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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 4
| Claims made in "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet" | A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Richard Abanes
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Claims made in "Chapter 5: People of Zion" |
Claims made in "Chapter 4: Smith's Golden Book"
| Page | Claim | Response | Author's sources |
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| 60 | "This story would prove to be one of Smith's best tales." |
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| 62 | The Lamanites were cursed with a "skin of blackness." |
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| 62 | "Coincidentally, in most instances, Jesus used exactly the same wording found in the 1611 King James Version of the New Testament, even though the BOM was supposedly written more than 1,000 years before the King James Bible was published in England." |
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| 62 (HB) | "By the time Columbus found them, these so-called American Indians had become a "filthy, and a loathsome people" | ||
| 63, 510n15 (HB) | They "had no idea that their dark-skinned appearance was a curse traceable to their failure to follow God." |
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| 63, 510n18 | The genuineness of the Book of Mormon is "largely dependent upon the veracity of the idea that the Native Americans are descendants of the Israelites." |
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| 63 | Joseph was inspired by the "mound builders." |
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| 64, 511n24 (HB) | "Joe Smith...loved hearing, as well as telling, tall-tales about American Indians." According to Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph "skillfully composed yarns about Native Americans while still just a teen; long before any golden plates had been found." |
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| 66, 511n31 (HB) | According to Alexander Campbell, the Book of Mormon "commented on nearly 'every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last ten years.'" |
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| 68, 5121n41-43 (HB) | Joseph "copied portions" of other works into the Book of Mormon, such as Josiah Priest's The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed." |
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| 68-70, 512n44-45 | Joseph Smith contains parallels with Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews |
Persuitte, 107, 122. | |
| 70-71 (HB) | Joseph Smith plagiarized the Apocrypha |
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| 70, 513n52 (HB) | Several Bible stories were reworked for the Book of Mormon. |
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| 72, n59 | "Joseph's adventures as a money-digger...are described in a section of the BOM where one character speaks of hidden treasures in the earth that 'have slipped away' back into the ground." |
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| 72, 514n61 (HB) | The name "Lemuel" may have been derived from the name of the Smith's landlord, Lemuel Durfee. |
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| 73, 514n62 | The names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" may have been taken from the "Comoros" Islands off the coast of Africa. |
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| 73, n66 | The 1830 Book of Mormon contains many grammatical errors. |
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| 74 | The name "Sam" in the Book of Mormon is "out-of-place." | ||
| 74, 514n67 | The French word "adieu" is out-of-place in the Book of Mormon. |
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| 74, 514n69 | The Book of Mormon has had "nearly 4,000" textual changes despite being declared by Joseph Smith to be the "most correct of any book on earth." |
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| 74, n70-71 | The Book of Mormon mentions synagoges "after the manner of the Jews," despite Lehi's group leaving Jerusalem before the Babylonian captivity. |
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| 74 (HB) | The Book of Mormon "describes Arabia as being 'bountiful' because of its fruit and wild honey. The fact is that Arabia has never had bountiful supplies of either fruit or honey." |
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| 74, n72 | The Book of Mormon mentions a "continually flowing" river that runs to the Red Sea, but there "has never been such [a] river in Arabia. |
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| 74, 514n73 | The Book of Mormon mentions cows, oxen, asses, horses, and goats 600 years before Christ, but none of these animals existed in the New World at the time. |
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| 514n73 | "Mormon apologist John Sorenson has suggested that Smith mistranslated numerous words from the Book of Mormon golden plates. For example, cattle and oxen should have been rendered deer and bison. Moreover, horses should also have been translated deer, while swine more accurately refers to the wild pig." |
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| 75, 514n75 | There is no archaeological evidence to support the Book of Mormon. |
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| 75, 515n77 | The Smithsonian Institution issued a statement refuting "any claims of BOM historicity." |
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| 75, 515n78 | "Mormon scholars, such as Dee F. Green, have conceded that there exists no such thing as BOM archaeology." |
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| 75, 515n79 | Lack of archaeological evidence caused B.H. Roberts and Thomas Stuart Ferguson to "abandon their faith in the Book of Mormon. This is supported through "private letters and various other manuscripts." |
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| 75 | Thomas Stuart Ferguson was an "icon" of "Mormon scholarship." | ||
| 76, 515-6n81-84 | B.H. Roberts concluded that Joseph Smith was inspired by Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews. |
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| 79-80 | Thomas Stuart Ferguson wrote a letter stating "Perhaps you and I have been spoofed by Joseph Smith. Now that we have the inside dope -- why not spoof a little back and stay aboard [the Church]." He also "recommends the anti-Mormon book Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner." |