministry. Even the LDS Church admits that he practiced it but only introduced the notion to a few close associates and basically told them to keep it to themselves: Joseph Smith and Plural Marriage.
This is the person the LDS church insists was a prophet of God. This is the person they passionately claim translated gold plates that we don’t have into a book that contradicts the Bible and documented historical facts. It’s a bad map, ladies and gentlemen. And I won’t be following its directions.
I’m back at it again, ladies and gentlemen. After a hiatus from blogging about the Book of Mormon, I decided I simply couldn’t stay away. Some have asked me why I care about this so much. I have two simple answers to this. The first is that I care about the truth, especially if it has eternal consequences. There are major deviations in the Book of Mormon and the Bible, which I have demonstrated and will continue to. Even the seemingly small, oddball anachronisms and logistical issues have major implications. If the Book of Mormon cannot get historical details correct, then what else is it getting wrong? The second reason is that I’m a stubborn little contrarian who enjoys poking holes in things that need holes poked in them. However, as I’ve stated before, I’m just here to present the evidence I’ve found. What you do with this evidence is your call. Now, onto today’s reading.
1 Nephi, chapter 19
Nephi makes plates of ore and records the history of his people. The God of Israel will come six hundred years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem. Nephi tells of His sufferings and crucifixion. The Jews will be despised and scattered in the later days, when they will return unto the Lord. About 588-570 B.C.
Before I begin this chapter, I’d like to point out a phrase that jumped out to me: “The God of Israel will come…” This is interesting, because it appears Smith is acknowledging that Jesus is God, which is a Trinitarian (and absolutely Biblical) concept. Joseph Smith started out with seeming Trinitarian views, or, rather, a concept of the Trinity. In his book, “CES Letter: My Search for Answers to My Mormon Doubts,” author Jeremy T. Runnels points out that over 100,000 changes to the Book of Mormon, many of which reflect Smith’s evolving view of the Godhead. Just one example of this 1 Nephi 11:18, which reads, “And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.” In the original, however, that verse reads “And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh.” Looks like they forgot to change the intro to this chapter. Whoops.
1: “And it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did make plates of ore that I might engraven upon them the record of my people. And upon the plates which I made I did engraven the record of my father, and also our journeyings in the wilderness, and the prophecies of my father; and also many of mine own prophecies have I engraven upon them.”
These “plates of ore” took me down a fun little rabbit hole. I state previously that it appears no one can actually agree 100% on where Nephi is supposed to have landed. While this is true, based upon the Mormon sources I happened upon, it seems the consensus is that he landed somewhere in Mesoamerica. This is an important piece of information because these “plates of ore” would have been specific to that region. While this chapter doesn’t specifically say what metal he uses, chapter 18:25 does state that he found “all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper.” According to the LDS apologist website Scripture Central, it is believed the plates described here were made of tumbaga, a copper gold alloy. You can read their reasoning for this theory here: What Kind of Ore did Nephi Use to Make the Plates? | Scriptu.
The issue with this idea, however, is that tumbaga was specific to Mesoamerica. This alloy did not exist in the Middle East. Therefore, it would have been unknown to Nephi. He would not have known of this alloy, let alone the techniques of making it, which you can read about here: Fake Gold? Tumbaga | TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities. There’s no mention in the Book of Mormon (thus far anyway) of Nephi encountering other people in this new promised land that would have been able to teach him how to make tumbaga. It’s also widely known that Mormonism has taught that ancient Hebrews were the ancestors of Native Americans. Given that teaching, I think it’s reasonable to assume at this point that Smith didn’t believe anyone else was in the Americas at that time.
Another impracticality here is that, according to the Scripture Central article I referenced, these plates he made would have weighed over 50 pounds. These would be incredibly cumbersome to haul around with him wherever he settled. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s improbable, especially considering that other writing materials were available.
Verses 2-6 simply detail more of God commanding him to make these plates and what he’s supposed to write on them.
7: “For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet. Yea, even the very God of Israel do men trample under their feet; I say, trample under their feet but I would speak in other words– they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels.”
8: “And behold he cometh, according to the words of the angel, in six hundred years from the time my father left Jerusalem.”
9: “And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.”
10: “And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Isreal.”
These four verses continue with the seeming Trinitarian theme of this chapter. The Bible teaches that Jesus is God incarnate. The concept of the Trinity is woven throughout all of Scripture. But to give just one example, look at Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).” These verses are clearly stating that God will be taking on human form to come to earth.
Now, time to get nitpicky about other details. Who in the world are Zenock, Neum, and Zenos? We don’t know. I’m not even sure the Mormons actually know. He’s never mentioned in the Bible. An article I stumbled upon makes a very weak case for Zenos being a real figure. In 1967, BYU professor Hugh Nibley attempted to make the case that Zenos was actually someone named Cenez, a prophet mentioned in a book called “Biblical Antiquities” by an unknown author. This book is believed to be written around the time of Christ, and it’s supposed to be a retelling of the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to the end of 1 Samuel. In 1994, another BYU professor by the name of John Welch drew some parallels between Cenez and Zenos but ultimately concluded that a direct identification between the two was unlikely. Instead, he argues there is likely a more ancient source that is responsible for certain imagery that appears in both the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament. What that ancient source may be is anyone’s guess. You can read that article here: Is Anything Known of the Prophet Zenos Outside of the Book o. Here’s a link to read more about “Biblical Antiquities”: Pseudo-Philo.
Zenock is another unknown prophet who is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Interestingly enough, the official LDS church has very little to say about him. He is only mentioned in the Book of Mormon and is mentioned only 5 times. Here’s the link: Zenock. Verse 10 here is the only time Neum is mentioned.
What’s peculiar about these supposed prophets is that their writings are not also mentioned. In the Old Testament, there are mentions of other texts outside the Hebrew Bible. To give a few examples, Numbers 21:14 names “The Book of the Wars of the Lord,” which likely detailed Isreal’s military exploits. “The Book of Jashar” is cited in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18. We also see works titled “The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet” and “Iddo the Seer/Visons of Iddo” mentioned in 2 Chronicles 9:29, 12:15, and other places as historical sources for some of the kings during that time. Finally, “The Book of Jehu Son of Hanani” is mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20:34. Notice that texts are named as additional sources for what the Old Testament writers reported on. They didn’t just drop random names out of nowhere.
I would also like to discuss the three days of darkness prophesied here. This does not match what happened after Jesus’ death. Matthew 27:45 states, “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.” So, it was dark for three hours, not three days. The only reference we have to three days of anything is in Matthew 12:40, which reads, “for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Obviously, that passage is speaking of Jesus being buried for that length of time. I haven’t the slightest idea who “those who should inhabit the isles of the sea” are or why they would need three days of darkness as a sign, but there are plenty of things in this book that make no sense and have no relevance to anything else.
11: “For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up.”
Based upon the previous verse, I’m left to assume this is being prophesied about the day Jesus died. Let’s compare this to Matthew 27:50-53: “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.”My position is that the Book of Mormon is a 19th-century work of fiction born from the mind of Joseph Smith. So, why would he write a prophesy about something that clearly didn’t happen? Are we to believe this is one of the “plain and precious things” that was removed from the Bible? This is my first time reading through the Book of Mormon, so I can’t say whether this discrepancy is addressed later on. I’ll mentally log it away and keep an eye out for it as I continue this journey.
12: “And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos. And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers.”
Perplexed by these “isles of the sea,” I sought out LDS sources to explain these seemingly cryptic passages. In doing so, I think I got an answer to my previous question I posed. The Mormon position is these people who inhabit the “isles of the sea,” are the descendants of Lehi who are in the Americas. These last several verses are prophesying the signs these people will receive. You can read more on this here: The Islands of the Sea – Book of Mormon Study Notes. This source claims there is a Biblical basis for these prophecies, even though there isn’t. He mentions Isaiah 49:1, which states, “Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar…” The second passage he cites is Isaiah 51:5: “My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands will wait for Me. And for My arm they will wait expectantly.” So, what the author of Book of Mormon Study Notes is suggesting is that since Isaiah mentions people on islands and coastlands, it must mean he was also talking about the descendants of Lehi in the Americas. Quite frankly, that’s absurd. He is grasping at straws like a fat kid in a milkshake shop.
13: “And as for those who are at Jerusalem, saith the prophet, they shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel, and turn their hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel.”
So, it’s being admitted again that Jesus, who was crucified, is indeed God.
14: “And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations.”
Given the raging antisemitism that’s been present for centuries, I’ll say this one is accurate. Though, it can hardly be counted as a point for the Book of Mormon’s accuracy, since Smith would surely have known of people’s hatred for the Jews.
Verses 15-17 discusses the redemption of Isreal if they turn away from their rebelliousness. Verses 18-23 concern Nephi’s prophesies and records. He talks about teaching his brethren about the writings on the brass plates and the prophesies he’s making. He also mentions teaching them about Isaiah’s writings.
24: “Wherefore I spake unto them, saying: Hear ye the words of the prophet, ye who are a remnant of the house of Israel, a branch who have been broken off; hear ye the words of the prophet, which were written unto all the house of Israel, and liken them unto yourselves, that ye may have hope as well as your brethren from whom ye have been broken off; for after this manner has the prophet written.”
The Old Testament, specifically Jeremiah 11:16, talks about Isreal being like an olive tree whose “branches are worthless” due to their insistence upon worshipping pagan gods. However, the “hope” mentioned in verse 24 is a New Testament concept. You can read about that in Romans 11. You can also read more on this topic here: Broken Branches | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org. Thank you for reading this far, ladies and gents. I’ll be back another day, and I promise I won’t wait an entire month to write my next post.
The title here is, I believe, precisely why the Mormon church is steadily losing members, specifically from the Millennial and Gen-Z populations. Recent data from various sources shows a steep decline in church retention of members who have been raised in the church, which you can see here: Jana Riess: Data shows Gen Zers and millennials are leaving Mormonism. I suspect it’s because we live in an age of information. Anyone can do detailed research on any given subject, with access to a plethora of sources at our fingertips. It isn’t just contradictions with the Bible that are driving people away from Mormonism. It’s the illogical, implausible, and downright impossible claims that the Book of Mormon makes. We have thus far seen plenty of examples of the Book of Mormon’s divorce from reality. We will see more of this below.
1 Nephi, Chapter 18
The ship is finished. The births of Jacop and Joseph are mentioned. The company embarks for the promised land. The sons of Ishmael and their wives join in revelry and rebellion. Nephi is bound, and the ship is driven back by a terrible tempest. Nephi is freed, and by his prayer the storm ceases. The people arrive in the promised land. About 591-589 B.C.
1: “And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timbers of curious workmanship. And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship.”
2: “Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore; it was not after the manner of men.”
This is yet one more example of the strange and needless repetition in the Book of Mormon. Verse two isn’t even necessary. I have no strong opinions on the claim that God showed him a special way of building the ship. I’m operating under the logical assumption that none of this is true anyway, so examining it isn’t going to change my conclusions. There are far bigger issues to address in this chapter.
Verses 3-8 describe the ship being finished, the company gathering all their supplies, and setting sail. Verse 7 mentions Lehi had two more sons in the wilderness: Jacob (the older) and Joseph (the younger). Verses 9-11 involve Nephi’s brothers, the sons of Ishmael, and the wives getting rowdy and unruly. Nephi worries about the wrath of God and rebukes their behavior. This angers them (for the umpteenth time), so they tie Nephi up.
12: “And it came to pass that after they had bound me insomuch that I could not move, the compass, which had been prepared of the Lord, did cease to work.”
Here is our first major issue with this chapter: compasses didn’t exist back then. Even if God made a compass for Nephi, there wouldn’t have been a word for it. Interestingly enough, the first rudimentary compasses were actually used for divination and came into existence during the Han Dynasty, so around the 2nd century B.C. They used what’s called a lodestone, which is a naturally magnetized form of the mineral magnetite (see Invention of the Compass: History & Origins Explained). It wasn’t until much later that compasses were used for navigation. Somewhere between the 9th and 11th centuries, during the Song Dynasty, China underwent explosive growth in science, discovery, and knowledge. This is when Chinese scholars began to understand that the mechanisms behind the lodestone could be used for navigation. Some also speculate the Vikings’ sunstone coincide with their most prolific raids in the 10th and 11th centuries (Who Invented the Compass? A Brief History of the Compass and Its Evolution | History Cooperative). No matter where it originated, however, it’s blatantly obvious that people living in the time when this chapter in Nephi is purported to take place did not have access to this advanced technology.
13: “Wherefore, they knew not whither they should steer the ship, insomuch that there was a great storm, yea, a great and terrible tempest, and we were driven back upon the waters for the space of three days; and they began to be frightened exceedingly lest they be drowned in the sea; nevertheless they did not loose me.
Seems like there’s another story in the Old Testament about God causing a storm because he was mad at someone on a boat. Jonah, is that you? Granted, the reason for God’s wrath in that story was much different, and so was the outcome, but this is one more example of Joseph Smith appearing to take bits here and there from Old Testament stories and trying to pass them off as original to the Book of Mormon.
14: “And on the fourth day, which we had been driven back, the tempest began to be exceedingly sore.”
Smith seems to have developed a particular affinity for the word “exceedingly.”
15: “And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to see that the judgments of God were upon them, and that they must perish save that they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof.”
So the tempest, his ankles, and his wrists were all exceedingly sore. Verses 16-20 essentially consist of Nephi using way too many words to describe how old, decrepit, and stressed his parents were because of everyone else’s behavior. He also points out, again in too many words, that Lehi’s two youngest sons, Nephi’s wife, and his kids were also all pretty worked up over Nephi being tied up while a storm raged for four days. He goes on to report that the only thing that softened the hearts of the rest of the hellions on board was the threat of drowning in the storm.
21: “And it came to pass after they had loosed me, behold, I took the compass, and it did work whither I desired it. And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and the storm did cease, and there was a great calm.”
22: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised land.”
23: “And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land.”
24: “And it came to pass that we did begin to till the earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that they did grow exceedingly (yes, exceedingly!); wherefore, we were blessed in abundance.
25: “And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were of use of men. And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper.”
I tried to find out where the Mormon church believes Nephi landed, but it seems there’s no consensus on the location. Some suggest it was South America. Others think it was central America. Still others believe it was North America. Since no one has any idea whatsoever where this may have happened, I’ll show my research on the claims laid forth in verse 25 in respect to all three locations.
It is well-documented that horses disappeared from the fossil records of the Americas around 10,000 years ago. Horses were not reintroduced into the Americas until the time of the conquistadors. The arrival of domesticated horses came with Cortes in 1519. By 1525, there were enough domesticated horses in Mexico for horse-breeding to thrive and spread to other regions (Equine History – Return to Freedom). More recent research has demonstrated that North American Indigenous tribes came to own horses through northward trading networks. This refutes the common idea that horses spread in North America due to The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which took place in New Mexico (New Research Rewrites the History of American Horses). Therefore, there is absolutely no way that people coming to the Americas between 591-589 B.C would have seen horses of any kind, no matter where they landed. Donkeys share a similar history and were also brought to the Americas in the 1500’s by Spanish settlers (Celebrating 250: Heritage Donkeys in American History – The Livestock Conservancy).
I’m not even going to delve into the mining operations described here because the presence of these metals in various regions in the Americas proves nothing in light of the aforementioned issues with the animals. Stay tuned for more, ladies and gents. We’re not even all the way through the first book in the Book of Mormon.
When my older brother was trying to learn multiplication, my mother would dutifully hold up flash cards at the kitchen table, expecting him to answer as quickly as possible. Only he wouldn’t. In fact, he made sure to pour himself a big glass of milk beforehand so he could conveniently “take a drink of milk” if our mom held up a particularly difficult card. We all knew perfectly well what he was doing (well, probably not me because I was still quite young), which led to teasing him about it when he got older. He was procrastinating. He was using his apparent thirst for milk as a way of postponing his answer to those pesky multiplications. He took a swig of milk to give him time to think. I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing with this post. For the past week, I have told myself that I will get this done only to open my laptop and go to YouTube instead. I have a headache. I’m tired. I should make tea first. I should shower, then I’ll definitely get it done. So here I sit with my still wet hair from my shower, a cup of tea, no headache or fatigue, and no more excuses. Let’s dive into 1 Nephi chapter 17… all 55 verses of it.
1 Nephi chapter 17
Nephi is commanded to build a ship. His brethren oppose him. He exhorts them by recounting the history of God’s dealings with Isreal. Nephi is filled with the power of God. His brethren are forbidden to touch him, lest they whither as a dried reed. About 592-591 B.C.
1: “And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.”
2: “And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.”
Laying aside the obvious food-borne illnesses relating to regularly eating raw meat, this would have violated Old Testament laws regarding meat consumption. Genesis 9:4 states, “But you must not eat meat that still has its lifeblood in it.” Leviticus 7:26-27 in the NASB reads, “And you are not to eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your dwellings. Any person who eats any blood, even that person shall be cut off from his people.” Leviticus 17:10-11 reinforces this: “And any man from the house of Isreal, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” While these verses and others like them don’t explicitly say “raw meat,” raw meat in the Old Testament would have had blood in it. Ezekiel 24 contains a parable of a boiling pot that meat is cooked in to illustrate purification. The description in that parable reflects the cultural norm of cooking meat. Even if not explicitly condemned, eating raw meat certainly would have been out of the ordinary, as the Old Testament contains no passages describing someone eating it and many passages talking about how to cook it.
3: “And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.”
4: “And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.”
So the children who were “strong, yea, like even like unto men” couldn’t have been more than about 7 years old.
5: “And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters.”
There are a couple of strange things about this verse. The first one is the name “Bountiful.” In the Bible, and even here in the Book of Mormon, names for places are transliterated, not directly translated. Yet Smith has done both of those things in the same verse. In other words, whatever the Hebrew (or, in the case of the Book of Mormon, Egyptian) word for “Bountiful” was, that is what we would be reading because it would be transliterated from that word into similar sounding syllables in English. We wouldn’t be reading the word Bountiful.
I’d also like to point out the oddity of the word “Irreantum,” which doesn’t appear in any other ancient extant text anywhere. The sources I looked up to understand this word were all pro-LDS sites, save for one letter to an academic journal in 1985 refuting the Mormon claims about that word. The LDS scholars believe it has roots in some ancient South Semitic language they believe would have been spoken by local tribes to the area that Lehi and his family traveled to. You can read that study here for more information: What’s in a Name? Irreantum. That article was easily the most cited one in all the LDS sources I read. In fact, I couldn’t find any other academic papers besides that one on the subject. While it’s certainly possible more exist and I simply didn’t find them, it’s strange that one prominent paper was what all sources cited. Shouldn’t there be other scholars chiming in? Speaking of which, you can read the dissenting opinion here: Science in Christian Perspective.
The only conclusion I can draw regarding the lack of sources countering the claims about the origins of Irreantum is that non-LDS scholars don’t take the Book of Mormon seriously enough to delve into a study of its linguistics. This phenomenon can be observed in other topics such as archeology, biology, and theology. If the ONLY academics studying these topics through the lens of the Book of Mormon are LDS scholars and no one else from any other institution, that should probably tell us something.
6: “And it came to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of its much fruit.”
7: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, (Yes, yes. We already know it’s you, Nephi) had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.”
8: “And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.”
A common complaint I hear with remakes of movies nowadays is that no one is coming up with original material. They take beloved characters and change them. They add in their own nonsensical plots and take away vital plot points in the source material. I now see that practice is definitely nothing new. Here we see Smith taking yet another Bible story, changing it, and trying to pass it off as true. If this Nephi person really wanted to build a big boat, all he had to do was consult the Pentateuch. I’m sure there’s an “I Noah guy” joke in there somewhere.
9: “And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou has shown unto me?”
10: “And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools.”
So they had a small mining operation in Bountiful, too.
11: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beasts; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire.”
12: “For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not;”
This just read like Joseph Smith added it in as an afterthought when he realized how implausible eating raw meat consistently was. This still doesn’t solve the problem of Old Testament food laws, though.
13: “And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.”
14: “Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem.”
I cannot find a single instance in the Old Testament of the phrase “land of Jerusalem.” Ancient Hebrews didn’t use that phrase to describe Isreal as a whole, saying instead, “land of Israel.” If they were referring to Jerusalem, they simply said that and left out the prefix “land of.” There is no reason for Nephi, then, to consistently use this phrase.
Verses 15-22 can be summarized thus: Nephi makes the tools to build the ship. His brothers want nothing to do with any of it and openly mock him for it. In verse 20, they say he is foolish just like their father, who led them out of Jerusalem. They proceed to insist they would have been better off had they stayed there and not wandered in the wilderness for 8 years and even go far enough to call the people of Jerusalem righteous.
In verses 23-25, Nephi reminds them of God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt through Moses.
26: “Now ye know that Moses was commanded of the Lord to do that great work; and ye know that by his word the waters of the Red Sea were divided hither and thither, and they passed through on dry ground.”
27: “But ye know that the Egyptians were drowned by the Red Sea, who were the armies of Pharoah.”
This is documented in Exodus 14:13-31. It matches the Biblical account to try to seem legitimate.
28: “And ye also know that they were fed with manna in the wilderness.”
This correlates with Exodus 16.
29: “Yea, and ye also know that Moses, by his word according to the power of God which was in him, smote the rock, and there came forth water, that the children of Israel might quench their thirst.”
This took place in Exodus 17.
30: “And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving light to them by night, and doing all things for them which were expedient for man to receive, they hardened their hearts and blinded their minds, and reviled against Moses and against the true and living God.”
31: “And it came to pass that according to his word he did destroy them; and according to his word he did lead them; and according to his word he did do all things for them; and there was not any thing done save it were by his word.”
Exodus 13:21 describes the way God led the Israelites: a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It’s also very well-documented that Israel was incredibly fickle in their devotion to God and regularly complained to Moses and Aaron.
Verses 32-38 involve Nephi describing the Israelites defeating the unrighteous pagan nations that inhabited the land before them.
39: “He ruleth high in the heavens, for it is his throne, and this earth is his footstool.”
This is taken from Isaiah 66:1, which says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.”
40: “And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt.”
41: “And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.”
Verse 41 is referencing Numbers 21:6-9. The serpents are described as fiery, but certainly not flying, so I’m not sure why Smith decided it was necessary to add something so obviously false. The passage in Numbers also reports that many people died from being bitten, not because of “the easiness” of looking at the bronze serpent. That’s an incredibly strange and nonsensical claim to make. The simplicity would have saved many lives, not hampered their healing.
Verses 42-47 consist of Nephi continuing to rebuke his brothers, describing the hardening of the Israelites’ hearts and coming captivity. He calls his brothers murderers for wanting to kill their father and him. He talks about how powerful God is and wonders why they continue to be stubborn and not obey God. He tells them how anguished he is because of their stubbornness then announces he is “full of the Spirit of God, insomuch that my frame has no strength.”
In verse 48, his brothers want to kill him (for the umpteenth time), but Nephi calls on the power of God and tells them that if they touch him, they’ll wither up and die. He tells them in verse 49 to quit complaining and help him build his ship. Verses 50-51 consist of Nephi describing how powerful God is and that power will enable him to complete the task of building a ship. He makes sure to inform us in 52 that his brothers kept their hands to themselves. They didn’t want to wither away, after all.
53: “And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and they shall not wither before thee, but I will shock them, saith the Lord, and this will I do, that they may know that I am the Lord their God.”
Shock them? In what sense? Are we talking some nasty shock from static electricity or something else?
54: “And it came to pass that I stretched forth my hand unto my brethren, and they did not wither before me; but the Lord did shake them, even according to the word which he had spoken.”
So, God scared them in some way. That’s not near as fun as the idea of Nephi reaching out and shocking them out of their sandals with some holy static electricity from heaven. Oh, well.
55: “And now, they said: We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee, for we know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken us. And they fell down before me, and were about to worship me, but I would not suffer them, saying: I am they brother, yea, even they younger brother; wherefore, worship our Lord thy God, and honor they father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land with the Lord thy God shall give thee.
This seems like it was taken from Acts 14, where people started calling Paul and Barnabas Hermes and Zeus, respectively, and were going to offer sacrifices to them. Paul stopped them, of course, and told them to worship God instead.
And that’s a wrap. Finally. But being the little contrarian I am, I’ll be back in not too long with more commentary on the rest of the Book of Mormon. But for now, it’s time to sign off for the night. Stay tuned, ladies and gents.
I procrastinated today. I promised myself I’d get this post done earlier this afternoon. I swore I would manage my time wisely today so I could relax and either do some reading or get cozy on the couch and watch some Mr. Ballen on YouTube. But life happened differently today. I went to church, wandered on over to the range with some friends, happily destroyed several targets, then we all decided we needed to buy more ammo. Then, we decided we were all hungry so we stuffed our faces at Perkins and took up space in the booth for probably 2 hours (don’t worry, the waitress was tipped well). My friend and her husband are the sorts of people who are very easy to talk to for hours on end. She’s a history nerd. History is to her as theology is to me. Over coffee and iced tea, we excitedly discussed history and religion. Our discussion meandered over to the Book of Mormon with its historical inaccuracies. Indeed, Smith had an affinity for distorting facts, plagiarizing ideas, and outright making things up. We will continue to see this in today’s reading.
1 Nephi Chapter 16
The wicked take the truth to be hard. Lehi’s sons marry the daughters of Ishmael. The Liahona guides their course in the wilderness. Messages from the Lord are written on the Liahona from time to time. Ishmael dies; his family murmurs because of afflictions. About 600-592 B.C.
Verses 1-6 report that Nephi’s brothers are distressed at the things he has prophesied. Nephi tells them if they heed the commands of God, then truth and prophecies won’t be difficult for them to hear. His brothers humble themselves and agree to walk in righteousness. The entourage that accompanied them is mentioned again in verse 7 when Lehi’s sons and the servant Zoram marry Ishmael’s daughters.
8: “And thus my father had fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord which had been given unto him. And also, I, Nephi, had been blessed of the Lord exceedingly.”
9: “And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord spake unto my father by night, and commanded him that on the morrow he should take his journey into the wilderness.”
10: “And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way wither we should go into the wilderness.”
First of all, what shape is a ball other than round? Why is it necessary to declare this brass ball as round? This redundancy is something I would expect from children who are learning how to navigate and describe the world around them. The second, and more important issue is the material this supposed ball was made of: brass. As I have mentioned in a much earlier post, the alloy that makes up brass was not known to the ancient Hebrews. The word used there is more accurately translated to “bronze.” Earlier English translations only used the word “brass” because “bronze” did not exist in the English language until the 18th century. See Ancient Brass or Bronze – Bible History Online – Bible History for more information. So, we basically have a compass that appeared out of nowhere made from a material that didn’t exist back then.
Verses 11-17 repetitively describe how they packed up all their belongings, plus seeds for crops, and traveled in the wilderness, following the directions given by the brass ball. They hunt for food with “our bows and our arrows and our stones and our slings.”
18: “And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food.”
I’m shocked there are so many issues contained in just one verse. What happened to all the other implements of hunting for food? More bows, arrows, slings, and stones were mentioned in verse 15. We also have another issue with an inappropriate material: a bow made of steel. While steel existed during this time, it was absolutely not used in making bows. Ancient bows were typically made of flexible wood and were often mounted with bronze. Other ancients made bows out of horn. The strings were most commonly ox-gut, and the arrows were either reed or a light wood tipped with either bronze, iron, or flint. Steel was not used in any part of any ancient bow or arrow (see Archery in the Bible Encyclopedia – ISBE (Bible History Online). In fact, bows made of metal were not made until the 15th century. There are ornate, decorative metal reflex bows that were manufactured during the Indo-Persian Mughal empire, but those were ceremonial and not used for battle. European crossbow makers began to include steel in their designs, but a longbow made of steel was out of the question because it would be too strong for anyone to pull back by hand. You can read about the history of bow-making here: The history of metal bows – Bow International.
In addition to that glaring issue, I have another question: how in the world would he manage to break a bow made of steel? What on earth would he have had to do to exert enough force to break steel? Anyone capable of rational thinking should take issue with this.
19: “And it came to pass that we did return without food to our families, and being much fatigued, because of their journeying, they did suffer much for the want of food.”
20: “And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael did begin to murmur exceedingly, because of their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness; and also my father began to murmur against the Lord his God; yea, and they were exceedingly sorrowful, even that they did murmur against the Lord.”
I’m beginning to murmur against myself for deciding to undertake this project.
21: “Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, having been afflicted with my brethren because of the loss of my bow, and their bows having lost their springs, it began to be exceedingly difficult, yea, insomuch that we could obtain no food.”
So everyone else’s bow was also out of service? What happened to the slings and stones?And why were they mad at Nephi over his bow breaking but not everyone else’s being out of commission?
22: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren, because they had hardened their hearts again, even unto complaining against the Lord their God.”
23: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said to my father: Whither shall I go to obtain food?”
Making a bow out of wood is the only non-problematic element in this chapter.
24: “And it came to pass that he did inquire of the Lord, for they had humbled themselves because of my words; for I did say many things unto them in the energy of my soul.”
25: “And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came unto my father; and he was truly chastened because of his murmuring against the Lord, insomuch that he was brought down into the depths of sorrow.”
26: “And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord said unto him: Look upon the ball, and behold the things which are written.”
27: “And it came to pass that when my father beheld the things which were written upon the ball, he did fear and tremble exceedingly, and also my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and our wives.”
What was so terrifying that everyone was trembling? What did it say?
28: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them.”
So, you’re not going to tell us what it said. But also, how can you put “faith and diligence and heed” unto inanimate objects? I think there’s a word for that.
29: “And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.”
Putting faith and diligence unto inanimate objects is what pagans did. It’s called idolatry. We have faith in God, not objects. I’m reminded of the ephod Gideon made that people started worshipping. That happens in Judges 8:24-28. It’s possible that Gideon didn’t make it intending for people to worship it, but that’s what happened. An interesting commentary on this can be found here: Why did Gideon make an ephod from the gold in Judges 8:27?. While Joseph Smith certainly wanted this sphere to be viewed positively by his followers, he goofed with this seemingly small detail. We are to trust in God and God only. See Psalm 115.
Verses 30-33 describe Nephi successfully hunting for food and bringing it back to camp, much to the joy of everyone else. They continue traveling.
34: “And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom.”
35: “And it came to pass that the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly, because of the loss of their father, and because of their afflictions in the wilderness; and they did murmur against my father, because he had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, saying: Our father is dead; yea, and we have wandered much in the wilderness, and we have suffered much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and after all these sufferings we must perish in the wilderness with hunger.”
36: “And thus they did murmur against my father, and also against me; and they were desirous to return again to Jerusalem.”
I have pointed out in previous posts that stories in the Book of Mormon are reminiscent of ones in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Pentateuch is full of the Israelites complaining bitterly against Moses and Aaron, insisting they brought them to the wilderness to starve them all and kill them. They even demand, at some point, to be taken back to Egypt. I think it’s a safe bet to believe Smith drew his inspiration for 1 Nephi from those events in the Bible. He appears to be trying to set up Nephi as some sort of Moses figure. The brass ball, leading them to where they’re supposed to go, is similar to God traveling as a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. The Israelites followed the pillar wherever it went and stopped when it stopped. See Exodus 13:21. Another recognizable pattern is Nephi’s brothers getting angry, conspiring against him, then repenting. This, too, follows the pattern of the Israelite’s behavior, which we will see in the next few verses.
37: “And Laman said unto Lemuel and also the sons of Ishmael: Behold, let us slay our father, and also our brother Nephi, who has taken it upon him to be our ruler and our teacher, who are his eldest brethren.”
38: “Now, he says that the Lord has talked with him, and also that angels have ministered unto him. But behold, we know that he lies unto us; and he tells us these things, and he worketh many things by his cunning arts, that he may deceive our eyes, thinking, perhaps, that he may lead us away into some strange wilderness; and after he has led us away, he has thought to make himself a king and a ruler over us, that he may do with us according to his will and pleasure. And after this manner did my brother Laman stir up their hearts to anger.”
39: “And it came to pass that the Lord was with us, yea, even the voice of the Lord came and did speak many words unto them, and did chasten them exceedingly; and after they were chastened by the voice of the Lord they did turn away their anger, and did repent of their sins, insomuch that they Lord did bless us again with food, that we did not perish.”
See what I mean? Tune in this week for more. The next chapter is going to require copious amounts of coffee, pacing around the room periodically, and occasional snuggles from my cat. It has 55 verses. God help me.
The Inquisitive Christian 