Contradictions Between the Book of Mormon and the Bible

Institute for Religious Research ^ | 1999 | Luke P. Wilson

[Quester]

Contradictions Between the Book of Mormon and the Bible

Copyright © 1999 Institute for Religious Research. All rights reserved.

There are many serious objections to the claim of Joseph Smith and the LDS church that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired latter-day scripture supplemental to the Bible. However, none are more significant than the numerous contradictions between Book of Mormon teaching and the Bible. This list is illustrative only, not exhaustive.

1. The Book of Mormon teaches that little children are not capable of sin because they do not have a sinful nature (Moroni 8:8). In contrast, the Bible in Psalm 51:5 clearly teaches that we have sinful nature from birth: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (NIV). (This does not mean that those who die in infancy are lost.*)

2. The Book of Mormon teaches that the disobedience of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit was necessary so that they could have children and bring joy to mankind (2 Nephi 2:23-25). In contrast, the Bible specifically declares that Adam’s transgression was a sinful act of rebellion that unleashed the power of sin and death in the human heart and throughout God’s perfect world (Genesis 3:16-19; Romans 5:12; 8:20-21). There is no Biblical support for the view that Adam and Eve could only fulfill the command to "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28) by disobeying God’s command regarding the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:17). The Book of Mormon teaching that these divine commands are contradictory, and that God expected Adam and Eve to figure out that in reality He wanted them to break the latter command ("of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it") in order to keep the former ("be fruitful and multiply"), has no basis in logic or the Biblical text, and attributes equivocation to God.

3. The Book of Mormon teaches that black skin is a sign of God’s curse, so that white-skinned people are considered morally and spiritually superior to black skinned people (2 Nephi 5:21). In contrast, the Bible teaches that God "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26, KJV), that in Christ distinctions of ethnicity, gender and social class are erased (Galatians 3:28), and that God condemns favoritism (James 2:1).

4. The Book of Mormon teaches that, "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23; see also Moroni 10:32). In contrast, the Bible teaches that apart from Christ we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1,5) and unable to do anything to merit forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is wholly of grace (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 11:6; Titus 3:5-6), not by grace plus works. Good works are a result, not the basis, of a right relationship with God (Ephesians 2:10).

5. According to the Book of Mormon, about 600 years before Christ, a Nephite prophet predicted that "many plain and precious parts" (1 Nephi 13:26-28) would be removed from the Bible. In contrast, from the Bible it is clear that during His earthly ministry, Jesus himself constantly quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures, and showed full confidence in their completeness and accurate transmission as they had survived down to His time. Jesus declared that "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31; see also Matthew 5:18), and promised His disciples who were to pen the New Testament that the Holy Ghost "shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26); Jesus further promised the apostles that they would "bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). These promises clearly imply that the fruit of the apostles — the New Testament Scriptures and the Christian church — would endure.

6. According to a Book of Mormon prophecy (Helaman 14:27), at the time of Christ’s crucifixion "darkness should cover the face of the whole earth for the space of three days." In contrast, the New Testament gospel accounts declare repeatedly that there was darkness for only three hours while Jesus was on the cross (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44).

An earlier prophecy in 1 Nephi 19:10 implies the three days of darkness will be more than regional in scope for it says this sign will be "unto those who inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel." The darkness then would extend over the ocean to the islands and reach as far as Israel in the Middle East.

Book of Mormon references to the fulfillment of this prophecy, however, use wording that could be understood to mean the three days of darkness was only in the Americas, stating that the three days of darkness would be "over the face of the land." (3 Nephi 8:3ff; 10:9). This appears to be the position of the late Mormon General Authority B.H. Roberts in his book Studies of the Book of Mormon, p. 292). If this is the case, then this would resolve the apparent contradiction between the Bible and the Book of Mormon regarding what happened at the time of Christ's death, for we would have 3 hours of darkness in Israel and 3 days of darkness on the American continents. However, this would make the earlier prophecies of 1 Nephi and Helaman internally contradictory with later BOM references, since their phrasing of "the isles of the sea ... those who are of the house of Israel" and "the whole face of the whole earth" is difficult to understand as merely a localized time of darkness.

7. The Book of Mormon people are said to have observed "all things according to the law of Moses (2 Nephi 5:10; 25:24). However, although they are supposed to have been Hebrews, they were descendents of the tribe of Joseph (1 Nephi 5:17) or Manasseh (Alma 10:3), not the tribe of Levi and family line of Aaron, as the Law of Moses dictates (Numbers 3:10; Exodus 29:9; Numbers 18:1-7), so they would not have had a legitimate priesthood.

8. According to the Book of Mormon, there were many high priests serving at the same time (Mosiah 11:11; Alma 13:9-10; 46:6,38; Helaman 3:25) in the New World, among those it describes as Jewish immigrants from ancient Israel who "kept the law of Moses" (e.g., 2 Nephi 25:10; Jacob 4:5; Jarom 1:5). In contrast, it is clear from the Bible that only one individual at a time occupied the office of high priest under the Old Testament dispensation (see, for example Leviticus 21:10; Matthew 26:3; Hebrews 8:6-7). (The mention in Luke 3:2 of "Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests" is not a real exception -- in Christ’s time Israel was under the domination of the Romans, who intervened to change the high priest at will. That is, this office became a kind of "political football," rather than following the appointment process dictated in the Law of Moses. See John 18:13, which describes Annas as "father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year.")

9. The people described in the Book of Mormon operated multiple temples (Alma 16:13; 23:2; 26:29). This violates the dictates of the Old Testament Scriptures on two counts: First, God commanded Israel to build only one temple to reflect that fact that there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 12:5,13-14; 16:5-6). Second, the one legitimate temple was to be built in Jerusalem (Zion), the location designated by God (The Old Testament is filled with explicit references to God choosing Jerusalem [Zion] as the place where "His name would dwell" in the temple: for example, 1 Kings 8:44,48; 11:13,32,36; 14:21; 2 Kings 21:7; 23:27; 1 Chronicles 28:4; 2 Chronicles 6:6; 7:12,16; Psalm 78:68-69; Isaiah 18:7.

10. The most common biblical terms used to describe the Old Testament priesthood, temple and appointed feasts, are entirely missing from the Book of Mormon. Here are 10 examples of such biblical terms with their frequencies, that never appear once in the Book of Mormon:

"laver" (13 times in Bible)

"incense" (121 times in Bible)

"ark of the covenant" (48 times in Bible)

"sons of Aaron" (97 times in Bible)

"mercy seat" (23 in Bible)

"day of atonement" (21 times in Bible)

"feast of tabernacles" (17 times in Bible)

"passover" (59 times in Bible)

"house of the LORD" (627 in Bible)

"Aaron" – this name appears 48 times in the Book of Mormon, but never in reference to the biblical Aaron or the Aaronic priesthood

Conclusion: The contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible constitute a most serious obstacle to accepting the Book of Mormon as Latter-day scripture that is supplemental to the Bible. The Bible came first, not the Book of Mormon. And whereas the Bible is organically linked to the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ by extensive surviving manuscript evidence going back as far as A.D. 125-30, the Book of Mormon is wholly lacking in any such evidences of ancient origin.

Is it not reasonable, therefore, to make the Bible the standard for judging the Book of Mormon, and not the other way around? If we accept the Bible as our "measuring stick" for spiritual truth, the Book of Mormon must be rejected.

— Luke P. Wilson

[colorcountry]

LOL

You got me!

I was about to berate you as a spelling/grammar Nazi!

[restornu]

Oh Well! we can call you M&M hehehe!:)

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Just discovered this thread earlier today. I've converted to conservative Judaism after 30 years of non-denominational Christianity.

[colorcountry]

Okay, I'll bite. M&M???

[colorcountry]

...conservative Judaism ... I've never actually looked into it. Maybe you could start a thread where its dogma can be debated. It would be mighty interesting.

[Californiajones]

"You seem to be dragging in Greek concepts."

Well, I'll admit that I did study a lot about Plato, Aristotle and the ancient Greek philosophers in college, but so did Paul. That was why he was able to witness with such authority he had to the pagan GrecoRoman mindset. But if my Christianity is undergirded with anything, it most probably is the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, the libertine who became a great minister and the coolest Christian wordsmith ever, next to his good friend Shakespeare. Now Donne, author of such poems as "Batter My Heart, Three Personed God" and my favorite song of Christian romantic love "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" was no Greek. He was a romantic, but a true Christian, sort of a pre Charismatic in an Elizabethan world.

My other pre Pentecostal bias is towards the pragmatic Christianity of Abraham Lincoln. He was surely no Greek, either. In fact, he once said that he "wished he was a good enough Christian to go to church regularly" and felt that the dreams prefiguring his own death coincided with the scripture of how Moses would not get to see the promised Land he so desired to see. Indeed, Lincoln was cut down on Good Friday and laid out in the East room on Easter Sunday, the weekend after the Palm Sunday surrender at Appomattox -- old Abe never got to cross his Jordan. But he inspires in me sort of a promised land mentality about our greatest country on earth, as I believe he was the greatest leader of men that ever lived outside the Bible

So, no, I don't think I have any Greek bias, other than it was no less than Aristotle who declared in his 'Categories" that evolution was ridiculous.

Bias only towards romance of the metaphysical Christian poets (Donne not Blake) and the suffering pragmatism of Abraham Lincoln. But neither of these pertain to a discussion of Joseph Smith.

[restornu]

You were Mormon and now Mennonite

[Californiajones]

So, you are waiting for the Temple to be rebuilt for the propitiation of world wide sin every year on Yom Kippor? Why would you forsake the lamb of God for the old covenant? Scary. But it would almost be worth it if your went whole hog kosher -- and were actively going to Jerusalem every year with an unblemished lamb to be slaughtered so your sins would be covered in sacrificial blood. OOps, forgot -- the curtain to the Temple's holiest of holies was ripped the moment Jesus died and the new covenant of God was established. So why again would anyone willingly take the keystone out of faith?

Sorry you caught me in a doctrinal moment. But really, why would you deny Christ for lukewarm conservative Judaism? Outward ritual does something for you that the Spirit does not?

[Invincibly Ignorant]

go pound sand

[colorcountry]

Oh Mormon and Mennonite....M&M

I guess you could also call me XM-NONDOM. Ex-Mormon, non-denominational and that would be more correct.

Even though I attend a church that is supported by the Mennonite Brethren, I would not consider myself Mennonite, I don't even know what Mennonite means.

I've also attended the Calvary Baptist Church, Assembly of God (Pentacostal), Catholic, Christian Worship Center and some others. That would manke me non-denominational. But feel free to call me what you will. :-)

[restornu]

You really come across like a miserable soul!

[Californiajones]

Yeah, sorry, I just don't understand Jesus-aversion, and I know too many Messianic Jews to be comfortable with someone switching the other way.

[Californiajones]

Please keep the personal attacks to yourself, as per FR rules.

[Californiajones]

I repeat an honest inquiry: "But really, why would you deny Christ for lukewarm conservative Judaism? Outward ritual does something for you that the Spirit does not?"

[Californiajones]

I'm chuckling to myself that an exChristian, now conservative Jew is posting on a Mormon vs. Christianity thread,

because the Mormons believe the American Indians are one of the lost tribes of Israel, i.e. Mormons believe that Indians are Jewish.

[colorcountry]

Speaking of American Indians being one of the lost tribes of Isreal....you might want to check out this new thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1559077/posts

[restornu]

CJ that is not an attack that is an observation of your unfriendly behavior!

[Californiajones]

Sweetie pie, "unfriendly behavior" would be if colorcountry, P Marlowe, Quester, Alamo Girl etc., did NOT tell you you were at odds with the Lord by being a Mormon. I am not being friendly to you if I see you might be stepping into an area of damnation and don't warn you about it.

I am being friendly to you by taking the time to unravel as much about Mormonism as I can with what I know of Him and of His Word.

[restornu]

I see you do take your self seriously!

[Californiajones]

"I see you do take your self seriously!"

?

I hope everyone takes themselves seriously. Life is serious. So is eternity.