Category: Book of Mormon
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Smithisms in the Book of Mormon
Examining common phrase patterns between the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and other LDS writings, the hand of a common author becomes clear, suggesting Joseph Smith’s creative mind as the source.
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Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon?
Does chiasmus in the Book of Mormon prove authentic Jewish authorship, or is it just part of Joseph Smith’s efforts to mimic biblical style, which also appears in his other writings? By Jerald and Sandra Tanner Excerpted from our book, Joseph Smith’s Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, chp. 8. In trying…
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Contradictions in LDS Scripture
By Sandra Tanner Some of Joseph Smith’s early scripture differs with his later work. In fact, the Book of Mormon is closer to traditional Bible doctrine, while his more divergent teachings, which distinguish the LDS church, occur in the later Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, creating a troubling contrast, especially since the…
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Chiasmus and the Book of Mormon
By Sandra Tanner Some LDS writers are trying to establish the historicity of the Book of Mormon by maintaining that it contains a poetic style, sometimes used in the Bible, called chiasmus. They also point out that this style was not identified as chiasmus until after the time of Joseph Smith. Thus, they reason, his…
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Understanding the Book of Mormon
By Ross J. Anderson (Christian Pastor, Former Mormon)Published by the Zondervan Publishing Corporation Search for a Missing Civilization:Is the Book of Mormon Really an Ancient Book? (Excerpt from Chapter Seven) As a teenager, I remember the excitement I felt the evening my father and I were invited to visit the ruins of Central America. I…
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Zelph the White Lamanite Warrior
By Sandra Tanner Today many of the LDS scholars want to limit the Book of Mormon geography to southern Mexico and Guatemala. However, the leaders of the LDS Church have always maintained that the story happened over the larger land mass of North and Central America. One of the problems of limiting the geographic area…
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Where Is Cumorah?
By Sandra Tanner Every year in July the LDS Church produces the Hill Cumorah pageant in Palmyra, New York. This pageant places the final scenes of the Book of Mormon in that location. Moroni, the last one to record on the gold plates, supposedly buried the records in the hill sometime after 421 AD. Years…
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Book of Mormon Challenge
By Sandra Tanner “The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever…
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Book of Mormon Plates — Artifact, Vision or Hoax?
By Sandra Tanner This year the LDS Church is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth on December 23, 1805. Joseph claimed that God and Christ appeared to him when he was fourteen, in the spring of 1820, and told him not to join any church for they were all in a state of…
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Who Are the Lamanites?
By Sandra Tanner For over one hundred and seventy years LDS leaders and most LDS members have considered the American Indians to be the direct descendants of the Israelites in the Book of Mormon. However, in recent years there has been a growing number of LDS scholars claiming a limited geography for Book of Mormon…