THE BOOK OF MORMON - FACT OR FICTION?
By Richard Burkard
In 1993 I kept the Feast of Tabernacles at Daytona Beach, Florida. A favorite hotel for church members there was a Marriott along the Atlantic Ocean, less than two blocks from the Ocean Center arena where services were held. The hotel had all kinds of special features - as well as a challenging one, which likely waited quietly in a drawer in every room.
Marriott hotels are owned by a prominent family in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Members often are given the title "Mormons," primarily because they follow a Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible. So Marriott hotel rooms not only have Gideon Bibles at the bedside tables, but Books of Mormon as well.
I had never looked inside a Book of Mormon before - but at a Christian convention, there was no better time to examine it. This was a perfect opportunity to see if that book was really what it claims to be: "another testament of Jesus Christ." I used nothing more than a Bible to make comparisons, not referring to any Church literature.
Because it was Feast time, I focused on what the Book of Mormon says about man's eternal destiny. But contradictions with the Bible began, even before I reached the supposed scriptural text. The introduction of my hotel copy said this:
"On September 21, 1823.... Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith...."
Church of God members should spot a big problem with that sentence. The Bible shows humans are NOT going to be resurrected until Jesus returns! "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven.... and the dead in Christ shall rise first." (I Thes. 4:16) This was one of the foundational verses which steered me away from the popular Christian concept of "going to heaven" immediately upon death - because why should the dead in Christ rise at His second coming, if they're risen and in heaven already?
Paul goes on to describe Jesus as God in I Timothy 6:15-16: "The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light...." Alone for now, among all who have walked the earth as men - but soon to be joined by many, who are changed when the "last trumpet" sounds (I Cor. 15:51-54).
Let's move now into the actual text of the Book of Mormon. It consists of several "books" with chapters and verses, as the Old and New Testaments do. Mosiah 2:38-41 says:
"Therefore if that man repenteth not.... the demands of divine justice do order his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt.... his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.... consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the Commandments of God.... if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven...."
Compared with the Bible, there are several difficulties here. First of all, Ezekiel 18 indicates the human soul is not immortal! "The soul who sins is the one who shall die" (Ezek. 18:4, 20) - and the sad truth of human existence is that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...." (Rom. 3:23)
Secondly, while the Book of Mormon states an agreement with the common Christian concept of an ever-burning hell fire, the New Testament describes a second death. "The lake of fire is the second death," Revelation 20:14 says. Paul warns, "Those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.... will be punished with everlasting destruction...." (II Thes. 1:8-9)
In addition, go back to I Thessalonians 4. Verse 17 says the faithful children of God are received to "meet the Lord in the air." While some might argue that qualifies as one of the "three heavens," the Bible shows believers eventually will be with Jesus - "and they shall reign on the earth.' (Rev. 5:10)
The Book of Mormon intriguingly has a book named Alma, which is the Spanish word for Spirit. Alma 40:11-14 states:
"Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection.... the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil----for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house----and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.... this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of the resurrection."
This seems to describe a form of limbo or purgatory, similar to what the Roman Catholic Church taught for centuries. But the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9:5, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing...." The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write, "But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us...." (Isa. 61:16) Shouldn't Abraham know what's happened to his descendants, if he's waiting in paradise for a resurrection now? If he doesn't know, then "souls of the wicked" cannot be in fear right now.
(We should pause here to examine and clarify the rest of Ecclesiastes 9:5. The verse goes on to declare the dead "have no further reward" - yet the New Testament talks in verses such as Ephesians 6:8 about Jesus bringing a reward with Him at His return. The Moffatt translation may put Ecclesiastes better when it says, "But the dead know nothing, they have nothing for their labor...." Nothing yet - but something coming in a resurrected future.)
What is the "paradise" mentioned in Alma 40, anyway? If we let the Bible be our guide, it's not simply "heaven" - it's the third heaven. "I know a man in Christ," Paul writes, "who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven.... caught up to paradise." (II Cor. 12:2. 4) The word paradise also describes where the tree of life (perhaps even more than one) will sit, in God's future Kingdom (Rev. 2:7, 22:2).
Advancing to the next chapter of the Book of Mormon, Alma 41:4 says:
"Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order.... raised to endless happiness to inherit the Kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil...."
The first part of this verse admittedly has Biblical backing - but NOT the second part. Jesus mentions a "kingdom of Satan" only to refute theories about "Beelzebub the prince of the devils." (Mt. 12:24-26/Lk. 1:15-18, KJV) While Satan is called the "god of this age" in II Corinthians 4:4 ("world" in KJV), Revelation 11:15 promises this world's kingdoms eventually will become God's Kingdom.
Let's look at one more verse from the Book of Mormon on this subject -- Second Nephi 28:23:
"....death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment."
This sounds a lot like the book of Revelation, and there's a similarity in 20:10. But verse 14 of that chapter adds, "The lake of fire is the second death" - and other Bible verses indicate Satan and the wicked well could be destroyed (Heb. 2:14; Ezek. 28:16 in KJV).
This short examination reveals several inconsistencies between the Bible and the Book of Mormon - and this is on only one key doctrinal area. If you care to examine the Book of Mormon, you may find others. Since historical research has found much of the Bible was written first, and John 10:35 says "the Scripture cannot be broken," we should give the Bible the benefit of the doubt. While the Book of Mormon copies entire chapters of the Bible in some areas, it contradicts the Bible in others - so we should be skeptical of it at best, and reject it outright at worst.
To respond to this article, e-mail the author directly.
© 2007 Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.